by Moore,Mary B
“No, Luke. We need to make it shorter and it needs to be dark. Statistically speaking, dark hair will help you blend in and not be so…conspicuous.”
I heard a little giggle behind me and turned around to look at Isla, who was now biting her lip trying not to laugh harder. I guess my expression was too much, because she lost the fight and started laughing so hard she snorted - one of my favorite things about her. You knew when she found something really funny because she couldn’t stop the snorts. This sadly worked against me on this occasion because any anger I was feeling left me as I listened to the sound of Wilbur coming from the woman I loved.
“You ruin it and I’ll kill you,” I warned. Baz looked behind me and one of his guys stepped up with a bag in his hand. “You know what the fuck you’re doing?”
“Yes, Sir.” “Okay then, fuck it up and I’ll kill you, too!”
Isla was still laughing as I walked past her, but she still managed to get out a parting shot. “Don’t forget his eyebrows!” Little traitor, but at least she wasn’t so tense around me.
Chapter
SEVEN
Isla
We’d arrived on Gili Air after twelve hours of travelling. Luke’s security chief had logged an incorrect manifest for their company jet, which was flying to Manilla and then on to Tokyo. We were flying under our new names to Jakarta, then on to Lombok, and then the final leg of our journey - getting a boat across to Air. The IV had finally been removed from my hand for the flights, but I had medication that Doctor Lo had told me to take to stop the nausea. Thankfully, I hadn’t had to take any yet, even though the boat trip across almost had me tossing my cookies to the fish, but I made it. I know they say that there are safe medications to take while you were pregnant, but I was scared. So much had happened to me that the possibility of my one slice of heaven being taken away was terrifying me. I had no option but to trust Luke to keep us safe, and while I may not trust him with my heart, I did trust him with our safety.
Our new home was a seriously cool cottage that I fell in love with as we pulled up to it. It had been built to look, what I would think would be, ‘traditional’ and was right on the beach. The inside was beautiful and I walked back outside to take photos to show to Maya so she could see when I got back to Piersville or was allowed to send them; she so had to come here! Our phones had been taken away by Baz before we left Singapore. He’d told us that the guy called Guntur, who had met us at Changi Airport with the rest of his team, would be giving us temporary phones while we were here but we were very restricted on their use. I couldn’t just call Gram or my friends for a chat when I felt like it. We had to keep conversations brief and give away no details of our location, just in case.
The plan was that Guntur and his team would be around us at all times, but that they would also blend in with everyone else so that no attention was drawn to us. I kept this running through my head because it was in my nature to wave and talk to someone I knew, and I obviously couldn’t do it with them. I didn’t feel safe here right now, but the added security helped and I wasn’t going to do anything to put us at risk.
Turning to look at Luke, I burst out laughing again at his new hairdo. Baz’s man had dyed it a really dark brown, cut the sides down, and styled the top into an almost quiff; he just looked so different and miserable. Luke wasn't a bright blonde, it was a medium tone, but the dark brown was going to take a lot of getting used to. He was still walking with a limp, and I figured it would be a while before that went away. Was he even meant to have traveled as much as he had?
“Cut it out!”
“I can’t, it just looks so…so…” I lost the fight and started snort laughing again.
“The betrayal cuts deep,” he grumbled as he walked around the place. Luke was always so serious, but there were moments where he would lighten up and became one of the funniest people that I’d ever met. Few people got to see that side of him though and it was a crying shame.
I still couldn’t relax around him and the way that I was thinking was worrying me, so I walked outside and saw a hammock and kicked my shoes off to get into it. I loved hammocks; my Gram had one in her garden and I used to spend hours in it just to avoid going home to face Calista and Jodie. Making sure I didn’t go ass over tit, I held onto the edge and carefully laid back. I don't think I’d ever been somewhere so peaceful in my life.
Now that I knew that I was pregnant, I couldn’t stop putting my hand on my stomach; it was becoming an obsession for me. What had added to my excitement was that Luke had pointed out earlier that I had a baby bump. I hadn’t noticed it until I’d looked down as I was having the scan in the hospital and now it was a magnet for my hand. Guntur had booked me a scan in two weeks time in Lombok. and I was hoping I could pick up some Balinese baby things. This was dangerous thinking for me, because now I was thinking about what baby stuff I needed to get when we got back to Piersville and what room in my house I was going to put them in. Maybe I should be dwelling on the fact that someone had planted bombs in my car and Luke’s house, but thinking about it, I did feel safe here. In fact, I felt safe with him. He’d told me that he’d never let anyone hurt me and I believed him. It still worried me what had happened, but for this moment, we were all safe.
I could hear Luke talking on the phone inside the cottage as the hammock gently rocked with the breeze.
“He did what?” His raised voice made me sit up and almost fall out of the hammock. What had happened now? “A fucking unicorn? Why?”
Suddenly, a laugh I’d never heard from Luke came booming out of the cottage and I saw him laughing so hard that his entire body was shaking, which wasn’t what I’d expected to happen. Seeing him looking so carefree, settled something inside me. What it was I didn’t know, but there was a peace where there hadn’t been one before.
Luke
I had phoned Ren to see if Mace had discovered anything yet. The guy had gone off the grid and was working with his old Marine buddies to try and find out who the fuck was doing all this shit. That was three experienced teams that we had working on this, and, so far, we’d come up with nothing.
Who the fuck was this guy?
“So man, there he is, apparently, swinging his dick in circles and yelling about being a windmill. He see’s poor Ebru and…” he broke off laughing and choking. “Then he’s pointing his dick at her saying he’s a unicorn!”
I couldn’t remember the last time I laughed as hard as I was right now as he told me about Tony and Cole yelling about his ‘magical horn’ then chasing after Ebru. It was hard to believe, but a fucking relief. Since he’d been so close to Isla’s car when it exploded. And he’d got away with bad bruises and a concussion. Maybe it would knock some sense into him?
That thought sobered me up a bit and I sat down and asked the question that no one had been able to answer yet. “How’s Cooper man?”
Ren stopped laughing and went silent for a second. “The last I heard, he’s not good. He has some burns on him, as well as internal injuries. Coleman is going to find out more for us, but right now we don’t know his status. What the fuck Luke - bombs? What the fuck did we do to deserve this?”
“That’s the million-dollar question, but what I can tell you is that when they are found, I will make sure that they pay for what they tried to do.”
“You’re gonna have to get in line dude, there’s a long list of us who want to do that, too.”
Agreeing to talk in a couple of days, I hung up the phone and made the call that I’d been desperate to make since the day before when I’d found out that Isla was pregnant. We hadn’t had a chance to tell anyone yet apart from Dad, and I needed to share this with everyone.
Dialing my parents’ number, I held my breath as it rang in my ear. One of Coleman’s team, who’d been assigned to my folks, answered the phone and then passed it over to my mom.
“Luke, oh my God! I’m so glad you called. How are you? Where are you?” She babbled out in a rush.
“We can’t tell you right now, Ma, b
ut I’ve got some news for you. Is Dad around, too?” I know he already knew, but if Mom found that out, there would be hell to pay and Dad tended to bend over backwards to make sure that that never happened, so we would have to make this play.
She fumbled about trying to put the phone on speaker until Dad eventually grabbed it and did it for her. Technology and my mom were not a match made in heaven.
“Okay, sweetie, go ahead!”
“Isla’s pregnant…” I just managed to finish the end of the word pregnant before Mom started screaming and crying while Dad tried to calm her down. I listened to the sobs and her wailing about being a Grandma until she settled slightly and then added the rest. “With twins…”
Making myself comfortable with a big smile on my face I listened to her cry, knowing how happy she was, and waited for Dad to calm her down again. If I could get Isla to trust me again, to accept how much I loved her, then this would be us in around thirty years time; I couldn’t wait!
“I think she’s semi settled now, son,” Dad said. “Congratulations to both of you…” Mom grabbed the phone back from him and took over.
“How far along is she? How is she feeling? Have you said sorry yet? When is she due? Are you looking after her?” Answering the questions one by one as patiently as I could, I looked over toward the hammock where she’d been lying and saw her standing inside the door looking worriedly at me. I know she was scared that people would think that she’d done it on purpose, but hopefully hearing my Mom’s excitement would help her see that that just wasn’t the case with my family so I put it on speakerphone, too.
As Mom went on and on talking about going baby shopping and finding Isla the best OBGYN in the area, I saw Isla relax and the beginning of a smile on her face as she took more steps toward me. When she was close enough, I reached out and gently moved her onto my lap and rubbed her back to try and get rid of the tension that I could feel in it.
“Ma, Isla’s here. Why don’t you ask her?” She tensed again on my lap until Mom started her crying and babbling and Isla joined her; maybe this hadn’t been my best idea? I hated it when Isla cried because I knew what she went through at home when she was younger and not once did she breakdown. She’d just taken it and carried on, so when she cried you knew it was something that was hitting her hard.
After a couple more minutes of them bawling and chattering back and forth, Dad took the phone back from Mom.
“Luke, take me off speakerphone.”
Isla stood up and went in the direction of the bathroom as I did it. I almost missed what he was saying as I watched her walk away from me. Everything about Isla turned me on including her new baby bump, but watching her ass sway as she walked was making it difficult to pay attention.
“Luke!” Dad snapped.
“Sorry, Dad, what were you saying?”
“Your safe was fire proof, so I have the contents here. The necklace was given to a guy of Coleman’s who is flying out to Singapore to meet with Baz.” At this rate Coleman wouldn’t have any of his team left. Poor bastard had guys going out left right and center.
“Thanks, Dad, I appreciate that. Have they found out anything on the bombs yet?”
“Coleman’s bomb expert found what he thinks is the device that caused it, but they’d also turned the gas on so that it looked like a gas leak.” I could hear the frustration in his voice and knew just what he was feeling.
“And Isla’s car?”
“A detonator was attached to the ignition. Once the ignition was turned on, it tripped the bomb. It’s a fucking miracle that Cole got out of there with only the injuries that he did. Cooper, too!”
“How is he?” No one had been able to tell us anything about his condition and I really needed to know that he was okay.
“He’s alive son, that’s what counts. Coleman has all the details now, so I’ll call you when I get an update from him.”
“Who’s doing it, Dad? What the fuck have we done to deserve this bullshit? I mean, what if Isla had gone into my house first? Or been in the car?” My hands were shaking again and the tightness that I got in my chest when it came to her safety was almost overwhelming.
“She wasn’t, Luke, so don’t think like that. We don’t know who and why, but we’ll find out. For now, look after that beautiful girl of yours and those precious babies. I’m so proud of you, son, congratulations.” He choked at the end of the sentence and almost had me choking up with him.
After talking a bit more and some warnings from Mom about looking after Isla, I hung up and went to go and find her to see if she wanted to phone her Gram or one of the three stooges. She wasn’t anywhere in the cottage and I started to panic. Rushing out of the house as fast as I could with the pain in my leg, I ran into one of Guntur’s men, who was pretending to walk along the pathway that went the length of the beach.
“Isla’s missing! We need to find her.” I whispered.
“She’s there, Sir,” he said pointing towards the beach where I could see Isla standing with her feet just in the sea, watching the sun set.
Walking up behind her, I put my arms around her and put my face in her neck. “You scared the shit out of me.”
I wasn’t sure where we stood, but fuck if I could stop touching her. I needed to feel her and to hold her, she grounded me; in fact, she always had.
“I’m sorry, I saw it getting darker and wanted to watch this. Apparently sunsets in Indonesia are beautiful.”
I looked over her shoulder and saw that her hand was back on her baby bump and put my hand on top of it. This was how I got my peace; standing watching the sunset on a beach in Bali, with my world under my fingertips.
Isla
At dinner that night, Luke asked the question that I’d been dreading. “So, when do you want to call your Dad and tell him about the babies?”
I’d thought about this quite a lot since I’d found out that I was pregnant and the more I’d thought about it the more adamant I was that I wasn’t going to tell him. Quite frankly, he wouldn’t give a shit and Calista and Jodie would just crap on the news, and I refused to give them that power. I knew he was back in Piersville for a while because of the issues on sites and George had called a strategy meeting. In fact, Dad had tried to contact me in Singapore, I guess I’d made the right grade for him to acknowledge me, but I’d ignored him. I couldn’t care less about them all, just like he hadn’t cared about me when he’d had an affair with Jodie. Mom had moved away and was then killed by a drunk driver, so he would never be anything to me again and hadn’t been since the day Gram took me in after finding me sitting in the snow in a pair of shorts and a tank, thanks to Calista and Jodie.
Shrugging, I pushed what was left on my plate around with my fork while I tried to think of an excuse of why I wasn’t going to tell them. Granted, it wasn’t a secret how they had all treated me, but it was a secret how it had made me feel.
“Maybe when I get back to Piersville? I really hadn’t thought about it.”
Luke sat back in his chair and watched me. He always had a way of making you think that he saw and knew everything so I made sure that my face was blank and looked back at him.
When he lifted his hand to rub his bottom lip with his finger, an action that I knew from experience meant that he was reading the person, which made me nervous, I couldn’t help watching his finger move. He’d kissed me a couple of times today, but they had been gentle and brief and I really wanted one of his kisses which irritated me. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about us being an us and if I’d ever be able to trust him again.
“You’re not going to tell them are you?” The question snapped me out of my fog and I made the mistake of looking him right in the eye and letting him see that he’d read the situation correctly. “You’re scared about what they’ll say about the babies and you.”
Shrugging a shoulder again, I reached for my glass of water so that he wouldn’t see me fidgeting, which was one of my tells. “I really don’t know, Luke. As I said, I haven’t
really thought about it. In any case, it’s not like we’re actually close,” or that they give a shit about me, “so why would they want to hear the news?”
“Maybe because they’re family?” That question had me going from cold to boiling. They weren’t my family; they never had been.
“You know better than that, Luke,” I was whispering now because regardless of how much I despised him, my Dad was still my Dad and part of me still wanted him to care about me and give a shit about what happened to me. “Has he even called to see if I’m okay after my car exploded?”
Luke’s face went stony. Apparently he hadn’t thought of that.
“In any case, it’s not like it matters. The people who need to know will know and that’s what’s important. I don’t need them in my life, I never have.” I made sure to stop there to let him know that the conversation on this topic was over; I was done.
“I wonder who Mom has told already?” Luke mused.
“Most likely everyone,” I burst out laughing because that was probably putting it mildly. Colette had been so excited by the news and making so many plans that I didn’t doubt that as soon as we hung up, she’d been on the phone spreading the news. Gram was gonna kill me for not telling her myself, and I bet Johnny, Reed, and Caleb would be planning Luke’s castration. Baz had called when Luke found me on the beach earlier and had explained that right now only the secure lines could be called and that they would be setting them up for Gram and the boys.
“Isla,” Luke took a deep breath in and looked up at me. “We need to talk about us. I need to explain it all fully to you, would you let me do that?”
I’d been dreading this topic also, and right now, I just didn’t know that I could face it either. “Luke, I need time still. What you did with Kendal hurt. You may have thought that it was for business reasons, but how would you feel if you had been in my situation and had all of those photographs shoved in your face. Knowing that you’d stayed home waiting for me to call or give you five minutes of my time while having no idea that I was out dining and socializing. And passing off someone else as my boyfriend?” I was going to cry, I was sure of it, and that really got to me because I didn’t cry and just now it was all that I seemed to be doing. It must be the damn hormones. “I just don’t know if I can let myself get hurt again. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, but fooling me a third time…” I couldn’t finish that thought.