Around the World in 80 Men Series: Books 11-20 (56 page)

Chapter Ten

That night, the two had arrived
back to the hotel around two AM. Not only because of the singing, but
because it was fun. Morgan danced like she never had in her life and
even though four of her new friends couldn't speak her language, she
had fun with them as well. The couple had also taken advantage of
their alone time, like Vlad had promised. They'd made love, watched a
Swedish comedy on television that neither of them understood and
around five in the morning, they both fell asleep in
mid-conversation.

When Morgan awoke a few hours
later though, she couldn't even express the disappoint she felt when
Vlad wasn't in bed beside her. “No, he couldn't have left
already!” She climbed out of the bed, scanning the hotel room
quickly for any sign of man. Coffee was brewed, the mirror in the
bathroom still had a slight fog with evidence of a shower....
his
bags. They're gone.

“Dammit, Russian! Not
even a goodbye!?” Morgan slowly walked back over to the bed and
plopped down hard. “Well this fucking sucks.” She hated
when there wasn't a proper goodbye and she always felt as if it were
selfish on their part. Even though Vlad was anything but selfish, she
was still frustrated that he hadn't awoken her.

She looked to the nightstand to
catch the time, but that wasn't the only thing that caught her eye.
There, on the table, was a folded note. “Well, at least he
wrote...” she picked it up quickly, then noticed something fell
to the floor. She ignored it for a moment and read the letter.
Morgan, don't leave yet. I've gone to help the men with the
equipment, be back soon.

“Oh, he's not
gone!” Morgan let out a loud and long sigh and set the letter
back on the table, then bent over to see what had fallen on the
floor. “No...” It was her bracelet, and right next to the
little cell phone, there was a new addition. A white gold music note
with four tiny diamonds. There had never been mentioning of her
bracelet and she hadn't even known when he'd made time for the charm,
but that didn't matter. The little note brought tears to her eyes as
she flipped it around between her fingers. “You really are a
spy,” she spoke into the empty room, then clasped the bracelet
around her wrist.

Morgan twirled the bracelet
around as she got up to pour herself a cup of coffee. The girl was
relieved that he hadn't taken off yet, with a gift like that, she
definitely would have been upset with the man if she wasn't able to
properly thank him. On her way back to the bed with her hot morning
beverage, she heard the soft click of the door being unlocked.

“Vlad!” She set her
cup down and ran over to the door, greeting him with the strongest
hug her arms would allow her, followed by a kiss that still wasn't
enough to show her thanks. “I...I thought you had already
left..but I saw the note, and then the charm. Vlad, thank you very
much.” Morgan was rambling excitedly.

“You're very welcome. I
saw the bracelet the first day you came to me and when you asked to
come with me to the shows, I thought that was very nice of you.
This,” he grabbed her wrist, then found the charm, “is
my
thank you. For everything.”

She wiped the tears from her
eyes with the sleeve of her robe, then gave the man another hug.
Unfortunately, he told he had a show to do the following day, back in
Moscow, so he needed to go. “But, I'd never leave without
saying goodbye,” he told her, then kissed the top of her head.

“I'm glad you came back.
I've had a wonderful time with you, Russian.” They both laughed
at her nickname for the man and pulled each other in for one last
hug. Vlad gave her his phone number 'in case she ever needed
anything', and he was gone. Just like that. Every goodbye always
seemed so short to Morgan, too short. She hated each and every one of
the goodbye's she was forced to give her clients as well.
One of
these days, maybe it really will get easier. But right now, it seems
like it's getting harder to leave each one.

Morgan sighed and made
her way back over to the bed with her cellphone. Check out from the
hotel was in two hours, so she knew she had to pick her next place
quickly. All of her clients were out of the question, but what about
Michael?
No, I won't do that.
She thought a bath might help
her think, so she went over to to her bag to gather some clothes, but
as she was digging for a bra, she came across the little envelope
that made her change her mind. “Tanner's house.” She
dumped the key into her hand and held it up in front of her. Tanner
was out of town and she had the key to his home. It was perfect.

*****

“Well, hi, little guy!”
Morgan dropped her bags off on Tanner's front porch, then went back
down the steps and to the side of the house, grabbing one of the
large green leaves on the way. “Here ya go, my furry buddy,”
she crouched down and held the leaf out for the kangaroo. After a
moments hesitation, he took a hop toward her and took a bite of the
snack. Morgan managed to get a couple of scratches on his fuzzy head
before he jumped away, back into the woods. “This is great!”
The happy girl spun around in a few circles, taking in the warm
Australian sun as she made her way back to the porch.

With ease, the key he'd given
her unlocked the front door and she was inside in seconds with her
bags. She took her luggage right to
her
room, and she was
surprised when she found it was locked. Hoping the same key would
work, she stuck it into the doorknob, and it opened. If anyone were
around, they would have heard the loud gasp she let out when she saw
what he'd done to the room.

There were four huge pictures,
one on each wall. Each of them was of Morgan and the sexy Australian,
aboard the Lady Godiva. He'd bought a bright pink bed set, with
fluffy pink pillows to match and on the long dresser was the model
ship she'd gotten for him. “Aw, Tanner. You really did make it
my room, didn't you?” It made sense why the room would be
locked. If he really was dating, she supposed it would be quite
awkward for the man if she were to end up in 'Morgan's room'. Then
again, she wondered if he'd made the arrangements in the room after
giving Morgan the key, just in case she ever showed up.

“Well, either way, thank
you, Tanner!” She threw her purse down on the ground and did a
long awaited cannonball on the springy bed. Just as she stretched
out, a surge of cramps hit her like lightning and she was forced to
sit up, grasping her stomach. “I guess everything can't be
perfect.” She cursed the reminder of why she was even in
Australia as she walked over to her purse to find the bottle of pain
relievers again. There was no way she'd be able to rest through that,
so while she waited for the medicine to kick it, she thought it would
be a good time to look at the database again. Now that she knew where
she'd be, it'd be easier to decide.

Only, when she opened the
database, the reoccurring thought about how badly she regretted
sleeping through their stop in Finland took her to that part of the
map. “Okay, Finland, show me something good...well
mother-fuck-me-now!” Morgan exclaimed, taking a page from the
book of Angel. “Kai Aura. Short brown hair, but enough that I
can run my hands through. Light hazel eyes. Not to mention those
lips! And mus-cul-lar! Yep, you'll do just fine, Kai!” Morgan
clicked on his name and closed her laptop. “That's settled,”
she said to herself as she laid back onto the bed. The pain from her
cramps was already starting to fade and it felt good to rest a bit
after flying all day,and traveling since Tuesday....so good that if
she closed her eyes for just a minute...

“Shit!” Morgan
awoke in the middle of the night from the loud crack of lighting, so
loud, she thought she was being attacked and fell right off the side
of the bed. “Shit!” she yelled again when she realized
all of the power was out in the house. Stumbling through the
darkness, only using the light of the moon, she found her purse on
the floor and found her cellphone. It was the best source of light
she had and it also informed her that it was 4:30 AM. She rubbed the
sore spot on her hip from when she hit the floor and stretched as she
made her way into the living room. At least she might be able to find
some candles and wait out the sto....

“Tanner!? Open up, mate!
Tanner!!” There was a sudden pounding on the door and a man
with a deep Australian accent on the other side.

Morgan ran to the door and
opened it, then closed it slightly as the strong wind blew rain into
her face. “Tanner's not here right now...he's out on a boat.”
Even in the darkness, she could see the man's face turn to stone.

“Are you his girlfriend?”

“No, I'm...wait, what's
going on?”

“There's been an
accident...Tanner's boat has been recovered and all six men that went
out are dead. I have to go...” The man shook his head and went
to turn away, but Morgan stepped onto the wet porch and pulled him
back.

“No! Where are you
going?” she yelled over the wind.
Tanner's boat...men
dead....no.....oh my god...oh no!

“I have to go to
Charlie's house,” the man yelled back, assuming Morgan knew who
Charlie was. “He's the other captain that works for Tanner! If
he's gone, then maybe Tanner is safe. If he's home, then.....”
Morgan understood. If Charlie was home, that meant Tanner was one of
the...

“I'm going with
you!” She didn't care who the man was at the door, but she
wasn't going to wait for him to explain anything else or hope that he
came back later. She touched her pocket real quick to make sure the
key was still there, then she closed the door behind her and chased
after Tanner's friend. Mud splashed up onto her jeans and the force
of the rain stung her face as she tried to see where she was going in
the darkness. The man climbed into his truck and didn't even argue
when Morgan's soaked body climbed into the passenger seat.

He pulled out of the flooded
yard quickly and began speeding down the street. She could tell his
adrenaline was high and it made her even more terrified to think
about what might have happened.
Please, no...please. Don't let
anything have happened, please.
Whoever Charlie was, she hoped
when they got to his house, he wouldn't be there. Not that she wanted
anything to have happened to that man either, but she couldn't deal
with any other scenario.

The man told her that he'd
check the wharf first, they should know which of the two Captains
went out that day. It was a thirty minute drive to get there, which
made for the longest thirty minutes of Morgan's life. By the time
they got to the wharf, the girl was in uncontrollable tears, and she
was shaking so bad she couldn't even speak if she wanted to.

“Wait here,” the
man told her and jumped out of the truck the second it pulled up to
the fisherman's wharf. She watched him in the light of the headlights
run to a small office. In less than ten seconds, he was back out and
running toward the truck.

“Wh.....what.....”
Morgan tried to speak through her chatting jaws. The rain had soaked
her to the bone and her clothing held her body like a glove, an icy,
wet glove.

“They don't know,”
he answered, then put the truck into reverse and pulled out of the
parking lot. She knew they were headed to Charlie's house, and she'd
know one way or the other.

It was another twenty minutes
to get to the other Captain's home. By that point, Morgan had run out
of tears and gone silent. When they pulled up in front of a large
country home, the girl nearly wanted to turn around and go back to
Tanner's home. She didn't want to know. In fact, everything would be
fine. She'd go back and wait. Wait for him to get home.
He'll come
home. He has to.

The man jumped out of
the car, and Morgan followed, changing her mind. She had to know. One
way or the other, she had to find out.

The man who'd shown up on
Tanner's doorstep pounded on Charlie's door. A few moments passed,
and he knocked again.
He's not home!
Morgan was shaking harder
than ever, but a tiny bit of relief came to her, knowing her Aussie
might be alright.

The man knocked again and they
waited. Three long minutes passed and still no answer. He looked to
Morgan, knowing they'd had their answer. He hung his head low and
slowly began walking back to the car, knowing Tanner was probably
safe, but Charlie had also been a good friend of his.

Just as they reached the truck,
Morgan heard a woman's voice behind her. “David? Is that you?
What's going on?”

They both turned to see a
woman, wrapped in a robe standing in the doorway. The man started
walking back and Morgan knew he was probably trying to figure out how
to break the bad news to his wife.

“Sharon, there's been an
accident. Did...did Charlie go out last week?”

“David, what's going on
mate?”

Charlie was standing in the
doorway, behind his wife. He hadn't gone out. That meant...

Morgan fell to her knees and
buried her face between her legs. The rain poured on her back and the
sound of the wind drowned out her screams. Tanner..........
was.............dead.

Finland

Book
Sixteen

Chapter
One