No more space. After this, he wasn’t letting Avery out of his sight.
* * *
Avery stopped near the beach bar and glanced toward the pool where two couples were engaged in a chicken fight in the middle of the water, one half-naked woman on each man’s shoulders, all four laughing and flirting in the midday sun.
She didn’t want to be around anyone who was in a good mood. Didn’t want to be around anyone, period.
Feeling sick over Cade’s reaction to her revelation and even worse over the fact she hated he’d married someone else when she had no right to be jealous, she shuffled toward the dance club she’d been in last night.
Maybe alcohol would help. If not that, then perhaps a few minutes of silence where she could clear her head.
She pushed the door open with both hands and stepped into the dark room. The place was empty, chairs upside down on tables, no music, no lights flashing as they’d been hours ago. The only illumination was a series of lamps over the bar.
God, this club was more depressing than she’d thought. In the light of day, all the seedy, dirty things that had gone on here last night looked exactly like what they were: unhappy, unfulfilled people hoping someone else would fill the void.
Was that what she was? Unhappy? Unfulfilled? Yes. She’d felt that way for a long time. Had she agreed to come to this place with Cade because she’d been secretly hoping he’d fill that void for her? She didn’t want to admit to as much, but the ache in the pit of her stomach told her that was exactly what she’d been hoping for. Even if she now knew that was childish and unrealistic.
Glass clinking echoed from the open door into the kitchen behind the bar, and she remembered why she’d come here in the first place. Heading that way, she climbed onto one of the stools and waited until Ramon came around the corner.
His dark eyes lit when he saw her, and a wide smile crossed his face, showing off straight, white teeth. “You’re back. Heat too much out dere already?”
“Not exactly.” A familiar face eased the tension inside a touch. “I’ve just had it with people right now.”
Ramon chuckled. “Aye, I know what you’re saying. How about a rum runner? I make da best on da island.”
Any kind of runner sounded great to her right now. “Sure.”
He shot her a speculative look as he mixed her drink. “You feeling okay today? You looked a little tipsy when ya walked outta here last night.”
Tipsy wasn’t even the half of it. Her cheeks heated at the memory of that back room, what she’d seen and nearly done if Cade hadn’t had the sense to get her out of there. She lifted the drink Ramon set on the black napkin and took a long sip. Fruity flavors mixed with the punch of good strong rum slid down her throat to warm her belly. “Mm. That’s delicious.”
“House specialty.”
“How do you handle it? Working in a place like this? Doesn’t it get to you?”
He chuckled and dried a glass with the towel in his hand. “It’s not dat bad. Most of da people here are harmless. Just looking for a good time.”
“They’re fake.”
He put the glass away behind the bar and laughed. “What’s da matter? You have a fight with your man?”
Avery sighed, took another long drink, then rubbed her aching forehead. The alcohol was helping, but only slightly. “It wasn’t really a fight. And he’s not my man. At least not anymore. I guess we’re as fake as everyone else here.”
“Aye.” Ramon dried another glass. “Temptation has da power to rip apart some relationships. This place is not for everyone.”
Her phone buzzed, and she pulled it out of the pocket of her dress. If it was Cade, she didn’t want to talk to him.
She glanced down and felt a burst of relief at the name on the screen: Lauren Kauffman.
She held up her finger to Ramon. “Sorry. I need to take this.”
He nodded and disappeared into the kitchen. Alone, Avery lifted the phone to her ear and said, “You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice.”
“Things not going so well?” Lauren asked.
Avery and Lauren had become friends when Avery had bought the house next door to Lauren’s on Biscayne Bay. Avery didn’t get to spend as much time in Florida as she liked, but when she was there, she loved hanging out with her friend. “You could say that. Cade is here.”
“I take it that means the two of you aren’t getting along.”
The lack of surprise in Lauren’s voice put Avery on instant alert. “Wait. You knew Cade Blackwell worked for Aegis Security?”
“Of course I knew. Why do you think I sent you there? Avery, everyone who knows the real you knows the reason you’re not happy is because you’ve never dealt with your feelings for him. So, yeah. I sent you to Aegis so you’d be forced to deal with them. What happened?”
It was hard to be mad at a friend who had your best interests at heart. Though right now, Avery wasn’t wild about Lauren’s sneaky methods. She dropped her head in her hand again and rubbed her throbbing temple. “I hate you right now, you know.”
“I know. Tell me what happened.”
Spotting her drink, Avery lifted it to her lips and sipped again. She was drinking way too fast, but part of her didn’t care. A good buzz might help. At the very least it would take a bite out of everything that had just happened. She drained the rum runner then set the empty glass on the bar. “What happened is…everything. He’s amazing and frustrating as hell, and I totally messed everything up by giving in to temptation in this stupid place.”
“Dude,” Lauren said in shock. “You didn’t hook up with someone else, did you?”
Avery cringed. “No, of course not. What do you think I am, a slut?”
“Well…”
“Shut up. You’re the one who parades around in her underwear all day.”
“I get paid to do that. You’re the one who makes out with strange men on camera all day.”
Avery frowned. “And I get paid to do that too. We’re such ho-bags. No wonder I like you so much.”
Lauren chuckled. “So back to Cade. You told him everything?”
Avery sighed. “Yes. After the best sex of my life. Then I ran.” Her chest hurt again, so much it was hard to draw a breath. “Lauren, I thought we could come here and be all platonic and try to figure out what happened to Melody. But it hasn’t worked out that way, and now I feel guilty because I not only just totally fucked with his head, but I still don’t know what happened to my assistant. And I should be thinking about finding her and not Cade and the super-hot sex we had and what the hell happened between us last night and this morning and”—she drew a deep breath—“and dammit, I’m supposed to read for that stupid audition next week, and now I don’t even want the part. I’m not America’s sweetheart, I’m a total fake, and I’m on the verge of losing it. What the hell am I supposed to do next?”
A strongly accented “Fuck” echoed from the kitchen, in a voice Avery didn’t recognize. She jerked toward the sound, and the room seemed to spin, but she figured it had to be lack of oxygen from her tirade. Before she could ask who was there, a tall Jamaican man with skin the color of ebony stepped out of the kitchen and pinned her with a scalding look.
Ramon rushed out of the kitchen and moved in front of the other man. “Hold on.”
He glared at Ramon. “A security company? We’re fucked.”
“She’s not a problem.”
Avery’s stomach tightened. Her gaze jumped from one face to the next, and a sickening feeling shot to her stomach. This one not from what had happened between her and Cade, but from her own stupidity.
“Avery?” Lauren asked. “Are you still there?”
“Lauren, I—”
The tall guy jerked around Ramon and snatched the phone from Avery’s hand. He slammed it on the bar, then turned back to Ramon. “Not a problem? She’s told people about that missing girl. They’re here looking for her. We can’t let her go now, mon.”
Oh shit… Avery’s
adrenaline skyrocketed through the roof. Slowly, she eased off the stool and eyed the door to her left.
“We’re not taking her,” Ramon said, his voice more pleading than forceful. “You take her, and people will notice.”
“People will notice if she goes blabbing about what’s going on here.”
Avery quietly took a step to her left. The room spun again, and she had to brace her hand on the wall to keep from going down.
She’d had too much to drink. She glanced at her tumbler, nearly empty. But she’d only had one drink. She shouldn’t feel this tipsy after one drink. Colors fired off behind her eyes, and her head felt light. She took another step toward the door while the two men argued, their voices growing more and more muffled.
What was wrong with her? Why was she reacting this way to one measly drink? Unless…
“Rahtid. Get her,” an angry voice called out. Then a chuckle met her ears just as warm arms wrapped around her from behind. “You drugged her already? Good thinking.”
“I…I was just going to have some fun with her. I wasn’t going to do anything. Look, mon, you can’t take her. It’s too risky. The boss won’t agree.”
The room tilted, and Avery reached for the door, but her hand met only air.
Cade. She had to get to Cade. She had to let him know…
Her eyes grew dark. Sound seemed to fade away.
“It’s my call,” the second man’s voice said sternly. Then softer, until it was just a whisper, “I’ll deal with the boss later. Come on. We don’t have a lot of time.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Cade searched the entire property for Avery—twice—and couldn’t find her.
Swiping a hand over his brow, he swore under his breath, perched his hands on his hips, and turned a slow circle in the center of the resort, looking over every face.
“Where the hell did you go, princess?”
From the corner of his vision he spotted the bellboy who’d checked them in. He crossed the pool patio and caught him by the sleeve of his white shirt. “Hey. Sorry to bug you, Mario. You haven’t seen my wife have you?”
Mario’s brow wrinkled. “The one who looks like the actress, right?”
Cade frowned. Yeah, they’d done a bang-up job disguising her. “I guess. Have you seen her this morning? We were on the beach, and she said she was going to the gift shop to get a few things. I was supposed to meet her near the pool but can’t find her.”
He sounded like a frantic husband. And dammit, he was frantic, but not for the reason Mario would assume.
The boy bit his lip. “I think I saw her going into the nightclub. She was alone but—”
The nightclub? Shit. Why the hell would she go there?
Cade slapped him on the shoulder and took off at a jog before the boy could say anything else. “Thanks.”
His heart pounded as he pulled the nightclub’s door open. Silence met his ears. The place was dark and empty. “Ava?”
No answer. He turned the corner and looked over the bar. A glass with melting ice sat on the shiny surface. Rounding the counter, he looked through the open door into the empty kitchen.
A tingle started at the back of his neck and slowly slid down his spine. The same one he always got when there was trouble.
The necklace. He needed to call Aegis and have them track it. He didn’t want to think something bad had happened to Avery, but his instincts screamed that her disappearing right now was more than her just needing a moment to think.
He pulled out his phone and dialed. Marley answered on the first ring. “I’m glad you called, Blackwell. Please tell me you and Avery Scott are out for a Sunday drive.”
“Son of a bitch. Her tracking device is already off property, isn’t it?”
Marley sighed. “I hate it when I’m right. I’ve got her heading east toward Savannah-La-Mar. She’s got to be in a car.”
Cade sprinted out of the nightclub, along the path, and up the curved marble steps toward the open-air lobby, not caring who he bumped into along the way. “How far out is she?”
“They just passed Little London. Savannah-La-Mar’s got a small shipping port. Jake talked to the DEA and it sounds like that’s where Luis was running drugs in and out of Jamaica.”
Shit. Shit… He crossed the lobby and waved at a valet about to climb into an open Jeep two guests had just exited. “I’m taking that.”
“Sir, you can’t—”
He pushed the man out of the way, shoved the Jeep into gear, and pulled out of the circular drive. Voices echoed and yelled behind him, but he ignored them. Into the phone, he said, “Where is Luis?”
“Still on property, according to the feds. I’ve got Miller on the other line with them now.”
His mind ran back to the empty glass he’d seen at the nightclub bar, to Avery’s blackout last night, and the conversation he’d heard between the two men outside the employee residences the night before. A sinking feeling settled in his gut.
“Get on the horn and get the local authorities to send a chopper to follow Avery’s GPS signal. I need to know if they try to put her on a boat. There’s something else going on at that resort, Marley. Whoever took Avery had nothing to do with the Luis sting.”
“Are you thinking human trafficking?”
The Jeep bounced over a rut in the road. “You’re not even here and you already jumped to that conclusion?”
“After the intel I looked at this morning, it’s not hard to make the leap. I was about to call you with it when I noticed Avery’s device was on the move. Six other women besides Melody Carmichael have gone missing in the last year from that part of the island. Two were staying at Indulgence. Both reportedly had arguments with their significant others and left the resort. The authorities ruled all seven disappearances runaways, no foul play involved.”
“Shit.”
“Cade, if that’s what this is and Avery got caught up in it—”
Cade’s stomach and heart both squeezed as if caught in a vise. “I know.”
“Just hurry before it’s too late.”
* * *
Voices brought Avery around. They were muffled. Scared. A shiver ran down her back.
“Shh, don’t try to move too much.” Something cold touched her forehead. “Just let it wear off.”
She knew that voice. It was soft, feminine…familiar.
She fought to pry her eyes open. A fuzzy face hovered above. She strained to see through watery vision. “Where…?”
“It’s okay. You’re okay.” The voice hitched. “Oh, Avery. I’m so sorry. I had no idea you’d get dragged into this.”
Melody. That was Melody’s voice. Avery struggled against her friend’s hands and sat up. The room spun, and she pushed her palm against her forehead as she fought against the sickness churning in her belly. “Where…where are we?”
“I don’t know,” Melody whispered, easing back to sit on her heels. “We’re already at sea. I don’t know where they’re taking us.”
Avery finally focused on her friend’s face. Melody’s dark hair was stringy and matted, her face dirty and void of makeup. She’d lost weight in the weeks since Avery had seen her—her cheeks hollow and sunken, her eyes round and huge in her face. The tank and shorts she wore hung off her thin frame.
Avery lurched toward her friend and pulled her in for a tight hug. “Oh my God, Melody.”
Melody’s fingers gripped Avery’s shoulder blades and dug in. “I didn’t think anyone would find me. I didn’t even think that postcard made it out.” A sob rose up from her chest. “I’m so sorry. I—”
“Shh…” This time it was Avery’s turn to comfort. Whatever Melody had been through in the last three weeks had been bad. The usually confident woman was a shaking mess in Avery’s arms. She smoothed a hand down Melody’s hair. “It’s okay. I’m just so glad you’re okay.” She pushed back and swiped the tears from Melody’s cheeks. “I need you to focus. Tell me how many men there are and how long ago we left Jamaica.”
/> Melody shuddered. “F…four. Two at the resort who brought me here, two who guard all of us, and a…a woman.”
All of us… Avery glanced past Melody and realized they weren’t alone. Four other women were huddled on the floor in the corner of the dingy metal room. All were as dirty as Melody, and all just as thin.
“You were all at Indulgence?” Avery asked.
The women stared at her, and for a moment, Avery wondered if they could understand English, then the one on the right—the one who could be a blonde if her hair wasn’t so filthy—said, “No. Paula and I were at a singles resort in Negril. We met these two guys. We thought we were just getting a drink in town. We were taken…” She looked to the woman at her side with an empty gaze. “How long has it been?”
Paula’s empty stare didn’t meet Avery’s eyes. “Five weeks, three days, and twenty-one hours.”
The haunted sound of both their voices told Avery they’d been through something horrendous. Something she didn’t even want to imagine. Swallowing hard, she glanced back at her friend, who looked just as hollow and broken as they did. Her heart twisted beneath her ribs. “Melody, what happened to Dominic? No one’s been able to find him.”
Melody’s eyes slid closed, and she crumbled in on herself. “I…I don’t know. He tried to come after me. There was a fight, then they pulled me away. I haven’t seen him since. I…”
She covered her face with her hands, unable to go on, and Avery’s heart broke for her friend.
She gripped Melody’s shoulders. “Listen to me. People know I’m here. They’ll know I went missing. I went to Indulgence with a security expert to find you, Melody. I went with Cade. You remember what I told you about Cade, right? He’ll come after me. He’ll find us.”
Slowly, Melody’s empty gaze lifted to hers. “No one’s coming after us. We’re on a boat. Don’t you get it? No one will be able to find us now that we’re out at sea.”
She pulled out of Avery’s grip and went to sit back against the wall, wrapping her arms around her updrawn knees, a shell of her former self. Whatever emotions she’d shown when Avery woke were long gone, hidden behind a wall she’d obviously erected to keep herself sane these last few weeks.
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