48. Mila
MILA
W hen I wake in the morning, I’m alone in bed.
The house is quiet, save for the tap of Phantom’s paws on the hardwood floor when he follows me out to the kitchen to start getting ready for the day.
I don’t know how to navigate this . . . ache in my chest.
The uncertainty of not knowing whether or not he’ll come home. I feel empty.
He held me while I cried last night and then let me get lost in him until the first light of dawn hit the horizon. He was different, like he needed to brand himself on me before he left and that scares me.
I may have marks from his hands, his teeth, his lips . . . I may have a delicious ache between my legs, reminding me he was there.
Hell, I even have his last name.
—None of it makes a goddamned bit of difference if he’s not here.
They can have the money, the house, and the cars. I just need him, Phantom, and maybe our little island. Everything else is material.
I go through my morning, getting ready for work. I apply makeup, hoping it will give me a pick-me-up.
It doesn’t. I still look as miserable as I feel.
I do my hair, though I know it will be frizzy and a wild mass of curls as always by the time I come home.
And then it strikes me.
When will he come home? A few hours? Days?
“God, this sucks, Phantom,” I grumble through the toothpaste in my mouth.
The cock of his head tells me he agrees.
By the time I make it to the lodge, I’ve thought of every possible outcome of today’s events, and I’m numb to everything but the anxiety swirling in my stomach.
—A feeling that’s made worse when I walk through the back door to the lodge and find Paulina running around like doomsday is upon us.
“Where have you been?” she snaps, her eyes flaring with that fiery temper she conceals so well.
“I, uh . . . wasn’t due in until ten.”
She pauses, guilt flashing across her face.
“Right. I’m sorry, Mila. Have you seen Bella?”
“Bella? No. Not since last night.”
“She isn’t in her room, and she didn’t come in this morning. I’ve been trying to juggle everything, but I need her.”
“Okay.” I lead her away from the front into one of the offices. “Let me call her.”
“I tried that. Six times, to be exact.”
“What’s going on?” Ava asks, coming into the room.
“Have you seen Bella?”
Her eyes flash between the two of us, and she winces. “She left with a man this morning around five.”
“What did he look like?”
Ava shrugs. “It was dark. He had dark hair. Kind of tall. I think it was that man she’s been seeing.”
Paulina pinches the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, letting out a breath.
“I swear, all of you are going to age me beyond my years.”
I dial Bella’s number, but it goes straight to voicemail, so I text her instead.
Mila: Need you to come in. Paulina is laying an egg. A big one. Send help.
“It looks like her phone is off, but I texted her.”
“That’s what I was trying to tell you.”
“Paulina, why don’t you go take a break? I can handle things for a bit.”
“I admire your courage, Mila, but have you ever run a lodge before?”
“No, but I have common sense, which is basically the same thing.”
I’ll let Christian deal with the monsters. I’ll hold down the fort at home.
Paulina studies me for a moment, uncertainty in her gaze.
“If I don’t do a good job, you’ve got full rights to fire me.”
“You’ll do fine,” she grumbles. “I’m going to take a nap. Something kept me up last night,” she glares pointedly at Ava, who blushes a deep shade of crimson. “If you need anything at all, come wake me.”
“We’ll be fine,” I urge her, lightly pushing her towards the door. “Scout’s honor.”
“Christian and Sebastian were Boy Scouts for two years,” she grumbles. “It was the most stressful time of my sister’s life.”
She goes, leaving Ava and me alone, and that’s when the jitters start back up.
“Mila, you’re shaking,” Ava points out, and I nod through the deep breath passing through my lips.
“Just nervous.”
She stares at me for a moment, then her face pales.
“They’re going . . . aren’t they?”
I swallow past the lump in my throat.
“They already left.”
She lets out a heavy breath, shaking her head and wrapping her arms around her middle.
“God, I never knew caring about someone would be this difficult.”
My gaze snaps to hers. She blushes even brighter.
“I knew it.”
“Knew what?”
“You and Levi.”
She scoffs, her mouth falling open, but she can’t form a coherent sentence.
“That’s-that’s not . . .”
“Your secret is safe with me.”
She shoots me a look, but when I can’t help but grin at her, she grins back.
“It’s strictly platonic.”
“So are Christian and I.”
With the absence of Bella, the lodge doesn’t run nearly as smooth as I would have hoped. It’s easy to see now why she was so frazzled before.
I’m approached with a thousand and one questions about the art of folding towels, guests with complaints, guests with compliments, and problems I never would have thought existed in a lodge as grand as this.
Like a missing bazooka. Apparently, it’s worth thousands, though I’m willing to bet, judging by the sly grin on the dad’s face when the kid is telling me about it, he threw it out.
It’s not until two that I’m able to check my phone when Paulina comes back, looking well-rested and a thousand times more chipper.
I slip into the employee bathroom to take a well-deserved pee break and check through the messages. There are a grand total of zero because all of like three people have my new phone number, plus my mother.
There’s still no news from Christian, but I push those thoughts aside.
The last thing I need to do is have a meltdown while I’m at work.
There are also no updates from Bella. I try to call her again, but it rings straight through to voicemail like the first time.
I chalk it up to needing a break and wash my hands in the sink while I stare into space and contemplate life as I know it.
My husband is going to catch the man that raped me, who just so happens to be my brother-in-law. My best friend is falling in love with my other brother-in-law, and my sister-in-law is missing.
Add on the fact that I’m going to start my period soon, and you’ve got yourself a very emotional Mila.
My phone buzzes, making me jump, and I look down to see Bella’s name on the screen.
I blow out a breath. I’m really not in the mood right now, but I reach for it anyway, answering it on the last ring.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Mila.”
Ice slips down my spine at the familiar edge to the voice on the other end of the line.
My scalp prickles and my scars burn under my clothes like they’ve been dipped in molten lava.
“I’ve got a proposition for you.”
I swallow down past the lump in my throat, my hand shaking where I’m holding the phone.
No, no, no . . . this can’t be happening.
Forcing myself to meet my own gaze in the mirror, my grey eyes are clouded. Alive with fear.
“What do you want, Sebastian?”