- Chapter Sixty-Nine -
A Mother's Word Is Worse Than A Rumor
"Can you?"
Not vapor just yet, the most that could be said for that cluster fuck of a phone call was that the messy braid on the side of the young woman's head was rather stylish. Tugging nervously at the end, the heiress slowly opened the door that she had closed between them.
Arms crossed and long legs an inadvertent tripping hazard, the thief hadn't given an explicit answer one way or another. He was just waiting there. For the life of him, Sam couldn't puzzle out which was the bigger mystery: why he was still humoring this, or better yet, why the hell was he even listening to Nadine's suggestion in the first place?
Having bailed out for "coffee" while the other one was in the shower, it was pretty much just the girl in the room, alone with her regrets. No doubt using the mass produced partition to slip into the bathing suit he'd brought over, Daniella had been the one that listened to Nadine, technically. He was just the idiot that had gone along with it.
On some level, the woman wasn't wrong that they could use the practice at being in public together if things were going to stay this awkward. It was just... Strange for him to have to stay and play this whole thing out. Normally when things went sideways (or traditionally before they ever could), Sam had the option to just cut and run, but... Dells was a special circumstance.
Door swinging open faster in horror films, the sliver of her that appeared behind the crack was as fine as his remaining patience. Breathing barely under control as she attempted to don the mask of a sane person, the heiress let out a soft noise that was caught between a ragged sigh and a muffled gulp. One arm across her collar bone to keep her top up, her gray-blue eyes darted down the length of the corridor and yet never once seemed to land on him.
Satisfied with what she did or didn't see, from how he looked at it, the young woman clearly would have rathered that they could keep speaking through the divide. Sam supposed that that made some small sense, all things considered. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that she was...
Thoroughly disgusted!
Dealing with one emotion at a time could be a shitty enough experience, and the heiress had gone through so many already with what felt like zero breathing room. From strolling through the rain-soaked after hours to abusing the courtesy of her gracious hostesses, there had been a vast array of feelings that she would never forget in a million years.
Floating through serenity, sharing a genuine belly laugh with another playful sprite, living the peace of just existing in this world, questioning the cosmic wonder of it all. There had been so much good, it was only karma that there be bad to balance the scales. Terrified that the monsters had come back, resolved to climb out of that hole, collected enough to hear out a reasonable proposition, and then back to horrified once more, everything had culminated in that awful moment. Following the tale to end all tales, everything shifted when she thought...
"I can't do it alone." Hearing the words that were coming out of her own mouth, the young woman demurely presented her back to the man, holding up her hair so he had a clear view.
Reminded of an old song that the girl was probably too young to have heard of, his eyes scanned the vulnerable arch of her spine, fingers counting the steps it would take to get from one shoulder blade to the other. Shivering ever so slightly when one hand briefly alighted to steady his canvas, the girl's shudder practically filled the empty air. No doubt she was wishing that it was one of the two women that were helping with the zig-zagging strings at the back of her neck instead.
Grabbing the swimsuit because she thought it was cute, Dells had no way of knowing that it would end up like this. That as opposed to being mortified by everything that transpired prior to the delivery of her bathing suit, she would still be stuck in the past. Dwelling less on the fact that she had violated guest right and more on the fact that she was spitting in the face of her father.
Above all, the thing she was spiraling in was a pit of self-disgust, because even now she wanted what she shouldn't. Realizing that theft was just another type of lust, the only way to keep herself from stealing what she desired most in the world was to avoid it entirely. Or at least as much as humanly possible.
Shying away from Sam when all she wanted was to lean against him once more, the heiress gave her gratitude to the door. "Thank you."
Heart freezing mid-beat inside her chest, Sam gave her shoulder a gentlemanly pat that just as easily could have been seen as platonic or even professional. Finished tying off the necessary bells and whistles, his warm touch had lingered, thumb hovering just above the surface. Remembering the comforting circles and all those hours he'd held her when she thought that her mother had died, Dells almost caved in, turned around and looked him in the eye. But he broke first, moving away to the wider room, to anything that wasn't her.
It was official: being human sucked.
[Come, Escape To The Beach With Me, If You Would]
Private in the sense that they had it all to themselves, one of the few good things that came out of yesterday's ugly storm was that more than ninety percent of the population were repairing the damage. The Drake's had some clean up to do as well, but they'd gotten lucky; not only was the damage minimal, their good friend Cutter had agreed to return back to the house. Well, not until he tracked down Ali, but he wasn't all that worried about his eldest son.
Joseph on the other hand... there was a reason that he had asked Mary-Elizabeth to keep a close watch on their boy. Which she was presently doing from the comfort of a checkered beach towel and a portable lawn chair, aided by a pair of over-sized wicker baskets stacked with lunch and bottles of at least four different sunblocks. Shades reflecting the light back where it came from, as she reached into the cooler for anything that wasn't an ice cube, mama bear studied the sea.
True blue, aquamarine, ultraviolet dimmed down to a purple that was nigh dusky, there was only the swirling tide, an inflatable beach ball getting bounced over the moody waves, and laughter. Most of all, there was laughter. Joey was alright, splashing around in the ocean with Cassie and one of the other families that had shown up.
"Be careful out there!" It was a warning to the other children as much as it was to her own son.
Elsewhere on the sandy strip, a good girl and her master's mate were running up and down the ever-changing landscape, tirelessly chasing one another. The master was at the shaded bar with his close pack mate, the old man that the people called Sully. Both were reminiscing on old times, talking about everything they had accomplished, everything that her girl would go on to do. Relaxed enough to just enjoy the day for what it was, the master's gaze kept tracking back to his mate, the wide smile on his face getting wider every time she grinned over at him. As for Vicky's namesake, Sully was keeping a weary eye out for anything of interest.
Arrival fashionably late as usual, Chloe was flanked on either side by a dour frown, but she wasn't about to let that get her down. Hitting the sandbox, the woman had been making big plans about a new sand sculpture that she wanted to give a whack, and she'd expected her partner would join her sooner or later. Until that time, Nadine had gone off in search of starfish and seashells. Leading up the rear, Sam had splintered off from the trio-and-a-half to speak with someone he recognized in the parking lot. Someone he had owed.
Stung by the jade jelly without ever stepping foot into the water, the heiress had spent the rest of her time pouting into her drink. Sipping on an undoctored water with lemon at the other end of the L-shaped bar, the young woman was so frazzled by the actions of somebody she was actively trying to ignore that she hadn't realized that she was being watched. Nursing her juice box in the drunk island sun, Dells was barely listening to Mr. Drake and Mr. Sullivan, let alone paying attention to the ebony minx that had been eyeing her with a serious thirst.
Thunder crackling over some far-off mountain to announce that the wicked witch had arrived, things were about to get a lot worse for everybody. Well, technically 'worse' was subjective, but there was definitely going to be friction and discord sown. Just like a real servant of Satan might want.
"Gentlemen." Voice a purr as she slid between the counter and the bar stool, the bespectacled businesswoman beamed at the pilot and the happily married father of one. Bangs swept to the side for the occasion, the woman looked like she had just stepped off the runway, legs covered in a sheer sarong and a little something in red. "Fancy meeting you here."
"What do you want, Bai?" Sully was less than thrilled to see her again after so soon, but that came from being stuck with anyone in a tin can for days at a time. To that end, working with her had been far from what he would consider a pleasant experience. Although, from the way Nate made it sound, Sam at least had found better luck with the daughter.
Order coming almost at the snap of her polished talons, the woman in red stared pointedly down the counter. "Other than this delectable strawberry wine cooler you mean? A lot, Sullivan, I want a lot. I want to mend the relationship I had with my precious baby. I want to have never made that damned deal in the first place."
"Aww, you do care!" Tone completely flat for him, neither Nathan nor Elena were convinced for a red-hot minute that the woman cared about her little girl. In fact, just last night the reporter had privately questioned if Bai would have bothered with Daniella this long if she hadn't been Rafe's daughter.
Leering across the old man, Bai aimed the fullest extent of her glacial fury at the younger brother. "More than you realize. Or maybe you do understand, as a parent yourself." Raising her bottle out to the tide, the businesswoman cocked her head at the girl at play, a vulture in human guise. "You want to give them the world, if you could. You want to protect them, knowing that you can't." Awash in sudden melancholy, the woman gazed away from Cassie, stolen sapphire rain coming back to rest upon her own child, to her own ghosts. "This is a risky game we're playing here, whether you realize it or not."
Nathan naturally took her words and actions as a threat against his own daughter, and he wasn't about to have it. Rising from the bar stool in anger, everything happened so quickly that no one took much notice to the outburst, not even Elena. "Let's get one thing straight: you do not EVER threaten my daughter-"
"That's not what she's saying, kid." Thankfully for him, Sully was there to prevent a scene; catching the younger man's arm before anyone else was any wiser, the charming art dealer knew better. "Right?" Matching the glares going around with an ounce more practice at faking decorum, Victor gestured over to her own offspring not five feet away.
"Smart man." Cherry lips curling into a sneer, the woman tossed her hair over her shoulder in a haughty fashion. "I have no interest in bringing either of them into this. Bad enough Daniella's as involved as she is."
Tolerating the businesswoman less and less, Nathan was in no rush to expose Cassie to this part of his life, however he wasn't sitting down just yet either. "Then what are you playing at here?"
Bai merely shrugged. "Nothing, today. Seeing as Sullivan here just had to see the birthday girl, and Daniella is at that age where it's so appealing to brush off those with your best interests at heart, I was only going to make the most of this time. I can't help it if you lot just happened to show up ahead of me. At this public beach."
"You do realize that there are other beaches, right?" Nathan would rather his family didn't have to endure the black spot in the sun.
Uninterested in hearing a tourism pitch of everything this little speck of land could purport to offer, the woman shrugged. "I should hope so, for the sake of the local economy. Frankly, I could care less about those places right now - this one has something they don't." Gleaming only a shade or two lighter than the salty sky, her eyes made it clear what that thing was. "Happy a coincidence as this was, now that we're all here, this gives me the chance to make sure that I'm getting my money's worth."
Following the woman's intense, shark-like gaze to the heiress, Nathan noticed for the first time that Sam wasn't hovering nearby. In fact, he couldn't see his big brother anywhere. Where was Sam? Slightly more concerting was that the young woman wasn't alone; a local girl that worked at the convenience store in town, Nate recognized the second female at the bar, but for the life of him couldn't conjure up a name.
A good, loyal brother through and through, Nate stoutly defended his absent sibling. "Sam's taking good care of her. We all are."
Charmed to hear as much, Bai laughed over the open neck of her strawberry beverage, "Oh, that's such a relief! But which girl are you all protecting? Ella? What's that idiotic thing your brother calls her? Dills? No... Della? Dells! That's what it was!" Never going to be a fan of that nickname for as long as she lived, the woman struggled to remember precisely what it was she so despised.
Sully had no idea that Sam christened the girl anything, but somehow he wasn't all that surprised. And just like he knew his surrogate son, the pilot with the best goddamn mustache in the biz also knew that the woman disliked more than the friendly exchange. "I've heard worse nicknames." Hell, he'd given worse.
"Then you know that's how it starts." Bothered that her pretty little lamb had taken to something so basic, what irked her maternal side more was that she had embraced the likes of Sam Drake so quickly. The man was a monster, a disease. "I wasn't there for him like I should have been, but I will be damned if I lose her too."
Nathan had some clue as to the kind of things his older brother got to, some of the people, but it was never something he had really put all that much into. Somehow, something about the way that the businesswoman spoke reminded him that once upon a time, Rafe had been one of those people. And so was the heiress.
Going back a couple of nights ago to when Elena had driven them back to the hotel, he'd seen them on the way out the door. It had been more than just a kiss, more than just a tease...
Goddammit, Sam.
[Evil Unfurls It's Wings]
Migrated away from the bar with yet another alcoholic beverage sloshing in hand, Bai had wandered off to catch a few rays before the sun was swallowed completely by the clouds. Leaving her fellow conversation companions in a sorrier stat than which she had found them in, the woman had walked away with a self-satisfied smirk. It was a small victory to be sure, but an overdue one.
"Do you mind?" Inquiring if she could lay out her spotted towel on the sand, Bai set her sight on Mary-Elizabeth next. "This is the best place to keep an eye on my little girl."
Peeking up from the waves long enough to get a good look at the woman, Mary-Elizabeth blinked behind her shades, almost confused that someone so glamorous was speaking to someone as plain as a housewife. Even their bathing suits were leagues apart, the other's trendy, sheer, and the color of sin whereas hers was basic in splayed daisies. Sure, the woman had a high opinion of herself, but this model with her berry lips and windswept coif was the kind of person that belonged on film.
Maybe she had already seen her on film, as something about the refined beauty seemed almost familiar. Was it from the television? Charlie and Joseph both were always giving it to her for all the reality TV and gossip rags she devoted her free time to (Ali at least kept out of those family conversations). Might have been somewhere on the internet too.
Nodding slowly as she recovered from the shock, Mary-Elizabeth gestured to the open landscape, welcoming the stranger to claim any part of it.
Absolutely stunning, the manners of the woman were polished to a level that would flabbergast her boys. "Much obliged, thank you." Hair moving in the breeze, her sarong twirled around her ankles, giving off the impression that the wind itself was at her beck and call. That was crazy of course, but it certainly seemed to be the case.
Something about this woman was ringing a bell, but had it been from something recent? It was simply going to annoy her all day.
Drink noted, as well as the fact that this other woman was flat on her stomach facing the open bar, Mary-Elizabeth remembered that she had said something about being a parent as well? "So, which one is yours?"
Bai pointed directly at the blonde girl at the end of the counter, the same exact one that had arrived with Chloe and Nadine. They had yet to be formally introduced, but given who her entourage was, there was little doubt who that was - it was that Ella girl that was staying with Sam. Honestly that screamed trouble to Mary-Elizabeth, but seeing as she had fallen in love with a scoundrel or two in her day, there really was no room for her to judge.
"Ella, right? I haven't had the pleasure of meeting her yet, but Elena has nothing but good things to say. Seems like you cracked the secret and raised a good one." Chuckling good-naturedly, her eyes were never far from her boy. She supposed that it was inevitable that she would give birth to a handful.
"If only that were true." Sounding more bitter than she had intended to, Bai watched as a foreign young woman approached her daughter, poised to make a kill. "Forgive me, I'm just finding it difficult to swallow."
Curiosity getting the better of her, Mary-Elizabeth perked up at the prospect of some juicy gossip. "Swallow what?" Glancing over at the pair of girls, it seemed like that Ella was making a new friend - a really good new friend...? It was not exactly difficult to picture what that conversation was going like when the second girl's hand had reached out for the small of the first's back. "Oh!"
"Actually," Bai was just as interested in who this second individual was as Mary-Elizabeth, "I have no idea who that is. I was referring to her new boyfriend. Not his biggest fan in the world, but can you blame me? They only just started going out, and already he's warping her into some kind of deviant! It was bad enough just thinking that she was going out with a man old enough to be her father."
Bait snapped up hook, line, and sinker, Mary-Elizabeth's inner snoop emerged faster than it took a supped-up Lambo to hit a hundred on the track. "Old enough to be her father, huh? That's pretty... Something. But are you sure this is him? Maybe that girl is just..." Trailing off as she tried to think what else it could possibly be, the stay-at-home mother frowned, thinking of Cassie. That girl was a good as a daughter to her, and if this older man was going after a young blonde thing like this Ella girl...
"Speak of the devil." Pointing out a certain expert in the subject matter of old pirates and Henry Avery in particular, Bai fingered the man helping the barkeep by lugging a box of fresh supplies up from the parking lot.
"That's him?" Mary-Elizabeth couldn't believe it.
Oh, she could easily buy Sam Drake attempting to pick up on some unsuspecting kid just getting out into the world, that was just the kind of guy she saw him to be. No, the part that caught her so off-guard was how certain the girl's mother was in identifying the relationship. 'Boyfriend' was the exact word she had used, and if there was ever a reliable source of outside information, surely it was a mother.
Confirmation the killing blow, the woman gave a final vindictive look towards the bar before nodding solemnly, "I'm afraid so."
Waiting for just this sort of opportunity, Bai twisted her discovery of Sam and Daniella in a very petty way, knowing from the past that anything remotely close to a real relationship would scare him off. There was no guarantee that making it seem official would stop them from what they were doing, but if enough of his friends thought that it was a legitimate thing, maybe the thief would back off. Ideally, from that point the girl would become insecure and question what it was they were doing.
And she would break his heart.
What came next, Bai couldn't have planed any better than if she truly were omnipotent. Lending genuine credence to her story, the lowly historian had chosen that exact moment - a moment he thought that no one else was paying him any mind - to look over at Dells. Maybe it was just as simple as a bodyguard doing his job and making sure that his charge wasn't in any immediate danger talking to her new friend, but Mary-Elizabeth saw the scene exactly the way that the businesswoman wanted her to.
Colored against him, the case had been made in her mind: Sam had finally found a partner.
"Excuse me, I need to... go to the bathroom." Coming out with the most abused alibi in all of human history and beyond, Mary-Elizabeth had no intention of hitting the outhouse. If anyone really knew anything about this and could shed any light on the matter, it was going to be Elena.
[Poison Spreads]
Mollusks and invertebrates far more attractive than human drama, one Nadine Ross found herself drawn in by the teeth of the rare land shark. Alone and smiling a little too brightly for someone that was embroiled with the triad, Bai had all but invited the amateur zoologist to join her. It had never boded well when the woman became too smug to even try to hide it, so there was no reason this should be any different.
Grumpy as ever to have to face the ex of an ex, the former mercenary begrudged Chloe for talking her out of bringing her gun. While she may not have had the (serious) outright desire to shoot the businesswoman dead, Nadine could think of a million different ways that could change. Besides, at this point it wasn't as if she'd be orphaning the heiress. Maybe legally speaking, but it wasn't as if the law was the best friend of anyone there on that sandy strip.
"What canary did you eat?" Drake had made frequent use of idioms, so she had brushed up her game as to not be made a fool of. Not that Sam would dare dream of doing her dirty like that.
"Oh, it's you." Smirk faltering when she greeted Rafe's old fling, Bai gestured broadly over to her daughter. "What, a mother can't just be proud of her daughter for surviving a triad tail? She's come a long way... I dare say her father might even be proud of just how far she's come, wouldn't you?" Still bitter over that ancient history, the woman adjusted the top of her bathing suit, "You're the only one around here that remembers him outside of that... nasty business. Well, one of the only ones."
Sam. Scanning the busy horizon for the man, Nadine found him helping out the bartender (most likely in exchange for a favor or as means of repaying one). Glossing past the kids splashing around in the churning swell and the fleeting masterpiece that her partner was building, her hazel gaze wandered over the growing congregation of mothers that had assembled to discuss nothing that had to do with their offspring. Sullivan was deeply engrossed in conversation with the younger Drake brother, and the heiress was being picked up by some stranger with lovely ivory teeth and luscious ebony curls.
"Remind you of anyone you know?" Coy twinkle in her eyes, the bespectacled beauty took a throaty chug from her drink, "They always said that history had a way of repeating itself," uninvited, Bai caressed Nadine's cheek almost tenderly, "I just had no idea that it would happen in my lifetime. But I shouldn't be surprised, should I? Rafe always did take what was his."
And speaking of Rafe taking what was his, his little girl was taking the advances of that Islander a bit too well, especially as Sam was right there, watching her as clearly as anyone else. With nothing else to say to that, it was Bai who opened her mouth first, "That can't be good, can it? I'll admit I've never seen Drake get jealous before... You don't suppose it could lead to violence, do you? That would just be terrible."
Practically salivating at the mere thought, Bai hit something that Nadine had only entertained for a single moment (or two, thanks to Chloe). "What makes you think he should be jealous?"
"Wouldn't you be jealous of someone else putting their hands all over your girlfriend? I'd call them, uck," Bai nearly gagged at the thought, which was a real loss for the human race, "lovers, but I think we both know there's a more going on between them."
Going silent, Nadine would have attempted to dispute that there was anything deep about the relationship Drake had with Rafe's daughter, but what could she possibly say when all the signs were there? Chloe could have cooked up something on the spot, some sort of barb or joke or other inappropriate comment, and all she could think of was the fact that this was all coming from the girl's mother.
"You're taking it rather well, assuming what you're saying holds any weight at all." Middling between covering for her allies and denial, the former mercenary shook a stray curl out of her face.
"Am I? How kind of you to say so." Boredom or something similar creeping into her tone, Bai raised her bottle to the bar, "I was worried that it might be obvious I was thinking of creating a scene. But if I could fool you into believing that I wasn't plotting some way to break them up even now, I've done my job as a mother." Mother of the year, anyone there would have said. "For all anyone here knows, I could have hired that pretty little number."
Sickened that anyone could be so heartless - especially when it concerned their own child - Nadine turned around to leave the woman to her mirth. But not before calling that behavior out for what it was. "You're despicable. No wonder your own daughter hates you so much."
"For now." The businesswoman seemed truly unperturbed by the accusation, wetting her thumb to brush away some of the strawberry that had missed her lips. "Rafe always found his way back to me, even after you stole him away. There's no reason Daniella will be any different."
Glad to be rid of the woman, the ex-head of an entire private military company made a beeline straight for her favorite photographer. Orange swimsuit cut low and tailored to flatter the figure, there was no mistaking the onyx-eyed ravenette from any angle. Admittedly, it helped that she was pausing every so often to record her progress, just in case the worst should happen.
"Took you bloody long enough." Not even glancing up from the outer walls of her creation, Frazer never doubted for an instant that she would be left to finish this thing alone. "You know, a girl could get old waiting for you."
It was a good an invitation as any. "Speaking of girls, I was just speaking to Daniella's mother..." Nadine trailed off to give Chloe room to be dramatic and make her fuss, however by this stage she knew better than to leave a wide window for such, "You don't think that they're together, do you?"
Arching a perfectly sculpted brow (as if there was anything imperfect about the pickpocket), the older woman found the source of the hullabaloo, protected as usual by a familiar face. "What, you mean her and Sam?" Despite how actively she had advocated for pushing the two together, Chloe had never been fully optimistic that anything substantial would come out of it. "If they are, something tells me those two will be the last to know."
[Daughter, Dearest]
Lily, the charming and bright girl you always wanted to have as your best friend (or loathed entirely as your mortal nemesis for life), was chatting up the sad little flower she found at the bar of all places. Feeling like they were getting fairly chummy in spite of the wall that the haunted heiress was erecting, the older of the two was persistent.
"You're way too cute to be so blue. What's the story, lovely?" Ready to call on her cousin for something stronger than the watered-down slush on the menu, Lily held off when the blonde glanced up from the lemon wedge after several moments. Startled to see anyone there, Lily chuckled, "You didn't hear a word I just said, did you? Alright sweetie, what's the name?"
"Name?" Immediately thinking that the stranger was asking her for her name, Daniella couldn't remember what name she was supposed to be giving people. Flashing back to giving Angel and Ashley the nickname that Sam had given her, going by Dells just made sense, but... it was the name that he had given her.
Brazen enough to touch Daniella's shoulder, Lily giggled, "The name of the one that gave you the blues."
Dells took a step back from her funk long enough to look at the stranger for the first time, drowning almost right away on the dark curls, wild eyes, secret-spilling mouth, the yellow string bikini. Whoever she was, there was no two ways about it: the girl was hot. Easily an eight on a bad day, today looked like it had been uncommonly kind. At least it had been for Lily.
Strategically placing her hand on the faux-blonde's back for anyone to see, she asks if Dells would like something a little stronger than just a water. "My cousin'll fix you up good, even if you are a couple years shy of twenty-one. It might help you tell the story." Confused, there was a blank stare on the younger's face, earning yet another laugh, "The one that messed you up. Lemme guess, it was a guy, wasn't it? Boys always have a special way of messing with us."
"Thanks, but that's a pass." Declining the drink for a whole host of reasons, the heiress shook her head. "I've made a lot of stupid decisions lately, and I really don't need to make another."
Rejected politely, Lily followed the young woman's gaze straight to the silver fox that was helping out her cousin. Motivated by the spirit of mischief and branded for life with the words 'carpe diem', Lily wasn't quite ready to throw in the towel just yet. "Wrong. I think another mistake is exactly what you need right now."