ISAAC

 

“You’re a fully grown arsehole,” Shelly snaps, launching her cup at my head. I move my head an inch to the side, and it whistles past my ear ending its travels against the gym wall. I arch my eyebrow and look behind me. Remnants of tea are both splashed against the wall and pooling on the floor. Liberally scattered pieces of the Avengers mug—which was one of Shelly’s prized possessions—litter the floor. I turn back to Shelly.

“Don’t you give me that look, Isaac James. You’re being a fucking dick, and you know it. You may be my boss, and I may be getting out…” she pauses, “… thank you for that by the way.” Her tone is lighter, and I tip my lips up at her quick change, but then she morphs back into angry bitch. “Don’t you smile about this. You need to go and get the girl. She loves you, and you wounded her, and the fucking reason you did it was because you were hurt by her reaction to your truths.”

I settle back against the machine I was using, knowing Shelly isn’t even a tenth of the way through her tirade, and I’m best just to let her continue. “Maybe if you had been honest with her, trusted she could handle your truth, that she loved you enough to deal with the person you really are, accept all of you, Isaac… all of you.”

Shelly slides down the wall and hangs her head. “I have no one. I grew up with no family, nobody looking out for me. I liked one boy when I was a teenager.” She holds up her finger and whispers, “Just one, Isaac. I was only fourteen when we got together, and he looked at me like I made his world spin, the same way you look at Liv.”

With a strangled sigh Shelly drops her head against the wall. “We were seventeen and got into a car wreck, Simon died.” She levels me with her eyes. “Just like that.” With a click of her fingers, she releases a single tear.

“I’ve never been here, Shelly.”

“Been where?”

“Drowning.”

“Then kick your fucking feet and remember to breathe, Isaac… remember who you are, before you can’t anymore.” Pushing herself up from the wall, she heads toward the door.

“Shelly?” I call. She stops still but doesn’t turn around. “I hate that for you. Hate that you had that. You’ve never shown interest in anyone, not until Toby.” Her shoulders tense.

“He’ll look at you like you make his world spin. I know he would if you wanted to offer him the chance.” Her shoulders drop, and she continues, leaving the gym and heading back toward the house.

I scrub my hand down my face and start cleaning up the broken mug on the floor. At least that’s one mess I can do something about. Once I’m done, I sit with my back against the mirrored wall and pull out my phone hitting some buttons and placing it to my ear.

“Isaac?”

“Does she hate me? Just be honest, Toby.”

He takes a second and sighs heavily. “No, Isaac, she doesn’t hate you. That’s not the problem.”

“What then?” I demand.

“Shit man, she loves you, that’s the fucking problem. She loves you, and you broke her.”

I feel the emotion clawing at my throat and brush my thumb over my eye. I’m surprised when I pull it away and feel moisture. “I need to fix this. I need to speak to her.” I rush out, rising from my lingering pity party on the floor.

“You can’t,” Toby tells me, sympathy in his voice.

“What do you mean?” I shoot back.

“She’s gone.”

“What the fuck, Toby? Spit this shit out,” I growl.

“Liv and Helena went on holiday yesterday. They took off to a villa in Portugal. I’m not sure how long they’ll be gone, maybe you should wait until they get back?” he replies.

“Fuck that. Gotta go,” I instantly mutter.

I jab at my phone again.

“Control.”

“This is Kane. I need a location of Olivia McKenna and Helena Todd. They would have taken a flight out of a London airport yesterday heading to Portugal. I want an exact location sent to my phone and book me on the next flight to the nearest airport from that location. Text me the details.”

“Yes, sir.”

I cut the call and stalk through the gym and back to the house. Most of the guys are hanging around waiting for their next assignment, deciding whether to bail or stay with a new team. Shelly is sitting in the corner, eyes firmly on the TV, her face relaying that she’s pissed off. Even though there are chairs either side of her, the men have given her a wide berth and are balancing on the edge of the sofa arms just to stay away from her. I chuckle, and her eyes slice to me.

“What the fuck have you got to smile about?” she grinds out.

“I’m going to get her.”

Her eyes widen, but I ignore it as I walk to my bedroom, pack a bag, and grab my passport. I leave my team and the house behind. Checking my phone, I jump on my bike and head to the airport.

 

 

The heat in Portugal isn’t stifling like it can be in England, but that doesn’t stop my top from sticking to my chest. I hurry to find the car that was booked for me and relish the air conditioning, which I put on full blast before heading to the complex. The villa Via is staying in is part of a bigger complex located in Lagos. My connections managed to secure another villa for me, within the same complex only a quarter mile away from theirs. Checking my watch, I note that it’s siesta time. Each villa is private with its own pool, so I can’t just wander over and find her. When I arrived, I spotted a bar, and after a quick shower and change, I head out there.

Tourists are everywhere, and those obviously single women aren’t backward in coming forward. I try to ignore them and instead strike up a conversation with the bartender, Marco. It’s unlike me, but I need a distraction, and if those women eyeing me think I’m gay, that works in my favour.

“So, this the only bar in the complex?” I ask him, looking around and trying to get the lay of the land.

“Yep, although there is a club on site, too. This place is more for the day and lazy evenings. We also provide food.” He tells me, his broken English better than my broken Portuguese.

“Food?” I question.

A phone behind the bar starts ringing, and he chucks me a menu as he turns to answer it.

“Ola!” he greets as I turn my eye to the menu.

I expect it to be all bar food—hot dogs, fries, burgers, and the like—but am impressed when I see it’s a restaurant-worthy menu.

“It’s good, no?” he questions.

“Yeah. I didn’t expect you to have this much selection,” I reply.

He shrugs. “The tourists don’t always like to travel far, so it helps to have it on site.”

“You mean they’re fucking lazy,” I reply with a chuckle.

He just smiles as I grab my bottle and down my beer. I go back to watching the pool area slightly to the left of the bar until another phone call grabs my attention.

“Si, One, One, Five, Landsdown. Thirty minutes.”

The address repeats in my head until I realise it’s Via’s villa address.

“You do deliveries, Marco?”

“Si,” he answers.

I stand and throw a tip on the counter.

“Adios,” Marco calls to me.

I nod my head and make my way back toward the villas now I know she’s there. I’ve waited too long. I need to see her, feel her, touch her. She needs to know that I love her, no matter what, and I’ll beg her to look past my darkness.

Making my way to her villa, I see lights on out the back and can hear voices, so I walk around to the back gate.

I realise too late I should have knocked on the front door, I should have texted or called her first… I should’ve never got on that plane.

“So what now? It’s been nearly a month since we were kidnapped. Don’t you think that you need to talk to him?” I recognise the voice as Via’s roommate, Helena.

There’s a slight rustle followed by a low groan, and I step closer so I can see them both. They’re lying on a couple of sun loungers, Helena’s facing Via, but my girl is staring into the sky. She’s wearing sunglasses, but I can still see the stiffness of her body.

“You know I texted him. I wanted to make things right, but he ignored me.”

“We went over this, Liv, you need to try again.”

“Hel. Please stop it. He came to pick me up for Uncle Dane’s funeral.”

“Fuck, he did? You didn’t mention it.”

The tension washes away as Via’s body slumps on the lounger. “He was so cold, Hel. His face was blank, and when he didn’t come in without me asking him, I realised that there was such a wedge between us. Apart from giving me a little comfort at the funeral, he pretty much ignored me. He had his chance, I know it was a funeral, but he could have said something, anything. Hell, he could have asked to meet with me a week later. He did nothing, Hel, nothing.”

“So, Liv? You can still fix it.”

I watch as Via sits up on the lounger, swinging her lithe tattooed legs over the side and proceeds to shred my heart, which is no less than I deserve.

“Honestly, Hel? His kiss with Shelly is burned into my brain. I think that was to push me away, but it killed me… it fucking killed me,” she whispers the last part, swiping her finger past her left eye. “Even after that, I texted him, gave him the chance to talk to me. He didn’t take his chance.” Via hangs her head. “I wonder if there is a reason for that. Maybe Isaac is trying to let me down gently? Or, maybe the universe is telling me to give up.” She shrugs and raises her head again to look at Helena. “Either way, I’m done. It’s too painful, and I can’t go through it anymore. I can’t keep breaking because one day I might not recover.” Via stands gathering her bottle of water and pushing her sunglasses on top of her head. She stares at Helena with pure belief in her words. “Maybe one day Isaac James will be ready, maybe he’ll be able to give himself over to another person, to love another person completely. Hopefully, he can be honest and good, and everything a woman needs. Maybe one day, but that day isn’t today, and that person isn’t me.”

In that moment, my Via disappears. Olivia McKenna morphs in front of me, and I know, without a shadow of a doubt that I’ve lost her. She’s gone… and so has my heart.