Page 38 of His Sweet Torment
When Lisa arrived, she was grim-faced, but hugged Padme. “Your mom is fine, Pad, obviously distressed and grieving, but she’s safe. Arlo has organized some hardcore protection for everyone.”
Enver saw Padme’s shoulder slump with relief. “Thank god. Thank you, Lisa.”
“You’re welcome, Lemon.” The two women smiled at each other. “Hey, you mind if I steal Enver for a few? Business stuff.”
“Of course. Look, you must be hungry, I’ll make us some supper.” Padme threw Enver a smile then disappeared.
Enver could see Lisa had bad news for him. He nodded outside. “Come see the beach.”
They walked a little way from the house so they could be overheard. Lisa looked at her boss. “Dale Fortuna is in a coma. He got beat up pretty good, and obviously by Ingles’ men. They must have thought he was dead; they dumped his body on a landfill site.”
“Jesus.” Enver was shocked and not surprised in equal measure. “How is he?”
“Not good. Traumatic brain injury.”
“Fuck.”
Lisa nodded. “Yeah. There’s something else. An attempt was made on Harpa Malhotra’s life. She’s okay but pretty shaken up. Arlo’s convinced Harpa is suspicious.”
Enver shook his head. “This ain’t good. Look, we can’t tell Pad anything.”
Lisa rocked back. “Are you serious? You can’t keep this from her, Enver.”
“I have to. If she finds out Dale is in the hospital, she’ll want to go back and the second she lands on American soil, Ingles will kill her.”
Lisa put her hand on Enver’s arm. “Enver…calm down. Padme is a grown woman – you cannot make that decision for her. This is her family.”
Enver, his face set and grim shook his head. “No. At least, not yet. Give me some time to figure things out first.”
Lisa sighed. “Okay…but please, don’t disrespect Padme’s choice in her life. It’s not like you.”
Enver was still thinking about Lisa’s words as they sat down to supper. Padme had prepared a light and delicious fish curry for them and Lisa swooned over the flavors. “I’ve been living on pizza for the last month. This is heaven,” she smiled at her friend who flushed.
“Glad you like it. Can you stay for a while?”
“Just a couple of days but we’ll have time to catch up.”
Enver felt Padme stroke his arm. “Honey, you okay?”
He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Just fine,cara mia.”
Later, in bed, they made love more quietly than usual, not wanting to make Lisa, who was sleeping in the next room, uncomfortable. Enver stroked the hair back from Padme’s lovely face as he thrust into her. Padme hitched her legs around his waist. “Weird, being so quiet,” she whispered, and they both chuckled. “I’m pretty sure the people on the other side will wonder what’s happened to us.”
They both started to laugh then, and Enver lost his rhythm and buried his face in her neck to muffle his laughter.
“Hey, what did Lisa say to you out on the beach? You came back, and your face was all stressed out.”
Enver was glad his face was hidden. “Just business stuff. A couple of takeover bids and I’m not there to oversee them, is all. Doesn’t matter.”
He felt bad for lying to Padme, but he could not countenance her finding about Dale Fortuna. She would demand they go back and even now, here safe on the island, Enver’s nightmares about her being killed were tormenting him.
To his relief, Padme didn’t question him further, but the next morning, when Padme was still asleep, he saw Lisa jogging back along the beach and went out to meet her.
“Listen,” he said, “I want to know everything that’s been going on back in the States since Padme has been here. Everything.”
Lisa sighed and nodded. “I was going to walk a couple of miles along the beach to cool down. Come walk with me.”
Padme was awake only a few minutes after Enver left the bed and she padded through the quiet house to find him. She saw him walking down the beach with Lisa and shrugged. She went to grab a shower and get dressed, and as she was toweling her hair dry, she walked past Lisa’s room. Lisa’s laptop sat on her bed. Padme stared at it for a long moment before going to check where Enver was now. She saw them far down the beach. Dropping the towel, she scooted back to Lisa’s room and opened the laptop.
