Joel pulled away, his eyes ablaze with a confidence I didn’t share. He cupped my cheek and wiped a tear away as he stood and left the room. His men, all dressed in black, stood guard at the entrance a good fifteen feet or more away from the waiting room to give me privacy. I had no idea what was happening with my father, but I did know exactly what I needed to do in order to get Eden back.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, checked recent calls, and pressed the connect button.
“Hello, Faith. I was expecting your call.” His voice slithered along my spine like a rattlesnake readying to strike.
“Aiden, I want to trade.” I spoke through the sour bile climbing up my throat.
“You know I love a good trade,” he jeered haughtily, his nasty laughter clawing at my nerves and fraying them further.
“Me for Eden,” I offered.
“Deal,” he agreed instantly. “Meet me at the front of the hospital for the exchange in half an hour. No funny business, Faith, or I swear to God, she dies.”
The line went dead along with any hope I had for a new life.
Episode 31
The Governess
RUBY
The plane ride from Las Vegas to Heathrow was spent with Nile working on his laptop the entire time, Noah laid out on the lone couch asleep, and me cowering in a lounger staring out the window. I was exhausted because flying was scary as all get-out. The one plane ride I’d been on from Mississippi to Nevada had been easy. Of course at that time, I’d been so excited to get the hell outta Dodge, I was focused on the possibility that my life would change, not on being stuck in a flying death machine.
Between turbulence, the endless sound of air rushing through a floating metal canister making my ears hurt and my head pound, not to mention the hours spent waiting to fall to a fiery death…my nerves were beyond frayed. When we landed, I was a wobbly, uneasy mess and probably looked like a drowned sewer rat by the time we got into the fancy car that waited at the tarmac to retrieve us.
The guys had assured me the ride to the Oxshott Pennington family estate where we would live together as one big happy family of acquaintances wasn’t too far. And yet the landscape rolled by wet and dreary as rain battered against the sleek black limo we rode in. Noah settled his long frame at the front of the vehicle, rested his head against the window, and fell back to sleep. Either the man slept a lot or very little and was catching up on his rest.
Nile had spent the last thirty minutes scrolling through his phone and typing out what I guessed were emails. Ever the workaholic. I was beginning to wonder what life with either one of these men would be like. I doubted Nile would have much time or bother with me outside of fitting me into a mold of the perfect Pennington wife. What that would entail I’d imagined would be strange for an American who’d been born and raised in the South. But I was up for the challenge. Given a goal, I’d work to achieve it until my fingers bled. It’s how I’d secured my GED even after quitting school at sixteen to go to work and pay my own way.
Noah on the other hand was a wildcard. He seemed genuinely interested in wooing me, which was rather strange since they’d just paid a wad of cash to buy my hand in marriage. Wooing was unnecessary, and I still didn’t understand why they’d go to such lengths to do it. I figured maybe it was sibling rivalry. Which was something that didn’t make a lick of sense to me.
Opal was my world. My sister was all I had that was good and right. And she loved me more than anything or anyone. I knew that deep in my bones, and she had the same with me. Our relationship was built on love, trust, loyalty and as it pertained to the long game, we were both committed to bettering our lives. I would never want what she had or fight with her to win over a man. Men were a dime a dozen. You could have your pick of the litter if you had curves, a pretty face, and knew how to suck dick. That’s all any of the men I’d ever been around wanted from a woman. Or perhaps that’s all they’d ever wanted from me in particular. But, honestly, it made things a lot easier to control when you knew what you were dealing with.
Nile was straightforward, direct. Didn’t beat around the bush. He made it clear what he wanted and expected. I liked knowing what someone expected from me. Made it easier to give ’em what they wanted so I could get what I needed.
Noah was a smooth-talking playboy who’d likely left a trail of broken hearts in his past. If he believed he could rip open my cold, dead heart and feed new life into it, he was sorely mistaken. I wasn’t in this arrangement for love. I was in it for money. A lot of money. Life-changing money. At the moment, I didn’t care who “won” me in the end. The result would be the same.