Chapter 11 Megan #2
Ric shields me with his body, scans the playground, and turns back again. “There’s no one there, Meg.”
I peer around him, bent double and breathless, heart still thudding dully. The man is gone. “I … saw … him.”
“Are you sure it was him?”
Amber throws her arms around my neck, and I pick her up, tears spilling from my eyes when she wraps her legs around my waist the way she has always done. “What’s the matter, Meggie?” she asks. “Why are you crying?”
“It-it’s nothing, sweetie. I got something in my eye.”
Ric tells the team to scan the area while he guides me and Amber back to the bench, where I left my purse and Amber’s water bottle. We’re almost there when I spot the same man walking away from the playground, a dark-haired boy by his side.
His gait, his profile when he speaks to his son… It wasn’t him.
I only imagined it was Amber’s father. I’ve spent the last five years looking for him everywhere I go, and Nikki’s text message only reaffirmed the very real possibility that he might’ve followed us here.
Ric must see the confusion in my eyes. “Was that the guy you saw?”
I swallow the tears that are still threatening to explode. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare everyone.”
He shakes his head. “That’s what we’re here for.”
As my pulse regulates, it occurs to me that Ric wasn’t right behind me when I started running. “Where did you go?”
It takes him a beat too long to answer. “Towards the exit. I thought I’d be able to cut him off if he bolted.”
My eyes drift to the exit Ric is talking about, the one closest to us. There’s another exit, I notice now, on the other side of the wooden climbing area. If the man had tried to get away, he wouldn’t have run back towards Ric, he’d have run in the opposite direction or hurdled the fence.
So, why didn’t Ric stay with me? Why did he let me run straight towards the man, unprotected? And why did he ask if that was the guy I saw?
“Did you see him, Ric?”
His gaze instinctively follows the other bodyguards patrolling the boundary. “I saw something.”
“Something?” I hug Amber closer to me. His carefully worded response is making me feel even more uneasy than the man with the tiny bald patch. “What did you see, Ric?”
He’s still on his feet; his eyes are still everywhere. “A man was watching you.”
My breath hitches. I scan the area now, staring until my eyes water. How did I miss it? Was I so busy watching Amber that I missed the one thing I should’ve noticed? Or was it my gut telling me to be on red alert that made me latch onto the first man I saw who reminded me of Amber’s father?
I sense it now. I feel someone’s eyes on me, and it’s making my flesh crawl.
“We should go.” I ease away from Amber and stand up, gripping her hand tightly.
The other bodyguards return, shaking their heads. “All clear.”
“I want to go back to the apartment.” I can’t shake the uneasiness puddling in my gut now.
“Can we get McDonald’s?” Amber asks.
“No,” I snap and am instantly flooded with guilt.
She’s just a child. She shouldn’t have to worry about being safe in the playground. She shouldn’t have to be followed around by a team of bodyguards who panic every time she wants to pet a dog.
None of this is fair. None of this is her fault.
“We’ll make burgers when we get back and eat them by the pool. How does that sound?” It sounds like I’m scared, and I hope she doesn’t notice.
“Okay,” she says, like homemade burgers and our own private pool will never compare to a chicken nugget Happy Meal.
I’m still shaking when we get back to the apartment.
Amber sets up a tea party for her dolls in the second guest room which has now become her playroom, complete with a pink princess-style tepee, fairy lights strung around the ceiling, a three-story doll house, and a child-size table and chairs. Pink, of course.
I switch on the coffee machine and eye up the brandy in the liquor cabinet. It would calm my nerves, but it would also blur the edges of my thoughts, and I need clarity to make sense of what happened.
Instead, I take my coffee and sit on the couch where I can stare at the fish in the aquarium. It’s therapeutic watching them drift lazily around the plants and colored rocks. There’s something so serene about sea creatures that it’s not surprising water therapy is so popular with humans.
Ric joins me. “Better?”
“A little.” I drag my eyes away from the fish and look at him. “Am I being paranoid?”
He inhales deeply. “In a situation like yours, there’s no such thing as paranoia. It’s fight-or-flight. I’m not saying it’s healthy to live in a permanent state of high alert, but the instinct is built into humans for a reason.”
I smile. “Maybe I should take up scuba-diving and escape the real world occasionally.”
“It’s not a bad idea. Or you could convince Gio to spend the summer in Sicily with you.”
“Why does he need convincing?” I’d be on that private jet in a heartbeat if it meant we could spend the summer on a beautiful island paradise.
“He … is a workaholic. He’s always searching for the next challenge. This is the most time he’s ever spent away from the office. Even when he isn’t working, he’s usually thinking about working.”
I sip my coffee and catch a glimpse of my reflection in the glass aquarium. I look normal. No one would ever know that I’m still churning inside after the scare in the playground because the woman staring back at me looks so strong, determined, and fierce, I hardly recognize myself.
“I’ll speak to him about it when he gets back.”
Perhaps if we spend the summer in Sicily, this will have all blown over by the time we get back. Amber’s father might’ve moved on, given up trying to find us for a while, and we can settle into this new world we’ve stumbled into.
I reach for my purse to check my phone.
That’s when the world slides out from under me, and I realize that summer in the Mediterranean isn’t going to solve anything.
I pull out the slip of white paper that wasn’t in my purse when we went out earlier. On it, written in bold, black permanent marker, are the words I’M WATCHING YOU.
I can’t speak.
Ric takes the note from me. He’s on his feet, his phone raised to his ear while I watch the piece of paper flutter onto the floor.
He was there. He was so close that he was able to leave a warning in my purse without anyone noticing, and it’s all my fault.
If I hadn’t raised the alert, yelling myself hoarse and drawing the bodyguards’ attention my way, this would never have happened.
But it feels as though he planned it this way.
“The boss is coming straight back.” Ric’s voice is calm.
Maybe he has experienced this kind of situation before. Maybe he has seen a whole lot worse things than I’M WATCHING YOU. But I haven’t. I have my little sister to look out for, and now I know that we can’t stay here, but I don’t know how far we must go to get away from her father.
“We’re leaving.”
I can hear Amber chatting to her dolls about the cakes she’s serving at their tea party.
I have to drag her away from this new life that she didn’t ask for, and I realize that all our stuff is still in LA, and nothing here belongs to us.
Wherever we end up, we’ll be starting over with nothing.
It will be a lot harder for Amber than it will be for me because she doesn’t understand what’s going on.
She won’t even get to keep her puppy.
“Meg, let’s just wait for Gio.” While I’ve been distracted, Ric has placed himself between me and the elevator. “He’ll deal with this. My job is to keep you safe, and I can’t let you leave without speaking to him first.”
“We’re not safe though.” My voice sounds puny.
Where has the fierce woman staring back at me from the aquarium gone?
It’s easy to be strong when you’re in a penthouse apartment surrounded by a security team.
But safety takes on a whole new perspective when you know that the man who killed your mom was within touching distance of your little sister at a public playground.
“He was there, Ric. He was right there. He could’ve taken Amber, and there was nothing we could’ve done to stop him.”
“Look, I know you’re frightened.” Ric is still calm as he comes closer. “But this is what he wants. He wants you to be frightened and vulnerable because that makes him feel powerful. But you’re better than that, Meg.”
Am I?
Ric’s gaze doesn’t waver. “You’re stronger than that. You’ve kept Amber safe for five years. You. No bodyguards. No chauffeurs. No concierge to vet your visitors. You’ve managed on your own, so now it’s time to let someone else help you.”
I breathe deeply. In through my nose, hold it in my lungs, and out through my mouth, trying to regulate my erratic heartbeat.
I hear him. But our life in London was different. I never felt eyes watching me wherever I went. I never felt as if he were closing in on us, not the way I do now.
The elevator pings, and I release a heavy sigh.
Gio is back.
Only when Ric and I turn around, it isn’t Gio who steps out of the elevator.
It’s a woman.
I’ve never seen her before. If I had, I would remember.
She’s tall, with glossy tanned legs that seem to go on forever beneath her short white skirt.
She wears a floaty chiffon blouse over a skimpy neon-pink tank top.
Sparkling heels that she doesn’t need because she must be at least six inches taller than me.
And diamond earrings that catch the sunlight from the window and send patterns spiraling across the floor.
We stare at each other, and for a few moments, Amber’s father is forgotten.
“Hello, you must be Megan.” She glides down the steps as if her feet don’t touch the ground and offers her hand in a formal greeting. I accept it numbly. “I’m Lucia. Giovanni’s fiancée.”