Around the World in 80 Men Series: Books 11-20 (25 page)

“Now
lass, go. Get oot of 'ere,” he looked back to the girl and
cocked his head toward the door. She nodded, still struck with fear,
grabbed her purse and dress off the floor and began walking toward
the front door. One of the four men made an attempt to grab her, but
Grant stepped in front of him and told him that it wouldn't be a good
idea and the fat man backed off. When the girl was safely out of the
home, Grant put his eyes back on Carlos and took another step
forward, making their noses nearly touch. Carlos had nowhere to go.
Men on either side of him and a table directly behind.

“I
hear ye like it when they fight, aye?” Grant nodded for him,
answering his own question and smiled down at the cowardly man. “This
is for Morgan.” Grant grabbed the mans shoulders and pulled him
close, then he brought his knee up as hard as he could into the man's
pinky
toe
sized member. Carlos fell backwards onto the glass table, shattering
it. He gasped for air and held the wee part between his legs.

The
other three men stepped in to defend their friend, but each of them
had four men on top of them in less than a second. The fight didn't
last long with the three drunks, but Grant was sure to obey Finlay's
direct order.
Make
sure the bastard never walks again.

Grant
grabbed a foot tall cement statue of a dragon in the corner and had
his mate hold Carlos down while he took hits to the man's hips. He
knew Finlay's wish had come true as he heard the bone crushing with
each blow. When he was sure the man couldn't move, he threw the
statue down and stood up, wiping his bloody hands on his jeans. “I
like it when they fight back, it's a shame ye didn't even try,”
he spoke before spitting in Carlos' face.

The
twelve men walked out of the house, leaving the screams of agonizing
pain from four men behind them. By the time Carlos called for an
ambulance and arrived to the hospital, all twelve men were on flights
back to Scotland and Ireland with a memory that would never be
discussed between them. They were normal, hardworking men, but they
loved to fight and were good at it. They didn't go around fighting
for no reason, either, but a man putting his hands on a woman was
always a damn good reason.

Three
days later, Carlos called in one of his friends-that could still
walk-and gave him his bank card so he could sneak a bottle of
whiskey into his room. The friend returned an hour later, letting
Carlos know there had been insufficient funds in his account to buy
the booze. The man had gone from being worth multi-millions to the
point of being unable to buy a pack of gum overnight.

What
a shame, indeed.

*****

“I
could never get used to this!” Morgan walked out on her
balcony, wrapping the thin silk robe around her. The sun was setting
over the bright blue water and the people were starting to disappear
from the beach. She had thought about going down to the shore for a
walk, but for three days, she had avoided the temptation. She had
also chosen a different hotel than the last time she had stayed in
Hawaii, so she wouldn't see Angela...or, more importantly, Angela
wouldn't see her until she was sure nobody would be able to see the
bruises.

Morgan
took a sip of her wine and sat down on the long lounge chair, then
picked her camera up from the table and took a few pictures of the
rainbow of colors over the horizon. “Nope, never ever,”
she spoke to herself again. She thought about moving there when she
was done working for Julianne and just live out her life of paradise
on the beautiful island.
Ya
never know,
she thought as she took another sip of her wine.

She
was looking forward to seeing her friends again, and it was driving
her insane that she had already been forced to miss out on three days
with them, but it was better than having to explain about Carlos.

She
had tried to call Tanner earlier that day, but he hadn't answered, so
she thought she'd try again while she waited for her dinner to
arrive. That time, on the second ring, her call was answered.

“Tanner's
phone! Hi!” The girl on the other end giggled at her answer.
She sounded young and full of life and had one of those voices where
one could tell she was probably beautiful.
But
doesn't anyone with an Australian accent sound beautiful?
Oh,
this is is weird. Well, it could be anything. Maybe he's on his boat
or...something.

“Um,
hi. Where's Tanner?” Morgan asked.

“He's
in the shower, hun. Can I take a message for you?” the happy
girl asked.
In
the shower, that could still mean anything.
Before
Morgan could relay the message to call her back, she heard the
Aussie's voice in the background. “Who is it darlin'?”
Morgan grimaced into the phone, then again when she heard the woman's
'I don't know, baby' response.

“Who's
calling?” the woman asked.

“Uhm,
nobody,” Morgan answered and ended the call. “Nobody?
Really, Morgan? Nobody?” She stood and walked back into the
hotel room, scolding herself.
Why
did I say that? I could have said who I was! He's going to know
anyway and that's going to look dumb. Oh, who called,
darling
?
Nobody,
baby
.
“No,
I'm just nobody. Dammit! No, I won't get mad about this. I can't be
mad! I just spent a week with Finlay!” She took a deep breath
and sat on the bed.

Tanner
walked to the bed, smiling at his companion, and picked up his phone
to see who
nobody
was. His heart skipped a beat when he saw
Morgan's number, and he slowly walked back to the bathroom. He wasn't
sure why he felt guilty, but he did, because she was probably with a
guy or on her way to see one when she called. No, he decided, he
wouldn't let guilt eat away at him like that, and he shook the memory
of the beautiful girl from his mind and went back to his date.

Morgan
didn't shake her feelings quite as quickly, and after a several
minutes of trying, she realized that she wasn't actually angry at
all. Jealous..yes, but not angry. He deserved to be happy with
anyone he chose, and so did she.
But it still sucks.
She
laid back on the floral comforter and held her phone in the air,
scrolling through pictures of her favorite people. She had already
talked with Sean, at length, the night before. Finlay was also
enjoyed, via phone, while she took a long bubble bath, but right
then, she knew exactly who she needed. “Angel! Now you would
have been perfect to have spent the last few days with!” She
smiled at his face and pushed call.

“Sticky,
Sticky, so Sticky..banana fana fo ficky..me my fuck
me...Stiiiccckkkky! What's going on baby girl? Who has you at gun
point today?” Morgan was already laughing and had rolled to
her stomach in the process.

“I
freaking love you! And I'm happy to report that I am not being held
by anyone, and I'm in Hawaii, alone.” She already regretted
the alone part, because she knew it was coming.
Three..two..

“Alone?!
Why the fuck are you alone? Shouldn't you be riding that rhino over
an avalanche right now?” She heard it, the huff, the famous
Angel huff.

“Oh
my God! He's a woolly mammoth, and there are volcanoes here, not
avalanches!” They laughed until she nearly fell off the bed.

“Whatever!
Ride that furry
thang
and chuck a spear, just get on it!”
As Morgan was about to admit that she always wanted to go spear
chucking, another call came through and she held the phone away to
see who was interrupting her laughing fit.

“Nadia!”
She told Angel in less than twenty seconds who Nadia was, and
promised to call him back in a few days. “Hey! I'm glad you
called, how are you? Are you in Houston?” She shut her mouth
quickly, knowing that she still had at least a dozen more questions
and would blurt them all out before the poor girl had a chance to
answer anything.

“Morgan!
I'm great, and yes, I'm in Houston. How are you?” The girl
sounded so happy that it brought tears to Morgan as she tried to
answer.

“I'm
great too, thank you. I mean...thank you for everything.” She
couldn't help the tears that fell at her gratitude for what Nadia had
done for her. “And! I need your address so that I can send
you some money.” It was blunt, but there was no other way to
get her some cash.

“No,
really, I'm already working and everything is fine. I wasn't going
to call...I...didn't want you to think that you had to do anything
for me. But I had to say thank you, for all that you did. I never
thought I would get out of that...situation...and because of you, I
did.” Morgan nodded into the phone, she figured that they had
helped each other, and after several more moments of making sure that
the other one was doing well, the call had come to an end.

With
wine in hand, Morgan walked back out to the balcony and took her
seat, watching the very last of her gorgeous sunset. She closed her
eyes and exhaled slowly as the last of her roller coaster emotions
ran their course. “Jealous, happy, sad, thankful..thank God
for wine!” She shook her head at the events of the last half
hour, and took a long sip of her second favorite beverage.

*****

“Are
you serious right now?” Morgan's hand snaked out from
underneath her warm barrier of blankets as she fumbled blindly for
her phone. “Alright, alright!” She finally had to flip
the comforter off her head and look around for the annoying reggae
maker. It was underneath the monster sized pillow beside her, and
she grabbed it and answered in the same move. “Yeah?”
Her hair was completely covering her face and it bellowed around her
lips as she spoke. “I can't hear...Kole? Hey!”
Morgan's mind, the part that dared anyone to bother her before she
had coffee, had lost the battle for sleep when she heard his deep
voice.

He
asked more questions than she hadn't been prepared to answer at seven
in the morning: When are you getting here? Do you have a room
booked already? What flight are you on? If only she had coffee, her
lies would have sounded much better.

“Uh,
I'm...here. I flew in...earlier, and I'm here now. Meet me for
breakfast?” It was a last ditch effort to divert, but it
actually worked. Kole was far too happy to know that she was on the
island to care about the details at the moment.

“Fuck
yeah! When and where?” She told him which hotel and asked
that he give her at least an hour. Of course, she knew that by the
sound of his voice, she'd probably only get the time that it took to
get from his house to the room, but it should be enough for her to
get a quick shower.

A
quick shower was no longer an option when Morgan stepped into the hot
streams of bliss that nearly massaged her back with each touch. Her
tired moan of pleasure echoed throughout the large bathroom and it
was only when she started to lose heat that she washed and left her
little piece of paradise.

She
smiled at her surroundings as she pictured the shit hole that she was
forced to clean herself while in Portugal. Finally, enough time had
passed that she could remember her time spent there without becoming
emotional, and that was the best feeling of all.

She
even took her time to blow out her hair, and put a few large spiral
curls throughout her long blonde mane. It was still pretty warm in
Hawaii, but not so much that she couldn't sport cute hair. A small
laugh came out when she dug through her suitcase for an outfit and
her eyes came across her ugly sunflower shirt. “Someday, I'll
love someone enough to wear this.” At that very moment she
knew that it would take true love for her to ever prance around in
that oversized comfy top, but it was nice knowing that she could have
a
someday
...someday.