by Beth Abbott
The ones who chased after rich men… well, he could quite happily live without ever bumping into them ever again. They tended to be former debutantes from entitled families, who were able to speak intelligently about four or five subjects, but if you asked them about anything else, couldn’t formulate a single opinion if their lives depended upon it.
Sadly, those were the only types of women he had come across until recently.
An image of the Alpha Stalwart women flashed into his mind, and Gregor almost smiled.
Every single one of them was intelligent, articulate, and feisty, and considering how strong and dominant the Alpha-Stalwart men could be, they were all well capable of holding their own against their husbands in an argument.
In fact, now he thought about it, the women in the family had held far more sway when it came to the planning than the men.
“Why are you shaking your head and smiling like that?” Tulli’s voice cut into his thoughts. “You look like you thought of something funny. Care to share?”
Gregor smiled.
“My first thought was that you’re not like the women I usually come into contact with. They’re either trying to get a promotion, or a rich husband.”
Tulli shook her head, obviously confused.
“I’d have to have a job first before I could get a promotion.” She pointed out. “And while I have enjoyed our kisses, I don’t think you can claim I’m trying to snag you for your money!”
“I think I was the one who started the kissing, so that’s a moot point.” Gregor shrugged. “But then I remembered meeting the Alpha-Stalwart women recently, and they’re some of the smartest, most capable, articulate women I’ve ever met. And they all seem to keep their husbands very firmly in line. That can’t be easy with a bunch of alpha-males like that.”
“I’ve only met a handful of the women properly, but they do seem amazing.” Tulli nodded. “So diverse, yet so supportive of each other. I was completely in awe of them.”
“That was what led me to my second thought.” Gregor smiled. “I was just realising how easily you fit in with them. You’re smart, obviously capable, and extremely articulate. But you also have a deeply kind heart, and a caring nature. You could hold your own in a room full of women like that, without even thinking about it.”
Tulli blushed, but she was chuckling.
“Gregor, I couldn’t hold my own in a room with just me in it!” She protested. “Those women are beautiful, and smart, and tough as hell! Look what they’ve been through, some of them! I heard some of their stories the other night and I was amazed. They’re absolutely inspiring.”
Gregor sat back and placed his napkin on the table.
“Tulli, I’m going to let you in on a little secret.” He leaned forward to meet her gaze. “There are only two things that separate you from those women.”
He reached across the table to take her hand.
“Time is the first thing.” He explained. “They’ve had time to get over what happened to them, and time to heal and find their sparkle again.”
Tulli nodded in agreement.
“I know that time is a great healer.” She admitted. “I’d like to think it will help me to recover to the point those women have reached.”
“For that, it might also help to have the other thing those women have.” Gregor gazed into her cloudy grey eyes. “They have a partner who believes in them one-hundred-percent, and who stands behind them, ready to offer a helping hand if they stumble. That’s the second thing you haven’t had yet, to help you regain your sense of self-worth.”
Tulli returned his gaze, and he could see that she was weighing up his words.
“Now I can’t do anything about the time aspect, as even a billionaire can’t make a clock tick any faster.” Gregor grinned.
Tulli smiled at his attempt at a joke.
“But what I can do is offer to be the person you have standing behind you.” He said softly. “I believe in you, Tulli, and if you’ll let me, I’d like to be the one that holds you up, catches you when you stumble, and gives you the strength you need to start believing in yourself again.”
The look of shock on Tulli’s face almost made him smile.
“B-but we’re leaving for Tuck’s tomorrow.” She pointed out. “I won’t see you…”
“You’re moving to Tuck’s tomorrow, only because it’s widely agreed that you’ll be safer away from my house.” Gregor nodded. “But that’s purely a temporary measure, you know. The minute this is all resolved, I want you to come back and live here. You and your sisters. For as long as you want to be here. Kissing optional, for you, that is.”
Gregor had watched Tulli’s expression become more surprised the longer he spoke. She’d obviously been trying to take in every word, possibly repeating each one in her mind to make sure she hadn’t missed anything.
When she finally got to the ‘kissing optional’ comment, he saw it instantly, as her face turned pink and she spluttered a laugh.
“You made a very good case for our return.” She murmured, nodding thoughtfully. “Right up to the ‘kissing optional’ part.”
Gregor’s heart stuttered.
“You don’t like that part?” He asked quietly, trying unsuccessfully to read Tulli’s expression.
“Not so much.” She whispered, her eyes fixing on his. “Now, if you’d like to change that to ‘kissing compulsory’, I think you might find we have ourselves an arrangement I can live with.”
Gregor’s smile couldn’t have been wider, made up of two parts joy and one-part relief.
“That’s a contractual change I can certainly live with.” He nodded. “But do we have to wait for you to get back from Ryan’s to put it into effect?”
Tulli shook her head very slightly.
“I don’t remember there being a clause to that effect in our agreement.” She murmured, leaning forward.
“Thank God for that!” He sighed.
Gregor pulled her forward, crashing his lips down on Tulli’s, ignoring the clanking of china as he pushed it to one side.
Who needed dinner when he could have kisses instead?
Chapter 19 –Lucky
It had taken her more than eight hours to get to Los Angeles.
Two of those hours had been used up travelling to the border, and another two had been spent in the back of one of her lorries, crossing the border into Texas with her regular workers, dressed as one of the hired hands.
Then there had been a quick change of clothes, and a drive to a private airstrip, where a flight had been waiting to take her to the west coast.
This wasn’t actually her final destination, although, she smiled to herself, it would be someone’s final destination, and their final resting place.
“Tell me again what we know about this woman.” She turned to Pedro, one of her trusted lieutenants. “How is she involved in all this?”
“It’s all a little vague.” Pedro explained. “As you know, your cousin Rafael has something of a taste for keeping the women he’d kidnapped in what he called his ‘kennel’. Well, it looks like a group of American hostages was taken a few days ago in a mix up over some drugs.”
“And this woman is one of them?” Luciana clarified.
“According to the woman, she was right in the thick of things.” Pedro explained. “The attack on the compound which resulted in your father and Rafa being murdered, also led to the release of all the women Rafa had been keeping in the kennel. We wouldn’t have had any idea of their identities, except that this American woman decided to tell her story in… what do they call it, a ‘blog’?”
“And she specifically mentioned my father?” Luciana gritted her teeth.
“Oh yeah.” Pedro snarled. “#LuisCastille and #OnelessColombiandruglord were added to her post.”
Luciana thought it was probably a good thing she didn’t have a gun in her hand at that moment, as she was liable to shoot the next person to look at her sideways.
“And she’s agr
eed to meet with us?” She asked. “She’s not worried for her safety?”
“She thinks we’re from the New York Times, and we’re doing an article on her brave escape from the Colombian jungle.” Pedro snorted. “We’ve even promised her total anonymity.”
“How much does she think she’s getting paid for her story?” She glanced at Pedro.
“Two hundred thousand for an exclusive.” He smirked. “I wired a ten-thousand-dollar advance to her this morning, as a show of good faith.”
“Oh, you are so bad!” Luciana grinned at him. “I obviously trained you well!”
“You taught me many things, that’s for sure!” He leered at her. “I’d be happy to show you some of my other skills, any time you ask.”
Aah, little Pedro was getting fresh with her again. The man had offered to see to her needs on more than one occasion, and she sometimes wondered whether it would be worth taking him up on his offer. Sadly, there were too many prying eyes for her to take that chance.
“Sweet Pedro, not only do you not have a cock to match my beloved Hector, you seem rather attached to the one you’ve got.” She patted his arm. “It’s for both our sakes that I politely decline your gracious offer.”
Pedro glanced at the partition that separated the two of them from the driver, making sure it was up.
“I would take that risk, Lucky, in a heartbeat.” He moved his hand very slightly so that their fingers barely touched. “And you know I would never betray you to Hector or anyone. I am your servant.”
Pedro looked so sincere, she almost laughed. Idiot!
“Pedro, whatever you might think of my husband, he is still my husband. And as head of the cartel, he would cut your throat for making such an offer.” She pointed out. “I think it best if you don’t say such things to me again, or I might feel honour-bound to mention it to him.”
Pedro’s hand withdrew from hers quickly, and he blushed as he mumbled an apology.
“It’s Ok, my friend.” She reassured him. “But let us stick to business from now on, hmm?”
The car slowed and pulled to the kerb outside a very plush looking hotel, where a man in a uniform stepped forward and opened the door, allowing Luciana to step out as though she was royalty.
“I take it I’m paying for this place, too?” She smirked at Pedro.
“You wanted to get her here, didn’t you?” He shrugged. “She’d have been unlikely to agree to a meeting if I’d hired a room in some seedy motel, would she.”
Luciana stepped into the opulence of the reception area and immediately spotted one of her men waiting by the elevators.
Bypassing the front desk, she walked straight to the man as the elevator door swished silently open.
“I’ve booked a suite on the top floor.” He explained. “It’s on a nice quiet corner with no nosey neighbours. I bumped into Bastian in the parking garage, and called in a favour. He’s in the room with her now, keeping the lady happy.”
Bastian was an up and coming Latino singer, born, and raised just outside of Monterrey. Hector had spotted him years before, and encouraged the kid to pursue his career in music, even sponsoring him when the kid needed money to get over the border to chase a recording contract.
Of course, once Hector had been imprisoned, Luciana had been left to nurture the relationship, not least because Bastian’s tour bus had provided an excellent way to smuggle drugs into the US.
Ten years after they’d made that first connection, Bastian was a true cross-over artist, appealing to both the English and Spanish speaking markets, and as Hector predicted, he was a red-hot favourite with the ladies.
And the best part?
The guy was as dumb as a bag of spanners!
Not once had he ever questioned why Luciana continued to provide the security for his tours out of her own pocket. Nor had he ever asked why his tour schedule regularly left him criss-crossing the US/Mexican border, instead of covering the one side first, before moving to the other.
No, the guy sang his songs, pocketed the money it made him, and did as he was asked. As long as Luciana kept his wife, mama, and sisters happy, south of the border, and his boyfriend happy north of the border, Bastian was like putty in her hands.
His star continued to rise, and in the background, Luciana managed to smuggle hundreds of kilos of drugs into Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona every year.
The elevator doors opened on the top floor, and she was led to the suite at the far end of the corridor. Her guy had done well in selecting this room, as it was doubtful there would be anybody close by to hear any screaming. And there was almost always screaming.
The door opened silently at their approach, and Luciana saw another two of her men just inside the door.
“They’re in the sitting room, senora.” The first man nodded to the door on the left.
“What’s her name again?” Luciana whispered to Pedro.
“Hilary something, I think.” He shrugged.
Luciana rolled her eyes. She could hardly call the woman ‘Miss Something’, now, could she?
As they approached the open door, she could see Bastian and the woman stood at the window as Bastian pointed to something in the distance.
Bastian’s arm was around the woman’s shoulder, in a not-too innocent way, and the woman had her arm around his waist, her hand trailing lower onto his right buttock than Luciana supposed was truly necessary.
“Bastian, how lovely to see you.” Luciana exclaimed loudly, causing the pair to jump apart. “Have you been keeping the lovely lady company while she waited?”
“Lucky!” The singer grinned. “As always, it’s a pleasure to see you. How are you?”
Luciana almost winced. Honesty was probably not the order of the day.
“I’m good, Bas, you know, but so incredibly busy today.” She hugged the guy in a platonic way then stepped back quickly. “I’m going to be terribly rude, and cut this little meeting short, I’m afraid. I have to speak to lovely Hilary here, and then be on my way as quickly as possible. But we can catch up soon, my friend. Next time you’re close to the house, you must come to dinner.”
“Of course, of course. That would be most marvellous.” Bastian smiled warmly at her, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she was politely telling him to fuck off out of her room.
“Hilary, it was a pleasure talking to you.” He bowed gallantly before allowing Pedro to guide him to the door with a few jokes and a pat on the back.
When the door closed quietly behind him, she turned to see the woman staring after Bastian with a stupid grin on her face.
Now there’s the look of a fucking horny woman, she thought. And Luciana should know!
“Hilary, thank you so much for agreeing to meet with us.” Luciana waved to the chairs. “As I explained, I am in rather a hurry today, so I’d like to get as much information from you as possible for my article.”
“Oh, of course.” The woman slipped into the chair opposite Luciana. “Your associate said that the rest of the money will be wired to me as soon as the article is published. Do you know when that will be?”
“Greedy bitch!” Luciana thought.
“Well, if I can get it written up on the plane this evening, it will probably be in print in tomorrow’s edition, and available online from about four am, Eastern.” She smiled, not actually sure if that sounded reasonable or not, and not particularly caring either. The woman was obviously just after the money and had no interest in anything beyond.
“Your friend said you’d be rushed, so I wrote a few of the basics down for you.” Hilary slid over a piece of paper. “But I’m happy to answer any questions you have. I’ve got a good memory.”
“Ok, thanks. Well, obviously, I’ve read your blog, and it seems you had a great adventure down in Colombia.” Luciana began, ignoring the paper on the table. “Could you tell me some more about how you came to be there?”
Hilary stared at her.
“Aren’t you going to record this or write any notes?
” She asked, looking puzzled.
Shit, Luciana thought, she should have thought this through a little better!
“I have that covered.” Pedro sat just to the side of Hilary on a sofa, waving his mobile phone at her and smiling. “Modern technology is so much better than the old-fashioned dictaphone or pad and pencil, don’t you think?”
“I guess.” Hilary nodded, giving Pedro a serious look-over.
“So, you were saying?” Luciana prompted.
The woman started bleating about the trip she had taken to Colombia, some mission to help sick kids or some such nonsense. Luciana let her ramble on for a few minutes trying to look interested, nodding and murmuring as though she was finding it all absolutely fascinating.
When the story turned to the mix-up with the boat and the drugs, it was all Luciana could do not to laugh.
Her cousin Rafael was never one of her favourite people, always thinking he was smarter than he really was, but even Luciana would never have believed him to be so stupid as to leave that amount of cocaine laying around, the sole responsibility for which lay with his dumb-as-fuck lieutenants.
She listened to Hilary drone on for a few more minutes, until her attention was caught again.
“Sorry, could you repeat that last part? You met Luis Castille?” Luciana asked.
“Yes, we were taken to the office where Rafael and Luis Castille were waiting for us.” Hilary nodded. “Rafael was pretty good looking, in a scary kind of way. Luis Castille was just scary, though. Like psychopath scary, y’know? All quiet and sinister and shit.”
Luciana wanted to growl at the woman that Luis Castille was her father, and the bitch shouldn’t be talking about the dead like that, but when she caught Pedro’s eyes, and saw the half-grin on his face, she stayed silent.
Ok, so Hilary had described her father perfectly, without ever knowing it, but still… he was Luciana’s father, after all!
“So, tell me more about how you all escaped.” She prompted. “Presumably you had help?”
“Yes, one of the other Americans on our team was the daughter of a rich daddy, and he pulled some strings, first of all to get some army people sent down to rescue us.” Hilary explained. “But when that didn’t work, he hired some mercenaries or something to come and get us. That did the trick.”