Instead, I push Evan down against the bed, and his hands settle on my hips then drift down to my ass.
“Are you sure?” he asks between kisses.
“That you want to wait?” he finishes.
“No,” I murmur against his lips.
Evan pins me back down against the bed, and I’m breathless.
Instead, I wrap my legs around his waist as Evan’s hands move underneath my shirt, under my bra.
“Ev,” I moan lightly, as his finger caress my nipples.
“I want you, Leigha,” he mutters.
Off goes my shirt, and his mouth moves against my nipple.
I gasp at the warmth of his tongue swirling around the sensitive area.
“I want you,” I say, breathless once again.
“That’s all I need to hear,” Evan growls.
His kiss intensifies as he wraps his arms around me.
I cling to him like all that’s left is this, all that’s left is us.
Everything feels more comfortable with Evan; right somehow.
Deep down I know that if Evan was never in my life, some of the things that have happened to me might never have happened.
But I can’t bring myself to regret having him in my life.
We’ll fix things together.
“Evan…” Ava’s voice cuts thickly through the air.
“Oh, my God, fuck!” Ava swears.
“Jesus, Ava!” Evan snaps.
“What is it?” he asks.
I scramble for my shirt and rush to pull it back on as Ava turns around.
Evan adjusts his pants, so his boner isn’t quite as obvious.
“Um, I didn’t mean to interrupt, but there’s a little situation, you need to come quick,” Ava snickers.
Evan groans.
“What is so important…” Evan starts.
“It’s Olivia,” Ava says.
Whatever was going through my head stops stone cold, and suddenly, I’m filled with an overwhelming sense of dread.
38
Evan
April 20, 2018
“Olivia?” I question.
“Just come on,” Ava says.
She closes the door the give us a second, but I know my sister is waiting on the other side.
“You know, I’m anything but quick,” I joke to Leigha.
Her face reddens with a little blush, and I’m so tempted to just ignore my sister.
I kiss Leigha’s neck.
“Come on,” I tell her.
I get up off the bed and pull Leigha to her feet.
“I need you with me for this,” I say.
“Alright,” Leigha says.
She smoothes out her shirt and throws her hair into a messy bun, her glasses perched on top of her head.
I open the door and Ava looks worried.
We walk towards my dad’s office, and I think I know what’s going on.
“What happened?” I ask.
Tinsley is perched on my father’s desk, with Sebastian in her arms looking strained.
“Evan, tell your father you can handle this, please,” Tinsley pleads.
“I can handle it,” I say automatically.
“There’s no way I’m not going with you, since I know you’re going to insist on going yourself,” my father is stern.
“Go where?” I ask.
“Olivia has Elizabeth on the island. She called and taunted your father. It’s a trap Evan, tell your father it’s a trap and not to fall for Olivia’s games,” Tinsley pleads with me.
“I can’t do that, we need answers,” I tell her honestly.
Tinsley’s face falls, and my father squeezes her hand.
“I’ve had that island for many years. I know all the tricks. We won’t be long, my love,” he tries to comfort her.
I can tell his words have no effect on Tinsley.
When Tinsley feels like something terrible is about to happen, there’s no moving her, and she’s usually right about these things.
She’s going to be furious with me for a long time.
“It’s you Olivia wants, Dad, and if Aidan, Lucius and I show up without you, all hell might break loose. She may kill Elizabeth before we have a chance to get our questions answered,” I rationalize.
“That’s absolutely what I thought. The last thing we want to do is give Olivia more reason to do away with the only person who has the answers. I can’t let Duke Whittaker get away with this operation any longer, especially when it’s tearing my family apart,” my father explains.
“Noah, please,” Tinsley begs him.
“It’ll be perfectly safe,” Levi finally speaks.
“Between Evan, Merc and I, we will bring him back to you before it’s time for tea,” he says.
Levi is confident in his words.
Tinsley doesn’t seem appeased, but she knows when my father is about to be stubborn.
“We need a plan then, and a good one,” I say.
“And, we need to move before this storm comes in, it looks like a doozy,” Aidan adds.
“How much time do we have?” I ask.
“Two days, maximum,” Aidan responds.
Tinsley looks horrified.
It’ll take us at least a day to get to Fiji.
“We’ll make it,” I reassure Tinsley.
“You should wait,” Leigha pipes up.
“Please, Evan,” she says.
“Leigha, you know I can’t do that. Don’t you want this whole ordeal to be over?” I ask, pulling out the only ammunition I have against her reasoning.
“Lucius, call and get the jet ready. We’ll come up with a plan on the plane,” my father orders.
“Done,” Lucius says and then disappears.
Leigha looks crestfallen, and it’s only right that we have a moment alone.
I pull her out into the hallway as my father’s office descends into chaos.
“I’ll come back to you, I promise,” I tell her instantly.
“You better,” she tells me.
Then, she smacks me.
“After all this, you’re leaving me again,” Leigha accuses.
“I promise you, nothing is going to happen to me,” I tell her softly.
“Oh, Evan!” she cries.
Leigha throws herself into my arms, and we cling to each other for several minutes.
My heart is pounding so fast, and my mind is in overdrive.
I can’t believe this.
“I have to go,” I tell her.
“I know,” she says, tears in her eyes.
“Evan, I promise I’ll wait for you. I’d wait forever, you know,” she tells me.
“I should’ve begged you to wait for me before,” I say.
“I would’ve,” Leigha replies.
She has tears in her eyes, and it’s all I can do to kiss them away.
April 22, 2018
The jet feels crowded.
Merc and my father are going over the blueprints of the island.
Lucius is beside them, the tiny table crowded with surveys of the island.
Aidan just looks over their shoulder as Levi and I watch them argue back and forth.
“We have to protect him, for Tinsley,” Levi says quietly.
“I don’t think we should split up,” I admit.
“But it’s the only way to cover enough ground,” Levi reasons.
“You read my mind,” I tell Levi.
“Why would you throw yourself into this mess of a family, when you lived your whole life outside of us?” I ask him.
“Because it was the right thing to do,” Levi answers.
“I might not be like Merc, and it may not look like I’ve always done the right thing, but I’ve tried my whole life. I’m not about to bail now because it’s about to get dangerous,” Levi says.
We’re approaching the Nadi airport, and the storm swirls its way towards us, miles away but prevalent enough to have us all worried.
“We should wait out the storm, but I don�
��t think we have the time for that,” I sigh.
My mind wanders back to Leigh, and I wonder if I promised her something I couldn’t deliver.
By the time we land at the private airstrip, the storm is rolling in faster than I’m comfortable with.
But I still get in the chopper and begin my routine checks.
“It’s now or never,” my father tells me.
He sits in the co-pilot seat beside me, and I realize that we haven’t flown together in years, probably since I was a kid.
I hit a series of switches, and my father does his part, the blades begin to whir above us as Aidan, Lucius and Levi get in the chopper.
It’s military grade, and what I’m used to flying.
I’ve battled with one of these through sandstorms and worse.
I’ve landed on the deck of a carrier being battered by high-speed winds and rain, while the airline surged ahead.
I’ve saved Goddamn lives.
Why do I feel like this time I’m helpless?
“We’ve got this,” Merc tells me, a hand on my shoulder.
Then, he straps into the seat directly behind mine.
“You’re good Evan, you’re the best pilot I’ve ever had the pleasure of flying with,” Merc screams over the sound of the blades.
“I’m not sure that’s good enough,” I mutter under my breath.
We lift off and I pull the chopper higher into the air as my dad does the mandatory check to make sure we’re okay to fly.
“All good on my side,” his voice comes through the headset.
“Let’s go,” I reply.
Somewhere behind me I hear Aidan grumbling that he’d prefer not to fly and I recall he always seems tight-lipped during take-offs.
I remind myself that I’m the best, I know what I’m doing.
But, Aidan’s nerves do something to set me on edge as we speed towards my father’s island.
The sky overhead begins to turn dark on our approach as the sun sets.
I don’t mind flying at night, and it’s better for cover, but, it’ll make the storm harder to see.
Below us, the waves begin to crash against the island, larger and larger and I know if we don’t hurry to lift off after we’re finished is going to be a hell of a party.
“Going dark,” I say.
I flip a switch, and any radar wouldn’t be able to pick up the signature of the chopper if they tried.
The wind picks up, very suddenly and I’m fighting to keep the chopper steady out of nowhere.
Somewhere behind me Aidan pukes into a bucket.
Great.
The intention was to land closer to the house, but I don’t feel like pushing my luck quite yet, and we prep for landing quite far away.
The chopper touches down, and then bounces off the ground slightly, and I know I’ve come in too quickly.
My night vision sucks apparently.
On the second attempt, much gentler, like rocking a baby, I stick a perfect landing, and I hear an audible exhale come from everyone around me.
“I had that,” I snap.
“It didn’t seem like it,” Aidan tells me.
Then, he pukes again.
The initial plan is to split up and go different ways, but the house built into the hill looks so empty we’re all wondering if this was just a setup.
“We go together,” my father says.
Aidan hands me an Uzi and the metal feels cold in my hands.
Creeping towards the house is a slow process.
Instead of taking the direct path from the beach, we move through the trees and the rain begins to fall in large, fat drops before we even get close.
I’m soaked to the bone in seconds.
“At least it offers cover,” Merc reasons about the rain.
“Who cares,” I mutter beside him.
Then a branch whacks me right in the face as my father moves ahead of us, and without thinking I let off a series of shots in the direction of the branch, assuming I’m being attacked.
My face fucking stings.
“What the fuck!” Merc screams.
“Did I hit anyone?” I ask.
Everyone freezes in the brush and tangled vines.
“No,” my father says darkly.
“Someone should take that damn thing away from you,” Aidan mutters.
“Fuck,” I sigh.
We wait for any signs of movement, now that we’ve been given away, but nothing comes.
“This isn’t right, something isn’t right,” Lucius points out.
“There’s no sign of life, someone should’ve heard that,” he says.
“Unless they’re not in the house, and they’re underground,” Merc says.
Then, as if by chance or straight up dumb luck, I slip and my back slams hard into the ground, my legs going out from under me before I understand it myself.
I groan and then sit up to look around, the wind slightly knocked out of me.
“You slipped on this,” Aidan points out.
It’s a round metal plate, with a handle.
“I think we have our answer,” my father grins.
He opens what happens to be a door.
I can see lights and cement.
Definitely man-made, and here all along.
“You know, they told me this island was in use during the second world war, I believe,” my father says.
“Then, I’m betting they’ve been using this hidden facility,” Lucius says.
Lucius returns my father’s grin.
“Who’s first?” he asks.
“I’ll go,” Levi says.
Then before anyone can stop him, he’s going down the ladder, into God knows what.
39
Evan
April 22, 2018
Merc slides down the ladder once Levi calls up to us that it’s all clear.
I sit on the ground stupidly stunned as Aidan continues after them.
“We should check out the house,” Lucius tells my father.
“I highly doubt Olivia would be hiding underground,” Lucius adds.
My father nods.
“You’re right; besides, we need someone up top just in case they get locked in there somehow,” he adds.
“Stay here,” I tell my father.
He shakes his head.
“Evan come on!” Merc calls to me.
“Be careful,” I threaten.
I slide down the ladder after Aidan and land right on my ass.
“Jesus Christ, are you a woman?” Merc teases in a low voice.
“Today, apparently,” I reply, stung by the insinuation.
But it’s warranted, I’m frequently not falling all over the place.
Everything is made of crumbling cement, and the lights overhead are dim, and old.
This place hasn’t been updated since the war, probably.
My father gave no indication of what it was used for if it held prisoners or was a secret facility for world leaders in case things went nuclear.
I’m betting it was a prison facility.
The hallways are low, and we all crouch close to the ground until the hall splits in two.
“Left, or right?” Merc asks.
“Right,” I tell him.
Aidan and Levi go left as the lights flicker.
“The two amigos, back together again,” Merc jokes.
“Hey, at least it’s not sand and heat,” I joke back.
“God, I hate the desert,” Merc says with a shake of his head.
We quiet down immediately when we hear voices down the hallway, and around a corner.
This place is a fucking maze, and I can only hope that we’re going to be able to find our way out.
“Two on two?” Merc whispers low.
The voices begin to fade, footsteps indicating that the two men are walking away from us, down the hallway.
I nod.
Merc always goes left, and I go right.
At the same time, Merc and I move down t
he hallway quickly and quietly.
My arm closes around the neck of my hired gun as Merc’s does the other.
I cover his mouth and squeeze around his neck until he goes limp in my arms.
When I glance at Merc, his guard is already on the ground.
We take their guns, empty out the ammo and pocket it.
“What do we do with them?” I ask Merc.
Merc opens a nearby door.
“Come on, this is a closet, we’ll drag them in,” Merc says.
One by one we toss the unconscious guards into the closet.
Merc breaks off the outside handle to ensure that they cannot get out.
But there’s no one else around.
I don’t see cameras or anything indicating that anyone knows we’re here.
It’s suspicious.
We come down another hallway, filled with windows, and then there’s the eerie sight of what looks like a conference room.
Old flags of different countries are placed around the chairs, right in the center below a large projector sheet is a table and podium.
Nothing has been touched for decades.
Merc and I step through the glass doors, and inside the old meeting room.
“This is pretty eerie,” Merc says.
“It’s shockingly intact,” I tell him.
There’s nothing of use in here, but then I hear voices.
“Quick hide!” I whisper fiercely.
Merc and I take the stairs down to the bottom of the room and dive behind the desk, just as the first bullet flies towards us.
I hear the shattering of glass as bullets rain down on us.
The desk is flimsy, and I hear Merc grunt as he flattens himself against the ground.
With all the courage I’ve got left in me, I peek over the desk.
There must be at least ten guards, and Merc is down.
I have no choice but to hide behind the podium and start shooting.
My first two shots are gold, but the guards spread out and duck beneath the windows of the room.
I’m sweating intensely as Merc moans on the ground.
A bullet whizzes past my temple, and I hit the ground so fast my head spins.
“Fuck,” I swear.
“Evan, you need to leave me behind,” Merc grunts through the pain.
I rip off my jacket and press it against Merc’s chest wound.
Secret: A Stone Billionaire Series Novel (The Stone Billionaire Series Book 5) Page 25