The Decoy

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The Decoy Page 12

by S. E. Rose


  “I’ll save you, Reagan,” I hear Grant yell, and then he cannonballs into the water on her other side.

  She yelps. “You guys suck!” she yells, splashing water at us.

  Grant and I look at each other and chuckle.

  “Here, Princess,” Harrison calls out from our cabana, and he tosses her one of those giant blow-up unicorns.

  “Thanks, Prince Harry! You’re a lifesaver,” she replies with a grin as she climbs on the monstrosity of a raft.

  “You are so welcome, my lady,” he says with a bow before he lies back in his lounge chair and pops a cork on a bottle of champagne.

  “Get your ass in here, Harrison,” Grant yells.

  Harrison pops his head up from his chair. “Uh, I don’t think so. You all are acting like children. I can’t have my coif in disarray,” he says and sips some champagne.

  I roll my eyes. “Then toss me my snorkel, asswipe,” I call up to him.

  He leans over and grabs the snorkel, literally tossing it at me. I groan and swim over to where it sinks into the water. I put on the mask and adjust the snorkel before swimming out to see what fish I can find along the rocks. It’s peaceful under the water. I’d forgotten how peaceful it is. There are only the sounds of my breath and the crackling of the coral. I spot all types of little tropical fishes. I don’t remember most of their names, but I recognize quite a few. I pop my head up out of the water after a while and realize, I’ve swum all the way down near the end of the enclosed swim area.

  I can see that Grant is now also in a giant inflatable raft that resembles a cow. He and Reagan are sipping champagne and laughing about something. Harrison has moved to the edge of our cabana and has his feet dangling in the water. He joins them in laughter.

  I smile. I never anticipated to make new friends on this trip, but I have, well, more than friends. I frown at that but start to swim back toward them. Then I see her. She’s like a lion stalking unsuspecting prey. Felicia.

  Oh, but she doesn’t travel solo, behind her is Maggie, Lee, and Numbers 2-4, along with a few of Lee’s other friends. And now I know who rented the other cabanas.

  I take my time swimming back, enjoying the solitude for a few more moments. I come upon Reagan first.

  “How was your swim?” she asks.

  “Good,” I say with a smile. “There are a lot of beautiful fish in here,” I add.

  “Better than yesterday?” she asks.

  I shake my head. “No, but still pretty fucking cool,” I say.

  She nods and rolls off her unicorn. “Can I borrow your mask?” she asks.

  “Sure,” I say, removing it and passing it over to her. She puts it on and swims off toward the rocky wall. I decide to follow her. We see a few brightly colored fish, and a few hermit crabs.

  Eventually, she pops her head up, grinning. “Pretty cool,” she admits.

  “Yep. I just like how quiet it is under the water,” I tell her.

  “Me too. Like you’re inside your own head or something,” she ponders.

  “It’s peaceful,” I add.

  She nods and looks up, finding the newly arrived entourage and groans.

  “Well, there goes the afternoon,” she grimaces.

  “Hey, it’s not so bad. We can try to get more intel,” I say encouragingly. She sighs.

  “I suppose,” she says as we arrive back at the cabanas. We climb up the ladder.

  “Hey,” Lee says, holding a bottle of champagne in his hand. He drinks straight out of it.

  “Classy, Lee,” I say with a laugh.

  He grins at me. “I aim to please,” he says.

  “Darling, can you pour me another glass of water?” I hear Maggie’s grating voice coming from their cabana.

  “Duty calls,” he says. “We should hang out after the rehearsal tonight. Catch up,” he says.

  “Sounds good, man,” I say to him and clap him on the back as I walk by him.

  “Hey, Maggie,” I call out to her as I walk by.

  “Oh, hello, Zachary,” she says while holding up her glass for a refill as though she’s some sort of helpless baby bird. I watch as Lee pours her more water. She doesn’t even thank him.

  I want to shake sense into my friend, but instead, I walk back to find Harrison has given up on the cabana. He and Grant are now floating on the giant blow-up animals, which conveniently have cup holders. I shake my head.

  Reagan grabs a water and tosses it to me and then grabs another for herself.

  “Thanks,” I say. She nods and swigs half the bottle.

  “This heat is killing me. I might literally melt…just a giant puddle here on the deck,” she laments as she sits in the shade inside her cabana and wraps a towel around her waist.

  I look at my phone. “We have about three more hours before we should head back in to get ready for tonight,” I say.

  Reagan grabs the waiter and orders us some food.

  “Well, I suppose we should mingle,” she says as she lies back in her lounge chair.

  She leans over and winks at me before standing and grabbing champagne. She walks down to the ladder and climbs into the water, floating over to where the rest of the wedding crew is waist deep and chatting about who knows what.

  I lean back in the chair, closing my eyes, and then I feel the sun blocked. I look up and Lee is standing there.

  “Hey,” I say to him.

  “Hey, Mags is taking a nap. Sooo…” He trails off and sits down.

  “So, you ready for tomorrow?” I ask him.

  He shrugs. “Ready as I’ll ever be,” he says.

  “Forever is a long time,” I say.

  He laughs. “True that,” he agrees.

  “Word on the street is there’s some business merging going on,” I prod.

  He raises his eyebrow. “Well, shit, word travels fast,” he says.

  “Is that why the wedding is happening so fast?” I ask.

  His face turns red. “No,” he says.

  “Shit,” I say. “Is she?”

  He nods. “She told me a month ago, thus the hurry-up-and-do-this-in-Mexico thing,” he says.

  “Wow,” I say. “I mean, congrats.”

  “Don’t say anything. It’s still early, and we haven’t told many people yet,” he says.

  Internally, I want to shake him and say “wake up, man! She’s lying,” but I refrain.

  “That’s cool. I won’t say anything,” I assure him.

  He nods and takes a sip of a beer. He looks…nervous.

  “You OK? For real, Lee. It’s me, you don’t have to lie,” I tell him.

  “Honestly?” he starts. “I’m…I don’t know,” he says, lowering his voice. “I mean my grandmother is ecstatic as are our parents, but it just seems really fast. I only popped the question because I felt like it was the right thing to do. I mean, she is pretty perfect and all and the sex is great, but I just…it’s fast,” he says.

  “Well, you don’t have to do it, you know?” I tell him.

  He runs a hand through his hair. “At this point, there’s no turning back,” he grunts.

  “Lee, you know you’re not a fucking pawn in a game. You can make decisions for yourself,” I urge him.

  “It’s not that easy,” he insists. “Trust me, if it was, my life would look very different right now.”

  “Dude, it can still look different,” I tell him.

  He shrugs. “Not now,” he says and looks off into the distance.

  “I’m glad you and Harrison are here,” he says. “Sorry, I’ve been so pre-occupied with shit.”

  I laugh. “Uh, you are getting married tomorrow. I mean, I think that qualifies as a pass,” I say.

  He laughs bitterly. “Yeah, guess so,” he replies.

  “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” I ask him.

  He shrugs. “I…I don’t know. I guess I wanted it to be OK. I still do,” he admits.

  He’s about to say something else when we both hear Maggie call him.

  “Duty
calls,” he says, and he walks back to his cabana.

  “Harrison,” I call out. Harrison has floated around all the cabanas and is about thirty yards away near the congregated people in the water. He pulls himself over toward me.

  “We need the intel, and we need it fucking yesterday,” I mutter to him.

  “Shit, what’d Lee say?” he asks.

  “Enough…our boy is feeling pressure, and it’s not gonna end well, so let’s get this espionage show on the road,” I tell him.

  He nods and starts scooting over toward the bridal party. I walk down and join them in the water.

  I see Reagan deep in talk with Felicia. Good. Now to scope out the rest of the people. Someone has to know something.

  Reagan

  I don’t know much, but I do know that Felicia loves, and I mean L-O-V-E-S to talk about herself. She has been talking nonstop since I poured an entire bottle of champagne for her. When she’s good and liquored, I decide to go in for the kill.

  “So, your father’s really going to buy Lee’s family’s company once it’s merged with Maggie’s?” I ask her.

  “Yeah. I mean, Jonathan Payne practically begged him. He’s going to be in ruins if this doesn’t go through, you know?” she says, slurring practically so it sounds like “pladitally.”

  “Oh?” I respond.

  “Yeah, I mean that bitch Eunice didn’t want to agree at first, but then when Daddy showed her the numbers, she changed her tune,” Felicia says.

  “I didn’t realize Maggie’s family was having financial troubles,” I say, and then realize I need to record this shit. So, I hit record on my phone.

  “Oh, yeah. Her father invested very poorly. Anyhow, things have been going down the tube for them for a while, but Daddy wasn’t going to buy them out as is. It was Maggie who thought of the idea. I mean it makes perfect sense. Lee is a total catch, plus, if they were married it unites the families, so it makes the merger even more solid,” Felicia says.

  Things are starting to shift into place, but I feel like I’m still missing something. “Why Lee though? I mean there’s plenty of Fortune 500 Company babies out there, why not choose another?” I ask.

  She laughs. “Something about Lee’s inheritance,” she says with a wave of her hand. “I think he comes with quite the package, and I don’t mean down there if you know what I mean?” she says.

  Oh, fuck no, I don’t, and you are trashed, I think to myself.

  “Well, if Maggie’s dad is in the hole, and we all know that’s the case, then Mags isn’t gonna see a fucking penny of that. Her parents will just eat up that money from the buyout. So, Mags decided she needed her own investment plan if you know what I mean. She did her research though. Tried on quite a few before she found her glass slipper,” Felicia says with a laugh.

  “Wow, that’s pretty cold,” I say out loud before I can think better of it.

  Felicia’s too plastered to care. She waves me off. “Hey, you gottsa do what you gottsa do,” she slurs.

  “I need to use the ladies’ room. I’ll see you tonight?” I ask.

  “Of course, darling. Great catching up with you,” she says and floats over to Number 3 for more girl talk.

  I practically run over to where Grant is.

  “We need to talk,” I tell him.

  He waves me off as he’s deep in conversation with some distant cousin, whose name fails me at the moment.

  I get out of the water and run over to my stuff. I decide to go to the bathroom and maybe peruse the internet for a while. I need more evidence. I feel like Cagney and Lacy only I don’t know if I’m Cagney or Lacy. In fact, I barely remember the show, but my grandmother was always watching re-runs of it. I laugh at the memory and then go to the ladies’ room, where I contemplate what we need to do next.

  After using the bathroom, I still have no idea what to do. Shit, my recorder. I turn it off. And replay it. OK, we have evidence, but is it enough? I mean, this is big, like bigger than breaking up a marriage, well an almost marriage. These are three huge companies with billions of dollars at stake. I place my hands on the sink and stare at my reflection in the mirror. I feel sick.

  I walk out and straight into Zach. He grabs me by the shoulders and pushes us into a utility closet.

  “First thing’s first,” he says as he crashes his lips to mine. After a long, panty-dropping kiss, he pulls back. “Damn, I’ve been wanting to do that since we got to the cabanas.”

  “We need to talk. I have intel,” I say to him.

  “So do I,” he says.

  We exchange information. I learn that Lee isn’t exactly in love with the idea of marrying Maggie, and I tell Zach all about the business plans.

  “So now what?” I ask once we finish.

  “Now, we need a plan to talk to him before the wedding tomorrow,” Zach says.

  “Can you get Lee alone again?” I ask him.

  “I’m going to have to, aren’t I?” he says.

  I nod and bite my lip. “God, this ruining a wedding is a lot harder than I thought it would be,” I admit.

  He laughs. “But getting to know the other guests has been pretty fucking awesome,” he quips as he grinds his hips against me. I groan. It’s a childish move, but at the same time I’m totally turned on by it.

  “Come on, Casanova. We need to get back out there,” I tell him.

  “One last thing,” he says.

  I look up at him, and he pulls my face up to his for one more kiss that has us both breathless.

  When we pull back, we both stand there for a long minute, catching our breaths and staring at each other. Then Zach takes my hand and, checking that the coast is clear, leads me back toward the cabanas. He lets me go first, and I settle back into my lounge chair and sip another water.

  I lie back and enjoy the sound of the waves crashing. I haven’t really relaxed since that first day here. Pretty soon, I fall fast asleep.

  Chapter 16

  It’s the voices that wake me. Someone is arguing. I turn to see Felicia and Maggie squabbling over something. Felicia is very animated, and Maggie is too. And Felicia is also very drunk. Their voices are not loud enough for me to hear what they are saying. And they are standing far away from everyone else. I seem to be the only person listening to them because, well, they are in the cabana to the far side of me, and everyone else is a good thirty yards away in the water and totally plastered.

  I crane my neck trying to hear them better. And that’s when Felicia says something that really pisses Maggie off because Maggie slaps her. And then Felicia shoves Maggie, who…oh dear, falls into the water, fully clothed.

  She sputters and makes a huge production of it. She has resort staff, a lifeguard, Lee, and two other guys from the wedding all running and swimming over to her.

  They help her back up, and she proceeds to moan about her neck hurting. Lee, of course, is super worried about her. I want to shake him and say, “She’s not pregnant, you idiot.” But I refrain. I’m a little surprised that she doesn’t say anything about the fight with Felicia, but something tells me that Felicia wears the pants in that relationship and something also tells me there is a lot more going on there than just a company merger.

  Lee apologizes to the group and excuses him and Maggie, saying she should go lie down for a bit before the rehearsal dinner. They head off and slowly so does the rest of the wedding party.

  Pretty soon, it’s just the four of us again. Time for a group debrief. I order us real drinks, not champagne.

  “Grant and Harrison, what did you learn?” I ask them.

  They look at each other, and I know they have good intel. I almost want to rub my hands together and say, “oh goody.”

  “Well, let’s just say the other males in the wedding party can’t hold their liquor,” Harrison quips.

  I raise my eyebrows.

  “Let’s just say, that Gunther Quaid, Maggie’s cousin, likes to talk shit about his cousin. How he ever got an invite to this, I have no idea,” Grant say
s.

  “He claims that Maggie’s parents are cutting her off. There’s some big family riff that has something to do with her dad’s poor business decisions that have landed them near bankruptcy. Anyhow, Maggie has been on the prowl for a while, trying to find the right…how shall I put this delicately…specimen…uh…prospect? Anyhow, she found Lee. Prior to the big fight with her rents, who apparently are only here to keep up appearances, she had told Felicia her family’s woes. Felicia talked Daddy into helping them out, but her father would only agree to it if there was something in it for him…thus, Lee’s family. Felicia’s dad has been wanting to get more into transportation and this was the perfect in. Then, there was just sweet-talking Eunice into this. Maggie had to figure out what Eunice wanted,” Harrison says quickly.

  “Great-grandchildren,” Grant and I say.

  “But she has them,” Zach points out.

  “She’d never accept Beth’s kids as her great-grandchildren. What she really wants is the perfect offspring to make sure her family stays as she thinks it should,” Grant explains.

  “She also wants to be able to control them. And let’s face it, Lee is a total pushover that would do anything for her. He’s worse than I am,” Grant adds.

  “Damn, you guys got a lot more intel than I did,” I say. “All I got is a very drunk Felicia telling me basically what you learned, Mags needs money and Lee’s got it. However, now I’m wondering the timeline. So, if she was seeking someone before she needed money, maybe…” I pause and frown as I try to piece together the puzzle pieces.

  “Maybe that’s why she’s claiming to be knocked up?” Zach finishes my thought.

  “Yeah…maybe, but if she isn’t, she won’t get the extra money from Grandma Satan. So that only leaves the second part, she wanted to lock down the marriage thing,” I say.

  “That’s a likely reason,” Grant agrees.

  “Damn, what a beotch!” Harrison says.

  “No shit,” Zach says.

  “Oh, and I have Felicia telling me this on audio,” I say, waving my phone. “I mean if we need evidence.”

  Grant smirks. “Maybe we don’t need any evidence,” he says.

  We all turn to look at him.

  “What do you mean?” Harrison asks.

 

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