CHAPTER 2

Grayson St. Claire took off his sunglasses on a bright Thursday morning when he heard his name being called from the deck below on his private yacht. He squinted towards the bright sun before sitting up from the wooden lounge chair that he is occupying to get some tan and waited for his secretary to finally appear.

“How the hell did you find me?!” He growled when Thomas Jamison finally appeared, wearing his usual executive suite, except for his leather shoes, which he changed into some comfortable loafers. His secretary is holding an envelope and his Ipad. “Didn’t I tell you that I don’t want to be disturbed?! F8ck, Thomas, do you always have to go against my instructions?”

Thomas, his long-time secretary only gave him a tiring look.

“I would have done that, Mr. St. Claire if you had informed your mother that the catering for her Welcome Dinner Party has already been taken care of completely,” Thomas answered, not affected by his employer’s outburst. “Now, she gave me more instructions on the guests’ list, setup and the menu.”

Grayson cursed under his breath as he held out his hand for the envelope to be handed to him. He pulled out the paper inside and looked down at the notes that his mother had written on the menu and setup that his office’s events’ team had already completed.

“Who the hell is Tiffany Mackenzie?!” He asked tightly. "Why the hell are my mother's additional guest all female? Is this supposed to be for her or for me?!"

“I think Tiffany Mackenzie was the one your mother would have wanted you to meet for dinner around two months ago at The Four Seasons,” Thomas responded with a light smirk. “But it was I who met her and had the bouquet of flowers and box of chocolates thrown at my face.”

“Thomas, if I’m not going to greatly consider your tenure in the family, I would have your throat in my hand already,” Grayson snapped before looking back down at the sheets. He pursed his lips at the listed names his mother had wrote and proceeded to the next pages. He handed them back to Thomas and put on his glasses back. “Take care of it. Then.”

“I beg your pardon, Sir?” Thomas questioned in surprised. "Did you just said that I'll take care of it?"

Grayson smirk as he lay back down on the lounge.

“You heard me, Thomas,” he answered casually. He crossed his one leg over the other and stared at the sea. “I’m on vacation and I remember that I gave you the authority to act on my behalf. You always wanted to please my mother; this is your chance.”

“I am not in the authority to go against your mother,” Thomas sputtered.

“That’s why. Isn't it the number one rule to make sure that I don't go against my own mom?” Grayson chuckled in reply. “She’s going to be please to see that everything she wants has been followed through.”

“Is it too late to hand in my resignation?” Thomas stated sarcastically.

Grayson turned towards him and saw his secretary with his arms crossed over his chest and looking at him condescendingly. Seeing Thomas made Grayson laughed out loud and he sat up again and reached for his phone.

“Fine. I’ll call Benedict’s secretary to do it,” he drawled and pressed a number. He waited for the call to be answered. “Hey, Melanie. It’s Grayson. I need you to do something for me and I'm sure your boss will not argue about it.”

He talked with the secretary for the next few minutes, relaying instructions as detail as he can, gesturing to Thomas for the papers inside the envelope. He dictated some instructions that his mother had added and after a while, he put his phone on loudspeaker for Thomas to hear.

“Thomas’ chickening out on your mom, huh?” Melanie said with a chuckle.

“Not funny, Melanie,” Thomas snapped lightly. "I'll take Mr. Grayson's temper over his mom's." 

Grayson suddenly looked to one direction when he heard some noise from the crew below. He looked at Thomas and saw him looking towards that direction as well. The noise became louder, and he could see some crew heading towards the front of the ship.

“I’ll call back, Melanie,” Grayson said, ending the call and immediately standing up. “What’s going on?”

Thomas went down ahead of him, stomping down the stairs hurriedly while Grayson followed behind.

“Is there something wrong, Captain?” Grayson demanded.

“A castaway,” the captain answered, handing him his binoculars.

Grayson looked and when his sight adjusted, he saw what seemed to be a woman, unconscious, wearing a white dress and seemed to be soaked up in blood. She looks to be hanging on for dear life on a plastic barricade.

“Get her out of there!” He suddenly ordered, lowering the binoculars. “Thomas, call for the copter to fetch us. Now!”

“My crew is on their way,” the captain replied.

Thomas immediately made the call as he followed Grayson to where some of the crews are waiting for those who went to retrieve the woman.

“She’s alive!” One called out.

“Sir, we need to report this!” Thomas said  firmly over the noise. "I'll inform the police over the radio."

Grayson turned towards him with a hard look. “You will do no such thing until we get to the bottom of this! I’ll decide on it,” he snapped back and moved back when the crew finally brought the woman aboard. He looked down and saw her lips blue and her face white. “Where’s the first aid kit and the portable oxygen?”

"But sir -."

Thomas held his tongue when Grayson threw him a hard and stern look.

He went down on one knee and studied the unconscious woman, who he finally realized is wearing a wedding dress. She had scratches on her face and arms. There was a large shard of glass stuck on her right upper arm and to his shock a gunshot wound on her shoulder.

“Call Callum. Tell him it’s urgent and call Nathan after,” Grayson instructed to Thomas. “Tell them to meet us at The Southshore Hospital.”

“Yes, Mr. St. Claire,” Thomas stated.

Grayson looked back down at the woman. She had dark blonde hair that is now in disarray due to the incident she must have gone through. She had thick eyebrows and eyelashes, high cheekbones that complimented her pointed nose and full lips.

He further looked down and saw what looked to be a seven-carat custom cut diamond ring on her left ring finger. Only one of the two jewelry she is wearing where the second one is a single strand diamond necklace. He immediately knew the woman comes from money or will be marrying into money.

One look and Grayson immediately suspected that someone is out to kill her.