Lisa
"When I asked you to make me disappear," Jennie said from the edge of the pool, overlooking the lapping waves of the Atlantic, "I definitely wasn't expecting this."
Keeping her locked in my house without any fucking sunlight wasn't going to be healthy. She needed air, relaxation, a place where she could unplug from all the bullshit.
My parents' vacation home in Bimini was the answer.
When any of us wanted to go off the grid, we came here.
After a quick call to my assistant, who'd reserved the company jet and shopped for the clothes and bathing suits Jennie would need for this trip, we'd immediately boarded the plane.
Jennie glanced at me from over her shoulder, the water running in droplets down her back, her soaked hair clinging to her skin. "It's so incredibly beautiful here. Thank you, Lisa. You've done so much already. This is just"—she paused, shaking her head—"beyond what I was anticipating."
I wrapped my hands around her slim waist, holding her ass against me. "You were destined to come here sooner than later anyway." I kissed her neck, taking in a deep breath of that ocean breeze, realizing it was the same as her scent.
She turned around, her hands clinging to my neck. "I wish it were under better circumstances." The pain was so evident in her eyes; it punched me in the fucking gut. "That doesn't mean I'm not grateful or I don't appreciate this trip."
Jennie couldn't ever be an attorney. She wore her heart on her sleeve, and that was something I really liked about her. When it came to her emotions, I didn't have to dig. If she was upset, I saw it. If she was happy, she showed that too.
But what I saw now didn't settle well with me.
Even her voice had changed, an ache in every syllable she spoke.
"Listen to me ..." I gripped her even tighter. "For as long as we're here, I want you to forget about what's happening. Consider this your bubble. No one will find you, and you don't have to hide." I aligned our mouths but didn't kiss her. "And no one can hurt you, not while you're with me."
"It sickens me to know what they're all saying about me, what they think about me." Her chest rose and fell so fast that I could tell she was trying to fight off tears. "Those are the thoughts that haunt me."
I turned her around and lifted her into my arms, moving my back against the pool, waiting for her hands to drop to my shoulders and her legs to circle my waist. "You can't change the way people think, how they feel, the way they react." I kissed her chest, right along her heart. "You can only control what's in front of you." I then moved to her lips, pressing mine against them, stalling there for several seconds. "Being here. Enjoying the escape." My mouth found hers again. "Us."
"You're right."
"Once we know the truth, we'll come up with a plan, a statement will be made, and you'll get an apology—whatever it looks like. But that's when you'll gain back some power, when you can control things from this end."
With her facing the beach, she broke eye contact to look at the water, her eyelids closing, the sound of the waves so prevalent, the perfect soundtrack. "I'm going to try." She finally looked at me. "I promise."
I was going to do everything I could to help her keep that mindset.
But that didn't mean my brain wasn't on fucking overdrive, scheming what I was going to do to the bastards responsible for this.
And how deep I was going to bury them.
"You and your family have something really special here," Jennie said, setting her fork down after taking a bite of her fish. "A private chef." She nodded toward the plate. "A yacht." She pointed at the boat that was docked out front. "Aside from your house in LA, this is the most beautiful home I've ever been in." A hint of a smile crossed her lips. "And, my God, that sky."
