Page 9 of Blind Sin

I don’t wait for Nolan to answer. “What do you mean, get in? You are supposed to be getting out.”

Alexander shakes his head as he turns Lauren back toward the plane. “Nope. This isn’t our final destination. We’re refueling and then we’re heading off again, now get in.”

I feel a hand slap my ass and turn to see Nolan grinning at me. “Now we get to see if you can survive Nix’s miserable bleating for the next twenty hours.”

“Twenty hours?” I cry out “Where are we going?”

He gives me a grin in answer. “You want to be away from your father don’t you? We’re taking you about as far as possible it is to be away from him without leaving this planet.”

My nerves jangle as I follow Lauren and Alexander onto the plane. “I don’t have a passport. Lauren doesn’t have a passport.”

“We know,” Alexander says as he pulls shut the plane door behind us. “Let’s just say we owe Edward Bailey a beer or two when we all get out of this shit-show we’ve found ourselves in.

6

NIX

The private jet only holds twenty people when it’s full, and even though there are only five of us plus the pilot and a host that keeps bringing us drinks, it’s too small to find somewhere to hide. I don’t want to speak to Luce. I have nothing to say to her; I decided when we embarked upon this ridiculous scheme that I’d do what I had to do to rescue them, but that was it. I don’t owe them anything. She lied to me all those years ago and even though I can see why she did; it doesn’t make it any easier. I couldn’t wash away five years of hatred and pain with cigarettes, alcohol and women, so I’m sure as hell not going to do it with one lame ass apology. Not that she has actually apologized. She lived her life unapologetically, so why would she bother with any sorrys for me? Not that I want one. She's only here because Dacre and Mercier pressured me into saving Lauren, and finding Lauren was only possible with Lucinda’s help. They are a package. I need to remember that. Without Lucinda, there’s no Lauren. I look out of the window into the darkness and wish, not for the first time, I’d not gotten involved in the first place. This was all set in motion when I saw Lucinda on TV and decided in my fucked up macho mind that I had to be the one to rescue her. I can’t even remember if it was revenge or the need to see her one more time that was driving me, but I do know that my soul hasn’t had a moment of peace since. I’ve deliberately chosen a seat at the back where I don’t have to look at either of them. Lucinda Waldgrave, the girl that broke me and Lauren Waldgrave, the girl who I thought was going to put back the pieces again, only to shatter them harder. Both of them liars, both full of secrets and both so utterly intoxicating. It feels like I’m in withdrawal even though I’m sitting mere feet away from them. As if she knows how she affects me, Luce does not try to come and talk to me. It might be childish seeing as I’m the one that hid away, but it’s not as though she doesn’t know where I am. Our eyes locked and my heart imploded as she stepped onto the plane before she took the seat next to Lauren near the front.

She’s sitting in such a way that her face moves into and out of my vision. Her seat is swiveled facing Mercier, with Lauren to her side. I can’t see Lauren at all. I want to, but to see her would involve moving and then everyone would see and I’d prefer to be here on my own and not talk to any of them.

When we found Lauren in that basement, my whole body was boiling with anger. If Dacre hadn’t have stopped me, I would have slammed my foot down on that guy’s head until his brains were splattered all over the floor. I still feel it, simmering away under the surface, but I don’t know who I’m the most angry with. Peter Waldgrave is a given. I’ve got every right to hate that fucker and I know I’m one of many. My hatred of him is white hot, but boring and obvious. My anger towards the others on the plane is fucking me up way more than anything I feel toward Waldgrave. With him it’s justified. I can even explain why I’m so angry with Luce. She lied to me. Maybe it was to save me from her father and she probably did feel that way back then. I sure as hell know I would have done something that would have either got me locked up or killed, but it because she decided to take that decision away from me, she made the one thing I held on to after my parents died, a whole lie. A fucking shambles and now I can’t stop replaying everything we did together back then. Every word she spoke to me. Was any of it real? How the fuck should I know?

I have no business being angry with Lauren and yet of everyone, she’s the one that’s consuming my brain space and my mental energy. I don’t even want to think about her at all. I don’t even know the chick, but every time I think of Luce or Waldgrave, those fucking ghostly eyes of hers pop up in my brain and I can’t think straight.

It’s Mercier that eventually makes his way down to where I’m sitting. He reaches me and collapses onto the chair across from me, his body slumping with exhaustion. Without hesitation, he lifts his foot and rests it on the arm of my chair.

“We only fucking did it!”

If only it was that simple. We took off in Edward’s private jet. It would be insane to think that Waldgrave isn’t tracking us right now. Still I let Mercier have his moment of delight, as though we pulled off the heist of the Mona Lisa, which I suppose we practically did. Ludinda Waldgrave is worth more to the world than any painting. “What now?”

“Now?” He looks at me as though we’ve done everything we needed to do. As though this isn’t only the first part of the plan. A plan of which we haven’t really put much thought into. Our plan had been to get Luce and Lauren away from their fuck of a father, but now we’ve done that we’ve got to find a way to get us all out of this mess on a more permanent basis and I don’t know how we’re going to do that on a tropical island thousands of miles from civilization.

He leans back into his hands. “Now it’s sun, sangria and all the pussy we want,” he says, sticking his tongue out.

Beneath my anger I see what the next few weeks are going to be like with crystal clarity. “No.”

He holds his hands up in the air. “Lucinda is all yours, man,” he says. “I get you had some weird stuff going down with her and she messed you up and you need to work through it. I swear on my life that I won't touch her.” He puts his feet down to the floor and leans towards me. “I can't promise I won't think about her when I'm in the shower, but that's pretty much the best you can hope for when it comes to the most famous model in the world.”

My jaw clenches at the mention of Lucinda. I can feel my fists balling up under the table, but I force myself to stay calm.

“Actress!” She is a model, but for some reason, I feel the need to defend her. Mercier only shrugs in response, as though he doesn't see the difference or doesn't care.

“Whatever, Lucinda is all yours,” he repeats, as if trying to reassure me. “Lauren, on the other hand, she's fair game.”

I shake my head in disgust. “She's not a toy to be passed around,” I say firmly.

“We made a deal,” he counters, his voice rising slightly. “Why do you think we did this?”

“If you only saved them because you want to fuck her,” I say, my voice low and dangerous. “Then go for your life. You and Dacre can have her, but if you think for a second Luce will let you get within ten feet of her, you’re more insane than you look.”

He leans back, his head palmed in his hands. “I guess we’ll find out, but I’m loving the irony?”

I raise an eyebrow. “Irony?”

“You calling me insane when you know for a fact you want her. Before us, she’d never even met a guy. Doesn’t that excite you even a little bit? Think of all the things we could show her, knowing that it’s the first time she’s experienced them. We’ll be like fucking gods to her.”

“We’re fucking gods to every woman we’ve ever had,” I remind him of our position on campus. “I don’t want another simpering bitch on my dick.”

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