Author's note: Once again, I'm taking liberties with noble and royal titles, Austrian and European geography, and anything else I want! Hope you all enjoyed the last chapter, even if it was a bit dark. Gonna lighten things up for the grand finale. Come on along. We have a wedding to attend!
*
The Atlas rocket lifted off as scheduled at 9:27am on January 2
nd
and one hour later the missile deployed the satellite it carried. When the International Space Station sent back video of the powered-up device and the command center received its first transmission, a collective cheer went up at the aerospace company that built the state-of-the-art orbiter, and from the company's various stockholders. As predicted, the success of
the
launch sent the stock price surging once again and paid the shareholders handsomely.
Luke was right: The rocket launched without him in attendance, although he did get to see the launch from the safety of
Wagner 1,
Luke's luxury transcontinental jet. He and Sophia, his new fiancé, and a recovering Anna, his maid/traveling butler, watched the spaceshot on a closed-circuit transmission in the plane's large bedroom near the rear of the aircraft. Luke had decided to forgo the live launch after the events of the past few days in America. The attempt on his life in New York that wounded Sophia coupled with the kidnapping of Anna and murder of his chief of security, Gunther, in Las Vegas prompted Luke to skip the Florida stop and fly the entourage back to Austria and the shelter of his stone castle.
"Looks like you're a billionaire a few more times over, my love." Sophia said quietly to Luke. Anna had fallen asleep and the couple whispered so as not to wake the blonde bombshell. The harrowing experience had taken its toll on not only Anna, but the noble couple as well. Luke still felt responsible for Gunther's death and Anna's brutalization at the hands of her abductors. Even after he had saved Anna from the kidnappers, he brooded and wallowed in self-pity at the transpirations of the past few days. He sat up from the bed and covered Anna with the comforter then patted Sophia's hand before he left the bedroom and went to sit alone in the main cabin.
Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, Sophia joined Luke in the middle of the fuselage and knelt in front of his leather seat. She put her head on his lap and put her hand in his. Luke absently twirled one of Sophia's red ringlets of hair around his fingers as the couple sat silent, the whine of the powerful jet engines cutting through the hush in the cabin. Luke sighed then broke the silence between them.
"This was supposed to be the trip of our lives." He started. "We were going to have fun and love each other and see the sights, not be witnesses to kidnapping and murder. Gunther's dead body is in the cargo hold below us, for Christ's Sake! You must be wondering how to get out of this engagement and which way to run the fastest..."
Sophia jerked her head off Luke's lap and grabbed both of his hands roughly. She took Luke's hands and slammed them down on his thighs, causing her injured shoulder to twinge slightly. "NO!" she yelled at the young Count. "I love you and I will NEVER leave you! This is NOT your fault!"
"Oh, yeah?!" Luke countered as he stood up off the chair and went to the bar to refill his whiskey glass. "You think this would have happened if I wasn't a billionaire Count?! No one tried to kill me when I was a fucking nobody from Michigan!!" He screamed and threw his glass across the cabin. The tumbler smashed into a million little shards on the galley door. He collapsed in one of the seats near the bar and put his face in his hands. "I didn't ask for any of this..." he said quietly choking back his tears.
"I know you didn't, but you're here now and I'm glad you are." Sophia answered as she went to her pained lover and sat on his lap. She kissed his wet face and held him tight as she cried with him. "I'm so glad you came into my life. I don't want to think about where I'd be without you right now." The noble couple held each other as the luxury aircraft soared high above the choppy January sea. After a few minutes, Luke and Sophia heard a small, quiet voice behind them.
"Mein Herr... Meine Dame..."
Anna spoke softly as she walked out of the bedroom in to the main cabin. The bruise on her cheek and under her eye had turned purple and yellow and her mouth stuck out a bit where the abductors had struck her and split her lip. "Gunther's death... the kidnapping... it was my fault, Sire..." She burst into tears as she continued to explain. "I went with them voluntarily... Gunther tried to stop me, but I wouldn't listen... And now..." the blonde butler broke down and fell to her knees on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
Luke and Sophia ran to Anna and Luke scooped the crying servant up into his arms. He sat the fair-haired maid in his previous seat and poured her a tumbler of whiskey. After handing her the glass, Luke poured two more for Sophia and himself. Luke raised his glass and made a somber toast.
"To Gunther..." he said and lightly clinked his glass to the two women's tumblers and the trio drank to their friend's memory. "It wasn't your fault, Anna..." Luke told his traveling assistant as he came to a revelation. "It wasn't my fault either... It was them... all them... those bastards that abducted you. They had this planned for quite some time. I'm almost positive of that now." He took Anna in one arm and held her tight to his body, then reached for Sophia and held her with his other arm. Luke held both women in his warm embrace as the two shed tears for their fallen comrade.
As Luke lovingly held the two women, Sophia brushed the blonde hair from Anna's face and tenderly touched her cheek. "You're still the most beautiful woman I've ever met, Anna..." Sophia said and placed a light kiss on the fair-haired beauty's full lips. Anna returned the favor and stroked the Baronetess' red curls and porcelain skin on her face.
"Danke, meine Dame..."
