I felt hammered. As if his voice were fists, delivering blow after blow. “He asked you to keep me away from him?”
“He made me promise I would never let him fall in love with anyone. That he wouldn’t be able to survive it. That he’d do things he’d regret and would probably either end up killing the person he’d fallen for or killing himself.” He sighed. “Seems like he was right.”
A headache formed along with deepest heartache. “When...when did he ask you this?”
“He was twenty-something. Just killed his parents. His trust was at an all-time low. He’d waged war on test animals being released and drowned himself in work. One day, he rescued a cage of cats that’d been used for testing laxatives of all things. The poor things couldn’t stop vomiting or shitting their guts out. He stabilised them. Got attached. They relapsed, and the vets told him that it was their choice to live or die. He didn’t buy it and administered one of his own drugs that’d showed promise in rapid rejuvenation.”
“What happened?”
“They haemorrhaged, dying a messy, miserable death, and I guess he just snapped. He came back that night covered in blood. Whose blood I don’t know, but it was the start of his new crusade of fighting wars, not just in courtrooms with lawyers, but in vicious, violent revenge. He got drunk and made me vow never to let him get close to anything.” He shrugged. “I promised. And I’ve done my utmost ever since.”
Glancing at me, he half-smiled. “The thing is...I know him, and I know you affected him the moment you arrived. His shields shattered. He was hurting. I didn’t want him to suffer, so I did what he’d asked, even if he cursed me for getting in the way. But...” He sighed, rubbing his chest again. “You have to understand, it was never personal. I like you. When he told me to call the guest that afternoon...that you were willing to serve in Euphoria, I knew he was bluffing. There was no fucking way he could hurt you that badly. Not after he’d fallen so hard for you. I figured it was more about hurting himself, so I gave him space. I kept the goddesses in their villas, and the guests far away so you guys could figure shit out.”
He coughed and winced. “You’re welcome by the way.”
I couldn’t move.
Or blink.
Or speak.
Cal wasn’t my enemy.
He was just a friend.
A loyal, helpful friend who would always have Sully’s back.
He would do anything for him because Cal was the only family Sully had ever truly had. The only person he could trust...until me.
Something slotted into place inside me.
Affection sprang from wariness, and I turned to Cal with deep respect but also a healthy dose of suspicion. A slightly crazed laugh fell from my lips. “Now that your secret is out and you’re not such a prick, after all. Let me guess...you’ve already freed the goddesses? Here I am, ready to go to war with you, and you’ve already done what Sully requested.”
He smirked. “Think you’ve figured me out, huh?”
“I think you love him and would honour a man’s dying wish.”
He raised his hand, mock horror on his face. “I’m not in love with the bastard if that’s what you’re implying.” He sighed dramatically, almost as if theatrics could hide the truth. “I’m interested in someone else entirely. You and I have a lot in common currently, Jinx.”
I froze.
Who...
His eyes glittered. “In fact, I know exactly how you feel. The anger at them just lying there. The helplessness that you can’t wake them.” He blinked as if he hadn’t meant to say such things.
Oh, my God.
Jealousy.
He’s in love with Jess.
Images of them walking together. His arm slung over her shoulder. Her feverish need to stay past four years. Her loyalty to this island and desire to make everyone happy.
How long?
How did I not see?
“Jess...”
He cleared his throat. “Yes, well. Early days but...fuck.”
I reached for his hand, my grief swelling to encompass his.
We did have things in common.
So many painful things.
“She’ll wake up. You’ll see.”
He pulled his hand from mine, glowering at the ocean. “That cunt shot her in the womb. Campbell had to give her a complete hysterectomy. He doesn’t even know if she can have sex without pain.”
“I’m so sorry—”
“We hadn’t even gotten to that part. Christ, forget I said anything.” His face settled into stone. “And to answer your question, no I haven’t freed them. Not yet. I’ve tried for the past week to get out of that hellhole of a hospital, but Campbell and his minions locked me in.”
Waving at his chest where a wheeze rattled and his vitality faded, he added, “I’m not at full speed. In order to free five girls...I need help.”
I shifted to my knees in a sudden sand spray. “I’ll help you. I’ll do whatever you need. I’ll burn all Sully’s files. I’ll wipe all his hard drives. I’ll murder any future guests who step foot on this island expecting a goddess to serve them. And then, I’ll help you wake Jess up.”
He nodded, his energy flagging rapidly. “Got the taste for killing now, huh?”
I rolled my eyes. “You know what I mean.”
“Poor guests no longer able to indulge in their fantasies.”
“They’re not my concern. Sully, Jess, and the goddesses are.”
“Is he showing any signs of waking up?”
I shut down my pain. “Not yet, but I’m sure both he and Jess will randomly open their eyes very soon. If they don’t, I’ll make them...just see if I don’t.”
His shoulders fell. “I’m not sure you can create miracles, Jinx.”
“I made Sully happier, didn’t I?”
He eyed me, chuckling once. “You did. But...it hasn’t made you very happy has it?”
“It will...when he’s awake.”
“And you want to keep busy while you’re waiting.” He squeezed the back of his neck. “I get that.” Rolling his shoulders as if summoning energy he didn’t have, he muttered, “Fine.” Holding out his hand, he added, “Help me stand, and we’ll clean up this mess. Maybe they’ll both wake if we change the world they’ll return to.”
Clasping his dry grip, I hauled his heaviness upright. Pika fluttered to my shoulder, and Skittles squeaked for me to pick her up.
Cal lumbered toward Sully’s office.
And I followed him with two caiques.
Purpose gave me hope.
Action gave me strength.
And together, we might, possibly, hopefully, maybe save more than five lives.
We might bring back two people we adored.
We might turn Goddess Isles—a place of debauchery and domination—into a magical second chance.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
.
..
...
DEEP WITHIN, SOMETHING STIRRED.
A stubborn nucleus who refused to die.
Covered in soot.
Buried by ash.
Burned to dust and forgotten.
I was nothing.
But I wanted everything.
I deserved nothing.
But I needed something...
Her.
...
..
.
Chapter Thirty
LIFE SETTLED INTO A new rhythm.
Not moving forward in terms of Sully’s progress but spring cleaning the present for when he woke. Two weeks where I systematically destroyed his business, brothel, and broke apart every whisper of his crimes.
Week one started off tentative and new; Cal and I still wary of each other and what our tasks would be. It soon slipped into an easy partnership with a shared end goal of fixing every wrong.
Leaving Skittles and Pika with Sully, I entered his office and almost keeled over with pain. Everywhere I looked, a memory flashed with heat and passion—Sully drugging me when I first ar
rived, him drinking the spiked-elixir liquor, the way he looked at me as if I was his sun and sea.
Cal moved slowly but determinedly as he sat at Sully’s desk and logged in to his laptop. I swallowed down my worry and focused on deleting such a big part of Sully’s life.
Cal called Arbi and told him to bring the goddesses back from Lebah. He rang some guy on their payroll to update passports and documentation required for the five girls who would be going home. And contacted Sully’s bank manager to have two million dollars in cash delivered to his private hangar in Jakarta.
Four hundred thousand per girl.
He wrote down Sully’s passwords while we waited for the boat to arrive from Lebah and gave me access to the curtain I’d tried to see behind for so long. He popped a few painkillers and hung up on Dr Campbell when he called to ensure Cal was taking it slow, and we fell into a comfortable allegiance.
An hour or so later, the grumble of a motorboat echoed from the bay.
“You go. I’ll catch up.” He waved me out the door, and I jogged down sandy pathways, beneath sun-stencilling palms, and into bright skies as Sully’s Euphoria harem arrived.
I stood with braced shoulders as they climbed from the boat and padded barefoot up the main beach of Sully’s empire.
Five girls.
A few I’d seen around but not officially met and one who’d begged to be released by a guest who’d known my name. Jewel with her red hair bowed her head in respect as they lined up before me.
What did they think of me? Standing as Sully’s overseer instead of beside them? Did they hate me? Pity me? Not care in the slightest?
Cal arrived out of breath and fighting a body unwilling to walk through soft sand after being wounded by bullets. The girls stiffened as his green gaze swept over them. Only I heard the strain in his voice and the wheeze in his chest as he nodded at each and recited their names.
“Sailor, Trinity, Jewel, Diamond, and Blossom. Welcome back to Batari.”
Sully had said there were seven goddesses on his island, including me.
That left six to free but only five were ready to leave. Jess and I would stay, but none of us were possessions any longer.
The girls fidgeted in matching wardrobes of the gardener’s uniform on Lebah. Either they’d been put to work tending the produce while they’d stayed in staff quarters or they’d run out of clothes and had to borrow from the employees. Regardless, they all looked healthy and well-kept, if not bored and sullen.
Cal clasped his hands in front of him. “You’re to return to your villas. Rest, bathe, and pack whatever belongings you wish to take with you. Whatever trinkets guests have given you, you may keep. Whatever memories you have from this place, you may remember. However, from this day forward, you are no longer a goddess and you will no longer be trapped here.”
Five pairs of eyes swooped to his. Hope sprang, suspicion glowed, and a flurry of energy trickled through the girls.
“Tomorrow, you will be escorted to a main airport where you will advise where you wish to fly to. You will be provided with the necessary documentation to get home. You will be compensated for your service here. And...” Cal’s eyes turned lethal. “You will be threatened with the typical warnings to protect our anonymity. You speak of this to no one. You will be watched to ensure you do not break this final rule. You will slip back into the lives you left, and we shall all go our separate ways amicably.”
He stepped forward, glowering at each goddess. “If you stay silent, you are free. If you spill our secrets, you will be hunted, eradicated, and all those you told will suffer the same fate. Is that clear?”
Slowly, the girls nodded.
“Good.” Cal rubbed his chest and stepped to the side with his arm spread. “Go on then. Relax on your final day here. Swim, sunbathe, and order whatever you want from the kitchens. Be prepared to leave at noon tomorrow.”
* * * * *
11:52 a.m.
I stood on the beach, squinting in the bright noonday sun at the sleek silver helicopter, ready and waiting to escort Sully’s goddesses back home.
Yesterday, Cal had returned to his villa to rest. I’d returned to Sully to whisper in his ear and run my hands through his hair. We’d all spent the night doing whatever we desired and now...now five girls slowly appeared from the treeline. They no longer wore slinky, sexy bikinis or kimonos. Each wore an outfit appropriate for travel. Each carried a large duffel with whatever mementoes they wished to take with them. And each gave me a relieved smile as they headed toward their glossy transportation.
Cal appeared, keeping his distance and lurking in the trees for shade.
I stood in direct sunlight, dressed in a cream maxi that fluttered softly around my ankles. I wanted to wave goodbye to them. We might not know each other, but we’d share things that linked us forever.
The helicopter blades fired on, whining and thundering with building power as the girls climbed onboard.
Jewel was the last goddess to arrive. Her red hair bounced, and her freckles reminded me of Louise who stayed protectively by Sully’s side while he remained unreachable.
I expected her to run to the helicopter and leap inside with the other goddesses but she beelined for me and wrapped her arms tight around my waist. “Come with us.”
I squeezed her back. “I belong here.”
“You belong with your loved ones.”
Pulling away, I stared into her pixy face. “Exactly.”
She frowned and dropped her arms. “You were telling the truth that day...on the path with the guest. You truly don’t want to leave.”
“I truly don’t want to leave.”
“Love makes people do stupid things.” She hoisted her bag higher up her shoulder. “I hope you’re making the right decision.”
“Safe journey home, Jewel.”
She smiled, shielding her gaze from the bright sun. “My real name is Baylee.” Striding toward the bamboo jetty, she paused and added, “Goodbye, Eleanor Grace.”
I watched her join her fellow goddesses, and the helicopter took off.
I didn’t look away from the horizon until they’d vanished into the hazy humidity.
* * * * *
“He told me to burn it to the ground,” Cal muttered.
“We can’t.” I spun in place, opening my arms and incorporating the cathedral-size space of Euphoria’s entrance. “It would be a waste.”
“It’s not going to be used again.” He moved toward the playroom where a harness dangled from the ceiling and cupboards ringed the space with props. Last time I’d been in here, Jess had sacrificed herself, I’d broken beneath elixir, and Sully had killed Drake’s guards.
There were no bloodstains or corpses. No signs of rape or violence.
The mess had been cleaned and deleted.
It was just a room.
A villa that could be repurposed.
Cal kept moving, leaving me to follow him as he entered rooms I hadn’t been in before. More playrooms with more harnesses. More outdoor bathrooms and lush gardens. “I’ll get the gasoline.”
“No!” I darted in front of him. “I...I have a suggestion.”
The goddesses had left two days ago.
Pika and Skittles were with me today after staying by Sully’s side for the past few days, and Pika darted through the rafters, making Skittles grumble in frustration on my shoulder that she couldn’t join him.
Cal scowled.
Yesterday, I’d gone to see Jess in Dr Campbell’s surgery. I’d left Sully in his coma and joined Jess in hers, holding her hand and telling her how we were the last girls on this island—barring the invisible staff who made this place run.
Etti, the vet helping Dr Campbell, had found me. Sharing a quiet moment with me and Jess, discussing the animals who’d survived the bombing and all the others who’d been en-route to arrive for rehabilitation.
Serigala couldn’t be a sanctuary again until it was rebuilt, but Euphoria was no longer unwanted.
He’d put a seed into my head, and it’d grown into something I couldn’t uproot.
“What suggestion?” Cal crossed his arms, wincing at his healing chest.
“Euphoria can become Serigala.”
“Say what now?”
“Let it be home to creatures in need. Etti could be in charge of setting it up. The animals that survived need care and many more besides—”
“Sinclair won’t go for it. After what happened, he’ll swear off helping anything again. He blames himself for their deaths.”
“Their deaths were Drake’s fault.”
“He doesn’t see it that way.”
“Drake is dead. He can’t hurt Sully or anyone he loves ever again.”
Cal strolled around me, eyeing up the space as if planning where to drop explosives and do what Sully had requested.
I couldn’t let him burn it.
No way.
Pika barrelled through the air, chirping and playing. He wasn’t his usual happy bossy self, thanks to Sully’s unbreakable sleep, but he was a bird and needed to stretch his wings.
Catching up to Cal, I said with a firmness I was starting to embrace, “Euphoria stays. I’ll tell Etti to begin transporting the animals that survived here.”
Cal stopped, turned to me, and looked me up and down. His nostrils flared as if he’d fight me. “Flexing your power, I see.”
“Learning to fight for things that are right.”
He rolled his eyes. “You’re the one who’ll be at the mercy of his temper when he wakes and finds out what you’ve done.”
I hugged myself at the thought. “He can yell at me all he wants because it will mean he’s awake and healthy.”
Cal chuckled, breaking our tension. “Christ, you’ve got it bad.”
“And I accept it wholeheartedly.”
“Meh, it’s your funeral.”
“As long as it’s not Sully’s, I’m okay with that.”
His shoulders slouched. “You and me both. Fine, you win.”
I did my best to smile, but all I could remember was Sully telling me I’d won the night on the path after we’d been to Lebah together.
‘You win, Jinx.’
He’d told me I’d won, and he’d send Calico, Neptune, and Jupiter home. I’d saved three lives that day, but I hadn’t had an inkling of the death swooping toward us.
Fifth a Fury (Goddess Isles, #5) Page 21