30. Cole

CHAPTER 30

COLE

“ D o you want the good news or the bad news?” Cole asked Bella at the end of a long day. Quietly, because their cabin was next to Jon’s, the walls were thin, and he didn’t want any guests to overhear the things he did with his girl.

And she was his girl. Their relationship might be unconventional, but he wasn’t interested in anyone else, and she swore she wasn’t either.

Bella just groaned.

“Okay, we’ll start with the good news. The turtle population at this site is higher than it was last year.”

“And the bad news?”

“Delroy is still in the hospital. The cut on his hand isn’t looking good.”

The Crosswind had a satellite hotspot on board, and after Cole checked in with Frankie yesterday, he’d tried calling Delroy, only for a nurse to answer. She wouldn’t discuss his condition, but she did say he was in surgery and there was no way he’d be working in the next two weeks. The plan had been to pick him up from Valentine Cay as they passed tomorrow—he could take the ferry from Emerald Shores to get there, and Bella would take the ferry back—but now Cole would have to continue alone.

“So what’s the bad news?” Bella asked.

He studied her, but she never gave anything away. The only thing clear was that she didn’t much care for Delroy.

“You’re not upset?”

“He should have been more careful.”

“You were sitting next to him that night—did you see how he got the injury?”

Delroy said he’d cut himself by accident, but that didn’t ring true. How would a man slice open his palm like that at the dinner table?

“Did I see it? No.”

There was something about the way Bella said that…

“But you know how it happened?”

She gave a careless shrug. “He kept touching me. Every time I removed his hand from my leg, it found its way back again. So I held my steak knife along my thigh, and I guess he went in for a real good grope.”

Delroy had groped her? What the fuck? Hot rage flooded through Cole’s veins, seething and fast. He’d always known Delroy was an asshole, but the creep had touched Bella against her will? If Cole got his hands on the man, he’d be staying in the hospital for a hell of a lot longer.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I just did.”

“I meant at the time.”

“What would you have done? Punched him?”

“Probably.”

“I thought you hated violence?”

“I do, but I’d have made an exception in that particular case. ”

“Which is why I didn’t tell you. Dr. Blaylock and the boys were there, and I didn’t want to cause more of a scene.” Her lips quirked. “It’s not as if Delroy’s gonna try it again.”

Cole gripped Bella’s upper arms. “I’m so sorry. If I’d known he got handsy with women, I’d never have hired him.”

“Chill, I understand. Just forget about it, okay? It’s done.” Bella leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. “Do you want me to stay for the rest of the trip?”

“You’d do that?”

“I’m bored as hell, but I think the break’s actually good for me. My leg doesn’t hurt so much anymore, and those little tweaks and niggles I’ve been pushing through in the gym are fading away.”

Bella had been swimming at every stop. Dr. Blaylock assured her they hadn’t seen any aggressive species of shark around, and she often lapped whatever rock they were anchored beside. Sometimes she snorkelled. They’d even scuba-dived off Sarita so she could see the bleached coral for herself. Dr. Blaylock had stayed on board the boat, and he said he didn’t mind keeping an eye on things. Cole was pleased that so many of his customers had become friends over the years, and much of his business came from repeats. The next year would be tough. He’d have to disappoint a bunch of people.

Bella stripped off her shorts and T-shirt and flopped face-down on the bed. He loved how unselfconscious she was about her body. Gretchen used to change in the bathroom, even when Cole told her she was beautiful. Which was half true. She’d been gorgeous on the outside; the inside wasn’t so pretty. He saw that now.

As for Bella, she was a conundrum. Stunning but scarred, inside and out. Two of the scars were on her left thigh—one on the back and one on the front—plus there was the scab from the recent snakebite on her right thigh. Another line tracked down her left forearm, long and thin and marked where she’d once had stitches. He’d never say as much, but he suspected she might be slightly clumsy.

And then there were the bruises. A yellow-green splodge on one arm, another on her side. The faint marks on her neck were all but invisible now, but he knew they were there, and he knew who had caused them. He’d tried apologising, promised to be gentler in the future, but she’d laughed off his concerns and said it was nothing to worry about. But he hadn’t missed the silk scarf she’d worn on the flight over.

More deliberate was the tattoo on her ass. He traced the outline of the heart with a finger.

“When did you get this?”

“A while ago.”

“When I was a kid, I always wanted a tattoo.”

“Why didn’t you get one?”

“I always worried I might regret it later. I mean, what if I’d gotten my ex’s name inked across my chest?”

“Always a risk, but I prefer to exist in the moment. Nobody lives forever.”

“I guess your job is a constant reminder of that?”

“Yes, precisely.” Bella rolled over, her head propped up on one hand. “But I got the tattoo when I was nineteen, before I started my current job. It was…not a dare, exactly. More a folie à deux.”

“Was alcohol involved?” Cole asked, lying down beside her.

“Usually.”

“This folie à deux thing, it happened more than once?”

“One time, we went out for burritos, but the restaurant was closed because of a health violation. So we did the next best thing and flew to Mexico.”

“Mexico, the country? ”

“How many other Mexicos are there?”

“I bet you got a good burrito.”

“We didn’t get any burritos. We ended up climbing a volcano in Uruapan, and Brax twisted an ankle on the descent, so we flew back to the US for him to get an X-ray. In hindsight, it would have been better to stay in Mexico because the X-ray cost five thousand bucks, and it was only a sprain.”

Cole was still hung up on the “Brax” part. “You folie à deux’d with a guy?”

“A guy who has the Chinese word for ‘asshole’ tattooed on his right buttock. I lived with him at the time.”

“Was he the guy who hurt you?” Cole blurted. He might not have punched Delroy, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t willing to defend his girl.

“No, Brax is a good man. It’s cute that you’re jealous, though.”

“Is it that obvious?”

Bella scooched closer and pressed a kiss to his lips. “It is, but you can stand down. Ten of us shared the house—three girls, seven guys. And I think you’d like Brax. You have something in common—he works in the leisure industry too.”

“In Las Vegas?”

“No, he’s mostly East Coast and West Coast.”

“What kind of business is he involved with? Hotels?”

“Private members’ clubs. They do have accommodation on the upper floors, though. Plus restaurants, spas, business centres, and BDSM in the basements.”

“Wait, what?”

“He spotted a gap in the market. It’s all very discreet.”

“Are you serious?”

“Nearly always.”

Cole hesitated before he asked the next question. “Are you a member? ”

Bella shook her head. “We lost touch for a few years, and we only recently reconnected. It was his wedding I was at the night we met.”

He’d wanted her to open up about her past, and the fact that it was a little wild shouldn’t have surprised him, given the way they met, but the guy was running a sex club out of his basement?

“The BDSM thing, does it make money?”

“A lot of money. Brax’s ex-wife tried to take most of it, but thankfully, that situation got resolved.” Bella rolled to the side and flopped her head onto the pillow. “Man, that woman was a bitch. She used to ‘borrow’ my shampoo, and she never replaced it.”

“You knew her?”

“He started dating her when we were roommates.”

“That didn’t upset you?”

“There was never anything serious between us. It was either Brax or a vibrator, and I was on a limited budget in those days.”

“Were you writing obituaries back then?”

She snorted. “No, I was mostly working in bars.”

“That’s quite a career change.”

“It took me a while to find something I was good at.”

“Did you always live in Vegas?”

“I moved around.” A pause. “I was living in Virginia when I met Brax.”

“But then you decided you’d rather bake alive in your own skin in the summer?”

“No, our landlord murdered one of our roommates, so we all had to leave.”

Cole looked for a sign that Bella was joking, but there wasn’t a hint of a smile on her face.

“Tell me that’s not true.”

“He killed her in her room. Two days passed before we found her. ”

“Damn.” On instinct, Cole wrapped his arms around Bella in a hug. “That’s whacked.”

“Yeah, he was acting as if everything was fine. I ate breakfast with him the day after it happened, and he was perfectly normal. Or as normal as Levi got, anyway. He was always kinda weird. Used to pop pills like candy and spent a lot of time with his momma. Took his laundry over there, brought casseroles back with him, called her every day. And after we found Ruby, I just kept thinking that it could have been me or the other girl in the house, who was—and still is—a close friend. It messed with my head for a while.”

“This guy, Levi? He’s in prison now?”

“Yes.”

“Did you take a self-defence class? I know a guy with a gym on Ilha Grande who runs classes for women and kids.”

“I don’t worry about myself anymore. It’s all the other victims and potential victims out there who make me lose sleep at night. Can we change the subject now?”

The way she’d picked him up so confidently in the Black Diamond and accepted an invite to his house, Cole figured she had to know how to look after herself. And she cared for others, that much was clear, even if she sometimes came across as cold. He was surprised she’d told him as much about her past as she did. Maybe he could google that Levi guy? Would a murder like that have made the news? He knew the name and the state.

“We don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to talk about.”

Bella reached for his cock, and now that he was learning what made her tick, he understood why. She fucked to forget. For her, opening up about herself was far more intimate than sex. Not that Cole didn’t enjoy the sex, but he was beginning to value the conversations more .

Smoothly, Bella hooked a leg over his hip, and once again, he’d give her what she wanted.

He’d always give her what she wanted.

Cole had always loved these moments on board the Crosswind . Dr. Blaylock and Clint were in the Tide Pod , Witt and Jon were diving, and Bella was in the galley. It was just him on the swim platform with the sun shining down and a light breeze taking the edge off the heat. Well, him and a parrot that had flown in to keep him company.

He glanced over his shoulder in case Bella had finished inside—there was no sign of her—and then opened his laptop.

The first entry in the search results surprised him. He’d been expecting snippets from a decade ago, but this article was barely a year old, and the focus wasn’t on the murder; it was on one of Bella’s roommates.

He’s doing more than guarding her body…

Sources say that the man Violet Miller was seen getting cosy with in her hometown of Oakwood Falls is none other than her bodyguard, Dawson Masters. And where have we heard that name before?

Our research reveals that Miller’s new beau is the same Dawson Masters suspected of involvement in the Blackstone House murder near Washington, DC, eight years ago. Although landlord Levi Sykes was subsequently jailed for causing the death of Ruby Costello, there are still some who believe the Sykes family’s claims that he was the victim of a conspiracy concocted by the other roommates.

There were three photos under the opening paragraphs. Two were of Dawson Masters, one older, the other more recent with Violet Miller. Cole recognised the name. Violet Miller was a Hollywood actress who’d hit the big time with a horror movie and then become a household name by starring in an erotic thriller. Frankie was a big fan of her movies, and they’d watched a couple of them together in the movie theatre near Frankie’s home on Ilha Grande.

The third photo was more interesting. A group of people smiling and laughing, seven men, one woman. The caption underneath read Eight of the Blackstone House gang: Dawson Masters, Justin Norquist, Braxton Dupré, Zach Torres, Nolan de Luca, Greyson Meyer, Levi Sykes, and victim Ruby Costello in happier times. Two housemates, Jerry Knight and an unidentified minor, are missing. Was one of them the photographer?

Wait a second… Jerry Knight? Was this the right murder? It had to be—all the other details fit, including the name Braxton. Was Jerry a nickname? Or had Bella changed her name afterward? If she had, she’d done it legally—he’d seen her passport. And could he really blame her for wanting to distance herself from such a painful past?

Cole continued reading.

What really happened behind the closed doors of Blackstone House one Saturday evening almost a decade ago? Maybe we’ll never know, but the story has fascinated many over the years.

Ruby Costello, a twenty-year-old sophomore at Georgetown University, had been living in the shared house in the small town of Blackstone Bluff for over two years before that fateful night. When she didn’t appear at breakfast the following day, her housemates assumed she was staying with a friend, but one of them was hiding a terrible secret. Upstairs, Ruby was lying in her locked bedroom, stabbed and strangled, her limbs arranged in a cross and a pentagram carved into her chest. Two days would pass before her body was discovered. Evidence shows that nobody apart from her housemates entered or left the property during that time.

So, who killed her?

Out of the nine people she lived with, only one had a solid alibi. Greyson Meyer, also a student at Georgetown and now running for Congress in the tenth district of Virginia, was on vacation in Florida at the time. According to their statements, Masters and de Luca were playing pool in the basement all evening while Dupré and Torres watched a movie in the living room. The other housemates were in their bedrooms, except for Sykes, who claimed to be in his studio on the third floor, painting. But evidence soon started coming to light that cast doubt on his assertion. DNA analysis proved the two had engaged in sexual intercourse shortly before she died, and at his trial, the others testified that he and Costello had shared a tempestuous relationship, with Sykes being described as moody, unpredictable, and volatile. He also had an interest in the occult.

After just a day of deliberation, Sykes was convicted by a jury of his peers and sentenced to life in prison. Despite this, Sykes’s mother, Mary, continued to protest her son’s innocence until her death a year later. Levi Sykes is currently incarcerated at Redding’s Gap, Virginia, with little hope of freedom on the horizon. Many believe he got what he deserved. However, there are some still convinced that the wrong man was convicted, although those voices have grown quieter over the years. With Dawson Masters back in the public eye, will Sykes’s defenders once again rally to the cause?

Man, that was fucked up. And if Bella had been one of those who discovered the body cut up like that, then no wonder it had affected her so deeply. Cole went back to the search results and clicked the next link, another recent entry.

FREE LEVI SYKE S

A decade has passed since passionate environmentalist and brilliant scientist Levi Sykes was incarcerated by an unjust legal system after being framed for murder by the deep state.

An academic prodigy who graduated high school two years early, Mr. Sykes was working with Professor August Groveland on the study of water electrolysis, and the two men were due to present a paper on their work just a month after Mr. Sykes’s arrest.

Had they made a breakthrough in the production of green hydrogen?

We may never find out because Professor Groveland was killed in a fire at his home mere weeks after his prize student was incarcerated, taking much of his scientific knowledge with him.

It’s no secret that Congress is owned by Big Oil, which might explain why Mr. Sykes’s appeal was denied. Politicians would rather line their own pockets than preserve the environment.

We urge everyone to sign the petition to FREE LEVI SYKES!

The petition had been set up by a group called Save Our Planet, and the email address was one of the free ones available on the internet. The rest of the articles painted a gloomy picture of plastic pollution, habitat damage, fossil fuels, that kind of thing. Cole thought he might ask Dr. Blaylock if he’d heard of this group, if he could find a quiet moment to talk to the man.

The third link led to a dark-romance readers’ site. Apparently, Levi Sykes was a “thirst trap,” whatever that meant. Cole googled, then quickly regretted it. Women were lusting after a serial killer? There was something very, very wrong with that.

Cole heard movement behind him and quickly clicked back to an article about dolphins on the Save Our Planet website .

“Everything okay?” Bella asked. She had a habit of moving silently as a ghost.

“All good. The boys should surface any minute.”

Bella’s life was more of a mystery than ever, but he was determined to learn her secrets.

Very, very carefully.