With a growl, he drops his mouth to my neck and cleans away the blood spray with his tongue. I tip my head to the side to give him more access. My eyes close, and I wrap my arms around his neck.
“I wish it had lasted longer. I should have saved that move for the finish,” I say.
“You’re already an ace at torture. Just look how you tortureme.” He takes my hand and lowers it to his crotch. His stiff cock fills my hand through his pants. “Now how about that fun house?”
“It’ll have to wait,” a voice says through an overhead speaker, and Aven and I jump apart and look skyward. “Sorry, forgot to mention that we installed cameras and mics. Hope that’s okay.”
“Jim?” Aven says.
“And King,” a British voice says. “We’ve got a problem. We need both of you to meet us in Jim’s room. ASAP.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Aven
As Quinn and I board the swan boat, the mood is decidedly different from this afternoon. Gone are the easy smiles and laughter. Instead of getting flirty and crawling all over me, her hands sit still in her lap. Her green eyes look at the ride attendant as he checks the seatbelt over our laps, but she doesn’t really see him. She’s miles away.
I wrap my arm around her shoulder and pull her closer. “Hey, it’ll be okay, lass. Let’s worry about Desmond when we need to, yeah?”
She nods and tries to smile, but I stop the attendant from sending the swan boat into the tunnel.
“Give us a sec,” I say, and he nods and steps away.
Water drifts under the boat and gently splashes against the sides of the tunnel as it continues into the darkness. I firm my hold on her and bring her closer. She doesn’t protest. She just slides over until she’s pressed against my side. Her head drops against my shoulder, and her hands find mine. I give them a squeeze.
“They’ll find him. Jim has cameras everywhere.” I kiss the top of her head. “Just stick with me until they do.”
“Will you stay in my room tonight?” she asks.
I smile against her hair. “Aye, I’ve already had it taken care of. When we get back to the room, my things will have been moved over. Jim saw to it.”
That relaxes her a bit, and she squeezes back. “It wasn’t as scary when I felt like we had the control, but now that he’s gone missing, I’m terrified. He could be anywhere.”
When we met with Jim and King, they didn’t pull any punches. Desmond isn’t in his room, and the last footage they have is of him boarding the gondola that takes parkgoers from one side of the property to the other. The footage showed his ride vehicle arriving at the second station, but it was empty. Jim didn’t have any cameras stationed along the track, so there’s no way to know when or how he exited.
Worst of all, Jim reiterated that we aren’t to take him out if we find him. He still hasn’t broken the cardinal rule in a way we can prove, and until he does, we can’t kill him. Not without becoming complete outcasts.
But what Jim doesn’t know is that I overheard King speaking candidly to him before they realized I’d arrived at their door. It was only two sentences, but they left me with too many questions.
“He isn’t to kill him, and neither is the girl. The right is mine, and I’ll be damned if I’ll be robbed of it again.”
I shake my head and sigh. “There’s more to this than they’re telling us, lass. If they’ve been hunting Desmond all these years, why haven’t they taken him out? Why did they need to keep using you as bait?”
“They need something else from him, I guess. Something we’re unaware of. And until they have it, they don’t want to kill him. I just hope it doesn’t end up costing my life.”
My heart shatters when I consider a world without Quinn in it. I’ve never been happier to be annoyed by a wee lass in my life, and I cannae let that go now. “That’ll never happen. I won’t allow it. As long as Desmond draws breath, I won’t leave your side. He can’t hurt you if he can’t reach you.”
She offers a weak smile and squeezes my hands. “Let’s just try to enjoy ourselves and forget about him for a bit.”
I call for the attendant, and he sets the ride in motion. This one is much gentler than the log flumes, and there’s no murder activity to take my focus away from Quinn. I’m just able to enjoy her amusement as we float into an enchanted scene and soft, romantic music plays overhead.
“Oh, Aven,” she breathes. “It’s so beautiful.”
Aye, even I have to admit it’s pretty incredible. Purple lighting casts a faux weeping willow in a romantic glow as we pass beneath its drooping branches, which have been shaped into a sort of tunnel entrance. As we pass into the next scene, however, a record scratches, and the music changes from gentle and romantic to playful and fast.
“Fucking Jim,” Quinn mutters. “Can we not even have a romantic boat ride? It sounds like he produced this shit on his iPhone.”
“Aye, he fucks around with that Garage Band app all the fucking time. That bird of his loves it.”
