Stranded by My Island Billionaire Husband novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Wine Cellar

Rhys's POV

Two men took me below while the cameras were still filming my wife.

They didn't hurt me.

They took my wallet, the sat phone and my watch, and they patted my pockets.

They never lifted the oilskin.

The tablet sat flat against my ribs, held by my own belt, still warm from running.

Then they walked me down a steel stair into the dark and shut a door behind me.

A bolt slid home on the outside.

I stood still and let my eyes adjust.

It was a wine cellar, cold and dry, with racks to the ceiling and a smell of oak and cork.

Fourteen degrees, by the feel of it.

There was a crate by the wall, and one bulb in a wire cage.

I sat on the crate and counted the bottles on the nearest rack, because it gave my hands something to do.

I had hired this crew.

I had signed the yacht's lease.

Veda had picked every name on the staff list herself.

After a long time the bolt scraped back.

She came in alone, in her camel coat, with a glass of white wine in one hand.

She shut the door behind her and leaned on it.

"There," she said. "Isn't this nicer than a beach?"

"Where is my wife?"

"Upstairs, drinking my tea, with your daughter in her lap. They're perfectly safe." She crossed the floor and sat on a crate opposite mine. "For now, I'd rather they stay that way. So let's be adults."

I said nothing.

Under my shirt the tablet's little red light was a point of heat against my side.

"You lied to me," she said. "That's what hurts, Rhys. Ten years, and you lied."

"You told me to burn my own island."

"I told your men to burn it. You weren't supposed to be one of the men." She sipped. "It was a lovely message, though. 'Done, both of them.' I believed it for six whole hours."

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