Chapter Twelve
Bella
“ I just don ’ t understand why you can ’ t stay off your phone for a few minutes and pay attention to me!” I whine.
“ Baby, you know I have to work. Look around. You wanted to come with me, and I brought you – do you think all this is cheap?” Cole shoots back.
I look around, pouting and embracing my ditzy performance.
“ But I sat here all day yesterday without anyone to talk to or anything; it was so boring!” I say, dragging out the words. “ Can ’ t you just tell your investors you ’ re taking the day off to spend with your wife? You can always make the meetings up tomorrow.”
“ You know that ’ s not how it works,” he retorts. He ’ s speaking loudly enough that the rest of the pool area can hear him but not so loudly that people might complain about the noise. Who knew he was a decent actor? “ Well , can you take me out to dinner then?” I ask. “ I ’ ll just lounge around here today, but tonight, I want to go out and have some fun.”
“ If I can get away from the meetings,” he says. “ But you already knew when you came on this trip with me that I have to work, and that ’ s my priority. If you ’ re going to be a pain, I ’ m not bringing you with me next time.”
“ I ’ ll behave,” I say before sticking out my lower lip in a pout.
“ Good girl,” he tells me. “ You have money to buy drinks at the bar or lunch when you get hungry. I made sure yesterday that you ’ re going to be safe here at the pool, so please, just relax and let me get my work done, okay?”
“ Okay.”
It ’ s all I say, and he kisses me on the cheek before walking away. He’s certainly playing his businessman role well and I’m hoping my performance as the spoiled, bored, clueless wife is just as convincing.
Yesterday, we got no bites.
I had spent most of the day sunbathing and waiting, but no one approached me. Cole wasn ’ t at all discouraged, though, saying the patience would pay off.
I told him I felt guilty for lazily lying by the pool while Harley was experiencing God only knew what.
“ You ’ re working,” he told me. “ And you played the part beautifully. Tomorrow, I want you to do the exact same thing, and if someone approaches you, you know what comes next. I ’ m fully prepared for this to take a while. In this situation, patience is a virtue.”
“ How long is a while?” I asked. “ You know we don ’ t have a lot of time.”
“ We don ’ t know how much time we have,” he contradicted. “ And unless we ’ re going to sit in some office and throw darts at a map in hopes we find something useful, this is our best option. The local officer you worked with sure wasn ’ t doing anything to help, and for all we know, he could be getting his pockets lined to play that role and do nothing.”
“ Well, I appreciate you trying to make me feel better about it. You would tell me if there ’ s something I could be doing better to improve our chances of getting a bite, right?”
“ Trust me when I say you ’ re doing a great job, and I just need you to rinse and repeat the performance.”
I do trust him, which is why I’m back at the pool again today. We’re at a smaller resort than the one Harley and I were staying at. At dinner last night, I asked Cole how they decided on this particular hotel and why his team considered it a good place for the honey trap.
“ Commander Merrick went on the data that the OIJ provided,” he explained. “ They ran crime database searches on a half dozen hotels and resorts in this area, showing which ones have had reports of missing guests or abductions in the past couple of years. And the one we ’ re using was one of those flagged.”
“ Wow, it ’ s frightening how little Harley and I knew – and how little the average traveler knows – about what goes on in other countries,” I had said and got goosebumps just thinking about it. “ More needs to be done about educating and warning travelers,” I had said to him, almost getting angry about how naive and unprepared we were with planning our trip.
When we checked in, Cole – a.k.a. “Randy” – had made a point of demanding to know it was safe here. The staff assured him it was, and during the check-in process, a concierge came over to introduce himself and tell us he was “ at our disposal” should we need anything or want to plan any excursions. Cole played into it by also dropping the hint that I would be spending the days solo while he was at business meetings.
Later, he said he felt very confident we would get a hit here, and I asked why he thought that. He explained that the concierge coming over to us during check-in was a “ tell ” since usually, it’s the guest who goes to visit the concierge desk if they ’ re interested in scheduling an activity or excursion. He believes the concierge is likely an inside operator who does some of the spotting at the resort. That made total sense to me, and if nothing else, I was learning a lot about things we take for granted when traveling.
After he leaves me, I remind myself not to let my persona slip. I have to maintain this ditzy attitude, so I get up and walk over to the pool, sit on the edge of the deck, and dangle my feet in the water for a bit. I kick my legs some, feeling the water rush over them as I try to channel my inner teenager.
The time seems to drag by in slow motion, and I start to feel frustrated, like I ’ m doing nothing but wasting valuable time. But that ’ s probably just my guilt working on my psyche about Harley being in danger while I relax poolside.
There are magazines tucked into the baskets alongside most of the chairs, so I grab one and sit back. It’s a local magazine, and since I don’t read or speak much Spanish, I largely look at the pictures of beautiful women and exotic-looking men.
I easily get lost in the pages, so I ’ m somewhat startled when I hear someone talking to me. Looking up, I see a man who looks about ten years older than me. He ’ s got a rock-solid body with well-defined abs and biceps, and though he ’ s a bit shorter than most of the men I ’ ve dated, I find myself instantly drawn to him.
His complexion is dark with even darker eyes, and his hair is so black it ’ s almost shocking. His facial hair is shaved into a thin line following his jaw specifically, with a tiny mustache dotting the space above his lips. At first glance, he looks like he could be a model.
“ I ’ m sorry?” I say. He repeats himself in Spanish, and I shake my head once again.
“ English?” he asks.
“ Yes,” I say. “ Sorry, I feel so out of place not speaking Spanish.”
“ You ’ re a tourist, ” he laughs, and his laugh is quite sexy-sounding, which is not something I usually notice about men. “You’re not expected to speak the local language,” he says.
I laugh nervously. I wonder what he wants, and while on the one hand, I ’ m c onfident that I ’ m about to get the hit we were looking for, the other side of me is terrified. Knowing what I now know about predators and their victims, I feel vulnerable.
I remind myself that Cole is still around. I know he changed out of his business suit so he ’ d blend in with the people around the resort, but the fact that I can ’ t see him is nerve-wracking. Deep down, however, I know I ’ m doing this to find Harley, and I have to put myself in this position if I want to have hope of that.
“ Why ’ s a beautiful lady like you sitting alone in this paradise?” he asks me.
“ My husband is here on business,” I say with a little pout.
“ Here? ”
He looks around the pool, and for a brief moment, he seems somewhat alarmed.
“ Well, he ’ s staying here at the resort with me,” I say, not breaking my pout. “ But he has business he ’ s doing in the city. He left me about an hour ago, and I doubt I ’ ll see him again before dinner. If I even see him then.”
“ Oh, Bonita, ” he says. “ Your husband should be ashamed of himself, leaving an angel like you here alone.”
“ Well, I know he has to work to keep me in the lifestyle I ’ m accustomed to,” I say with a sigh. “ But I wish he cared enough to spend time with me. The whole reason I came down here with him is because I miss him. He works so much, I rarely get quality time with him.”
“ That ’ s terrible,” he says and shakes his head. If I didn ’ t think he was grooming me, I ’ d have fallen for the compassion in his eyes. He clearly knows how to make a woman feel seen and heard.
“ I don ’ t have anything going on with my day, and I ’ m afraid that I ’ m stuck here, too,” he tells me as he sits down in the chair next to mine. “ Do you mind if I sit with you?”
“ I ’ d love that,” I tell him with my warmest smile. “ What ’ s your story? How does someone like you wind up ‘ stuck here ’ sitting by the pool?”
He laughs again, and I wonder if he practices to make his laugh sound as inviting as it does.
“ I make my own excitement,” he says. “ You have to know how to make your own fun in life, Bonita. Especially if you wind up spending a lot of your time in places like this.”
“ Well, maybe I can learn from you how to make my own fun," I say, leaning forward. “ You ’ re fascinating, you know that?”
“ I ’ ll take that as a compliment,” he says with a wink. “ You know what? Why don ’ t I go over and buy us both a drink? Then we can sit and talk about what I do."
I giggle.
“ That sounds lovely. I ’ ll go with you so I can look at the drink menu,” I say, thinking I don ’ t want to run the risk of him spiking my drink with something.
Even with the assurance that Cole and the undercover guys are around and will keep me safe, I still don ’ t feel comfortable putting myself in that kind of vulnerability. As we discussed, there ’ s no telling if a bartender here could be in on their criminal schemes. We head over to the bar and I make sure to flirt with the bartender too. Can ’ t hurt, I figure.
“ There we go,” he hands me my drink, and I thank him before taking a sip of the drink.
“ That ’ s amazing,” I say, nodding toward the beverage. I ’ m glad you suggested it.”
“ It ’ s my favorite,” he says.
“ Then why didn ’ t you get it?” I ask.
He grins. “ Remember what I said about keeping life exciting?”
“ Yes. ”
“ To do that, you ’ ve got to try new things,” he says. “ If I just went with my favorite every time, then where is the excitement in that ? ”
“ You make it sound as though you ’ re stuck here a lot.”
“ I guess you could say that,” he sighs. “ It ’ s nothing I should complain about, but even the shiniest things get dull after a while.”
“ What do you mean?” I ask.
“ My name is Carlos Reyes, ” he tells me with a smile. He pauses as though he ’ s expecting his name to mean something to me. Though I make a point of memorizing both names he ’ s given me, I ’ m missing why I should react.
“ I guess you don ’ t know who I am, which is refreshing for a change.”
“ I ’ m sorry,” I say with another giggle. “ I hope I ’ m not being rude, but should I know who you are?”
“ I ’ m the son of the mogul who owns all of this,” he says as he gestures with his hands to the resort.
“ Oh!! You mean the whole resort?” I gasp and feign as much of a look of awe as I can.
“ Yes,” he says with a smile. “ This – and several others – is all going to be mine one day, and my father insists that I get to know the place inside and out. He says the only way I ’ ll know how to properly treat our guests is if I learn to be one. As you can imagine, the greatness of that idea wore off after a while.”
“ I can only imagine,” I say sympathetically. “ I guess I would get bored, too.”
“ Well, mi amor, we can ’ t have that, so let ’ s spice things up. You want to have some fun?” he asks.
“ Fun, how?”
“ I ’ ve got a Jeep,” he tells me. “ And I know a place that ’ s not far from here. It ’ s a bit of a drive to the trailhead, then it ’ s a short hike to the most beautiful waterfall you ’ ve ever seen.”
“ How do you know what I ’ ve seen?” I tease, trying to remain coy.
He laughs. “ Well, I don ’ t, but I know the waterfall, and the only thing I ’ ve ever seen more beautiful is the woman I ’ m talking to right now.”
I blush despite myself. Even if I know this is all an act and he ’ s trying to trick me, he ’ s good at it, and his delivery is spot on. I suppose blushing isn ’ t a bad thing, as it ’ s bound to sell the act even more.
“ What do you say?” he asks.
“ Well, it certainly sounds perfecto ,” I tell him, trying to be cute with my limited use of the Spanish language. I finish my drink – which I didn ’ t mean to drain so quickly, but it took the edge off my nervousness – and use that to stall and buy some time
“ Let me get us another drink,” I say. “ And we ’ ll talk about it.”
“ You? I should be the one buying the drinks, Hermosa.”
I giggle. “ Awe, let a girl buy a handsome gentleman a drink, will you?”
I wink at him and head over to the bartender. I ’ m glad I ’ m far enough away that I can order a virgin drink without Carlos hearing me. I don ’ t want to get so buzzed that I can’t keep up this act, but he needs to think I am.
When I return, I hand him his drink and then sit back with my own. He ’ s on the phone when I return, so I just smile politely until he finishes the call and puts his phone down on the small table between our chairs.
“ Sorry about that. My father,” he says with a nod toward the phone. But then, he takes a drink of the beverage I gave him. “ You got me my favorite!”
“ You already did your adventurous drink for the day,” I smile flirtatiously. “ I figured it was time for you to relax and have fun.”
“ You do seem to crave fun,” he says, and I give him my most seductive smile.
“ All kinds.”
He grins, but his phone rings before he can say anything else. Except, it ’ s not the phone on the table, but one that he has in his pocket. He pulls it out and looks at it, then gives me an apologetic look.
“ I ’ ll be right back,” he says, holding one finger up.
As soon as he walks away, I look at his phone on the table. I know this is crazy, but I ’ m being impulsive, probably thanks to the liquid courage I threw back so fast. I quickly enter my phone number into it, create a contact, and then set it to share his location. I know I ’ m taking a risk, but there ’ s no reason for him to think I’d share our locations, so he won't have a clue unless he’s feeling overly suspicious.
I barely get the phone back on the table before he walks back over. When his eyes fall on the phone he left, he seems agitated.
“ A man with two phones? Do you lead a double life ? ” I tease.
“ No, no, Bonita! Just my way of separating my work life from my personal life,” he says, recovering himself.
“ I hope that one is for personal,” I say with a wink and a nod toward the one on the table. “ I took the liberty of putting in my number.”
“ Naughty girl!” he says, clearly surprised at first but still covering for himself. “ And here I thought I would have to work really hard to convince you to live a little.”
“ Oh, you have no idea,” I laugh. “ Just promise me you ’ re not going to call me or sext me tonight, okay?”
“ Okay, I ’ ll save the sexting for another day,” he laughs his trademark sexy laugh and winks. “ We don ’ t want your husband to find out about this, do we?”
“ Exactly,” I tell him, leaning toward him. “ What he doesn ’ t know can ’ t hurt him, right?”
“ Now you ’ re speaking my language,” he says.
If only he knew the truth.