Shut up!
Blue barks, a high sharp sound. Robert is back. I turn off the shower and grab a towel. It’s plush and long enough that it falls below my knees. I glance in the mirror. My skin is rosy from the steam and my hair is slicked to my head—so the scars that mark my face are in stark relief.
My mind wanders back to when I first met Robert. I instantly felt the slime coming off him. Oily and repulsive. He was married to another woman—Pammy. Young, gorgeous, hyper sexual, manipulative…the perfect partner for Bobby Maxim.
Pammy’s dog, Toby, was the reason I ended up in this mess. This mess I now consider my life. That dog ran away down a chilly, creepy alley and he found Saperstein’s dead body. I was just the dog walker chasing him.
What am I doing now?
Why do I have this sense that life is happening to me—that I haven’t stopped running since I chased that animal? I’ve tried to redirect myself—leave this mayhem. Desert this dangerous path, slow down and find my way back to the smooth pavement of normalcy but…it’s impossible. I’m so far from “normal” now I’ll never get back there.
Yet…my hand comes to my stomach again, cupping the bulge there. This is normal. Is there anything more normal than having a baby?
Even if I’m not doing it in a traditional way.
A knock on the door draws me from my thoughts, thank god. “Just a minute,” I say.
“We have a reservation in fifteen, is that enough time for you? Or would you prefer I call food to the room?” Robert asks.
“Let’s go out,” I say, hoping to avoid any more accidentally intimate situations tonight. “But don’t you need to shower?”
“I’ll just take a dip. I left your clothing on the bed.” Footsteps retreat.
I run a brush through my hair, then find a smaller towel and wrap it up. A bathrobe calls my name and I slip on the thick terry garment before heading out to find the clothing Robert left.
He’s not in the pool. Blue bounds over to the deck and barks down to the water. I resist the urge to go see. The sun is almost gone now and the first bright stars twinkle in the dusky blue sky. It’s time to eat. And get the information I came here for; there will be no more cavorting with Robert Maxim in the sea.
But don’t you want to?
Shut up brain, shut the fuck up.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“You’re turning me into one of those billionaires,” Robert says once the waitress has taken our order and left us. We are on a private deck that cantilevers over the water. I’m wearing a full-length dress in bold, multi-colored patterns with ruffled straps that Robert picked up at the hotel store. It’s shapeless and somehow also sexy. Especially paired with the gladiator sandals he brought me…and had to tie on for me. I’m not a fashionista, and straps that long just didn’t make sense until Robert wound them up my calf and tied them off right under my knee.
The soft murmurs of the main dining room barely reach us through the open French doors. It’s a small restaurant—intimate and romantic. This is a hotel for honeymoons and anniversaries. A place for couples to celebrate their promises to each other. Robert and I look the part—me in my fancy dress and him in a lightweight navy suit and crisp white shirt.
Memories of Robert’s and my wedding flash. The dress Robert picked out—white and elegant—the flowers—fragrant and gorgeous—and the music—live and excellent. It had all the trappings a wedding should have. Even my nearest and dearest in attendance.
The worried smile on my friend Hugh’s face, his offer to hold the train of my dress if I wanted to make a run for it…it was so old-fashioned…especially the part where the bride didn’t have a say in it. The union was formed to cement relationships, to protect me, to give Robert what he wanted. None of it was for love. Nor romance. At least my mother didn’t provide Robert any livestock…that I know of.
I pull my attention back to the table, the here and now. My gun is in my purse, Robert’s is strapped under his jacket, and Brock eats alone in a protective position just inside—his wound rewrapped with clean bandages. The other couples dining in the flickering candlelight would never guess a bullet grazed his forehead a few hours ago.
“What kind of billionaire have I turned you into?” I ask.
“The kind with an eccentric wife who orders a hundred-dollar steak for her dog.”
“That steak costs a hundred dollars?!” Blue, who’d laid down under the table, shifts so that his chin rests on my foot—offering me comfort.
Robert raises his brows. “This is paradise, Sydney.” He gestures to the calm sea and the jungle greenery around us. “It has a high cost.”
“But—” I look around, realizing that Robert is pointing out the obvious. “There are no prices on the menu. That’s not fair.”
“Would it have changed your order?” he asks, leaning forward, his tone teasing.
“I don’t know. Probably. I mean, they might have some dog food…” My voice tips up at the end like it’s a question.
“I’m sure we could make that happen. Will he need more tonight?”
“More than a hundred-dollar steak? No. I’ll be back on the island by breakfast,” I point out. “So he’ll be fine.”
“Yes,” Robert says, his expression darkening. “I’m sorry you have to go.”
“Are you going to stay here?” The buzz of a speedboat draws my attention to the water where a small craft skims across the flat sea.
“Yes,” he answers, following my gaze. “I will stay.”
“Really? Why?”
“I’ve spoken with my friend who owns the yacht. The crew member has been taken into custody. Brock and I will interrogate him.”
“Oh,” I say.
“It has nothing to do with you,” Robert is quick to add. “And you’ll be leaving for your safety.”
My eyes narrow at him and he raises his brow—the look on his face way too innocent. “Those are the kind of words someone might say if they wanted me to argue.”
