“Why?”She hadn’t had the energy to yell at him when she’d caught him in bed with another woman, but she’d been extremely clear in her breakup text.
He had the grace to look bashful.“I never had the opportunity to apologise.The guilt has been gnawing at me.”His sincerity was so convincing Mila took a half step forward before she stopped herself.Vance’s earnest smile slid its way around her.“Can we talk at your place?”
She shook her head.This was all an act, though worthy of an Oscar.She couldn’t be fooled this time.“No.”She wasn’t letting him into her little one- room long house.It was her sanctuary and she didn’t want any association of him there.
“Why don’t we go back to my place for a drink?”Agus suggested, his tone smooth and friendly, but his dark eyes never left her like a snake ready to strike.
Goosebumps leapt on her skin.He knew she’d lied, maybe even knew who her mother was.That was the only reason he’d take time out of his day to help Vance track her down.
Going to his house was an even worse idea, but before she could come up with an excuse, Agus smiled at her, his eyes hard.“I insist.”
Damn.Fear gripped her and she glanced around, but there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.Her mother and brother, Jared, who had also joined the military, would tell her not to go with him, but she had no choice.
No one refused Agus.
He gestured towards his brand new black four-wheel drive on the edge of the square.One of Agus’s bodyguards was with the car, and the other was behind Agus.
Vance seemed oblivious to Agus’s implied threat.As the son of Australia’s Minister for Defence he would have had security training, but knowing Vance, he hadn’t paid attention.“Please, Mila.It’s just a chat.There are things we should discuss.”
Her eyebrows rose.“Like how long you’d been sleeping with that woman?”
Vance held up his hands, but she caught the flicker of annoyance in his eyes before he was all contrite.“Please.”
She didn’t have a choice.“I have a class in an hour.I need to be back by then.”
“I’ll make sure you are,” Agus assured her.“I wouldn’t like my people going without.”
His people.Mila caught herself before she rolled her eyes.Sure, some people like Ibu Minar saw him as a saviour because he’d built the bar and the little medical centre, but most realised any favours came with a lot of sticky strings attached.
She climbed into the four-wheel drive and Vance got in next to her, with one of Agus’s men on her other side.Definitely no escaping.
Her mind whirled.If Agus knew who her mother was, Mila couldn’t stay.It would be too dangerous.
She only had herself to blame.If she’d told her parents where she was going, her mother would have warned her.
But no, she’d wanted to be decisive for once and had arranged the trip through one of the women her mother had kept in contact with over the years.
It was only after she’d arrived, she’d discovered her mother had arrested Agus when he’d stolen supplies from the relief effort after a tsunami.His engagement to the chief’s daughter had been broken and Agus had vowed vengeance.
No one knew exactly what had happened after Agus got out of gaol, but ten years later, he had arrived at the island and taken over.
He’d told everyone her mother had been the thief, not him, and vowed to pay her back someday.
Which meant Mila needed to leave before Agus decided what he wanted to do to her.
The air-conditioning cooled her whirling mind on the ride from the village to the cliff top where Agus’s three-storey house was located.Mila closed her eyes as she tried not to panic.
“You look good,” Vance said.
Mila didn’t answer.She wore a light summer dress she’d picked up at a market on the mainland before catching a boat here.It was cheap and colourful, and exactly the thing Vance would normally suggest she save for dinner with her parents rather than going out in public wherepeoplemight see her.
He wanted something from her.
Of course he did.Why else would he be here?It had taken a couple of months before she’d admitted to herself the main reason she’d accepted his proposal was because she was sick of being so indecisive.She’d flitted from a commerce course, to working with her father, then trying the army reserves and back to do an arts degree, without anything appealing.
Both her brothers had known exactly what they wanted to do after university—one working for her father, the other going into the military—and Mila felt inadequate, flighty even.People had started looking at her with pity or amusement when they asked where she was working.
So when Vance had proposed, she’d not wanted to appear indecisive in her love life.
