51. Jezebel

CHAPTER 51

JEZEBEL

B y the time we returned from Skeleton Cay, the sun was disappearing in a blaze of pinks, yellows, and oranges.

Collectively, we decided to get some sleep and fly home in the morning. Storm still looked a little worse for wear and Barbie, who’d been dealing with admin and planning, said there was no urgent need for us to be in Vegas. Although I wasn’t sure I agreed with her. AceInTheHole was still on the loose. Cole wasn’t safe. And nobody would tell me what was going on.

“Echo told us not to,” Barbie said to me over coffee and tres bocados , the traditional San Gallician breakfast of scrambled eggs, curried beans, and flatbread that Frankie had picked up from a local diner. “None of us want to wake up and find the Cathouse has been taken over by Skynet.”

“Echo wouldn’t do that.”

“Oh, you think? You don’t remember that guy she bumped off with a smart toaster?”

Okay, yes, I did remember the toaster incident. She’d hacked the internet-connected appliance in the middle of the night, shut off the safety features, and cranked up the power until the whole thing melted and set the house on fire.

“We threw out the toaster after that. We installed extra smoke alarms.”

Not that we truly thought Echo would hurt us, but if she had the ability, then others did too.

Anyhow, none of my so-called friends had spilled a single detail all day, so now I had to do what I’d been putting off for weeks. I had to speak with Echo. Yes, she was my oldest friend, but she frustrated the hell out of me on occasion.

First, I poured myself a glass of wine, and then I settled onto a sun lounger on the terrace. This really was a beautiful property. Cole had good taste, and not just in women. Maybe I could take a real vacation someday? Fly to San Gallicano, take the ferry to Emerald Shores, and spend a week or two here with Cole?

My future looked very different than it had just two short months ago.

One did not simply pick up a phone and call Alexa Stone. She didn’t have a regular phone that wasn’t a burner—she didn’t trust big telecom—and she never stayed in the same place for long. If you wanted to get in touch, you called her answering service, where a nice lady informed you that you’d reached Church Group—Echo’s idea of a joke—and offered to take a message. If Echo felt so inclined, she’d call you back. If she liked you, she might give you an email address, and if you were in her self-designated inner circle, you talked with her via an app she installed on your device without bothering to ask first.

I half expected her to blow me off today, but she answered.

“Why are you calling? You’re supposed to be on vacation. ”

“Have you been under a rock? Didn’t you hear what happened out here?”

“Of course I did, but that’s done now, so you can enjoy your vacation.”

“I’m flying home tomorrow.”

“Are you?”

Oh, hell. There was something about the way she said that…

“What do you know that I don’t?”

“I know a lot of things that you don’t, but if you expect me to tell them to you, you’re out of luck.”

“What’s happening with the Galaxy and AceInTheHole?”

“Everything’s under control. That’s all you need to know.”

“That isn’t all I need to know. I need to know who I’m going to drop-kick off a skyscraper.”

“Absolutely nobody. Everything will be fixed by the time you get home.”

“Why do you do this?”

“Because I like you. I wouldn’t do this for just anybody.”

“What, drive me insane?”

“You’ll thank me later.”

She hung up, and I stared at the phone screen, a hundred curses on the tip of my tongue. Echo always did things her own way. I’d learned that when Levi Sykes’s parents had sent their fancy lawyers after us, and she stole most of their money so they couldn’t pay the legal costs anymore. My share of the spoils was still sitting in a numbered account, hidden safely in Panama. I’d never touched it, but nor had I given it back. Linus and Mary Sykes didn’t deserve their millions if they were going to use it to cause others harm.

Anyhow, Echo was a law unto herself. For a brief moment, I considered calling Chase since he knew more about what Echo was doing than anyone else, but he’d just toe the company line.

What was the old saying? Change the things you cannot accept, accept the things you cannot change, and have the wisdom to know the difference. I liked to think I wasn’t a fool. And I knew that if Echo had made up her mind about something, I was never going to change it.

Instead, I headed upstairs. The others had disappeared a while ago. Tulsa was sleeping on the couch in the living room, and Storm was sharing a bed with Frankie. Barbie and Dice had taken the other two bedrooms. Dice’s door was ajar and I could see her asleep with her hand under the pillow—that was where she kept her gun—so she could be in charge of saving the world tonight. Cole was waiting for me. He put his phone on the nightstand when I walked into our bedroom. Our bedroom. What a strange fucking concept that was.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“I think so? Truthfully, I’m not sure. Perry just called again. There’s been a sudden influx of guests, and every room is full.”

“How the hell did that happen?”

“There’s a problem at the Neptune. They had to close temporarily.”

“What kind of a problem?”

“An issue with the electrics. The power cut out a couple of hours ago, and it hasn’t come back on. Perry spoke with a guy he knows there, and the utility company is saying the blackout has nothing to do with them. There’s power to the building, but the lights are out, the cameras are dead, they can’t cook anything, and there are hundreds of guests in the lobby yelling at anyone in a staff uniform. I told Perry to do the best he can.”

“Good plan. ”

Oh, Echo. You crazy, beautiful little bitch.

“I only hope that whatever is affecting the Neptune doesn’t spread.”

“It won’t.”

“I admire your optimism, but you can’t know that for sure.”

“Okay, I’m ninety-nine percent certain the Galaxy will be fine.”

“It’s right next door to the Neptune.”

“Remember how I told you my best friend is a hacker? She just told me that everything was under control, and I suspect this is her version of having everything under control.”

“One person can do that? Turn off the power in a whole resort?”

“I mean, she isn’t completely alone. Only half the team is here.”

“But why would she do it?”

“At a guess? She found out there’s a connection between the Neptune and the unfortunate incidents we’ve been investigating.”

“You think Stanley Fuller was involved? No way. Sure, he and Uncle Mike didn’t always see eye to eye, but he’s a well-respected businessman.”

“Echo doesn’t do this shit on a whim. Anyhow, she told me to relax and enjoy my vacation, and I intend to do exactly that.”

I tore the sheet away from Cole, but he held up a hand to stop me before I reached for his boxers.

“Wait a second. I have a gift for you first.”

“A gift? The last guy to tell me that threw a hand grenade.”

“It isn’t a hand grenade, I promise.” He pulled out a velvet jewellery box, and he must have seen my look of horror because he hurried to clarify, “It’s not a ring either,” and when I still hesitated, “It won’t bite. Just open it.”

I undid the ribbon with the gingerness of an EOD technician, then lifted the lid. Cole had bought me a necklace, simple and elegant, a slip-chain choker with a silver bar hanging from the end of the tail. Really fucking beautiful. And really fucking kinky.

“Tell me you know what this is for?”

He grinned as he picked it out of the box, then wrapped it around my neck, once, twice, and tucked the bar through the ring. Then he pulled it tighter, tighter, tighter, and his smile turned filthy.

“Our secret,” he whispered.

Our dirty little secret.

Priest called before we could pile onto Frankie’s boat and sail back to Ilha Grande the next morning.

“Do you want the good news or the bad news?” he asked.

“Have you been talking to Demelza?”

“As it happens, I have.”

“Then you should know the bad news comes first, always.”

“The bad news… She still thinks you need a vacation.”

Okay, that wasn’t terrible.

“And the good news?”

“The good news is that the world seems to be uncharacteristically quiet at the moment. Probably the calm before the storm, but I have this yacht for as long as I need it, so why don’t you guys meet me in Puerto Rico and we can all take a break for a few days.”

“What about Cole? ”

“Bring him along. We could do with more Y-chromosomes around the place.”

“I’ll have to ask the others, but I’m game.”

I still had T-Rex to deal with, but he could stew until we got back. Plus someone had to save Priest from getting drunk and accidentally marrying a pretty woman he met in a bar. What were the rules around marriage licences in Puerto Rico? I needed to check that.

“You can also tell them that the authorities will be retrieving the gold from the Crosswind later today.”

Awesome. We’d kept half a dozen bars as a finder’s fee, but perhaps they could use the remainder to fund an anti-drugs task force?

“What about the rest of the treasure?”

“It’ll be salvaged from the Spanish Dancer in due course, and any archaeology work will be carried out with minimum impact on the surroundings. The ship itself will be left in place.”

“Shame they can’t leave the gold in place too.”

“They did consider that, but one group of treasure hunters has already tried to steal it. Once the valuables are removed, the wreck won’t have the same attraction.”

“The gold was prettier in the sea with the fish all around.”

“Unlike you to be sentimental, Jezebel.”

“I think…I think I’ve changed in the past two months.”

Cole had changed me.

“I know, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Not everyone finds their soulmate.”

Priest sounded quite melancholy. Shit, he was going to get hitched again, wasn’t he? A wedding was about due.

“I’ll see you later. Don’t do anything dumb in the meantime, okay?”

“I’m just going to meander around for a while, maybe find a bar for lunch. ”

Uh-oh. Wife number four had been a waitress. He’d only been in the Bahamas for two days when he married her.

“Sounds good. Is there much to do there?”

While he talked, I quickly googled “marriage rules in Puerto Rico.” He’d need ID, his birth certificate, copies of his many, many divorce papers, and…what was this? A blood test? Couples couldn’t marry in Puerto Rico without being tested for STIs by an approved laboratory. Halle-fucking-lujah. He should take every vacation in Puerto Rico. We’d already burned his birth certificate four times, but he kept ordering copies.

“…if there’s no wind, we can always play golf,” Priest finished.

“Great, looking forward to it.”

“You hate golf.”

“So do you, and I’m thinking of Cole.” Did he play golf? He did now. “Enjoy lunch.”