Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Isla was nervous as she stepped off the elevator and into the basement. She had a death grip on her Daddy’s hand. So many concerns were going through her mind.

For one thing, she had only met Sadie so far. Four other women lived as Littles in what was apparently a family unit she was now a part of. She’d met a few of the Daddies in passing but hadn’t spent much time with them yet.

“Yay, you’re here!” Sadie exclaimed as she jumped up from where she’d been sitting on the biggest sectional Isla had ever seen. Four other women were with her, and they all stood, too.

Isla hadn’t expected to meet all of them at once this morning, but apparently, they’d gathered to meet her.

Sadie skipped toward Isla and pulled her into a hug. “Good news. I don’t have to work until ten, so I can join you for breakfast.”

“Oh, that would be nice. Thank you.”

Caesar cleared his throat as he set his hands on Isla’s shoulders. “You better not be planning world domination Little-style.”

Sadie giggled. “Of course not. World domination? Little-style? What does that even mean?” She twirled a finger around a lock of hair from one of her pigtails and swayed back and forth.

Two men approached from a bank of computer monitors.

One was Rocco, the rock-climbing instructor Isla had already met. She knew he was Sadie’s Daddy. “Sadie…” he warned, “Isla just got here. Maybe you could let her at least meet everyone and settle in before you plan something naughty.”

Isla found their banter curious and oddly refreshing. She also felt more relaxed now that she saw that Sadie and the other four women were all dressed similarly to her.

The second man held out a hand. “I’m Magnus. I’m the team’s computer geek.”

“He was the team’s computer geek,” one of the women stated as she joined them. “Now he’s half of the team’s geek,” she declared proudly. She held out a hand next. “I’m Juniper. Magnus is my Daddy, and he might be the boss of me outside of work, but I try to challenge him daily with my hacking skills.”

Isla chuckled. Yes, their banter was so much fun.

Each of the rest of the women introduced themselves, and Isla remembered that Celeste and Zara worked in the lab. Lyra, the last one to speak, was apparently a cellist. Isla couldn’t wait to hear her perform.

“It’s so nice to meet all of you,” Isla said, trying not to feel overwhelmed. They all made her feel welcome, but there were so many of them.

The elevator pinged, and three more men stepped out. She was afraid she wouldn’t remember all their names and who belonged with whom, so she repeated their names in her head several times as each wrapped their arms around one of the women and introduced themselves.

I’ve got this. Rocco and Sadie. Hawking and Celeste. Kestrel and Zara. Magnus and Juniper. Phoenix and Lyra . She said the names several times in her head.

Kestrel was the first to break away after everyone had met Isla. “I have a helicopter tour in half an hour. I’ll see you again at dinner tonight, Isla.” He kissed Zara on the top of her head. “Be good. Cure cancer. I’ll see you tonight.” He jogged toward the elevator.

One by one, they all broke off. Lyra said she was going to practice her cello on the fifth floor, Celeste and Zara disappeared into the lab, and their Daddies went off to do their various jobs.

That left Magnus, Juniper, and Sadie, with Isla and her Daddy, who was pulling out the map and spreading it on the table.

Isla was excited and wanted to lean over it and start exploring, but her Daddy stopped her. “Breakfast first.”

She groaned. “I’ll be fine without breakfast.” She was eager to have Magnus look at the map.

Magnus had on a ballcap that nearly covered his eyes, and he grunted. “Why do Little girls always think they can skip meals?” He pointed toward a table in one corner of the room. “I thought this might happen. I already ordered a selection from the restaurant. You three go eat before we start playing treasure hunters.”

Isla sighed as she let Juniper and Sadie guide her toward the table. The truth was that as soon as Sadie lifted the lid off the covered dishes, Isla’s stomach growled. She could get used to this. Not having to cook? Ordering food from the restaurant all the time? Yum!

Isla stared at Magnus while he stared at the map. She prayed that, between him and Caesar, they could figure out approximately where the treasure was supposedly buried.

It was just the three of them at the huge table. Sadie had gone to get ready for work, and Juniper sat across the room, manning the computers.

Finally, Magnus adjusted his ballcap and rose from his hunched-over position. He set his hands on his hips and looked at Caesar. “I think your guess is correct.”

“Your guess?” Isla asked, glancing back and forth between the men.

Caesar set a hand on her back and rubbed. “I told Magnus my suspicions while you were having breakfast. There’s a tunnel system that runs under this resort. It’s been there for over a hundred years. The tunnels connect to the caves that are all over these mountains. One of those caves exits out to a small cove inside the bay area where Danger Bluff is located.”

“A cove? Where? Is it close?”

“Very close. See that small indentation there?” he said, pointing at the map. “And there’s been a lot of action in that cave lately. When Juniper came to visit, she had a bank robber on her heels—Edmund Rivers. He’d just been released from a twenty-year prison sentence and believed his money had been hidden here at the resort. It turned out he was right. The money had been in the tunnels near that particular cave. Edmund and his brother, Eric, used the cave to come into the tunnels in search of the money. They were caught and arrested.”

“Did anyone do any exploring in there, do you think?” Isla asked, more excited now.

“I doubt many people have been in there in the past few decades. The cave is only accessible by land when the tide is low. It’s completely underwater when the tide is high. In fact, the men who stashed the money there both drowned because they didn’t get out on time.”

Isla cringed. “That’s so sad.”

Caesar ran a hand over his face. “Yeah, even criminals don’t deserve to die from drowning. There was a small explosion near that area. That may make finding the treasure more difficult or easier.”

“Can we go down there?” she asked Caesar softly, half expecting him to tell her it was too dangerous.

“Yeah, we can.” He sighed.

She sat up straighter. “Really? You’ll take me?”

He grabbed the back of her neck and tipped her head back. “Only because you’re an experienced diver, and I’ve been down there when the tide was high. And, Isla…”

“What?” Her heart started racing with excitement. He was going to take her. He was really going to let her go.

“You will follow my rules at all times, understood?”

She nodded rapidly.

“I mean it, Little girl. I just found you. You’re mine. If you defy me and put yourself in danger over something like a buried treasure that probably isn’t even there, I will spank your bottom so hard you won’t be able to sit for a week.”

She squirmed on her seat. “I promise, Daddy. I will do everything you say.” She stared at him, hating the look in his eyes. She knew he was recalling Mindy, the woman who had turned on him and left him for dead—a woman he’d trusted.

Isla slid off her seat and approached him, wrapping her arms around him. She hugged his neck tight. “I’m not Mindy,” she whispered. “I will obey you. I promise.” She would never defy anyone who was in charge of a dive. Not anyone. Certainly not her own Daddy. She set her lips on his ear to whisper so Magnus couldn’t hear, “I kind of like the idea of you spanking me, though. Could we maybe do that afterward?”

Caesar leaned back so he could meet her gaze. His eyes were wide, and his mouth was hitched up on one corner.

Isla blushed as he stared at her until she finally looked down and leaned into him closer, embarrassed.

Her Daddy rubbed her back. “That can be arranged,” he whispered, but she noticed Magnus had left them to wander back to his wall of computers where Juniper was working.

She smiled, feeling suddenly shy. She couldn’t believe she’d asked him to spank her.

“Here’s what we’ll do,” he said. “We’ll dive down there this afternoon while the tide is high. I’ll show you what the entrance to the cave looks like, and we can explore the area a bit. We’ll need to assess if that area was affected by the explosion. We won’t enter the cave. You need special certification for that kind of dive. We can go back into the cave from the tunnels later when the tide is low and look around some more on the inside.”

She grinned, excitement making her bounce on her feet.

“You know the chances there’s a buried treasure in or around that cave are slim to none. Even if it had been put there all those years ago, it could’ve washed out to sea at any time. The tide is very disruptive to the sand and rocks. It could have easily been dislodged and floated away.”

Isla sighed. “Yeah.” She knew he was right. “I don’t really care. I came here to explore because my grandfather never got to. I had no idea I would meet someone like you on the first day of my trip. I’m so excited to dive with you because we share a love of scuba, and I know we’ll have fun seeing if anything on that map could possibly be real, but it’s all in good fun. If we don’t find a single thing, I already consider this vacation the best decision of my life.”

Caesar grabbed her by the hips and hauled her onto his lap. “I’m so damn glad you came to Danger Bluff, too.” He cupped her face and kissed her until she grew dizzy from lust and lack of oxygen.

Magnus cleared his throat, causing Isla to flinch as the two of them broke the kiss. “Sorry,” he muttered, “but I just want to point something out before you two head down to the boat.”

“What’s that?” Caesar asked as he rose and stood Isla on her feet.

Magnus’s brow was furrowed. It was hard to tell with the ballcap covering his forehead, but Isla was short enough to see up under it. He narrowed his gaze. “Kingsley didn’t arrange for you to protect Isla from a fake treasure hunt.”

Caesar winced. “You’re right.”

Isla cringed. “Maybe, this time, he’s just a really good matchmaker, and he thought the two of us would be perfect for each other.”

“I have no doubt he’s an excellent matchmaker. The man is omniscient,” Magnus said, “but after what we’ve been through with the other five women, I’m not buying that some kind of danger isn’t lurking.”

Caesar nodded as he threaded his fingers with Isla’s. “He’s right. We need to stay aware of our surroundings at all times. Kingsley doesn’t play matchmaker without a reason. He may not have any idea what sort of danger you’re in, but somehow, he knows you are absolutely facing something ominous. Perhaps it has nothing to do with your map. Maybe there’s a disgruntled family member who’s pissed because their loved one died in your care.”

Isla flinched. Caesar was right. That occasionally happened to nurses and doctors. She couldn’t recall any particular patient who’d died during her shift and left behind a furious relative, but it was possible.

Magnus nodded. “Well, go enjoy your day. I’ll keep a close eye on every camera both inside the tunnels and around the dock. I don’t have eyes out on the water or around that cave, of course, but I’m glad we put some in the tunnels.”

“You and me both,” Caesar agreed. He looked down at Isla. “Ready to go diving?”

Some of the wind had died down around her mental sails, but she pulled her shoulders back and nodded. Diving always made her feel alive. She couldn’t wait to get under the water.