by Claire Adams
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
NICHOLAS
I was sitting in a bakery with my fiancée, Delia, tasting cakes for our upcoming wedding when it dawned on me that it had been two years to the day since Emma had left. I didn’t think about her as often as I used to, but some days she popped into my head and the obsession took hold of me once more, if only temporarily.
“What do you think of this one?” Delia was holding out a fork with a big bite of chocolate cake on it. I opened my mouth and she fed it to me. I honestly tried to taste a difference between that one and the four other chocolates I’d already tasted, but I just couldn’t.
“It’s good,” I said as I swallowed and reached for my water.
“Better than the others?”
I shrugged. “It’s the same as the others.”
She let out an exasperated sigh. “We only have six months until the wedding, Nick. We need to choose one today. We’re already cutting it so close.” I couldn’t help it, I laughed. “What is funny?” She was slightly stressed out about the wedding and I knew I wasn’t helping any, but honestly this just wasn’t my thing.
“I’m sorry,” I said, trying to keep a straight face. “But, babe, it’s a cake. Is it really going to take six months to make a cake?”
“They don’t just have one to make, Nicholas. Besides, we have two hundred guests coming. I hope they do think about this for months before we end up with something that will embarrass us.”
I rolled my eyes. I hadn’t wanted a wedding with two hundred guests. I hadn’t wanted a wedding at all. Hell, we lived in Vegas and there was a chapel on every corner. That would be perfect as far as I was concerned. We could have had Sal and Jessie stand up for us and been done with it. “I wish you didn’t worry so much about what people think,” I told her.
She got tears in her eyes then and said, “I just want everything to be perfect. This is the most special day of our lives. I don’t plan on ever getting married again. You’re the love of my life, Nick. I want to do this right.” I put my arm around her and pulled her in for a soft kiss.
“I’m sorry, babe. I’ll try to be more serious about it. Parties are just not my thing, you know that.”
“This is no party. This is our wedding.”
“I know, I’m sorry. I’ll do better.” I really did love Delia. She was this tiny, little thing with bright-auburn hair and dark-green eyes. The first time I met her I couldn’t help but think that she looked like a sprite.
I worried for a long time because I couldn’t re-capture that magical feeling with Delia that I had with Emma. But, I was smart enough to know that I may never have that again and to appreciate Delia for all the things I did love about her.
I kissed her again and got back to the task at hand. As I tasted cake, my mind reached back into the past and pulled up the memories of the night I first met her. It was late evening and I was on the phone with Sal as I got ready to go out. I was adjusting my tie while I talked to Sal on speaker phone.
“Jessie knows I’m not looking to be set up, right?”
I heard Sal sigh. “We all know that you’ve designated yourself a forever bachelor. That doesn’t mean we’ve agreed to go along with it.”
“You get engaged and suddenly you’re cupid. You were just fine with being a bachelor before you met Jessie.”
“That’s because I was getting a new piece of ass every week. When was the last time you got laid?”
“I’ll see you in an hour,” I told him.
“That’s what I thought, too long ago to talk about.”
“I just don’t kiss and tell. I’m a gentleman, not a pig like you.”
“Like I used to be before Jessie tamed me,” he said.
“Right.” I was glad he couldn’t see me roll my eyes. I knew he loved Jessie, but in the year they’d been together, I personally knew of three times he’d cheated. Jessie knew, too, because although Sal is a dog and maybe even a sex-addict, he has a conscience. He told her each time and each time, she took him back. I’d feel sorry for her if he was cheating behind her back. If she’s going into it willingly, that’s on her. “Anyways, I’ll see you over at the Venetian at nine.”
“Okay, man, make sure you look good. Jessie’s cousin is hot.” I ended the call, still looking in the mirror. I reached up and touched the jagged scar on my left cheek. It looked better now than it used to. They’d taken skin twice from my upper thigh to fill it in. The plastic surgeon claimed one more surgery will fix it.
I was not sure if I wanted it completely gone. It reminded me that I need to keep looking for Emma. If Miguel Esparza would do this to someone that can fight back, I didn’t want to imagine what he might do, or had already done, to her.
The day I got off a plane in New Orleans, Esparza’s men were already waiting for me. I did my best to fight them off, but it was four on one and they eventually had me stuffed into the back of a car, blindfolded, and with my hands and feet duct-taped. When they pulled off the blindfold, I was in a dirty, sleazy motel room with Esparza grinning down at me. “Welcome, Mr. Vansant. Our paths continue to cross.”
“Where is Emma?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know.”
“You’re a fucking liar.”
He laughed. “Fair enough, but you, sir, are sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong. I’d be careful with that if I were you, it might get cut off. Believe me when I tell you that your Emma is not worth all of this. She doesn’t care about you. She’s left you and she’s already headed back where she came from…where she belongs.”
“And, where is that?”
Miguel laughed. “See, you’re still doing it. I’m surprised a man in your position isn’t a faster learner.”
“If you hurt her, I am going to kill you.”
He laughed again. “You sit there tied up and make threats to me. What if I plan to kill you right now, today?”
“You’ll never get out of the country if you do. My men are on their way.”
“Your men have been detained, as well. They have no idea where you are or how to find you. Look, I don’t want to kill you. I just need you to understand that…Emma…is off limits.” He looked like he had a sour taste in his mouth as he said her name. “So, do I have your word as a gentleman that you’ll leave her alone and stop looking for her?”
“Sure.” He knew I wasn’t going to stop. This conversation was a joke. I watched as Miguel held out his hand and one of his men put a knife in it. I honestly thought he was going to kill me. My only regret would be what might happen to Emma if I never had the chance to find her.
“I hate to do this, but I’m not convinced that you don’t need a reminder.” He pressed the knife into the skin just underneath my left eye and slowly dragged it down all the way to the edge of my lips. It was a burning, searing pain unlike anything I’d ever felt and blood was pouring down the front of me. I was on the verge of passing out simply from the energy it took to keep from screaming.
“It won’t look so bad once it heals,” he commented. Then, just like that, he motioned to his men and they left. It took me close to an hour, but somehow, I managed to knock the phone off the nightstand. I used my nose to press in 911 and an ambulance and police officer were there within ten minutes.
I was in some rundown motel off the freeway, and from there, I was taken to the hospital where they stitched up my face. I spent the next two days giving interviews to the police. I told them about Miguel and about Emma.
Miguel had left the country, and I wasn’t holding out much hope he’d ever face charges. That wasn’t what I was worried about anyways; what worried me most was that another type of blood had been found in the room, too. It was fairly fresh and all they could discern from it was blood type and that it belonged to a female. I was sick thinking about what he might have done to Emma.
With another sigh, I started putting on my shoulder harness. Sal was getting married in two weeks and I was his best man. Tonight’s dinner was his and Jessie’s substitu
te for a bachelor/bachelorette party. I had a feeling it was Jessie’s way of hoping he’d remain faithful at least until the wedding.
I wasn’t excited about going, but there was no way I could beg off. I slipped on my shoes and then I opened the safe in my room and took out the gun I’d bought after my encounter with Esparza. I made sure it was loaded and the safety was on before I tucked it into the holster on the harness. I pulled my jacket on over it, took one last look in the mirror, and headed out to meet Sal and Jessie. I didn’t plan on staying any length of time and I sure as hell didn’t plan on hooking up with Jessie’s cousin.
As I drove down to the strip, I thought about Lynn. After I made it out of the hospital, she was the first person I contacted. After going on about my face and how she couldn’t believe Miguel was that violent, she finally said, “Do you think he hurt Emma?”
“They found blood in the hotel room that wasn’t mine. I hate to think so, but there was a reason she was terrified of him. Lynn, I need to know where to look for her.”
Lynn’s eyes were wide and I got the feeling she was holding something back when she said, “I don’t know where she went, Nick.”
“What about family? Does she have any that you know of?”
“No,” she said, looking at the floor.
“Lynn, keeping things from me might get Emma hurt or killed. She ran from here to get away from Miguel.”
Lynn had tears in her eyes when she said, “To get him away from us.”
“What?”
“She left because she was afraid he would hurt us to get to her.”
I felt like that knife had gone through my heart. “Why didn’t she just tell me? Who is this guy to her, Lynn?”
“She was supposed to marry him. She ran away so that she didn’t have to.”
“From where?”
“I can’t. I promised her I wouldn’t.”
“Lynn, she’s in trouble.”
“No, not if she went home. He wouldn’t dare hurt her there.”
“Lynn.”
“I can’t tell you, Nicholas; please don’t ask me again.” She was in tears. I’d never seen Lynn upset about anything before. She usually just let everything roll off her. I could tell that I wasn’t going to get anything out of her that night, so I decided to let her sleep on it and have another crack at her the next day.
That was a big mistake. When I went back to the studio the next day, she’d packed up and gone. Another woman vanished into thin air on my watch. I was batting a thousand.
I drove up to the valet parking spot in front of the Venetian. I handed the valet the keys to my Jaguar and a tip and went inside. The restaurant I was meeting them at was on the third floor. My mind drifted once again in the elevator on the way up.
Because of my surgeries, I wasn’t able to travel right away, so I sent a team of investigators to Spain. They located Miguel. He was easy to find, living in a mansion on an island. They watched him day and night for a month with no sign of Emma or any other woman. At the end of about six weeks of watching him, my head of security called and told me, “We still haven’t seen any sign of Miss Mendez, but I do have news.”
“What’s that?”
“This clown is marrying the princess, the king’s oldest daughter.”
“What the hell? How is that even possible? Doesn’t royalty marry royalty?”
“This guy’s family has had ties to the royal family for decades, I guess. Apparently, there’s been an arranged marriage between the two since the girl was only 15.”
Something clicked in my head then…what Lynn said about how Emma was supposed to marry Miguel Esparza before she ran away. “What is the princess’s name?”
“Ariana.”
“Do you have a picture of her?”
“Yeah, I’m sending it now.” Something fluttered inside of me. It was something resembling hope. I knew it was far-fetched to think that Emma was some kind of Anastasia, a run-away princess…but I wanted her to be.
If it was her, I would be on the first plane out of there. My phone buzzed, and I looked at it and my heart fell. The girl did favor Emma in that she had dark chocolate eyes and long, wavy, dark hair. But it was not her. The bone structure was different and the girl in the picture looked younger. I put the phone back to my ear and said,
“Maybe we should start thinking about bringing you guys home.”
********
“It’s been a year, man.” That night after dinner was over and while we waited for dessert, the ladies had gone to the restroom. Jessie’s cousin, Delia, was beautiful. She was funny and seemed smart, and she worked in the hotel business so Jessie hadn’t lied when she said we had a lot in common. I could tell that Delia liked me and if I reached back to my player days before I met and became obsessed with Emma, I could see myself taking her home tonight. That’s why as soon as they left I told Sal,
“I think after dessert I’m going to take off.”
“Three hundred and sixty-five days, man. You need to get over it.”
“Don’t you think I know that I need to get over it? I want to get over it. I want to move on. I finally got out from underneath the hotels and I have money and time to go anywhere in the world and do anything I want to do… I just don’t have the motivation.”
“Man, it’s because you don’t let yourself do anything but sit around trying to figure out how to chase a dream. Well, not sit around.” He looked at my arm that was resting on the table. I’d taken to working out to relieve the stress. Even I had to admit that maybe I’d overdone that. I was beginning to look like one of those wrestlers from the WWE. Even my neck was huge.
“Listen, buddy,” he went on. “She was here, you had her…what? For a few weeks. You had sex with her, what? Once? Now she’s gone…for over a year. You go to the gym and you go to the gun range and you spend way too much time with that elite security team you hired. Man, I love you, but I’m close to suggesting therapy here even.”
He was right. He wasn’t saying anything that I haven’t told myself at least a thousand times or more. I acted like I was getting ready for a war that I had no indication was coming. I was obsessed and it wasn’t healthy. I did need to get over it and I might even need therapy.
I just wasn’t sure where to start, and using a gorgeous young woman to do that didn’t seem right in any way. I just nodded, picked up my drink, finished it, and said, “You’re right.”
“Good; if you know I’m right, then take the first step. Delia likes you, man, and it seems to me like you like her, too.”
“I do, but what kind of man would I be if I used her to get over another woman?”
“Don’t think about it like that, man. She’s young and single and you’re young and single and you have to be horny as hell by now.”
I laughed. “I haven’t exactly been celibate this entire time.”
“Call girls in Vegas don’t count.”
“Oh? I never knew that. Okay then, I’m horny as hell.”
He was laughing at that when the women came back. We both stood up until they sat. I took my seat next to Delia and Sal took his next to Jessie. “What’s so funny?” Jessie asked.
“Not fit for a lady’s ears,” Sal said. “But, Nick and I were thinking about taking this to the VIP club at Caesar’s. What do you ladies think?”
That was how I woke up the next morning with a beautiful, naked redhead in my bed, and a year later, tasting cake for my wedding.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
EMMA
When I finally realized Miguel was probably going to stand there looking down on me all day long I pulled my eyes open and said, “Where is my baby?”
His evil black eyes bored into mine as he pulled me up off the ground. “He’s safe, for now. We need to get you back to the house. You have a party to get ready for.”
“What? I’m not going to a party with you. I want to see my baby!”
He pulled me in so close that I could smell what he’d had for lunch and through cl
enched teeth he said, “Stop calling him that.”
“Calling him what?”
“Every time you say ‘my baby,’ it’s like you’re trying to tell the world that he’s not mine.”
I knew I should have bit my tongue, but instead I spewed my own venom back at him, just begging for another beating. “Do you really think the rest of the world looks at his blue eyes and believes that he’s yours?”
I don’t think I’d ever seen as much hate in one place as I saw in his eyes at that moment. He proved that he did have restraint however when he chose to exact it. He took a deep breath and after he blew it out he said,
“It’s Elena’s twenty-first birthday party. You can’t miss it.”
I was coming down off the adrenaline high and my mind was clearing enough to know that I couldn’t possibly win. I tried to soften my tone as I said, “I need to know where Gabriel is and that he’s okay.”
He sighed again. As he led me toward the house I could feel his body shake with the anger he was still seething with. He stopped walking again and said, “He’s gone.”
“What?” I started screaming and hitting his chest with my fists. I didn’t care if he killed me at that moment. What did he mean…gone? “Where is he? Where is my baby? What did you do to him? If you hurt him, so help me God…”
“Oh stop being such a drama queen. He’s not hurt. He’s simply being taken away…to school.”
“School? Are you insane? He’s a toddler. He’s two years old. He needs his mother!”
“When his mother can prove her worth to his father, we’ll talk about him coming back.”
“You’re crazy! I’m going to my father. Gabriel is the heir to the throne. You can’t just make him disappear.”
“If you haven’t figured out yet that I can and will do whatever I please, then you’re stupider than I gave you credit for, Ariana. Gabriel is safe. Your father and I already talked about this before you stirred up all this chaos again this morning. He’s given his blessing for him to be sent to a special school, a place where your father’s guards can better keep him safe. He and your mother have both been so worried since the kidnapping threats were received. They can rest easier now.”