Page 17 of Heist in Paradise

She bristled at that. “I didn’t ask you to take off your masks. Besides, you’re all totally forgettable. Just faceless blobs to me.”

Nate jerked in offense while Callum snorted a quiet laugh into his fist.

“You like to play rogue detective.” I raised my brows pointedly. “How do I know you won’t start hunting us?”

A wry smile crossed her face. “I can only hunt one monster at a time.”

“That’s—” My throat clicked as bile rushed up. Shit.

“Don’t move,” I growled at her and retreated to the door. “I’ll decide what to do with you when I get back.”

“Do with me?” I heard her only faintly as I rushed to the nearest bathroom. Luckily, there were a dozen of them. The porcelain clattered as I dropped to my knees and finally purged the demon-sandwich. Sweat dripped into my eyes as I heaved myself into oblivion.

The bathroom door opened. A large body muscled in, closed the door, and leaned against it.

“You good, chief?”

“Fucking ace.”

“You look it.” Callum shook my shoulder gently. “Don’t worry, Jax. I got a plan.”

OLIVIA

God, this was awkward.

Without the leader breathing down my neck, I was left in silence so thick it suffocated me. None of them resumed the interrogation, but I sensed their questions, their doubts. After a minute, the big one at the door also dipped out, his absence only heightening the tension. I almost wanted to do something absurd, like break into a chant, just to provoke a reaction.

Real mature, Molly said.

The dark-haired menace who’d stolen my chocolate proceeded to flip through my binder with agonizing indifference. Everything I had was in that binder. Not just Molly but my own doodles and pathetic footnotes. I’d even painted little broken hearts on the back cover with nail polish because I was feeling sorry for myself. At his quiet huff of amusement, I resisted the urge to leap over the table and tackle him. I wanted to guard my binder like a mother dragon, but I knew that was stupid. And likely suicidal

Also not mature.

Shut up, I snapped. With a small huff, I sat down in my chair and placed my hands primly in my lap. I would be good. Prove I wasn’t a threat to them, whoever they were.

But then the dark-haired menace chuckled again, and my temper flared. Molly’s diary wasn’t exactly flattering for me. She’d been downright brutal sometimes, recalling every pimple-related meltdown and awkward-puberty mishap like she was studying me. I was the primate to her perfect.

I sat on my hands before I did something drastic. Finally, after a long agonizing eternity, I broke.

“Did he invoke a code of silence or something?”

There was a beat where I thought no one would respond. Then the girl spoke. “Or something.”

The look she gave me was dripping with disdain. I was no stranger to that look—usually it was accompanied by a sweet smile and empty compliments, right before they stabbed me in the back. I’d been popular all my life. I had security, money, and privilege. I didn’t blame them for hating me, but I also wasn’t a pushover to it.

“You guys here for business or pleasure?” I asked sarcastically.

It was the pretty boy who spoke. He was closer to my comfort zone—well-groomed, aristocratic-looking, with really good teeth. “Oh, pleasure. We’re here to catch some sun, surf, and sex.” He flashed his perfect teeth at the unimpressed girl beside him. “We were long overdue for a vacation, right, babe?”

“Don’t call me babe.”

“I thought you liked it. Fine. Love of my life, sun of my galaxy, buster of thy mighty balls—what would you prefer?”

“Silence.” But there was fondness in her voice. She accepted the loud smacking kiss he blew her before she returned her attention to me. “We’re not telling you anything until the boss comes back.”

“You can’t even tell me his name?” I kept my tone light, like I didn’t care either way. The look she gave me, all eyebrows and pursed lips, told me I wasn’t fooling anyone.

Her fratty boyfriend shrugged. “He-who-shall-not-be-named will be quite miffed if we did. You are still a threat to our whole operation. We usually eliminate threats.”