Chapter 8: All Bets Are Off

Sleep was a funny thing. The time allotted for sleep was not the time her mind allowed her body to get any rest. Her thoughts were all raising their hand at the same time, like reporters demanding they get to ask their questions first. Yet she had no answers. All she did was hold on to her imaginary podium and shift her weight from one foot to the other. Sleeplessness was the only constant in her life. A constant easily dismissed with the recreational use of drugs and alcohol. But before she got into all that, the only thing that set her mind at ease and guaranteed a good night's sleep was talking to her brother.

It had been a week since she'd been uprooted, since her father's attack, since so much had happened that all she had left was apathy. It was just too much. Here she was playing Jasper's pet once more, only this time, he held a mistake on both their parts over her head.

Married.

The words married and mistake should never be in the same sentence. Not that she ever the M word ever applying to her anyway. Marriage was for believers like Liam and Ophelia, and maybe even people with an agenda like Gemma. Not Lenny. These things didn't happen to the likes of her. She wasn't a believer, not after she had seen her parent's marriage crumble all these years. She had no agenda; her marriage wasn't some political event to be celebrated. It would never mean anything to anyone since she had never been the heiress to the throne.

It should mean something. It would mean something to Liam.

Liam would care. Where she couldn't, he would. He would talk her out of this apathetic-pathetic funk she was in and maybe make her care. Care for the mess she was in. Or at least set his mind at ease. Her brother had so much on his plate right now that being one less worry for him would probably make her feel better.

Getting out of bed without waking him had proven rather easy since they didn't exactly cuddle. They enjoyed the vastness of the bed. Occasionally their feet or an elbow made contact and just as quickly wonder back to its half of the bed. She felt around with her feet till she found a t-shirt and slipped into it before setting out to look for Jasper's phone. Even with very little lighting from under the bathroom door, the room's colors were just scandalous, distracting even, making her search challenging, but not impossible.

Minutes later she was sitting at the edge of the tub, phone in hand. Surprisingly, it wasn't locked. Why would it be? After all, there was no video. Dialing Liam she checked her watch as she heard it ring. Thankfully time difference worked in her favor.

"Hey, you didn't call yesterday, is everything okay?"

They'd been talking? Well of course they had, Liam had ordered Jasper to take her out of country.

"Actually, it's me." She whispered into the phone, then moving to sit inside the tub, even closing the shower curtain hoping not to wake Jasper.

Then there was silence on the line then he practically whispered her name as well. Maybe this wasn't a good time for him?

"Len? Where's Jasper, is everything okay? Did something happen?"

"No no everything's fine… I just wanted to talk to you. I don't have my phone, I think Jasper's hidden it and- I've just been so lost without you."

For a moment her voice broke but she managed to bite her cheeks and stop herself from crying for the time being.

"H-how's dad?"

"He's doing better. He made it through surgery and it was touch and go for a few days. He's breathing on his own- Lenny? Don't... He's fine! He's doing better!"

Eleanor hadn't known how bad this had all been. He hadn't been able to breathe on his own for a few days?! And she was all the way over here?! She covered her mouth to keep herself from screaming. All she wanted to do was scream and- and what? And nothing. There wasn't a damn thing she could do.

"I should be there! Liam I need to see him, how, who did this?!"

"We don't know… Trust me, Ted, everyone is working hard to get to the bottom of this. Please stay cal-"

"HOW CAN I STAY CALM!?"

At this point she got so agitated, her words still echoing against the disgusting bathroom walls before Jasper's fist on the door and a few threats joined them.

"Len talk to me, what's going on? What is that?"

"It's Jasper, I woke him up"

"Why is he yelling such profanity? Has he hurt you?!"

Just then he got the door open and stood there, less than happy with her but at the same time his eyes gave him away. He wasn't angry, he was scared.

"No, no Liam everything's fine. We're fine. I just needed to talk to you."

Saying her quick goodbyes she then held the phone up for Jasper to take. He looked at the screen but the call had ended.

"What the fuck was that?"

A few hours after her nervous breakdown, Jasper was putting their bags in the car just as the sun was coming up. He was too tired to drive but hopefully the coffee would kick in soon. After she had finally cried herself to sleep, he didn't dare close his eyes. So far, every time he'd been fooled into thinking he could rest, something would happen.

He had to keep her busy and so far, Vegas had proven the worst place to do so. The ring on his finger seemed more and more like evidence that another night in Las Vegas and things wouldn't end well. He didn't resent that little set back as much as he'd like to think he did. It wasn't like she seemed to. Just moments ago she wouldn't even take the thing off to get in the shower. It would do, for now, he concluded as he put the last bag in the back seat. As soon as things went back to some sort of 'normal', where she didn't need him and her wish was her command, she would have this annulled. So he told himself before his heart chimed in with a "Maybe she won't".

Liam had finally managed to sit with his father for the first time all day. The man was asleep by now and he did his best not to disturb him. So much had come to light with all this. Unfortunately, not enough. He felt like he was barely scratching at the surface of something that went beyond his mother's affairs, his uncle's hidden agenda and who ever dared attack his father.

Even with all that swirling in his mind, he worried about his sister. He'd sent her away to keep her safe, to keep her from hurting herself. He couldn't lose her too. Something called his thoughts back to her. Before the phone call, he could feel something was wrong. Different.

Jasper had called him diligently every day. The last two days had been radio silence and he'd just assumed he was keeping Len distracted. As per their last conversation, he was keeping her clean as well. Eying his phone one more time, he saw a text from Ophelia.

'I found something.'

Bingo. As soon as he could set his mind at ease about Eleanor one more time, he could focus on their father's attacker. He just needed to know she was really fine and that he'd done the right thing in trusting Jasper. Kissing his father's hand, he made sure he was comfortable and well before stepping out of the room to meet Ophelia in her father's office.

Not good not good not good…

Her brain was on loop. Before she thought of what she should actually do with the newly acquired information, she'd texted Liam that she'd found something. It had taken all afternoon for her father to leave his office and once he did, Ophelia set to the task of getting any information she could on Jasper and Eleanor's location and what they'd been up to. All tracking info indicated they'd been in Vegas all week. There was nothing particularly off about that, nothing that could alarm Liam into asking her to do this. She'd gone a step further and hacked into the bodyguard's personal iCloud and the findings were… Not good or bad. She jumped when she heard the elevator door open but thankfully it was expected company.

"What is it? What did you find?"

He made those seven steps from the elevator to the desk look like 2 and before she knew it, her boyfriend was towering behind her, shoulder surfing and very intensely eying the picture backed up into the server.

"They didn't…"

There was no radio silence. They were in the middle of their honey moon.

Notes

An other chapter down as we all suffer from lack of Royals! Ugh!

As usual, please review! Thank you so much for those who have! Feel free to tweet me hrh_Len !

This story will be updated Wednesdays and "Hot Water" on Fridays!

Till next time!