Gray eyes intense, Athena said, “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to get to it. I’m here to warn you that your husband arrived on the island this morning from New York--”
“He’s going to come after me,” Mena whispered.
“Don’t panic. He’s not going to remember anything that happened within a couple of hours before you gave him the drug.”
“Are you sure?”
“He won’t. He’s here to do the same thing he was trying to do last week, convince you to give him another chance. This is the story you need to tell him. After dinner, he started to look ill. He walked you to your casita, and that was the last you saw of him. He didn’t show up the next morning for whatever activity he had planned for the two of you, so you stopped by his room and he told you to go home because he was sick. So you did. End of story. Got it?”
“You really think it’s going to be that simple?” Mena asked.
“If you let it be,” Athena said, then walked toward the door.
Mena dragged her hands down as her cell phone rang.
“You going to get that?” Athena asked.
Slipping the phone from her back pocket, Mena stared at the caller ID.
“Oh God. It’s the St. Basil Police Department,” Mena said, staring back at Athena.
“Whatever you do, keep my name out of your mouth. You understand me?” Athena warned.
Mena nodded, then answered the phone.
“Ms. Nix, this is Detective Desmond Francois. I was hoping you wouldn’t mind coming down to the station this afternoon. We have reason to believe that you may have information about a crime that was committed and wanted to discuss this with you.”
“What crime?” A chill ran down Mena’s spine.
“I’d prefer to give you all the details when you get to the station. Can you be here in the next hour?”
Mena took a deep breath. “Yes, detective. I’ll be there.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Michael traced his finger along her face, longing to feel her in his arms again.
“Mena, do you take Michael to be your husband? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish, and protect him, forsaking all others, and holding only unto him forever more?” the minister asked.
Her expression grew serious and confident. He remembered how she’d squeezed both of his hands as she answered, “I do.”
Michael paused the video. He and Mena stood facing each other in profile. The love emanating between them was strong, stronger than anything he’d ever felt in his entire life. She’d made a promise before their friends, family and God. She’d loved him more than anyone ever in her life. That kind of love didn’t just fade away, no matter how many mistakes were made.
He could forgive her for getting swept away by Julian. Hell, the man had saved her life. It wasn’t a stretch for the damsel in distress to believe she was in love with the hero. Michael knew whatever Mena thought she had with Julian was fleeting. She was trying to forget about him, but she couldn’t. He wouldn’t let her.
Leaning back in his chair, Michael closed his eyes and tried to remember what the hell had happened over the weekend at the Blue Moon Resort. He remembered walking Mena back to her casita after an intensely romantic dinner at the resort’s upscale restaurant. She hadn’t fought his attempts to take her back down memory lane. She’d smiled and laughed and teased him, just like she used to do when they were together in Florida. All the years of them being apart had faded away. He’d wanted nothing more than to spend the night with her, making love to her like he did in his dreams almost every night.
Mena had agreed to have a drink with him in her casita.
And that was the last thing he remembered.
Three days later, he’d woken up in his bed in his apartment on the upper west side of New York City. He didn’t know how he’d gotten there or how he’d lost three days of his life. Although he suspected the truth.
Mena had lied to him. She’d pretended she was willing to spend the weekend with him, when the truth was she’d had no plans to give him a fair shot of winning her back. He still couldn’t believe she’d pulled off something so cruel. Had she drugged him? If it was that simple, why hadn’t he woken up at the resort. How the hell had he gotten all the way back to New York City when he’d had no plans of returning? His relocation to the Aerie Islands was almost finalized. The apartment in New York was listed for sale, and the realtors expected for it to go quickly. Did Mena know that?
Michael opened his eyes and closed the browser on the laptop. Shutting the lid, he slipped it into the bottom drawer of his desk. What was he thinking? Mena would never do anything to hurt him. She was probably worried about him, wondering why he didn’t show up for their skydiving trip the next morning.
Reaching into his pocket, he checked his cell phone again. Still no message or text from Mena. That was odd. Why wasn’t she worried about him? Why hadn’t she been trying to figure out what happened to him? Why he disappeared?
