“Not a single doubt,” Janey confirms.
I’m waiting with bated breath.
It’s cold here and I wouldn’t be averse to a surprise trip to the tropics.
Jacob wasn’t about to send the whole team unless we had a solid lead.
Looks like we might have one now.
“Very well then, people.” Jacob finally comes back on. “You all know what to do.”
I can’t contain my excitement.
“We’re going?”
“Be ready in six hours. We’re heading to Grand Cayman.”
The smile on my face is even bigger when I swing around to Mitch.
“We’re going to the Cayman Islands.”
He shakes his head and grins indulgently.
“I heard,” he comments dryly.
Mr. Cool and Collected.
“I’m packing a bikini,” I tease.
“Hi, Janey. My name is Sandra. I’m a social worker with child protective services.”
I hear her voice but I don’t want to turn around. I’m too embarrassed.
Stupid Billy Crocker and his big mouth. He’s the reason the teacher brought me to see the school nurse and now I’m in a heap of trouble. Even the principal got called in.
I should’ve worn my black sweatshirt but it’s been hot out for days and I was afraid I’d get laughed at. Hoping my back had scabbed over, I ended up putting on a T-shirt and kept my long hair loose.
That was a mistake.
Billy, who sits behind me in class, noticed blood on the back of my chair.
“Janey?” The nurse bends down in front of the bed I’m curled up on. “I’m going to show Sandra your back, okay?”
I squeeze my eyes closed when she reaches over me and pulls the sheet down. I’m mortified when I hear the other woman hiss between her teeth.
I’ve never looked at my back, but I’ve felt the ridges and scars my mother’s switch left behind.
“Who did this to you, Janey?”
I peek out from under the scratchy blanket and look around the dark room.
It looks spooky, with only a little bit of moonlight coming in through the windows.
I share a bunk bed with Kate, another new girl here. She already picked the bottom bunk, so I took the top. I would’ve picked that one anyway, I feel safer up here.
We share the room with five other girls but they’re all older and mostly ignore us. Except maybe Rajani, who seems nice enough, even though I haven’t said much to her. Or anyone else, really.
The boys have a dorm room on the other side of the building and we’re kept mostly separated except at meal times.
It’s only been four days since the social worker brought me here, but I already know I don’t like it. Every day I have to meet with this woman for therapy. She’s supposed to be a doctor, but she asks strange questions and makes me feel really uncomfortable.
There’s also a guy—his name is Josh—and he runs education and activity programs. Some of the kids seem afraid of him.
He gives me the creeps.
I’m pretty sure something weird is going on here.
Pearl
“You…”
Asshole. How the hell did he find me?
“Pearl, fancy meeting you here.”
I’d like to wipe that arrogant smirk off his handsome face. What a waste of good looks.
“You’re trespassing,” I snap, pointing at the small sign indicating ‘Private Beach.’
The beach house I’m staying at sits on a few acres of land with about two-hundred yards of ocean frontage. GEM—the organization I work for—rented the place when the rest of my team joined me here on Grand Cayman a few weeks ago. The rental I had before only had one bedroom and was in town, near the airport. Nothing much to look at, unlike this house.
Sadly, I’ve spent most of my time here holed up inside, working. Raj, Kate, and Mitch—the rest of my team—headed back home yesterday and I’m supposed to fly out in two days.
I stayed behind to follow up with the captain of luxury yacht scheduled to be back sometime tomorrow from a two-week-long chartered trip around the Caribbean. The man has eluded me for the two months I’ve been here—doing little more than dropping off a load of passengers and picking up the next before taking off again—but I plan to be at the dock when he shows up tomorrow. I’m not going to let him slip through my fingers again, but for today I’d promised myself a leisurely day on the beach.
Well, so much for that. There is no way I’ll be relaxing with Lee Remington hovering over me.
The first time I met him was in a parking lot and I gave him a bloody nose when my car door slammed in his face. That’s by far my favorite memory of all the interactions we’ve had since then. The man just rubs me the wrong way.
Maybe it’s because I suspect he’s one of those guys who wouldn’t hesitate to use the fact he’s tall, dark, and good-looking to open doors for him. Or, perhaps, it’s his job as freelance journalist that doesn’t sit well with me.
Another reporter had left a sour taste in my mouth when he caught me in the parking lot of the club I worked at in Cincinnati many moons ago. He claimed he was doing a story on an assault that had taken place behind the club a couple of days prior. I guess I’d still been a little naïve at the time and shared way too much with the guy. Next thing I know, a covert picture taken inside the club of me dancing was featured next to his article titled “Sex Trade in the City” in a local newspaper a few days later.
The bastard used my name as he blasted the industry. It cost me my fiancé, my job, and quite a few friends I’d made.
So yeah, I’m not a fan and I have a really long memory.
I huff when Lee wordlessly plops down in the sand beside me, looping his arms around his knees. I’m trying hard not to notice how he looks even better in cargo shorts and a well-washed Pink Floyd shirt than he does in jeans.
“I don’t recall inviting you.”
He turns his head and grins at me. His eyes are hidden behind the shades he’s wearing, but I swear I can feel him scrutinizing me.
“I bumped into Mitch and your friends at the airport when I was getting in yesterday. They told me to check in on you.”
“Bullshit,” I grumble, wrapping my towel around me.
Although…I wouldn’t exactly put it past either Kate or Raj to send him by to needle me. They know how I feel about the man.
“What are you doing in the Caymans anyway?”
“I’m not allowed to have a vacation?”
I roll my eyes at him. He’s as likely to take a vacation as I am. There’s a reason he’s here.
He stretches his long legs, crossing them at the ankles, getting comfortable. His dark skin gleams in the sun, mocking my almost pasty complexion. I’ve barely caught any rays while here, having spent most of my time inside behind the computer.
“Sorry, not buying it.”
I get up, tying my towel tightly around me as I gather up my things. The man makes me uncomfortable and I’ve got better things to do than hang out on the beach with him.
“Where are you going?”
“Some of us have work to do.”
I know I’m being snippy, but Remington brings it out in me. It doesn’t deter him from jumping to his feet and following me back to the house.