An Arranged Affair

chapter 32 - turning of the tides

Victorias POV

My arms ached from the weight of the bags of groceries and vegetables that I had bought, it wasn’t a lot, but after a while they started to feel heavier and heavier.

We had strolled along the stone paths, looking at curios along the way and as the sun began to set it started to get colder and goosebumps formed along my skin.

In one of the shop displays was a beautiful bohemian styled skirt, an aqua blue color, flared with a heavily decorated border. I stared at it longingly, then caught a glimpse of the price tag.

It was way to expensive, even if it was Indian designer.

‘ If you like it, go try it on.” Phillip said , wrapping his arms around me. I guess he had seen the goosebumps and the warmth he provided was welcomed.

“ Its far to expensive, ‘ I said sadly. “ and besides, its not really your kind of designer anyway. Ready to head back?” I asked, relieved that Phillip had calmed enough to enjoy the afternoon. I had promised to cook dinner and Indian meals always did take time to cook.

‘Yep, you’re getting cold and it’s a long drive home, you head back to the car, I want to get some more of those mangosteen fruit.”

‘ ok, if you follow that ally it should lead to where the car should be. Will you be ok? ” I said taking the plastic bags that Phillip had been carrying, not objecting because in truth, I was looking forward to more mangosteen myself. He nodded and set off, leaving me to walk to the car by myself.

Which wasn’t so bad, it was something I had done a lot with my mother, carting bags back to our modest family car.

But today, with the cold creeping in and the sunset casting creepy shadows along the pathways, I felt uneasy and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

But at last I made it to the car, bathed in the warm afternoon sun, and then it occurred to me – I hadn’t asked for the keys! Oh well, I thought, he wont be that long and I sent the groceries down and fished iside my handback for my phone.

Shit it had been on silent.

And there were 20 missed calls from Simi, and even more text messages.

‘ Bitch where are you?”

‘ Answer your fucking phone.”

‘ Call me now!”

‘ Mere jain, I need you!!!”

The messages went on, but none of them gave me any idea what had happened.

But just as I was about to dial her number someone grabbed me from behind, twisting my arm and I felt something cold and hard against my neck.

‘ Give me the keys and I won’t hurt you.” He hissed, his breath smelt like cloves and cigarettes. Holy hell, I was being mugged.

‘ I don’t have the keys, my husband does.”

‘I don’t believe you, hand them over!” he said pressing the blade against my neck, its sharp blade grazing into  my skin . I had never been so scared in my life, my blood was pulsing in my ears and I couldn’t move.

‘ I don’t have them, I don’t have the key and I don’t have any money, I told you my husband does.”

“ Victoria!” I heard Phillip shout as he ran up to me. “ let her go!”

“ keys, I want the keys.” He pressed the blade harder against my neck, this time drawing blood and at the same time twisted my arm harder, making me cry out in pain. I watched as Phillip walked slowly towards us, reaching his hand into his jacket pocket.

‘”stop right there!” my mugger shouted, pointing his knife towards Phillip, and I noticed that he had a huge trisul tattoo along his arm and his knife was a massive hunting knife.

‘ relax, I am just getting the keys.” Phillip said calmly.

‘ get them out and throw them by the drivers side.”

Phillip did as he was instructed and tossed the keys and the mugger pushed me hard from behind, causing me to fall hard onto the sidewalk, grazing my palms and knees, I watched as he grabbed the keys, got into the car and sped off.

Oh no.

The car Phillips mother had bought him.

It was gone.

Suddenly Phillip was pulling me off the ground and into this arms.

‘ Tori, are you ok?” he pushed me back to look at the knife wound, it wasn’t deep and the blood had started to congeal.

“ Yeah I’m fine, what took you so long?” I shouted at him, slamming my fist into his chest as he held me in a bear grip again.
He let me go and scooped up a shopping bag that had been discarded along the sidewalk and opened it.

Inside were two kilo boxes of mangosteen and the skirt from the boutique, and my emotions turned to shit in that moment, and I could do was bury my head into his chest and cry my guts out, happy nothing more serious had happened.

But also realizing that this was what I wanted.

He was what I wanted.

‘ We have to call the cops?’ I sputtered, very aware that my face was red and puffy.

‘ No we don’t, but I do need to do a few things.”

He took out his phone and I watched confused as he opened an app that seemed to hold his entire car inventory, picked the one that had been stolen and hit IMMOBALIZE.  Then his phone pinged as he received a text message with the location of the car.

‘what is  all this?” I asked.

‘This is new technology I have invested in. as long as your phone isn’t stolen you can immobilize the a car from anywhere in the world as long as the cars computer systems are connected to a satellite.  You can also make sure whoever stole the car is also locked inside the car until its collected.”

‘ Crawford, sending you coordinates now, someone has just stolen the Austin, and he should still be with the car.’ The person on the other side of the phone said something that I couldn’t hear. ‘and Carson, this person has attacked my wife, make sure he regrets it.”

‘ whose Carson?” I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me, it was not I name I had heard before.

‘ hes he head of my security detail.”

‘ I’ve never heard his name before.”

‘ I pay him to be discreet, and to make difficult problems disappear.”

Suddenly a familiar black Benz parked in front of us and Stanford got out of the car.

‘ Eventful day , sir?” he asked, with a disapproving look at my disheveled appearance.

‘ Yes, please load our shopping . Its time to go home. Victoria needs to be attended to, have Dr Brown waiting for us when we get home ”

‘ yes sir!” he said as he opened the back passenger door for me.