Flawless Danger (The Spencer & Sione #1) (18 page)

“What is this?”

“Mr. Chang will contact you,” he said, his words like a threat.

“When?” she asked.

Saying nothing, the cab driver got up from the table, turned his back to her, and lumbered away. Spencer stared at the small box again, reluctant to touch it, let alone open it and find out what was inside. She didn’t want to know, but she forced herself to lift the lid.

Seconds later, Spencer stared at the contents, trembling, feeling as though a bomb had gone off inside her, rocking her to her very foundations. She didn’t want to believe what she saw. She knew what it meant, and she knew why Ben had sent it to her. Taking a deep breath, Spencer tried not to scream.

San Ignacio, Belize

Belizean Banyan Resort - Honeymoon Casita

Pacing across the bedroom in her casita, Spencer pressed the burner phone to her ear, spewing a string of vicious curses at Ben.

“You damn liar, you said I wouldn’t have to do anything criminal!”

An hour had passed since she’d received Ben’s little box from the sweaty cab driver. Something to help her with
Step Three
. Spencer wasn’t sure how long she’d sat at the table, paralyzed, but eventually, she’d managed to compose herself enough to pay her bill, stand up, and walk out of the restaurant without collapsing.

Once she’d seen what was inside the small, square box, she’d known Ben had lied to her. And she wasn’t surprised. All his promises about not making her do anything criminal had been bullshit! Bastard! Always making snide remarks about her leaving him to die on the floor. Right now, she wished he had died. She wished she had plunged that knife into his heart.

“Sweet girl, please calm down,” Ben said, his tone patronizing. “Let me explain what I need you to do.”

“I know what you want me to do!” She paced to the wardrobe, then turned, and stomped toward the dresser. “You want me to drug the resort owner and steal something from him!”

Even now, her heart almost stopped when she remembered how shocked she’d been after she opened the box and saw the small vial of liquid. She’d known it could only be one thing. The elixir of oblivion, as Rae liked to refer to it. GHB.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, sweet girl,” Ben said. “Don’t assume that you know what I want you to do.”

“I’m not going to drug Sione,” Spencer said, pacing toward the foot of the bed. “So forget about me pouring the contents of that vial into his wine.”

“Sweet girl, don’t tell me what you’re not going to do,” Ben said. “I will tell you what you are going to do, understand?”

Weary and remorseful, Spencer sank down on the bed, hands trembling as she held the phone to her ear, listening.

“And once I tell you,” he said. “I will accept no argument, I will entertain no alternatives from you, do you understand?”

“Yeah,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut, willing herself not to cry. “I understand.”

“Now, listen carefully,” he said. “The GHB is for
Step Three
. But you will not receive instructions for
Step Three
until you complete
Step Two
, which, to date, you have not done.”

“I’m working on it.”

“I believe you are, sweet girl. You certainly seemed to be working on it when Sione accompanied you on the last side venture in San Pedro,” Ben said. “The two of you seemed very close as you strolled along the beach.”

“We weren’t as close as we seemed,” she snipped, disturbed but not surprised he’d been watching her.

“That was clever, sweet girl, but risky,” Ben said.
 

“Don’t worry, he has no clue why I was really there,” Spencer said.

“Well, I’m not surprised. Tricking men is your specialty.”

Spencer rolled her eyes at his insult.

Ben continued, “So, I’m sure you’ll get him to ask you to dinner. Once that happens, and it should happen sooner rather than later, call me, and I’ll have further instructions for you.”

San Ignacio, Belize

Belizean Banyan Resort - Owner’s Office

“Tell me this,” D.J. said, closing the door behind him after he walked into Sione’s office. “Why the hell did you go to San Pedro with Spencer Edwards without telling me? I’m supposed to be following her, remember? I’m supposed to be trying to find out what the hell she’s up to.”

Leaning back in his chair, Sione asked, “How do you know I went to San Pedro with her?”

“Your whole staff is talking about it,” D.J. said.

Sione sighed and asked, “What are they saying?”

“Ask Marie,” D.J. said. “Now, tell me what happened in San Pedro.”

“Relax, okay,” Sione said. “She didn’t do anything suspicious.”

“Are you sure?” D.J. walked to the chair in front of the desk and took a seat.

Sione shrugged. “She just went shopping. She didn’t swap bags with anybody either. She took a white beach bag to San Pedro, and she had the same white beach bag with her when we came back to the resort.”

“And then what happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean,” D.J. said, scowling. “What happened when you went back to the honeymoon casita with her?”

“Don’t tell me.” Sione shook his head. “The staff is talking about that, too?”

Nodding, D.J. said, “So, what happened.”

Sione shrugged. “Nothing much.”

That perturbed him, especially when he remembered walking into her dressing room at the boutique and finding her half-dressed. Her body was luscious and exquisite, just as he’d imagined it would be beneath the skimpy, clingy clothes she wore.

“Nothing much?” D.J. gave him a skeptical frown. “You expect me to believe that you were alone with a gorgeous, sexy girl like her and nothing much happened.”

“Believe it or not, but we just talked,” he said, ignoring his cousin’s dubious looks.

He wasn’t about to tell D.J. that Ms. Edwards had kicked him out after she had jumped on his lap and kissed him. He wasn’t about to tell him how he’d stood on the porch in the dark, still hard as a brick, feeling like a fool, confused and wondering what the hell he had done wrong. He certainly was not going to tell his cousin the kiss had kept him up most of the night, and even now, he couldn’t stop thinking about how soft her lips felt and couldn’t stop wishing they had gone further.

D.J. would never let him hear the end of it.

“You know, she might have changed her M.O.,” D.J. said.

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe she did make a delivery on the San Pedro trip,” D.J. said. “But maybe it didn’t involve switching bags this time. Maybe she took something out of her bag and left it somewhere, or passed it to someone, when you weren’t looking?”

Shaking his head, Sione said, “I don’t think so.”

He wasn’t really sure, though. When he and Ms. Edwards had traveled to San Pedro, he hadn’t been skeptical of her motives, wondering if she was planning another delivery. She’d looked so beautiful in the sun-drenched setting of powdery white sand, clear turquoise water, and swaying palm trees in the gentle breeze. He found himself enjoying her company. He hadn’t been looking for suspicious activity.

“Well, here’s something you might find interesting,” D.J. said. “Yesterday morning, Ms. Edwards had breakfast at the Jaguar Café. About fifteen minutes after she was seated, she was joined by some guy. Sloppy dude, mid-forties, maybe. Soft around the middle, sweaty.”

Sione sat forward. “That’s not the guy who broke into her casita.”

“Guy wasn’t Asian,” D.J. confirmed. “And didn’t have a snake tattoo on his face.”

“Who do you think the sloppy guy is?”

“Not sure,” D.J. said. “Maybe her partner. Maybe a contact here in San Ignacio. He gave her a gift. A little box, like the kind you’d put jewelry in. Don’t think she liked what she got.”

“Why not?”

“Probably wasn’t enough carats.” His cousin smirked. “She probably doesn’t spread those legs for anything less than ten—”

“David …”

D.J. said, “When she opened the box, the look on her face was …”

“Was what?”

“Fear,” his cousin said. “She looked really afraid.”

Worried, Sione asked, “Afraid that the guy was going to hurt her or something?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Anyway,” D.J. went on. “I followed the guy to a house in Bullet Tree Village. The place is owned by a company called The Leviathan Group. But I was able to find out that it’s being rented by William Bermudez. He’s got a record, but nothing dangerous. Arrested for trying to use a stolen credit card. Got probation. Nevertheless, I saw his mug shot and got confirmation that he’s the guy who had breakfast with Ms. Edwards. So maybe I’ll have a talk with him. Maybe he’ll rat her out.”

“Assuming there’s something to rat on her about,” Sione said. “Because maybe there’s not. Maybe she’s innocent. Maybe there’s a logical explanation for why the passports and the money was delivered to her.”

D.J. gave him a look.

Sione frowned. “What?”

“You like Ms. Edwards, don’t you?”

“I like Ms. Edwards?” Sione bristled. “What the hell? Are we in the fourth grade? I
like
Ms. Edwards?”

Shoulders shaking, D.J. chuckled and shook his head.

“What the hell is so funny?”

“Actually, it’s not funny,” D.J. said and then let out a deep sigh as his laughter subsided. “You remember I asked you if you’d have a problem dealing with the truth about Ms. Edwards?”

“I guess.”

“Reason I asked you is because I could tell you might catch feelings for this woman.”

“Catch feelings?” Sione sat back, glaring at his cousin. “Be serious.”

“I am serious,” D.J. said. “If I thought this was just one of those hit-it-and-forget-it situations, I wouldn’t say anything. But I can tell you don’t like the idea of this woman being a lying con artist.”

“I don’t,” Sione said. “But not for whatever reason you’re thinking. I don’t want her pulling some scam at my resort.”

“Dude, listen to me. You don’t want to get involved with this woman,” D.J. said. “I can already tell she’s flawless danger.”

Confused, Sione stared at his cousin. “Flawless danger?”

“Beautiful but deadly,” D.J. explained, dropping his voice to imitate the tone and exaggerated inflection of an action suspense movie trailer. “Her face is flawless but all she brings to your life is danger.”

“Shut the hell up.” Sione grabbed a sheet of paper he didn’t need, balled it up, and then hurled it at D.J., who deftly blocked it with his wrist.

Chuckling again, D.J. said, “I needed a good laugh.”

“I’m glad you could have it at my expense,” Sione said, debating whether to ask his cousin why he needed a laugh.

He decided he wouldn’t shake the tree. No telling what might fall down and knock him over the head. Besides, he had enough issues of his own. He would stay out of his cousin’s marital woes.

“You know I’m right,” D.J. went on. “You like those girls, they look good, but they are bad for you. They always wind up in trouble, and then you always run to the rescue because you are Captain Save-A-Ho and that’s what you do.”

“Are you finished?” Sione asked. “Because the way I see it, we still don’t know what’s going on with Ms. Edwards.”

“Maybe we don’t,” D.J. conceded. “But there is something I do know.”

“What’s that?” Sione asked, distracted by thoughts of his family’s perception of him. Captain Save-A-Ho. Might have been insulting if it was true, but it wasn’t.

Sione was far from a hero. His family didn’t know he’d been raised to be the villain, and they never would.

“I found out who came to see Moana before she was killed.”

Sione’s pulse jumped, and he grabbed a stack of papers to straighten. He’d asked D.J. for a list of Moana’s visitors, but he realized he’d been hoping D.J. wouldn’t be able to find out anything. Now that his cousin had the answers, Sione wasn’t so sure he wanted to know.

D.J. cleared his throat and then said, “Besides her attorney, some chick named Kelsey Thomas went to see her.”

“Kelsey Thomas?” Sione stared at his cousin, not sure he’d heard him right. Kelsey Thomas had visited Moana? What the hell was that about? How did Kelsey Thomas know Moana?

“You know her?” D.J. asked.

“Don’t think so,” Sione lied, trying to get over the shock.

D.J. said, “Well, another visitor is someone you won’t believe.”

“Someone I won’t believe?”

“Peter.”

Sione frowned. “Peter? Wait, Peter Rios?
Our cousin
Peter? That Peter?”

“That Peter,” D.J. confirmed.
 

“Why the hell would Peter go to visit Moana?”

“Maybe you should ask him.”

Sitting back in his chair, Sione rubbed his jaw. Why would Peter go to visit Moana? They knew each other, and Peter had always had a quasi-crush on Moana, so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. But it was definitely out of the realm of
probability
.

“She had another interesting visitor,” D.J. said.

Sione glanced at D.J., trying to stay calm, trying to ignore the strange twitch he felt beneath the surface of his skin. “Who?”

“Your father went to see Moana,” D.J. said.

Sione leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk, trying to come to terms with the truth. There was no more suspicion, no more speculation. Moana hadn’t lied to him, but Sione cautioned himself not to jump to the conclusions she’d tried to convince him to believe. Richard had visited her, and that was true. But had his father threatened her life when he’d gone to see her in prison?

Moana had been a deceitful bitch, Sione had to remember that. She’d been desperate to get out of prison, and she wouldn’t have been above exploiting the issues between him and his father to her advantage. The conversation between Richard and Moana might have been very different from what she’d told him.

“Do you know what that was about?” D.J. asked. “Why would Richard visit her? Thought he hated her? Thought he blamed her for the beef between you and Ben.”

“He does hate her,” Sione said. “That’s why it makes no sense that he would visit her.”

“Are you going to find out why your father went to see her?”

“He probably wouldn’t tell me the truth,” Sione said.