Around the World in 80 Men Series: Books 11-20 (47 page)

Their
meal was nearly over when Felix announced that he had booked them a
room not far from where they were. Julianne's face nearly froze in a
terrified position, and it made Morgan have to look down and hide her
own smile.
Come on, Julianne, you know ya want to hit
that!
The tension was resolved
when Felix quickly explained that he had booked two rooms, yet they
were adjoining.
Just in case.
Morgan continued to smile at the silent conversation with herself
when Julianne turned in her direction.

“Dear,
shouldn't you be leaving for the airport soon?” Julianne had
reached beside her own leg and squeezed Morgan's knee enough to
elicit a giggle from the girl. In the midst of the accidental
tickle-fest, Morgan nodded, then narrowed her eyes slightly in
question. The truth was, Morgan's travel plans had been held hostage
by the woman to ensure that she would meet Felix with her, and she
had no idea when she was supposed to leave.

“Sure, I believe I do...
have to.. get going. Felix, it was so very nice to meet you.”
Morgan got up and leaned over, wrapping her arms around Felix in a
sweet goodbye embrace. With her lips less than an inch from his ear,
she gave just a few parting words. “Thank you. And Felix,
don't rush her.” She felt the slightest bit of movement when
he gave her a discreet nod.

“Lovely to meet you,
sweet Morgan. I do hope that we'll meet again.” Morgan
assured him that they would, then watched as Julianne stood and
announced that she would walk Morgan out.

“I'll be right back.”
She smiled at Felix, and her heart raced at the smile that he
returned to his long lost love.

Once they were outside the
restaurant, Julianne let out a long sigh and wrapped her arms tightly
around the young girl. Morgan hugged her back, and she felt her eyes
sting with tears that she had known would make an appearance. “I'm
glad I could meet you, even if it was just for a little while.”
Julianne took a few moments to collect herself before responding.

“I
can't thank you enough for doing this. I feel foolish for not doing
it alone, but I'm grateful for our friendship.” Julianne wiped
her eyes, then pulled Morgan's travel plans from her bag. “You
leave in two hours, and the flight is close to seven hours in length.
Oh, and...well... have fun with Vladimir, I hear he's...quite
entertaining.” Immediately, Morgan questioned what she meant
by
quite entertaining
,
but Julianne just laughed quietly and gave her another hug before
flagging down a taxi. “Have fun! Call me when you get there!”
Julianne nearly pushed Morgan into the back seat after her bags were
put away, and the smile on her boss' face when she turned around made
Morgan more than curious about her new client.

By the time the taxi arrived at
the airport, Morgan had settled her inner questions enough to just a
mild curiosity, instead of the temptation to call her boss and demand
some answers. In the end, she knew that Julianne would never send
her to a psycho. “At least, I hope he's not psycho.”
The driver turned quickly and looked at her as he put the last of her
bags on the ground. “Oh no, not you! You're totally not
psycho!” She smiled and he turned back to the trunk, shut it
loudly, then walked away. “Just rude.”

When Morgan finally got to her
terminal, she was nearly exhausted. It had taken her more than an
hour to get through the long line at the familiar airport and nearly
half as long to get through security. She just had to be right behind
the woman who wore more jewelry than a pawn shop. Morgan's choice of
high heels for the day was also a bad option.

She sat down on one of the old
chairs and slipped her heel from the back of her foot to access the
damage. “Stupid heels. Stupid blister. Stupid....oh...”
Morgan was in the middle of rubbing her sore foot and cursing herself
when her phone rang out. She kicked her heel all the way off and it
flew six feet down the aisle of chairs, startling a sleeping man when
it hit him on the leg. “Sorry about that!”

Morgan took her place back in
her chair and pulled the phone out of her purse just in time to catch
Angel's last ring. “Hellooooo, my Angel!”

“Hello my sweet Sticky
Buns. Where the fuck are you headed today Boo? Madagascar?”

“Oh! That would be
awesome! But no. I'm headed to Russia!”

Angel huffed into the phone and
Morgan knew it was coming. “Mhmm. Well you best tell Yegor to
take you to the Gremlin.”

“Angel!” Morgan
yelled, stirring the sleeping man again. She mouthed an apology, then
corrected her friend. “For your information, his name is
Vladimir, and it's the Kremlin!”

“Oh course his name is
Vladimir,” Angel sarcastically replied. Morgan laughed because,
of course, that's exactly what she had thought of the mans name. “You
let that man bite you and when he turns you into a vampire, you
better turn me too!”

Morgan laughed again and told
him she'd definitely change him so they could rule the night
together. Then she changed the subject, “so, I'm in Scotland
right now...” She went on to tell him how Julianne had
requested her support and even told him about the close call with the
man knowing her. “But they've already retreated to their hotel
room for the day, so my services were no longer necessary,”
Morgan finished with a smile.

“Your pimpette is doing
the dirty! Good on her!” Morgan pulled the phone away from her
ear as Angel's loud voice screamed out to her, then told him that it
was great that they'd finally gotten in contact with each other.
Before Angel could respond though, the announcement of the boarding
call came through the speakers.

“Angel,
I have to go, but I'll call later, okay? Muah!” Angel said he'd
be waiting for her call, then they hung up.
Oh, Angel. I
wish I could take you everywhere with me. It would make things so
much easier.
As she stood in
line to get on the plane, Morgan giggled to herself about what the
man might tell Vlad upon sight of him.
It would be great to
hear, whatever it was.

After
the girl was settled onto the plane, the first thing she did was
remove the evil high heels. The second thing she did was pull out her
scrapbook. She hadn't given it as much attention lately as she should
have, so she spent most of the flight adding pictures, organizing and
writing little notes about the men. It was a nice distraction, one
that the girl needed. As the plane began to descend and her scrapbook
was stored back into her carry on, she no longer had a distraction
and her thoughts went back to Vlad and what Julianne had said about
him.

Entertaining.
The girl tapped her fingers on
the armrests, then brought her fingers up to her chin to do the same.
I suppose it could only be a good thing, right? But how?
Was he a clown? That kind of
entertaining? A magician?
Guess I'll find out.
Morgan
took a deep breath and followed the herd of people off of the plane
and into the airport.

Chapter Two

“Oh shit! Please answer,
please answer!” Morgan nearly jumped in place as she openly
begged for Julianne to answer her call. It was the fourth time in
thirty minutes that she had tried to get through to her boss, but
still no luck.

Her second flight from Germany
to Russia wasn't the best, the turbulence was enough to make her
consider her options of travel. Boat, train, or even walking, would
have been better options than the flight. When she finally landed,
and she took what she thought was her first breath since take off,
she was left wandering around a very desolate airport with no client
in sight. A small band of men that Morgan mentally referred to as,
creep-asses
, made her decide to wait outside. Outside; the
coldest wind that she had ever felt in her life.

“Come on!!!”
Morgan tried to call again, but with Julianne's voice mail being
full, she couldn't even leave a message for her boss. “Alright,
shit! I'll just... go back in and wait... somewhere.” She
wrapped her frozen fingers around the handles of her bags, cursing
herself for not wearing gloves, and hauled everything back inside.

She found a little corner where
she could barricade herself behind her luggage, at least that's the
way she saw it, and settled in while she blew into her hands to get
some life back into her fingers. They were almost thawed when her
phone played its tune. “Julianne!” Fumbling with the
little noisy thing, she finally flipped it over and answered the
call. “Hey! He's not here and I'm freaking freezing!! Did he
call?”

“Where are ya, I'll come
and get you.” The amused voice on the other end caught her off
guard, and her mind needed a few seconds to answer. “Morgan,
are ya alright?” Tanner's sweet voice went from amused to
concerned in seconds. Finally, she got herself together and answered
the handsome man.

“Yeah, I'm.. good. Cold,
but good. What's going on?” She leaned back in her chair and
stared at her bag to avoid eye contact with the creep-asses.

“I'm heading out next
week on a month long fishing trip, I was hoping to see you before I
left.” Morgan's heart warmed at his words, she would love to
see him, but was already committed for the week to Vlad. She smiled
into the phone, but had to tell him what her plans were.

“But, I would have loved
seeing you after. Except, I'll be on my... you know, girl thing.
So, I guess it wouldn't have been the
best
visit anyway.”
Morgan blushed, she had no idea why telling the men about her
monthly week off made her uncomfortable. It really wasn't a big
deal, she knew that, but telling a gorgeous man that she would be
laid up in a fetal position for a few days wasn't exactly romantic,
it wasn't even cute. Tanner laughed loudly in response.

“I wouldn't have cared, I
just wanna see ya. Alright then, I'll let you get back to searching
for a man that I really hate right now.” They both laughed and
said their goodbyes, and it all ended with Morgan holding the phone
to her chest, wishing that Tanner was sitting with her right that
moment.

She wasn't even paying
attention to the creep group that had made their way to nearly two
feet from her.

“Morgan?” The
largest man in the group spoke up and nearly scared the girl to
death. They were right there in front of her, AND knew her name.
His accent was thick, and she barely recognized the word that he
spoke, but it was close enough. In response, with wide and terrified
eyes, she nodded slowly. He put his hand out in her direction, and
smiled. “Come.” His smile was nice, but she wouldn't
bend to the leader of the pack that easily. Clearly, he knew her
client, and clearly, she needed answers before she would agree to go
anywhere with him.

“Where's.. the man that
is supposed to be here?” That was good, she thought, she would
make him say her client's name, just for more proof. He shook his
head, his English wasn't great, and she caught on to that much. “Oh,
wait!” Morgan opened her phone and signed onto the database,
then showed the pack leader a picture of her client. “Where is
he?” The big man smiled and nodded.

“Vladimir. Come to
Vladimir.” He turned slightly and waved for her to follow him,
still smiling at their small connection.

Is he Vlad's driver? Does
he need four of them? Shit...shit...please don't be another Carlos,
please! Okay, Julianne knows him..I think. He's a good guy..I
think. Shit.
With only the memory of Julianne's words to go by,
she stood slowly and started to grab her bags.

“No.” The leader
said something to the other men, and they all took a bag and walked
away. Leader man took her carry on from her shoulder, and wouldn't
budge even when Morgan tried to insist that she could carry it.

She followed them
outside, then to the left where an extra long limousine was parked
along the curb. It was a bit of relief for Morgan, the fact she
wouldn't be crammed into a taxi with the four men. When she walked
around the back of the car to watch them put her bags inside the
trunk, she noticed the license plate, which definitely told her the
limo belonged to her client.
Something in Russian, 81. Eight-one?
Birth year? That'd make him...
Morgan was doing the math in her
head as one of them told her to “come” and she followed
him to the side of the car, then climbed in when he opened the door.
It surprised her again when all four of them climbed into the back
with her.
None of them are the driver. What's going on?

It was uncomfortable
having all of the large men staring at her as they pulled out of the
airport and she couldn't help but continually think of Carlos. She
thought of everything she had in her purse, just in case.
Lipstick...pretzels...camera..cell phone.
She settled on the
lip gloss and plastic silverware set if things got serious. A spork
in the eye...
that would work.
Morgan kept her small hands in
her lap, clenching them together every so often as she caught a
glimpse of one of the men staring or heard them discussing things
quietly in their native tongue. She had no idea what they were saying
and that made her even more nervous.