Captivated Ch. 03

He crossed the deck to her side and watched as she calmly walked away.

Without missing a step, she turned around and threw up her hands. "Our bad choices have the tendency to come home to roost, Mr. Masterson! Please let your brother know that," she said before she turned around and resumed her way. "Have a good day, sir!" And with that she was out of earshot as he watched her go with a frown.

"That stupid sonofabitch!" he growled beneath his breath before he turned and marched to the ladder that led to the deck below. He looked angry enough to give someone special a piece of his mind—and a throttling right after!

****

Ryan found his rude and obnoxious older brother yawning by the counter in the galley as he prepared the morning coffee.

"Royce? What the fuck was that all about?" he said with a harsh tone that had his brother arch an eyebrow as he half turned to look at his angry face.

"Can you be more specific?" he asked before he closed the lid to the coffee maker. He turned and faced his upset little brother as he pulled out his pack of cigarettes.

"You know damn well what I mean!" Ryan hissed beneath his breath, trying not to shout and wake up the ladies when everything inside him was dying to explode. He detested rude behavior and he was under the false assumption that his brother shared that opinion.

Royce popped a black eyebrow as he snapped open his Zippo but paused with lighting his cigarette as he studied the genuinely angry look in his brother's blue eyes. "It's called strategy, Ry. I thought you'd recognize it by now." Then he lit his cigarette.

"You were unnecessarily rude toward her!"

"Yes, I was. If it's any consolation, it wasn't as easy as I made it look."

"It's not any consolation whatsoever, and I really don't see how pissing off the one person who can sign over the deed of the lighthouse over to us a helpful strategy!"

"Calm down, Ry. We don't know if she has the authority to sign anything over to anyone. At this early stage, we don't know much about anything, do we? Except, that Charly Meeren is more than meets the eye."

"What makes you say that?"

Royce shrugged. "It's just a hunch."

"You heard what the waitress at that seafood restaurant said. Although she forgot to mention that Charly Meeren has kids, she did mention that she lives alone in that lighthouse. No one else. She's not married, and since her father disappeared at sea three years ago, he's most likely declared officially deceased which, in turn, will automatically transfer all rights to all property held in his name to his next living kin, which is Charly—"

"—And until we hear back from our investigative team, we don't know if that's what happened, Ry."

"What are you talking about?"

"We don't know if any investigation was launched in order to find Charles J. Meeren. If no official investigation by the proper authorities has commenced, then there can't be an official declaration of his death. Since we based our written offers on the then current rightful owner of record, which is still Charles J. Meeren, I don't think an official investigation has happened. Last we looked, our attorneys have so far reported that Charles J. Meeren is still the deed holder."

"That was six months ago. It could have changed in the meantime."

"Hence the reason why we shouldn't panic until we hear back from our team," Royce said with arched eyebrows as he tapped the ash off his cigarette in a nearby ashtray. "It's too early in the game for you to worry about hurting Charly Meeren's feelings, Ry. Calm down. Everything will eventually go our way...as always."

Ryan crossed his arms and cocked his head. "I assume you picking a fight with her is part of this grand strategy you've concocted?"

"Part of it."

"What part?"

"The part necessary to get things rolling."

"Attracting her anger isn't going to help us, Royce."

"It got her attention, didn't it?"

"Not the kind we'd want in order to seal the deal if she's the deed holder."

"It is exactly the kind we need at this early stage."

Ryan shook his head in disbelief. "Now maybe you've got some cockamamie plan outside the one we've come out here to execute, but common sense dictates that you don't make enemies out of people you need something from."

"What would you suggest I should have done differently?"

"How about putting on that infamous charm you're known for?"

"What makes you think that wasn't what I was doing?"

Ryan looked incredulously at him. "Pissing her off is what you call putting on the charm? In what upside down world?"

"Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

The sound of a heavy thump sounded above their heads and silenced them. They both looked up, then at each other. In the next instant they stalked to the ladder and sped up to the upper deck. Once there, both brothers quickly scanned the area, looking for whatever it was that made that heavy thump. Then two pairs of blue eyes riveted on a large black trash bag barely filled with debris in the middle of a puddle of sea water by the stern. It had knocked over a couple of deck chairs.

Royce didn't say anything as he marched over to the trash bag and dropped to a knee, quickly joined by his brother.

"Where did this come from?" Ryan asked, looking around. Then he saw his brother reach for the opening of the bag. "Careful, Royce!" Then he stalked to the yacht's side and looked down and around, looking for the culprit, but there was no one in sight. Whoever tossed that bag onto the deck must've flown off because there were no drips on the dock.

Ryan looked over his shoulder seeing his brother rise with the trash bag in his hands and he looked up at him. He turned and came over as Royce turned the bag upside down and spilled out the contents onto the deck. His eyes widened in utmost shock when he saw a lot of empty soda and beer cans, empty wrappers, and a baggie with butts of Davidoff Blacks!

"You gotta be kidding me..." Ryan looked utterly shocked at his grinning brother.

"What did Charly say to you before she exited the boat?" Royce asked before he bent and picked up the drenched debris and stuffed it back into the bag.

"You can't seriously think Charly Meeren had anything to do with this," Ryan said in disbelief.

"Who else, Ry?"

"No." He shook his head. "It couldn't be her. I saw her walk away! There's no way she carried this heavy trash bag of garbage back over the boardwalk and dock before tossing it onto the deck without being seen. This boat isn't exactly close to sea level, you know?" He shook his dark head. "It just doesn't make sense."

"I have a feeling, that the longer we're here at Mount Desert Island, the less things are going to make sense to us." Royce looked at his little brother. "So what did she say to you before she disembarked?"

Ryan sighed as he set his hands on hips. "Well, when I tried to apologize on your behalf for your rude behavior," he said, ignoring his older brother's wry look, "she left advising me to remind you to keep to the waste management rules and regulations." He looked earnestly at his older brother. "She said it with a smile that didn't reach her eyes, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I know she was pissed." Royce nodded once. "Did she say anything else?"

"Yes," Ryan nodded once. "She said, 'bad decisions have the tendency to come home to roost.'" He looked at the trash bag. "I guess now we know what she meant by that."

"So my gamble paid off," Royce said thoughtfully as he rose to his feet with dripping trash bag in hand and crossed the deck before he stuffed it into the large hidden storage box and dropped the lid.

Ryan frowned curiously. "Gamble had paid off? What do you mean?"

"Ms. Charly Meeren is much more than meets the eye. From the moment we arrived, she'd been wearing a mask. As long as we remained polite and accommodating, she'd never take it off. So I decided to shake things up. I'm surprised that it didn't take much for that mask, that disguise she wore, to drop. We now have her full and undivided attention." He shook his head. "She won't be ignoring us now. In fact, she'll be watching us closely, and that's what we need her to do. It'll benefit us."

"I don't see how, Royce," Ryan said doubtfully.

"You will," he said with a smirk. "You will."

Ryan wasn't one hundred percent on board with his brother, and he felt it would be smarter to be wary. Truth of the matter was, that was a good position to keep since his older brother was spot on that Charly Meeren was more than met their eyes. They weren't dealing with your regular tree-hugging environmentalist. No. Charly Meeren was not your regular anything.

Unbeknownst to the Masterson brothers, they were gaining more than just Charly Meeren's attention. They were drawing her disapproval. If they were unfortunate enough to have that escalate to discontent, they'll only be one step away from evoking a very dangerous part of her nature.

And that could create mayhem the likes they've never seen...

To be continued

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