Mayne Attraction: In The Spotlight (48 page)

“This is the best thing that’s happened to
me since I started. Maybe I’ll get a promotion for good deeds done
on the job,” Doug said, breaking through my reverie.

He was kidding but Hoyt could probably pull
some strings…

“You might,” I agreed. “Listen, when they
will find you they’ll make it sound like something terrible will
happen if you don’t spill. But you have to pretend like this never
happened—zero residual presence. Okay?”

“I’ll disavow all knowledge of you, your
boyfriend and your chains.”

He was a Mission Impossible fan as well. I
laughed at his joke.

“If you can’t do that, then just tell them
the truth; that I pulled some strings with my dad and you helped me
out. I was upset and I wanted to go home. You might as well just
start with that. It’s the truth. It’ll go over better, and that way
they might not kill you.”

I let that hang out there just to make it
exciting for him, and to incent him to take the honest route from
the get go.

From the time I set foot in the truck to the
moment we pulled into base, a period of about two and half hours
had elapsed. There was a chance that the security team would
already be on hand to collect me, but I decided not to stress over
what I couldn’t control. The timing would be close, but I had
enough of a head start to make it to Calgary before they did…I
hoped.

During quiet time on the highway, where I
pretended to be catching up on some rest, I tried to think through
my reasons for running away like this. I had no gift for strategy.
This was me taking Elsie’s advice.

I was not just skipping out on Gray, but
also Monica and Ash; but for very different reasons in each
case.

Poor Gray. I knew he loved me very much, or
at least he thought he did. But he’d cut himself out of contention
when he decided we were engaged without a solid yes from me. The
handcuff remark was my wakeup call, but the ax fell that day we met
with Elsie in the hotel room, discussing sleeping arrangements.

He’d asked for forgiveness on that, which I
had granted, but it didn’t change how things had always been
between us. He was in total control, and when I didn’t like a
decision he would tease, or distract, or romance me into
submission, instead of just asking me first, or listening to my
opinions, or accepting no for an answer, even once. I couldn’t be
happy in that kind of relationship—I doubted anyone could be. He
had been sexy and sweet and solicitous, but he simply wasn’t my
soul mate. I didn’t have the heart or the guts to tell him that to
his face; so here I was skittering away like a rat, hoping my
absence would make my point clear for me.

Then there was poor Monica. One of the
reasons I could be patient and not rebellious in my relationship
with my mom was that I understood where she was coming from. But
more importantly, I understood that it wasn’t a permanent
situation. Anticipating the freedom of my approaching adulthood had
reduced the temporary irritation and resentment of over-parenting
from which I occasionally suffered at her hands. She would not take
this decision I’d made very well at all. Thank goodness she
couldn’t send people with guns and helicopters after me too.

And poorest of all was my dear sweet soul
mate, Ash. I never anticipated falling in love with someone like
him, and then being so strongly tempted to forfeit a normal,
self-directed rite of passage into womanhood with all the
associated features and benefits of autonomy I had been so eagerly
awaiting.

But I had to be realistic about my hopes,
especially those I had entertained before I ever fell in love. If I
willingly transferred custody of life from Monica to Ash, did I
truly believe that I could escape the fallout of selling my freedom
out from under myself? Especially when anticipating that freedom
had kept the bitter resentment at bay? I couldn’t bear the thought
of experiencing the same longing to be free and alone and
unanswerable to Ash that I felt with my mother. It would poison our
love someday—quite possibly sooner than later.

With my heart now anchored to the idea of
love and happiness with Ash, could I find the strength and faith to
fly away, taking my own helm for a private flight, and then return
more confident and qualified to enter the port of marriage?

Why couldn’t we just be engaged and date and
have fun together while I lived free and on my own for a while
somewhere around Louisville or wherever I decided to go for school?
Wouldn’t that be a workable alternative?

I had to admit that the answer was no. I
already depended upon him too much. Not that such dependence was a
bad thing, not at all. I knew in my heart that Ash was that captain
I promised to find for myself. But we weren’t perfect people.
Someday we would have problems in our relationship like everybody
else. Having faith in his ability to direct my life required that I
try my own hand at it first. My respect for his role as captain
needed the right foundation: personal experience as a captain
myself. If I didn’t get the opportunity to run my own life and make
my own good (or bad) decisions, when things got difficult in our
marriage, I might question my decision to marry him in the first
place, and that would be unacceptable.

Elsie was right. Experiencing this true
freedom and self-reliance required a clean break, not permanent,
but complete for its duration. I needed space to make decisions for
myself and set my own headings. If we were together, every move I
made would tie back to him, and to us. I would be more like a
balloon on a tether than a bird on the wing. Someday I would regret
it if I settled for floating when I had the chance to fly.

Of my three victims, Ash was the one who
willingly let me go. I knew I would never get that from Monica or
Gray. That truth helped me assure myself that I was right—he was
the one for me and I was on the correct course to be the best I
could be for him.

Back at the UPS hub in Calgary I used the
location manager’s office phone to call Hoyt at his desk. It was
early afternoon and he’d be back from lunch by now.

“Hoyt? It’s me. Something’s happened.
Everything’s fine, but I need help. I was wondering if you could
help me make arrangements to hitch a ride out of Calgary.”

In vague terms I explained that some
unexpected business had called the Gregorys away, but that I didn’t
want to come home while I was still supposed to be on vacation and
enjoying a measure of freedom. Instead of returning home I asked if
he could help me get myself to where Samantha was going for part of
the summer. I explained that I didn’t want to stress Mom out
unnecessarily with news of another jet ride and that I’d just tell
her about my change of plans and location once I arrived at my next
stop. He promised to handle things confidentially and calmly agreed
to make all the arrangements I asked for, as long as I promised to
check in with him at regular, pre-determined intervals. Everyone
should have a Hoyt in their life. I was so very glad that I did,
and never more than at that moment.

Much later that evening I had dinner with an
out of uniform Doug Thomas and his wife Kim at a local pizza place
instead of their home because there was every chance that someone
from the team, or Gray himself, might already be there with a net
and tranquilizers.

Thankfully, I avoided predation, and they
returned me to the UPS hub without incident, where I boarded a
brown cargo plane bound for Louisville. Sitting in the jump seat
(the no-frills extra passenger seat on a cargo plane), the flight
crew dutifully followed directions by not engaging me…at all, as
though I were just another package bound for the sorting facility.
Loads out of Calgary were routed through the main hub in Kentucky.
I had to go home first whether I wanted to or not.

In the very early hours of the morning I
boarded another UPS plane at Louisville International that was
headed for Los Angeles. Being so close, and knowing how very far
away I was going next, there was a huge temptation to go home first
and say proper goodbyes, holding the people who loved me just one
more time. But it would ruin all my plans, and anyway, we’d already
said extended goodbyes last week. That would have to be enough. It
wasn’t forever, after all. It would only feel like it.

After four hours in the air and then another
two on the ground refueling and switching out loads in L.A., the
same big brown plane took to the sky again, carrying me to the
place that was going to be my safe house for a while. I had even
been accepted at a college there, though I had not been the one to
apply, and it certainly wasn’t for an Earth Sciences education.

This destination held the promise of freedom
to live on my own, make decisions for myself, grow up a little and
really think about what was important and best for me. And do it
without manipulation or guilt…and absolutely no spotlights.

After I’d checked all of those things off my
to-do list, I’d have a special event to arrange. I only hoped that
when that time came, the names on the guest list matched the names
of the people who still loved me.

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E
pilogue

—
GRAYSON GREGORY—

I had waited two very long years for this
girl. The sad thing was that I did it to myself. The decision to
wait was my choice, not hers. Dad was right and I was wrong; I
shouldn’t have waited.

I was thinking that my time with Ellie in
Canada would be like a dream come true—not a nightmare. Now I
desperately wished it was a nightmare from which I could awake and
escape.

First I found out that she was secretly
engaged to a guy who knew how to hide their relationship from her
security team. After some serious hoop-jumping, I finally got her
to at least consider her options and the idea that being a Gregory
might be a better one for her. But then I nearly blew it by making
a stupid comment that upset her so badly she actually faked an
illness to get away from me. To my surprise she seemed to change
her mind on the way back from the hospital and it felt like the
resistance was finally gone. But the next morning she walked away
at breakfast and disappeared into thin air.

It would have been hard enough to deal with
it on my own. But I also had my dad and horde of security people
gathered to consult and debate about the next steps to take in my
personal disaster.

But the real kicker was that I found myself
sitting across the table from the guy who had ruined everything for
me and I had to play it cool and pretend that I didn’t want to
strangle him with my bare hands. Of course that would be very
satisfying, but then I’d never find my Ellie. I was absolutely
certain he knew her exact location because along with a boatload of
con artist gold digging propaganda that messed with her sweet and
trusting little heart, he’d also given her a fancy locket with his
picture and a GPS chip embedded in the frame. So I would just have
to be patient and smarter than him this time as I worked through
this nightmare with a ‘To Do’ list:

• Find and marry Ellie
  Mayne
  

• Make Ash Ryan pay double in
  damages
  

• Stop dreaming and start living happily ever
  after with a girl who was worth the wait
  

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In
The Smoke

Book Two of the Mayne Attraction Series, “In
The Smoke,” continues the story from Grayson Gregory’s point of
view. Pushed by his father to pursue Dr. Mayne's very young
granddaughter, he unwittingly breaks her heart, though all he meant
to do was give her time to grow up. When the multi-million dollar
company he’s poised to inherit is threatened with a hostile
takeover, it becomes clear that his interest in Ellery runs deeper
than purely romantic attraction, and he battles with himself and
his father to balance the line between love, livelihood, family and
fortune.

< > < > < >

In
The Shadow

Book Three of the Mayne Attraction Series,
“In The Shadow,” presents the exciting conclusion of the trilogy
with a narrative from Ash Ryan, a security specialist enjoying the
best paying, easiest job of his career. His life turns bitterly
painful, though, when he falls desperately in love with Ellery
Mayne—the beautiful subject of his secret surveillance assignment.
His anguish turns to joy when she unexpectedly reaches out to him.
But then another suitor, with a previous claim on her affections
appears, and Ash must choose between loyalty to his colleagues and
fighting for the girl of his dreams.

< > < > < >

Read excerpts online and experience the
sights and sounds of Mayne Attraction at:

www.
MayneAttraction.com

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