After the death of Ayça's estranged mother, she must travel to her mothers homeland. Here she will be forced to reconcile with her past and embark on adventure with a handsome stranger to solve a mystery that has plagued her family and the island fo...
"Ufff" she winced as she held her ankle in her hand. Alp knelt down in front of her and began to press and gently move her foot from side to side. They were heading back from the ruins, her eyes had begun to close from exhaustion that she didn't notice the divot in the road.
"Good thing you didn't break it" he ripped his shirt and began to wrap her foot and ankle "But its sprained, can you stand?"
Ayça tried to stand but promptly fell back down again.
He threw her arm over his shoulder and guided her to a boulder that was jutting out at the edge of the road "Wait here, the hotel is not far. I will bring my car"
Ayça soon realized that her and Alp's definition of not far was vastly differently. She looked down at the clock on her phone, forty five minutes had already passed. The road was relatively quiet no cars had passed since she had been sitting there, her only companions were the song birds and a crow that watched her from an oak. She was heavily engrossed in her NY Times crossword, a four letter word for medicinal plant. That she failed to notice the black luxury SUV that drove past her and stopped a short distance away from her.
"It's dangerous for a beautiful woman to be alone on such deserted roads"
She felt the bile rise and coat the back of her throat. Her fingers froze on the letter 'o' for aloe.
"I am not alone" she responded not bothering to look up from her phone.
Namik slithered over towards her "I think you are very much alone" he paused motioning to her bandaged leg "And injured it appears"
Ayça ignored him and continued to pretend that she was busy.
"I was robbed the other day and the only thing anyone remembered was that the thief had blue eyes and was very beautiful...sound like anyone you know?"
She shrugged her shoulders "Its Turkey- there are many beautiful women with blue eyes here"
"Only one comes to mind that has a fascination with a certain mermaid hotel"
She stayed silent. The blood in her veins turned to ice she could her hear the loud thumping of her heart. He knew.
He pointed to his car "Get in, I will drive you back to the hotel"
She felt the hair on her neck stand on end. She shook her head "No, thank you. My ride is on its way"
He grabbed her arm "I wasn't asking you, I am telling you to get in the car"
Ayca turned and smacked him with all of her force. The sound cracked through the forest, the birds stopped singing. He foamed at the mouth as he reached a hand up to touch his bright red cheek.
He snarled as he lept upon her she let out a small scream.
"If you want to save your hotel, I will make you the same offer I made that whore mother of yours" his voice got low "Come to my bedroom tonight and I will let you keep your rundown hotel"
She reached up to smack him again but he was too fast this time.
"Go to hell"
"Tsk tsk...I am going to have fun with you" he hissed in her ear as he dragged a fighting Ayça back to his waiting car.
"HEY!"
Ayca felt herself being ripped out of Namiks vice like grip as she crashed to the floor falling on her ankle. She bit her lip to stifle the scream that threatened to burst out. She watched as Namik flew to the floor, the dust coating his dark suit. He reached up to touch his split lip, blood had began to bubble at the surface.
"Are you okay?" Alp asked her concern laced in his eyes as he extended his hand to help her up. She nodded, she was shaking a bit. He held her hand, gently caressing the top of it with his thumb to calm her as he glared at the repugnant man.
The men that were in Namiks car rushed out and pointed their guns at them. Alp pushed Ayça behind him. Namik let out a maniacal laugh as he took a crisp hanker-chief out of his jacket pocket and began to dab the blood on his lip. The air was laced with a blanket of tension, even the birds in the trees had stop singing.
His eyes narrowed to slits, a sick smile spreading across his face. He raised his hand to give the order for his men to open fire on them. Ayça came out from behind Alp and stood at his side, she slipped her hand into his. He looked down at her giving her a wane smile as he squeezed her hand. If this was the way she was going to go, she would stare into her killers eyes.
"Father! What is going on?"
A handsome man in his early forties poked his head out of the vehicle. When he saw what was occurring he jumped out and rushed towards them. He wasn't dressed as extravagantly as Namik instead he wore a black suede jacket and an olive green henley.
"Are you crazy? Put your weapons down" he ordered the men but they didn't budge.
"Get back in the car Emre" Namik barked.
But Emre didn't move "Do you really think it wise to kill the most famous face of Turkey?"
The man had gentle eyes and when they fell upon Ayça he gave her a small smile.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Namik stuck his hand out towards Alp "I respect a brave man...albeit even if stupid"
Alp shook it, the skin over his knuckles blanching. Namik turned Alps hand over to reveal a jagged scar extending from his palm up to his wrist.
"Thats an interesting scar..."
Alp took his hand back quickly his eyes never breaking eye contact with Namik. A weird expression came over Namik as if he was debating what to say next. But instead of saying anything he signaled for his entourage to get back into the black Cadillac SUV.
Emre turned to look back at them "Im sorry my father can be a bit-intense" his eyes fell on ayça whose knee was bleeding "can I help you?"
"We don't need anything from a Kozcuoğlu" Alp spoke up his words biting. Ayça nodded in agreement.
When the black SUV had finally driven out of sight, did the tension in Alps shoulders relax.
"Did he hurt you?" he asked as he looked her all over. She shook her head.
"Also I told you those shoes were a bad idea" Alp scolded her as they made their way towards his SUV. Ayça simply rolled her eyes. She didn't have the energy for a snarky comeback not after she had come so close to...she didn't even want to finish the thought.
After Alp had dropped her back off at the hotel, he told her that he was going to take her to see someone that evening. Hopefully she would have the answers to some of the things that her grandfather had written in his journal.
She moved the photo in her room and pushed the mermaid tile to pull out the documents that she had stolen from Namik. She read the papers, only the descendants of the first born Sancak and Ozdemir could claim inheritance to the hotel and its land. It was divided in half between the two families, but the others shares could be forfeited if the hotel fell into disrepair where if one of the parties could not pay to maintain it.
That meant that Emre, Namiks son according to these documents was the heir to 50% of her hotels shares. Why would her grandfather agree to such a thing? It didn't make sense.
