Chapter 64 - Sabotage

"Ladies and gentlemen! Are you ready? Let the race begin!" the announcer shouted and at that moment, the engines to the yacht began to run.

The yacht steadily breezed along the ocean waters, tipping Prisana off balance. She didn't fall into his open arms but instead evaded it to hold onto the railings to steady herself. Prisana immediately turned away from him and began to walk off to somewhere far away from this man.

Even though it would be a coward's way, she was still afraid of him from that night when she left his chains. Her body shook as she could still remember his unwanted kisses on her skin and his forceful hands grabbing her arms and ripping open her shirt. She shuddered while both body and mind warned her to run.

Giovanni caught her wrist but this time she didn't hold any emotions back and raised her arm to slap his face. This sent a look of complete surprise flash across him, just as she had when her own flesh and blood did the deed. They were blocked off by the shadows to the side of the yacht so merry chatter continued even though she felt both rage and fear storm inside of her.

"I hate it when you touch me. Don't touch me," she whispered.

He shook his head and laughed through deranged eyes, "So you despise me that much huh? You let him touch you. Do you love him?"

Prisana looked at him dead in his soul, "I love him."

Giovanni didn't listen to her warnings. He briskly walked to where she stood and encircled her into an embrace where he held her from behind. Her first reaction was to grip onto the small knife she had holstered around her hips. Prisana wouldn't make the same mistake again.

She learned her lesson the last time so she prepared this knife just in case Giovanni tried the same stunt again. But, she stopped completely when she felt water droplets fall onto her skin. Her first reaction was to pause and look up into the sky to see if it was raining.

It wasn't raining. Recognition entered her. Not the rain, but his tears which fell and slid down to her neck.

"...Prisana, oh Prisana, don't push me away."

"...Stop this. Move."

"Prisana, I love you."

These were the very words that she wished to hear from her beastly husband. Not from a man betrayed her trust beyond help. Prisana twisted away from him in disgust so that his arms were shaken off. She shook her head in disbelief.

"Lies."

"Painstaking truth."

"I don't want to hear what a man like you has to say," she began to walk away again, her heart stammering so loudly it was terrifying.

"Even though I want to bury all of these feelings for the sake of his complete ruin, I can't seem to do it."

"His?...That man's?" she paused and thought to her father and wondered what his role played in Giovanni's turmoil yet thought better of it because he shouldn't matter to her.

"I was wrong for the way that I realize he doesn't care for you. I was wrong about everything and I want to start over even though the gods forbid it. Prisana, I love you."

"Stop! It's far too late. I will never forgive the both of you for what happened."

Prisana never looked back as she walked out of the shadows.

Giovanni loved her?

Lies!

That wouldn't even begin to explain the betrayal he's created. That's right, no use mourning over his regrets that made her who she has become. She was already sick of the senator and Giovanni. God, Prisana couldn't wait any longer for the beast to win so she could go back to his arms.

Her insides quaked with uncertainty, because the beast refused to accept her love while the man she despised was confessing ugly lies she wanted to hear. Also, her insides quaked with anticipation.

Beyond the short distance, Dane's yacht was in close second place among the five yachts that set for sail. And the senator's yacht was of course, the front runner. She knew all about her father's taste for yachts and this one in particular was modeled and designed to win races. Prisana continued walking along both the upper and lower level of the yacht to survey how fast each were progressing toward the close finish line.

She spotted the senator in a large crowd once again feeding into his every word as the media asked him a barrel of questions.

Onlookers began to grow increasingly more loud as the race drew closer to its end.

Prisana kept shouting and squealing as now, Dane's yacht and the senator's yacht were neck and neck. Both were so close to reaching the finish line.

"...the yacht that has a chance of winning."

By coincidence she found familiar men in black in the glassy control room where the pilot steered the yacht. The door was creaked open so her ears could pick up some words that gathered her attention. She kept slowly creeping closer to the room. One of them whispered into a phone.

"Correct. Make sure that the pilot is distracted. Per senator's orders, drug him or use whatever means you can to make the yacht go on auto pilot."

"...What? The pilot is gone and another man has taken over?"

"It's Elias himself? Hell, do whatever it takes to gain control over the yacht."

"Filthy cheaters!" Prisana knowingly accused as she burst into the room.

One of the men in black caught her by the arms no sooner than when she entered. The man talking moments earlier slipped his phone away and grinned.

"The senator's daughter, eh? So you've found out but it's too late there's not much you can do now."

Prisana struggled to turn around. She did the one thing that would render a man twice her size, unable to keep her captive. Her knee slammed up as hard as it could in between the man in black's most sensitive spot. He groaned and before he fell, Prisana grabbed the gun holstered onto his shoulder.

She aimed it at the now irritated man in black left standing.

"Ha! What can a...Ah!" he shouted as Prisana clumsily pulled onto the trigger and nearly missed his ear by an inch.

The poor pilot watched everything transpire with wide open eyes but nevertheless continued his mission to steer the yacht to victory. God, the feeling was strange. She never touched or fired a handgun before but it gave her immense power she was both relieved yet afraid of.

"Give me the phone!"

He handed her the phone in mere seconds. She heard struggling on the other side of the phone. Then, ragged breathing filled her ears.

"Nice try but I'm still going to win by my own hands. I knocked your man out. Tell the senator that these nasty little tricks won't work on me," came that beastly voice she missed dearly.

"I'm glad that you're okay."

"...Prisana," he breathed. "It's you. How..."

There wasn't a moment to explain. Footsteps barged into the room and the phone was snatched away into his hands.

"It's me," the senator drawled into the phone. "Lose or I'll hurt the girl you love."

"No! Don't do it!" she shouted.

"Hey you," the senator called out to the pilot.

"Y-Yes sir!"

"Launch the soft, tiny missiles into the heart of the yacht, just enough to shut off the yacht's control system. Hah perhaps, we can cover up Mr. Blackwell's death as a terrible accident."

Missiles?!

Prisana, out of desperation, aimed the gun at the senator and so called father. The man in black tried to subdue her but the senator held his hand up to stop him.

"No need," the senator smiled wickedly. "My own flesh and blood would never shoot me."

"You're right. I won't shoot you. That's because I have a better idea."

She walked over closely and turned her aim to the control system. Her finger unleashed on the trigger and the sound filled her ears with delight as the yacht began to slowly come to an abrupt stop.

Prisana crazily picked up the phone among the unexpected chaos that shook the entire yacht and nearly screamed, "Win or I will divorce you myself!"