Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Aven
She’s a breathless ball of nerves as she goes to the bed and snatches up the comforter to cover herself.
I’m grateful. It means she hasn’t had the time to notice I’m a bit breathless myself.
When I realized she was leaving her room and headed toward mine, it was a mad sprint to put away the laptop and lube so that I could pretend I was doing anything other than what I was.
The faux shower was a nice touch, but if she stands too close, she’ll realize this is body wash in my hair, not shampoo.
I panicked.
“What happened to your plans for a show? I thought you’d be occupied for at least the next thirty minutes.” I motion to my current state of undress. “Can’t you give me a break, lass? A man needs some downtime.”
She stutters and stumbles over her words before finally landing on a coherent sentence. “I saw people out there.”
“Dead ones?”
“No, you moron! Women. I thought you said we were wrapping this up before Jim opened the resort?”
She skipped right over my question and fired back one of her own.
But now it’s my question too. We were supposed to have another week alone at the resort—Jim said he altered the timeline—so why are people showing up?
And who are they? Jim promised no Normies to complicate things the way they did on the cruise.
No fucking feds, either, aside from Frankie and King.
I don’t know why he lets those suits sniff around, and I don’t know who would have arrived early, but I’d like to find the answer to the second question.
“You stay put, aye?”
She nods and pulls the comforter tighter against her chest. It’s the first time I’ve seen real fear in her eyes since that night I ran her down on the beach, and it’s doing something to me.
The towel starts to rise as I imagine chasing her down while she’s wearing that teddy.
The fear in her eyes would be mine. All mine.
I turn for the bathroom before she can notice the way she’s turning me on against my will. Once I’m tucked out of view, I swipe the suds from my hair and drag on some gray sweats and a blue t-shirt. Unlike the bonnie lass, I like to keep my bits and pieces a surprise.
Now that I’m fit to be seen, I step out of the bathroom and remind her to stay put again. She agrees with a grumble, and I exit the room.
A door clicks shut at the end of the hallway, just as I’m stepping out. Jim put all of his favorites up here in the suites, so it has to be one of his core group members. I stroll down the hall and knock on the door, which is opened seconds later by none other than Eve.
She’s a sight in a silver gown and micro braids pulled into a perfectly round bun on top of her head. She leans her chiseled cheekbone against the door and smiles at me.
“Aven Slade, I can’t believe it’s you. We didn’t think you’d show up after the way you kept disappearing on the cruise. What changed your mind, honey?”
Cat pushes in beside her. “Damn, now I owe Kindra twenty bucks.”
“I thought you lot weren’t arriving for another week. I dinnae realize Jim pushed up the timeline.”
Eve and Cat exchange a look before Eve says, “No, this has always been the timeline. Jim wanted us to have our fun before the college kids get out for their break. He plans to turn this place into a public space, only shutting it down for our event in the spring each year. The man loves his business prospects.”
I turn and storm off, heading straight for Jim’s room.
The girls say something behind me, but I care fuck all about whatever it is.
When I agreed to this job, it was under the assumption that I had all the facts.
Without them, I can’t do my job properly.
I’d say this was a pretty serious fact to leave out.
Jim opens the door shortly after I start banging on it. He’s wearing a royal-purple smoking jacket, and a thick, unlit cigar perches between his lips. But that isn’t the only thing that’s perching, because he also carries a large white bird on his outstretched arm.
I ignore the bird and go straight for the issue at hand. “You said you were giving me another week before everyone started to arrive. What changed? And why wasn’t I included in the conversation?”
The bird squawks and flaps its wide wings, flaring the large white crest on its head as it knocks the cigar from Jim’s mouth. Jim cowers and tries to escape the onslaught of wing wind, but the bird keeps its death grip on his scrawny appendage.
“Lower your voice! You’re frightening Kenny!” He ducks and dodges his way toward the couch in the lounge area of his suite. As he flops onto it, the bird takes flight and lands atop its cage near the bed. “He doesn’t like shouting. He came from a very sordid home, and he prefers calm voices.”
“I wasn’t the one shouting, you numpty,” I grumble. “Why’d you lie to me, Jim? You said we had another week, and unless your science division stapled a fucking flux capacitor to my asshole while I was asleep last night, a week is what I should still have.”
Jim leans forward and rubs his hands against his eyes. An exasperated sigh exits his lungs, though I’m not sure what he has to be exasperated about, exactly. He isn’t the one trying to lure a serial killer into the open while keeping the bait intact.
“This complicates the fuck out of the mission. Or didn’t you think of that?” I say.
The bird flaps its wings and starts squawking.
“And when the fuck did you get a bird?”
He holds a finger to his lips and closes his eyes. When the bird stops screaming, he motions for me to have a seat. I plop down in the tufted chair beside the couch, but only because it seems to calm the bird. I can’t take another second of that sound.
Judging by the way Jim’s currently rubbing a hole in his temples, neither can he.
“I might have . . . fudged the dates a little,” he finally admits.
“A little? Okay, pal.” I grit my teeth and shake my head.
“You’ve just complicated matters by a lot, and I’m dangerously close to walking away from this entire shitshow.
It’s a right mess. Desmond hasn’t made a move since that night, and we needed this week to really bait him out.
How am I supposed to do that with everyone hanging around? ”
There’s a knock at the door, and Jim winces. “I might have fudged your mission a bit as well.” He hurries for the door before I can ask what the fuck he means. When he returns to the lounge area, he has King in tow.
The tall, gray-haired man offers me his hand, so I stand and accept it with a firm shake.
He’s aware of what’s going on with our hunt for Desmond, and his team has been integral in helping us track him.
Even so, his presence now gives me an uneasy feeling.
I thought our little trio didn’t keep secrets, but it appears I’ve been the odd man out all along.
Jim and King take a seat on the couch, and I’m too pissed to let Jim know that he’s just sat his luxury asshole on a massive glob of bird shit. I hope that bird ruins every expensive thing he owns, starting with that ridiculous smoking jacket. With a grunt, I flop back into the tufted chair.
“All right. Let’s cut the shit and get right to it. What’s really going on here?”
Jim sighs. King frowns.
Finally, King clears his throat and looks at Jim.
“This is all my fault, I’m afraid. The hunt for Desmond is a personal one.
I’ve been after him for twenty years, but I’ve never been this close to squeezing him in my fist. We needed a very specific set of circumstances to bait him into the open, and you and Quinn were part of that. ”
I shake my head. “Why me? I understand Quinn’s part in all of this, being that she’s Desmond’s current obsession, but you could have used any of your goons for this job. Ice Pick, Grim. Hell, even Rosie could have done this.”
“Not quite,” Jim says. “I had our psychology department run scenarios, and the greatest probability for a successful outcome involved using you. Granted, in most of the scenarios, you end up sacrificing yourself to save the girl, but Desmond gives us what we need in every case. We thought it seemed a fair trade.”
If that’s what his experts deduced, he needs some new experts.
I’ll ignore the bit about my life being expendable, but they’re off their heads if they think I’d sacrifice myself for anyone.
“The girl is nice and all, and beautiful to boot, but I like breathing air. You would have been better off telling the boys they have a sister. Family ties and all that.”
I go to stand, but King grabs my arm.
“Wait, let me explain fully before you make any decisions,” he pleads.
But I’m not some weak-kneed woman. He can’t sway me with his smooth accent and perfectly styled hair and a jawline that could cut steel.
“No thanks, pal. I’ve done my part and held up my end of the bargain, which was to keep Quinn safe until the party started.
Now it’s your problem. I’ll take my pay and be on my way. ”
“I’ll throw in a bonus,” Jim adds as he rises to stand. The bird screams from its perch and flaps its wings, so he sits down and drops his voice to a whisper. “Fifty grand to stay for the retreat.”
“No can do. Just wire what you owe me, then lose my contact info.” I head for the door without a single regret. Quinn was starting to grow on me, and I’ll probably think about her the next time I beat my dick, but the sooner I can put this place behind me, the better.
“I’ll double your base pay,” Jim says. “Five hundred grand total.”
My feet freeze. “Now you might be talking my language.”
“Gaelic?” King says with a scoff.
I roll my eyes. As if the Queen’s English is any easier to understand.
“There’s just a small catch,” Jim adds, and why don’t I like the sound of this?
Then he explains the small catch, and I like it even less.