Chapter 5
Knox checked the peephole. The rail-thin man beating on his door and calling his name looked familiar, but he couldn't place him.
He threw open the door. "Yes? Do I know you?"
The man stumbled back a step and threw his hand to his chest. "Oh, thank goodness. I thought maybe something happened."
"Something? Like what? Who are you?" He sensed Allie standing next to him. He turned to her, and she shook her head. She didn't have a clue who he was either.
The man waved a bony finger in his face. "We've been trying to text you and Mr. Bridger. No one is answering calls or texts. Why are you ignoring Mr. Drakos? This is serious!"
Knox held up both hands and lowered them like he was trying to calm a wild animal. "Whoa, buddy. Drakos?" The man's face finally registered. "You work for Alec Drakos." He snapped his fingers in the air repeatedly while his brain searched for the name. "Chav—, Chev—, Chovno!"
The man didn't look impressed. "Yes, I am Chovno. And you are supposed to answer when Mr. Drakos calls."
Yes, Knox had been ignoring his phone since Allie had walked into his room. And for good reason. But this guy's tone wasn't sitting well. "Listen, Chovno, we don't—"
"Mr. Chovno," Allie interrupted. "How can we help you? Is something wrong? You said something is serious?"
Knox shouldn't have been surprised Chovno's anger instantly evaporated. Allie could do that. Something about her put everyone at ease. He loved that about her.
Chovno nodded. "Yes, you need to come with me. Mr. Bridger too. There is something you need to see."
"Finally! You are here!" Alec Drakos hefted his stout form out of his desk chair and crossed his office to greet Jason, Knox, and Allie. Or to chastise them for taking so long. Knox wasn't sure which to expect.
"It is unsettling." Drakos sounded emotional. And maybe a little intoxicated. "It is a death threat, I believe!"
Jason cleared his throat. "Slow down, Mr. Drakos. Chovno hasn't filled us in. What do you think is a death threat?"
Drakos threw his hands in the air. "Oh! It is terrible.
Here. I'll show you." He walked across the office and opened the closet door.
Hanging on the single hook on the opposite side of the door was a pale blue suit covered in embroidered pineapples.
Why a man would wear a suit like that was beyond Knox's comprehension, but he quickly understood Drakos's concern.
A disturbing amount of blood stained the front of the suit.
"Where did this come from? Whose blood is this?" asked Jason. He looked around the room. "Is anyone injured?"
Drakos waved a hand in the air. "No. Maybe. I don't know!" He leaned on a nearby wingback chair for support. Knox couldn't tell if the resort owner was weak from shock, drunk, or having a heart attack.
Knox and Jason waited for an explanation.
Allie patted his arm. "Mr. Drakos, why don't you have a seat and tell us what happened? Can I get you some water?"
"Oh, yes. Yes, thank you. Some seltzer water, please. It's over there." He pointed to a well-stocked bar cart and collapsed into the wingback chair.
Allie nodded and walked to the bar cart. Knox and Jason sat in leather club chairs across from Drakos.
Jason leaned forward, his forearms on his thighs. "Okay, Mr. Drakos, tell us what's going on."
Drakos wiped his brow with a handkerchief, then clenched it in his hand. "Like I told you, a week ago, Byron expressed interest in purchasing my resort. This one," he said, pointing to the floor, "not any of my other properties."
"Yes, we know. You didn't want to sell, and you suspect them of bringing illicit business to Isadora Island. That's why we're here. What does the suit have to do with it?"
Allie handed Drakos his glass of seltzer water.
"Thank you, Miss . . . ?"
"Harkwood. Allie Harkwood."
"She's a member of our team for this assignment," Knox said.
Drakos nodded, but Knox didn't like the way the resort owner was staring at Allie.
"Mr. Drakos," Knox said, snatching his attention. "You were saying?"
"Yes, yes." He pointed toward the blood-drenched suit.
"That was the suit I was wearing when I met with them.
I sent it to the cleaners with three other suits a few days later.
When the cleaners delivered them today, that one was covered in blood.
The others are spotless. It is not a coincidence.
The man, um, Mr. Kendall, from Byron, he commented on my suit during the meeting. It is not a coincidence."
Jason walked over to the suit and took a few pictures with his phone.
"Hopefully, this isn't human blood. But I agree with you, Mr. Drakos.
It is a message. We're already looking into Byron.
We gathered some intel today that we need to analyze.
We'll get something figured out. In the meantime, if they approach you, don't antagonize them.
Let them think you're considering selling.
We don't want to provoke them too soon. Understood? "
"Yes, I understand. But this is how I felt the last time I hired you. Why are people trying to kill me again?"
Knox hoped his question was rhetorical. Because Knox couldn't think of a polite way to answer it. Drakos wasn't a very innocent businessman. He attracted trouble.
"I think you're safe for now," Jason assured him. "We'll be in touch."
"Today was more eventful than I'd anticipated," Jason said.
The four of them sat in Room 336 eating burgers, fries, fruit, and cookies while they watched the drone footage and discussed the plan for the next day.
"We get the prize for most 'eventful' drone footage," Knox said. "What was on yours? Oh yeah, trees, two monkeys, and a pelican."
Jason rolled his eyes. "It's not a contest. You don't get a merit badge for getting your drone shot down."
"I know. But we did get some good footage of the guys on the Byron property, didn't we, Rowan?"
Rowan's expression conveyed how painful it was for him to agree. "Yes, I'm running through the facial recognition software. We should get some hits."
Jason finished his fries and took a long drink of water. When he set down his water bottle, Knox caught the concern in his friend's eyes.
"Worried about tomorrow?" Knox asked.
Jason shook his head. "We're not changing the plan. I still want you and Allie to get that security camera footage from Mr. Kurtz. And talk to the people in the area. Find out what they know about Byron."
Rowan yawned. Audibly.
Knox watched Rowan rub his eyes like a sleepy eight-year-old. "How can you be tired? You drank at least three Red Bulls today."
Rowan shrugged and looked at Jason. "You need me to stay up? The recognition software is running. Do you need the info tonight, or can I just check for hits in the morning?"
"Tomorrow is fine. Go get some sleep."
Rowan grabbed his phone and his headphones. "Okay, cool. Thanks. Good night."
Allie smiled as he walked past her. "Good night, Rowan. See you in the morning."
"Good night, Allie." He bumped into an empty chair. "Um, yeah. See you tomorrow."
He left the room. As soon as the door closed, Knox turned to Allie. "Don't encourage him."
"What are you talking about? I'm just trying to be friendly. You two are hard on him."
Knox tossed his napkin onto his empty plate. "He thinks you're flirting with him."
Allie laughed and shook her head. "I don't think so. But I'll set him straight if he gets the wrong idea. I don't think it hurts to be nice to him."
Knox noticed Jason's silence. "What's up? There was something you weren't saying earlier. The kid went to bed, so the grown-ups can talk freely now."
Allie rolled her eyes at that. Which is what he was going for.
He grinned at Allie, then refocused on Jason. "What's on your mind?"
Jason stacked his empty plate on top of Rowan's and stood. "While you two are getting the security camera footage, I'm going to check on Tayla." He pointed at their plates. "You guys done?"
"Yeah," Knox said. "But we'll clean up later. Is everything okay? Why do you look worried?"
Tayla, Jason's girlfriend, was working on a temporary assignment on Isadora Island for her bosses, Mr. and Mrs. Grayhouse.
Jason scratched the back of his head. "Her job for the next few days is to look for properties that might work for the Grayhouses' charity work. They want to build a new orphanage, a school, and a church. Tayla will be driving all over Isadora Island and Morghana Island looking at land."
Allie nodded. "And you're worried about her running into Byron?"
Jason sat back down. "Yeah." He shook his head.
"I don't know why I pictured her working from her laptop in her hotel while she was here.
I knew the Grayhouses wanted her to find locations for their charities.
" He ran a hand down his face. "I just worry.
We"—he circled his finger in the air to indicate the three of them—"are trained to handle bad actors like Byron.
Tayla isn't. She's not na?ve by any means, but she doesn't have the skills to deal with guys that shoot down drones or leave messages with blood. "
Knox leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Okay. So, you could hire her some extra protection while she's here. Better yet, get the Grayhouses to pay for it."
"I thought about that. It's a possibility." He stood again and collected their empty plates. "What I keep having to remind myself is that her being here isn't a fluke."
Allie replaced the cap on her water bottle. "You mentioned something about that. You both were offered short-term assignments on the same island, at the same time? Yeah, that sounds like divine intervention."
Jason set the empty dishes in the hallway and walked back into the room.
"There was a little more to it, but yes, I think it was a sign that I was supposed to accept this assignment.
" He picked up his phone and keycard. "I'll call her in a few minutes.
And tomorrow I'll meet up with her and see what I can work out.
You two keep your heads up tomorrow. After today, I have no idea what to expect from Byron. "
Knox gave a mock salute. "Will do."
Jason tossed his empty water bottle into the trash. "See you guys tomorrow."
"Good night," Knox and Allie replied in unison.
Jason left, and Knox offered Allie the last cookie. "Want this?"
She smiled. "No, you take it. I ate half of one. They're delicious, but oh-so-rich."
"If you insist." He tossed it onto a napkin. "I'll take it to my room for a midnight snack."
"You should." She picked up her phone and slid it into her back pocket.
Her hair fell into her face, and he ached to brush the strands away, take her face in his hands, and .
. . oh, not yet. He wasn't sure where he stood with her, but he knew certain privileges hadn't been re-granted.
He needed to say something, though. He wouldn't be able to sleep with how they left things hanging earlier.
"Hey." He cleared his throat. Good start, Coulter. "I know it's late, but we were interrupted rather abruptly when Chovno tried to beat down my door."
Allie nodded and met his gaze. "I know. I'm glad we talked. I don't know what else to say, though."
He took a step closer to her. "The last thing you said to me in that conversation was that your parents' opinion of me doesn't affect you. Does that mean . . . " Oh man, he didn't know how to word this kind of thing. Every question in his head sounded corny.
He massaged his forehead—as if it would help elegant phrases pop out. "Look, I'm not good at this. I just want to know what you think of me right now, what you think of us right now. You know what I mean."
She fidgeted with the hem of her sleeve.
"I still care about you, Knox." She closed her eyes and shook her head.
"I didn't realize you were still interested in us.
I don't know why you are. I really messed up.
I messed up your surveillance mission, I failed miserably at suspecting Leo or my parents, I got myself shot, I took a man's life, I—"
He gripped her hands. "Hey, stop. Don't. Don't do that." He sighed. "You had to shoot him. He would have killed you. That was self-defense."
"I know. But I triggered that train wreck when I barged in and blew your cover. He's dead because of what I did. I can't believe I was so stupid." She squeezed her eyes shut again. "I'm so sorry. I'm—"
He placed his hands on her upper arms and barely thwarted the temptation to shake some sense into her. "Allie, I keep telling you that you don't need to apologize. Why can't you accept that? Why do you think I can't care about you if you made a mistake?"
"I don't know. It just doesn't make sense. How can you simply look past all that?"
"Allie, I care about who you are, not what you did or didn't do. I'm far from perfect. It would be hypocritical of me to expect you to be."
He slid his hands down her arms and laced his fingers through hers.
She gave an almost imperceptible nod. "True. You're not perfect."
He felt a chuckle deep in his chest. Well, at least she was joking with him.
Moisture filled her eyes. "It's just that when I think about us, I think about that night. And I can't think about that night without feeling horribly guilty. I should have—"
"Okay, I get it." He rubbed his thumbs across the backs of her hands, giving himself a few beats to organize his words. "Can we just start over? I've missed you, Allie. And I—" He cleared his throat of the uninvited emotion swelling up.
"I've missed you too." She let go of his other hand and swiped away a tear. "I don't know where we go from here. I obviously . . . well, I think you know how I feel. But I'm still so confused about everything. Just because I feel this way tonight doesn't mean this is going to work. I—"
"Hey. Slow down. We don't have to figure everything out right now. Can we just admit we both still care for each other and take it one day at a time?"
Her mouth hinted at a smile. "Yes. That sounds like a plan."
"C'mere," he whispered. She leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his waist. He held her against his chest and rested his chin on top of her head. Oddly, it wasn't even awkward, like they hugged every day. She felt perfect in his arms. Like she was created for him.
Relief coursed through him. He'd worried for three months that he would never hold her again. He'd had no idea she'd felt so guilty. He'd been too wrapped up in his own guilt for not protecting her.
Now, her content sigh against his chest gave him hope—a hope he didn't deserve.