Chapter 16
Geri and Quinn left Rich’s office in shell-shocked silence. They took the elevator down, and as soon as it let them out, they headed straight for the restaurant patio.
The tropical heat was a cool mountain breeze compared to the inside of the hotel, and Quinn couldn’t help the sigh of relief as he unsteadily took out his vape pen. Though the heat out here was far less overbearing than the suffocating stuffiness of the hotel, the humidity saturated his clothes. Sweat slicked his skin and rolled down the back of his neck in icy drops.
But the way his clothes stuck to his sweaty skin was the least unpleasant sensation at that moment. The air was too thick to breathe, and his lungs didn’t quite remember how to work anyway.
He and Geri hadn’t been in Rich’s office for long, but it was long enough. The man had casually laid out so many truths that Quinn was struggling to comprehend them all.
Though he’d never been particularly close to his parents, the realization that they’d both been murdered was impossible to stomach. That someone had killed them—along with the helicopter pilot and a family friend—as part of a brutal agenda, made him sick.
And now Quinn was in Rich’s crosshairs. And if he didn’t make it to the end of this, then Rich would go after Quinn’s heirs—his sister and her family.
And there was no getting out now. No claiming that golden ticket off the island. He and Geri were trapped here until the bitter end.
“My God, we’re so fucked,” he murmured to her as they smoked.
“We are.” She blew out some smoke. “I don’t think any of us are meant to survive this. Including whoever ‘wins.’”
“What do you mean?”
“Rich and his men are showing us their faces.” She gestured at the hotel’s upper floors where they’d met with him. “And now he just outright told us he killed your parents and my father. If we go back to the mainland and have someone look into their deaths, and they confirm it—I mean, it’s our word against his, but it’s still pretty damning. If they exhume my father and find evidence of thallium poisoning after Rich said that’s how he killed him…”
Quinn hadn’t thought his blood could get any colder. Turned out he was wrong. “And you’re right—he’s been showing us his face. They’ve all been showing us their real faces.” Raking an unsteady hand through his hair, he breathed, “They’re going to kill us and everyone else on this island.”
Geri shuddered, chafing her arms as if she were cold despite the heat. “If any of us leave, we can identify him and his men. We can blow this whole thing open.” She shook her head slowly. “I doubt we’re getting their real names—I mean, Rich Price? Seriously?—but we’ve seen their faces.” She paused for another drag off her cigarette. “I’ve heard people are actually really bad at identifying suspects from lineups and whatnot, but I’ll never forget that face. Never.”
“Same,” he whispered. “I’ll be able to pick him out at five hundred yards for the rest of my life.”
“Exactly. So they have no intention of letting us go.” She tapped her cigarette’s ashes. When she spoke again, it was just loud enough for him to hear: “We have to find a way out.”
“We just tried to,” he muttered.
“No, I mean…” She nodded toward the jungle. “Physically. We have to get away from this hotel and… somehow get away from the island.”
“You have any ideas about how to do that?”
Pursing her lips, she shook her head. “No. And from what I could see from the boardroom, the airstrip is empty and so is the marina. I don’t even know where they stashed all the vehicles that were here when we all arrived, but I don’t think it matters. There aren’t any roads beyond the airstrip, so unless you know how offroad…”
“I don’t. I also saw a helicopter down there, but I have no idea how to fly one.” Just the thought made his skin crawl; he’d take any exit he could from this island, but helicopters made him nervous. That was why he hadn’t gone with his parents to Aspen.
“I don’t know how to fly anything,” she said. “Okay. I think our best bet is to scope out every possible escape route from the hotel. We get to the woods or the beach, and just head west. There probably isn’t much on the other end of the island, but maybe we can find… I don’t know. Something . Or get enough signal to reach out.”
It wasn’t much of a plan, and Quinn didn’t like it. The problem was that he didn’t have any other ideas. Like, great, get away from the hotel and run like hell. And then…?
“You still have that signal booster, don’t you?” he asked.
She nodded. “Mmhmm. If we put enough distance between us and the hotel, their jammers won’t work anymore. Then we can call out for help and hope someone gets here before Rich’s boys find us.”
Still not a great plan—not nearly as airtight as something life-or-death should be—but it was something.
“Okay. I’m ready when you are, so just say the word.”
“I will. Try to get some sleep tonight if you can—we’re both going to need it.”