“Knock, knock…” a deep voice rumbled from the doorway. “Ahhh, Montgomery, I might have known that you’d show up,” Dacks said as he walked into the room.
“Richards,” Luke grumbled from beside me.
Dacks took in the bags in Luke’s hands and raised his eyebrows. “Going somewhere? I admit, the bag suits you, Luke, but it doesn’t match your outfit.”
Looking over at Luke, I saw that he was holding the bag that I’d had with me for the meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister. He was such a big guy that the bag that I’d had with me looked absurd in his hands, and I couldn’t help laughing silently as Luke glared back at Dacks.
“Why are you here?” Luke asked as he moved even closer to me. I was starting to think that there was a problem between these two, but before I could ask Dacks burst out laughing.
“Ah, Montgomery, you pull at my heart strings with the constant affection. As much as I appreciate the flirting, I just came here to see how my beautiful girl was doing.”
Feeling Luke turn to stone beside me, I decided to cut in now before it got out of hand. “They’ve agreed to release me under the care of a physician,” I started just as a thought hit me. “I don’t have a physician here; I haven’t needed one.” I looked over at Jennifer who was standing there, taking us all in in amusement. I’m glad someone found this situation funny.
“That’s okay, Isla, Mr. Montgomery has organized it all, and I can assure you that Doctor Lo’s the best there is in Singapore.”
“Of course he did, of course he is…” I muttered feeling seriously pissed off. After what he did, he suddenly comes in and just takes over, as always.
“She,” Luke interrupted.
“She what? Who?” I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.
“She,” he repeated.
“Luke, will you make sense! I have no idea who she is.” I looked over at Dacks to see if he knew what was going on, but, as always, he looked relaxed and was now leaning against the wall watching the show in front of him.
“Doctor Lo is a she,” Jennifer said, placing my shoes on the floor in front of me.
“She’s absolutely lovely and will make sure you and these precious babies,” she pointed towards my stomach, “are happy and healthy.”
“Babies?” Dacks sputtered from the wall and burst out laughing. “Babies? As in more than one?” You couldn’t help watching in fascination as his normally tanned face went an alarming shade of red with how hard he was laughing; even Jennifer was standing watching it. “Oh Jesus,” he panted wiping his eyes. “Your dad told me that she was special to you, man, but knocking her up at a distance?”
Realizing that no one else in the room was laughing with him, Dacks stopped and looked up at us all. “You have to admit, that’s impressive!”
“Dacks, you’re a twat. Jennifer, thank you for looking after Isla and my babies and for all of your help setting up Doctor Lo.” Luke gently took my hand and started pulling me towards the door as I grabbed the IV machine at the last second and wheeled it with me.
Thanking Jennifer, I walked behind him out the door leaving Dacks laughing again as he followed behind us. It was somewhat tense in the elevator on the way to the car, but I just stood looking straight ahead listening to Luke grind his teeth beside me. I couldn't help my audible sigh of relief when the doors opened and I saw the exit to freedom ahead of me.
“Say goodbye to the asshole, Isla.”
Rolling my eyes, I turned and waved at Dacks. “We need to discuss the meeting that we’d missed and reorganize it, so can you have someone drop off all of the paperwork to me at my hotel room…”
“You don’t need it,” Luke interrupted, opening the car door and gently nudging me in before closing the door leaving me wondering what the hell just happened. I saw him and Dacks talk briefly before he was joining me in the car and the driver started to drive away from the curb.
“What do you mean I don’t need it? It’s a crucial meeting Luke, you know that!”
“It’s been settled and right now the main priority is you and our babies,” he said, leaning his head back onto the back of the seat with his eyes closed.
“How was it settled? The meeting never happened?”
“They had reviewed and approved the plans already, Isla; the meeting was a mere formality. Thirty minutes ago, they issued a statement announcing the agreement and plans,” he mumbled just as his jaw went slack and he fell asleep.
Sitting back to stare out the window watching the scenery go by, I thought over the events of the last twenty-four hours. I was pregnant with twins, Luke was here, we had the most lucrative contract that Montgomery had ever had, and Luke was certain that he’d never had a real relationship with Kendal. Would people think that I got pregnant on purpose, though? I had no doubts that my stepsister would claim that, she’d tried that trick often enough herself, but would the people who mattered think the same? I closed my eyes and leaned my head back on the chair trying not to cry. I was so tired and I didn’t know which way to turn.
Was Luke telling the truth? Was he only here because of the babies? Could I trust him? I had so many questions going around on a loop in my head. One thing I knew for certain was that I couldn’t trust him and that I couldn’t drop the walls that I’d built around me when it came to him.
Wiping away the tears that had rolled down my face, I shifted slightly to get more comfortable and tried to clear my mind. The exhaustion wasn’t helping my emotional state and hormones were most likely playing a big factor, too. Taking a deep breath out, I forced myself to relax and quickly fell asleep.
Chapter 4
“The Assistant”
S hit! Fuck! Damn! He’d been released overnight while I was watching my red headed beauty. The asshole was going to be pissed off, then again when wasn’t he?
Picking up the burner phone, I pressed his number and took a deep breath, waiting as the phone rang in my ear.
“What?” He barked. The day I got rid of this fucker would be one of the happiest days of my life.
“Luke Montgomery was released from hospital overnight, Sir.” I held my breath momentarily, waiting for the bullshit to start, until I realized what I was doing and that I was trained to kill so this fucker didn’t scare me.
“And you’re just telling me now?” Oh, he was pissed. I’d never seen the bastard, but I could hazard a guess at what he looked like. The biggest psychopaths always looked ‘normal’, that was the issue and why so many of them got away with what they did. By normal, I mean someone who blends in with the crowd, someone who people would look over or trust, perhaps even a prominent figure.
“I was watching another subject.” Not exactly a lie. He just didn’t need to know who or why. “What do you want me to do?”
There was silence for so long that if I couldn’t hear the noises in the background, I’d think that he’d hung up on me. Then again, he wouldn’t do that, I was his way of doing whatever the fuck this was. He was dependent on me and that thought made me smile.
“Is the bitch back from her trip overseas yet?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
I knew exactly where this was going to go. I may be a contract killer, but hurting and killing females never stood well with me. This psycho obviously didn’t feel the same way and he was calling the shots here, literally.
“Leave a surprise for her and get rid of him,” his tone of voice was almost excited. “And make it big!”
“Yes, Sir.”
“And don’t fuck up again, or termination and replacement will be in your future!”
There was a click in my ear as he hung up on me and I switched the burner phone off and put it back in its safe place. I should regret ever taking this fucking contract. I’d worked with depraved psychopaths before, and this fuck was worse than all of them, but then I wouldn’t have found my beauty. She was my reward, my fuel. If that asshole thought he could threaten me or if he even went near Red, then he was done.
> Picking up my keys I left the apartment to drive to the warehouse to get the shit I needed. I knew exactly what to do, and once I was done I was going to reward myself by going to see my Red.
Chapter 5
Luke
I woke up as we pulled up to the Marina Bay Sands hotel and looked over at Isla to find her fast asleep. Her face was still so pale and she had dark bruises under her eyes; she was still the most beautiful angel that I’d ever seen, though.
As the driver opened my door, I reached across and gathered her up. Isla was a light sleeper, but none of this woke her up, which just proved how exhausted and sick she was. Even though she hardly weighed anything, the extra weight in my arms had my leg and the rest of my body screaming out in pain; but I wasn’t waking her up or putting her down. I’d already let her down, and I was going to prove that I loved her and that I could look after her and our babies.
Jesus Christ, babies! I was going to be a dad! It still hadn't sunk in yet, even though I’d seen the scan pictures and heard their heartbeats. I couldn’t lie and say that I wasn’t scared and still in shock. I also had a feeling of peace that I hadn’t had in years, since we were kids, before I fucked up and lost her.
Getting into the elevator, I used my elbow to hit the fifty first floor. Shuffling Isla carefully in my arms to get comfortable, I leaned against the side of the elevator watching her until we got to my floor. Tao had booked me into a Strait’s Suite and for security reasons someone would be waiting for me to take mine and Isla’s fingerprints to allow us access around the place. Even though nothing more had happened aside from small incidents on a couple of sites since my and Maya’s accident, the person was still out there doing fuck knows what. The added security and knowing that Isla and the babies would be safe was paramount and one of the reasons this hotel had been chosen.
The elevator finally reached my floor and as I got out I saw a middle aged man waiting for me with a machine in his hands. He took in the precious bundle in my arms and gave me a small smile.
“Sir, I am Lee Chong and I will be assisting you during your stay. I just need to get your fingerprints,” he said as he opened the door to our suite. Seeing a couch in front of the sliding glass doors that led out onto a balcony, I gently laid Isla down and put her IV bag on the back of it to keep it above her body.
Turning around, I saw Chong watching everything I did with a small smile. “They are very precious to us.” He said, and walked over to the table to place everything down.
“This we agree on.” I walked over to him ready to get this over and done with so that I could sit down; my body was one big pain.
“Place your thumb onto this pad please, Mr. Montgomery,” he indicated toward the machine on the table and I reached across to do it. “Now, please place your other thumb onto it.”
After both thumbs were scanned in, he took me through the areas that had this added security in them and showed me how to use it. Even the card for our room had different security on it.
“I can come back to do the lady’s prints once she wakes up.”
“No, you can do it now.” I led him over to Isla and gently picked up both hands and put her thumbs on the scanner; she didn’t even stir once.
“Thank you, Mr. Montgomery. If I can be of any assistance during your stay, please do not hesitate to contact me.”
Shaking his hand, I let him out of the room and turned back toward where Isla was sleeping. I knew if I sat down now, I wouldn’t want to get back up again and the nurse would be arriving to change her IV bag in forty minutes. She needed to eat, so I went over to the kitchen and pulled out what I needed to make her a sandwich.
Just as I was picking up the plate, I heard her call out. “Luke?”
“I’m here, Angel,” I said as I walked around the corner.
“Where are we?”
“The Marina Bay Sands hotel, sweetheart.” I sat on the space she didn’t take up, which was quite a lot seeing as the couch was so wide and she was so tiny. “The doctor’s coming in half an hour to change out your IV. It’s lunch time, so I made you a sandwich. Do you think you could eat it?”
She nodded and reached across to take it off the plate and lay back eating slowly.
“I didn’t do it on purpose you know,” she whispered so softly that I wasn’t sure if I’d heard her right.
“Do what?”
Still not looking at me, she waved her hand at her stomach. Did she think I thought she got pregnant on purpose?
“That never even occurred to me. Where did this come from?” As soon as I said it, I knew exactly where it was coming from - her fucking stepsister. Leaning across her, I gently turned her face so she’d look at me, but she kept her eyes focused on her lap.
“Isla, look at me, Angel.” I gave her chin a gentle nudge. Once her beautiful eyes were focused on me I continued, “I know you didn’t and I also know that this is because of Calista. You are nothing alike, you’ll never be and no one will ever assume that you would stoop to that level; if they did, I’d have a lot of strong words to say to them.” Taking a deep breath in, I continued, “These babies aren’t a curse, or an inconvenience - they’re a beautiful gift that I’m over the moon about and were made from love, not spite or greed.”
I could see the tears building up in her eyes and it made my gut ache, but I needed to get all of this out. I put my hand on top of where my world was sleeping safely and looked into the eyes of the rest of my world.
“I love you, Angel.” The tears started falling down her face, making me groan. “I hate it when you cry. We’ll get through this and I swear on everything that I will prove to you how much I love you and never let you down again.”
The look on her face cut me deeply; she looked scared and doubtful at the same time. I had done this to us with my stupidity, but I was also going to fix it and prove to her how much I loved her. I was also going to prove that I would be the best husband and father ever. On that thought, an idea came to me.
“Finish your lunch, baby, I’m going to go and make a couple of phone calls. I’ll be on the balcony, so shout if you need anything okay?” I kissed her on the forehead taking a second to breathe her in again. “I love you.”
Her head snapped up and she took a sharp breath in. Isla wasn’t an overly talkative person, but her silence proved how much work I had ahead of me.
Coleman
I was looking across the field watching one of my guys blend in with the rest of the ranchers as they fixed a fence. This was the eighth time that an alarm had been tripped, and when we got to the section, the fence was broken. No matter what surveillance we put up, it would lose signal in that area, too, like its frequency was being jammed so we never got a clear picture of who or what was doing the damage. One of my guys, Landon, was a tech geek and had put a couple of frequency jammer counter measures in place, but none of them had worked so far. As head of Brett Townsend’s security, it was my job to keep them all safe, and the fact someone was getting one over on us was fucking me off and also worrying me more than I’d let on.
My phone ringing in my pocket interrupted my pissed off thoughts; pulling it out, I saw that it was Brett.
“Hey!” We’d dispensed with formalities ages ago after I’d called him ‘Sir’ and he’d threatened to fire me if I ever did it again. We’d been working together for so long though that he was like a brother to me now.
“Dad called. Luke wants something picked up from his safe and Dad’s in meetings, so he rang me. Have you got someone free to take me?” Brett sounded pissed off even asking, but after the incident in Dallas he knew better than to leave on his own.
“Give me five and I’ll have someone take you.” Hanging up, I dialed Cooper and gave him instructions. He was one of my undercover’s and one of my best guys, so I knew he’d keep Brett safe.
Looking back over at the work going on at the fence, a feeling started building in my gut. Something bad was brewing, but we didn’t know what or when it was going to happen.
Even worse, we didn’t know who and it was eating away at me.
Cole
This fucking lug nut was driving me insane, why the shit wouldn’t it budge? I’d been eyeballing the blow torch and considering just attacking it out of principle when I heard my phone ringing. As always, the assholes that I worked with burst out laughing, but personally I thought Party in the USA was an awesome song, so they could go and dangle for all I cared.
Looking at the screen, I saw Luke’s name and the photo that I’d taken of him when the nurse had told him that they were going to take the catheter out in the hospital. Shit that was funny…
“Hi, you’ve reached God. How can I help you?” Hello was just so overused and boring.
His sigh was pretty much standard for whenever I said anything around Luke; the guy was just too serious!
“I need a favor.”
I couldn’t help my huge grin, after all Luke was calling me to ask for a favor; this was like Christmas. “How can I help you, my liege?”
“I need Isla’s car to be checked over to make sure it’s in top condition. I also need you to try and find a buyer for it.”
“Does she know about all of this?” I mean, I’m all for making sure she’s safe, but she loved that car and I wasn’t going to risk my balls.
“Look, I can’t say why just now, but it needs to be done, Cole, so can you do it or do I need to call someone else?”
“You’re missing a minor detail, dude; I don’t have her keys! Sure, I could break into it and all, but I’m thinking that the person who bought it might have an issue with having to jimmy the lock every time they wanted to get in. And it’s not like you can fit the shit needed to do it in a pocket or a purse. Well, maybe some women could cause some carry around frigging enormous purses, but it wouldn’t look good on the ad saying…”
“COLE!” Uh oh, I’d pissed off the bear. I thought I had a valid point, though. “Shut the fuck up and listen. Maya has a key to Isla’s house; go get it and the key to the car will be in the dish on the unit just inside the door. Can you fucking do that or not?”
Providence Series Books 1-4 Page 30