All is Lost (All Series, Book 2) (42 page)

With my suggestion her smile is more brilliant
than the sun tanning her checks a rosy pink shade. She doesn’t even
hesitate. Jogging over, ignoring my assistance, she leaps up and
wraps her body around the rope and sits on the old tire. Laughing
exuberantly, she starts a gentle rocking rhythm.

“
Gran brought us here many times
when we were here during the summer,” I admit, happily. Reminiscing
I smile at the memory of my precious grandparents being more like
my parents than my real ones.

“
You’re lucky to have
grandparents,” she whispers sweetly.

I can see the heavy emotions lying within her
striking eyes and change the subject before she gets consumed with
her dark past. “Once puberty hit, having fun, while playing around
with girls was my main objective, instead of playground
fun.”

Snorting, she says, “Yeah, I’m sure you get
plenty of adult entertainment.”

“
Mm, hmm,” I offer, giving the
swing a gentle push.

“
I like this Morgan,” she
confesses, glancing down at me with an adorable grin.

“
I don’t think I like him at all
anymore.” I counter, turning my back on her and walking back to the
blanket.

After a few moments alone with my demons, I
feel relief when I watch her stretch out beside me. With her eyes
cast upward scanning the slow moving clouds, she lets out the
cutest little sigh.

“
Every relationship is messed up
and I speak from experience. In all of history I can’t think of one
couple, any parent and child or best friends that haven’t had
difficulties, but I’m starting to learn that they’re still worth
it. My whole life has been about never depending on anyone. I
always thought that once I opened up I would get hurt and I
wouldn’t recover if I lost that person.” She sighs sadly, a very
melancholy grimace hints on her lips. I reach down and lace her
fingers through mine drawing her mind back to talking. She twists
her body around so that she’s lying on her side facing me. “You
wanted to be my friend when we first met. I was scared to let you
in because I was scared to lose you. Losing Anna and nearly losing
Tristan - well, we don’t know that I haven’t completely lost him
yet - it hurts Morgan. All that my life has ever been is
pain.”

“
I know I confused the hell out of
you the night we met. There are things that I did and said that I
am not proud of and you deserve better than that. The truth is I
was attracted to you…”

“
But there was someone else.” She
shocks me by telling me instead of asking.

I stare deeply into her eyes and feel a
comfort with her that I have never allowed before. For once in my
life I want to confess my desires.

“
Yes, but I messed it up, royally.
And now I don’t know what to do.”

“
Morgan.” Her eyebrows draw in
fiercely and her pupils dilate as they begin to jump around, like
she is scanning my face for deception. “We will get her back,” she
says with honest determination.

“
You know?”

Nodding, she answers, “I think I knew the
night we met. Would you do anything to get Waverly
back?”

“
I would deplete my trust, go to
the ends of the earth, use all of my contacts and do everything in
my power to get her back home.”

Breesan’s eyebrows draw in tightly, “Back to
you?”

Nothing and no one has been of greater value
to me than Waverly Collins, but is Breesan the one to hear all of
this? What if I never get the chance to tell Waverly how I feel or
apologize for every bad thing I did and said to her? If she is
found…alive, would she want me back after putting up with my
bullshit issues for so long? She deserves so much better than me. I
want her back so badly so that I can confess all of the things I’m
feeling to the right woman.

After several minutes with no response from
me, she accepts that I’m not prepared to tell her anything today.
Reluctantly, we pack up our things and begin making our way back to
Rhys’. As this fucked up day draws to an end I have discovered some
things about my family, my friends and myself that I have a feeling
will help me get through it all. I don’t need money and prestige to
make me a good man or this life better. I need my woman back in my
arms, telling me she forgives me and together we will make this
life good.

I will do anything to get
Waverly back
, I silently answer Breesan’s
question.

Chapter
Twenty-Eight

Breesan

“
You’re serious?” Kole asks
incredulously, both eyebrows shoot up to the ceiling while Morgan
explains about what happened with Tristan at the Walker Mansion.
“He forgot Breesan?”

Morgan glances sympathetically at me
and sighs before responding, “Well, he knew me, but not her. And it
seemed like he was just ‘getting to know’ Elise.”

“
What?” Catching me off
guard with that last part, I suck in a sharp breath. “Elise? I
never saw her there.”

“
Yeah,” Rubbing his hand
against the back of his neck, Morgan’s eyes flash regret, “she was
with him when I returned to his room. That’s the other strange
thing; the way they were uh, touching each other. Before the
shooting he would not normally allow that shit, but much as Tristan
loves Anna, I don’t think he’s even asked for her since waking
up.”

“
No!” I shake my head.
“Tristan would never let another woman touch him. Hell, he never
looked at another woman for over ten years. And forgetting Anna is
impossible. You know that, Morgan. It’s obvious the head injury has
changed him, but how and what do we do now?” I plead, looking
between Morgan, Kole and Rhys sitting around the kitchen
table.

Rhys grunts, piercing me with all
seriousness, “Has Tristan ever fucked Anna?”

I blush at his blatant
question and really don’t want to reveal their private details, but
Rhys’ serious tone and equally serious look seems to be out of
concern and not morbid curiosity.
Could he
know something about what’s happening?

“
No,” I reply, glancing
down at my coffee cup, I hope my answer appeases him enough to
change the subject, quickly.

“
Shit,” Rhys snarls. I snap
my eyes up and meet his, noticing a desire building in his eyes,
like he really does know what is happening to Tristan, but can’t
tell us. “I’m sorry Doll. When Sam gets back she can research it.
Maybe she can come up with something to explain away all of this
bullshit.”

Chewing nervously on my bottom lip, I
nod in response and replay the unrecognizable look on Tristan’s
face earlier, swallowing hard at the thought of him flirting with
me and then doing who knows what with that bitch, Elise.

The sound of bare feet slapping on the
tile floor draws me out of my painful thoughts and I glance over my
shoulder toward the doorway. Tac walks in wearing black basketball
shorts revealing long, tan legs, lightly covered with smooth, dark
hair. His black tank reveals well sculpted biceps, and his dark
hair is all messy and a little damp, from a recent
shower.

He smiles at me before strolling over
to the coffee pot and pouring a large cup. Tipping it back, he
gulps it down black before pouring another cup and leaning his back
against the counter facing us. It’s nearly ten o’clock at night,
but the coffee flows freely from the industrial size brewing
station around the clock.

“
Do we know when Sam and
Marcus will be back?” Morgan asks.

“
Naw, we’ve intentionally
cut communications since they arrived at Key West. It’s just too
risky with…”

Rhys trails off realizing he is
telling Morgan more about their case involving Dr. A than he really
needs to know. Before Morgan can push the issue, Tac reaches for
the remote and turns up the volume on the television that is now
flashing three pictures on the screen. One causal shot of Waverly,
a beautiful graduation picture of Anna and a sad freshmen year
photograph of me, the last organized picture I submitted to taking,
each with “Update on Missing Local Women” stamped at the bottom of
the still frame, silencing the room.

“…
the Knight family
increased the reward by an additional one million dollars for their
daughter Anna today, bringing the total to five million for
information that leads to her rescue. The Collins and Maxwell
families also offer a hefty reward for their missing daughters
Waverly and Breesan. A contribution of five million dollars for
each young woman was made today by a party demanding to remain
anonymous making the total for all three an astounding twenty-one
million dollars. Unfortunately for the families of the three
abducted women, no-one has made contact demanding a ransom in
exchange for their safety. Tonight the latest developments in the
case are heartbreaking. Baldwin county sheriff’s office along with
the FBI released a statement a few moments ago that diminishes all
hope in finding the young women. After conducting several
interviews with witnesses, it appears that the women may have been
taken by a well-known group with ties in human trafficking. For the
past ten years, the Gulf Coast and Southern Atlantic region have
seen a staggering increase in these types of missing person’s
cases. Sadly, none of those women were ever
located
…”

Morgan growls out a string of cuss
words under his breath. Tac shuts off the television, prohibiting
me from hearing the rest of the report. Turning my eyes away from
the black screen, I glance around at the men. They all are looking
at me like I’m a piece of china, teetering on a shelf’s edge, about
to plummet and shatter into tiny fragments right in front of their
eyes. Although it wasn’t that long ago that their expectations were
what my reaction to catastrophic news absolutely would be, today I
am stronger and my resolve is set on finding Anna and
Waverly.

“
What?” I ask keeping my
voice steady.

“
Aren’t you going to pass
out or vomit?” Rhys jokes.

“
No,” I say rolling my eyes
at him. “I’m fine, really.” Turning to Kole, I ask, “Do you know if
there is any way we can find out more about this human trafficking
ring?”

He smirks before responding, “Why? Are
you going to hunt them down?”

Noticing that he answered my question
with a question, I counter with, “Could we?”

All four men respond together,
“No!”

Slumping down in my seat feeling
defeated with them adamantly against the idea, I mumble,
“Fine.”

At that very moment Tac’s cell phone
begins ringing and the front door slams closed. Excusing himself to
answer it in private, Tac taps on his phone’s screen and begins
talking as he walks out the back porch door. Heavy clacking heals
on the tile floor enters the kitchen and all heads turn in unison,
finding a blubbering Ensley. Stopping after only a couple of inches
inside the room, she looks surprised to see everyone here and wipes
her tears away quickly. She has been staying with Tox for the past
week and hasn’t been around to know that they are all pretty much
staying here now.

“
Beatrice, can I talk to
you?” Looking around the table, she narrows her eyes on me,
“Alone?”

I hear chairs sliding out, throats
clearing and notice from the corner of my eye that the guys are all
getting ready to leave. I hold up my hand for them to stay seated
and rise up out of my chair.

“
Let’s go up to my room.” I
say.

After shutting my bedroom
door, I sit on the edge of my bed and watch Ensley pace the length
of the room like she’s nervous about whatever it is she wants to
tell me. I know this can’t have anything to do with me, Ensley
doesn’t have a clue who I am or what my real story is. She hasn’t
watched television since she was a child and current events bore
her. I’m curious about what has her so worked up, but I hate being
nosey.
No, the old Breesan felt that
way.

“
Are you alright?” I ask
her, deciding to step out of my comfort zone.

“
Hell no I’m not alright,”
she snaps angrily. “Tox broke up with me.” She stops pacing, and
narrows her eyes on me before asking, “Did he say anything to you
last week about us?”

“
What? No, of course not,
your relationship
never
even came up. Why would you ask me that?” I ask
defensively.

Crashing down beside me on the bed,
she drops her face into her hands and moans pitifully. I’m not
really sure what to say that will comfort her, so I wait. Ensley
sniffs a couple of times, and runs her hand under her eyes, wiping
away the last of her tears before speaking again.

“
I’m a fucking mess,” she
says, followed by a strangling laughter before adding, “I should
have expected it. They always use me then dump me–every damn last
one of them. Why did I fool myself into thinking Tox would be
different?”

Her truly sad eyes look up at me,
yearning for an answer, but I don’t know her or their relationship
well enough to dish out advice.

“
Ensley, I don’t have all
the answers you’re searching for. I just recently went through my
own crap so maybe I’m not the best person to talk to about your
relationship.”