The couple stayed at a hotel after their helicopter journey and also after Ella felt sick the moment she landed her feet on the ground. Roy helped her to recover, ordering his contacts to arrange an accommodation for the day. It was late afternoon when they reached the hotel room, Ella denied any food items to enter her overacting stomach, requesting to rest her mind in peace.
He stayed by her side the entire time she was resting on the bed, going through her features while thinking of too many things he had to tell her. Years of experience led Roy to believe that each relation is based on a certain amount of trust, where he and Ella would stay together, he wanted them to trust each other the most. More than anyone else. Family was important and he had chosen his.
"Your back will hurt... with you sitting in one position the entire time." Ella's voice croaked softly when she got up after to see the man settled in the same position as she had seen before falling asleep.
He stood up to flex his back slightly, then sat on the edge of the bed next to her, helping her to sit comfortably, "I will join you whenever you want me to."
She let out a sigh, "What happened to the hotel? Is everyone fine there?"
He nodded, "Everyone is fine. How are you feeling?"
"Better."
"We will leave at 10 tonight; the meeting would be attended on time tomorrow." He informed her.
"Oh yes. The meeting is tomorrow." She had completely forgotten about the general meetings conducted every month in the corporation. "Sure. I'll be ready." She agreed to his suggestion, he gave a smile to her kissing her forehead then leaving her to order food for her.
Staring after his receding back, Ella waited a while before she made her way out in the balcony of the hotel. Sighting the view of the busy streets she focused on the simplicity of the environment. The cafe, women quarrelling for the vegetables, kids cycling their way in the side paths, the daily chores performed by normal people. The life which reminded her of Denver. Living there was not safe but it involved living simply because the surrounding demanded.
"How was your life before working for the Kings'?" She asked when he came close to stand behind her. She would recognize him from anywhere.
"You mean other than stealing, gambling, breaking into homes and cars? Boring." He spoke with mirth in her ear.
"Then the life now is boring?"
"Did you not hear? I loved what I did, at one point it became useless because I had no future other than with my brain. Once I stole a thousand dollars at once," he praised himself.
"Pick-pocketing?" she guessed to which he replied, "No. As a commission to give directions. They were a foreign couple, engrossed in each other to notice that they had handed me ten times more money than usual." Ella turned to face him in disbelief who shrugged honestly, "Love does that for some." She shook her head with a smile turning back to the view.
"From Love I remember, what is our story like?" He opened up, placing himself closer to where she was standing, covering her with his arms.
"Scandalous."
"I am born to be in scandals." Ella laughed out loud.
"When do you plan to tell your mother about us, Elle? She should know before she carries the gun to my head accusing me of winning over you." He added the last sentence jokingly, yet he wanted them to marry soon. The marriage would strengthen their bond and with Ella believing in it would prolong their relation for a long time.
"Are you sure you want to marry me? I am not doubting, but I want to know that this would work between us?" Her reply left a question in hanging which he was clever to catch up to. The recent events proved Roy as a liar for her. In many occasions. Mostly he would divert the topic to escape her inquisitive nature, still she would get that later.
"I am sure to stay here with you. My whole life. If marriage is the way then so be it." He answered her query which cleared all doubts of her cross-questioning Roy to be the suitable candidate.
"Why didn't Papa want us married?" Ella felt Roy freeze near her.
"He employed me. Why would he want his daughter to be married to a mere thief?" That was not the answer she was expecting, not after he was holding back the truth.
"If he had been alive," she created a pause to examine his reaction which was none, "your plan wouldn't have worked."
"The plan to steal you? Yes, it wouldn't have worked." His arms snaked around her waist, pulling her close to his chest. Ella cautiously uttered, "Was it so?" He understood her question, she wasn't asking about the plan she was directly accusing him to have killed her father.
With a dangerous glint in his eyes he answered her, "Darling, if you wanted to know the killer of your father, you just had to ask." He felt her tremble in his arms, absorbing the tension oozing from her.
"I wasn't accusing you," she apologized indirectly, feeling awkward with the way her harmless question went. Then she turned her neck to the right, peeping his eyes, "Who?" The answer lingering in the back of her mind, which she refused to acknowledge in the fear of the turning answer.
"The Faceless." His answer was deadpanned in her ears. She knew her father must have done something to deserve that, but the conscience told her she should look more in the depth.
"Why?" her voice came as a whisper.
"He breeched an agreement. He was playing with the Faceless and the Saudis, agreeing to contract with both. When it was found out later," Roy snapped a look towards her continuing, "The Faceless got at him faster."
"Why didn't you stop him? You never told me about it!" Ella didn't realize her eyes turned wet until he was wiping it dry for her.
"I did everything I could." He chuckled remembering that time, "When I found about him playing the double game with both I was impressed. I had praised him then I brought his senses back to warn him he was doing a very dangerous thing going against such powerful parties. He didn't listen." She had fallen numb, her eyes glistening with tears quietly. He continued telling her what he wanted to let her know since a long time, "He told me I have no brains to play the games of rich people. Above all I was a penniless robber once." He paused then relayed his thoughts, "At that moment I wished he suffered the consequences of what he did with other people. You, me and... many others. Just because a man has showed mercy, doesn't mean the man is not evil. That was what I felt then."
Ella wiped her eyes rounding away from him, signaling him she didn't want to hear any further but he ignored it, "I am not happy he is gone but I am not sad too."
"Stop."
"I am glad he is gone, Elle. That's how I feel!"
"I didn't ask what you feel!" She snapped finally, bursting out her controlled emotions, "Why are you even opening about it now?"
"Because I don't want any secrets between us. Your parents didn't work out due to those secrets, I can't let us turn like that."
"I don't even know if I want to marry you!" She yelled at him, refusing to let him believe that he was right. "Just because you were a victim, doesn't make you feasible to say such things about my father." Ella let go of his hold to go past him but he was faster to pull her back, knowing her intentions.
"I know he was your father. And he is gone." She was struggling to free her arms from his grasp, little amount of strength she had was dissipating swiftly. "I have told you my darkest thoughts Elle in the hope of acceptance. If we are to be together, we need to be transparent with each other."
Ella doubted she wanted to know any deeper revelations of this man, somewhere in her heart she noticed the resentment he had towards her father but she ignored it with the excuse of him being irritated to listen to her father always. "Perhaps we ought not to." She held her arms away from him, moving past the room to exit the door.
After Ella was gone, Roy made a call to his man, "She has gone out. Keep an eye on her." He decided she would need time to heed to his words, cutting the call he murmured to himself, "That went well!" Making a final call for the day to Antonov, he reported, "Target diverted. Get the girl safe. And... inform her she would be killed in two days."
"Yes Boss." Roy kept the phone back in his pocket, looking over the heart of the city crowding up for evening errands. Focusing on a giant formed man smoking a cigarette, Roy imagined what the man would be thinking, leaning on the street light post doing nothing and wasting his life. He imagined what would have happened if he had given a different answer to Mark Kingsly when he hired him, changing his life to oblivion. He had paid his debts by his contribution to the greatest love of Mark Kingsly. His throne. The position. Roy had stood with him each time when he was required, he didn't find it any more a necessity to do further.