She was almost having to force herself to remember this was all a test run to see if it worked out.
Sort of like her and Michael and Ty.
“Hey, you.” Van was in the storage room, a clipboard in his hand. His dark hair was held back in a tie, and he wasn’t in the Trio uniform. He wore a dark T-shirt and jogging pants with sneakers.
“I thought Alexei was working days this week.” She’d been almost sure the big guy would be here. She’d wanted to subtly ask him a couple of questions about Michael. She’d always wanted to ask, but after the night they’d shared it seemed like she had a right to now.
“He’s out front. Micky’s out there, too. I think it’s the three of you and Zane for lunch today,” Van explained. “I’m here on an errand from the lodge. We ran out of tequila, if you can believe it. Zane agreed to let us buy a case from him since we’re not getting another shipment until Monday. The bastards went through a whole case, though I’m pretty sure they didn’t drink some of it since there were broken bottles all over the place last night.”
Whoa. She’d heard a couple of the service staff talking about a private party in one of the villas, but she hadn’t heard the whole story. She’d been too interested in staring at her men to listen in, and now that seemed like a mistake. “What happened?”
“To be honest we were already down to what I would call a basic level of tequila because when those fuckers drink, they really drink,” Van said, signing off on the clipboard. “But apparently last night was epic. It’s not like I can tell them no. They own one of the villas. I’m so glad I have very little contact with them. You know when I first hired on I thought I would have trouble with the lifestyle weekends. Now I live for them because the lifestylers tend to have some discipline. Give me a BDSM group over a bunch of rich dickheads any day of the week.”
She got a bad feeling about who might be the perpetrators. “Was it the Foster kids?”
Why she was calling them kids, she had no idea. They were grown-ass people, but she still thought of most of them as children.
“Yeah, they had some friends fly out to join them and pretty much acted like entitled assholes,” Van confirmed. “They had the villa staff pulling their hair out. A couple of them quit at two this morning, hence me getting involved. And we had to have security out. If Mr. Roberts had been here, I would bet they wouldn’t have a damn villa anymore.”
“What happened? I mean I understand drinking too much, but why would they throw bottles around?”
“It was some kind of fight,” Van replied. “The brothers really got into it over something. I even took a punch trying to break them up. Naturally the oldest sister smoothed things over. Security didn’t call the police after the sister offered a twenty K tip to the whole staff. I wanted to have the jerk hauled off, but if I hadn’t agreed everyone would have lost the cash, and one of the maids had been talking to me earlier about how her mom was about to get evicted. So here I am begging for tequila and praying we don’t have another night like last night.”
She didn’t like the sound of any of that. “Is security ready? The staff shouldn’t have to be afraid. I don’t care that they’re in the villas. Someone should talk to Mr. Roberts.”
“No one wants to because the dad is a big investment partner with Mr. Roberts’ company,” Van said with a sigh. “I think it’s fine. The brothers had a blowout. One of them took a suite in the main lodge and they’re cooling off. He was so drunk I doubt he’ll be able to do anything but lie around and moan for a couple of days. We’re all taking a deep breath and pocketing some cash.”
It was what staff who served the superwealthy tended to do. They had to bite their tongues and hope they got paid well. When a couple million a year was on the line, staff was far more replaceable than guests. It was a sad reality of the world they lived in. Another reason why she was happy to be dealing with the lodge proper and not the superrich. “Well, let me know if I can help in any way. I’m going to be working the party tomorrow night.”
Van’s lips curled up in a surprisingly sexy grin. “That’s right. You start tomorrow. Any chance I can convince you to come up to mine and Hale’s room afterward? We’re throwing a little after party.”
Oh, she knew when someone was hitting on her. “How little? Can I bring my boyfriends?”
Van sighed. “I was hoping we could sneak in before there were boyfriends. So you and Ty finally hooked up? And the scary cop guy?”
“He wasn’t a cop. He was a marshal.”
“Same thing,” Van replied with a careless shrug. “He’s got the cop look about him, the one that says he could arrest you at any time. Kind of wish he’d been around last night. And the after party is totally open to both your guys. I’d kind of hoped you’d come alone, but I’m glad you all got your shit together.”
“Me, too.” She glanced to her left and Nate was standing there, obviously waiting for her to finish. “Hey, Nate.”
“Lucy, I was hoping I could have a word with you.”
Crap. That didn’t sound good. “Of course.” She gave Van a wave. “I’m staying out at the lodge this weekend. I’ll see you around.”
“I look forward to it.” Van flashed her a grin and hoisted the box of tequila up. “Tell Zane I appreciate it.”
Nate nodded. “Will do. Lucy, why don’t we talk in Zane’s office.”
So this was something serious. She followed him down the hall. “Is everything okay?”
Nate opened the door to Zane’s small office and strode in, taking the big seat behind the desk. “Yes, but I wanted you to know what’s going on.”
This had to be about Brock Foster. He’d mentioned he’d talked to the sheriff the night before. “With the guy from the villas?”
Nate sighed and sat back. “Yeah. Sometimes the tourist dollars aren’t worth the pain in my ass.”
She often got the feeling Nate would be happy if the town was closed off and hidden from the world. Sometimes she thought that would be nice, too.
“He warned me last night that he’d gone to you and you wouldn’t let him press charges.” She sat down, and it felt a little like being a kid called into the principal’s office.
“He confronted you again?” Nate asked, brows rising.
“Yes. He was waiting out back for me when I took out the trash,” she explained.
“Did he try anything?”
“He tried to convince me that the only way he wouldn’t ruin my life is if I went out with him so his siblings would stop teasing him.” When she thought about it, Brock was really pathetic. “I’m not sure how he plans to ruin my life, but he seemed pretty convinced he could do it. He’s probably going to try to go over your head.”
“I’m not worried about that. We’ve got a security camera on the hall to the bathrooms,” Nate admitted. “It usually catches Rachel and Max going at it before they sneak into the bathroom. Actually a lot of people sneak into the bathrooms for a quickie. I’m sorry you have to clean up in there.”
“Oh, our people are very neat about their quickies.” She’d seen some things in her time at Trio. Things she couldn’t unsee. “I don’t mind cleaning the women’s room, but I also won’t hate not having to clean.”