Chapter 7
“Are you sure she didn’t go?” Quinn asked as they stepped off the elevator into the lobby.
“I’m sure.” Geri strode toward the other bank of elevators. “She’s terrified of the water—there’s no way she’d go out on a boat.”
Not willingly, anyway.
“So you think she stayed behind?” he asked.
Geri nodded and jabbed the call button several times. “And if I’m stuck here for God knows how long instead of a week, I need her off the island.” She glanced at him. “She’s got prescription medication that will run out before then, and she cannot run out.”
“Oh shit,” Quinn said.
“Yeah.”
“Let me know if I can help with anything,” he offered.
She nodded sharply. “Thanks.”
The doors opened, and she stepped inside. This building’s elevators were impressively fast, but they seemed to be crawling now. Heart thumping and stomach somersaulting, she watched the numbers counting up to the floor where she and Beth were staying.
As soon as the doors were far enough apart to let her through, she took off running.
“Beth!” She ran down the hall. “Beth!” At her assistant’s suite, she banged on the door. “Beth, are you in here?”
There was no answer.
“Come on, Beth.” Geri hit the door harder, and she tried the handle even though she knew that wouldn’t work. “Beth! Open up!”
No answer.
Fuck. She’d need someone to open it for her. Or maybe Beth had gone downstairs in search of food.
“Goddammit,” Geri muttered, and she hurried back to the elevators. On the way back down, horror dawned as she replayed everything over breakfast. How Beth’s paramour had been so aggressive about her getting on the boat, and how uncomfortable that had made Beth. And how Beth hadn’t been feeling well after breakfast, and had gone back to the room.
Mark. She had to find Mark. If he didn’t tell her where Beth was, she’d use his head as a battering ram to knock down Beth’s door.
She made it about three steps out of the elevator before she spotted him across the lobby, and she sprinted toward him. “You.” She grabbed his arm. “Where is she? What did you do to her?”
He put up his hands, staring at her with wide eyes. “Whoa, whoa, she’s—”
“She’s not answering her door, and she was acting weird over breakfast.” She thrust a finger into his face. “Where is—”
“She’s on the boat,” he blurted out.
Geri froze. “What the fuck do you mean, she’s on the boat? She’s terrified of water.” She got up in his face. “What did you do to her?”
“I…” Mark glanced around the lobby, which was starting to get loud with pissed-off billionaires. Then he gestured for her to come with him. Geri still wanted to throttle him, but he was the only one who knew Beth’s whereabouts, so she grudgingly followed him. Alone in a hallway off the lobby, Mark met her gaze and lowered his voice. “Look, I didn’t have a choice. I needed her to get on the boat, which she did. She’s safe .”
It took a second for Geri’s confused and terrified brain to catch up. “You knew. You knew what was going to…” She swallowed bile. “What the hell is going on?”
“Beth is safe,” he repeated. “When I realized she wouldn’t get on the boat, I drugged her and made sure she was onboard.”
“Why?” Geri glared at him. “Just because you wanted to fuck her before she left? What about everyone else on this island? If you knew what was happening, why—”
“I did not drug her so I could fuck her,” he threw back. “Everything we did in bed was completely consensual. The only time I gave her anything was this morning because I didn’t know how else to make sure she got off the island.” His features hardened and his eyes narrowed. “Because I know what’s going to happen, and while I couldn’t give less of a fuck what happens to you and the other assholes staying here, she doesn’t deserve what you all have coming.”
Geri blinked. “What are you talking about? I thought this was just a reality show?”
He gave a cold, caustic laugh. “Well, ‘reality’ is definitely the word I’d use.” Then he stalked away, leaving her standing there with her jaw hanging open.
She was grateful that Beth was safe, even if she’d had to be drugged and taken onto a boat despite her phobia of water.
But what did he mean about “what you all have coming” ? Something that Beth didn’t deserve? Something about “reality” ?
Geri’s blood turned cold. There was more to this than a reality show, wasn’t there? Something that had compelled an employee to do whatever it took to get Beth off the island, even if it meant drugging her and throwing her on a boat despite her fears.
What the fuck is happening?
Some pieces were starting to fall into place, and with each click, her stomach knotted tighter. Her skin had begun crawling during the “investor meeting,” especially after the tablet had played a video of her negotiating and signing her contract. It had shown her against a background she didn’t recognize, and her ears still rang with the sound of her videoed self enthusiastically looking forward to being on the show.
Mark’s voice echoed in her mind:
“Because I know what’s going to happen, and while I couldn’t give less of a fuck what happens to you and the other assholes staying here, she doesn’t deserve what you all have coming.”
“Oh, shit,” Geri whispered.
This wasn’t just a quirky reality show, was it? Rich Price had something far uglier up his sleeve, and Geri, along with eleven other people, were trapped.
“Geri?” Quinn’s voice turned her head. He’d been in the restaurant, and he came across the lobby toward her, alarm written all over his face. “Did you find her?”
“I…” Geri glanced around. None of Rich’s employees were in sight, but that didn’t mean there weren’t cameras or speakers. She took Quinn by the elbow and steered him back toward the restaurant. “I need a cigarette.”
He didn’t protest, though he was clearly puzzled.
The restaurant was eerily empty now. One of Rich’s guys was behind the bar, looking bored, and two others milled around near the exits.
Sentries?
No, no. This wasn’t anything that sinister.
The men tossing a body bag onto a flatbed truck flashed through her mind.
The Humvee with the mounted gun turret.
This… wasn’t… anything sinister. Was it?
She pushed open the patio doors and instantly had to cough from the thick humidity. The heat was like a wall that she smacked into face first after the hotel’s bitterly cold, dry air.
After a second or two, though, she adjusted, and she cleared her throat as she shakily pulled out her cigarettes and lighter.
Beside her, Quinn leaned against the concrete railing and took out a vape pen. “So… what’s going on? Where’s your assistant?”
Geri took a drag and blew it out, scanning the patio for anyone who might be listening. Elena Simmons and Dan Woolman were having a quiet conversation in one corner. Tyson was by the entrance to the restaurant, glaring at everything.
She and Quinn had a little space and privacy, though she couldn’t be sure there weren’t cameras or speakers everywhere. So, she just told Quinn what she knew to be true—that her assistant had slept with one of Rich’s employees, who’d then drugged her to make sure she got on the boat. And she told him what Mark had said about what they all “deserved.”
“What does that even mean?” he asked. “What the hell is going on?”
Geri shook her head and took another drag from her cigarette. “I have no idea. But I don’t think we’re getting the whole story from Rich Price.”
He shuddered. “I don’t think I want the whole story.”
She couldn’t argue with that.
But she knew they were going to find out whether they wanted to or not.