Tailored for Trouble

by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

  “Not to worry, ma’am. We are almost there.”

  Indeed they were. Just as he spoke, they came into a large open space where another Land Rover was parked in a ditch. Several shacks surrounded the perimeter of the clearing along with piles of garbage.

  “What is this place?” she asked. A stray dog scampered across the muddy clearing, a few equally muddy children chasing after it.

  “This, ma’am, is Bali.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Taylor could hardly believe her eyes. Wayan explained that much of the local population lived like this. “But the resorts and tourists? Don’t they bring in money and jobs?” she asked.

  “Only to the wealthy hotel owners who are mostly foreign.”

  “I see.” She’d counted ten shacks sprinkled around the periphery of the clearing, but Wayan told her over one hundred people lived in this hamlet. Where? In what? These shacks weren’t big enough for ten dogs let alone one hundred human beings.

  Bennett emerged from one of the larger homes—about ten by ten—and waved her in. He wore a white linen shirt, muddy khaki shorts, and hiking boots. He looked like a wilderness explorer, not some tailored billionaire.

  She approached him, dodging the large drops of rain that pelted her forehead as they dripped off of the trees above.

  “I trust you slept well?” he said as she approached, a shallow smile on his face.

  Why did he look so…worried? It made her feel uneasy.

  “I did. Thanks.” Her flip-flops made a squishing sound with each step.

  “Come inside,” Bennett said. “You can meet Wayan.”

  She pointed to the driver still sitting in the Land Rover. “Isn’t he Wayan?”

  Bennett laughed. “Names are recycled heavily in this country—it’s a tradition.”

  She smiled. “Sure. Okay.” She ducked inside and saw a woman sitting in the corner with a large metal bowl in her lap, peeling some sort of fruit. Several children, dressed in what were basically rags, played with a few rusty-looking toy cars on the dirt floor. To the other side, a man with scraggly gray hair, wearing a threadbare shirt, sat at the table.

  Bennett said something to the man in his native tongue. Taylor had no idea Bennett spoke Balinese. Then again, there was a lot she didn’t know about this man. A lot. In fact, at this point, she’d come to expect nothing but surprises from this man. He’s like a really awesome onion that doesn’t stink.

  Taylor made a polite nod at the man who smiled and flashed a set of incomplete teeth.

  “So, what are you doing here?” she asked, trying to put everything together.

  “I’ve just purchased this man’s land.”

  “Okay. And what do you plan to do with it?” she asked.

  Bennett smiled and held out his hand. “Come with me.” He looked at the man and mumbled a few odd words. She guessed Bennett was saying goodbye or that he’d be back soon.

  She followed him out to the other Land Rover and got inside. Mud was everywhere.

  “Sorry about the mess,” Bennett said, “but I had a flat tire earlier. It’s a little wet today.”

  Another surprise. Bennett Wade changed his own flat tires. In the rain and mud.

  “So what do you want to show me?” she asked, feeling anxious.

  “You’ll see.” He cranked the engine and turned the vehicle around, down the road they’d come, waving at Wayan as they passed. But before they made it back to the paved road, Bennett took a right turn down something that looked like an overgrown walking trail. The branches of the trees slapped at the windows, and the rain began coming down in a heavy sheet.

  “How can you see where you’re driving?” she asked.

  “I know these roads like the back of my hand. I grew up here,” he said.

  “The driver last night mentioned that. How come you never said anything?”

  “It’s not something I discuss,” he replied.

  “Are you going to tell me why?”

  “Yes. In a moment,” he replied, ominously.

  Taylor’s nerves amped up. He was about to drop a major bomb, wasn’t he?

  He turned the vehicle sharply and they began to climb a steep embankment. The tires slipped and spun in the mud, but Bennett knew exactly how to work the steering wheel and gears to keep them from getting stuck.

  The car caught a rock or something and jumped forward. She yelped.

  Bennett laughed. “I promise, there’s nothing to worry about. I’ve got a satellite phone if we get stuck.”

  “What if we roll?”

  He thumped his hand on the roof. “This is a real Land Rover, the kind they use to cross the Serengeti. Not a soccer mom wagon.”

  Oh. She hadn’t known there was a difference.

  The engine groaned up the last few meters of the steep, muddy road, and then they turned down what looked like another hiking trail.

  Then the road just stopped and so did Bennett.

  “We’re here. Are you ready?” he said, and turned off the engine. His jaw pulsed with tension.

  Taylor wasn’t sure. This was all really strange. “Uh. Yeah. I guess?”

  He got out of the vehicle, so she hopped out on her side, stepping right into a soupy brown puddle. At this point, not getting dirty was a lost cause. Her feet, ankles, and calves were completely covered in muck.

  She met Bennett at the front of the car, and he took her hand, leading her down a slip of a path between two trees. Just on the other side, the trail dropped off into a steep cliff.

  “Wow,” she said. The view was amazing, miles and miles of green pastures and rolling lush jungle. Off in the distance, maybe three or so miles away, the dull blue of the ocean reflected the gray sky above. She imagined on a sunny day how all of this would look: Like a blanket of emerald green, surrounded by a halo of sapphire blue.

  “It’s gorgeous, but what is this place?” she asked.

  He looked out across the land and put his hand on his waist. “It’s me making things right.”

  “I’m not following.”

  “I know. And I’ve been trying to think of a way to tell you that won’t make you think less of me, but I keep hitting the same damned wall. Over and over again.”

  She reached for his arm. “Whatever it is, you can tell me. I promise it won’t change how I feel.”

  “This might.”

  He sounded so sure that he made her doubt herself. “O—okay. Try me then,” she said.

  He rubbed his scruffy jaw, mulling something over in his mind for several moments before he let out a big whoosh. “When I was eighteen, I helped my father take the land from the people who lived near here.”

  Taylor studied him for a moment. “What do you mean by take?”

  “My father moved us here when I was about five after he and a partner bought a hotel. From there he bought another and another. He saw this island as an investment opportunity, a place to exploit. Although, that’s not what he would’ve called it. In his mind, it was simply business.”

  “And?”

  “I helped him.” Bennett shrugged. “When he decided to get into the coffee business, I helped him acquire land, helped him grease palms, convince the various families that what we were offering was a good price. We bought their land for nothing and ran them off of it, forcing them to live in hamlets, like the ones you just saw, without access to clean water, electricity, or schools.”

  Was Bennett trying to say he and his father had basically swindled people out of their land?

  He continued, “I helped him destroy hundreds of people’s lives. The sad part was, I knew what he was doing was wrong, but I just couldn’t bring myself to stand up to him or disappoint him. I kept telling myself that what we were doing wasn’t illegal. Of course, that didn’t make it right. Those families were too simple and too trusting to realize we were cheating them. Then, after a few years, we sold the farms off to a big company. It’s how we became so wealthy.”

  “Oh.” That was a pretty shitty thing to do.
>
  “Yes. ‘Oh.’ ” He nodded in agreement.

  “So why are you buying more land?” she asked.

  “After my father died and I took over the company, I was here on a trip, checking up on some of the hotels we still own.” The look in Bennett’s eyes became harder and more barren, as though he was holding on to something, something painful, and trying not to allow it to take over.

  He went on, “As usual, I stayed at a house we had near the beach. My father had it built after we came into our money—quite the mansion. On that day, though, I was on my cell, getting ready to drive to the other side of the island, when the alarm—a text in those days—went off. I drove like hell to get away, and I did.”

  Get away? From what? Then it dawned on her. There was only one thing people on this island tried to get away from: the ocean.

  “Oh God. What happened?” She was almost afraid to know the answer.

  He pointed to a spot off on the horizon where there were several hills near the shoreline. “The wave hit, and I watched from up there as it carried off my son. And his mother.”

  Taylor’s knees almost buckled. “Your—your son? Your wife?”

  “We were never married. I’d only slept with her once, but it was enough. She and her family looked after the estate and lived there.”

  “You got her pregnant,” she whispered.

  He nodded. “Not by accident. By carelessness. I just didn’t care about consequences. I was eighteen when she had Wayan.”

  Taylor slapped her hands over her mouth. Her heart felt like it had fallen out of a ten-story building and smashed on the cement sidewalk.

  Last night when they’d been together, his reaction to their little condom fail had been so…strange. Endearing and tender, but strange. It had felt so atypical of what she expected from a man in that situation—calm and thoughtful, like he wanted to show her, or perhaps, show himself, he knew how to care.

  Was this why? Was he trying not to repeat history?

  “Bennett,” she said, holding back the tears. “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine how hard that was.”

  “I didn’t love her. Yes, I cared for her, but I was too selfish, too self-absorbed to really be anything more than just some stranger who gave them money. And I felt ashamed of my son—not good enough—not one of us—not someone my father would approve of.”

  “So you never told anyone about him?” she asked softly.

  “No. Although my dad suspected. Wayan had my eyes. But my mother still doesn’t know. I wanted to tell her, but it would break her heart to find out she had a grandson she never got to meet.”

  “But Bennett, why do you think I’d hate you or think less of you?” It was a tragedy, and he’d been young and stupid and…a real asshole. But he’s not that person anymore.

  “Because when Wayan was alive, I thought money was enough. He had his mother, a home, school—I took care of him financially, but that was all. And then he died because of me.”

  “You didn’t make that tsunami happen, Bennett.”

  “No. But I’m the one who didn’t lift a finger to save him. I’m the one who decided it was a waste of money to install an alert system on the property. That’s the sort of cold-hearted bastard I was. I never thought about their safety. I thought…” He looked down at his hands. “I thought, ‘What use would it be to spend thirty thousand dollars if I’m hardly ever here?’ ”

  Taylor nodded, trying to take it all in.

  “That day changed me—broke something inside me—but as much as I try, I can’t erase the past. It’s the one thing money can’t buy me.”

  “So what is all this? What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “Like I said, it’s me, trying to make things right—at least, the things I can fix. It will never be enough though. Never. Not after what I did to my own child.”

  Taylor’s eyes filled with tears. The torment in Bennett’s expression was too much.

  “I couldn’t give these people back their land,” he explained, “and if I could, it wouldn’t help them. Things are different now and that land has been overworked. That’s why I’ve been buying up this valley. It’s perfect for growing flowers and a particular kind of tree.”

  “You’re going to grow flowers and trees?”

  “No. They are—the people we took land from. I’ve paid the previous landowners a very, very good price and am titling it to a co-op owned by the families we ruined.”

  “That’s really nice to do, but flowers?” How would that help anyone?

  “Lady Mary Fragrances is the largest purchaser of floral compounds and terpenes in the world. This place will become the exclusive source for all of their ingredients.”

  “You want to buy Lady Mary so you can control their sourcing?” It was…really, really smart. And now it all made so much sense. Bennett’s company was the king of manufacturing and processing equipment. He could set up a world-class operation here.

  “The ingredients they’ll produce are for a premium market,” he said. “The families will make good money, and Lady Mary Fragrances will be more profitable because they’ll have an exclusive contract. We can use the profits to build water-processing plants, roads, schools. A lot of good can come out of it.”

  “Wow, Bennett. Just wow.”

  “It’s costing me almost everything I have. Or it will if Mary Rutherford agrees to sell the controlling stake of her company.”

  “Wait. So you’re giving up everything you’ve built to do this?” She jerked her head toward the wet green lands laid out in front of them.

  “I’ll own fifty-one percent of Lady Mary so I can ensure they do things my way, but that money will be tied up, and anything I make will go to this. I have money for living expenses and to build the factory here, but that’s it. I’ll just have enough—after I sell off Wade Enterprises.”

  “Oh my God.” In a million years, Taylor would never, ever have imagined that this was Bennett’s secret. It was sad and dark and…he was trying to make good.

  “Kate, my ex, is the only other person who knows absolutely everything,” he said. “She left me when she realized I’d be living a more…modest lifestyle. We were together for almost two years.”

  Taylor was speechless. How could anyone do that to this beautiful man? It ripped her heart out. “Two years?”

  He went on, “She’d been hustling me the entire time—telling me she wanted to stay out of the limelight, refusing any expensive gifts I tried to give her—it was all just an act to make me think she was down to earth, so she could get her hands on my money. I’m glad I didn’t marry her, but to me, there’s nothing worse in this world than being stabbed in the back by someone you trust.” His words reminded her of that incident in Tokyo.

  “You mean like that Japanese lady you yelled at in the hotel?” she asked.

  “Yes.” Bennett looked slightly irritated. “I was trying to get a rival equipment company to sell their patented processing equipment for the flowers. It would’ve kept our costs down, but that backstabbing bitch I hired tipped off one of Lady Mary’s competitors. The technology was up for grabs. I lost it.

  “We’ll still be able to function,” he said, “but it will be more expensive—lower crop yields.”

  He looked at her with his big blue eyes. “Say something.”

  She couldn’t. Her mind was too busy filling in all the blanks. His loathing for people who took advantage of others. His fear of being unable to reach people in an emergency or not knowing where they were. His obsession with this project that drove him to exhaustion. It was all such a huge shock, yet the signs had been there all along.

  “This is why you took the money from your stupid fucking friends, isn’t it?” she asked.

  “Yes. And for the record, those idiots bet on things all the time—football, golf games, if Chip can keep a girlfriend for more than a week—to them, it means nothing.”

  “But you take part?”

  “Sometimes. More when I was younger.”
He shrugged. “But with you, they just assumed I was in.” He glanced at her. “And I never corrected their assumption, and I never tried to stop them. It was wrong, which is why I’ve promised to rectify the situation.” He then pointed west. “If it makes you feel any better, their stupidity purchased everything from there to that ridge—they finally did something good for once.”

  “That’s a lot of stupidity,” she said and then turned to him. “But why keep this all a secret? Why not tell anyone what you’re doing?”

  He tilted his head. “Don’t you think they’d ask why? Don’t you think people would connect the dots if I went around telling them I grew up here or about my project? The land we purchased and sold is public record. Anyone who looks hard enough will realize what we did to these people.”

  She bobbed her head. It was one more piece of the puzzle—the reason he never mentioned where he was really from. “I get what you’re saying, but your father was in charge then. You were only trying to be a good son.”

  “No one will care. It’s my last name on the company’s letterhead. I’m in charge now. But the bad PR could hurt Wade Enterprise’s value, and I want top dollar when I sell the company to fund the factory and infrastructure.”

  He had it all figured out.

  “How long have you been planning this?” she asked.

  “Six years. It took me a while to figure things out after Wayan died.”

  “I think, Bennett,” she whispered, “that it’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done in the name of saying sorry.”

  He shrugged again, the sadness and regret saturating his eyes. “I can say I’m sorry until my last breath but there is no excuse for being the person that I was. None at all. I deserve a shit life for letting my little boy and his mother die like that.”

  Tears flowed freely from Taylor’s eyes, and though Bennett’s voice was cold, she knew it wasn’t because he didn’t care—it was because he’d probably mourned enough for a lifetime. There wasn’t anything left. At least, that was her guess.

  “You think you don’t deserve anyone’s affection or love.” She looked at him, realizing why he felt uncomfortable being too intimate. “But you’re wrong, Bennett. You just need to forgive yourself.”