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“You didn’t scare me. I don’t get scared.” Scowling, I lower into a crouch and collect my file and its wax-paper contents. Tri-fold pamphlets. Medical studies I’ve been meaning to read. Pushing everything back together and snapping the file closed, I straighten out and meet the dancing eyes of a man I swear I’ve never met before in my life. “You know my name. But I don’t know yours. You have me at a disadvantage.”
“Not at all my intention.” He offers his hand and a less arrogant smile. “Calum, Doctor Mayet. I noticed you left your room and thought you may be searching for breakfast.”
“Calum?” I reset my folder beneath my left arm and take his offered hand with my right. “Bartender?”
“All-arounder,” he clarifies. “I work the bar and stock the breakfast options. I can take your order and bring it to the chef, if you prefer, or I can leave you completely alone. My job is to make sure you’re comfortable, and seeing as Mr. Malone is not walking with you right now, I wanted to make sure I was completing my duties in his absence.”
“Mr. Malone is busy.” I lift my chin and take back my hand.He’s busy, sleeping naked and showing off for the seafolk.“Do you do coffee, Calum?”
“Of course.” He drops his hands to his hips and nods. “You can follow me to the dining room, if you wish, and I can get that for you. Or you can go wherever you please, and I’ll come find you. Mr. Malone has requested your needs are met, no matter what they are.”
“Right.” I turn from the man, he may be a couple of years younger than me, and start in the direction I think the diningroom is in. “Do you often follow Mr. Malone’s orders blindly?” I look back, silently approving when he breaks away from his position and follows. “Do you enjoy working for the Malones?”
“I enjoy my work very much.” He catches up and walks alongside me. But he keeps his distance, an easy two feet between his shoulder and mine. He wears black pants and a crisp white shirt, the cuffs unfastened, and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. If Aubree wasn’t already head-over-heels in love with a different bartender, I’d consider making the introduction.
She likes forearms and the smell of liquor—I assume.
“I haven’t worked for the family for long, Doctor. But the time I’ve spent here has been enjoyable. This way.” He turns left when my body angles to the right, but although his hands seem to flex with a need to reach out, he stops at the hallway intersection and waits for me to reroute. “The other Mr. Malone has been good to me.”
“The other Mr. Malone?” I turn and follow him toward the dining room. “As in, Felix?”
“Yes, Doctor.” He ambles, his steps leisurely and unrushed. “I have sailed with Felix twice already this year. And once with Micah Malone.”
“Did you know Timothy Malone? Their father,” I clarify.Not the one who lives next door to me in Copeland City.
“Not personally, Doctor Mayet.” He precedes me through a doorway and breaks away to move behind the bar while I wait on my side of the long divider. Quick as a flash, he grinds coffee beans and steams milk in a steel jug. “I was sorry to hear of that Malone’s passing. A tragedy.”
“Not really.” I meander closer and set my file on top of the bar. I don’t sit on one of the many stools lining the room, but I place my elbows down and lean for comfort. “Timothy Malone the Second was a bastard. The only tragedy was that he lived long enough to torture his sons.”
Calum, of course, is a smart enough man not to comment on my thoughts. For all he knows, I’m baiting him into saying things that could get him killed. So he froths his milk and flattens his lips.
“Who owns this boat, Calum?”
When he looks across in question, I add, “Specifically. Like, was it Timothy Malone’s, and all a part of the estate passed down after he died? Does it belong to Felix now?”
“It belongs to the five brothers equally, Doctor.” He brings his eyes back to his work when mine narrow. “The brothers have equal shares.”
My intuition niggles at the back of my mind. My temper, dancing close by and flirting for resolution. “And how much does a boat like this cost?”
“Uh…” Struggling, he clears his throat and avoids my eyes at all costs. “Well… that depends, I suppose.”
“It depends?” I inhale the delicious scent of coffee now that hot water runs through the crushed beans. “Why does it depend?”
“Because to purchase the materials to build this boat…” he hesitates. “I don’t know, Doctor. Perhaps five or six million dollars?”
A lump stops in my throat and makes it difficult to breathe. “Okay. And the difficult part of your thoughts?”
“Something is worth however much someone is willing to pay for it, right?” He casts a guilty glance my way. “I know an offer was made on this particular vessel just last month. Felix Malone, in conjunction with his brothers, quietly declined, choosing instead to hold onto their asset.”
“How—” I draw a deep breath and wage an internal battle.Don’t ask. Don’t talk about numbers when those numbers have nothing to do with you.“How much was the offer, Calum?”
“One hundred thirty million dollars.” Seemingly in a rush, he shuts off the steamer with a snap and pours hot milk into a tall mug to cover the brewed coffee. “That offer was not the only made for this boat, Doctor. But the brothers do not wish to part with their asset.” He sprinkles a little chocolate on top of the foam and sets the mug in front of my arm. “If that’s all?”
“It’s all.” I snatch up my breakfast and the manila folder after it, then I turn from the bar and gaze out to the Caribbean Sea. Windows, windows, so many of them, they remind me of my office back in Copeland.
That’s not to say the reminder is a bad thing.
I love my work, and I love my coworkers more. So I start forward, my flip-flops slapping my heels as I walk, and zeroes—a whole bunch of them—flash through my mind. One hundred thirty million freakin’ dollars.A hundred and thirty million of them! In a daze, Scrooge McDuck swimming in a pool filled with dollar bills plays in the back of my mind as I make my way outside and drop onto a lounger that overlooks the perfect, blue sea.
