The Devastatingly Beautiful Series

by M Dauphin

  I need to switch gears. As fun as it is to think about her body, I have a few other pressing issues to handle right now. I’m so pumped that my surprise for her is turning out to be even more amazing than I could have imagined. It’s taking a little more time to plan so it won’t be until tomorrow night after the wedding shoot is over, but I can wait. I’m a pretty patient man.

  The wedding is a whole other fiasco. I don’t want her to leave my sight the entire three days, but I know how unrealistic that is. Weddings are nuts, I’m sure as a photographer they are even more nuts and having an assistant there that can’t leave your side isn’t really helpful at all. I’ve resolved to spend as much time around her as I can and to try and not freak out when we’re apart. Rob seems so worried about his cousin’s big day that I doubt he’d try anything that would ruin it. I’ll play it cool, but if he so much as looks at her wrong he’s going down.

  My dad still hasn’t gotten back to me on the situation about the note. It’s starting to worry me that this is bigger than I thought. Normally he’s pretty fast with returning phone calls and getting information out of people. I thought about calling him, but I know he will call when there is something to inform me about. For now I can sit and wait. I feel like a fucking pawn. Not knowing why this is happening, not knowing who it is, just pisses me off. I am constantly on guard that something’s going to happen to us when we are out and about. That’s what this whole thing is about anyway, isn’t it? The note said revenge. If it truly is Rob pulling these strings, then he wants revenge for his sister’s death. One he believes is my fault. The phrase on the back of the note makes me believe he wants to take my loved one away as payback. Does he not understand I lost a loved one that day, too? My hurt trumped his ten-fold, but whoever sent that note doesn’t seem to care. Either way, I have a sinking feeling that Molly is in for a world of danger when it comes to Robert Delany. One that I’m going to try my best to stop before it happens.

  Molly and I finished up things in the office about an hour ago and decided to make the short walk back to her place. The evening air isn’t as humid as it had been and for being the first of May it isn’t too incredibly hot. This place has nothing on Texas when it comes to heat. That’s one thing I really don’t miss about that state.

  We get back to her house a little after eight after stopping for a quick bite to eat, as both of us are too exhausted to actually cook something for dinner. She changes into her shorts and tank top for bed right away (something that will be coming off later if I have my way with her) and hop on the couch. I notice the blinking light on the answering machine and head over to press it, ready to delete it right away when a very familiar voice comes over the speaker. Molly freezes and listens to the message from the couch, not moving a muscle. We’ve been expecting this call, but neither of us really want to hear what he had to say. Suspecting the worst and knowing it for a fact are two very different feelings.

  “Molly. This is Al Savage. I have some very urgent news you and Tatum both need to hear. However, I am uncomfortable leaving this on your answering machine. You need to call me back, Molly.”

  My father doesn’t leave messages that long. He’s typically a blunt and ‘to the point’ type of guy. What the hell?

  She turns and looks at me, her face paling. I reassure her with a silent arm rub that it’ll all be ok, then grab my phone from my pocket and call him back. Putting him on speaker phone, he picks up on the first ring.

  “Tatum. Is Molly with you?” The fact that he’s so worried about her sets me off. I need to know everything.

  “Yea dad, she’s here.”

  “Hi Mr. Savage. I got your message. Can you tell us what’s going on?” Molly speaks up.

  He sighs so loudly that we can hear it clear as day through the phone. My dad isn’t a stressed man. He wants something, he gets it, and he doesn’t feel bad about it. The only emotion I’ve ever seen come out of him was the night he had the accident. Tonight’s getting eerily close to those emotions and nothing bad has even happened yet.

  “Listen, you two. This has been a long time coming. Our family has not been on good terms with the Delany’s for well over 25 years, so this is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m getting ahead of myself, though…let me explain…”

  Then he proceeds to tell us a story that helps up everything in to perspective.

  Back when my father had just gotten his hands wet with the family business he met a girl. That girl is now my mother. That girl was engaged to a Delany when she met my father. You can imagine the bad blood that came from that. Add in his son having an illegitimate child with a long lost Delany and it just made it worse. One might think that because she didn’t grow up one of them that they wouldn’t care as much, but blood is blood. They had just found her a few months before she died so naturally the crime filled family has been trying to avenge her death ever since. Unfortunately for Molly, it came at just the right time for them. I had just popped into town, showed interest in her job, and boom. She landed the biggest contract of her career, unbeknownst to her that it was all to get at me. To make me pay for what I apparently did to their little girl. Word in a small town spreads quickly when you don’t add in the power of the Delany family. I’m sure they knew I had the job with her before I did. Hell, it’s probably the Delany power that forced the townspeople to push me into the job in the first place. More than likely their plans changed as Molly and I became more serious, making her the target so I would have to live with the heartbreak. He then explained what I already know about Robert Delany’s past. In Texas, Rob is known as a player. Not just one night stand type of player. One that leaves women near death from the abuse they go through. Everyone’s tight lipped, but secrets slip every now and then. We know enough to know that if he gets his hands on her it won’t end pretty.

  Molly sits next to me on the couch, staring at the phone as my father continues talking. When the line goes silent on the other end of the phone she takes a huge breath and speaks up.

  “Well that fucking sucks,” she says in full seriousness. I can’t help but laugh at her tone, it’s too damn cute. My father doesn’t find it funny at all, however.

  “You could put it that way, Molly. Any way you put it, though, you need to know that working the wedding this weekend is not a good idea.” Shit we’ve been through this dad!

  I can see her face getting redder, her hands balling up, and I know my father is about to conjure the wrath of Molly Ward if he doesn’t watch it.

  “Listen to me dear, you don’t know when this family is going to strike I have tried my hardest to get any drip of info I can, but every lead is coming up dry.” I know the true meanings of my father’s words and suddenly understand why he feels so strongly about this. The strong arm technique didn’t work with this case. My father’s always able to get information out of people if he has them beat long enough. I see Molly about to unleash so I jumped in before she explodes on my father. As cute as that would be, I’m not sure he would appreciate it.

  “Dad we can’t pull out with the wedding weekend mere hours away. Robert would know something’s up. It’s not going to get us clear form this fiasco.” He’s quiet for a moment, then grunts. He agrees, but he isn’t happy about it. We have to play it cool, act unsuspecting. Put on the best act we can, then catch him before he’s able to strike. Whatever he has planned, I have an awful feeling about it.

  We hang up the phone and sit on the couch together, coming up with a plan for the next three days. My dad’s sending a few guys to help us if need be, but I hope it doesn’t come down to that. There’s been too much blood shed in the last few months. I’m ready for a vacation. The only bright spot of the next three days is knowing that tomorrow night, after my surprise to Molly, I’ll officially be off the market for good. At least, I hope.

  14

  Molly

  I’m up before the sun today, full of the normal wedding weekend buzz I get when shooting a big wedding, plus the nerves running through me due to t
he unfortunate situation with Robert. Tatum and I have an hour drive to the wedding venue this morning and we need to be ready to go by 9 am for the first photo shoot. I’ll never understand the complexity of this package, and maybe it was all bought just to have us around for whatever Rob had planned, but I can’t think that way right now. This is a real wedding, and the bride is just like any other bride. She’s going to want to record every moment of this weekend, and that’s what I’m getting paid to do.

  We load up the car and grab breakfast sandwiches to go, leaving with plenty of time to get there and get set up. Luckily, since it is only an hour away, we’ll be able to come home at night and not use expenses on a hotel room. The whole drive he tries making small talk, beaming all morning about it being a great day, but I can’t stop thinking about the danger we could be walking in to. Knowing that I am being used in a game of revenge yet again makes my skin crawl. Growing up I never thought this is where my life would be today. A month after being attacked by the man I thought had been dead for the past five years I’m yet again on edge that something equally bad is about to happen to us. I just hope we’re able to stop him before he acts. I couldn’t take it if something bad happened to Tatum.

  Once we get there and get our things unloaded we grab a coffee and wait for the family to start arriving. The bride and her bridesmaids are first, traveling in a huge Cadillac stretch limo. Must be nice to have the money to drop on something like that, I think. Then again, I guess Tatum has just as much, if not more, as this family. He just isn’t anywhere near as flashy as them. That’s one of the many reason I love him so much.

  After catching all of the arriving moments, I go off to meet the groomsmen. I’ve never actually met the groom, so we have our formal introduction then I disappear into the crowd, grabbing any angle I can of the bride and groom’s secret looks at each other. Perfect, I think to myself, as I am able to catch a breathtaking shot of a short kiss between the two of them when they thought no one was paying attention. It’s those moments that make me love my job.

  It is then that I hear his voice. He commands every room he is in. How such a young man can seem so powerful is beyond me, but when Robert Delany is in attendance he is going to be noticed. Next to me Tatum stiffens when he hears his voice, but I put my hand on his elbow to calm him. I’m sure if he had it his way he’d kick his ass from here to Hong Kong until Rob promised to back off.

  “Ah, Molly…and Tatum. SO glad you could both make it,” he announces, loud enough to let everyone hear. Then, in a more hushed tone he leaned in as he hugs me. “So you brought Savage? That wasn’t a very smart move, Miss Ward.”

  My back straightens at the menacing tone and I push out of his hold and glare at him, right into those dark as night eyes.

  “I told you my plans days ago. You had time to fire me,” I practically spit at him.

  “You are right. Matter of fact, why don’t you meet me in the dining hall in about an hour. I have some…business…things we need to take care of.”

  “We will be there,” Tatum speaks up.

  Rob looks at him as if it were the first time he saw him. He pauses, staring at him, then nods his head and walks away.

  “That fucker,” Tatum growls “He’s going to try his hardest to get alone with you.”

  “I know. We just can’t let that happen. Alone with the rest of the family is fine, alone with Robert Delany equals catastrophe.” I agree with him one hundred percent. I want to be alone in a room with that man about as much as I want my left leg sawed off. Just the way he’s been acting around me recently is enough to give me the creeps, add in the cryptic warning from Tatum’s dad to stay away and I don’t even want to be in a crowded room with him.

  The day goes on as planned without any major snags. We meet Rob in the dining hall and it’s all business surprisingly, though the way he look at me made my skin crawl. I used to think he was so handsome, and before all of the drama started I thought I may have been attracted to him, but now he’s just being creepy. He’s becoming more and more obvious in his interest in me as the day goes on, and Tatum keeps getting closer and closer to marking his territory each passing minute.

  About an hour before the day ends Tatum gets a phone call he says he had to take. He said it’s urgent, and it has to be if he’s going to leave me alone to take it. When he comes back to me, he looks pissed.

  “Everything okay?” I ask, worried that he got news about the Delany’s from his dad.

  “Yea. Listen,” he starts, then curses and runs his hands through his dark hair. “I fucking hate this, but I need to take off a little early. I’ll meet you at home, okay?” He looks menacing right now, and whatever has him this pissed off I feel bad for.

  “What are you talking about, it’s an hour drive and we only have one car.” He can’t leave me. We’ve almost made it through our first day without any incident. This isn’t happening right now.

  “I’ll call the guys from my dad, they’re near here. They’ll be here to drive you home and watch you in case something goes wrong. Someone just called in a foul smell coming from the studio. They think there may be a gas leak.” He shakes his head. “Molly he’s not going to try anything this weekend. There are too many people around and you have less than an hour before you can leave. When you are done, get right into the car and come straight home, got it?”

  I nod, standing there wondering why no one called me about a potential gas leak. It’s my building after all.

  “Hey,” he says, his hand cupping my chin. “I love you.” He kisses me goodbye and walks away. After he gets in the car and drives away, I make my way back to the wedding party for a few more shots of the rehearsal dinner gathering.

  They’ve moved to the outdoor veranda, the music has started and everyone looks like they’re having a great time. These pictures are going to be beautiful. With about fifteen minutes left of my portion of the day, the bride realizes she can’t find her purse anywhere and everyone starts looking for it. It’s a madhouse in here, but I think I remember seeing it in the dining hall when I was walking through after Tatum left, so I head back there to grab it for her. What I don’t expect to see, though, is a dark room with Robert Delany smiling at me as I walk through the door. My stomach drops.

  “Well Ms. Ward. Where in the world is your bodyguard?” he chuckles as he moves closer to me.

  Shit.

  Tatum

  I hate lying to her, I really do, but it needed to be done in order for the surprise to still be a surprise. Even more so than lying to her, I hate that I had to leave her there without me. My dad’s men can’t get there for about fifteen minutes, but they’re on their way. Rob’s been eerily pleasant all day, which threw me for a huge loop. I at least expected a threat or sneer or snide comment… but there were none. Smiles and handshakes all around. I hate mind games, but apparently this man excels at them.

  Now I sit in the car, about fifteen minutes from home, pissed off and surprised as hell that in a small town, no one knows how to work together. I gave three townspeople the inside scoop of my proposal in order for things to go smoothly. Three, that’s it. Apparently I chose the wrong fucking people because they can’t follow simple directions.

  Molly hates roses. Most women get roses and swoon, but not my woman. She gets roses, then goes on a rant about how ugly they are and how they are so over rated and over used. So, in order for this proposal to be just perfect I had Betty call in an order of hundreds of flowers. All Calla Lilies. One task is all she needed to do and she fucked up big time. There were Red roses delivered this morning after we left, and she can’t get anyone to bring the correct flowers. She swears that she ordered the right ones, but who really knows. She’s a little crazy.

  So, now I have an hour from the time I get home to the time Molly gets here to re-plan the evening. The plan was supposed to be Molly and I walking in the house together to the lights low, candles lit, and flowers everywhere. I was going to have her go inside before me and when she turned to
look at me I’d be down on one knee, ready to propose. Now I have to figure out the flower debacle and re-plan my strategy in one hour. I can do this, I’ve done harder things in an hour. Let’s get to it!

  ***

  Forty-five minutes later I have it all planned out. Instead of hundreds of flowers around the whole house, I was able to find enough Calla Lilies at a local flower shop a few towns over to make an even more romantic gesture. It took a little monetary persuasion to open the shop for me after hours, but she’s worth it ten- fold. She will walk into the house, lights off and music on. There will be votive candles lit in a path towards the bedroom, all the way up the stairs. The flowers will be in a path to the bedroom as well. In the bedroom, I’ll be down on one knee, waiting for her to walk in. There will be candles everywhere and not a light on in the house. I can just picture her face in the glow of the candlelight now, so beautiful.

  My nerves are so high right now I could probably run a marathon. A few women in town caught word of what I was frantically trying to do so they pitched in helping set up the perfect scene. The whole time they were setting up I’m pretty sure I heard comments about how sad it was that I’d be off the market for good soon. What they don’t want to know is that I’ve been off the market for as long as I’ve known Molly. She’s been my everything from day one.

  I’ve never been this nervous before. I’m a Savage, we get what we want every time we want something. To think that there is a chance, even after all we have been through, that she won’t want to be with me permanently scares the shit out of me. I have to do this, though. I’ve never been so sure of anything, ever, in my entire life. She needs to be my wife. She will be my wife.