Page 8 of Guarded By the SEAL

“To hell I don’t!” Her hands fling in the air now, wildly and in frustration. “You have no idea what I want. It’s my family paying you, and if I want to get off this island, then you need to do that for me.”

I resist the urge to roll my eyes at her bratty behavior. “Your father would have to authorize that since he is the one who has paid Max, and since I haven’t heard anything from him yet?—”

“But this is my life! I should get a choice. Why will no one let me decide what I want to do?”

“I guess because everyone wants what is best for you. It might be time to accept that.”

With a frustrated scream and some muttering under her breath, Petra storms off up the stairs to hopefully sleep off the drunken mess that she has very quickly made of herself. With a bit ofluck, she will be too hung over to cause me any issues tomorrow because I’m not in the mood to go through that again. What a nightmare. I’ve been feeling very sorry for Petra, and I still do when it comes to the situation that she finds herself in, but that doesn’t mean I like her. She’s rude and spoiled, not my sort of person at all.

We are not going to get along, of that much I am certain. There isn’t a chance in hell of our having anything to talk about at all while we are here because we’re on opposite ends of the spectrum. Of course, I’m only here to protect her, not to become her best buddy or anything, but it would be easier if we could have some sort of ease between us. Talking to one another would make the time pass better.

I glance around the kitchen and sigh. In her drunken state, she has made a mess which I can’t imagine she intends to clean up. If she comes from a life of riches and maids, I doubt she even knows how. I knew that tonight was going to end up with my being her babysitter, but now it’s hitting me that I might well be that the whole time we’re here. She might need me to do everything for her.

“Fucking marvelous,” I mutter while shaking my head in dismay. “This is just great.”

I will have to clean up the kitchen, get this place looking nice again, give Petra some time to cool off, and maybe even head back to sleep—I definitely prefer her while she’s sleeping—then I’ll go up to see if she needs a bucket and a glass of water left beside her bed. I wouldn’t want her to get too ill while we’re here, especially not because of alcohol. It isn’t exactly the easiest and most discrete place to get medical help. Helicopters will be necessary, which might draw the Mob’s focus if they’re looking for Petra.

If? Of course they will be looking for her. She is the money ticket here. She is the one person they need for the plan to all work out. I’m sure they will be throwing all of their resources at it. Luckily, Max is better.

“This is not going to be easy,” I tell myself as I begin. “Not for one second. And not for the reasons that I thought, either. How the hell am I going to do this? I’m not experienced in babysitting.”

7

PETRA

Oh… my… God. What the fuck happened last night? What the hell did I do? Why do I feel like I’m literally about to die right now? My head is pounding, my stomach churning with sickness, and my whole body aches. Luckily, in my drunken state, I must have remembered to get myself a glass of water which is like a godsend. Wine always leaves me very dehydrated in the morning, even when I don’t go overboard. And last night, I definitely went over the top, which is why I feel like death at the moment.

“Urgh,” I groan as I force myself to sit up straight. The last thing that I want to do is pour the water all down myself. “Oh, God, this is why drinking too much is a bad idea. It had nothing to do with being ladylike. It’s this horrible morning after. Dad, now I understand everything you said to me.”

The more that I drink, the more the night comes back to me, and with an impending sense of doom, I realize that I acted like a crazy person. Like a really crazy person. I tried to break into Harry’s bag to find information about my father, which of course made him mad because why wouldn’t it? It would have made meangry as well to find him doing the same to me, whatever his reasoning.

And then there was the argument that followed. Oh, God, I was awful, wasn’t I? I am definitely not a good drunk. I’m a terrible person who said some awful things. Words and flashes of memories keep hitting me hard, and I don’t like a single one of them. I want to go back in time and change it all. Just because I’ve been worried about my father, it doesn’t give me an excuse for behaving like an idiot.

“I need to apologize.” I curl my knees up to my chest. “But I really don’t want to.”

I don’t go down the stairs right away. I stay locked away in my cocoon for a while because I need to stop the room from spinning and the sickness from churning in my stomach. If I’m going to swallow my pride and face Harry, then I need all my faculties around me. I need to work out what to say.

Eventually, because I’m starting to get hungry and can’t really put it off any longer, I slowly trudge down the stairs. I find Harry sitting at the dining table nursing a mug of coffee, clearly deep in thought. I really hope he isn’t thinking of anything related to me. I’m too embarrassed for that.

“Petra?” he calls out without turning to look at me. “I heard from my boss. I don’t know much, but I do know that your father is okay. Sorry, that isn’t much, but it’s all that I have.”

“Er, thanks.” I’m surprised that he’s started with that information. I’m glad, though. “Thank you. Erm, sorry. I know that I wasn’t the best-behaved last night. I didn’t deal with it very well. Thank you for finding everything out for me. You won’t have to worry about my acting like that again. I understand thatI was a bit of a nightmare last night. I… I don’t usually drink, which I’m sure you could tell. And it won’t happen again. It was just… you know, one hell of a day, and I guess I just acted a little crazy.”

He finally turns to look at me and offers me a little side-eyed smile. I can tell that it isn’t fully genuine, though. He doesn’t trust that I’m going to behave myself, which I suppose is fair. But it makes things a little awkward, so I need to get on with my day without talking to him again because this is a lot.

“Okay, well I’m going to get some food and a drink.” I bustle into the kitchen. “And then I might walk.”

I don’t know what to do. I feel all on edge, like I’m tiptoeing on eggshells, so I get myself food and drinks quickly. I take them up to my bedroom because I don’t feel like I can eat in the kitchen, and I sit sadly by myself. I curl back up in my cocoon and sulk miserably. I know that this is my fault. I understand that I caused all of this, but there’s a little part of me that wonders why Harry isn’t letting it go. He must know that I’m under a lot of pressure here, so surely, a mistake can just be ignored. I did tell him that it was a little error, that it wasn’t typical of me and won’t happen again, but he didn’t seem to take that on board.

“This is going to be hell,” I whisper to myself. “This is going to be a disaster.”

I stare out the window at the island around me, glad that at least I have this safe space around me to go and explore. If I were in a safehouse in a city somewhere, then I suppose I would be trapped, unable to go anywhere at all for fear of Jake finding me. But now, I have the island, so I can toss some clothes on and have a walk around to get rid of this headache. There are some things that I should be grateful for.

Actually, there are a lot of things that I should be glad of. I suppose Harry was right about that much, not that I will admit it to him. I have said sorry now, so I don’t think the conversation needs to happen again. The topic is closed and done. We probably won’t have anything to say to one another now.

I speed up eating, needing to get outside now before the four walls close in around me. Before I get overwhelmed and sicker than I already am. Fresh air and space around me. That’s what I need.

This island is actually beautiful. It’s gorgeous. If I were here under any other circumstance, it would be heaven. I could imagine taking a vacation here and it being everything to me, but with the weight of the world on my shoulders, it hurts. It’s quite painful to drag all of this around with me.

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