Around the World in 80 Men Boxed Set 31-35 (60 page)

“
Have
you told anyone else?” Morgan wiped her hands dry with a dish
towel and folded it in half before draping it over the sink.

“
No,
not anyone that you know personally, but I've informed Gil that there
was an accident, but you're safe. He offered to allow you a place to
stay, but I suggest you take time off and...” Julianne didn't
get to finish her sentence, because Maureen came around the corner,
holding something very dear to Morgan.
“Are you serious!?”
There, in Maureen's hand was Morgan's travel bag. Her laptop,
scrapbook, camera, cell phone, purse. It was all in there.

“
Your
overhead bags were recovered, as well as the rest of your luggage.”
Maureen pointed to the front room, and Morgan walked around the
corner to see for herself, including what she assumed to be Markus'
and Ernesto's as well.

“
I
can't believe this!” Morgan hugged Maureen tightly, then
thanked her several times.

“
Is
this everything?” Maureen looked from Morgan to Markus, then
Ernesto, and all three nodded in unison.

“
Thank
you so much!” Morgan went to her carry on bag first, and
unzipped the front compartment. Her cell phone was there, and she let
out a breath of relief. The front screen had a large crack on the
glass, but the rest of the phone seemed fine. She opened up the main
zipper and was happy to see her laptop was still in tact as well. “I
still have all my pictures.”

Morgan
would have been fine if those things had never been recovered. She
still would have had all of the memories in her heart, but it meant
so much to her to have them back. She turned her phone on, and it
powered up as normal, the picture of Angel on the front screen made
her smile. Her battery was almost dead, but it was working. She
waited several seconds for texts or voicemail to come through.
Tanner. Tanner. Tanner. Angel. Tanner. She opened Angel's text
message first.
Cuntzilla is driving a bitch mad. What do you think
about hair remover in her mothafuckin' fancy shampoo?
Morgan
smiled down at her phone and shook her head.
He doesn't know.
For
that, she was thankful. The last thing she wanted to do was put her
best friend through that. Several more messages came through. Tanner,
again. Finlay. Tanner.

“
Well,
aren't you popular?” Markus wasn't so lucky to have his cell
phone recovered, and as he assumed, it had been thrown from his lap
upon impact. Morgan shook her head as a large smile took control of
her lips.

“Yeah...
I guess so.” She held her phone tightly and stared at the
screen. Obviously, she thought, Tanner called enough times that it
was clear he'd heard about the crash. She took a deep breath, and
opened his first message.
Please... pick up. Please, Morgan. Pick
up!
Morgan's eyes filled with tears of love, and guilt for what
he'd gone through in the last few days. It was the next message that
took her from silent sadness, to a free falling tear fest.
Morgan,
I don't know if you've survived the crash. I don't know anything.
Please... please call me. You need to be alright. You need to be
alive!
She navigated through her messages, and with blurred
vision, opened one more from the Tan Man.
I love you, Morgan. I
always have. I always will.
“He thinks I'm gone.”
Markus heard her words, but didn't respond. She spoke only to
herself, and he knew it. Instead, he placed his hand on lower back
and rubbed the tension from her body. “I... I need to make a
few calls. Excuse me.” Her eyes barely made contact with his as
she stood and left the room.

Julianne
wiped a tear of her own at the scene she witnessed, and she too
excused herself to the small room that Maureen had offered. She
needed time to process the great news of Morgan's survival, and to
make a few calls of her own.

Morgan
closed the door to the bedroom and walked slowly to a small green
chair next to the window. She looked out to the vast yard, covered in
snow, and thanked the powers that be once again for sparing her life.
“Tanner.” She spoke to the silent room as she stared down
at her phone, then opened his contact. She clicked his picture and
took a deep breath as the phone was brought to her ear.

Tanner
sat at his table, staring at the photo of he and Morgan aboard Lady
Godiva. It seemed so long ago and his head dropped as his hand ran
once again through his hair. He sniffed loudly and pushed his chair
to the ground with the force of his legs as he stood.

The
sound of his phone, sitting on the coffee table in the living room,
annoyed him instantly. He didn't want to talk to anyone, he didn't
want to work, and sure the hell didn't want to hear about anything
going wrong with his fleet. He hesitated before picking it up, but
the smallest thought that it could be news of Morgan controlled his
hand.

He
grabbed it firmly and flipped it over. Morgan. His heart beat hard
against his chest, to the point of feeling the pulse through his
entire body. Morgan. The one name that he thought he'd never again
see on his phone or otherwise. Suddenly, as if by the same force that
carried him to the living room, he pushed the answer button.

“Morgan!
Shit... Morgan! Oh my god... you're alright! You're alright!”
Morgan's sad smile lifted her lips as his voice raised to the point
of yelling before she could say a word.

“I'm
okay, Tanner. I'm okay.” Tanner let out a yell that should have
been used at a sporting event, not over the phone. A soft giggle
escaped her lips without warning.

“Morgan!
I love ya! I love ya, so damn much! Tell me what happened. No! Don't
tell me.. yes.. tell me! Shit! You're alive!” Morgan nodded as
she listened to his excited rambling, and finally broke through his
words to answer.

“I'll
tell you everything, I promise. But my phone is almost dead and I
need...,”

Silence.
Morgan's phone gave one final
beep
of warning, and shut off in
mid sentence. But it was alright, because Tanner knew she was safe,
and she lifted his pain in those few brief moments. “I'll call
you later, Tanner.” Morgan spoke to the lifeless phone and
stood to leave. Before she could reach the door, the thought of
another call she'd have to make filled her mind. An hour of charging
her phone was all she needed for the next call. “Finlay.”

Chapter
Five

Morgan
pushed her head against the cushioned arm of the sofa, and moaned
slightly as she rubbed her full belly. Jules and Maureen had insisted
on making dessert, and everyone agreed to a double chocolate cake
which turned out perfectly. Morgan turned her head slightly to see
the window, and yawned loudly at the reminder that the day was coming
to an end.

She
watched Julianne pace in the short hallway as she spoke quietly on
her phone. Morgan smiled, knowing that Julianne felt comfortable
enough with Morgan's condition that she was able to get some work
done that evening. Even though everyone could hear the soft rumble of
Felix snoring from the back bedroom, which was the reason for
Julianne conducting business outside of the room, it somehow brought
comfort to Morgan's heart. Her eyes then moved to Markus who had
fallen asleep in an oversized red plush recliner. She yawned again,
and turned to her side to face the television. Morgan reached forward
to pick up the remote from the coffee table, but the sound of a
throat clearing brought her attention to doorway of the kitchen.
Ernesto.

The
man had trouble walking, but he limped to the opening and propped his
body against the wall, facing Morgan directly.
Freak.
Her eyes
moved quickly away, and back to the remote that she could barely
reach.

“Let
me.” Jules walked to the table and grabbed the controller, then
handed it to Morgan. “Get some rest. I need to go to town and
get a few things, but I'll be back in a few hours.” Morgan
nodded and thanked her once again for dinner and dessert. “It
was my pleasure.”

Moments
later, Julianne joined her sleeping man in the bedroom, and the rest
of the occupants were either gone or asleep. Except, she was reminded
by another obnoxious sound from the man, Ernesto. Morgan tried to
clear her mind, and to stop allowing herself to think the worst of
strangers.

Fucking
Carlos. You won't change me, asshole.
Morgan closed her eyes as
she realized the lie that she'd told herself far too many times.
Carlos, in fact, did change her immensely. Case in point, her strange
uneasy feeling around anyone that she didn't connect with. Maybe, she
thought, that was the problem. She made friends easily, but when she
didn't, her distrust of them surfaced instantly. She also knew that
Carlos was the first man that brought that feeling out in her.
Maybe
it has nothing to do with Carlos. Maybe that's just how I'm wired to
think.
Thinking too much was also something that she didn't like
about herself, and she closed her eyes for several moments as the
sounds of an infomercial for
the greatest hair product in the
world
filled the room.

Morgan
couldn't shake the feeling, and she scolded herself for being a baby
as she pushed her legs off the side of the sofa. There was a small
television in her room, and she decided to call it a day and watch
something before going to sleep in bed. She was halfway across the
room when Ernesto finally spoke.

“Sleep
well, Morgan.” She turned quickly, and the smile on his face
looked nothing like happiness. A chill raced through her spine, and
encased her mind with a trigger to leave his presence as quickly as
possible.

I
fucking hate you, Carlos.
She moved quickly and was in her room
within seconds. Morgan closed her door and turned, her head leaned
softly against the cool light wood. When would she trust people
again? How long would his reign of terror control parts of her life?
She had no idea, but for right then, all she wanted to do was forget
about the chill in her very soul that Ernesto easily created.

Morgan's
hand moved to the small lump on her forehead as it began to throb
with each beat of her heart. She sighed quietly, trying not to feel
sorry for herself, as she knew that she'd been the luckiest person on
that flight. A slight head injury and some overall bruising were
nothing compared to the lives lost who sat all around her on the
plane. Everything was suddenly growing in her mind to the point of
needing to shut it all down. The crash, memories of Carlos, Ernesto,
and even the thought that she hadn't called Finlay yet.

“
I
can't... I can't handle anything right now.. I'm sorry, Fin.”
Morgan had kept all of her emotions at a safe distance until that
moment. She walked slowly to the bed and removed her sweatshirt. The
sweatpants, however, would stay put since she usually threw one leg
out from underneath the cover during the night. Her room didn't hold
heat as the rest of the house seemed to, and she wanted nothing more
than to be comfortable and get a full night's sleep.

“
But
you,” she opened her pill bottle and shook one white pain
reliever into her palm, “I can handle.” She popped the
pill into her mouth and quickly washed it down with her bottle of
water that still rested on the nightstand from earlier. The pain
relief mixed with codeine was exactly what she needed to clear her
mind enough to get some much needed rest. “Tomorrow will be
better.”

*****

Finlay
woke to nature's call, and moaned loudly at the pain in his lower
back. He tried to stand quickly as he always did when he left the
bed, but moaned again when the pain slowed his movements. Another
week or less, according to the doctor, and he would be back to his
old self, but he wasn't sure he could handle lying about the house
for that long.

He
managed to take care of his business easily enough and was about to
leave his room and tackle the stairs to let the dogs outside since he
was awake. The sound of his phone, however, turned him right back
around and to his dresser. He looked at the screen and pressed the
button to ignore the call. It was his secretary, and he was in no
mood to discuss work at the moment. Finlay was just about to return
the phone to the dresser when he noticed that he had a text unread as
well.

“
Tanner.
What the fook does he want?” He opened the text, and read it
several times before reacting to the words. “Her phone is dead,
but she'll call back. She's alive! Morgan is alive!” The fog in
Finlay's mind wouldn't allow him to process the information, anymore
than the lack of knowledge that Morgan had been in danger of any
kind. “Alive?” He immediately called Tanner, and sat in
his large black leather chair next to the bay window in his room.