Daddy Dearest: The Bad Boy Bargain (Complete Series)

by Lila Moore

  I made a beeline for the stairs. I took a step and tripped. A package wrapped in brown paper was sitting on the floor at the foot of the steps in the same place I’d found Val. Scrolled across the top in black cursive was: ‘Luke.’

  My heart skipped a beat. I grabbed the package and ripped it open. Inside was the dress Genevieve had worn out last night. It was torn and stained with something that looked like blood. A folded note was pinned to the dress. I pulled it off. It simply said: ‘We have G. Expect us.’

  Genevieve

  When I strolled into Luke’s penthouse, my mind was a million miles away. I never saw it coming. I walked into the living room to find my mother and a man I’d never seen before sitting on the sofa.

  “Gigi!” she said enthusiastically. “Come have a drink with us.”

  She lifted her glass. I recognized it as one from Luke’s bar. I was dumbfounded by the scene. My mother was the last person I expected to see sitting in Luke’s living room.

  “Is Luke here?” I asked.

  “He had to step out. He’ll be back soon. Relax. Have a seat.”

  She gestured to the empty spot beside her. I decided to sit across from her. I wanted to keep as much distance between us as possible.

  “Where’s Luke?” I asked.

  “He went out to get more booze. We’re celebrating.”

  “Celebrating what?”

  “We’ve come to an agreement about our futures. I think you’re going to be pleased with what your mother has orchestrated,” she said in a singsong voice.

  The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. My mother crossed her legs and rested her arm on a duffel bag to her left. Three more black duffel bags were sitting on the floor at her feet.

  “When did Luke say he would be back?” I asked.

  “Soon. I’ve made an arrangement with him. The four of us are going to leave here. Carmine has a yacht. We’re going to sail around the Mediterranean for a while. Won’t that be nice?”

  Nothing she was saying made any sense to me. I watched as my mother’s companion- Carmine, I assumed- walked over to me with a drink.

  “It’s Ginger Ale,” he whispered. “No alcohol.”

  “Thanks…” I said, unsure of how to respond. He winked conspiratorially. I took a sip. It tasted extra sugary. I took another drink. It was just what I needed.

  “What’s in the bags?” I asked.

  “My retirement fund- well, part of it anyway.” She traded a smile with Carmine. “We’re going to need it where we’re going.”

  “Mother- Val- I’m not going anywhere with you. Are you seriously crazy enough to think I’d go on some spontaneous vacation with you after what you’ve put me through? I don’t want you in my life. You’re greedy and self-serving. Everything about you is toxic. I want to be with Luke. We both want to be free of you.”

  She laughed incredulously. “I’m sure.”

  “This isn’t a joke. You need to leave.”

  “Once we’re together, sunning on the deck of our yacht in the Mediterranean sea, you’ll change your mind. You’ll know that mother is always right.”

  “You’re nuts. What makes you think Luke would go along with such a crazy arrangement?”

  “Whoever said Luke was invited?”

  “You said the four of us were going together.”

  “Right. You, me, Carmine and the baby.”

  My heart dropped. The baby. She knew.

  “How do you know…?”

  “About the baby? Luke told me. Why do you think he paid me all this money?” She opened the duffel bag, revealing a mountain of cash. “He paid me to take you off his hands.”

  “Bullshit. I don’t believe you.”

  “It’s true. I’ve come to realize it was foolish to try and convince Luke to settle down. He’s a young, hot, wealthy guy. Men like that don’t want to settle. They want to play.”

  “Hey,” Carmine said jokingly. “I want to settle down. Are you saying I’m not hot?”

  Val laughed, saying nothing to reassure him of his sex appeal. I had no idea who this guy was but I didn’t doubt for a second that my mother was using him. As soon as she’d used him up, she’d throw him away. There was an expiration date hanging over his head. He just didn’t know it yet.

  “The point, Gigi,” she continued, “is that Luke’s not ready to settle down with anyone. He wants to fool around with girls for a while. Your pregnancy came out of nowhere. He’s not prepared to be a father.”

  “Where is he?” I demanded. “What did you do to him?”

  “Calm down. I didn’t hurt him, you silly girl. He’s at the office. This is between us.”

  “I know you’re lying. I won’t go with you.”

  “I knew you’d be difficult.” She sighed and looked at Carmine. “Didn’t I tell you she’d be difficult? The girl just doesn’t know a good thing when she sees it.”

  I stood up and started to leave. I swayed on my feet and dropped my drink. It spilled across the floor, leaving a dark stain on the rug. Carmine jumped up and ran to my side. He wrapped an arm around my waist supporting me.

  “How much of that stuff did you give her?” Val said.

  “I just poured a little in her drink. The girl must be sensitive to drugs.”

  “Obviously.”

  “You drugged me?”

  My words were slow and drawn out. My eyelids were heavy. I was having a hard time staying awake.

  “It’s for your own good, sweetheart. You’ll come to understand that in time.”

  I tried to push Carmine away and run. Instead, I tripped and fell to the floor.

  “Help her up!” my mother shouted. “If she has a miscarriage, we’ll lose everything.”

  “She’s okay,” Carmine replied.

  I felt his arms around my waist lifting me into the air. The room spun around me.

  I stared out the window. The thick haze swirled like smoke, then parted revealing blue sky. The blue intensified to a blinding white. I squeezed my eyes shut hard and blacked out.

  Genevieve

  My eyes were closed and yet, I could still see a blinding light. I squeezed them shut and rubbed my face. I turned to my side. When I opened my eyes, I was staring at the sky. It was so bright I could barely keep my eyes open. I tried to look away, but all I could see was more of the same.

  For a disorienting second, I wondered how it was possible. Was I lying on the floor of Luke’s penthouse? Nothing made sense.

  The ground shifted, rocking slowly. I pushed myself up. The sky met the horizon then disappeared from view. The ground dipped beneath me. I felt like I was in a fun house. My stomach protested, flipping inside me.

  I crawled on hands and knees across the floor and vomited over the edge of what I quickly discovered was a boat. I stared down into the clear water. I could practically see straight to the bottom. The effect was dizzying.

  I pushed away from the edge of the boat and sat back, putting my head between my knees.

  “Gigi!” my mother called.

  I turned to see her standing on the deck of the yacht waving, a huge smile on her face. She wore a long flowing skirt, a pink bikini top, huge black sunglasses like the kind movie stars in the sixties used to wear and a big hat.

  I tried to stand, but my legs were too shaky. I felt like I was walking on quicksand. My mother strolled over to me in six-inch heels with no difficulty at all. She lifted her sunglasses and peered down at me with a frown.

  “Are you still sick? You’ve been out like a light for the last twenty-four hours. I was starting to worry.”

  Finding my strength, I rose to my feet. I gripped the railing of the ship and held on for dear life.

  “Gigi, what’s the matter with you? The sea is perfectly calm.”

  I looked out at the horizon expecting to see huge swells and crashing waves, but Val was right. The water was calm and still. It was like looking out over a mirror surface.

  “Here- drink this.”

  She handed me t
he glass of sparkling water she’d been sipping from. I tossed it overboard.

  “What did you do that for?” she asked.

  “You drugged me. Do you really think I’m going to take a drink from you ever again?”

  Val rolled her eyes. “You’ve got to learn to relax. You’re so uptight. I did what needed to be done for the sake of my daughter.”

  I laughed in her face. “For my sake? Since when do you make decisions that are for my benefit? All you care about is what’s best for you.”

  “Now, Gigi, that’s just not true. We’re partners now. That little baby growing inside you is our ticket to easy street.”

  Suddenly, it all made sense. Marrying Luke would have provided her with wealth and comfort for a time, but inevitably Luke would have divorced Val. She’s too much trouble. She cheats and uses men for their money. The truth would have been revealed and Luke would have divorced her.

  Now that I was pregnant, she could use my baby to get child support for the next eighteen years, possibly longer. Assuming I didn’t get away from her.

  “The money Luke paid you wasn’t enough? Can’t you just take it and leave?”

  “It’s a good start. But as you know, I’ve become accustomed to a certain lifestyle. It will only take me so far. Now that you’re going to have Luke’s baby, things will be much better. He’ll make sure his son lives in the lap of luxury. Naturally, we will too.”

  A man in a crisp white uniform walked on to the deck. “Can I get you another drink?” he asked.

  “Yes, please and one for my daughter as well.”

  The man nodded and turned to leave.

  “Oh! And make mine a double. No alcohol for Gigi though, she’s pregnant.”

  “Congratulations,” the man said to me.

  I could only grimace and look away.

  “I’ve got to hand it to you Gigi, you’ve played this beautifully. Like mother, like daughter. You’ve secured our future perfectly with that little bundle of joy.”

  She touched my stomach. I pulled away from her like I’d been stung.

  “What makes you so sure I’d stay with you for the next twenty years? Why shouldn’t I just take the money and run?”

  “Well, you could try, but there is the matter of what happened at Luke’s penthouse. The police will be very interested to learn that you pushed me down the stairs. I imagine Child Protective Services would be even more interested to learn about what happened. They’d take your baby away and grant me custody.”

  “They’d never believe you.”

  “Gigi, honey, let’s get real. With your history of being institutionalized for violent outbursts and my testimony, they’d believe it. Besides, you’re forgetting, Luke was willing to believe you pushed me down the stairs. If I can convince him I can convince anybody.”

  Tears welled up in my eyes. I wouldn’t let her hold me prisoner or infect my child with her toxic way of thinking. I had to escape.

  “Luke doesn’t believe you,” I said vainly.

  Val shrugged. “He may not anymore, but there was a time when he did. You should never forget that. Whatever you feel for him doesn’t matter, because he doesn’t feel the same way about you.”

  I shook my head. It wasn’t true. I refused to believe it. She was trying to manipulate me again.

  “I was never violent towards you. I was depressed and I wanted to hurt myself…” I said vainly.

  “That may be true, but it’s not what the record shows. You were admitted to the hospital on the grounds that you were a danger to yourself and others. All I’d have to do is show CPS your medical records. They clearly state that you attacked me with a knife.”

  “It’s not true,” I whispered. “None of it.”

  The yacht pitched and turned to the side. We were dropping anchor in a small cove. Not far away, the beach was full of people sunning and playing in the waves.

  “The truth doesn’t matter Gigi. What matters is how you play the game.”

  The man in the white uniform returned holding a tray with two drinks on them. He handed a mixed drink to Val then held out the tray to me. I stared into his smiling face. Did he know I’d been kidnapped? He’d probably been paid to look the other way.

  I took the drink. With a slight bow, he turned and walked off, leaving us alone on the deck. The yacht came to a stop. The day was warm and clear. Under different circumstances, I would have enjoyed being here.

  “You’re right,” I said. “This is a game.”

  “I knew you’d see things my way sooner or later.”

  “It’s a game…” I said slowly. “And I’m not going to let you win.”

  I threw the drink in her face, took one step over the railing of the yacht and looked down. The water looked like it was miles away. There was no time to think; I had to act. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and jumped.

  Luke

  “Where the fuck is she, Trent?”

  “Calm down. We need to think.”

  How was I supposed to calm down? Genevieve had been taken by someone. My first thought was Val. It had to be her. But did she have enough time to kidnap Gen after I’d left her at the bank?

  I cursed myself for walking home. I should have left and immediately gone to Genevieve. None of this would have happened if I’d included her from the beginning. But I knew she would object to paying off her mother. She never would have let me go through with it.

  “I’ve been so stupid, so shortsighted,” I said. “This is all my fault.”

  “Stop,” Trent said. “You can’t do this right now. You can’t beat yourself up. We need to focus on the task at hand. First, who took her? It had to be Val, right?”

  I looked down at my hands. I was clutching Genevieve’s blood-stained dress. She was hurt. Val had actually hurt her. It was hard to believe.

  “Luke, are you listening?”

  I looked up at him blankly. He took the dress from me with effort. I didn’t want to hand it over. He held the dress up to the light and examined it closely. His eyes narrowed.

  “What is it?” I said.

  He brought the dress to his face and smelled it.

  “What are you doing?”

  “This isn’t blood. It smells sweet, like syrup.”

  I grabbed the dress back from him and looked at it closely. He was right. Up close it smelled sickly sweet.

  “They’re fucking with you, bro. They want you to think they’ve hurt her. Wherever she is she’s fine.”

  “She’s not fine. She wouldn’t leave on her own free will.”

  “No, you’re right. They took her. Look, I’ve got a buddy who owes me a favor. I’ll have him look into Val and Genevieve’s credit cards. If they’ve been used recently, we’ll no where they are.”

  “They won’t be using them.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I paid Val off in cash.”

  Trent took a deep breath. “How much?”

  “Fifteen million dollars.”

  He looked away, but said nothing.

  “You’re not going to tell me what a fucking idiot I am?” I asked.

  “No, because we’re both fucking idiots. I paid her off too.”

  “What? Why?”

  “On orders from my old man. You’re too valuable to the company to lose. He authorized me to pay her off. I thought if I made her go away you’d snap out of this depression. You’re like a zombie and your work has suffered. My dad told me to do whatever I had to do to make you happy. I thought this would fix things. I should have listened to you when you told me to stay out of it. All I’ve done is make things worse.”

  “This isn’t your fault. This is on me. I underestimated Val at every turn. Now it’s hopeless.”

  “It’s not hopeless. They’ll turn up eventually and when they do we’ll get Genevieve back. Obviously, she’s of some value to them. The note says, ‘Expect us.’ Maybe we should just wait until they get in contact with us. Then we’ll have a better sense of the situation.”

>   Absently, I nodded. I didn’t want to wait, but what could I do? I had no idea where they were.

  “I’m going to call my buddy just in case,” Trent said. “Maybe they’ll slip up and we’ll find out where they are.”

  “Yeah.”

  He patted me on the back and left to make the call.

  Genevieve

  I swam until my muscles were cramped and stiff with pain, then I swam some more. The distance between the yacht and the shore was further than I thought. Luckily, I’m a strong swimmer.

  The water was calm, though a bit on the chilly side. It seemed to gradually get warmer as I approached the shore. A wave broke over me. I relaxed and let it push me to the beach. I only rested for a few seconds before I had to start swimming again, but it was a blessing. My tired muscles had reached their breaking point.

  The water grew shallow enough for me to stand. I tried to walk the remaining distance, but the waves were too strong. I let them carry me to shore. I crawled on hands and knees to the beach, then collapsed. The surf rolled in around me as I tried to catch my breath.

  Two kids making sandcastles stared at me. I smiled weakly and pushed myself up.

  I wore a long black dress and no shoes. Absently, I wondered what happened to the dress I’d been wearing before my abduction. I recognized the dress I was wearing as belonging to my mother. She must have changed my clothes for some reason.

  I rose on trembling legs. The dress clung to me wetly. I turned to look out to sea. A small boat was being lowered from the yacht. It wouldn’t take long for them to reach the beach and force me to go back.

  I took a step towards the kids. There was a beach bag with sunglasses sitting next to them. I looked around. A woman with long dark hair was speaking animatedly with another woman at a drink stand. They weren’t paying any attention to us.

  “Is that your mother?” I asked.

  They looked at each other blankly, then responded in Spanish.

  “Tu madre?” I asked, feeling stupid. My high school Spanish was basically useless.