Fortune Favors The Bold

CHAPTER NINETEEN: NEXT SUSPECT

Adonis couldn’t wait to be rid of her. Or at least that was what he told himself. He would drive her back home, and if he never saw her again it would be too soon. The journey back to Medina was silent and awkward. Alaya stared out of the window the entire time seeming uninterested in engaging in a conversation with him.

He didn’t know why she was so pissed off for he hadn’t voiced out his intention of dropping her off. Hell, he didn’t even know where she lived, so he figured the best option was to leave her at her workplace, the Medina police department.

When he reached his destination, he just stopped the car in the parking lot. He had to say something, or it would be too cheesy. It would feel like he’s f*cked her and no longer needed her.

“Here you go,” he said gently. “Uhmmm do you want to meet for dinner tomorrow?” he asked awkwardly, unsure of how she would take his invitation.

She turned to face him wearing a wary expression. “There’s no need, Adonis. Really. Now that we’ve f*cked, there’s really no need to feel oblige to dine me or anything. I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself.”

His eyebrows c****d in surprise. “Where has this come from?”

She shook her head wildly, the messy brown hair flowing in every direction. “You just can’t wait to get rid of me. It’s obvious. You haven’t even spoken to me since morning except for two words. And that was in front of your aunt. Now, you really want me to believe that you’re planning to take me to dinner?”

Adonis was outraged – he mimicked her movement of her head in stupefaction. “Wasn’t that how you wanted to play it? You wanted to hide what’s going on between us, and when I pretend that everything’s normal, you’re pissed? What was I supposed to do? Walk up to you and blow you a warm good morning kiss right in front of my aunt? That would have been surely…”

“Alright, alright,” she interrupted in a rush. “You didn’t have to act so…so normal, right? I was damn uncomfortable on that table. And you seemed pretty much at ease ignoring me, and treating me like…” Her voice broke over the last word and she halted in mid-sentence to push back her unruly hair away from her face.

“You didn’t even ask me where to drop me!” she finished in frustration, before opening the car door and jumping out of the vehicle.

Adonis did the same and grabbed her by the elbow to stop her from marching away from him. In one pull, he brought her close with his territorial grip still on her. He knew how she felt, he did such a wonderful job blocking everyone out that it had become a defense mechanism. One which he could not switch off when it pleased him.

“Alright,” it was his turn to acknowledge his mistake. “I’m sorry. I assumed that you would want to go back to work early in the morning. You seem to be obsessed with your work that I didn’t stop to think you had something else planned.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin in regal annoyance. “I don’t work on Saturdays. Only if it’s extremely urgent.”

Stunned, Adonis realized that he’d lost track of time. He hadn’t even figured it was already the weekend. That showed how much she’d messed his mind, how much she was still throwing him off balance. He needed to get his game back as soon as possible.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized again. “I wasn’t actually thinking,” he said in a calmer tone, his anger evaporating after the initial blast. “Why don’t we go back in the car?”

With stubborn determination, she gave him a negative answer. “Nope, I’m all good. Seriously. And I am letting you off hook. There’s no need to romance or woo me anymore. We’re both two adults who’d had consensual s*x and that’s it. There’s oh-eed…ha har hou hooin?”

Adonis smiled as he’d pressed her lips together in a tight pout to stop her from sprouting nonsense. “Are you getting into that car, or do I pick you up?”

“Hilly, herz ho heed. Hi han…Hoooo ham!” she let out the gibberish, and Adonis broke into a delightful grin at her irritation. She tried once again to struggle out of his grasp, but he had her blocked with both hands, one on her cheeks and the other holding on to her elbow.

This was fun. “Are we getting back or not?” he insisted more firmly this time.

A defeated sigh sounded through the hollow opening of her mouth which he presumed was an affirmative answer, and he brought her back inside the car with his hands still tightly grasping her.

When she once again tried to get out, he locked her up with a flick of his finger on his car keys and she blew out a frustrated breath. Without bothering to look at her, he drove to his condo in Seattle.

“Where are we going?” she asked in panic when she finally realized that he was taking the opposite direction of where her home was supposed to be. “I thought you were taking me back to my apartment. Adonis, where the hell are we going?”

He shot her a measuring look to shut her up and drove without a word until they reached his secluded courtyard, surrounded by trees and shrubs. He’d never brought any of his female lovers here, he preferred it to be a secluded plot which would never be disturbed by fanatic women after him.

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed in an unimpressed bored tone. “You have a secret den?”

He smirked but didn’t bother answering her rhetorical question as the guard opened the gates to allow the passage of the car. Joseph was the guardian on shift and his employee acknowledged his arrival without battling an eye. Although Adonis paid them well, it was their loyalty which kept them from selling his whereabouts to the press. That was why he was picky in choosing his staff.

“After you,” he drawled lazily with a dramatic gesture, asking her to follow inside the living room after sliding the glass door open before disabling the alarm. Security was so tight around that nobody even knew that this place existed, not even his own mother. “Welcome to my secret abode.”

Without a word, she looked around in open curiosity, perusing the paintings on the mantelpiece like he’d done with her office desk. It seemed that they were both eager to know about each other. There was a set of pictures of the Fortune family on the wall art and she stopped to glance at them.

He peered to catch her stare at one in particular. “That was taken with all of my cousins when we were holidaying in the Seychelles,” he duly informed, surprised to discover that it was that picture which had captivated her. Of all the pictures displayed, that was the cheapest holiday they’d planned. There were shots of him all over the world.

“You look different here,” she stated, and he was taken aback at the statement. Coming from behind her, he stared at the picture, digging his mind to remember when it had been taken. “That was five years ago,” he commented with a frown. It looked like a time when his cousins were still close and harboring healthy relationships.

She turned to face him, and he knew the exact moment she became aware of his proximity. Her pupils dilated and the pulse at the base of her throat quickened as she reacted instantly to him. It was gratifying but most importantly, his shaft stood in reverent attention to her. They were like magnets attracted to each other without able to control the pull which connected them together.

“You seem happy,” she commented lightly, but eh was too close to miss the way her throat worked up and down.

He reacted accordingly, holding her chin towards his face when she tried to look away. “I was. Those were the times when I thought of them as my sisters and brothers,” he confessed huskily, not minding the fact that she could glimpse his very soul. He never let anyone see how the falling apart of his siblings had affected him. Now, he was breaking his own rule.

“What happened?” she asked huskily, her eyes gleaming with an uncanny awareness of the weight of his admission. It seemed like she could read him like a book which should have spooked him.

Trying to shrug casually, the action became an awkward gesture unlike his usual litheness he was used to. “Life happened. Jealousy crept among our group, and all my beliefs fell apart.” He gave a self-deprecatory smile. “I used to think that we were unbreakable, that we would always stick together no matter what.”

She gave him a rueful smile in return. “Sometimes, it’s best to grow apart. It does not necessarily mean that you’re no longer close, just that you’ve outgrown certain things. I, on the other side, would love it if my brothers distanced themselves from me,” she joked lightly, but Adonis knew she was creating a diversion to diffuse his sadness.

His grin was lopsided. “That bad, huh?”

Rolling her eyes playfully, she let out a mirthless laughter. “You have no idea. The last time I went home, they were all over me for having applied for the post of sergeant.”

“Why?” he was genuinely surprised. “Aren’t they all from the police?”

She sighed. “They seem to think I am only going to be happy working on the field. Supervising an entire watch would bore me. I am not cut for the white-collar jobs. According to them,” she added bitterly.

“And according to you? Is it that important to climb the ladder?” he asked without a trace of judgement because he wasn’t condemning her.

“It’s not only about the promotion,” she informed with a sexy pout of her lips like she was not very happy with his observation. “I am not sure I can keep up with this pace of life any longer. Enrolling in the police had been a given for me, and now the job has started to take its toll on me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love what I do, but I would prefer a more serene lifestyle in case I got married or have a family.”

That opening stopped him right in the track. She was planning on having a family someday? With some loser who wouldn’t deserve her? Who wouldn’t appreciate her honesty and independent streak? That thought caused an enormous emotional lump to settle at the base of his throat.

Just as he was about to put his foot in his mouth, his mobile vibrated in his pocket. He was saved by the bell. Absent-mindedly, his thoughts still on her latest statement, he connected the call without identifying the caller.

“Adonis? It’s me. I am in big trouble.”

“What’s going on?” he exclaimed, disengaging from their embrace in one second and giving his undivided attention to the caller. What the hell was wrong now? Would there be a moment where he wouldn’t feel so responsible for everyone in his family? They seemed to enjoy putting all the blame on him since he was the chosen heir to the empire.

“Ad, I am being threatened by Kenneth. He’s going to talk to the police about me. I am not sure whether they’re going to believe me. Not when I have the best motive in the world. I am not…”

“Stop!” he hollered sharply, sending a quick glance in the direction of the police officer standing in the same room as him at that moment. Thankfully, she seemed clueless to the phone call and was admiring the pictures.

His chest felt heavy before he was about to set up a rendezvous, but the next rush of words at the other end of the receiver knocked the breath out of him.

“Ad, Kenneth has proof of me being the murderer. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”