5. Chapter Five
Chapter Five
Parker
T wo days had passed since Madison Hartley reappeared in my life and I still hadn’t come up with a way to make her and Annie Foster find another wedding venue.
“It’s time to face the music, bro.” Ryan took a sip of his bourbon. “Things change. Evolve. Accept it and move on.”
My best friend was lying on my couch in The Blue Diamond, balancing his glass on his chest, barely using a hand to prevent it from tipping over. The stains his shoes would leave on the tapestry concerned me more, though.
“I don’t want to change anything.”
That wasn’t entirely true either. I hated the life I had, but I hated potential change even more.
“Annie’s too important. You can’t say no. ”
“I know.”
“And there is no point in making it hard for Madison, too. If something goes wrong, it would put our reputation on the line.”
“Those fucking weddings will cause me too many problems.”
“Or they will solve the ones you have now.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s getting harder and harder to give our guests the privacy and the security we promise them. Have you noticed we have had more security breaches this year? And it’s not even over yet.”
That was true. It was early October. We had three more months to go until January and the number of breaches was already higher than all of last year.
“The wedding business would solve this problem.” Ryan waved a hand. “You just have to change the concept. Instead of running a resort for celebrities, you would run a luxurious wedding venue.”
“Weddings? That’s a completely different business, Ryan.”
“True. If only there was a wedding planner lurking around…”
“I don’t trust her. The Gemstone is too important for me to risk it with someone I don’t trust.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “You just want to control her and she’s proven to be a pain in the ass.”
“That too. But she’s not an employee. I can’t let her roam the property and do whatever the hell she wants.”
“Maybe you should buy the cow even if she offers the milk for free.”
I turned my head, my gaze bouncing between his face and his drink. “Are you drunk? Are you calling Madison Hartley a cow?”
And more importantly, could I make him call her that to her face? It would be hilarious.
“As per your deal, she has to plan five weddings for free. She comes and goes as she pleases and you have zero control. But,” he paused for a moment, “if you hire her, you will control her. You will hold her accountable.”
That made sense, but it wasn’t an instant win for me.
“I don’t know. It’s too much change.”
“Yeah. A pretty wonderful change, if you ask me. People get crazy around weddings. It’s a gold mine. It will also reduce the number of clients and staff. And you will have more free time.”
“And what would I do with more free time?”
“Shit. I don’t know. Get a hobby. Travel.” He looked me dead in the eye. “Live a life. You’re human, after all, even if you like to pretend that you’re not. Madison wants to fulfill her part of the deal. Does she have an agenda? I would say yes. Do you need to know what it is? Not really. Her reputation will be on the line too, so I don’t think she would do something that would damage The Gem. You can hire her to plan the five weddings you agreed upon last year. Our potential brides and grooms have the finances to pull off fast weddings, and our calendar is wide open. She will be out of here pretty soon. You just have to let her do her thing while you…figure out yours.”
Ryan was right. Madison could be gone for good pretty soon. And after wedding number five, if people still wanted to get married at The Gem and I liked the business, I could replace her with a more pleasant and manageable version. I would have some experience by then, right? If not, we could always go back to being a luxurious retreat.
The facts spoke for themselves on this one. I couldn’t say no to Annie Foster and this entire idea of turning The Gem into a wedding venue was what I had promised to do. I had been avoiding it for personal reasons, but it was the right move for the business.
“That might be the best idea you had ever had,” I said.
“At your services.” He raised his glass for a toast. “I’m a little disappointed, though. ”
“Why?”
“If she’s an employee, I can’t fuck her.”
I shook my head at him. “I know you’re not picky when it comes to pussy, but come on.”
“What?” Ryan tilted his head. “You can’t deny she’s hot.”
“She’s a menace.”
“It doesn’t really matter now, does it? If she’s an employee, she’s off limits.”
“Trust me, man. You’re better off.”
We drank another round of bourbon, and Ryan left. He didn’t live on the property and he had a life outside of The Gemstone. Unlike me.
Left to my own devices, my mind started obsessing over every little detail that could go wrong with Madison Hartley being here. The more I thought about it, the more I convinced myself that Ryan’s idea was the only option.
Around midnight, I sat down to write an email to Katie and ask her to draft Madison’s contract. Before I sent it though, I deleted it and drafted the papers myself, then emailed them to the lawyer. It was after one a.m. when I took my phone, opened my contacts list, and started writing Madison’s name. I still had her number from the last time she called me more than a year ago. My thumb lingered over her name, but I decided against calling. I texted instead.
Me: Can you come to The Gem tomorrow?
Texting a woman I hated and who hated me in the middle of the night? I felt like an idiot. She was probably asleep and even if she wasn’t, why would she answer? She would just show up unannounced, happy to mess up my entire day.
I went to the bedroom, left my phone on the nightstand and started taking my clothes off. I needed a long shower to wash off the long day. And if the hot shower didn’t put me into sleeping mode, I could go out in the gardens for a walk.
As I was walking through the bathroom door, I heard my phone ping with a message. It had to be Madison, since no one texted me in the middle of the night. Not Ryan. Not even Jessica.
I contemplated ignoring the message until after I showered, but I was too curious of what her answer might be, so I turned around and walked over to the night stand.
Madison: When?
Me: Ten?
Her answer came a second later.
Madison: Okay.
Was that it? Okay? After I tried to bribe her to take Annie elsewhere, then threatened to make her life miserable if she stayed here?
I didn’t know what to write back, so I just left the conversation and took a shower.
Sleep wasn’t on my cards that night. I walked around the gardens for hours, then went back, took another shower, this time a cold one, and got ready for work.
That had become a routine for me in the past few years. I spent one sleepless night just to fall asleep on the couch in my suit the next evening.
About nine hours after I texted Madison, I was standing in the garden, close to the main building, scanning the lobby through the floor to ceiling windows. She appeared at ten o’clock, an energetic bounce to her steps and determination written all over her face, like she had an entire plan on how to kick my ass before noon. It was a good thing I had just finished my third coffee of the day.
“Good morning,” she offered a hand to Katie, ignoring me. “Your boss didn’t introduce us yesterday. I’m Madison. I was quite close with Mr. Wilson’s previous assistant. If you are anything like her, I’m sure we will get along just fine.”
“If you are trying to push my buttons, it’s working,” I said, my tone flat. “You can stop now.”
“You’re so easy to rattle, it’s not even fun,” she pouted, and I caught myself staring at her mouth. Her red lipstick made her lips look…
I shook my head and cleared my throat, forcing my gaze to meet Madison’s. “Katie,” I extended my hand in my PA’s direction and nothing happened. Then I glanced at her. She just blinked, confused. “The papers.”
“Oh. Yes. Sorry.” She slapped the contract in my hand and I faced Madison again.
“I thought about what you said. I agree. I did my part of the deal and you should, too. You should plan five weddings at The Gem.”
Madison didn’t tear her eyes away from the papers. “Great. And what’s that?”
“That, Miss Hartley, is your contract of employment.” I waved the papers between us, as I watched all the color draining from her face.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m not letting you walk around with no accountability. So if you want to plan those five weddings, you will have to do it as my employee.” She opened her mouth, no doubt to argue, but I cut her off. “If you don’t sign this contract, I will have to call Annie Foster, tell her you refused to become a part of our team and that I am hiring a new wedding planner that would love to organize her wedding. Let’s face it. You would sign if she was that important to you as a client.”
I offered Madison the contract, and she snatched it out of my hand. Her face screamed murder, and I found myself eager to find out what her next move would be, which was fucked up in an entirely different way. When did she start to interest me so much?
“Is there somewhere I could read this in private?”
I narrowed my eyes at her, surprised she gave in so fast. “Of course. Katie, please guide Ms. Hartley to The Pink Diamond.”
Katie whipped her head in my direction so fast she might have pulled out her neck. “Sir?” I just glared at her and she nodded. “Yes, sir.”
She led my potential new employee towards The Pink Diamond while I walked into the main building and headed to my office.
I hadn’t planned on sending Madison to The Pink Diamond beforehand. But it was a good call. She would be isolated there, while in the main building, she would have access to the staff. I didn’t trust her not to pull some shit in retaliation.
Katie joined me in my office ten minutes later and we waited. An hour passed and nothing happened. She didn’t come looking for me. I started checking my phone for what seemed like every other minute. Nothing.
I faced Katie. “She’s plotting something.”
“What could she be plotting?”
“I don’t know. But that contract is not that long, nor is it complicated enough for her to take an entire hour to read it.”
“Would you like me to go check up on her?”
“Sure,” I snorted. “Like I would send you there and give her an opportunity to do something.”
Katie’s eyebrows lifted. “Okay,” she mouthed as if I was a crazy person she didn’t want to talk to.
Madison was a way bigger problem for me than the attitude of my current personal assistant, so I ignored Katie’s reaction and got out of my office.
I tried to catch a noise as I approached The Pink Diamond. Any noise. I couldn’t hear a fucking thing .
I reached down into my pocket, pulled out a card that unlocked every door on the property, and invited myself in. That was something I would never do if a guest occupied the villa, but Madison wasn’t a guest and I wasn’t disturbing her. It was the other way around. She disturbed me more than I ever thought possible from the day I first heard her obnoxious voice on the phone.
I walked in, determined to catch her in the act of whatever she was doing. As I reached the living room area, I noticed the contract on the couch. Madison was nowhere to be seen.
The bedroom door was ajar. Maybe she was using the bathroom. I stood up next to the couch and waited. Still no sound.
I pushed the bedroom door open and found it empty. It looked like someone had laid on the bed, though.
What. The. Fuck?
Anger mixed with fascination made me walk in and check the bathroom. She wasn’t there either.
Returning to the living room, I glanced out the floor to ceiling windows and spotted her sprawled out on a lounge chair by the pool. That was the moment I got worried about how all this would end.
Because that was the first time in my life that I fantasized about drowning someone.