Reaper's Reward

by Marie Harte

  Ethan left him to open the door, and Rick entered with his men, looking extremely pissed. As the guy stood over Denton, Ethan felt a chill wash over him at the look in Rick’s eyes.

  “Josh, Josh. This isn’t going to be pleasant.”

  Denton’s eyes widened, and Ethan smiled, pleased to leave him in capable hands. The guards around Rick grinned with menace, and Ethan knew Rick had apprised them of the situation.

  “I have some business to take care of in my room. Call me there when you’re done, Rick. And I’ll be taking the laptop with me.”

  Rick nodded, his fury focused on Denton.

  Ethan gathered the laptop and pointed out at least one hidden camera he’d noticed in a wall vent ‑‑ a common enough place ‑‑ to the guards. As he left, he heard Denton spilling his guts in a rush.

  Pussy. Ethan shook his head. One mystery had been solved. Now he only had to ferret out one other unpleasant mess from the island…but after he’d seen himself that Jewel was indeed okay. He left the third floor by the stairs and had just entered the first floor hallway when he felt a presence behind him. Curious, as no one had followed him down the stairs, and he hadn’t heard any doors open in the hallway, Ethan turned to see who was there…and took a tremendous blow to the head.

  He stumbled and tried to defend himself when a second blow struck him senseless. His last thoughts were of Jewel as he blacked out.

  Jewel frowned at the clock for the fifth time. Granted, taking care of Denton and the blackmailing pictures was important, but if Ethan thought she’d agree to sit on her thumbs and wait all day for him to return, he had another thing coming. Hell, she’d already wasted the afternoon on his domineering ass.

  She was due to serve the after-lunch set at two and had just enough time to return to her room and change before she was late. Come on, Ethan.

  Huffing, Jewel took another turn around his room, looking for anything she hadn’t yet studied. While waiting for Ethan, she’d given in to her curiosity and had found more to like about the dratted man.

  A photo, tucked away in his little black book, of him and a friend, both with shorn hair and wearing Marine Corps green, showed he could indeed form a healthy relationship with the same sex. Rick not withstanding, Ethan tended to boss everyone else around, and she knew it had more to do with his personality than his job.

  The black book held a ton of phone numbers, several of them women’s numbers, Jewel noted, and all but three had been crossed through with an emphatic “don’t call again” printed in clear black ink by their names. Ethan didn’t seem to have a steady girlfriend at home, and she liked that he wouldn’t have such hot sex with her when committed elsewhere.

  His writing was precise and easy to read, contrary to the man himself. She wished she understood what went through his convoluted mind when he gave her those breath-stealing looks, the ones that made her want to scream out “I love you” like a fool.

  He kept his room neat, actually put his dirty clothes in the hamper and tucked his shoes away in the closet instead of leaving them lying around. Her brother did that, and it drove her nuts. Ethan had family as well, two brothers that she’d read about in a letter from his mother, also tucked into that black book.

  She thought it cute that he’d kept a letter from his mom, dated several months ago, and was pleased to see Ethan shared her familial values. According to his mother, the woman was still dying to see grandchildren, and as the eldest child, Ethan was holding up the works.

  Jewel sighed. How familiar that sounded. And speaking of familiar…

  Spying Ethan’s cell phone, she picked it up and dialed her uncle, who was probably worried silly, considering she hadn’t contacted him since she’d been sequestered with Ethan for her “training.” But, hell, who could think when a sexy dominant had you tied up, aching from a bazillion orgasms?

  “Uncle Tommy?”

  “Jewel, where the hell have you been?”

  Funny, but he didn’t sound all that concerned, and she had a sneaking suspicion he knew a lot more than he’d been telling her.

  “I’ve been tied up and was nearly killed,” she lied.

  “What? Rick never said anything about ‑‑”

  “Would that be Rick Hastings, the man to whom you apparently told I was into group sex and liked to watch?”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, someone put down on my application that in addition to my desperation from losing my fiancé, I like to have sex with a lot of men and in public.”

  “Hell.” He paused. “I knew Nick had seen something when he was in here last week. He accepted your going way too easily. It had to be him.”

  “Oh.” Nick was so going to pay when she went home. “Well, sorry for thinking it was you.”

  “I merely told Rick to keep an eye on you, and that you were there checking on a potential blackmailer for me. Now if you happened upon some fun in the sun, who am I to forbid you? And, no, I don’t want to know anything about it. Frankly, the idea of you being old enough to have sex is turning me gray, and like I said before, your mother would kill me if she knew I’d sent you there.”

  Jewel took the phone away from her ear to stare at it. So her uncle and her brother had set her up. She didn’t know what to think, then decided the hell with it. She’d met Ethan, so she couldn’t be too upset with her family.

  “Jewel?” Her uncle yelled through the phone.

  She quickly put it back to her ear. “Sorry I haven’t called recently. I’ve been very busy,” she drawled.

  Silence.

  Grinning, she added, “I found and deleted Sophie’s files from our blackmailer’s laptop, and am in the process of scanning the rest of Denton’s computer to erase any trace of Sophie Ayers’s name.” As soon as Ethan gets his sorry ass in here. “Tell her not to bother showing up next week, unless she wants a tan. Oh, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Rick, your buddy, gives her a call. He had no idea anyone was blackmailing clients from his resort, and according to Ethan, Rick takes that kind of thing very seriously.”

  “Ethan?”

  “My personal bodyguard.” If only he were in here guarding her body right now. She could really do with some personal attention.

  “Oh, um, right. Okay, then. Let me know when you have the rest of the files, and I’ll book you on a flight ‑‑”

  Jewel didn’t hear the rest of what he said. Sudden panic overtook her at thoughts of leaving when her “relationship” with Ethan had no semblance of order. Though they’d screwed every which way from Sunday, she was still in the process of learning more about him. And the damned autocrat lived in Seattle, on the opposite coast. How the hell would they develop anything further, separated by thousands of miles?

  “Jewel, did you hear me?”

  “Don’t book me a flight. I’ll make the travel arrangements myself. I’m not sure how long Rick might need me here to serve his clients.”

  “Please tell me you’re not saying what I think you’re saying.” Her uncle sounded sick.

  “Come on, Uncle Tommy. Rick’s losing Denton, and he’ll have to replace me as well. Despite what Nick wrote, I’m a hell of a waitress, and I work the lunch and dinner shifts while most of the others are out, ah, entertaining the guests here.”

  “Oh.” Uncle Tommy cleared his throat. “Just check back and let me know what’s going on. And don’t wait four days this time, or I’ll have Rick take it out of your pay.”

  “Ha, ha. Very funny.” A pounding on the door distracted her. “Okay, Uncle Tommy. Gotta go. Love you.”

  Jewel disconnected and quickly put the cell phone and Ethan’s black book ‑‑ minus that picture ‑‑ back where she’d found them.

  Ripping open the door, she frowned. “It’s about damned time…Jaz?”

  “Jewel, hurry. Ethan’s been hurt, and he’s asking for you. He won’t let anyone help him until he sees that you’re okay.”

  She left the room without question, following Jaz quickly down the hall and around the corner
. In no time at all they reached Rick’s suite, and she watched anxiously as he entered the right codes to access Rick’s rooms.

  He held the door for her, and she rushed in, looking for Ethan. But to her surprise and chagrin, she found no one but Gus, another security guard, standing by the empty corner mount where the cup sometimes sat, his face grim.

  Shit. This spelled trouble, and she knew Jaz was one of the suspects on Ethan’s list. “Where’s Ethan?” she asked calmly, forcing innocence into her voice. That Ethan still hadn’t returned to her worried her more than anything, but she resolved to play it cool and let these two think they held the upper hand.

  “Ethan’s tied up, you might say.” Jaz grinned, his smile looking much more sinister than sexy. “Now, Jewel, don’t pretend ignorance. I know all about you, thanks to Ethan and his handiwork. You have quite a reputation at Dreemer’s, Inc. And from what I saw of your work on Josh’s computer, I can only imagine you’re quite the computer tech.”

  “Jaz? Not you?” she held on, trying for dismay and not the anger frothing her thoughts.

  “Sorry, baby, but as sexy as you are, and without a doubt I’ll treasure the image of Reaper shooting into your mouth, you don’t come close to the prize I’ll have once I possess the cup.”

  She purposefully ignored his comment about watching her have sex, knowing she’d freak out later at thoughts of her intimacies with Ethan being viewed by a wacko like Jaz.

  “Did you kill Pete?”

  Jaz shrugged, and she noted Gus’s scowl with interest.

  “It had to be done. But I was quick and as gentle as could be. Peter, unlike some others, respected me. Peter loved me.”

  “You told me it was an accident, that you fell into him during a struggle and the knife slipped.”

  Jewel stared from Gus to Jaz.

  “I lied.” Jaz smiled, the expression doing nothing to warm his cold, flat gaze. “Gus, it’s us against the others. We have to remain strong, together.” Jaz grabbed her arm and walked over to his friend, dragging Jewel behind him.

  “Gus, why are you doing this?” She had to know. Money or power? She’d bet on the former.

  “To get back at Rick,” Jaz explained, his gaze fixed on Gus. “Everything was fine until Rick started doing Elise. Poor little Gus has been in love with her since the moment he set eyes on her. But she never had anything to do with the people working here, not even Rick. Until a few days ago. Then, Gus had a meltdown, and gave me the codes I needed.”

  “But no one was supposed to be hurt.” Gus glared at Jaz, staring hard at his hand gripping Jewel’s arm. “ I’m sorry, Jaz, but I’m out. Take the damned cup. Take whatever you want. But I’m leaving, and Jewel’s coming with me.” He grabbed her other arm, but Jaz took that moment to shove a fist into Gus’s stomach, punching repeatedly. Except his fist held a knife.

  Jewel dazedly wondered if he’d used the same knife on Pete.

  She stared, aware Jaz had released her, but she was too caught up in the shock of what he’d just done to move. She’d never before been so close to death, had never seen a man killed before her eyes. Television and movies didn’t come close to the sad brutality of such violent waste.

  “Don’t worry, Jewel. I would have killed him regardless of your involvement.” Jaz sounded like himself, charming and pleasant, while he held a knife, no, a dagger, dripping with blood over Gus’s unmoving body.

  She felt dizzy for a moment, caught in the grip of a nightmare made real. Jaz handled her gently, and she was more than aware of the weapon in his free hand, just waiting for the moment to plunge again into solid flesh.

  “You get that cup for me, and I’ll let you go. And trust me when I tell you that your massive lover, Ethan, really is okay. I like him, and I like you. We share something in common, all of us. We’re just pawns in Rick’s sordid games.”

  Bitterness pooled in Jaz’s deep brown eyes, and Jewel shook her head, overcome by a sudden, unwelcome empathy.

  “He hurt you, didn’t he?” she murmured.

  Jaz clamped his lips together and pulled her toward the bed. He touched the same buttons Ethan had worked previously to unveil the cup, and they watched in silence as the wall moved, showcasing the glittering cup surrounded by thick glass.

  “I can’t touch the Mirvolo Cup until the security around it is completely dismantled. I know you don’t have the codes, only Rick does, but with what you can do with security systems, I figure you’ll find a way around this particular problem.”

  Jewel gnawed her lower lip, intrigued at possibly beating the system, as well as stalling for help to arrive before Jaz finally lost it and stabbed her, too. Gus groaned, drawing her attention, but Jaz shook his head.

  “Ignore him. I stuck him hard and deep. He’ll bleed out. Unlike Pete, I don’t want Gus’s death to be easy.” Jaz snorted. “Traitor. You know, Jewel, it’s true. Never trust a man.”

  He pointed her to Denton’s laptop that he’d plugged in for her, and to a small black bag on the bed. “Tools you might need to overcome the system. I know what I’m talking about. For the last year I’ve been pilfering from Rick’s closest buddies. But I don’t have quite the finesse you seem to have with computers, and this prize needs a savvy hacker. It’s really too precious for words that you arrived on the island when you did. I thought I was going to have to force Jacobs to help me. Unfortunately, he’s straighter than your boy Ethan.”

  Jaz sighed while she sat down at the desk to begin working on the laptop. Luckily, Denton had tapped into Rick’s security long ago, so she had the software needed to invade the home server.

  “From the beginning I knew why Ethan was here, but he did a decent job and distracted Rick from what was right under his nose.” Jaz sneered. “I’m just another employee. Too much a nobody to allow into Rick’s precious Bacchus Club, even though I was good enough to fuck all night long.”

  “Bacchus Club?”

  “Rick’s manly group of perverts. A bunch of millionaire executives and Hollywood A-listers who collect ancient artifacts rumored to have belonged to Bacchus. You know who he is, don’t you?”

  “He’s a Roman god.”

  “The Roman god of wine and debauchery. Dionysus to the Greeks.”

  It felt so odd to be conversing normally with a man who’d just admitted to killing one man, had stabbed another, and who most likely meant to kill her as well. The scrambled lock holding the cup behind a glass wall only made the situation that much more surreal. A challenging system Jewel was actually enjoying trying to crack, while under the surveillance of a charming madman.

  “So why can’t you join the Bacchus Club?”

  Jaz left her side and began to pace, twirling the dagger in his hands. “I tried talking to Rick about it a year ago, and he politely brushed me aside. After our time together in here, in this very bed, I had assumed, incorrectly, that he loved me. The things we did together…”

  She glanced up to see Jaz’s puzzled face.

  “I have sex all the time, but I’ve never made love like that. A love where you and your partner are suddenly one. You know what I mean?”

  She thought of Ethan and nodded.

  “But to Rick I was just another fuck. And after he let me drink from his precious Mirvolo cup. We drank together, shared some wine. And Rick babbled something about ‘those that Bacchus favors.’ Hell, Jewel, he should have favored me. Everyone loves me.” His voice rose, and she turned away, staring hard at the screen in front of her, trying to appear invisible. “Everyone loves me. Everyone but that fucker Rick Hastings.”

  He sounded on the verge of a sob, and a surprising welling of sympathy filled her. “We all love you, Jaz,” she said softly, tearing her eyes from the computer. “You were my first real friend here.”

  Jaz calmed as he stared at her. He even managed a smile. “You were so naïve and still are. Like a fish out of water here. You should leave Satyr’s Myst, Jewel.”

  Yeah, if I’m still alive to do so, I will.

 
; “Did you get what you needed from Denton?”

  Startled, she stared at him. “I did. But how did you know about him?”

  “I’ve known about his activities for years. I helped him once or twice, but blackmail is such a tasteless crime. No passion, no morals. There’s no excitement in it. Do you know, I stole from Rick’s friends, and each time it drew me, like a drug I couldn’t get enough of.”

  “I know the feeling.”

  “You do, don’t you?” He smiled with warmth. “I almost thought about giving it up after Meyers. John and I had shared a wonderful evening ‑‑ which is how I normally made my way into the Club-goers’ grand estates. I fucked my way there.” Jaz chuckled and rubbed at his crotch. “But John was a light sleeper, and he caught me leaving his vault. Empty-handed, of course, as I’d stashed this dagger elsewhere. But if he’d told… Well, I couldn’t have any suspicion, you know?”

  Jewel nodded, her attention as riveted to him as to the server she was trying to infiltrate. She managed to crack the first and second levels of defense, but the next was proving more difficult.

  “I don’t understand why you stole from the group, though, Jaz. Why not just take what was Rick’s and be done with it?”

  “Because I needed to know.”

  “Know what?” Damn it, this layer was a real bastard. She needed more time and more tools to do it right, without tripping any safeguards.

  “That the cup itself held the real magic.”

  She stopped and turned to face him. “The real magic?”

  “Rick felt it, and others have, too, I know. I’ve heard them talk about it. But I felt nothing more than a small tingle. Just an all-consuming love with Rick that night. A love that can’t possibly be natural after what he put me through.”

  Jewel wondered. She’d felt that same tingle, but in her it had been more powerful, like a haze of desire that wouldn’t quit her blood. But magic? She couldn’t possibly think herself in love with Ethan due to some insane talk about a magic cup…could she?

  “You know, don’t you?” he asked slyly. “Is that what draws you to Rick, too?”