by R. R. Banks
“That must have been really hard for you.”
“It was. I was too young to really understand it and it broke my heart to see what it did to my father. Part of what made it easy for her to understand me was that she had lost her mother, too. My grandfather and her brothers were all she had. They were all each other had. Then her other brother died. It was suddenly just the three of them. Having her pull away from him made my father feel like his world was falling apart.”
“You and Eleanor don’t seem like you had a falling out.”
“We didn’t,” I insisted. “There was never any fighting. Never any animosity. Virgil just kept her from us and when she was away, the way he treated her chipped away at the woman that we knew until she seemed like she was just a shadow of the Auntie I had always known and loved so much. When I got old enough, I started going to her house to check on her. Virgil hated that. He hated any time that she was with anyone but him, but I wouldn’t let him stop me. That’s how I found out what he was involved with.”
I suddenly felt like my legs couldn’t hold me up anymore. I sat down and reached for a cup of coffee that had been sitting and cooling on the breakfast tray. I swallowed it down before continuing, telling Snow about the criminal activity that Eleanor told me Virgil was involved in. She had been so scared, terrified that the people who were part of the shady business were going to turn their sites on her. Of course, they had, but that only came after she had used the documents that she had scanned and the other evidence she had spent years gathering to convince him to finally give her a divorce.
“Why didn’t you go to the police?” Snow asked.
“I should have,” I said. “I should have, but I didn’t. She begged me not to. She said that she just wanted to be away from him, that she didn’t care if anyone ever found out what he was doing. I told her that he deserved to pay for his crimes, not to mention the way that he had treated her, and she said that one day she would make sure that he did, but she didn’t want to do it yet. She didn’t want to leave one horrible situation only to dive right into trials and paparazzi and everything that would come from such a high-profile case.”
“Virgil,” Snow said under her breath as if the word was reminding her of something. “Virgil.” I knew what she was thinking, but I let her get to it herself. Her eyes rose to me when she did. “Virgil McIntire? The crime boss?”
“That makes him sound much cooler than he actually is,” I said, “but, yes. She was married to Virgil McIntire the white-collar criminal of the century. The one good thing that he ever did for her was keep her so cloistered in the house and away from anybody but the legitimate clients that he hosted that her name and picture didn’t make it into the media.”
“I don’t understand,” Snow said. “If your father and Eleanor were so close, why didn’t he do anything to save her? Why did he let Virgil treat her that way?”
“For a long time, I don’t think that he knew. I really don’t. I think that he loved his sister so much and wanted so much to think that she had a wonderful life with this husband who would take care of her and not use her for her money that he just closed himself off to the possibility that anything else might be happening. He listened to what she said and chose to believe it. I was too young to know that I should have said something to him about the worries that I had, and by the time that I was old enough to make a difference, Eleanor was so deeply entangled that we couldn’t just swoop in and save her.”
“Why not?”
I sighed. Now I had another reason for not wanting to talk about this to her.
How exactly was I supposed to talk about this without making her uncomfortable?
“Money makes things hard, Snow.”
She bristled.
Well, that wasn’t it.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Eleanor and Virgil had a lot of financial interests together. They purchased real estate and investments together. They owned businesses. He came into the marriage with some money, but nothing compared to what she is worth. He convinced her that he wasn’t in the relationship for the money, but just as soon as he could he had her buying businesses, houses, and other things up and putting them in both of their names or even just his name. Early in their marriage everything was completely legitimate and they even donated to several charities through a fund that Eleanor had created in the name of the brother she lost. As the years went on, though, the things that Virgil put her money into got tangled up with his criminal activity. If she had just walked away from him without his cooperation, it would have been all too easy for the links between the legitimate purchases and the criminal ones, and what the money from her foundation had supported, to be uncovered, destroying her. I had to help her go about getting out of that web carefully. That way she had her money firmly in her control and his eventual collapse would have no bearing on her or her foundation. When we finally did, she was able to use all the evidence to secure the divorce.” I gave a short, mirthless laugh. “I didn’t even know she had all of that.”
“So why does it matter if they called him about her disappearance?” Snow asked. “If she has all of that evidence against him, doesn’t that mean that he doesn’t want to get involved?”
“That’s just the problem. I think he is absolutely involved. He’s been trying to get to her since just shortly after their divorce was final. He thinks that now that she got the divorce she should destroy the evidence, but she isn’t willing to do that. She told me that he’s been trying to get to her and she’s had a couple of run-ins with his hired men. They got to her on that cruise ship. I just know that they did. And since they called Virgil as her next of kin it means that none of us knew. They couldn’t release her name in the media.”
“And they wouldn’t even confirm it to Robin or the rest. He’s only making assumptions.”
“I think that it’s a pretty good assumption.”
“So, what do we do now?”
“We have to find them.”
“But how are we supposed to do that? They don’t have their phones, they don’t have anything.”
“Why Hunter?” Snow suddenly asked. “I don’t understand why they would disappear together.”
“They looked pretty chummy at the wedding,” I said. “Maybe they were spending time together on the cruise. Or maybe he saw something accidentally and they knew that they had to take him, too, or he would tell somebody and stop them before they could get Eleanor to Virgil.”
Tears had started to stream down Snow’s cheeks and I reached up to brush them away. I took hold of both of her wrists and looked into her eyes, doing everything that I could to stay calm so that she didn’t get any more upset than she already was.
“We are going to find them,” I told her. “Everything is going to be alright, I promise.”
“How?” she asked, her voice shaking.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “But we’re going to figure it out. We just need to find out where they took them.”
She nodded and I leaned forward to kiss her forehead, catching a glimpse of the resort beyond the balcony doors as I did.
This was not in the brochure.
Chapter Seventeen
Eleanor
We worked on the new shelter until the sun had gone far enough under the horizon that we couldn’t see well enough anymore and then walked out onto the beach together. Cool air was rushing in from the ocean, bathing us in its bracing saltiness, and I filled my lungs with it. Over the last two days I had gotten accustomed to being so close to the ocean 24 hours a day and would like to think that the sea monster and I had come to a mutual agreement. I agreed that it could remain imaginary if it agreed that it wouldn’t spit the remains of the boat at me while I was walking on the beach.
We had gone back to the cave and taken up the blankets and clothes that were left there, bringing them down to let them dry on the beach. The sun was so hot that they dried within an hour and I went to work shredding one of the most thr
eadbare blankets so I could fashion some makeshift clothing for myself. After my encounter with Hunter on the beach I never wanted to put Gavin’s clothes on again. Instead, I wrapped a length of fabric around my hips to create a skirt and another around my breasts.
All the rage on this year’s runways from Paris to Milan – Jungle Boogie Chic.
“Do you think that they are looking for us?” I said as my eyes scanned the dark, unbroken line of the horizon in the distance. “Or do you think that they think that we just went overboard and there’s no point.”
I looked at Hunter and he reached his hand out to me.
“Come with me,” he said. “I want to show you something.”
I took his hand much more willingly than I had the first time that he guided me down the beach and followed him as he made his way toward the rocks at the far end of the sand. They were the ones that he had come down when Gavin and I were on the beach, after Hunter had disappeared after our conversation in the jungle. I hadn’t been onto those rocks, sticking primarily to the jungle and the water rather than exploring these frightening-looking jags. I followed him anyway, though, and let him lead me up the easiest path onto the top of the rocks. The bottoms of my feet had gotten tougher in the time that we had been on the island and I had even waved away Hunter’s offer for me to wear his shoes, feeling more comfortable staying the way that I had been since arriving on the island. I was used to it now and part of me worried that if I changed anything I would throw off the balance of my understanding with the beach and the jungle and put myself in more danger.
I was coming to a lot of understandings with inanimate objects and legendary creatures these days.
When we got to the top of the rocks Hunter led me all the way across a small plateau and up onto another ridge so that we got to a high point above the island. He sat down and I came with him, setting onto the rock with my legs hanging over. From that position, it looked as though we were soaring over the ground. Higher than most of the trees, this vantage point let us see far out into the ocean and across the jungle and concealed both the damage from the storm and the dangers that existed within the trees, illuminating the incredible beauty of the space around us.
“It’s gorgeous,” I whispered.
“I know,” Hunter said. “But that’s not what I wanted to show you.”
“What then?”
He smiled and pointed up. I followed his finger and gasped at the sight of a billion stars sprinkled across the deep blue sky like flour thrown across a marble cutting board. There were so many of them that in areas it looked as though they were blending together in pools and I had trouble identifying the constellations.
“Isn’t it amazing?” Hunter asked.
I nodded, not taking my eyes away from the stars.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“I came up here after we talked. I needed some time to myself and when I saw the stars that first night, I couldn’t tear myself away from them. It let me think.”
“What did you think about?” I asked.
“You.”
I straightened my head and looked at Hunter. He was gazing back at me with more in his eyes than his words could have ever said.
We slid closer to each other until our bodies pressed to one another, thigh to thigh, and I leaned against him, allowing my head to tilt so that it tenderly rested against his for just a moment. When I straightened, he mirrored the movement, tilting his head against mine. I felt trembling in my belly as I looked up at him and our eyes met. There was so much electricity building in the ocean-scented air between us I felt as though I could feel the seconds disappearing around us. Finally, it felt as though something between us broke and Hunter smiled and leaned in to kiss me. I moved forward too, ready to feel the softness of his lips again, wanting to taste more of him and to discover what was waiting for me next, to show him more.
What began as a soft, introductory kiss quickly changed. Instead, it was as though that all of the desire that we both had built up sparked and flamed out of us in the same moment. Our mouths parted and I gazed for a moment into Hunter’s mesmerizing eyes. Hunter wrapped his arm around me and pressed his hand to my lower back, drawing me closer across the rocks. I was extremely aware of the edge of the ridge and the steep distance between us and the beach, but the adrenaline only intensified what I was feeling. I pulled myself up onto his lap, cupping the back of his neck with both hands and drawing him toward me to crush our mouths together again. Hunter’s fingers immediately came to my hips and dug into my skin as he dove fully into the explosive moment that was happening between us. He was urgent and full of need, demanding in the passion of the kiss, yet there was still something unsure and questioning about the way that he moved. He was still nervous, still uneasy about this unknown frontier. He couldn’t analyze this. He couldn’t research it or do calculations. This went beyond his mind, to his heart and his body, and I wanted him to learn to listen to them, to trust them. I felt his tongue glide out to tease across my lips and I opened my mouth to welcome him.
Hunter’s tongue plunged into my mouth as if he was seeking everything that he had been missing. I could taste the remnants of salt on his lips from the breeze that sent a veil of mist over us when we were on the beach. The longer we kissed, the more I discovered until I found something richer and sweeter, something that was purely Hunter. His scent filled my lungs, his tongue filled my mouth, and I lost myself in the blistering fantasy of his hard, straining cock finally filling my body.
Hunter slid a hand down my side and along my thigh making heat sizzle through my chest and tingle along my spine. I raked my fingertips down his bare chest, luxuriating in the feeling of the powerful muscles, chiseled from the work that he had told me that he did with his brother, and then flattened my hands, eagerly seeking out the warm skin of his stomach and back. I broke our kiss again and moved off of his lap. Standing, I stepped back from the edge of the rocks and offered him my hand. Hunter took it and allowed me to lead him back toward the plateau. I turned toward him and Hunter scooped me into his arms, gathering me close so that we could kiss hungrily again. I scratched my nails up and down his ribs and waist, dragging groans of pleasure from him and making my core throb with anticipation. Hunter's hands moved down to roam over my body, finding the ties of the fabric and releasing them without hesitation. I stepped out of the fabric and then pressed up close to Hunter, giving his hands full access to my body. They settled onto my ass and squeezed and I hummed into his mouth. Hunter’s grip tightened and he lifted me off of my feet so that I straddled his waist. I squeezed my legs tightly around him and could feel the hard bulge of his erection nudge into my hot core.
“Show me,” he said. “Show me what I’ve been missing.”
His demanding growl sent a shiver of desire into my heart and body. I pressed myself to him more tightly, lifting up only enough to roll my hips, increasing the connection between us and furthering the tightness of his cock against me.
“Yes,” I gasped.
Hunter bent his knees carefully until he was on the ground and could lay me back on the castoff fabric on the rocks. He gazed down at me for a few moments and his sparkling green eyes glinted as he stood so he could step out of his shoes and pants. His body was sculpted, even more delectable than it had been in the crashing of the storm or the teasing of the tide. My fingers twitched with anticipation and I reached up to trace my fingers along the trail of hair that led through the V of his hip muscles and toward his cock. It stood hard and thick above me and my body shook with need and the desire to touch him.
Hunter lowered himself back down beside me and brushed his lips against mine. He moved to my neck as his hand slid up my body, his palm settling over my breast so that he could tenderly stroke my nipple with his thumb. I gasped as his thigh nudged my legs apart and brushed against my wet core. His mouth found my neck again and then moved down. His lips danced along my breasts before he drew my nipple into his mouth. Hunter flicked his tongue o
ver the sensitive, taut peak and then traced it in slow, languid circles. His pace had slowed and he paid equal attention to both breasts, passing back and forth between them for several long moments. I writhed and whimpered, remembering the powerful effect that his mouth had had on me on the beach.
This time Hunter’s hand slid down my thigh towards my molten center, promising a deeper, more exquisite experience to come. His fingers felt like magic as they found my clit, tracing it softly like a delicate, precious pearl.
“You’re so wet,” Hunter whispered.
The words sounded brazen and erotic falling from his lips and they pushed me further into my arousal. I reached out to find the length of his cock, wanting nothing more than to feel it, to hold it, to explore all that it could do. I gripped it firmly, running my hand along its stiff, hot length. His fingers circled the tip of her clit awakening my muscles and causing them to tighten in anticipation of more attention. I sat up to give myself better leverage and run my hand along his erection in fuller, longer strokes. Hunter leaned forward and our mouths caught so that they played and tangled as we gave ourselves over to each other.
After a few moments, the pleasure that he was giving me became too much and I dropped back away from him. My hand falls away from his erection and I closed my eyes so that I could focus completely on the sensation of his hand swirling through my core. Almost immediately Hunter pushed away.