A Lonely Magic (6 page)

“Luken to family, Luke to friends,” he replied.

“Gotcha.” Fen shot him an okay sign, index finger touching thumb, and stood. “We’ll talk later.”

Kaio stepped aside to let her pass and she started back to her seat. But she’d only gone a couple of steps when Luke said something else, a mutter she didn’t quite hear. She looked over her shoulder but Kaio waved her forward, as if the words weren’t meant for her.

As Fen sat down again, though, she was frowning. It sounded like he’d said, “Which are you?”

But that made no sense.

Maybe it was the leftover effects of the drugs forced on her or maybe she hoped to escape Kaio’s gaze, but Fen put her head against the chill of the window and closed her eyes.

She wanted to fall asleep. Not that she’d be able to, not with the way her mind kept throwing crap at her.

Zach. She’d stopped by Sunday night to see if he wanted to split a pizza, an impulse after a long day. It would have been a splurge for her, but shared she could swing it.

She recognized what she’d walked in on right away. She hadn’t spotted anything obvious—no drugs, no guns, no money—but the tension in the room, the cold looks, and the vague menace of his visitors reminded her of uglier parts of her past, places she didn’t want to go again.

Places she didn’t know Zach was visiting.

Sure, he had an edge, but his eyes held no darkness, nothing saying he was in over his head. Nothing that made him as a dealer, at least not to her, and she should have known.

But damn it, why hadn’t she kept her cool? What he did was none of her business. If she hadn’t gotten so flustered, his connections might not have thought they needed to kill her.

And those connections…

The guy from last night’s words kept playing and replaying in her head. “Your choice.” “This is just a job, miss.”

Someone else called her miss recently. Who was it?

Had she made the right decision? Luke wouldn’t have gotten shot if she wasn’t such a coward. Was that her fault? But they were both alive, at least for the moment, so hey, that was better than dead, right?

It was so weird, though. His blood—it had looked green. Not bright green, not fluorescent or anything. It wasn’t the green of fake apple candy, but a deep, dark green, almost a muddy color. It must have been the light. Lack of light. The darkness.

How had Kaio found them? How had Luke found her?

Oh, God, she needed to stop thinking. Just stop. Let the thoughts go. Leave it alone. Done was done and what had happened couldn’t be changed.

And she had nothing to be scared of.

She was on an adventure. She should treat it like one. Hey, she was flying in a plane and that was cool.

And she was on her way to an unknown destination with total strangers and she had no idea who they were or why they were helping her or what their motives were… oh, lord, she needed to make her brain shut off.

She wished she was home in her own apartment. She wanted coffee in her favorite coffee mug, curled up in her bed with her blankets over her, the television on low, and nothing planned for the day except to read a good book.

She tried to imagine herself there.

One deep breath, then another.

She stirred when something changed. A sound? A vibration? Opening her eyes, she sat upright. A blanket draped over her hadn’t been there before, while a small pillow fell to the floor before she could catch it.

Kaio lifted his head from his laptop and glanced out the window. “Almost there.”

Fen rubbed her eyes. Somehow she’d fallen asleep. She turned to peer out the window and her breath stopped in her throat.

Blue.

Intense, bright, vivid blue, like she’d never seen it before, blue with tips of white and deep reaches of green, with dark shadows and clear translucent patches that showed all the way down, down, down to white sandy ground.

“Oh, my God.” She managed to exhale. “That’s…”

“The Caribbean,” Kaio said as if it were no big deal.

No big deal?

It was an ocean.

That blue was water, more water than Fen had ever seen in her life, more water than she’d ever even imagined seeing.

The plane started to slope downward.

“This is not real,” Fen whispered. “This is…”

Kaio closed his laptop, tucking it into a soft case that had appeared on the seat next to him. “Quite real.”

She looked at him, her eyes wide. “It’s so blue.”

“Yes.” The smile accompanying the word was benevolent enough, but Fen lifted her chin in response.

Inwardly, she cringed. Why had she said that out loud? Was she doomed to embarrass herself in front of this guy over and over again?

She turned her gaze back to the window and stared out. She didn’t want to miss this. But as the plane got lower and lower, all she could see was water and more water. It was stupid to be scared because obviously, the pilot knew what he was doing—or she, might be a girl pilot, who knew—but that didn’t matter, because the plane dropped still lower until it looked as if Fen could reach out and touch the water and what was going to happen?

She glanced back at Kaio. Damn, looking at him for reassurance as if he was some magic whiz authority. But hell, he’d done this before, surely he’d know if they should be grabbing life jackets.

He looked perfectly relaxed, leaning back in his seat and watching her with an enigmatic expression.

And then, out the window, white sand. And trees whizzing by. And the whole plane almost shuddering, with a push and drag and an abrupt slowdown like the pilot was hitting the brakes at a yellow light. Fen bit back the yelp, but her hands were tight on the arms of her seat, until finally, finally, the plane came to a stop.

She breathed again.

She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath, but she had.

“Welcome to Caye Laje.” Kaio unbuckled his seatbelt and stood, slinging his laptop case over his shoulder. “You won’t need a coat.”

Commercial or Movie?

Fen stepped off the plane and into summer. White sand underfoot, palm trees and shrubs, and beyond the trees, the most intensely blue expanse she’d ever seen. The sun, so bright, so incandescent in the clear sky, beat down on her, a tingling warmth on her face. Pastel-colored houses sat on stilts, their roofs thatched as if they belonged in history books or fairy tales.

A hint of a breeze held a scent she didn’t recognize. Was that what salt water smelled like?

She fumbled for the buttons on her sweater. She wasn’t dressed warmly enough to be outside at home—ten seconds and the wind cut through her like a knife—but her thermal shirt was total overkill here. She could already feel sweat beading on the back of her neck.

Two men hurried toward the plane as Kaio joined Fen on the ground. He gestured toward the one in front, a young guy, probably in his early twenties, dressed in a loose white shirt and long pants, and smiling in welcome. “Eladio will take care of you,” Kaio said.

Fen barely heard him through the fabric of the shirt she was pulling over her head. “Wait, what?” she said, but he’d stepped away from her to speak to the man he’d named.

Behind her, the medical team was lifting Luke’s stretcher down the steps and suddenly people seemed to be bustling about everywhere.

People?

No, Fen realized.

Men.

Three or four of them had emerged from the pretty houses. The ones on the plane had disembarked. The uniformed pilot—male—was climbing down the steps, his head turned to speak to the man behind him.

That was weird. Where were the women?

A flutter of uneasiness ran down Fen’s spine, but none of the men were paying attention to her, beyond casual glances and polite nods, and she got no sense of danger from them. Their eyes held none of the tight intensity she’d seen in Zach’s companions. They were just guys, young, cute, nicely muscled.

Eladio interrupted her thoughts. “Miss? May I show you to the house?”

“Sure thing,” Fen said, plastering a smile onto her face to cover her trepidation. What had she gotten herself into? How had her life gotten so weird, so fast?

But as Eladio led the way down the runway and onto a sandy path toward a house bigger than all the pastel houses put together, her worries faded. Holy crap, it was pretty. The house was huge—no surprise there—but without the glossy modern shine she might have expected from Kaio Delmar. Instead, it nestled in greenery as if it had grown there, with white stucco walls, a terra cotta roof, balconies draped in flowers, arched doorways, and wide windows.

Eladio, speaking over his shoulder, began pointing out amenities to Fen, and by the time they came to a stop in front of a door, her head was spinning. Three pools, a dock, the boat house, the in-house theater, the exercise room—the only room she truly remembered was the library. Because, of course, every house should have a library, right?

Still, the Delmar library was nothing like the formal shelves full of fancy first editions or books whose spines had never been cracked that she might have imagined. Instead, the shelves were overflowing with books, hardcovers, paperbacks, old and new, all piled together in an eclectic jumble. Fen could spend weeks in there without feeling out of place.

“Kaio radioed ahead of your lack of luggage,” Eladio said. “I’ve arranged for some garments for you, but the selection was limited, I’m afraid.”

“No worries.” Fen couldn’t wait to strip off her tights and leggings, but her skirt and tank top would be comfortable enough. If she needed to, she could wash them out in the sink and hope they’d be dry by morning. It wouldn’t be the first time.

She wouldn’t need to. In the room—an elegant space with a big bed draped with netting and a wardrobe instead of a closet—she found a few light sundresses, three bathing suits, a pair of flip-flops, and several big squares of patterned cloth. Plus shampoo and soap, sunscreen, toothpaste and a toothbrush.

All the comforts of home.

Fen stretched out a bare leg, poking at it to see if her skin was turning pink. Nah, she was still good. She leaned back in the chaise lounge and adjusted her sunglasses, pushing them higher on her nose, but instead of opening her book, she stared out at the brilliant blue of the ocean.

She’d spent the past three days surreptitiously pinching herself. Being on Caye Laje was like living in a commercial for a vacation paradise.

She hadn’t seen Kaio again. By the time she’d gone looking for him that first day, he was long gone, off on mysterious business of his own. She had no idea where he was or when he would return. But his last words to her were that Eladio would take care of her and Eladio did.

When she was hungry, food appeared. Good food. Instead of granola for breakfast and peanut butter on toast for dinner, she ate omelets and pastries, fresh fruit and salads, grilled fish, fancy little appetizers and desserts so good it was like they were created by angels.

When she was thirsty, drinks appeared. Never alcoholic, but the coffee was fantastic and the tall, sparkling fruit juices always cold and refreshing.

When she left her room to visit the pool or the library, she’d come back to find that every last trace of dust was gone.

Paradise, definitely.

Except…

She sighed.

Except something about it felt very wrong.

Maybe it was because she still hadn’t seen another woman on the island. But she could explain that rationally: Kaio was a rich, beautiful, gay man who could afford to surround himself with other beautiful men. It made perfect sense. Hell, she should be admiring his taste.

Instead, it was vaguely unsettling.

Or maybe the unsettling thing was that no one would talk to her. Oh, sure, they’d chat about the weather. And they’d answer a direct question if it had to do with something she needed. Food, water, directions to the pool, and she was golden. Anything else—everything else—got met with a murmured, “I couldn’t say, miss.”

But so what? People rich enough to fly private planes to their ritzy beach homes probably paid good money. Maybe the staff wasn’t supposed to talk to guests. Maybe “I couldn’t say” from a guy staring at the floor to avoid her eyes really meant “Don’t get me fired, crazy lady.”