by Stella Noir
“No, it isn’t enough. Why won’t you let me in? You keep this wall up around you as if you think you’re safe as long as you don’t get close to anyone.”
“Well, that’s true, isn’t it? I don’t even know if I can trust my own family.”
“So you don’t think you can trust me, is that it?”
“No, not at all. You’re the only person I’ve ever felt like I could trust.”
“Then why are you pushing me away? Why won’t you let me get closer to you?”
“Because you wouldn’t like what you saw if I let you get closer. You’re right, Brooklyn. I am a monster. You’d be better off if you had nothing to do with me after you left here.”
“Why can’t I be the judge of that? Why can’t we just try it out and see what happens?”
“Because I don’t want to hurt you, Brooklyn,” he said as he put his hands on either side of my head and smoothed my hair down as he looked into my eyes. “Please, let’s just go down and have breakfast and then meet with Gina. I want you to have a good time with her. I want you to be happy,” he said with a sad smile.
I didn’t understand what he was saying or how it was that he thought he was going to hurt me. But I didn’t want to argue with him. I smiled and nodded my head and walked with him down to the dining room where breakfast was just being laid out.
Adrian
I sat through breakfast with Brooklyn and then her meeting with Gina. It went very well for Brooklyn. She and Gina really hit it off and seemed excited to work together. I was happy to see Brooklyn in her element and involved in a conversation that had nothing to do with this family or why she was here.
I watched her face light up as she talked and laughed about her own experiences at school and with her online following. I didn’t know if I could ever get tired of that smile of hers, and her infectious giggly laugh. I could tell that Gina was just as enchanted with Brooklyn as I had always been.
The problem was, the entire time I was talking and laughing with them, inside I was becoming more and more agitated and filled with an overwhelming desire to go down into the training grounds. I didn’t even know if Lucas was at the villa or if he was down there with the trainees. All I could think about was a soft pink hole that would bring me release.
After a couple of hours Gina left and Brooklyn turned all of her excitement onto me. She wanted to talk to me about her ideas and her plans and how Gina was even comfortable with her working remotely from wherever she would be. I felt terrible locking her back in her bedroom but I was so distracted and frenzied to get down to the caverns I felt like I was going to explode.
“I have some work to do in my office for a few hours. After that, we can have dinner and talk about your plans with Gina.”
“Okay, I’m just so happy, Adrian. This is almost more exciting than when I got my internship,” she said with a twinge of sadness in her eyes. “No, it’s more exciting because I’ll be working in Italy with Gina LaDonna and that’s more than I ever dreamed of happening in my first five years as an intern,” she said as she looked up at me with starry eyes. “Thank you so much, Adrian. I don’t even know what to say to you. You’re not a monster. I don’t ever want you to say that about yourself again. You’re very confusing to me and there are parts of you that scare me, but you’re not a monster.”
She looked so sweet and so happy and trusting and I felt like I had just been kicked in the stomach. If only she knew where I was headed and what I wanted to do. How out of control my desires felt sometimes. I smiled and kissed her on the head, wishing that I could just be a normal guy and stay here with her and share her excitement with her. But all I could think about was getting down to the caverns as quickly as possible.
“I’ll be back up in a few hours,” I said as I closed the door.
It wasn’t a lie, really. I was headed to my office to work on transferring some funds, but I was making a pit stop along the way. A pit stop that I didn’t want to admit to anyone that I was going to make.
Luckily, Lucas wasn’t anywhere to be found in any of the training rooms so I grabbed one of the girls and got off quickly then headed up to my office.
For weeks, I had been trying to move money around as unobtrusively as possible. My father still had full control over all the accounts and had a few assistants that he completely trusted to help him oversee everything. But since I was next in line to take over the business I had been given access to everything so that I could learn that end.
I needed to move funds around without it being obvious to anyone and that took time. So, I took small amounts out of a wide variety of account every day, then moved everything to a private bank account that I only accessed through a VPN on a laptop that had never been connected with any of the computers in the business.
I had about a million transferred into the new account but if I was going to get Brooklyn set up for enough time to disappear and ensure that she was safe I needed a lot more than that.
I had credit cards that I used regularly, but those were all tied to the family business so there was no way I could use them for anything related to Brooklyn. I needed more time. I had to get at least five times this amount stashed away in case something went wrong and I had to get out of here too.
I went to work setting up automatic transfers of small amounts over as many accounts as I could and I set them for every day of the week. I hoped that in a few weeks’ time there would be more than enough in the new account. Everything was deposited into an account that had no numbers visible to anyone other than the password holder. No one could trace the destination of the transactions, they could only stop them. And I hoped against hope that Brooklyn and I would both be long gone by the time that happened.
If my calculations were correct I would be skimming about two million a week off of our own accounts as well as the accounts of a few hundred of our clients. But no one was going to miss the small withdrawals I was taking out every day. Not right away at least.
Just as I was finishing up with some transfers my phone vibrated in my pocket and when I looked at who it was my heart stopped. It was my father.
“Hey, Dad. What’s up?” I asked, wondering if Lucas had told him anything.
“Just checking in to see how everything’s going. Making sure the business hasn’t coming crashing down without me,” he said with a strange laugh. My father really wasn’t the joking type so it made me a little bit suspicious, but I went along with it and just acted as natural as possible.
“No, nothing crashing down here. Everything seems to be going pretty well. Lucas brought the transaction back from London and I haven’t noticed him getting too excessive with her.”
“Been keeping an eye on the daily market fluctuations? I’ve been trying but I haven’t been able to get a decent internet connection for days.”
“Yeah, everything’s looking really good. No problems at all this month with any of the international investments.”
“How’s the Pierce daughter doing?”
I knew that was coming. I figured that’s what this call was really about and I was dreading talking to him about her because I didn’t like lying to him. Ever since I was a kid I was always afraid that he though I was lying to him. I was always the one that went to him when Lucas did something wrong because Lucas thought I would get him off easier. And the funny thing was, no matter how many times I told him the honest to God truth, my father always seemed to believed that I was lying.
I was always sick-to-my-stomach-terrified of him as a kid because I never felt like anything I did was good enough to convince him that I was telling the truth. And now that I actually was lying to him the old sick feeling came back again.
It was also odd because he hadn’t asked me about a transaction in years and I figured that if he was asking he had a reason.
“She’s doing fine.”
“I have a buyer for her already, in fact, we’re probably going to have a bidding war on our hands. She may even go for as much as two mil
lion. She’ll be ready when the six months is up, right?”
“Yeah, she’ll be ready.”
“Do you think we’ll be able to speed that account up a bit, to say, a three-month turnaround?”
I was speechless. He had never asked for that fast of training.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea. We want her fully trained so the buyer gets his money’s worth and has no complaints, right?”
“Good thinking, son. We’ll keep her on schedule. Okay, that’s about it. Let me know if anything comes up. We’ll be in Marrakech for another week, then we’re off to New Delhi. Your mother wants to visit some ashram for a week of spiritual god-knows-what. I’ll be in touch.”
“Ok, sounds good …” I said as I heard the line go dead. I wasn’t sure why he told me his travel plans or what that whole conversation had actually been about. It wasn’t completely out of character, but the whole thing made me wonder. I knew I was being paranoid but I also knew I had a reason to be.
“Yeah, she’s doing fine. Lounging around in her goose down bedding with one thousand thread count cotton sheets and her three meals a day that I bring up to her. She’s doing just fine,” I heard Lucas say behind me in a creepy sing-song voice. “What did his royal majesty want?”
“He was just checking in. Apparently he can’t get decent internet where he’s at. What do you want, Lucas?” I asked as I swiveled my chair around and faced him as he stood leaning up against the doorjamb with his arms folded in front of him.
“Just seeing how things are going up in the Bellini castle. Have you figured out what you’re going to do with the princess yet?”
“What do you care? Why can’t you just butt out of my business? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re obsessed with her or something.”
“No, I’m just riveted watching your denial of your own obsession. It’s astounding to me that anyone could be so oblivious. But then again you were always so self-obsessed that you couldn’t see anything past your nose. I can’t wait to see it all comes crashing down around you,” he said with a gleam in his eye.
“What did you just say?” I asked Lucas as I stood up from my chair. That was exactly what my father had just said on the phone. “Did you say something to him?”
“To whom? Oh, do you mean our father?”
“Yes, of course, that’s who I mean! Did you tell him about Brooklyn?”
“No, I didn’t spoil your little secret. Believe it or not, I actually do have better things to do with my time than running around tattling on you. But he’s not stupid, Adrian. He may have already figured it out.”
“How could he possibly have figured anything out without his being here if you didn’t tell him?”
“I swear, Adrian, I didn’t tell him anything. But don’t you find it a little odd that he specifically asked you to take care of her? Don’t you think he remembers the two of you that summer?” he said as he eyed me, but finally without that nasty smile.
“He had his reasons for giving her to me,” I said, but my brain shifted into overdrive and I starting turning everything he said to me over in my head.
“Don’t you think it’s odd that he’s checking up on you over the phone? I mean, he hasn’t checked up on any of my work since I was a teenager. I wonder if he has anyone else around here who might be reporting back to him.”
“Mario,” I said as I sat back down in the chair. “So do you think this whole thing was a set-up to see if he could trust me? Jesus Christ, he really is a piece of work.”
“I don’t know. I mean, he must trust you on some level or he would have already come back. I just find his behavior odd on this one. I guess it makes sense in the grand scheme of things, but what I really don’t understand is why you’re doing this. She’s just a girl, Adrian. Why are you risking your standing in this family and your reputation just to harbor a girl you can’t even bring yourself to fuck? Never mind, I already know the answer. You’re in love,” he said as he rolled his eyes.
He was right. I was in love with her and I was terrified that I couldn’t have the one thing in this world that meant anything to me. That meant everything to me.
“I need to get back to work, Lucas. Is there anything else you want?” I asked as I turned my chair away from him.
“Whether you believe it or not, I’m still on your side, Adrian. I’d like you to stay in the business. Don’t fuck it up,” I heard him say behind me. His footsteps echoed off the walls of the empty hallway as he walked away, then a door open and close in the distance.
Adrian
“What are your plans for today?” I asked Brooklyn as I watched her eat the last of her eggs and toast. “Are you still working on that latest design that you and Gina talked about?”
I didn’t want her to know that I was starting to feel a little nervous about my father and how infuriated I was that I was having to sneak her around in my own house. It had been a couple of weeks and I hadn’t heard a thing from my father, but the closer it got to getting her out of there the more I imagined how perfect it would be if I could just leave with her. I just hoped it would work out that way.
“Yeah, it’s really fabulous, Adrian. I feel like she really gets me and appreciates my input. It’s like everything we do is almost in sync. I still can’t believe that I’m working with her. Thank you so much for setting it up, Adrian. I don’t really understand why you did it but I want you to know that I really appreciate it,” she said as she looked down at her plate.
I was dumbfounded. How could she not know why I would do just about anything for her? If Lucas said I was so transparent why didn’t she see how I felt about her. How could she not see how much I cared about her? I knew I hadn’t had much practice with this sort of thing, but I thought I had been clear about my feelings.
Besides, setting up the meeting with Gina wasn’t even a big deal. I made a phone call to a friend and it was done. But even if she hadn’t been a friend I wouldn’t have had a hard time setting up the meeting. No one ever said no to my family.
“Like I said, I looked at your designs online and I thought they were fabulous. You really do have an eye for distinctive styles and I’m obviously not the only one that thinks so. I think all the ultra-rich-bitch wives will eat your stuff up.”
“But … ” She fidgeted with her napkin and stared at her hands and I could tell she was nervous about what she was about to say. “I mean … I’m just here … hanging out in your house. I don’t know what’s going to happen, Adrian. I have no idea where I’m going to be six months from now let alone tomorrow.
I’m so touched that you like my designs. It means a lot to me,” she said with a sweet smile. “But what good is meeting with Gina and arranging to work with her if I don’t know whether I’m going to be sold off to …”
“You won’t be sold off to anyone, Brooklyn. I told you …”
“But do you know what’s going on with your father? I would feel so much better if I knew what was happening. I’m afraid that he’s going to show up here any day with Lucas and drag me off. Every day I spend up in that room working on designs it makes me more and more sad thinking that I might not actually be able to see them come to life. That I might be trapped in someone’s house somewhere in a country where I don’t even speak the language. I’m terrified, Adrian. I want to trust you. I want to believe that you are going to get me out of here, but I’m afraid that your father is going to get his way somehow.”
“He won’t, Brooklyn. I won’t let him.”
“You say that but you don’t give me any reason to believe you. Why am I so special? Why would you go against your father and help me when you’d be putting your own life in danger?”
I looked down at my plate and stared at it for a minute. Every fiber of my being wanted to say the words that had been floating around in my mind ever since she got here. I wanted to tell Brooklyn how I felt about her but as terrified as she was about being held captive here I was pretty sure I had her beat. I was paraly
zed with fear over my feelings for her.
But the longer I sat there and watched her twist her napkin with those sad, pleading eyes, the more I realized that I had absolutely nothing to lose. I didn’t want to be here anymore. I didn’t want to work for my father anymore. I’d wanted to leave this business for a while now but I forced myself to continue with the training and this lifestyle because it was all I knew and because I was the oldest son. But now I just wanted out and I wanted Brooklyn with me.
“Because … I’m in love with you, Brooklyn.”
The silence in the room was deafening. I could only imagine what she was thinking while she sat across the table from me. That I was a disgusting excuse for a human being and that I deserved to rot in hell for all the pain I’d been responsible for. I picked my napkin up off my lap and started to stand up to leave when I heard her voice barely above a whisper.
“Adrian …”
I looked up and saw that there were tears running down her cheeks but her eyes weren’t sad or scared. They were sparkling and starry like I remembered them from that summer with her on the beach.
“I love you too, Adrian.”
I got up and walked around the table and as I got close to her she stood up. Her hands were shaking as she touched them to my shoulders and then move them up so that they were on either side of my head.
I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into me so that our bodies were pressed together, then I slowly leaned down and gently touched my lips to hers. The kiss started out soft and tender but then grew in intensity as my tongue parted her lips and I pressed every part of my body even harder into hers. I had never felt anything remotely like this in my life. I was turned on, yes. Brooklyn was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen in my life. But, there was something more.
A feeling in my head like the room was spinning and Brooklyn and I were suspended in time. A warm rush of energy that overwhelmed my senses and gave me the impression that Brooklyn and I were the only beings that existed on the planet. I felt her body melting into mine and everywhere she touched me the feeling of magically warm tingles intensified.