32. Chapter 32
As Sid waited by the fountain, he noticed an older man with dark skin and a bald head approaching. Sid recognized him as his father’s old friend, Aadesh Ratti. The simple recognition was soon replaced by a jolt of concern. Although he didn’t know for certain, he suspected Aadesh had been his sponsor for the Order.
He thought back to his mother’s report that the Order had found his swimming and singing undignified, and concern over his enthusiastic dancing with Jayna returned. Had Aadesh seen him dancing with Jayna? Sid’s heart jumped to his throat, and the roar of the nearby fountain was suddenly deafening.
Sid’s concern eased as a warm smile crossed Aadesh’s face and he extended his hand. “It’s nice to see you again, Obsidian.”
“Same to you.” Sid returned the older man’s firm handshake.
“I hadn’t realized you would be part of the entertainment this evening.”
Sid’s face flushed. But there was a twinkle in Aadesh’s eye that gave Sid a bit of reassurance.
“There’s no need to be embarrassed about dancing with a beautiful young lady. Your father would have liked her. I know he would have liked seeing you dressed up as a merman. But more importantly, he would have been impressed by what you accomplished. She seems to bring out the best in you.”
A wave of relief washed over Sid. Apparently not everyone in the Order disapproved of Jayna and her enthusiasm after all. Aadesh had all but given their relationship his blessing.
“She really does bring out the best in me.” Sid glanced around the lobby but didn’t see Jayna. “She’ll be here any minute if you’d like to meet her.”
Aadesh raised a hand and shook his head. “Maybe another time. Keep up the good work.”
Aadesh patted his shoulder, and Sid’s heart swelled. On the surface, this short conversation had nothing to do with the Order. But he felt certain Aadesh had sought him out and all but told him his membership in the Order was on track.
As Aadesh walked away, he barely avoided colliding with a drunken woman weaving her way through the crowd. When Sid recognized the woman as Rosalind, he felt a surge of panic. What if Rosalind saw him? She would undoubtedly come and talk to him, and that was the last thing he needed for Aadesh to see.
Sid ducked behind the fountain. Hopefully Rosalind would be gone by the time Jayna returned. Rosalind was usually discrete, at least when she was sober. In her drunken state, Sid had no idea what she might say. She could easily make a simple background check seem invasive and creepy. Best to play it safe.
As he waited for Rosalind to pass, it occurred to him that Jayna had been gone for a long time. Had she maybe misunderstood where they were supposed to meet?
Sid tried calling her. When she didn’t answer, he grew concerned and he immediately called Emmaline.
“I’m worried about Jayna,” he said. “She went to the restroom almost half an hour ago to head off a wardrobe malfunction, and now she’s not answering her phone.”
“Do you know which restroom she went into?” Emmaline asked.
“I’m guessing the bank to the north of the ballroom.”
“I’m not too far away,” Emmaline said. “I’ll check.”
Sid chewed his bottom lip as he searched the lobby, but there was no sign of her.
Barely a minute later, Emmaline called back. “She’s not in the restroom. The gemphone is pinging from inside the ballroom.”
His brow furrowed as a new concern emerged. “You’re tracking her gemphone?”
“Of course,” Emmaline said. “Those diamonds and emeralds may be manufactured, but they still weren’t cheap.”
There was no sign of Jayna in the ballroom. Emmaline entered through the opposite door and walked straight to a cluster of cocktail tables along one wall. The tables weren’t far from the spot on the floor where Sid and Jayna had been dancing earlier.
Emmaline crouched down under one of the tables. She stood and held up Jayna’s gemphone bracelet. “It looks like her dress wasn’t the only thing that gave out during that dance. Impressive, by the way.”
“Thanks,” he said, even though he was too upset to appreciate the compliment. He looked around the ballroom once again, but there was still no sign of Jayna. “What do we do now?”
“We go to security.”
Sid’s heart ached with worry as he followed Emmaline out of the ballroom and towards the resort’s security office. His mind raced through possible reasons behind Jayna’s disappearance, each more troubling than the last.
Emmaline spoke quietly to one of the security officers, and though Sid didn’t quite catch the words, the urgency in her voice sent Sid’s own concern into overdrive.
After a brief hesitation, the security guard ushered them into a small room. Images from several dozen cameras filled the display wall. “When did you last see her?” the guard asked.
Sid cleared his throat. “About thirty minutes ago.”
With a wave of the security officer’s hand, the video feeds flickered off and reappeared.
“That’s her,” Emmaline said. “Dancing with Obsidian.”
Sid’s eyes were immediately drawn to his energetic dance with Jayna, and the crowd of spectators that surrounded them. He would have been concerned at the spectacle had he not just finished his conversation with Aadesh. Instead, he felt a surge of pride—accompanied by a wave of longing as he watched Jayna.
The officer sped through the stream until he reached the point where Jayna exited the ballroom, clutching the side of her dress.
“She told Lena she was worried about that seam,” Emmaline said.
They followed Jayna as she moved from one video feed to the next until they saw her go into the restroom. The guard gestured again, and the video feed returned to its normal playback speed. Several people went in and out, including a drunken woman who strongly resembled Rosalind.
The thought of Jayna talking to Rosalind made him ill.
“There,” Emmaline said, pointing at the display as Jayna left the restroom.
The pressure in his heart eased, but he couldn’t see her expression well enough to completely eliminate his concern.
They followed her progress as she walked towards the fountain, but then she stopped and changed direction. She walked into the ballroom and passed through a curtain. Sid didn’t remember seeing a curtain when he had been in the ballroom, and his gut tightened.
“What’s behind that?” he asked.
“That’s the makai stage area. There’s one on each end of the ballroom, and the curtain comes down to screen the bands as they set up and tear down.”
She went backstage? A knot formed in Sid’s gut.
“We don’t have good coverage back there when the curtain is down.” The security guy shook his head. “I think it’s a bad idea, but management wants that area to be private so performers can change without their business ending up on the streams.”
“That makes sense,” Emmaline said. “Skip forward to see when she comes out.”
The knot in Sid’s gut tightened, and he had a different idea. “You have a camera on the back entrance, right?”
“We do,” he said.
Emmaline asked, “You think she went outside? Why?”
Sid tried to keep his voice even. “Just a hunch.”
The security guard gestured, and several long moments later, the bright interior images on the wall were replaced by much darker exterior streams. Sid scanned the images until he saw what he had been looking for.
Kalani emerged from a door, his arm wrapped tightly around Jayna’s shoulder.
Every muscle in Sid’s body tensed, and he pressed his lips together, unwilling to say anything until he was certain.
Jayna and Kalani walked a short distance to a spot in the shadow, and although Sid couldn’t see their faces it was clear by the way Jayna was pressed against Kalani that this was not a casual conversation.
Emmaline gasped. After a moment she said, “That can’t be what it looks like. They aren’t even a match.”
But her words only confirmed what Sid could see for himself: it looked for all the world like Kalani and Jayna were kissing. Anger and embarrassment warred inside him. It was just like Crystal all over again.
After what seemed like an eternity, Jayna walked alone towards the back entrance. The guard asked, “Should I…”
“Yes,” Sid answered before he could even finish the question. The interior streams returned to the wall, and video Jayna walked directly to the fountain, where she paced nervously.
Sid glanced at Emmaline, and he could tell by her face that she shared his concern. “I’d better go find out what she’s up to.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” Emmaline asked.
Sid shook his head. “Thanks, but no. I’ll let you know if I need you.” The last thing Sid wanted was to have an audience for this conversation, even if it was only Emmaline.
He hurried from the security offices and walked briskly towards the lobby. As he approached, he could see Jayna pacing on the opposite side of the fountain. Of course, she’s pacing. She has a guilty conscience.
Sid’s plan was to move Jayna as quickly as possible to someplace more discreet and private, where they could have the conversation they needed. But as he got closer, he was surprised to see that Jayna didn’t look so concerned as much as angry. In fact, she seemed furious, and Sid wondered what she could possibly be angry about.
Jayna stopped pacing and put her hands on her hips. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
Her unexpected question threw him off. “Find out about what?”
“About Rosalind Aria and her aggregators.”
He felt a stab of guilt. Rosalind had talked to Jayna and obviously told her about the in-depth analysis she’d run for him. He turned away, unable to meet her eyes.
“You don’t deny it, then?”
“No, I don’t deny it. I hired Rosalind to run an analysis on you.”
Jayna let out a strangled cry. “Argh! I knew better than to trust you.”
That wasn’t the reaction Sid had expected, and the mention of trust brought his anger back with a vengeance. “You want to talk about trust? What about you? You tell me you have feelings for me and that you’re willing to take on a relationship with me, and then you go sneaking off with your other boyfriend when you think I’m not watching.”
Jayna looked like she’d been hit. “Sneaking off with what ‘other boyfriend?’ Toren’s all the way in Rotterdam. But you should know that, since you’re the one who got him transferred.”
Sid’s eyes went wide. “Wait, you have another boyfriend in Rotterdam? How many boyfriends do you have?”
Jayna looked like she wanted to hit him. “One. I have one boyfriend. I had one boyfriend. But now, I’m not so sure anymore.”
“Oh, you have a boyfriend. I saw the two of you making out.”
“You saw what?” Jayna asked.
“When I couldn’t reach you through your gemphone, I had security track you on the video feeds. We found you and Kalani, all wrapped up with each other in the bushes behind the hotel. Emmaline saw it too, so don’t try and deny it.”
Jayna’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You…” she started to speak, but then narrowed her eyes at him. Her cheeks flushed, and Sid could tell there was a fiery redhead explosion coming. “Of course, you tracked me. Why should I expect anything less from a creepy, self-important mervert.”
“Mervert?” Sid had been accused of being many unsavory things, but this was a first.
“That’s right. I should have seen it from the beginning. You’re just another bottom-feeding stalker with a mermaid fetish.” Jayna moved her face close to his and jabbed his chest with her finger. “I’ve had to deal with creeps like you my whole career—perverts who think that just because a girl is in a costume, she must want to take part in their twisted fantasies.”
Sid took an involuntary step backwards as Jayna’s accusations left him at a loss for words.
“Most of the worms back off after their inappropriate comments fail to get the desired reaction. A dangerous few try getting physical and have to be dealt with more forcefully.”
Sid took another step back as Jayna continued to advance forward, and the back of his legs pressed against the edge of the fountain.
“But never, in a million years, did I imagine I’d meet someone so depraved that they would try to buy me.” She jabbed her finger into his chest again for emphasis. “Well, you may have bought Realms of Neptune, but I am not for sale!”
He took an involuntary step back, but there was nowhere left to go, and the fountain cut him off at the knees. Before he could react, Sid tumbled backwards.