by Debra Fisk
“Well, I’m here if you need to confide in someone. Now, you probably need to unwind with a massage and facial.”
Ana mumbled, “I do.”
Oh, how she wished she could confide in someone. It would be nice to get Jocelyn’s opinion. Ana really needed to tell someone about Marco. She had been so close to telling Noah last night, but she hadn’t wanted to ruin their evening with questions.
“It’s my brother,” Ana blurted out.
Jocelyn raised her eyebrows but remained silent.
Ana’s nerves turned to Jell-O. What was she thinking confiding in a stranger? She forced herself to go on. “He’s gotten into some kind of trouble, and I’m the only person in our family he’s been in contact with.” The torment of not knowing his level of involvement made her crazy.
Sitting across from Jocelyn in the comfortable over-plush chairs felt like a pre-spa therapy session.
“Luciana, I mean Ana, you have to protect yourself. I know you want to help Marco, especially because he’s your brother.” Jocelyn had such a calm way of speaking that she put Ana at ease.
“I’m going to give you a few key pieces of advice I used to give my clients.” Jocelyn looked Ana right in the eye. “The first one is, don’t allow others to steal your joy. Understand you aren’t in control of their actions. Sure, we can sympathize or feel pain when they make poor choices, or the wrong decisions, but at the end of the day, you need to take care of you.”
Ana sat in silence for a few moments. “I take it I’m not the only spa client who has come to you with family problems.”
Jocelyn smiled. “I’m sorry. I forgot to mention I used to be a life coach.” A strand of hair escaped her ponytail, and she tucked it behind her ear. “Now here is the second piece of advice. You can’t help people who don’t want to be helped. You can offer, but if they don’t take you up on it, you can’t control their actions. You also can’t allow them to drag you into their drama. Some people live for drama and negative attention.” Jocelyn shook her head. “What most people fail to realize is that, for these people, negative attention is still some form of attention.”
Ana blinked to release a few stray tears from her lashes. “I never thought of it that way.” She dabbed her cheeks with a tissue. “Marco did always seem to time a situation whenever something good was about to happen to someone else in our family. I realized years ago he sabotaged our families happiness.”
“Most people don’t. The last one is, never let go of your dreams. People will try to ruin your chance at happiness because they are unhappy, or maybe they’ve made poor choices and want everyone to be in the same situation. The saying misery loves company rings true for them.” Jocelyn took Ana’s hand. “Now let my team of professionals pamper you with a massage and facial.”
Lifting her hands in surrender, Ana sighed. “I’m ready.”
Jocelyn handed Ana a robe and introduced her to the massage therapist. Ana turned to Jocelyn with a wave and mouthed a thank-you. Jocelyn’s advice had really hit home with how Ana was feeling. For the first time in her life, she shelved the unwarranted guilt and focused on herself.
*****
Sitting on the bed in his villa, Noah closed his eyes to inhale the sweet fragrance of vanilla citrus that lingered in the room from Ana. He pulled on his bathing suit, grabbed a towel, and tossed it around his neck, determined to swim a few laps before breakfast. He walked out of the bedroom and into the main area where they had dined the night before. Two wine glasses rested on the table. He visualized her taking a sip as she had last night. His mind replayed how perfectly they’d fit together, and he was getting aroused. He’d made love to Ana, and it unnerved him. He’d sworn after Claudia’s betrayal that he would never give his heart again, never love again. The minor slipup didn’t change anything. Did it?
There were few things that made Noah uncomfortable in his own skin, and love was one of them. Not family love, but romantic love. There was no way he was in love with Ana. It was more of an extreme case of like. Okay, maybe that wasn’t the whole truth. It was more than like, but it couldn’t be love. Noah felt like a teenager whose hormones had exploded. He desired Ana more than any woman he’d ever known. It had to be just lust. Right? Whether he liked it or not, last night’s slip would be forgotten once the case was over anyway.
He checked his phone and looked at Ana’s schedule. Eucalyptus Spa. She would be there for two hours. Then he scanned her incoming calls. Marco had called again, but there was not enough time to pin his cellphone location other than on the island, which he’d already known. If they spoke long enough he could get the SIM card number and track his every move. Then he could finally question him and turn him over to the authorities for extradition back to New York.
Regret made his stomach queasy. Noah had to approach the subject of Marco to Ana before he brought him in for questioning, but how? Once she found out Noah’s real reason for being at Casa Blanca, she’d probably never speak to him again. He had to convince her he was Marco’s best chance at discovering the truth.
He turned his attention to another problem. The newspaper. He picked it up from where it rested on the counter. Someone was fishing for information about Noah’s whereabouts. If he was a gambling man, he’d bet it was the same unsavory individuals looking for Marco. He’d also bet whoever was leaking this false story to the Daily Globe had tapped his parents’ phones, expecting Noah to call their home, and then they’d have the information to track him down.
Evidently, whoever was after Marco wasn’t interested in raising too much suspicion. He was positive they could easily tap into Ana’s phone. So why hadn’t they made a move on Marco? He went over the details of the case in his mind. Then it hit him. They wanted more than just Marco. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. His gut said it had something to do with Ana. What did she know?
A muscle in his cheek twitched as he ground his teeth. Maybe Ana wasn’t as innocent as she seemed. Maybe she was helping Marco hide evidence. He almost regretted his growing feelings for her. He knew better—his heart and business should never mix. He’d been deceived once, and he’d be damned if he would be again.
He slid open the glass door and stepped out to the pool area and tossed the white towel on the chair. Salty air, a calm breeze, warm rays of sunshine, and the sound of water gently splashing along the shoreline greeted him instead of the sound of city traffic and the smell of exhaust. The intense heat was beginning to build, so he walked over to the edge of the pool and dived in head first, choosing to swim the first lap underwater, to help burn off the energy from his thoughts about Ana. When he reached the end, he spun around and continued for another lap, not bothering to come to the surface. Reaching the edge, he burst from the water, gasping for air.
“I hope you don’t mind that I let myself in.”
Noah snapped his head around at the sound of Luke’s baritone voice and wiped the water from his eyes. “No problem. What’s going on?”
He swam over to Luke and hoisted himself up onto the edge. It must be a security issue.
Luke stood with his hands on his hips. His dark glasses hid his eyes. “I thought you’d like to know that last night the security cameras picked up a man walking up from the beach and jogging around to the villas, to Ms. Talarico’s villa, to be exact. A security team was sent out to check it out, but found nothing. By the computer time stamps from the room key access, we knew Ms. Talarico wasn’t in her room.” Luke raised a questioning eyebrow from behind his glasses and rocked back on his heels.
Noah stated the obvious. “She was with me last night. From the footage, could you make out a face?” Marco might have decided to take a chance and come to the resort, but Noah doubted it, too risky. He walked over to the table, grabbed the towel, and wiped his face.
“No, he wore a hat and kept his head down. The poor lighting made it difficult to see.”
“Could it have been a case of a mistaken villa?”
Luke shook his head. “The time
stamps show no one entered or exited her villa for several hours before or after the intruder was spotted by the security team.”
“Maybe a fan of the Golden Ticket?” Noah’s gut said it was none of these and had everything to do with Marco or the people tracking him.
Luke pushed his glasses up on his head and pinned Noah with a hard stare. “Just thinking of a few possibilities, but I think we both know either Marco, or whoever is looking for him, has located Ana, and they want something from her or might want to try to use her to get to him.”
“I need you to take a more active role on the property. Up until now your role at Casa Blanca was designed for your cover, but now I need you as a temporary man on our security team until Marco is found and this contest is over. The safety of our guests and staff is at risk. Gabe said I can trust you, and his word is all I need.”
“You’ve got it. Just tell me what you need me to do, and I’m there.”
*****
Pissed off, nostrils flaring, and armed with a new security clearance, Noah left Luke’s office with renewed determination. The video footage of the figure lurking around Ana’s villa from the night before had steam blowing out of his ears. His alpha male wanted to protect Ana from the thugs searching for Marco. Clearly, the guy hadn’t been a misguided tourist. Both Noah and Luke had studied the computer screen detailing the shadowed figure’s movements. He’d checked doors and a few windows. Using a special device, the intruder tried to unlock the door with a flash, and when he didn’t have any luck there, he started to open the gate and go around back, but ran off when headlights from the security vehicles approached the villa.
Noah glanced at the time on his phone. Ana would be at the spa for another hour. He slipped on his sunglasses, hoping to remain unnoticed, and headed down the path straight to Ana’s villa.
Luke had reprogrammed Noah’s key to allow him access to all areas of the resort and had given him full security clearance. As he stood outside of Ana’s villa, he scanned the area to be sure no one noticed him. Not a soul in sight. He slid the key into the lock, the green light flashed, and the door clicked. He entered the cool sunlit room, a heavy cloak of guilt weighing on his conscience. Like in his villa, her sweet fragrance still hung in the air. His heart twisted in his chest, and every cell in his body buzzed with excitement. Supercharged, because he might be a step closer to capturing her brother, and vibrating from being surrounded by remnants of her. This might be the chance to settle his uneasy heart, a way to discover the real truth about Marco, or at least learn the depth of Ana’s involvement. Up until now, she’d payed it as cool as a pro, no nervousness or even a glimmer something wrong.
Noah checked the most obvious place first, the room safe, to see if it was locked. Reaching into his back pocket, he took out the security code Luke had given him that overrode the locking mechanism. He opened the door to find a mound of documents, a passport, and Ana’s product information for the contest. From what he could see, none of this was out of the ordinary.
Noah studied her drawings, business plan for the sportswear line, marketing ideas, contracts, and mockups of designs with promo slogans. He pulled out his phone and snapped a few pictures. Later, when he had more time, he could pull the images up on his computer and go over them in more detail. Returning the stack to the safe exactly as he’d found them, he turned his focus to her suitcases, clothing, and makeup in the bathroom. You could learn a lot from someone by rummaging through their things.
Reaching into her cosmetic tote, he pulled out a thick heart-shaped picture frame that held a faded family photo of Ana, her parents, and her brothers. Dressed in a ruffled, pink lace dress, wearing a hat, and carrying a purse, Ana looked like she might have been about three. Her father held her proudly in his arms while her mother held her brother Marco. Her older brother stood by their mother’s side. Regret slumped into the pit of Noah’s stomach.
Locking away his emotions, he tossed the photo back where he’d found it. Pop! The back sprang open. He reached into the bag to pick up the pieces and pulled out a tiny flash drive hidden behind the frame. Bingo! He’d bet that what was on this flash drive wasn’t secret information Ana was hiding from her competition. Dropping it into his shirt pocket, he hurried through the rest of the room, then slipped on his Ray-Bans and listened at the door to check if anyone was outside.
He clicked open the lock, stepped outside, and let the door close behind him. One step and he walked smack into Melonie and Whitney. Damn!
Melonie purred from behind a glittery rhinestone-framed pair of pink Juicy Couture sunglasses. Tossed curls cascaded down her shoulders, and she wore a blue bolero cardigan over an Aztec printed sundress. “Well, what we have here? Our very own security guard giving one particular contestant a few private sessions of self-defense instructions?”
Ignoring her comment, Noah nodded. “Whitney, Melonie. Are you two wearing your finished products?”
Whitney’s long, dark hair was drawn to one side and tied loosely at the nape of her neck. Her big dark eyes were hidden behind tortoise-shell glasses. Dressed in a pair of yellow shorts, a skimpy halter with matching sheer overlay, and platform white slips, she giggled. “We’re under contract not to discuss it.”
“What are you two doing here at the villa anyway? The area is off-limits for everyone except guests who are staying in the villas.” Surprised they slipped into the private area.
Whitney explained, “We came to see Ana. She’s not answering her phone. Where is she?” There was a sound of urgency in her voice.
“Ana’s at the spa,” Noah offered.
“So you were in her villa all alone?” Melonie grinned sheepishly.
“No, I stopped by to see if she was back yet.” As if he needed to explain his actions to these two.
“Hmm, if you say so. Are you and Ana an item?”
“I knew you were falling for her.”
“Sorry, ladies, but I have a security staff meeting in thirty minutes.”
“See you later, hon.”
“Ana isn’t the fling type. You better not hurt her,” Whitney warned.
He moved around the two nosy women, trying to escape as fast as he could. Whitney’s last comment grated on his nerves. Someone was going to get hurt, he knew it. His New York life seemed so far away. Casa Blanca was a magical place. With Ana snuggled in his arms, he never wanted to leave.
Tapping the flash drive in his shirt pocket, he knew he’d soon know the contents once he was in his villa next door and got the files open.
“You’re at the wrong villa,” a sultry voice crooned.
What the hell? Was it possible to walk five feet without being detained? “Courtney,” he murmured. “What brings you here? This isn’t exactly the way to the front desk.” Noah massaged his temple with one hand, fighting the urge to turn around and walk in the opposite direction.
Courtney advanced, closing the short distance between them. “No, it’s not.” She smirked. Like a hawk circling its prey, Courtney attempted to corral her catch.
Since Ana had arrived, Noah had done his best to avoid Courtney, or any place she might occupy when he was working. Maybe if he’d come here for vacation or under some other circumstances, she might have appealed to him, but his main goal was to stay close to Ana and find Marco.
In the past, he’d have taken whatever a woman like Courtney wanted to give. She was in it for the thrill of the game and evenings of fun. A man could tell when a woman like her was looking for an easy ride in every way possible.
“Then why are you here?” He dropped his hand to his side and waited, but she didn’t answer. Courtney gave him a pouty look, as if trying to say, Don’t you know? Oh, he knew all right, but shaking her off this time wasn’t going to be easy.
Time was running out before Ana would return from the spa. “Look, Courtney, I’d love to stay and chat, but I’m on my way to a meeting.” The urgency in his voice caught her attention. She moved a few steps back when she realized a matinee wasn’t going
to happen.
“Is something wrong?” She obviously needed to be assured that his polite rejection was for a reason other than that he wasn’t interested.
“We work together here, and I like to keep the two parts of my life separated.” It was true, he did, and that should be enough of a reason for her.
She cut him a look. “Are you sure there isn’t someone you’re a little more interested in?” She drew up an eyebrow in question, her gaze trying to bore through his dark glasses to see his eyes.
“You asked, I answered. If that’s not good enough, I’m sorry.” He turned around and walked away.
Almost out of earshot, he heard her whisper, “I’m sorry too.”
A few more feet and he was in his villa, cracking open a can of Pepsi he’d stocked in the fridge. Whipping off his sweat-stained resort shirt, he plugged in the flash drive. The green light flickered, and a notification box appeared on the screen asking for a password. It’d been a shot in the dark that he’d be able to get access, but he’d figured it wouldn’t hurt to try.
Damn. He’d have to find someone fast who could open the files. The first person who came to mind was Luke, and if he didn’t have the capabilities in his office, there was always Gabe’s tech-oriented sister, Francesca. Either way, by the end of the day, he’d have a good idea what Marco knew, who was after him, and if Ana was involved.
He took a few more sips of Pepsi and then checked Ana’s schedule and phone for any new activity. She should be leaving Eucalyptus in a few minutes. The rest of her schedule had stayed the same. She had an afternoon photoshoot with the Golden Ticket Contest.
He ejected the drive, grabbed a fresh shirt, and shot her a text asking her to contact him when she was free.
On his way to Luke’s office, his phone vibrated with a text. It was Ana.
I need to see you.
Did she know about his cover? What if one of the ladies at the spa mentioned that Noah was good friends with Gabe and worked for Luke? Too much was riding on this project. Maybe he should avoid Ana altogether.
