The Awakening of Alexandria Read online

  The bathroom contained simple but expensive toiletries. No make-up, no jewelry.

  Alexandria Mason didn’t just write mysteries, she was a mystery. She was an exotic beauty that did nothing to enhance her looks, but instead masked them behind male trappings in public. In private, however, she indulged in the ultimate of femininity.

  Nicholas’ phone rang and again his answer was short and precise. The private plane he had requested was in route and received the ETA on its arrival. Then, with one phone call to the hotel manager, he issued a directive that all the balcony doors were to be locked. Hotel clients were to be offered compensation if they chose to remain in residence or arrangements would be made for accommodations elsewhere at the hotel’s expense. There was a major safety deficiency in the design of the balcony encasements, and it was to be resolved immediately. He returned to his suite, packed his belongings, and checked out. On his orders, Alexandria Mason’s belongings were moved to another suite and the manager was to inform her on her return that suite 505 was being repaired.

  * * * * *

  Allie Mason woke up late that evening. She was groggy, tired, and aching everywhere. A doctor came in during the late evening hours, explained her condition, and suggested that she check herself into an eating disorders rehabilitation center. She dismissed that advice. She didn’t have an eating disorder and demanded to know when she could be released. She wanted to be released immediately, but after discussing the matter with the doctor in charge, agreed to allow them more time to assess her health issues. For two days, she was poked and prodded as more tests were taken, more IV’s inserted. On the third morning, at her insistence, she was released. A nurse provided her a set of used, but clean hospital scrubs to wear out, as she had no clothing. The volunteers at the hospital main desk called her a cab and she returned to the Hau‘oli Resort.

  Allie was exhausted and on her arrival was informed that her belongings had been moved to another suite. The Manager greeted her graciously, explaining that after her accident a passerby had broken down her door to save her. Until the door was repaired, he said apologetically, she’d have to make do with another room.

  Allie felt so weak that very little of what was being said to her was actually registering. All she wanted was a bed to crawl into so she could take a painkiller and get some sleep. She followed the manager to the new suite, nodding vaguely at his apologies and assurances that her personal items had been safeguarded during her hospital stay. His further assurances that she would not be charged for her stay at the Hau‘oli made her more impatient than grateful. She only wanted him to go away. After three days in the hospital, she needed peace and quiet. She needed to be alone. She finally closed the door, checked around vaguely to make sure her computer and clothing were there, took the pill, and climbed into bed.

  Several hours later, a team of highly trained ex-paramilitary men came quietly into Allie’s suite. The team included a physician, who gave her a sedative that put her into an even deeper sleep. Her belongings were removed. She was wrapped in a blanket, put into a rolling cart, and whisked away quickly. The entire mission only took twelve minutes.

  At the same time, a team of computer experts was effectively erasing any and all telltale evidence within the hotel computers of her stay at the resort. Employees would remember her vaguely, but it was a large and busy resort; guests came and guests went. Unless someone questioned her disappearance, her stay would fade from their memories, as did all the hotel clients.

  Allie Mason was taken to the airport, put onto a private plane, and whisked away.

  Chapter 2

  Allie was warm and cocooned in softness. She loved these long sleeps after she finished a book. If she could just get her eyes open… but it felt so good to rest and she was so tired. Bits and pieces of soft-spoken conversation filtered through her subconscious, but in her exhaustion, she thought they were back. She felt a prick in her arm and drifted again.

  * * * * *

  “Damn it Nick,” Macland Bassinger snapped. “You’ve gone too far this time! This is kidnapping.”

  “I prefer to think of it as saving her life,” Nicholas said calmly. “Can you deny that if Alexandria Mason continues the way she’s going, she’ll kill herself?”

  Macland snapped the top of his medical bag closed. “No. I agree that she needs an intervention of some kind. But this is over the top, even for you. She’s an adult and she has a right to make her own choices.”

  “Does she look like an adult? Has she been behaving as an adult? Yes, she has a legal right to make her own choices but the choices that she has been making are killing her.” Nicholas sighed. “I offer her luxury, safety, and her health back. That sounds like an intervention to me. What about the other?”

  “It’s unethical.” Macland growled. “It’s also illegal.”

  Nicholas poured himself a drink and one for his friend. “I can’t help if I don’t know what I’m dealing with.”

  “Then hire a professional,” Macland ordered ,crossing his arms, his size and stance making him looking more like a professional football player than a physician.

  “No!” the drink glass was slammed down on the table. Nicholas’ eyes were intense, dangerous. “This is something I must do!”

  “Why?”

  Nicholas looked up and grinned. “When I have that answer, I’ll get back you. You know I won’t harm her. Worst case scenario, she gets some rest, is made aware of the folly of her behavior, and has me charged with kidnapping.”

  “While taking me down with you as an accessory,” Macland grumbled, deciding it was time to talk his friend down. “Nick, we’ve done some wild things in our time, but this is kidnapping, with a capital K! International kidnapping! I’ve spent too much time working to get what I want in life to wind up in prison cell. I don’t want to be involved in it. I’m leaving on mission next week. I can’t jeopardize that, and there’s still a lot details that need to be addressed.”

  Nicholas looked to his friend and smiled. “We are brothers, not by family, but we are still brothers. Should the worst happen, you will not be involved.”

  “I’m the only black man on the island, Nick, I sort of stand out, and everyone knows everything on this island. Nothing is a secret.”

  “Trust me,” Nickolas said firmly. “I am doing what I think is best, and if I order mouths to be closed, they will be closed.”

  Macland gave his friend a worried look. “After I’m gone, I want a doctor here on the island, once a week for blood tests and a complete examination. I’ll give you the name of a man I trust. He’ll send me the results immediately. Remember, Nick, she is ill, although I do agree she needs intervention.”

  “We’re twenty-nine minutes from the mainland hospital by helicopter,” Nick responded. “There’s a nurse in the village. What about the other?”

  Macland handed him a vial and a needle. “It’s weak, you’ll only have maybe two minutes maximum but that’s all I will give her. Believe it or not, I am still a physician first. Now, I’m leaving before American Marines storm the beaches here.”

  “By the time they’d worked their way through the politics, I could have the entire island moved stone by stone. Don’t worry, our tracks are covered,” Nicholas promised. “Enjoy your vacation in Africa.”

  Macland grinned. “Only you would think operating on deformed children sixteen hours a day for a month as a vacation.”

  Nicholas shook his head and smiled. “It’s what you do, and you will enjoy every moment of it my friend. Don’t try to tell me otherwise. Is the delectable Nurse Regina Saunders going along on this trip?”

  Macland frowned. “She is, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. When we’re working together, we’re fine, but when we’re not, we fight like cats and dogs. I’ve asked her to marry me twice and she’s still putting me off.”

  Nicholas laughed as he showed his old friend to the door. “Only, because you allow it. Grow a pair, Mac and put your foot down. If that
doesn’t work, put your hand down on her delectable ass—hard!”

  * * * * *

  Allie’s eyes opened, but her vision was blurry. Where was she?

  “Good morning,”

  Allie blinked trying to focus. “Where? What?”

  “You’ve been very ill, are still very ill. I want you wake up a bit and talk to me.”

  “Who are you? Are you my doctor? Am I in a hospital?” Allie asked.

  “No,” Nicholas said. “But I have the answer I need now. You are well enough to converse.”

  Allie felt a familiar prick and felt woozy.

  Nicholas watched the clock closely. He only had five minutes to get some answers and part of that would be wasted waiting on the drug to kick in.

  “Can you answer me?”

  She nodded.

  “In words, can you speak to me?” Nicholas demanded.

  “Yes,” a monotone voice responded.

  Start the easy ones, Nicholas told himself.

  “What is your name?”

  “Allie Mason,”

  “What do you do for a living?”

  “I imagine.”

  Nicholas filed that answer away for a later time. A best-selling author, yet she said she imagined.

  “Why do you hide who you are?”

  There was a long silence and finally she spoke. “No one understands, and there are the bad ones.”

  Concerned, now, Nicholas asked. “Who are the bad ones?”

  “The ones who don’t understand.”

  “What don’t the bad ones understand?” he asked.

  “That they won’t stop coming.”

  “Who are they?” Nicholas asked frowning.

  “Whoever is the loudest.”

  He wasn’t getting anywhere with this line of questioning. Nicholas decided on a different tactic.

  “Why do you exhaust yourself and write a novel from start to finish in one setting?”

  “Because they come, and I have to write when they come.”

  They were still in the loop of whatever ‘they’ meant. He needed to try again, something different.

  “Why do you wear boy’s clothing?”

  “Because it’s easier to hide the ugly.”

  Nicholas leaned forward. “What is the ugly?”

  “Me.”

  Nicholas closed his eyes. This lovely creature had been convinced that she was ugly. “What do you see when you look in the mirror?”

  Allie turned her head. “I don’t look anymore.”

  “Why do you buy lingerie?”

  She smiled. “Because it makes me feel pretty.”

  Then Allie Mason gave a sigh and returned to the land of sleep.

  Nicholas dimmed the light and covered her up gently. He had his answers, not that they made a lot of sense to him. That wasn’t unusual under sodium pentothal. What made sense in one person’s mind made absolutely none to another. She thought someone was after her; someone was a threat to her. He’d put a team of investigators on that immediately.

  What he did understand made him furious. He definitely understood that someone had made her feel ugly. How could she see herself as ugly? Was she anorexic? She was twenty pounds underweight, but Macland said there was no evidence of an eating disorder. He said there were nearly always signs - bite scars on the hands, missing enamel on the back of the teeth of bulimics, and although she was exhibiting a lot of the symptoms of anorexia nervosa, those symptoms were identical to the diagnosis of her vitamin deficiencies and malnutrition. She was thin, but her skin, hair, and nails were strong and healthy. Nicholas had a printout of symptoms to watch for and part of her medical treatment was to get her nutritional requirements into the normal levels.

  Nicholas picked up the book he was reading. It was his twelfth in the four days that Alexandria Mason had been in his home. He’d read six of her investigative murder mysteries. She had a sharp mind for details, and she didn’t give away the endings. They were good and deserved to be on the bestseller list. But, he was learning more about her as a woman through her romance novels. While her heroines were strong women, her heroes and protagonists were always strong, alpha men. The sex scenes were sizzling.

  He closed the book on the last page of the novel he was reading and set it on a table. He looked at the thin, sick woman filling a tiny space in the large bed. The days of Alexandria Mason carelessly abusing her body were over. He was in control now.

  * * * * *

  Allie awakened slowly and was instantly coherent. She didn’t feel tired and her headache was gone. She looked around, trying to put the pieces together but her memory was elusive. She’d fainted and been in a hospital, she thought. She’d been in an ambulance. But where was she now? She wasn’t in a hotel. Even the most luxurious hotels still maintained a certain commercial sameness to them. She scooted across a queen-sized bed, realizing that she was wearing one of her chemises. She moved her hand down her hip. She was also wearing panties. She touched her breasts. No bra, but she rarely wore one anyway, and never in bed.

  When she got to the edge of the bed, which was uncomfortably high for her, she slid out but before she could catch herself. Her knees buckled and she was on the floor.

  A man, a stranger, someone she didn’t know walked, across the room, scooped her up, and put her gently back on the bed.

  “Dizzy?” he asked, pulling her forward and putting a large pillow behind her back.

  Allie shook her head. “Who are you? What happened and where am I?” Her voice was dry and raspy.

  The man sat down on the edge of the bed. “All very interesting questions Ms. Alexandria Mason. Do you need to go to the bathroom first?”

  “Yes, but….”

  He lifted her and carried her into an opulently appointed bathroom, moved a walker over in front of her. “Use this for support, and call when you’re finished. If you try to stand without support, you’ll probably wind up on the floor again.”

  Allie completed what she needed to do. She felt stiff and prickly. She noticed needle marks on her arms. Were they from IV’s? Drugs? Had she been drugged?

  “Finished?” the deep male voice called from outside.

  “Yes.”

  He returned and carried her back to the bed, arranging the pillows behind her until she was comfortable.

  Allie looked at him. He was tall, dark and handsome, the perfect hero for any romance novel. He was tanned, with an olive completion, probably of Mediterranean ancestry. He had deep-set dark brown eyes, and a shadow of dark beard. Dark chest hair peered out of his unbuttoned shirt collar. His clothes were casual and like his watch, very expensive.

  “Frightened?” he asked as he handed her a glass of water.

  “Confused,” Allie admitted, sipping the water. “Who are you? No, I need everything, who, where, when, why? What’s going on?”

  “My name is Nicholas Dyonysus and I have been caring for you for six days.”

  “You’re a doctor?” Allie asked.

  “No. The doctor I had caring for you left yesterday for a mission in Africa. Eleven days ago, you had an accident at Kapalua. You collapsed and nearly fell five stories to your death. You are a very foolish woman, Alexandria Mason.”

  “Excuse me?” Allie exclaimed.

  “No, I will not,” Nicholas said firmly. “You have put your life at great risk! Why, I do not know. But I do intend to find out why you care so little about your health.”

  Allie thought about that statement, “If I’m not in Kapalua, where am I? How did I get here?”

  “You are in my home, on my private island. After you collapsed, you were in the hospital three days and you returned to the hotel. I had you removed and transferred here. You have been receiving around-the-clock care since you arrived until last night. I was assured that it would not be too many hours before you awakened. Now that you are awake your recovery will begin.”

  “I’m not staying here,” Allie exclaimed, backing across the bed away from him. “Who the hell are you? W
hy have you brought me here?”

  Nicholas stood up. “There is no need to be frightened. You have been cared for and you will continue to be cared for. You’ll be confined to this room until I decide you are well enough to start your rehabilitation.”

  “Like hell, I will,” Allie exclaimed, backing up and sliding off the bed. She took three steps and her legs gave way again.

  Nicholas walked around the bed, picked her up again, and put her back into the bed. “Alexandria, I am a patient man. I am also a Greek man. We tend to be alpha males. That is a term I believe you to be familiar with in your writing. Being an alpha male basically means I won’t take any abuse from you because I’m doing this for your own good.

  You have been under my protection since you arrived and you have not been harmed in any manner. You will remain here while you recuperate. Let me warn you, there is no way off this island that does not include my permission. You must be patient. You did not become ill overnight, therefore, you will not recover overnight.”

  “You can’t make that decision for me!”

  “I already have. Left on your own you have very nearly killed yourself. You have starved yourself into a state of malnutrition and quite frankly, I think you are a menace to your own health and well-being.

  “I don’t give a royal fuck what you think! You can’t keep me here against my will!” Allie yelled. “That’s kidnapping!”

  “Yes, I know,” Nicholas Dyonysus, said with a hint of smile. “You’re the second person that has pointed that out. I’ll see about getting you something to eat.”

  * * * * *

  The man was friggin' nuts!

  Allie wanted to stomp out onto the balcony but since she was still weak, she could only manage a slow amble. She was living in a bad plot from a soap opera!

  She had access to her room, the bathroom, and the balcony. It was a beautiful room, an incredible bathroom, and the view from the balcony overlooking a vineyard was truly magnificent. But she was imprisoned; the two doors into her suite were locked. The room she occupied was on a third level, so it was unlikely that she could get to the bricked terrace below without breaking a leg or worse. Plus, that arrogant despot, Nicholas Dyonysus, wouldn’t give her any clothes to wear.