Road to Casablanca (29 page)

“Yes?”

Gloria sounded calm and spoke patiently, as she always did, waiting for more details of his always sordid affairs.

“She saw me with another woman, okay?
 
But I swear it wasn’t what it looked like.
 
I didn’t do anything with her, we are just old friends and more than that…I…”

Erick found it harder than he thought to tell her.
 
“I love her, okay?
 
And now she’s gone.
 
She took off on the last flight out of here and I had to borrow a private jet and…”

“You need to get home and find her.
 
I understand completely, and I will do what I can to get it straightened out on this end.
 
Go catch your flight and I will book a new one going to
Dallas
, and when would you like it to return to
L.A.
?”

Never
.

“In a couple days I guess. It doesn’t matter. If I need to change it, I’ll pay or maybe I can have the jet come get me.”

“Consider it done, and I wish you luck.”

It was perfect timing as she hung up and a team of professionals approached Erick’s car to assist him on board the private jet.

“Welcome, Mr. Redmund.
 
Welcome aboard, Sir.”

Erick was bound to receive the red-carpet treatment as a personal guest of Mr. Jibade.
 
There were simply no words to express his gratitude to the older gentleman, no possible way to thank him for his generosity.

The ramp leading into the small jet was a staircase that held twenty-seven metal steps.
 
Erick ducked his head as he entered the richly decorated cabin, which featured dark leather seats with built in drink holders and a full bar.

The staff brought food on board and Erick was immediately served more traditional Moroccan fare and several kinds of small meat-and-cheese sandwiches which he gladly ate since dinnertime was long past now and he hadn’t had any time to eat anything before going to the airport.

“Drink, Mr. Redmund?”

“Scotch, thanks, and make it a double.”

With all Cindy had put him through these past few hours, he wanted to request a triple.
 
He wanted her and would do everything in his power to reach her quickly and bring her home with him to
Hollywood
.

Erick was just settling in to rest his eyes when one of the attendants approached him.
 

“Sir, I’m afraid we have some news about
London
.”

“What is it?” Erick opened his eyes and sipped his scotch.

“We’ve been asked to hold off or choose a new route, sir.
 
It seems they’re having very bad weather there at present and we cannot get a clearing to land at any of the airports around the
London
vicinity.”

“What?
 
What do you mean?
 
There was a commercial aircraft that left for
London
only a few hours ago and there was no word about delays for them!”

“Yes, sir, I realize that, but weather tends to move in rather quickly in that part of the world, and unfortunately, as you know if you’ve flown private jets before, we do not always receive the same landing clearances as larger jets due to possible dangers from turbulence.”

“Great!
 
This is just great!
 
When will we get clearance to land there?”

“It could be minutes or it will most likely be hours at this point, sir.
 
The British National Weather Service says the storm system is hanging over the area and is not expected to leave any time soon.
 
For now, it would appear our best bet would be to land in
Paris
.”

Erick knew he was acting just as his father would have behaved in a similar situation and he hated himself for it.
 
It was certainly not this poor man’s responsibility to control the weather in
Great Britain
.
 
As it was, he figured Cindy had about four or five hours on him and he planned to catch her, or come pretty darned close to it, but now, there would be no telling how he could ever find her unless….

“How long has the weather been acting up?”

“Not long, sir.
 
The front only came in an hour or so ago.”

“Agh!”

After considering several possible options, Erick realized Cindy would be long gone by the time they reached
London
and there was likely no way to catch up with her there anyway.
 
He may as well find her back in
Dallas
.

I need to get Gloria on that right away…
.

“I apologize for my outburst earlier; it’s just that this is an emergency.”

“Yes, sir, understood.”

Erick knew he needed to calm down.
 
The last thing he wanted was for his display of disrespect to get back to his host, who had so generously lent Erick his plane.

“I am needed urgently in the States and Mr. Jibade was kind enough to make these arrangements for me.
 
I’m just disappointed, that’s all, but I realize it isn’t your fault. We can go on to
Paris
if that’s what the pilot feels is best.”

“I understand, sir, and again, I apologize.
 
We will do our best.”

Erick nodded him off with a smile and a thank you and picked up his phone for the third time in the past few minutes.

 
“Gloria, it’s me again.
 
There’s been a change of plans.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Cindy uneventfully changed planes in
London
and was soon headed back to the
United States
.
 
She felt numb, overwhelmed and exhausted with all that had transpired during the past week. All she wanted now was to get back home and try to make sense of the whole thing—preferably by forgetting completely about it.

She slept most of the eight hours back to
Dallas
.
 
When the plane hit the ground, she slowly opened up her eyes and yawned.
 
Cindy felt as if she’d taken an overlong afternoon nap, the kind that left her feeling groggy and exhausted.

As soon as the flight landed and before she could retrieve her only bag, Cindy was on the phone to
Victoria
.

Cindy felt under control as the phone rang, but as soon as she heard
Victoria
’s voice on the other end, she began a fit of uncontrollable bawling.

“It’s me, Victoria…I….”

“Cindy?
 
Is that you?
 
I can hardly understand a word you’re saying, sweetie.
 
What’s wrong?”

“I need you to come get me.”

“Come get you? What are you talking about? You aren’t supposed to be here for another two days, I thought.”

Cindy cried even harder as her friend pointed out the disaster this week had turned into.
 
“I know.
 
I….”

“It’s okay, Cindy.
 
Where are you?”

“At the airport.”

“I’m coming.
 
Just keep your cell on and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Cindy filled out the paperwork to allow her re-admittance into the country and stood in the long line waiting to speak to a customs officer.
 
When her turn finally arrived, she stepped beyond the waiting line and up to the plastic window where the officer asked her about her belongings.

“Are you bringing anything with you into the
United States
?”

She shook her head and began to cry once more.

She should have been bringing lots of new things with her, but she left them all behind, realizing she not only had no new clothes or jewelry, but no new man either. It was completely depressing for her to realize she went all that way and had absolutely nothing to show for it except for her memories, which were both the best and worst of her entire life. But Erick was the only thing that had mattered to her in the end.

Cindy paced around the baggage area and collected her bag, which was one of the last to pop out.

She went outside into the cold December air and walked briskly up and down the sidewalk between the two gates, seeing every breath she took as a puff of steamy smoke.
 

She rubbed her bare hands together and breathed hot air into them just as
Victoria
pulled up in her little red sports car.
 
Before Cindy could get all the way up to the car,
Victoria
had already popped out and was running toward her.

The sight of her friend sent Cindy into another fit of sobbing. “Thanks…for coming to get…me.”

“Honey, of course I would get you.
 
Now tell me, what happened?
 
Why are you here?”

The question made Cindy cry even harder and she couldn’t get a single intelligible word out of her mouth.
 
After a few minutes,
Victoria
picked up her bag, slipped it in the trunk and helped Cindy into the passenger’s side of her car. Before pulling away,
Victoria
sat and stared at Cindy for a few minutes until she stopped her crying and settled down.

“What happened?
 
Was he that horrible?
 
I can call the cops and have that agency turned in for setting vulnerable women up with criminals. We can slap a lawsuit on them, if you want.
 
Just tell me what happened.
 
Was he a creep?”

Cindy shook her head, imagining all the awful scenarios racing through
Victoria
’s litigious mind.
 

“No, no, it wasn’t anything like that.”

“What do you mean, ‘no’? You have the best law firm in
Dallas
behind you, sweetie, so believe me, we will sue this bastard for damages and make that agency go out of business if that’s what it takes. I don’t care how many millions he has, he won’t have a dime by the time I’m finished with him!”

Under any other circumstances, Cindy would have laughed, but today, the words
Victoria
certainly meant to follow through on only made Cindy cry harder.