His Sister's Return

by Mary Goldberger

  He checked on Alina again before he decided to make himself comfortable before eating although he contemplated waking up Alina, but remembering her pallor the day before decided against it.

  He took a quick shower and came out in his robe where he grabbed a pair of boxers and cotton bottoms. He changed in the bathroom before coming out to begin eating as the movie he chose started to play. He made himself comfortable next to Alina on the bed as he ate and when Alina turned on to her side he glanced down at her brushing back a strand of hair before refocusing back on the movie.

  Two hours later, Alina blinked open blurry eyes her cheek resting against warm skin and she tilted her head to look at the sleeping face of the man in bed with her. She yawned before she eased herself out of bed noting the cart although food didn’t appeal to her as she went to the bathroom before returning to bed.

  She crawled back in the same position resting her cheek back against Trystan as he curled his arm around her waist bringing her closer, and Alina closed her eyes letting sleep claim her again.

  Trystan opened his eyes as she let her hand rest on his chest before he smiled as his body relaxed which had tensed up when she moved away from him to go to the bathroom.

  He raised his other hand to rest against the hand on his chest before his eyes drifted closed and he went back to sleep himself.

  Chapter 15

  The next few days went by fast, but both Alina and Trystan had a great time together as Trystan extended their stay a little longer. Trystan took Alina to the first hotel that his aunt had built and Alina loved it. She walked around a thoughtful look on her face as he told her, “My aunt had it closed down a few years ago because as you can see it needs some remodeling.”

  “It is only two floors,” Alina stated in astonishment as they went upstairs and Trystan cautioned her to be careful.

  He explained as they made their way around, “My aunt said it was her first design for a bed & breakfast.”

  Alina nodded her head as plans began to form in her head as she looked around.

  “Have you thought about selling it?” Alain asked walking around one of the rooms.

  Trystan gave her a searching narrowed look before he told her honestly, “My aunt has talked about it but I haven’t heard about anything coming from it.”

  They looked around some more before Trystan decided it was time to go and Alina didn’t argue as they walked out.

  Her mind was already rearranging some rooms in the old B&B wondering if she could somehow make it work again, and if she could do something other than managing restaurants.

  On the way back to the hotel, she was quiet as her mind settled on the idea of trying to run and manage something other than a restaurant when Trystan interrupted her thoughts.

  “You are quiet,” he remarked as they turned in the hotel parking lot.

  “Toying with an idea,” she told him absently missing the look he gave her as they started inside.

  As was normal in the last few days, Trystan had his arm around Alina’s waist as they headed for the elevator when suddenly he was called by the front desk.

  “Go on up to the room, Alina,” he told her giving her a light kiss.

  She nodded her head as they parted and once in their room, Alina pulled out a sketch pad that she seemed to carry with her as she began to sketch the old B&B they visited early that day.

  About an hour later, she looked down at what she had done and bit her lip.

  “It’s a crazy idea,” she said aloud as the door opened.

  Alina quickly flipped the pad closed as Trystan came in the room and she frowned at the look on his face.

  “Trystan, is something wrong?” She asked putting the pad to the side.

  He looked at her with haunted eyes before they hardened with an accusation that Alina didn’t understand as he told her coldly, “Nothing you need to worry about as it a family matter, but we need to leave. I have already booked us a flight leaving this evening.”

  He started packing without glancing at her or he would’ve seen how Alina’s face paled at his words but her voice was calm as she replied, “Of course.”

  She started packing the few things she had brought with her finishing a few seconds behind him as she put her ‘professional’ look on the one she used when she didn’t want people to know what she was truly thinking.

  She kept remembering the look in his eyes as if she was to blame for what happened and she didn’t understand it, but it made things more clear in her mind. She knew that there was a motive behind Trystan’s sudden intrusion in her life and although she still didn’t know the why yet, it seems that Trystan came in her life for the purpose of seducing her and making her fall in love with him. Her face was a blank mask as they walked out of the hotel not even thirty minutes later and Trystan glanced over at her once a slight frown on his face but he didn’t say a word as they headed for the airport.

  Both were quiet as the plane touched down around midnight in Witt and as they headed for the parking lot, Trystan said emotionless, “I will drop you off at the hotel.”

  Alina felt like arguing for a second before she reminded herself that Trystan didn’t want her involved in his personal life so she just nodded her head staring out the passenger window.

  As like once before the minute they pulled up and Alina exited the vehicle with her small bag, Trystan took off.

  The mask Alina had adopted in Deluna broke for a second as her eyes filled with tears before she blinked them away and she forced herself to give a small smile as she entered the hotel her eyes shielded by her lashes as she headed for the elevator only to be stopped by the front desk clerk.

  “Miss Barks,” the woman called out to her with a slight frown on her face. “Mr. Blairson has been trying to reach you.”

  A frown crossed Alina’s face her lashes coming up to reveal worried eyes as she hurried over and asked, “Did he leave a message?”

  “Only for you to call him when you returned,” she was told.

  Alina nodded her head in ‘thank you’ as she pulled her cell out of her pocket before switching it on wondering why Sam would be calling her especially as he was supposed to be on vacation with Marla.

  The frown on her face deepened as she saw the missed calls and messages that Sam had left her before she dialed his number.

  “Alina,” he said before she could even say hello. “Marla was attacked on her way home from work yesterday evening.”

  Alina went white as she turned on her heel and rushing out of the hotel as she asked, “What hospital was she admitted?”

  She reached her car and unlocked the door after going through her bag to find the keys. She threw the bag in the passenger seat as she climbed in and slammed the door shut.

  Sam told her as she started the car as he reminded her, “When you get here, Alina, give me a call.”

  Alina knew why, but she gave her word before hanging up and driving out of the parking lot heading for the hospital. She was confused at what happened because according to what she understood, Marla and Samuel weren’t supposed to back until the end of next week.

  When she reached the hospital twenty minutes later, she realized that she didn’t know Marla’s last name and she cursed under her breath as she rushed inside after parking the car.

  She smiled when she reached the front desk and the woman looked up at her with a polite smile, “May I help you?”

  “I am here to see my brother’s fiancée but I don’t know her last name. My brother’s name is Samuel Blairson,” Alina admitted.

  The woman gave her a questioning look before she checked something on her computer and her expression cleared as she said, “It seems Mr. Blairson had already informed someone that you would be arriving and to give you access to the information. Miss Tyeson is on the third floor, room 311.”

  Alina nodded her head before the name clicked and she stilled as she asked slowly, “Marla Tyeson?”

  “Yes, that is correct,” the woman said before so
meone else claimed her attention and with an ‘excuse me’ she turned to them.

  “Thank you,” Alina said before she walked away heading for the elevator as her brain finally started putting the puzzle together and tears formed in her eyes as she muttered, “So that is why he got close to me.”

  As the doors opened, she quickly made a decision and with a quick glance around, she headed for the doorway marked for the staircase. Using the stairs gave her extra time to think and at the same time she sent a short text to Sam letting him know that she was there.

  She had reached the door for the third floor and was opening the door when suddenly she stilled as she heard a hard voice say, “If I hadn’t been with that woman then maybe Marla wouldn’t be here right now.”

  “Trystan, it isn’t your fault,” a sultry voice said to him as they passed by the stairway door.

  “Maybe not, but I should’ve been here instead of with her,” Trystan told her his voice angry.

  “Didn’t you say that the reason you decided to seduce her was to keep her away from Samuel for Marla?” The woman said, and Alina’s hand tightened on the cell phone in her hand, as she continued. “You were only helping her as Marla asked you to do.”

  Trystan scowled as he said, “I know” as they continued on down the hallway unaware of the staircase doorway closing quietly as Alina leaned against it her eyes closed as tears slipped down her cheeks.

  For five minutes, Alina didn’t move a muscle until her phone beeped indicating a message and after she read it, she sent one back to her brother telling him where she was at.

  A few minutes later, Samuel walked in the stairway meeting Alina’s blank eyes as she got up from the stairs asking, “How is she, Sam?”

  “She is going to be all right,” he told her running a hand through his hair eyes worried and angry at what happened that he didn’t notice the blankness or the unshed tears in his sister’s eyes. “She was lucky that someone was driving by at the right time.”

  Alina saw the worry and anger reflected in her brother’s so she made her voice light and calm as she asked, “So her name is Marla Tyeson, eh? You never got around to telling me her last night and this is how I learn it.”

  “Yes,” Sam said glancing up at her and seeing the slight smile on her face. “I guess I never really thought her last name was important as it would be changing soon.”

  Alina shook her head a slight chuckle escaping from her lips but she didn’t comment on the error of that statement at the moment as she told him, “Go back and be with your fiancée.”

  Samuel nodded his head as Alina put a hand on his arm and gave him a light supportive squeeze before she told him, “As for her attacker, don’t worry it won’t happen again. I will make sure of it.”

  Sam gave her a steady stare but Alina only smiled squeezed his arm again before she turned and headed back down the stairs only to stop.

  She turned and looked over her shoulder as she asked, “Why did you come back early from your vacation, Sam?”

  “Oh, Marla got a call from her assistant about some order mess-up and as one of the orders belong to a long-standing customer, Marla couldn’t ignore it,” Sam told her, and Alina nodded her head a thoughtful look on her face as she turned back around and continued down the stairs.

  Sam watched her until she was out of sight before he sighed and went back to Marla’s room with a slight frown wondering what Alina had in mind as he thought about her words.

  “Where the hell have you’ve been?” Trystan asked harshly as he reentered the room and walked over to pick up Marla’s hand.

  “I was talking to someone,” he told him truthfully as he sat down on the edge of Marla’s bed watching her sleeping unaware of the hard look Trystan was giving him.

  His father standing near the window frowned as he noticed it and turned thinking about his son’s words, and Trystan’s reaction to it as he glanced out the window

  He sighed and was about to turn back to the people in the room as he glanced down before suddenly he froze. He watched as a young woman walked confidently across the parking lot to a car and his eyes narrowed as she passed underneath one of the lights in the parking lot, and he gasped as she tilted her head slightly before climbing in her car.

  “Alina,” he mouthed trying to see her face fully but she drove away before he could and he turned around quickly to look at his son as he sat on Marla’s bed holding her hand.

  Sam felt his father’s eyes on him and glanced over seeing his narrowed look, and he could read a question in his father’s eyes but all Trace said was, “Samuel, we need to talk once Marla is okay and released from the hospital.”

  Sam frowned but nodded his head turning his attention back to Marla as Bea smirked in the chair were she sat while Trystan clenched his hands in tight fists.

  Back at the hotel, Alina packed up her remaining things as she made a phone call.

  “Uncle Sarette,” she began when he answered. “Did you learn anything new?”

  Uncle Sarette was silent for a second before he told her gravely, “I did, but you are not going to like it.”

  Alina chuckled dryly as she said, “Today hasn’t been my day for hearing anything good so why don’t we make it worse?”

  On the other end of the phone, her uncle frowned at her words before he began to tell her what he had learned.

  Alina listened without interruption and Uncle Sarette finished with, “Your father gave me a call yesterday,” not mentioning the call from a few days ago when he asked where she was, “It seems that one of his employees disappeared and he wanted me to see if I could help find her.”

  Alina zipped her last piece of luggage as she guessed, “Miss Roberta Nels.”

  “Yes,” he said. “I checked the flight she was scheduled for, but she never got on although from what I understand, her luggage did.”

  “So that means she still at the airport,” Alina told him slipping on her jacket with ease while talking on the phone.

  Uncle Sarette nodded his head as he told her, “I was thinking the same thing so I called airport security and told them a woman was missing and her last known location was their airport.”

  Alina sat on the edge of the bed as her hotel phone rung but she ignored it as she said, “What do you think happened, Uncle?”

  “Alina,” her uncle said before he sighed. “I have a bad feeling that this isn’t a case of her disappearing on her own free will.”

  He heard the hotel phone ring again and he frowned as Alina allowed it ring as she said, “I’m getting the same bad feeling and I hope like hell that it is just my overactive imagination.”

  He didn’t comment about her statement as he asked quietly, “Alina, what has happened?”

  Alina hesitated only briefly before she began, “Marla was attacked leaving her work yesterday evening…”

  She didn’t hold anything back as she told him about finding out about Trystan and what she learned at the hospital.

  “Alina, he could truly have feelings for you,” her uncle argued although there was a note of anger in his voice.

  Alina thought about it for a moment before she told him softly, “No, I don’t think so, Uncle Sarette. My first night here he saw me with Sam and he immediately gave me a charming smile the kind a man gives a woman when he wants to seduce her, but his eyes…” she stopped for a second. “They were cold with anger although I didn’t remember that at the time. No, the only feelings he has for me are anger that I was with his sister’s fiancé and resentment that he was with me when she was attacked. Everything he has done up until now was to draw me away from Sam.”

  Marla stood up suddenly and went to the window looking out as her brows pulled together in a frown.

  “Uncle Sarette, I need you to do something for me,” she began slowly, and he frowned as he listened to what Alina wanted to do.

  For the next week, Alina put her plan in motion especially as Trystan had disappeared altogether from her life. She kept in contact with S
am about how Marla was doing not mentioning what she was planning to do until Marla left the hospital.

  “Sam,” Alina said when he called her that evening of Marla’s release after seeing her home, “how fast do you think you can pull together a small wedding?”

  Samuel frowned at her words as he said slowly unaware that his father had stepped in the room.

  “Probably a month,” he told her before his father grabbed his shoulder startling him.

  The look Trace gave him told Samuel he knew who he was talking to as Trace took the phone from Samuel’s hand and turned on the speaker phone.

  “Not soon enough,” he heard Alina say and Samuel watched as their father’s eyes brightened at the sound of her voice. “Get dad to help you, but I want you and Marla to find a way to get married by the end of this weekend. I’ve already made a few phone calls and they will be contacting you soon.”

  “Alina, why are you rushing us?” He asked his mouth in a straight line at his sister’s attitude.

  “Sam,” Alina said on a sigh. “You and I both know the attack on Marla was no accident. I have already set in motion some things that will back lash on you if you don’t get your ass in gear.”

  “Alina, what did you do?” Samuel asked a hint of fear in his eyes although his voice was calm.

  “I will be leaving town tomorrow evening, and no you don’t need to know where I’m going,” she told him. “I have made sure that certain individuals will hear that you will be joining me shortly once you are certain Marla is fine.”

  “You want Marla and me to get married while she is focused on you,” Samuel said looking up at his father whose face showed his own understanding and worry.

  “I wouldn’t suggest moving the wedding except for the simple fact, Marla doesn’t know that I’m your sister so when she hears the news although it is meant to draw out another, she will be hurt and confused,” Alina told him. “By having the wedding while I’m away, it can be seen as you were stringing me along but do me one favor and try to keep it between the families. In order for this plan to work, the woman stalking you needs to believe that you will be joining me soon.”