Justin’s beer was empty so he raised his water glass, “To Sammy, my new girlfriend. And to Kinsey, my other new girlfriend.”
They toasted and laughed for several moments then Kinsey looked to Sammy, “So what happened, if I might ask?”
“Oh, I caught him making secret plans with this beautiful woman at this wonderful restaurant hideaway that Carlton and I discovered back when we moved in together in Hollywood on the celebration of our first night as a new couple. I saw the look in their eyes when I happened to come in for lunch. I caught them red handed and I ran away. I came to Bermuda on a whim and I love it. But he has to find me soon or I’ll really start to find a new lover.”
“He doesn’t know you’re here? How can he find you if you don’t let him know? I bet he’s worried sick.” Kinsey shook her head at Sam.
“Have you at least called him?” Justin asked.
“Why should I call him? He cheated on me.” Sammy folded his arms and sat back in his chair not looking happy with the questions Kinsey and Justin were putting his way.
“You’re a hopeless romantic aren’t you Sammy? You want him to come make it all better. I understand that but if you don’t tell him where you are all you’re doing is making him worry himself half to death. Can’t you see our point?” Kinsey put her hand out and after a moment Sammy put his out toward her and she squeezed his hand and she added, “I think it’s getting late. Why don’t we get together tomorrow? You can be our guest at the pool, Justin, and we can work on a plan for Sammy and Carlton and we can put our heads together and see if we can’t put you, Justin, on the path that leads to Trisha?”
Both men nodded their assent to Kinsey. Sammy insisted on picking up the tab for dinner and then a few minutes later, they all stood from their chairs and made for the exit to the restaurant. Kinsey noticed a large party outside on the terrace of the bar. They seemed to be having both a loud time and a good time.
In the bar they agreed to meet at the hotel pool at eleven the next morning, then after a round of hugs that was initiated by Sammy, they headed toward the front of the hotel to get Justin a cab ride back to his home in St. George and then Sammy and Kinsey would go up to their rooms for the night.
As they stepped out from the lobby and the valet approached them Kinsey realized she’d left her hand bag at the table in the restaurant and she went back to retrieve it.
Kinsey stepped inside the bar at the same time as the party that she’d noticed earlier on the terrace were coming inside and making their way through the bar and in toward the restaurant. The party numbered fourteen people, four men and ten women. All the women were young and beautiful, dressed in miniskirts and revealing tops. Kinsey heard them speaking in a foreign language that sounded Russian, and then, in a thought that hit her brain like a hammer to a nail, she knew who the ‘king’ of this party was at the same time that she saw him: It was Dmitri and he already had his eyes locked on hers.
Her first thought was to drop her eyes, but deep within her, she knew that that would be the wrong thing to do. She held his piercing gaze, his dark blue eyes, and made sure to look right through him as she walked by his group.
Once beyond his sightline she turned her eyes toward the barkeeper who was waving his hand to her. The barkeep was speaking to her but Kinsey couldn’t hear his words over the laughter that was coming from Dmitri’s party as they passed by her.
She approached the bar where the bartender said, “I believe you must be looking for your purse. We have it in the back, just give me a moment to get it.”
Kinsey took a seat at the bar, she was the only one there, and said, “Yes, I did leave it, thanks.”
As she waited she felt the timidity and anger of her postpartum depression trying to rear its head and tell her to step away from Dmitri, this dark man. Leave him alone, she thought, get back to your room and be by yourself. But she remembered the good times and the new friends that she had just made and her heart went out to Justin. She understood his anger, his panic, his sense of loss and his loneliness and she wanted to help. She was tired of being consumed within her own dark self, and so, as the bartender approached her, holding her purse, instead of simply thanking him and leaving and going up to her room she said to him, “Give me a glass of bourbon, something super smooth, old and expensive, and make it neat.”
The bartender handed her her purse and said, “Yes, ma’am.”
As the bartender got to the task of pouring her drink Kinsey made a decision. She sat up high in her chair, making herself look tall and far prettier than she felt – but she would trust what Tanner had been telling her these last few months, “just because you don’t feel good inside, doesn’t mean you don’t look good on the outside,” – and she waited for what she knew (what she was afraid might, and what she wanted to do for Justin) would happen within the next half hour. All she had to do was sit, pretending to be confident in herself, and wait.
The bartender brought her drink and she thanked him for it and then said, “So tell me about that party that just went in to eat. Is that the owner of the yacht in St. George’s?”
The bartender nodded, “That is Mr. Rublev and he likes to come here late, bring a group of friends, and eat. We hold the restaurant open for him as late as he likes.”
Kinsey took a sip from her drink, “This is nice, very smooth.”
“It’s imported from your country, the U.S., from the bourbon state…?”
“Kentucky.”
“Yes, Kentucky. I am from Scotland; we love our Scotch but I must say I have taken a liking to the finer bourbons, that one there is sublime. I love it as well. We just got it in stock last week.”
Kinsey took another small sip, placed her drink on the bar, “What do you think of Mr. Rublev and his party?”
The bartender looked across the bar and into the dining area of the restaurant where the sound of loud talking, followed by laughter, rolled through the doors from the restaurant and across the bar, “The women in the party are typical Mr. Rublev hangers-on’ers. He will tire of them soon enough and send them away. He always does. Then he will find new ones.”
“And what about Dmitri?”
“I will start from the mountain as it were and work my way into the valley: He is smart, strong, very handsome, almost too masculine though. He is rich, very rich, and spares no expense when it comes to having a good time. He is arrogant, self-consumed and selfish. If things don’t go his way he wants someone to be punished. I suspect he is dangerous when made angry and he may even be dangerous anyway, as in it is just his nature. He loves women and expects them to submit to him. I doubt he treats them well in the bedroom. I’d say he’s rough with them after the door is closed to his bedroom for the night. He reminds me of a James Bond gone very bad.”
“How do you know so much?” Kinsey asked, “What do you base your opinion of him on? My first intuition of him is like yours, but have you ever been around him for any length of time?”
“My friend is a caterer. He’s worked several parties on that yacht, The Great Seducer, over the last few years and I’ve bartended for him on it three times – just to pick up some extra money. I’ve seen him, Dmitri and his antics, first hand. Trust me, and excuse my French, he’s a dick.”
Kinsey nodded and looked into the restaurant and then back to the bartender. She extended her hand to him and as he shook it she said, “My name is Kinsey Brodie. I’m from Charleston, South Carolina. I’m here to get better. I’ve had a rough few months and my husband sent me here to find myself, my happiness. One way I’d like to do that is by helping a new friend that I just met today find his lost fiancée. To help him I need to get on that yacht.”
The bartender raised his eyes as he shook her hand, “My name is Rod. Is your friend, Justin? The lad you were eating with earlier tonight?”
Kinsey nodded, “Yes, I take it you know him?”
“I do. I wasn’t working the bar when your party came in so I didn’t know he was eating over in the restaurant.
It’s not a place I’d expect to see him eating very often to be honest,” Rod picked up a cocktail glass and a cloth and began to polish the glass, “It’s terrible what happened to Trisha. I wasn’t on the boat the night she disappeared but I was on it the night before. I watched Dmitri chase her all over that ship trying to get down her pants. He was relentless and she would have none of it. Justin had every right to defend her. And himself.”
Kinsey was glad to hear Rod back up Justin’s story, but it made what she felt like she must do become imperative if she was going to help Justin track down Trisha.
And that scared Kinsey.
“What do you think are my chances of getting noticed here tonight by Dmitri? I’d like to get on that yacht and about the only way that happens, from what I’ve heard, is to be female and beautiful.”
Kinsey knew, deep down inside of her, that she was an attractive woman; Tanner always made it his mission to show her just how beautiful she was to him. Tanner’s affirmation, his stamp of approval, of her appearance was all she ever needed or wanted when it came to her looks. But at this moment, while still feeling within her soul as black and dark as the night sky outside the hotel, she needed to hear from a young man that she still had what it took to get herself on board that ship, and when Rod smiled, then laughed, and said, “You’re different from his typical girl. A bit older, but I’d say much prettier. You’re so natural with the way you carry yourself, regal, like a tiger or a beautiful cat.” Rod paused and looked Kinsey in the eye, “If he sees you by yourself you will get an invitation to his boat. Trust me.”
Kinsey took a drink from her glass. She let the warm liquid flow down her throat and when it hit her stomach she felt her courage begin to expand within her heart and mind as the deep flavors of the bourbon and the sharp sting of the alcohol made short work of her fears and inhibitions. “How long do you think I will have to sit here waiting for him to see me?” she asked.
Rod dropped the cloth and set the glass, upside down, on a napkin on a low shelf behind the bar. “I’d say about three minutes after I come back from inside the restaurant. Wait here,” Rod poured a large amount of bourbon into a whiskey glass from the bottle that Kinsey’s own drink had been poured and then stepped toward the bar door. As he lifted it and stepped under, he said, “And be careful. I do not trust this man with a woman like you. You have an innocence within your eyes, a level of trusting, just like Trisha did, and I believe Mr. Rublev likes to burn it out forever with his dark ways.”
As Rod walked away from her and into the restaurant Kinsey took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. She took another drink of bourbon. She began to doubt herself and considered making a break for her hotel room; no one would be the wiser and she could go back into the dark hole where she’d grown so comfortable living within her mind these last months.
She looked about the empty barroom and beat her fist on the bar. “No!” she screamed in her mind, “Step out and help someone. You do things like hit your husband and ignore your babies when you crawl inside that black hole. Step out and be a woman, a mother and a friend – be Kinsey Brodie again.” She tilted her glass back and drained it dry. She set it on the bar and as she did so she heard the sound of voices; she could hear the Scottish accent of Rod’s voice as he spoke then laughed and then she heard the heavy, Russian accented words of what could only be the voice of Dmitri Rublev as he followed Rod into the bar.
She straightened her posture, took a quick peek to herself in the mirror behind the bar and waited for the men to make their entrance. She made sure to tilt her face away from the door and as she sensed their approach she let out her breath and forced herself to be ready for whatever was about to happen. This was for her knew friend, Justin, who was in the same situation as she and Tanner had been just a few years before. This was what life was about, trying to do for the good of others, and so she let herself feel beautiful – she’d need the confidence that went with it – and she made ready to blow wide open Mr. Rublev’s dirty little mind.
She felt his eyes scanning her, pinging off her body like the sonar of a nuclear submarine, and, for the second time that day – using only his eyes – Dmitri made her feel dirty.
“We have what is left of that bottle here at the bar. I’ll be happy to get you a new one though,” Kinsey heard Rod saying as he stepped behind the bar, “We just got it in from the states but this fine lady sitting here with me told me to try some of it after she ordered it. Once I tasted it I knew I had to let you in on it. I was certain you’d like it as well.”
Rod was lying to Dmitri, but it was all for her, Kinsey knew.
In his heavy Russian accent, Kinsey heard Dmitri say, “Ah yes, I will take the bottle,” and then he continued, “This beautiful woman told you about this? My, that is something good, no? She must be a fine woman then. I do believe I saw her earlier today from my boat, no?”
Kinsey knew her cue and she turned, as demurely as she knew how, toward Dmitri and his waiting comments. She looked into the dark, the hauntingly dark, blue eyes of the handsome Russian and said, “I know bourbon, yes, and many more good things as well.”
Dmitri sat in the chair next to Kinsey as Rod put a new bottle of bourbon on the bar before Dmitri. His eyes sparkled, dark, like blue and black diamonds, as he took Kinsey in and he said, “So you are a fan of whiskey? I’m a fan of many things, many fine things. Tell me what else you like.”
Kinsey tilted her head, pretended to be thinking, then answered, “In no order – I like how the light shines into your eyes and never comes back out. I enjoy working out, getting a buzz from being physically exhausted, and then being massaged by man with strong hands. I like drinking whiskey on a cold night by a warm fire with a man – a poet or a singer or a painter – who can interpret the meaning of the heat in my eyes and prove it means something special to him, and me, with his loins. I like to be loved at daybreak and seduced at nightfall. I like to walk through an art gallery with a glass of vodka. I love the taste of white wine while watching a red sun as it sets down behind a blue sea. I’m an artist. I enjoy many things and I can go on all night but this isn’t what you want me to do. I believe you expect more, you seem to be a man who goes for what he wants. And,” she let the moments tick slowly away before she resumed, “if you pursue me you can expect to be scratched before it’s all over.”
Kinsey put her drink out to Rod as he stood behind the bar listening to her with his mouth hanging open and she said, “Give me a glass of whatever is this man’s favorite drink.” She turned her eyes to Dmitri, “I don’t think you’ve properly introduced yourself yet to be privy to so much about me,” she added as she made sure to look deep into Dmitri’s eyes and hold his gaze.
Dmitri put out his hand, palm open, and when Kinsey put her hand to his he lifted it to his lips and kissed the back of it. “My name is Dmitri Rublev. I love to seduce and I’m not afraid of a pussycat’s claws,” he turned to Rod, “Do you remember my favorite red, the Burgundy?”
“I do sir, I’ll be back in a moment,” Rod stepped away, adding as he left the bar, “with two glasses.”
It was 9:30 in the morning when Kinsey awoke. She had no memory of any dreams. The sun’s rays seemed to somehow beam through her eyelids and into her eye sockets with bright morning light, and she turned and tried to bury her head in her pillow. It was no use, she was dehydrated and needed to go to the bathroom in the the most urgent of ways. She stepped gingerly from the bed and made for the bathroom. She turned on the shower and took care of herself while she waited for the water to warm.
She grabbed a bottle of water from the counter and stepped into the shower. She leaned against the wall and let the warm shower water sooth her and bring her back to life. She drank from the water bottle and began to feel better as the water permeated her body and brought her dry, hungover cells back to life.
After a few minutes in the shower she knew she’d have a long morning but otherwise she should feel okay once she was able to get down to the pool a
nd see Justin and Sammy and get some breakfast. Food, greasy food, yes, sausage and bacon and fried eggs – she wanted it – needed it – had to have it – in a bad way.
She put on a swimsuit and cover-up, sandals and a hat, and made for the door to her hotel room. There was a note, enclosed in a hotel envelope, lying on the floor.
She picked it up, returned to her bed and sat down and read it:
I was eating dinner on the terrace of the restaurant last night when you came in with your friends for dinner. You looked as beautiful and sensual as I’ve ever seen a woman look. I’m am taken aback by your beauty. More than anything I would like to touch you, know you, and be with you. But first you must agree to meet me.
Your friends seem to be good men. I am envious, in a good way of course, of their friendship with you and I would love to be the fourth in your party.
I’d be careful of the man with whom you spent the later part of your evening. He seems more a predator than your other friends and I wouldn’t trust him. Though I suspect you can handle yourself quite well.
You seem much happier and more confident than the first day you arrived here at the hotel. You beauty grows rapidly, like flowers in the morning sun, and I find myself breathless as you pass me by. Even if I’m never destined to meet you, I consider it a blessing to have simply seen you.
Yours, with an infinite amount of respect and wanting affection.
Wow. Men were coming at her from all fronts even their written words were being slid under her hotel door. Kinsey remembered Tanner. Then she remembered her babies and a bolt of sad, yearning electricity ran from her brain to her very soul and she took to heart why she was here and she sat up straight on the bed, took a deep breath and stood. Go make it happen – heal yourself so you can go home and make your life right again.
Kinsey dipped her toast into the yolk of her over-easy, fried eggs and took a bite and washed it down with a drink from her coffee. She was enjoying her breakfast like only a person with a hangover could and when she saw Sammy appear at the door of the hotel she waved to him from her table by the pool as she suppressed a laugh and a smile.
Lights on the Far Horizon Trilogy Page 23