Page 67 of Royal Flush

“What don’t you know about me? Ashton isn’t a part of this. She was my lifeline while attending college.”

“I never said she was. As far as what I don’t know about you, apparently quite a bit including why of all islands you’d suddenly arrive at mine. Your father and my father weren’t exactly friends. Don’t you find that a bit of a coincidence?”

“You bastard.” I tried to turn away, but he grabbed my arm, almost forcing me to spill my coffee on the nice fluffy robe provided by the hotel. “That’s not fair. Did you think I orchestrated my own kidnapping attempt?”

“I didn’t say that. Don’t put words in my mouth.”

“Then what are you saying? That I’m some fraud, a femme fatale sent to seduce you?” His heated look locked on me and sucked away my breath stronger than hurricane winds could. “Oh, my God. That’s exactly what you’re saying.” I was saddened and disheartened at the same time, uncertain how to react or if it mattered.

“You’re overreacting,” he said, at least decent enough to soften his tone.

“I don’t think so. You don’t believe me. Well, son of a bitch, the island was recommended to me by a friend in Australia. We were chatting. I mentioned I needed to get away from everything and everyone. She suggested the Royal Players Club.”

Although even uttering the explanation caused me to pause. I was trying to remember how the conversation had come about. It wasn’t like Maggie and I had been that close. She’d worked for my father a couple of years before and we’d had lunch a couple of times. Had I been that desperate to carve out a new life? While that had nagged at me, so had the man Braxton had mentioned but the pieces were still muddled.

He pulled back physically and mentally, eyeing me for a full thirty seconds before nodding. “Fine, but we are not finished with this conversation. I have a meeting to attend. Now, in order to keep you safe, I hired some security, the leader of the group a man I’ve known for years. They will be right outside that door if anything happens. You have your phone so call me. Don’t try and run. Don’t try and enlist assistance. The best thing to do is for you to keep radio silence. We’re going to talk more later, you and I, trying to figure out this puzzle.”

Puzzle.

He really thought my father had hired me for a nefarious reason. Damn the man. Damn the family I’d been born into.

Damn everything.

That’s the reality of the way the morning had begun. His tone remaining terse, accusatory to the point I’d been caught in a fog after he’d left. He’d told me little about what my father said and in truth, I hadn’t wanted to ask. I knew exactly how my father had likely reacted, acting as if I was nothing but an impetuous child.

Maybe I was.

I hated my life.

It was something I hadn’t wanted to admit, including to myself, but that was the truth. I was stuck in a twilight zone that I couldn’t seem to get out of. The only bright spot had been meeting Braxton, although he was a complicated and infuriating man. Still, the time spent had been some of the most exciting and satisfying that I’d had in as long as I could remember.

Maybe ever.

But all good things needed to come to an end.

He was controlling as fuck.

Determined to keep me wrapped in rules.

Acting as if he knew better about my life and everything in it.

Okay, he was sexy and debonair, providing me with a glimpse at something other than puppy love, but I was through with being treated like a child.

The fact he’d left three bodyguards outside had angered me to the point I’d almost broken things inside the suite. Did he not trust me?

I had to laugh. He was right not to.

When I’d discovered he’d taken my keys, all the delicious time we’d spent together went poof in my mind. I had to get the fuck out of here.

So, I devised a plan, a good one in my mind. I was no longer a child and knew that what I was doing was reckless, but if I stayed with Ashton even for a few days, I could figure out what I needed to do. Maybe.

When room service came, it had only taken offering the three men coffee and donuts for me to get away. Honestly, it had been far too easy to do so. Yes, I was a very bad girl and loved every minute of being that way.

I’d purchased a baseball cap in the giftshop, shoving almost all my hair underneath. At least I would be slightly incognito as I made my escape attempt. Thankfully, the rain was barely a drizzle, but the ugly day didn’t improve my mood any. I’d been so stupid, something I’d sworn I would never do again.

Sadly, I’d been hovering in this very restroom for a solid forty-five minutes. I only hoped I hadn’t been turned in for loitering. What it had allowed me to do was study the layout of the floor that had been conveniently placed on the back of the door. I’d rethought my crazy idea more than once but the one thing I knew about myself was that in order to make any decent decisions, I needed to make them on my own, and I needed some time without pressure to do so.

There wasn’t a chance in hell I could do that around a man like Braxton. Plus, I had a terrible feeling that while protecting me, he’d keep me on a tight, short leash, which I’d never be able to tolerate.

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