Around the World in 80 Men Boxed Set 31-35 (56 page)

She
had no vehicle, and she surely didn't go to any of his family
member's homes so early, so he ran through the small cottage and
continued to call her name. “Damn it!” Markus went back
to the kitchen to grab his keys, and that's when he finally saw the
note that she had left near the sink.

Markus,
your grandmother told me to leave. She knows what I do, but she has
no idea that you hired me. She believes that I'm trying to find a
husband, or something. I didn't tell her the truth. I'm going to
Hamar, I already have a room reserved. I'll call Julianne when I'm
settled and have a full refund issued. I'm sorry. It was wonderful to
meet you. Morgan.
Markus read
the note again, right before his fist came down hard on the counter.
His grandmother had officially found her limit with her grandson.

Morgan,
at that moment, was opening the door to her hotel room. It was a high
rise luxury hotel, and the only one with a Western name. It didn't
matter that it was an American chain hotel, she thought as she walked
through the room, it just happened to be the first one she came to.
“But, it feels a little like home.” Home, she knew, was
what she longed for at the moment. Then again, she smiled weakly, she
always craved Ohio when her feelings were hurt. “Grow up,
Morgan.” She dropped her bags and walked over to the bed.
Thoughts of calling Angel, Finlay, or Julianne were all shoved aside
as she simply stared at the ceiling to control her feelings.

Markus
ran to the front yard and to his mother's house. He had to vent to
someone before he faced Bethany, or else he was afraid he'd verbally
explode for all of the things that she'd done in the past few years.
To his surprise, his mom was not only awake, but sitting fully
dressed at the kitchen table. “I don't want to know what she
did this time, I'm about as done with her meddling as I can be. Let's
just get Morgan back here and set things straight.” Markus
stopped at the kitchen entrance, not understanding how his mother
knew anything. She knew he was confused, and put him out of his
misery. “Mister Stinky,” she pointed to her twelve year
old Siamese cat, “wouldn't let me sleep in this morning. He was
on the counter yelling for his breakfast.” She reached down and
smoothed his back as she continued. “I was filling his bowl
when I saw Bethany walk into your house, then I saw that your truck
was gone. I assume you went to get food.” Markus nodded, then
slowly walked to the table and sat with his mother. “A few
minutes later, Bethany left. Shortly after that, a taxi pulled up and
Morgan left.” Grace put her head down, knowing that their day
was about to go south at what her mother-in-law had done to Morgan.
“I already called Bert, he told me where the driver took her.”
Bert, Markus knew, was the owner of the largest taxi service in
Hamar. He also grew up with his parents, and had been close friends
since childhood.

Markus
took a deep breath, and told his mother what he planned to do. “I
respect her for being my elder, but I can no longer live under her
rules in my own home. Dad never intended for any of us to live like
this.” He grabbed his mother's hand and gave it a gentle
squeeze. Grace accepted his love through the touch, and he watched
her eyes fill with tears that she always tried to hide.

“
I
did my best to make her love me, Markus. All the years with your dad,
and I never could get close to her. I just don't think I can try any
longer.” Markus nodded, then asked for the information about
Morgan. “I wrote it down.” She passed a small piece of
paper across the table to his hand.

“
We'll
tell grandmother that Morgan left and we don't know where she is.
Tell her that I'm angry at Morgan leaving, and I'm going to take a
few days to visit friends. I need some time to think about things,
and I know that neither of us can try and sort this while we're this
upset.” Grace nodded, knowing that her son was right, and
promised to do as he'd asked. “I'll need to find a place to
live, and I'm sorry that there's no other way.” Grace hugged
her son, but couldn't tell him that he was wrong. If he ever wanted
to live the life of his choice, he would never be able to have the
chance with Bethany watching his every move.

In
the city, Morgan had finally sat up and had tried to call Julianne to
explain what happened with Markus. “Shit.” Her phone had
less than five percent of battery life, and she was forced to charge
it before doing anything. “I need a shower anyway.”
Morgan spoke to the empty room and dropped to her knees on the floor.
She managed a sloppy knee-shuffle halfway across the room to her bags
where she pulled a hoodie and sweatpants from. She grabbed her small
bag that held her underclothes and cosmetics, then moaned as she
stood. Yes, she thought, she was being a bit dramatic. “But she
hurt my mothafuckin'
feelers
.” Morgan smiled at her own
Angel imitation, then took a deep breath. “Feelers.” She
laughed that time, then smiled all the way to the bathroom, and was
still smiling when she got into the shower.

Right
outside of the hotel, Bert was dropping Markus off at the front door.
“Thanks, now all I need to find out is what room Morgan Holland
is in.” Markus knew that he was about to hit a wall when it
came to prying information from a well respected hotel. Bert didn't
share his concern, and told Markus to wait for a moment.

“
My
cousin still works here, I'll see what I can do.” Bert made a
quick call, spoke for only a few seconds about needing the key to
Morgan's room, and told Markus that it was all set. “Just go to
the counter and tell the man that you've lost your card. He'll give
one to you.” Markus nodded, understanding that Bert's cousin
would be working at the counter and was waiting for him.

“
I
can't thank you enough.”

“
You
could tell Grace to give me a call sometime... when she's free.”
Bert stuttered with the last part, and Markus smiled at the obvious
hint that he was interested in his mom.

“
I'll
do that.” He smiled as he left the taxi, and made a mental note
to put a good word in with his mom about her old friend. “Imagine
that.”

Morgan
wrapped a towel around her body, then another one around her head.
The shower was what she'd needed, and the only other thing to do was
to find the coffee pot. “Sweet mother of pygmy goats... thank
you.” She found a standard sized pot, and four packages of
gourmet coffee. Two minutes later, the room filled with the aroma of
Norway's finest in-a-foil-bag java. The only other thing she needed
to do while she waited was to call Julianne. “Ten percent.”
She looked at her phone and wasn't sure it was charged enough,
especially if Julianne wanted to get chatty about the details
surrounding Markus and his grandmother. No, she decided, she would
choose her next client and get that out of the way while she waited.

Morgan
pulled her towel more tightly around her chest and took her laptop to
the bed. She was freezing, and considered putting on clothes before
going any further. “I go from sweating on a camel to freezing
my nips off. I'd take the camel right about now.” She shivered
again, and a large smile spread across her lips. “Actually, I
can go anywhere I choose.” She didn't think she would ever get
used to that fact, and it made her happy to navigate the search on
Julianne's website towards warmer climates. “Yes!”She
clicked on the green dot, and nodded. “There you go, I'm all
yours.” Morgan didn't want to take a week off in between
clients since she wasn't going to finish her time with Markus. So,
her time in Belize would start on the following Friday. “I'll
head your way tomorrow, and enjoy the ocean for about a week before
we meet.” She stared at Gil Aguilar's photo, her soon to be
client, and could already imagine the warmth on her skin.

She
finally grabbed her phone and texted Julianne with enough information
to hold her boss over until she could properly explain.
Julianne,
please book my flight to Belize for tomorrow morning. I'll explain
everything in the A.M. Everything is fine, just a change of plans
with Markus...and he needs a full refund.
“There,
everything's about taken care of.”
She stood up, ready
to get her clothes on before pouring her coffee, and ripped the towel
off on her way.

“
I'm
going to mothafuckin' Belize!”

“
Well,
then I guess you're taking me with you.” Markus opened the door
right as Morgan made her big announcement to the seemingly empty
room, and nearly ran into the wall in shock.

“
Markus?”
What the... how...?”

“
I
couldn't let you get away that easily. I hope you don't mind.”
He raised his hand that held a card to her room. She smiled, then
laughed at how ridiculous she must have looked. She picked up the
towel that had been thrown to the floor, and wrapped herself once
again.

“
No,
I don't mind. Not at all.” She was glad to see him, but she
still wasn't going to return to his home. “Markus, I'm sorry...
but I'm not going back with you.” Her heart was still racing at
the shock of him being in her room and scaring the hell out of her,
but she did her best to calm down and get to the bathroom to get more
presentable. “I'll just be a minute!” She closed the
door, and quickly dressed. “And when I get out,” she
popped her head back into the room, “I'll expect an explanation
as to how you got in my room.”

“
Take
your time. And yes, I'll explain.” Markus sat on the bed and
looked at her computer. There, in full screen mode, was her next
client. He also read that she was scheduled to meet him in nearly two
weeks.

“Belize,
huh?” He was only kidding about going with her, but suddenly,
he couldn't think of anywhere else he'd rather go. His heart raced
with the possibility of having a real vacation, and doing so with
Morgan, but he had no idea if she would be willing to allow him the
chance. “I just hope I can convince you.”

“Convince
me of what?”

Epilogue

“I
still can't believe I agreed to this.” Morgan laughed as she
shoved her carry on bag into the overhead compartment. Markus tried
to help, but she had it done in seconds. Obviously, he could see, she
was a professional at traveling.

“I
can't believe you insisted on giving me a refund, then agreed to
spend the week with me anyway.” Morgan laughed, because she had
no true reason for why she did it. Other than, she simply wanted to.

“You
want some time away, I want to go to Belize early, and we enjoy one
another's company. I guess we really don't need a reason now do we?”
Markus settled into his seat and shook his head. No, he agreed, they
didn't need any other reason.

“I'm
just glad I was able to get a ticket on the same flight as you. It
wouldn't have been as fun if we had to fly solo.” Morgan
laughed, and reminded him that he would be flying through one of the
windows if he started snorting again. “Yeah, yeah.. let's just
wait until you fall asleep. Your snoring will easily drown out my
snorting.”

*****

Nine
hours into their eleven hour flight, Morgan woke to turbulence that
she'd never experienced until then. The crack of thunder that was
almost simultaneous with the blinding lightening scared her to the
point of grabbing the hand rests in a white knuckle death grip. “Oh
my god... how long have we been in this storm?” She turned to
Markus who was looking out the window. “Markus? How long?”
Markus turned back to Morgan, all the color had drained from his
face. That alone scared her more than the ferocious storm that shook
the plane like a child's toy.

“We've
been hit by lightening, Morgan. We're on fire.” Morgan couldn't
register his words, but the captain's voice that boomed through the
plane got her attention.

“This
is your captain speaking. Return to your seats and fasten your safety
belts.” Morgan and Markus both buckled quickly, then looked at
one another in absolute terror. The voice sounded once again, and
terror filled every soul on board. “Prepare for impact.”

“We're
going down, Morgan.” He grabbed her hand tightly and she ducked
her head into his neck as his arm crossed over her body. They could
feel the plane descending, and everyone began to smell the burning
fuel that was filling the cabin. She could hear people around her,
crying and begging for any mercy that could be given. Morgan began to
scream as well, and wished only to see her best friend one last time.

“Oh
my god! Oh my god!”
I love you, my Angel. I love you. I love
you. I love you....