Phantom (Phoebe Reede: The Untold Story #5)

by Michelle Irwin

  “I can’t say why, darlin’, but he’ll regret that he did.”

  “Can I call Angel’s room? I need to explain it to her as soon as I can.”

  “We’ll go see her in a minute.” He checked his phone. “You’re not alone here. None of us are.”

  “What are we waiting for?”

  “Mitch is gonna get Joe to check the area; make sure Jase ain’t around no more, and then we’ll go see her.”

  I buried my face against his chest. “Why did we come back here? I was safe at home.”

  “You’re safe here. I promise.” He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight.

  Beau’s phone chimed, and he shifted so he could check it.

  “Joe is gonna head out now,” he said after reading the message. “Mitch is talkin’ to the security company now to check on the cars comin’ and goin’. But for now, we just gotta wait a few more moments before we can go to Angel.”

  Seconds later, Beau’s phone rang. He spoke with the person on the other end of the phone for a while, before issuing some rare expletives. When he shoved his phone back in his pocket, he ran his finger through his hair.

  “What is it?” I asked, wondering whether maybe Jase had been found.

  “It’s Cass. She’s missing.”

  BEAU PACED AROUND the hotel room. I clutched Angel’s shoulders, and she held me just as tight. Neither of us was willing to let go as the chaos surrounded us. When Beau had told me that Cassidee was missing, I didn’t want to wait any longer. I had to know Angel was safe. After I’d told her what had happened, she was understandably upset and had clung to me from that moment on. Despite my worry over the threats Jase had made, I was relieved to be in her room.

  Every staff member in the resort was on alert. Cassidee’s room had become a base of operations for us all after Joe had asked that someone be there to watch Hope if she woke. How we were supposed to explain where her mother had gone, I had no idea.

  The brothers were trying to keep it quiet and stop the panic spreading to guests while keeping everyone safe. Despite that, there were two shotguns and a handgun in the room with us. Their presence made me feel equally safer and more terrified. I’d never been around guns, and they didn’t make me comfortable.

  “She was last seen an hour ago,” Beau spoke down the line as he brought the police into it. He continued explaining all that had happened to the officer.

  It was going to be a long night.

  Mitch came into the room and waited for Beau to finish on the phone. “There ain’t been any cars in or out since check-out this mornin’.”

  “So he came on foot?” I asked.

  “Impossible,” Beau said. “The walk to get here from any other direction would be too long for Jase, and if he’d come in from the road, it’d be on the cameras.”

  “So he’s still here?” Angel asked, glancing between the guys.

  Joe wrung his hands together. “Possibly.”

  “Where?”

  “We’re full up, and he ain’t checked into any of the rooms. I checked the logs again, and he’s not registered.”

  “Could he be in someone else’s room?” I asked.

  “We can’t knock on every door,” Mitch said.

  “Even if we could by the time we got through ’em all, anything coulda happened to Cass.” Joe ran his hands through his hair as he pushed himself up and paced again.

  “If he really is like Bee . . .” I trailed off as my breath grew short. I couldn’t finish the sentence.

  “We need to find her soon,” Angel finished for me.

  “Are ya sure there ain’t been any guests actin’ odd?” Beau asked.

  His words itched at a thought in the back of my mind. Someone had mentioned something about someone hiding during the bonfire. “Wait,” I said, “didn’t you say something about the honeymoon suite?”

  Every eye turned to me. I was already so close to breaking that it pushed me right to my limit and I recoiled from them all.

  “No, no, she’s right,” Angel said, drawing the focus off me. “At the bonfire, you said you hadn’t seen anyone from the honeymoon suite since they checked in. Could . . . could he be there?”

  “It was a girl who checked in.”

  The whole nightmare was sending me back to that place, back to the darkness and the horrors. My stomach twisted as I let go of Angel and wrapped myself tighter. “It could have b-been one of the—” I had to take a breath, and I pressed my hand against my stomach to try to contain the queasiness.

  “It’s okay, Dawson,” Beau said, sitting beside me and offering me his hand.

  “There were some girls . . . some w-women who-who used to . . .” I wanted to vomit.

  I hadn’t spoken with anyone about the women—the words Bee had told me about them and what I’d witnessed for myself. Not even Dr Bradshaw. It was easier to forget women like that existed. The ones with a choice who still chose . . .

  “They used to do what Bee wanted. They liked the idea of . . . of what he did to me happening to them. They used to go willingly and p-pretend they didn’t want to be there.” I closed my eyes as the sound of Bee’s whips and canes striking flesh filled my head. They hadn’t cared that there was someone else in the room. Hadn’t even asked who was under the sheet he covered me with to ensure they didn’t see my face. Hadn’t cared if I heard every word they said, every sound they issued as he beat them or screwed them while they were hanging from the hook he’d hang me on for my “punishments.”

  “What are ya sayin’?” Mitch asked.

  “Maybe Jase has the same thing too.” There was little more I was going to be able to say, my words were already almost silent and my voice shook so much it was probably indecipherable. “Maybe even the same women, if he and Bee really were partners.”

  Beau rubbed his thumb over my hand.

  “Maybe he had someone like that check in for him.” I buried my head in my arms.

  Mitch and Joe stared at each other for a moment, seeming to communicate silently.

  “We can’t jus’ go knockin’ on the door in the middle of the night,” Mitch said when their gazes parted.

  “If Cass is in danger, I ain’t gonna wait until the mornin’ to find her,” Joe argued back.

  “I’ll go,” I said, even though I had no idea how the hell I would be able to make my feet take me down to the honeymoon suite at night. “It’s my fault she’s missing.”

  “How d’ya figure that?” Beau asked.

  “Jase is only here because of me, and he must have realised I told you that I’d seen him. Otherwise, why would he have taken Cassidee?”

  “We still don’t know that he actually took her,” Angel said.

  “D’ya think she just went for a midnight stroll and didn’t come back?” Joe practically snapped at her. It was something of a rarity. I’d never seen him snap in my previous visits.

  I could understand Angel’s logic though, and I would have had the same optimism if it wasn’t for one thing. Hope. The little girl fast asleep and unaware that we were all downstairs stressing about her mother’s whereabouts.

  “Joe, can ya check the cameras for the common areas?” Beau asked. “Check whether there’s any sightin’ of Jase or Cass on any of ’em.”

  For the next half hour, we sat around and waited for him to return. The police weren’t going to send a car until the morning—it was impossible for them to do much searching until then anyway.

  My family were due to arrive in the morning too. While Jase was unaccounted for, he was a threat to them all.

  When the door swung open, we all turned, expecting to see Joe. Only Cassidee stood there instead.

  All around me there was a chorus of thankful exclamations.

  “What’re y’all doin’ here?” she asked.

  “You’re okay!” Mitch headed for her and dragged her into his arms.

  Joe rushed in straight behind, obviously having seen her approach, and practically tore her out of Mitch’s arms.
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  “Why wouldn’t I be okay?” Cassidee asked, glancing around the room.

  “Where were ya?” Beau asked.

  “I got a message from Cash, lettin’ me know he needed to talk. I called him up, and he was drunk and not listenin’ to me, so I headed outside so I didn’t wake Hope and Joe. Then I was so angry I needed to walk it off. On the way back, I ran into someone.”

  “Who?” The three men all asked the question at the same time.

  “Just one of the guests. She’s staying in the honeymoon suite and wanted to find out some information about places to go ’round here. What’s going on?”

  While the conversation continued, with Cassidee explaining a little about her conversation, I was rendered mute by the combination of relief and fear. Maybe Cassidee was safe, but if Jase didn’t know I’d told Beau and the others before, he probably would now. There was too much activity for him to have not seen something.

  “So ya ain’t seen Jase at all?”

  “Jase? There’s a name I ain’t heard in a while,” Cassidee said.

  “He threatened Phoebe tonight,” Angel added. I wasn’t sure if this were the first time they’d actually spoken to each other properly. They’d both been at the bonfire, but they didn’t really speak.

  I wrapped my arms around myself as thoughts of Jase still being out there somewhere struck me.

  “Why would he do that?”

  “I never told ya the reason he left Richards Racin’,” Beau admitted.

  “You didn’t?” I spun to him. I had thought he shared everything with her considering the relationship they’d had at the time, and how much he had relied on her while we were apart. Then again, didn’t I know better than most how he was when it came to protecting his friends?

  “She didn’t need to know your secrets,” he said.

  “Why did he leave Richards Racin’?” Cassidee asked.

  “Because he attacked me,” I said. “But tonight he . . . he said he and Bee were friends and . . . played together.” I fought the rising bile.

  “He told Phoebe not to tell anyone about their chat, or he’d hurt her blonde friend. When you were gone when Joe checked in on ya, we thought . . .”

  “He always seemed nice enough, if a li’l abrupt.”

  “Well, he ain’t nice.” Beau held me tighter as I flinched away from her words. “He threatened Phoebe, but we don’t know where he is.”

  “After Phoebe’s story, it worried me when I couldn’t find ya,” Joe said, kissing Cassidee’s forehead.

  “I’m fine. What’s gonna happen ’round here?”

  “Can we go back to the house?” I asked Beau. I wasn’t sure my heart would survive much more stress, and I just wanted to sleep now that Cassidee was safe. Maybe Jase was still out there, but there wasn’t much we could do about that until the morning. It would only be a danger to everyone if we went hunting for him in the dark. Besides, like Mitch had said, we could hardly go around knocking on the doors of paying customers in the middle of the night. Because the rest of our wedding guests were due to arrive the following day, most of the rooms would empty in the morning. We could keep an eye out for Jase in that crowd and would have to hope he’d be unable to cause trouble for us after that.

  Beau rubbed my shoulders and nodded. “Yeah. We can do that, darlin’. I think ya need some sleep.”

  I reached my hand out to Angel. “Come on.”

  “What?”

  “You’re coming with us.” I tried to make sure my tone didn’t allow any argument. “I’m not leaving you in your room down here while that crazy man could be around.”

  “She’ll be safe,” Mitch said.

  “I don’t care. I won’t be happy unless I know she’s safe and in my room.”

  “I—”

  Angel held up her hand to stop Mitch’s argument. “It’s okay. I want to go with them. I want to make sure Pheebs is safe tonight too.”

  Without any further argument, we left Joe and Cassidee in her room. Mitch left along with us and walked back to the house with us. He held the gun at his side, as though he was ready to shoot at the slightest sound.

  The idea of being around someone who was armed in the darkness wasn’t one that made me comfortable. Despite that, after everything I’d been through, I was ready to go to bed. In fact, I was almost at the point of calling everything off and trying again at home.

  “Let’s get to bed,” Beau said, resting his hand on the base of my spine.

  “I’ve never wanted that more.”

  We said goodbye to Mitch, and he left us on the doorstep. It was so late, and after everything, my limbs felt like they weighed too much to move them any more than necessary.

  “Guess this isn’t the way you pictured the lead up to your wedding,” Angel said, linking her arm in mine as we moved through the door.

  “That’s an understatement.”

  “So am I taking the spare room?”

  “I’m not letting go of you until that arsehole is gone,” I said.

  “Am I takin’ the spare room then, darlin’?” Beau didn’t seem fazed by the suggestion.

  “It’s a king-size bed. I’m sure the three of us will fit. We’re all friends aren’t we?”

  Both Angel and Beau gave each other odd looks.

  I rolled my eyes. “Okay, I know it’s not exactly conventional, but for a couple of nights until this whole issue is sorted, is it really a big deal?”

  Neither one answered straight away.

  “For my sanity?”

  They both agreed and followed me through to the bedroom.

  I stopped at the door. “No. No. No. No.”

  Resting on the bed, in the dead centre of the blankets, was a dead rose and chocolate box.

  “Why can’t he leave me alone?”

  “How’d he even get in?” Angel asked.

  Beau did a quick circuit of the house while Angel and I waited.

  “The back window was open.” He stared at his feet. “I prob’ly left it open; I ain’t used to havin’ to lock up ’round here. Everythin’s locked up, now. I’ll remember to do better.”

  “The police are coming, aren’t they?”

  “First thing in the mornin’.”

  “We’ll make sure they lock the fucker up,” Angel said, drawing me against her while Beau got rid of the stuff on the bed. “C’mon, you really need to get some sleep.”

  I took off my shoes, socks, and jeans before slipping my bra off without removing my shirt. The T-shirt I had on was long enough that I could use it as a night dress.

  Angel led me to the bed, and I curled up in a mirror image of her position—our knees touching and our noses a breath apart. Beau came back into the room shortly after and stood at the side of the bed, watching us intently. I rolled away from Angel and reached out to invite him into the bed. After another moment of staring, he crawled across the bed and curled up behind me.

  With one hand, I held Angel’s, bringing our interlocked fingers to rest between our faces. The other rested on top of Beau’s hold on my hip. Despite the day, and the confrontation with Jase, I couldn’t let the darkness claim me when light and love surrounded me so completely.

  It wasn’t long before Angel started to drift off to sleep. I wasn’t far behind her, except Beau kissed the back of my neck and whispered in my ear to see if I was still awake.

  “Barely. What’s up?”

  “I was . . . Well, I was wonderin’ whether . . . What happened . . . Yanno when . . .” He stammered and stuttered over his question. It wasn’t too difficult to work out what he was asking though. Something we might have spoken about already if Jase hadn’t attacked me on the way home from Angel’s room.

  “Nothing happened,” I said as I rolled my shoulders onto the bed. My fingers still linked with Angel’s, and my legs still pointed in her direction, but I was half-facing Beau. “We kissed, but nothing more. I love Angel, I really do, but I don’t want more with her. I want it all with you.”

  He lea
nt over me and kissed me sweetly. “You have that. Always.”

  “Are you relieved, or disappointed?” I asked as his hand rubbed over my hip.

  He settled back in to nuzzle against my neck. “Heh, a li’l o’ both I think. A li’l o’ both.”

  I chuckled. “Me too, I think.”

  I turned to face Angel, shifting the hand I had wrapped around hers just enough that I could stroke her cheek. Her eyes half-opened and she gave me a sleepy smile.

  “Sleep now, you’re safe,” she murmured.

  “You are too, and you’re here.” With the truth in those words, I was certain I would sleep better than I had in a long time.

  THE FOLLOWING MORNING, I woke to find Angel’s head resting on my shoulder, one of her hands on my thigh, and Beau’s arm wrapped around my waist. Every part of my body was alight with sensation from both of their touches.

  Beau’s phone chimed again—the sound that had woken me. As it did, Angel groaned and moved off my body, and Beau pulled me tighter before sighing and letting go to grab his phone. I lifted my head to watch his movement.

  “The police are here,” he said after he checked his message. “Mitch is gonna send ’em up to the house to talk to ya.”

  I dropped my head back onto the pillow. “Great.”

  “They’re gonna talk to ya and get your statement.”

  “But we still don’t know where Jase actually is,” Angel said.

  “He must be around here though,” I said.

  “Maybe,” Beau said. “If he is, we’ll see him durin’ check out. Mitch and Joe know him well enough.”

  “What if we don’t find him? He said he knows where I live.” My leg bounced in time with my words. “He said he would make my life hell. I don’t know if he really knows or not, but I don’t want to give him a chance.”

  “We’ll keep you safe, girlie,” Angel said. When she continued, she sounded almost resigned. “I guess we better get up and get dressed.”

  Less than ten minutes later, I had two officers sitting across from me at Beau’s dining table. I hadn’t considered how similar things would be to the days after Dad and Beau had found me. Over and over, the police questioned what I’d done, where I’d seen Jase, what he’d said to me. Were there any witnesses who can verify the incident? They probed for inconsistencies and information. Took photos of the abrasion on my cheek and the fingerprint bruises that had blossomed around my neck overnight.