“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 cagenear 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?”
