Find A Way Or Make One

by Kelley, E. C.

  The pain and inner turmoil that I heard in my Darlin’ Princesses voice ripped out my heart. What the hell had happened to her? I stood there praying that Kye had not had to endure what I was beginning to think she had. I slowly started realizing that Sunny was having a heated argument. “…hell did you not set her alarm Sunny? Hell, Toby told all of us long ago that anytime she sleeps for four hours this would happen!” As I set there, I grew more and more frustrated. What the hell was wrong with my Darlin’ Princess, and what the hell did this mother fucker Toby have to do with it?

  Rubbing the back of his neck, Sunny let out a growl of frustration. “Shit Cale, with everything that happened tonight, I completely forgot. Anyway, she needs her rest.”

  “Well she sure as hell isn’t going to get any rest locked in a damn night terror, struggling to wake herself up!” With that, Cale turned to go to Kye’s room.

  “What in the ever loving hell is going on?” I implored as I grabbed Cale’s arm. He stopped, and turned to look at me.

  After taking in a deep breath, Cale just nods to the door. “Look man, tonight is not the time for this. If and when Kye wants you to know she will tell you. If you love her as much as you say you do, I won’t stand in your way. But if you ever hurt her again, there won’t be enough pieces of you left to identify your remains. Now you need to leave. Let Kye have tonight and tomorrow to heal.”

  “Fine. I don’t know if there is anything I can do to help anyway.”

  Crow looks up from his beer. “If you want to help, come to the warehouse tomorrow morning around 8:00 to fill in for Kye.”

  I nod my head. There is nothing I can do here anyway; definitely nothing that Cale will let me do anyway. Walking to the door, I simply say, “tomorrow.”

  ***

  When I walk into the hotel suite, Sable is sitting in the living area with a glass of wine, waiting for me. By the time I close the door she is right there behind me, with her arms crossed and her foot tapping. “Where in the hell have you been? Making me worry about you all night is so not making your rude behavior earlier up to me.”

  I shake my head and roll my eyes. When is this deranged bitch ever going to realize that I don’t give a fuck about her thoughts or feelings, and I damn sure am not trying to make anything up to her, “Look Sable, there has been a change of plans. You need to go to the convention tomorrow by yourself. I have other places I need to be.”

  That just makes her even more pissed. Funny, she is becoming uglier to me with every second that passes. “What? Where are you going to be?”

  Stepping around her, I walk to my room. “Getting my heart and soul back, that is where,” I toss flippantly over my shoulder.

  In no time at all, Sable has once again plastered her body to my back. “Baby, give me a chance, I can be anything and everything you need.” That causes me to let out a bark of laughter.

  As I turn around and push her away from me, I decide to tell her the brutal truth. “You could never be what I want. At best, all you could ever be is a cheap imitation.”

  10

  “You aren't helpless. Anyone as selfish and determined as you are is never helpless.”

  Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

  Sable

  Ok, now that didn’t go well at all. What does it take to get this guy? He is rich, good looking, and he doesn’t seem gay. Why in the hell isn’t he into me? He needs to be into me, and not just to validate my belief in my infallible beauty either, though it certainly won’t hurt it. No, he has to be into me, for Zan’s plan to work. We need access to his family’s shipping company. Zan is counting on me.

  I know that most people would think Zan is just using me, but that isn’t the case. Zan and I met ten years ago while I was touring South America, and we just clicked. Neither of us believed in monogamy. Hey, if you got an itch, scratch it! We had an understanding, and we both stood by it.

  If I can’t get access to Wyatt, and therefore the company, with sex what am I going to do? Shit, this has only ever happened once before with that damn prince. About eight years ago, Zan told me he wanted to grow his European reach. After picking out the country he wanted to set up shop in, he did some recon on the ruling family. He decided that having Crown Prince Christien in his pocket would smooth the way, so he sent me in to become his mistress. All I had to do was get him in bed long enough to be able to set him up. Europe’s royal families were known to do anything to save face and keep their images squeaky clean. The plan was that after I became Christien’s mistress I was to dope him up and stage some incriminating photos that portrayed his kinkiness and use them to get Christien to have his government to turn a blind eye to our operation. So of I went to England, where Christien was living, while studying at Oxford

  Evidently Zan didn’t do all the recon he needed. He didn’t know that Christien was engaged to some girl from a Middle Eastern family. I tried every which way to catch Christien’s interest and it always failed. It wasn’t until one night that Christien thundered into the bar down the street from his apartment, and got totally plastered that I got a chance.

  I made my move, and he was drunk and pissed enough to take me back to his place. The next morning couldn’t have gone any better if I had planned it all myself. I was woken up early in the morning to someone pounding at the door. Thinking it was Zan or one of his men there to take the photographs I pulled on a shirt from the floor and went to answer it.

  It wasn’t Zan or his men. It was three men, very handsome, very muscular, that looked royally pissed. They started screaming for Christien to come to the door. For a moment he looked totally confused about my presence. Then all at once the events of the night before fell into place and he just closed his eyes. One of the guys at the door walked in and hit Christien with an uppercut so hard that he passed out, and then they all left.

  I started screaming for help, and several people from surrounding apartments came to help. When they saw me most of them couldn’t believe it. One even took a picture with his phone, sold the photo to the tabloids, and there went any chance we had at using blackmail as leverage. I mean, how can you threaten to expose what everyone already knows?

  Zan was pissed that his chance at European domination was blown. He wouldn’t talk to me for months, and the press got so bad that I had to run home to my family in shame. At least I was able to spin it that Christien had cheated on me and not with me. That had earned my pity points that I used to help Zan with anyway, so it actually worked out alright.

  But what do I do about Wyatt and his stubbornness? I better call Zan. He will know what to do.

  11

  “It is better to be feared than loved.”

  Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

  Zandoville

  What in the hell is making all that noise. My hand immediately reaches for the gun is on the cheap barstool that passes as a nightstand, then I see that it is my phone that is creating the noise that woke me up. I rise from the bed, pushing the whore’s legs off of my hip. I reach down and see that it is Sable calling and I quickly told her to hold on and reach for my jeans on the floor.

  Once my jeans are on, I walk out on the balcony of the apartment and ask, “Is it safe to talk to me?” I hear Sable blow out a loud breath before she tells me that it is fine. Her cover has not been blown. Realizing that there is no immediate threat, I start to get pissed. “Then what problem, for fucks sake, has you calling me? It should be an easy enough job for mi putana favorita to handle to get a man between the sheets.”

  “Zan baby, I have tried. Up until tonight, I thought he might be gay. But after what I saw tonight, I know he is not. He is totally hooked on this girl, and even if they hadn’t been together for years, I can tell he believes he is in love with her. What do I do? “

  I let out a frustrated grown, why in the hell couldn’t this dumb whore do what I needed her to do without me fucking it all up or asking for my help. “Sable, that just makes him willing to do wha
t we want and not ask too many questions. He doesn’t want his girlfriend, wife, or whatever realizing that he is just another womanizing bastard. Keep going mi putana, he will fall into your web soon.”

  “But that’s just it Zan baby, he just found a woman that he has been searching seven years for. I don’t think he will walk away from this Kye or Kylee, or whatever the hell her name is.”

  Now that instantly has my full attention. Could it actually be Kyliana? “Who is this girl, and what did you say her name is?”

  “Zan baby, I really don’t know who she is. She is on the short side, brown hair, I couldn’t see her eyes in the club.”

  “Well I am going to go to Morocco and see what information I can find on this female. Everyone has something they are trying to hide.”

  “Thanks Zan baby, I am sorry that I had to call you, but this is the first assignment you have given me after the Christien mess. I don’t want to screw anything up.”

  “Alright Putana. I will leave tonight. Now I need to get back to entertaining my guest for the evening.”

  “Oh. Alright. I will come out to the compound tomorrow night and you can entertain me,” she giggles then hangs up her phone.

  As I look out over the city, I can barely contain my excitement. Is it really Kyliana? After I got Sable to sabotage her engagement about eight years ago, she fell completely off the radar.

  It is hard to say why I have this obsession with Kyliana. The first time I laid eyes on her twelve years ago, her strong will and indomitable spirit called out to me; begging me to crush them.

  Just sixteen years old, she showed no fear when she walked into my apartment, throwing down an envelope containing three thousand dollars to pay for her boyfriend’s coke habit. When I gave her the option of spending the night with me instead to pay for his debt, she had looked at me with so much disgust that it became my mission to bring her to her knees. I thought that I was going to finally get to do just that a year later when her now ex-boyfriend had once again fallen into debt to me again, this time a ten thousand dollar debt. When mi hermanos went to collect, he had cried like a little bitch saying he couldn’t get his hands on that kind of cash at one time.

  I told him to get it from his girlfriend again, and that is when he told me that they were no longer together. That she had thought he was out of town with family one weekend when she had walked into a party, only to find him fucking some girl in the bedroom. She had dumped him on the spot. I could tell that her leaving him ate at him and filled him with bitter resentment. I told him that if he could deliver her to me his debt would be paid.

  He agreed and we worked out a time and place for me collect her. When I got to the cabin we had decided to use, I found them in the bedroom; him asleep on the bed with her naked and chained, hanging from the support beam in the ceiling. I became so damn pissed that he had gotten to do what I wanted to do to her first, that I walked over and blew his brains out. When I turned around to cut her down, I realized that someone had already beaten me to it. My Lieutenant lay on the floor dead, and that the junior officer that was with us was gone as well.

  For three years I looked all over for her, but she had vanished. It wasn’t until I went to Europe to make some new contacts, that I saw her on the news. She was dating some prince and it most speculated that it wouldn’t be long until their engagement was announced.

  I sent Sable to go break them up in hopes that I would send her back to Georgia where it would be easy for me to grab her. Alas, that didn’t work out the way it should have. Once again she vanished.

  I almost feel sorry for using Sable the way that I do, but not quiet. She seems to think that we are destined to be together, and will do anything to make it happen. Hell, she even slept with a son of mine; in order to get knocked up and I would believe it was hers. When I told her that I had a vasectomy years ago, after she came to me pregnant; she broke down and told me what she had done. The bitch is crazy, but I have always been able to use it to my advantage.

  I finish putting on my clothes; drop a few twenties on the dresser and leave. Hopefully I won’t have to make do with used up old whores anymore. I will get to make a broken down whore of my very own; to my own specifications.

  12

  “All I can do is put one foot in front of the other; day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.”

  Kye

  Kye

  That is it, I have had it. I can’t take sitting around the house doing nothing. Even under normal circumstances, just sitting here by myself, doing nothing, would drive me insane. And now that I have seen Wyatt again, I can’t hide from the fact that am still in love with that utter and complete asshole. Ugh! Why am I still in love with him? He is still the no good, cheating asshole that he proved himself to be seven years ago.

  But no, Sunny has to tell me that I need to take two days minimum off to rest and recuperate. So I have been here for two days; left to sit here by myself twiddling my thumbs, look out the door, and try not to think about Wyatt. Holy snowballs in hell, I don’t even have my two youngest boys with me, because my sweet, I-am-only-thinking-of-you friend Cale has called my brother Rashid and told him what happened and gotten him to keep my two youngest boys for a few more days. So now I am supposed to sit at home alone with nothing to keep my mind occupied? I have set her on my ass for two days, and this was so not going to happen anymore.

  I got up and checked the wound on my shoulder. After changing the bandage, I quickly pulled on my jeans and t-shirt, then stuffed my clothes in a duffel bag and headed to the warehouse. Before I went into the open area we were using as training, I went to the room that had been designated as my changing area and changed into my shorts and tube top/sports bra. Taking a deep breath, I went to go help with training.

  The first one of the guys that saw me was Crow. He had a group of about ten men with him and was teaching them hand to hand combat skills. He called a halt to the training and came over to meet me before I got all the way in the training area. “Shit girl, Cale is going to blow a gasket when he sees you here. Why don’t you just go home and stay there today? I’ll talk to him tonight and see if you can come back tomorrow and start the behavior analysis with a group of recruits? I have been thinking about it and maybe doing the training on a revolving basis might not be such a bad idea.” As he said this he quickly turned me away from the center of the training area in a big hurry. This made me instantly suspicious.

  I dipped out from under the arm he had slung carefully around my shoulders. “You know Crow that just might work. Let me go talk to Cale about it so we can finalize the groupings.” I walked to the center of the training area where we had placed a boxing ring. As I got closer I saw Cale was in the middle of the ring, demonstrating a hold, on what I assumed was one of the recruits. Only as I got closer I realized that we didn’t have any recruits that were that tall. As a sense of dread started building low in my stomach, I walked closer to the ring. When I got to the edge of the ring, for some strange reason I wasn’t really surprised by who was grappling with Cale. Hell no, I wasn’t happy about it, but neither was I all that surprised. “What the fuck is going on, and why in the hell is he here?”

  Since I really wasn’t all that concerned with being lady like, I bellowed my question, and caused everyone to stop and look my way. I saw Cale slowly let go of Wyatt, and hurriedly make his way to me. “Calm down Kye, he has been helping fill in for you.”

  “No! I will NOT calm down, not at least until you tell me what is going on. And even then, if you tell me anything that ticks me off, your face and my fist are going to become besties. Just tell me, why is he here?”

  Cale makes his way until he is standing right in front of me. He is sending he hand through his head repeatedly. But that nervous twitch isn’t what gives him away. No, it is the fact that he can’t look me in the eye. I know what ever his is about to say is going to piss me off.

  “Kye, we had no choice. You need to give yourself a chance to
heal. You can’t do that constantly over extending your arm and back muscles. So we figured that you could go ahead and start with the profiling training by splitting the recruits up in teams. Each of us could work with a group until they shift to the next training session. Since you are not only our behavior analyst, but since you also help me with the hand to hand combat and weapons training, we needed someone to help. I know T and his swim buddy will be here soon, but we can’t wait until they get here. So when Fucktard offered his assistance, we knew we had to take him up on it.”

  The reasoning makes sense, but I, still being upset, am enraged me so much that it is hard to think straight. After taking a long moment to think it over, I have to agree that it makes sense, but the hell if I am going to like it. “And you guys couldn’t talk to me about it? Give me a heads up? I can’t tell what pisses me off the most; you all thinking you had to hide it from me or that I have to be anywhere near this asshole. That I have to breathe the same air as him.”

  I suddenly feel the heat from eyes that I really wish I didn’t recognize, but I did. I started walking to the door. After making it about five feet I decided to be cooperative. Without breaking stride I threw my acceptance over my shoulder. “Fine, if it makes everything run more smoothly, fine. But that Asshat better stay the hell away from me, understood?”

  I had almost made it to the door when I heard Cale call my name as he was running after me. I stopped, but didn’t turn around. “Kye! I am sorry we asked you to do this. We will figure something else out. I realize that this is just too much to ask.”

  Shaking my head, I breathed out a long drawn out sigh. “No, it will be ok. I should have thought about what I was doing before I helped Yasser.”

  “Kye, after what you told us, we all know there is no way in hell that you would have not helped him. None of us would have asked you to either.”