by Black, Tasha
“Why not?” he asked.
She looked up at him.
His expression was bemused. He wasn’t angry or humiliated.
This was a man whose confidence couldn’t be shaken by rejection.
“Because I can’t get involved with the talent,” she said, as she had planned to say in the first place.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“I mean I’m a producer on this show,” she told him. “I can’t get romantically entangled with you.”
“There is nothing entangled about us,” Wayne said, his deep voice tickling her insides. “What is between us is very straightforward.”
She stared at him, begging herself to remember everything she’d spent her life trying to accomplish, weighing it against what it would be like to kiss him, even once.
“I-I can’t,” she said again, turning away. It would be easier to say if she didn’t have to look at him. “My career is finally taking off. I might actually have a chance to do something meaningful with my life, if I don’t mess this up. I just can’t be with you, Wayne.”
“We’ll see about that,” he said lightly.
When she spun around he was smiling at her. She was off the hook.
At least for now.
He was so handsome. It was hard not to get pulled into his orbit again.
Damned sexy alien.
“Shall we find the others?” he offered.
“Yes,” she said, relieved that he wasn’t going to push the conversation.
They headed back toward the cottages in friendly silence.
Olivia couldn’t help but notice the fresh bright paint on the porches of the cottages, and the flowers planted beside them, wires training them up the wooden walls so that the blossoms cradled each window.
She looked around at the manicured grass, and the baby trees in protective cages at perfect intervals along the back of the property.
Even the pristine pool was lined with river rock, reflecting back the cloudy mountains in its smooth surface.
There was such pride of ownership here - the people who ran this resort really cared about it.
She tried to recall which member of the production team had set up their housing. All she remembered was everything looking so beautiful online that it was hard to choose.
She felt her shoulders relax, as she breathed in the fragrant mountain air, letting go of a tension she hadn’t realized she’d been carrying. For all the work she had to do, not to mention fending off the advances of the hottest man currently on the planet, it all still felt like a vacation.
She had a good feeling about this.
They were nearly at the poolside when a high-pitched scream pierced the air.
5
Olivia
Olivia scanned the cottages for the source of the scream. She took off at a sprint when she spotted a group gathered in front of one of the cottages.
Wayne’s feet pounded the ground as he ran after her.
Someone ahead was sobbing softly.
Olivia pushed her way through the other visitors to find Ruby in Parker’s arms.
The door to their cottage was scarred with terrifying looking furrows that looked a lot like claw marks.
On the ground just outside the room was a small, bloody carcass.
“What happened?” Olivia demanded.
But no one spoke.
She glanced around the group.
In addition to Ruby and Parker, several crewmembers had gathered, as well as Lex, who was avidly filming.
Two guests she didn’t recognize stood off to one side, along with the man who had brought their bags.
“What’s going on?” a woman’s voice demanded.
The group parted to make way for a small woman with her hair in a glossy black bun on top of her head.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
Then she caught sight of the bloody thing on the ground.
“Ay, Dios mío,” she sighed. “Juan Carlos, please clean this up. Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize. My name is Amalia. If you will follow me to the lodge I will treat you to fresh fruit juice.”
“What was that?” one of the guests asked.
“Only a tree squirrel,” Amalia answered, already ambling away.
“No, I mean what killed it,” the guest asked.
“Oh, most likely an ocelot,” Amalia said.
“Cadejo,” someone murmured from behind the group.
Olivia had a taken a few years of Spanish in high school, but that wasn’t a word she remembered.
Amalia whipped around with a fierce look on her face. “Do your work, Juan Carlos,” she said firmly.
She marched toward the lodge and they all followed.
Olivia trotted to catch up to her.
“What is a cadejo?” Olivia asked.
“It’s nothing, only a silly story,” Amalia said, clucking. “Have you ever had fresh maracuyá juice?”
“No,” Olivia said.
“I think you call it passion fruit,” Amalia said. “Perfect for your TV program. And it grows right here.”
“It sounds delicious,” Olivia said.
“Don’t worry about the squirrel,” Amalia told her. “It is the natural way of things. You’re going to love Costa Rica.”
“Have you owned the resort for a long time?” Olivia asked.
“Me?” Amalia asked. “Oh, no, no. My daughter owns the resort. I help her.”
“So it’s a family business.” Olivia said. “That’s nice.”
“It’s getting nicer all the time,” Amalia confided. “My daughter, Maria, bought this place a few years ago. It belonged to a man who thought he could come to Costa Rica, buy some land, take the trees down, and turn it into three big buildings with expensive condominiums.”
“What happened to him?” Olivia asked.
“The Costa Rica government told him he is not allowed to build. And they fined him for taking down the trees,” Amalia said with satisfaction. “He sold the land to my daughter and she has spent years building this little place and replanting the forest.”
Olivia looked around. She would never have guessed that there had been enough land razed here to build condos on.
“It looks wild again,” Olivia remarked.
“Again, that is the natural way of things,” Amalia said with a proud smile. “There are no dormant seasons here. Everything can grow year-round.”
“It’s beautiful,” Olivia said.
“Well, the trees are eager to come back, they can’t help themselves,” Amalia said. “But animals are another story. They are shy.”
“Not the monkeys,” Olivia said, remembering the one who stole her phone.
“No, monkeys can be like people,” Amalia laughed. “They feel braver in a group. And they know that where they find people, they also find food. But we want the other animals to come back, too.”
“How long will it take?” Olivia asked.
“It’s hard to know.” Amalia shrugged. “Maybe never.”
“That’s terrible,” Olivia said softly.
“It’s not in our control,” Amalia said. “But it would be good if they would come. Bird watchers love Costa Rica. If the birds would come back, my daughter would have more guests. Everyone is interested in what you call eco-tourism these days.”
Olivia nodded.
“This is why I don’t feel so sad about an ocelot finding a meal here,” Amalia confided. “It’s not pleasant to see the results, but at least we know that both the ocelot and the squirrel were in the forest today.”
Olivia certainly hadn’t thought of it that way.
They had reached the lodge. The scent of good food was on the air and she was feeling much better.
“Come in, come in,” Amalia shouted to the group.
Olivia found herself hanging back, waiting for Wayne.
“What did she think that was all about?” Wayne asked, joining her outside of the lodge.
“She said it was an ocelot that ate a squirr
el,” Olivia said.
“That can’t be right,” Wayne said immediately.
“Why not?” Olivia asked.
“Because ocelots are nocturnal,” Wayne said.
“Whoa,” Olivia breathed. “Wait. How did you know that?”
“I like animals,” he said with a shrug.
“Well, come on,” she told him. “We’re going back to talk to the porter. I want to know what a cadejo is.”
They walked together back to the cottages, passing Lex the cameraman on the way.
Juan Carlos was just spraying cleaner on the porch floor when they arrived.
Olivia was relieved the little squirrel carcass was gone.
“How may I help you?” Juan Carlos asked, looking up.
“This is pretty scary stuff, huh?” Olivia asked sympathetically.
“Like Amalia said, it was only a squirrel,” Juan Carlos said quickly, looking down at his work.
“You said ‘cadejo’ when we discovered this,” Olivia said. “What does that mean?”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Juan Carlos said. “Only a legend.”
Olivia sat on the steps of the porch beside him.
“I love legends,” she confessed. “And I don’t know any legends of Costa Rica. Would you be willing to tell me about it?”
He hesitated.
“I won’t tell Amalia, of course,” Olivia added.
Juan Carlos smiled at her and put down his rag.
“When I was young, my abuela told us the story of a boy,” he began. “He lived on a farm with his family and all day he worked in the bean fields. But as the boy grew into a young man, he like to go out at night to dance and drink and make a party.”
Olivia nodded. She could see where this one was going. It would be a story that taught temperance. It seemed that every country had plenty of legends and ghost stories with a similar message.
“Over time, he began to drink and party in the day as well as the night, and he didn’t come home to the farm to do his work. His father begged him to think better of his life, but the young man refused,” Juan Carlos continued. “Then the young man did not come home for a whole day, and then another. He drank and danced and made a party for seven days before he returned. His father was so furious he began to scream and curse at the young man, until his eyes were red as coals with anger.”
“Wow,” Wayne said.
Olivia thought of the confusion with the tarot cards and it occurred to her that maybe she should have made sure Wayne understood this story wasn’t real before they began. She made a mental note to talk to him about it as soon as they were alone.
“As the boy listened to his father’s curses, his eyes began to glow red as coals, too,” Juan Carlos said. “His long black hair grew thicker. He fell to the floor and rose up again in the form of a giant dog, black as night with fiery red eyes.”
Wayne’s mouth dropped open.
“The father tried to chain him up, but the dog leapt out the window into the forest. They say that if you are on the roads at night, drunk or seeking worldly pleasures, you will hear a sound behind you. If you turn around, you will see the glowing red eyes of the cadejo, creeping after you with glittering claws and chains around his neck…”
“Juan Carlos,” a woman’s voice cried from somewhere close by.
All three of them jumped.
“Sorry,” Juan Carlos said with a sheepish smile. “I have to go.”
He got up and headed for the lodge with his cleaning supplies and a garbage bag that likely contained the remains of the squirrel.
Olivia looked up, intending to explain to Wayne about legends.
But her eye caught the door, where three deep channels tore the wood to splinters.
Glowing red eyes, glittering claws…
“I know you do not believe in such things,” Wayne said softly. “But it makes me think of the Moon tarot card.”
Instantly, the picture of the card popped into her mind: a moon, a forest, an inky black wolf with glowing red eyes, howling in anguish.
Olivia had planned exhaustively for every possibility she could think of on their trip.
She hadn’t planned for this.
6
Olivia
Olivia pulled on her pajamas and ran a hand through her hair. She could hardly believe it was evening already, it seemed as if the day had passed too quickly.
She left the bathroom and smiled at her two best friends, who were lounging across from each other in her bed.
They had burst into her cottage wearing their pajamas ten minutes ago, a tray of drinks in Margot’s hands.
“Aren’t you guys getting lonely for your husbands?” Olivia teased as she joined them. “I thought this was supposed to be a honeymoon.”
“Parker’s still in the pool,” Ruby said, rolling her eyes but smiling. “I’ll never get him out.”
“Besides, we want to hang out with you,” Margot said. “It’s nice to have some time off-camera.”
“Tell me about it,” Olivia said, hopping onto the bed with them.
Ruby handed her a coconut with a straw in it.
“Please tell me there’s something stronger than coconut milk in here,” Olivia joked.
“There is, so drink it slowly,” Margot advised.
“So what were you and Wayne all fired up about earlier?” Ruby asked, her eyes sparkling.
“Oh, nothing,” Olivia said dismissively. She knew Ruby was a bit superstitious and didn’t want to frighten her with the legend of the cadejo.
“Nothing?” Margot asked. “That sounds juicy.”
Olivia laughed.
“Did it have anything to do with the thing outside my room?” Ruby asked.
Olivia looked up at Margot.
Now that her friend had sealed her mate bond with Kent, she had inherited his ability to sniff out a lie.
It was one thing to withhold a little info for the greater good, but Olivia hated to lie - especially since Margot would know she was lying and worry even more.
“Yes, actually,” Olivia admitted.
She told them the story of the cadejo, Ruby’s eyes growing wider and wider as the tale went on.
“But Amalia said it was only an ocelot,” Margot said. “So it’s a great legend and all, but we know it’s not true.”
Olivia wondered if Margot would feel the same after a few minutes alone with Amalia and her own truth-sniffing abilities.
“But did you see the size of the claw marks on my door?” Ruby asked, shuddering.
“They’re too big for an ocelot,” Olivia agreed. “And, as Wayne pointed out, ocelots are nocturnal. So even if that’s what made the marks, the animal is not behaving normally. It didn’t even carry away its kill.”
There was a moment of silence as they all pondered.
Then Margot laughed and gave Olivia a little shove. “I think we’re all just tired, don’t you?”
“I’m definitely tired,” Olivia agreed. “I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for all this, but I’m just too exhausted to see it.”
“Yup,” Ruby said, perking up a little.
“So besides your ghost story, did you enjoy hanging out with Wayne today?” Margot asked.
Olivia made a noncommittal noise in response.
“What does that mean?” Ruby cried.
“She doesn’t have to tell us if she doesn’t want to,” Margot scolded. “But you definitely can if you do,” she told Olivia. “We’re all ears.”
“He, uh, told me he thinks I’m his mate,” Olivia said.
She hadn’t meant to share it, but she couldn’t help it. These were her friends. Talking about it might help.
“That’s great,” Margot said.
“Not really,” Olivia replied.
“You aren’t attracted to him?” Ruby asked, sounding scandalized.
“Of course I’m attracted to him,” Olivia said. “How could anyone not be? But it’s just not practical.”
“Since when is
love supposed to be practical?” Margot teased.
“Look, you should especially understand this, Margot,” Olivia said. “I’ve spent my career getting so close to doing what I want to do. I’ve been the pretty face on camera, when what I really want is to see my own vision on the screen. They let me come on as a producer for the first show, and after the success we’ve seen…”
“Oh wow,” Margot said. “I’ll bet you can do whatever you want after this. Write your own ticket.”
“That’s what I’m hoping,” Olivia nodded. “But if I become part of the show by falling for Wayne then I’ll be further from that than I was in the first place.”
“But what about Wayne?” Ruby asked. “He loves you.”
“He hardly knows me,” Olivia said. “He’ll find another woman.”
But the words felt like broken glass in her heart.
How could she feel so strongly about someone she practically just met?
“Well, he won’t claim you if you don’t want to be claimed,” Margot explained. “They are honorable that way, these men of ours. But I don’t know that he can just find someone else.”
Just then there was a tap on the door.
“Olivia, is Ruby with you?” Parker’s voice asked from the other side.
“My gosh, did they drain the pool?” Ruby teased, hopping up to get the door.
She opened it and fell into Parker’s arms.
Olivia looked away but not before she saw the tender way Parker held her friend against his dripping, sexy body.
“I guess I’d better go find Kent,” Margot said, looking a little guilty.
“Go, go,” Olivia said, waving her off. “I have a ton of work to do. I don’t need you guys clogging up my bed. This room is for working.”
Margot smiled, but she also gave Olivia’s arm a squeeze as she got up - as if she knew Olivia’s bravado was covering up her loneliness.
But Margot wasn’t the one she was trying to convince.
7
Olivia
Olivia stood on a beautiful hillside the next morning, horrified.
“What do you mean I have to use the zip-line?” she asked again.