The Sanctuary (Playa Luna Beach Romance) (5 page)

Chapter Eleven

On the return trip, Cassie’s emotions were raw and closer to the surface than she wanted them to be.
Back on the shimmering water, she had stretched out in the panga, drinking in the smells and sounds, trying to push away the memory of what they had seen. Alejandro hadn’t spoken since they’d left, and Diego was like a statue on his perch by the engine.

As Cassie rested in the warm sun, she felt Alejandro stretch out beside her.
Her arm rested over her face, shielding her eyes against the sun. He gently tugged at her hand, again lifting it to his lips. “I had no idea these vaquita even existed, let alone the threat of extinction.” He was so close she could smell his presence, and it calmed her.

“There are only about 2
50 left on the entire planet, Alejandro. Make that 249. If something isn’t done, they’ll be gone in less than two years. I just can’t let that happen.”

He sat up on the bench, his long legs cramped in the small
panga. “It’s truly a tragedy,” she said finally, his intense expression tugging at her heart.

“Yes, it is,” he said, reaching over and holding his hand in the cool spray of the
panga. He lifted his hand swiftly, drenching her with water. She wasn’t quite ready to laugh yet, but she smiled at his attempt to distract her from her sorrow. They stretched out in the boat and fell silent until they reached the beach.

The
panga glided to a stop on the shore, skimming onto the sand. Cassie and Alejandro slid over the side of the panga, wading through the warm water to the shore. She had wanted to show him a vaquita, and hadn’t anticipated finding the scene she did. Her emotions were still on the surface, as Alejandro held his hand out to her for the ice chest, and she felt the heat of his body once more. Her breath catching in her throat, she walked beside him in silence, remembering their magical vaquita sighting. Happy that they shared such an important experience, she didn’t think she could be more content than she was at this moment.

Alejandro took her hand as they walked back up to the restaurant. “I had no idea about the fishing of the endangered species, Cassie. My time in the Navy was not spent in the Sea of Cortez, and I’ve spent very little time here on land, either. It’s all been on paper to me.”

“On paper? You mean like on a map?”

“Well, yes, sort of. I don’t know how to explain this to you. There are things about me that you don’t know, and I am sure you don’t want to know.”

Puzzled and hurt, she looked up at him. His amber eyes bore into her, startling her with their intensity. She wanted to know everything about him. All of it. He seemed dejected and hopeless, and Cassie didn’t understand why.

Carrying their supplies up to the jeep, Cassie spotted Taylor and a man under one of the
palapas, sipping drinks from huge seashells.

Cassie put her fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly, Taylor’s head snapping in her direction, laughing.
“I knew that had to be you,” Taylor chirped, running over to the jeep. “How was the trip?”

“I’ll have to tell you about it later,” Cassie said, stealing a glance at Alejandro.
His face was blank, but his eyes were still clouded. “Is that your guy?”

“Oh, yeah.
Let me go grab him. I want you to meet him,” Taylor said over her shoulder as she ran back to the palapa.

“She met someone here?” Alejandro asked, shielding his eyes with his hand, trying to see where Taylor was headed.

“Yes, they met last night. Well, she knew him from before and found out he’d be here now, so they’d planned to get together. I didn’t have a chance to mention it with all the excitement.”

Taylor and the tall, dark man walked over, holding hands and smiling. “Cassie, Alejandro, meet Raul,” Taylor said, making the introductions.

Alejandro’s eyes flickered for a moment as he looked over at Raul. The two men stared at each other for what seemed minutes, until Cassie thrust her hand toward Raul, saying, “Nice to meet you.”

Raul started to speak, and Alejandro interrupted with sharp words in Spanish. Raul’s response must have satisfied him, and he ended the conversation with a firm, “Gracias, Raul,” earning him another slight bow of the head. Alejandro turned to Cassie, saying, “Raul and I have a working relationship.”

Confused, she glanced at both men. “We’re going inside to have a drink. Want to come?”

“Fine with me,” Cassie said, turning to Alejandro.
“Is that all right with you?”

“I suppose
it’s fine,” he said, looking over to the restaurant. “Briefly.”

Taylor and
Cassie stole a quick glance at each other. Cassie re-arranged her cover-up and touched her hair. “I think I need to make a stop in the ladies room. I’ll catch up.”

Cassie walked toward the restaurant, past the brick arches and under the
palapas, pulling open the door of the restaurant and meeting room area. Employees were setting up for tomorrow’s ribbon-cutting ceremony and the check-in line for the hotel was long.

Winding her way through the people, trying to find the restroom, she felt butterflies in her stomach about tomorrow’s events.
She knew there were going to be throngs of people and reporters there. She hoped her passion would carry her message, and the resort owners would reconsider.

As she passed by the room where the press conference was to be held, she couldn’t help but
peek her head inside. On the wall was a huge map of the proposed resort, with a golf course, restaurants, pool and bungalows along with the main hotel. Her eyes drifted on the drawing to the water, where she saw drawings of tennis courts and a marina. The marina was massive, and her heart sank with the thought of all those boats, all that pollution, all those fishermen.

She turned on her heel and headed back toward the door, steeling herself for tomorrow’s battle.
As she was about to pass through the door, she caught her leg on the corner of a display table holding pamphlets for the ceremony. Her leg crumbled and she fell backwards onto the floor with a thud, the table crashing over beside her.

She
laid on the floor, seeing the familiar stars that had come with the hook in her leg, tears stinging as they rolled from the corners of her eyes. She sat up and began to gather the scattered pamphlets to stack them back on the table. They were beautiful, glossy pamphlets that no doubt were very expensive with glowing descriptions of the resort and beckoning buyers.

Flipping a brochure over to look at the back, her breath stopped and she blinked.
She blinked hard again, not believing her eyes. There, at the bottom of the brochure, was the smiling face of Alejandro Vasquez, CEO of Costa Azul International.

Her heart in her throat, she struggled to her feet, gripping the brochure tightly.
She’d never been as angry as now, and her blood rushed through her veins. Striding into the restaurant, she saw Taylor at a table with Alejandro and Raul. Alejandro stood as she made it to the table, his face freezing as he saw her. “What is it, Cassie? Are you all right?”

For the second time in so many days, Cassie Lewis was utterly speechless.
She shoved the brochure in Alejandro’s chest, and, with a little extra shove, she turned and got to the jeep as fast as she could.

Chapter Twelve

The wind whipped through her hair as she sped toward Playa Luna. Tears and sand stinging her eyes, she drove as fast as she could,
wanting to blow the memory out of her head of Alejandro pictured in the brochure for the resort. CEO! The same man she had opened her heart to, poured out her fears and passions.

She thought she had felt his heart, too, and now she realized it was all a joke. Had he known who she was when they met? Had he planned it this way, to take her off her game, make her vulnerable? She knew she could be a formidable opponent, especially when it came to her passion for the
vaquita. Maybe he was afraid of her.

Her heart pounded
as she pulled up to the house. Jumping out of the jeep, she grabbed her beach chair and made the short trek down to the water. As the waves lapped at her feet, she felt the sobs coming. Giving in to her senses, she sat down in the sand, her head in her hands.

“What is it,
Cassie,” she heard behind her. “Is it the vaquita?”

She turned and looked up into Diego’s concerned eyes.
“I don’t even know where to start, Diego.”

“At the beginning, Cassie, is the best place.”

She poured her out heart to her friend, explaining the sanctuary plans and the denial from the resort company. She told him of her injury, how she had met Alejandro, and how she found out who he really was.

“I feel like such a complete idiot,” she said, wiping hot tears from her cheeks.

Diego was silent for a long while as he picked up handfuls of sand and tossed them toward the waves.

“Not all people have the same heart as you,” he said finally, turning toward her. His eyes betrayed his emotion, and he pulled the brim of his hat further down his forehead. “Many people don’t understand money is not the most important thing in the world. That is why I came to the Baja, to get away.”

Cassie turned toward Diego, her eyes bright with confusion.
“I thought you were born here,” she said.

“No, I had a job and a very large family business before I came here.
They wanted to rule the world and ruin many things. I couldn’t do it, and I came here to build things people wanted, and leave only a small legacy of happiness.” He smiled sadly, taking his hat off and leaning back into the sand. “It seems it has found me again.”

Cassie waited for him to speak again, but he didn’t.
He raised himself from the sand and walked back toward his home up the beach.

As he grew smaller in the distance, Taylor pulled up on her quad, skidding to a stop and narrowly missing Cassie with a spray of sand.

Hopping off the quad, she lowered herself to the sand next to her friend, resting her hand on Cassie’s. “That must have been a shocker,” she said, squeezing Cassie’s hand and leaning forward, her elbows resting on her knees.

“That doesn’t even begin to describe how I’m feeling,” Cassie said, her hands clenching into fists.
“I bared my soul to him, and I thought he understood about the vaquita.” Tears of fury welled up in her eyes, and her heart pounded. “He had plenty of chances to tell me who he was, and he didn’t. I’m so furious I could spit,” she said, using an old expression of her mother’s.

Taylor’s hand flew to her mouth as she tried not to laugh. “Well, please don’t,” she said, unable to completely stifle her laugh.

“I understand it may seem funny to you, but I really was falling for him. I thought he was gentle, and kind, and had the same heart I do,” Cassie said, letting out a deep sigh.

“Cassie, I’ve got to be honest with you.
Sometimes you are so blinded by your passion for these porpoises, you don’t see clearly. Not everyone has your vision, your understanding of the bigger view of the Baja.” Taylor turned sideways in the sand, grabbing her hand. “Look at me, Cassie.”

Cassie turned toward her best friend, tears streaming down her cheeks, their salty warmth on her lips.
Taylor’s blue eyes filled with concern and shone brightly with tears. “He wasn’t the man you thought he was. That’s all there was to it. You’ll find someone who does share your heart, and that’s the person you’re supposed to be with.”

Cassie reached out, hugging her friend tightly.
The sobs came now, and she again felt grief overtake her.

Taylor held her firmly, wiping her tears from her cheeks.
Cassie’s sobs turned to sniffles, and Taylor said, “You’re not going to let this guy ruin your plans, are you?”

Cassie turned back to the water, clearing her throat.
“No. I have work to do.”

Chapter Thirteen

Cassie’s eyes fluttered as the sunlight began to peek in through her bedroom window.
Sitting up in bed, the memory of the night before and the events leading up to her pity party explained the state of her bedroom. Her bag was empty, and her clothes were strewn all over, a pair of panties hanging from the ceiling fan. She reached up and whisked them down, wincing as the pain in her leg reminded her of the entire past few days’ events.

“Oh, you’re finally awake,” Taylor handed Cassie a cup of coffee with so much hazelnut creamer in
it, it must have tasted like melted coffee ice cream.

“Thanks.
Exactly the way I like it,” Cassie said. with a weak smile. Not even that could cheer her today.

“Okay, what are you wearing today, Cass? It’s your big day, after all.” Taylor reached for her red pants and purple top.

“Are you seriously going to wear that?” Cassie pulled out her black skirt and black tank top. She had originally intended to wear a beautiful, shimmery beige dress, fit for the vaquita, and shell earrings. She remembered stuffing them under her bed last night after the last margarita. Today, black seemed appropriate.

“Black?
Seriously? This is important.” Taylor put her long brown hair in a ponytail and slipped on her purple sandals. “You’ve got to be ‘up’ about this. At least wear some jewelry or something.”

“I don’t feel ‘up’ at all,” Cassie said, as she slipped on a silver bracelet and earrings.
Peering into her jewelry bag, she spotted the silver necklace her mother had given her at graduation. It was a beautiful dolphin, and she slipped it over her head for good luck.

Walking to the window, Cassie looked for her shoes.
Finding them in the corner, she slipped them on, feeling as if she was as ready as she ever would be to tackle this event.

“You ready?” Taylor called from the kitchen.
“We need to get going.”

Grabbing her notes, Cassie glanced at herself in the mirror.
The dolphin glimmered at her throat, and she hoped it would take any attention away from her swollen eyes.