More Than Forever (Providence Series Book 2) (8 page)

“What’s the plan Baz? I need to get Isla and the babies somewhere safe as soon as possible.” 

“Coleman wants you to head to the Gili Islands off the coast of Lombok. Right now, he’s arranging for new ID’s to be delivered for you and Isla. You’ll be booked under your new names at one of the resorts on Gili Air Island.” One of his men stepped forward, handed him some papers, and he skimmed them before continuing. “The plan is for you to fly from Changi to Soekarno-Hatta in Jakarta, then to Lombok, and then a boat will take you to Air.” 

I mulled all of this over. “Is this the safest thing for Isla, Baz? Physically and medically. She’s supposed to be getting medical attention here and I’m suddenly taking her away from it. What if they follow us there, too?” 

Baz had always been a straight shooter with me, so I knew he wouldn’t bullshit me on this.  

“At this moment in time, yes,” he took a deep breath before continuing. “The bombs tell us that you are both targets, Luke. We had no way of knowing what was going to happen; any surveillance that we had in place was blocked, and this time not in one location, but in
seven
locations. Whatever technology this fuck has, it’s advanced. Right now, we need to get you and Isla to safety, and the best way to do that is to send you off the grid. Indonesia is a huge place and full of islands, and Bali is so busy that people can disappear there easily. If we suspect that they are close to where you are, we’ll move you to another island; Indonesia literally has thousands.” 

His explanation was helping the suffocating tension that I’d felt when I first heard the news. “What about medical facilities? Isla needs her IV and the sickness monitored.” 

“Coleman had a contact who has supplied six men, all Indonesian, to take over your security because we would attract attention to you. One of the men, Guntur, is ex-military and also a medic; he’s going to look after Isla and we’ll arrange appointments in Lombok as required.” The look on my face must have shown how skeptical I was; I wouldn’t risk Isla’s or the babies’ health; they came first, no matter what. “Luke, I wouldn’t do this unless I was happy with the people that were taking over. Guntur and his men are good, and when I say good, I mean the best.” He stopped and looked over at the other member of security standing slightly behind us and then looked back at me. “There’s one more issue…” 

I hated the tone he was using, it made me think of when my Dad told me that our pet Labrador had died when I was eleven. “What?” 

“Your hair…” he looked up at it and then over at the other security guy again. 

“What about my hair?” 

“The blonde will stand out too much. Even though there will be other fair haired people on the island, we want you to blend in.”  

What was he saying? I needed to shave my head? “Fuck no! Look man, I get what you’re saying but the hair stays.” I wasn’t vain, but I would look a fucking mess with a shaved head. 

“No, Luke. We need to make it shorter and it needs to be dark. Statistically speaking, dark hair will help you blend in and not be so…conspicuous.” 

I heard a little giggle behind me and turned around to look at Isla, who was now biting her lip trying not to laugh harder. I guess my expression was too much, because she lost the fight and started laughing so hard she snorted - one of my favorite things about her. You knew when she found something really funny because she couldn’t stop the snorts. This sadly worked against me on this occasion because any anger I was feeling left me as I listened to the sound of Wilbur coming from the woman I loved. 

“You ruin it and I’ll kill you,” I warned. Baz looked behind me and one of his guys stepped up with a bag in his hand. “You know what the fuck you’re doing?” 

 “Yes, Sir.” “Okay then, fuck it up and I’ll kill you, too!”

Isla was still laughing as I walked past her, but she still managed to get out a parting shot. “Don’t forget his eyebrows!” Little traitor, but at least she wasn’t so tense around me. 

Chapter

SEVEN

I
sla
 

W
e’d arrived on Gili Air
after twelve hours of travelling. Luke’s security chief had logged an incorrect manifest for their company jet, which was flying to Manilla and then on to Tokyo. We were flying under our new names to Jakarta, then on to Lombok, and then the final leg of our journey - getting a boat across to Air. The IV had finally been removed from my hand for the flights, but I had medication that Doctor Lo had told me to take to stop the nausea. Thankfully, I hadn’t had to take any yet, even though the boat trip across almost had me tossing my cookies to the fish, but I made it. I know they say that there are safe medications to take while you were pregnant, but I was scared. So much had happened to me that the possibility of my one slice of heaven being taken away was terrifying me. I had no option but to trust Luke to keep us safe, and while I may not trust him with my heart, I did trust him with our safety. 

Our new home was a seriously cool cottage that I fell in love with as we pulled up to it. It had been built to look, what I would think would be, ‘traditional’ and was right on the beach. The inside was beautiful and I walked back outside to take photos to show to Maya so she could see when I got back to Piersville or was allowed to send them; she so had to come here! Our phones had been taken away by Baz before we left Singapore. He’d told us that the guy called Guntur, who had met us at Changi Airport with the rest of his team, would be giving us temporary phones while we were here but we were very restricted on their use. I couldn’t just call Gram or my friends for a chat when I felt like it. We had to keep conversations brief and give away no details of our location, just in case.  

The plan was that Guntur and his team would be around us at all times, but that they would also blend in with everyone else so that no attention was drawn to us. I kept this running through my head because it was in my nature to wave and talk to someone I knew, and I obviously couldn’t do it with them. I didn’t feel safe here right now, but the added security helped and I wasn’t going to do anything to put us at risk. 

Turning to look at Luke, I burst out laughing again at his new hairdo. Baz’s man had dyed it a really dark brown, cut the sides down, and styled the top into an almost quiff; he just looked so different and miserable. Luke wasn't a bright blonde, it was a medium tone, but the dark brown was going to take a lot of getting used to. He was still walking with a limp, and I figured it would be a while before that went away. Was he even meant to have traveled as much as he had? 

“Cut it out!”  

“I can’t, it just looks so…so…” I lost the fight and started snort laughing again. 

“The betrayal cuts deep,” he grumbled as he walked around the place. Luke was always so serious, but there were moments where he would lighten up and became one of the funniest people that I’d ever met. Few people got to see that side of him though and it was a crying shame.  

I still couldn’t relax around him and the way that I was thinking was worrying me, so I walked outside and saw a hammock and kicked my shoes off to get into it. I loved hammocks; my Gram had one in her garden and I used to spend hours in it just to avoid going home to face Calista and Jodie. Making sure I didn’t go ass over tit, I held onto the edge and carefully laid back. I don't think I’d ever been somewhere so peaceful in my life. 

Now that I knew that I was pregnant, I couldn’t stop putting my hand on my stomach; it was becoming an obsession for me. What had added to my excitement was that Luke had pointed out earlier that I had a baby bump. I hadn’t noticed it until I’d looked down as I was having the scan in the hospital and now it was a magnet for my hand. Guntur had booked me a scan in two weeks time in Lombok. and I was hoping I could pick up some Balinese baby things. This was dangerous thinking for me, because now I was thinking about what baby stuff I needed to get when we got back to Piersville and what room in my house I was going to put them in. Maybe I should be dwelling on the fact that someone had planted bombs in my car and Luke’s house, but thinking about it, I
did
feel safe here. In fact, I felt safe with him. He’d told me that he’d never let anyone hurt me and I believed him. It still worried me what had happened, but for this moment, we were all safe. 

I could hear Luke talking on the phone inside the cottage as the hammock gently rocked with the breeze. 

“He did what?” His raised voice made me sit up and almost fall out of the hammock. What had happened now? “A fucking unicorn? Why?” 

Suddenly, a laugh I’d never heard from Luke came booming out of the cottage and I saw him laughing so hard that his entire body was shaking, which wasn’t what I’d expected to happen. Seeing him looking so carefree, settled something inside me. What it was I didn’t know, but there was a peace where there hadn’t been one before.  

L
uke
 

I had phoned Ren to see
if Mace had discovered anything yet. The guy had gone off the grid and was working with his old Marine buddies to try and find out who the fuck was doing all this shit. That was three experienced teams that we had working on this, and, so far, we’d come up with nothing.  

Who the fuck was this guy? 

“So man, there he is, apparently, swinging his dick in circles and yelling about being a windmill. He see’s poor Ebru and…” he broke off laughing and choking. “Then he’s pointing his dick at her saying he’s a unicorn!” 

I couldn’t remember the last time I laughed as hard as I was right now as he told me about Tony and Cole yelling about his ‘magical horn’ then chasing after Ebru. It was hard to believe, but a fucking relief. Since he’d been so close to Isla’s car when it exploded. And he’d got away with bad bruises and a concussion.
Maybe it would knock some sense into him?
 

That thought sobered me up a bit and I sat down and asked the question that no one had been able to answer yet. “How’s Cooper man?” 

Ren stopped laughing and went silent for a second. “The last I heard, he’s not good. He has some burns on him, as well as internal injuries. Coleman is going to find out more for us, but right now we don’t know his status. What the fuck Luke - bombs? What the fuck did we do to deserve this?” 

“That’s the million-dollar question, but what I can tell you is that when they are found, I will make sure that they pay for what they tried to do.” 

“You’re gonna have to get in line dude, there’s a long list of us who want to do that, too.” 

Agreeing to talk in a couple of days, I hung up the phone and made the call that I’d been desperate to make since the day before when I’d found out that Isla was pregnant. We hadn’t had a chance to tell anyone yet apart from Dad, and I needed to share this with everyone. 

Dialing my parents’ number, I held my breath as it rang in my ear. One of Coleman’s team, who’d been assigned to my folks, answered the phone and then passed it over to my mom.