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Chapter Thirty-Two
- Noemi -
IWATCHED HIM KILLa man. I watched as Dante looped that whatever-it-was around the intruder’s neck and pulled it tight. I don’t think I’ll ever forget what Dante said to him, the coldness in his voice as he ordered the man to “fucking die.”
My hands shook as I finished putting our toiletries in our bags. My mind raced along with my heartbeat. What had just happened? Wrapping my arms around myself, I sat on the toilet and tried to make sense of it all. I wouldn’t be able to. I knew that. Dante, wearing nothing but black, had killed a man in our living area. A man he had been expecting? Why else would he have changed his clothes?
I took a deep breath. Why was the guy lurking around our bungalow in the dark? What would have happened if Dante hadn’t killed him? Dante said the intruder was there to kill me, to kill him. Both of us. But how would Dante have known that? Thank God Dante was there to stop him, but what if he was just there to rob us? Maybe it was just a break in and Dante had killed someone for no reason?
But that made no sense either. I heard what Dante said as he strangled the man. “You threatened her?”
None of it made any sense and I struggled to retain my control. I didn’t need to worry about it anymore, I told myself. Dante said he would call the police. He was doing so right now.
So then why had he locked me in the bathroom? To keep me away from the body? Like I really wanted to be out there, staring at a bloody dead man. I sneaked a peek into the shower where Dante had thrown his bloody clothing. If I hadn’t seen the blood on his hands as he’d washed them, I might not have known the wet splotches on his black clothes were blood stains. Wanting to gag, I covered my mouth with my hand and looked away again. Tears pricked my eyes, but I did as Dante said and stayed quiet in the bathroom.
Maybe, Dante was panicked, too and that was why he needed some space to call the police. I cringed at how lame that sounded. Dante was angry, but he didn’t come across as worried or uncertain. He was still his usual confident self. How much trouble would he be in? Even though it appeared that he knew the man was coming to the bungalow, Dante had killed him in self-defense. Didn’t he? He said we were leaving, but there’d be some sort of investigation, surely?
Holy crap. It was too much. Way freaking too much. I tried to calm my breathing. So many thoughts raced through my head. The minutes that I sat there felt like hours. I closed my eyes to blot out reality but opened them again when the images of Dante attacking that man invaded my peace.
After a while, I heard the murmur of voices. Thank God, the police had arrived. They’d want to talk to me, too, after they interviewed Dante and found out what had happened. For several minutes, I listened, not hearing anything clearly. People moved around. I couldn’t make out anything specific, but I was curious. They would come for me; I was sure of it. How stupid was I that I just did as Dante said and sat quietly in the bathroom? Was he trying to protect me? Why wouldn’t he want me to talk to the police? I would be able to explain that the man was in our bungalow uninvited and that Dante had done what he did to protect me.
Part of me wanted to call out and get some acknowledgement from the people on the other side of the door. The other part of me wanted to stay where I was and be quiet about it. I trusted Dante. He said he’d come for me. It made sense that I would stay out of the way and let them conduct their investigation. I think. But a nagging feeling told me something wasn’t right.
I moved closer to the door to try to hear what was happening on the other side. The voices grew louder but not because they were closer to me. The sounds were coming from over my head where there was an air vent. With the openness of the bungalow, the voices could have been coming from anywhere. Inside the bungalow. Outside on the lanai. I climbed on the toilet, getting as close to the vent as I could, and listened
“I’m sorry this happened. I promise, The Grand Tropican will make this up to you.”
“I don’t care about comps,” I heard Dante say, his voice laced with anger. “Someone tried to kill me on your property. If I find out that you, or anyone in your employment, betrayed me, these three won’t be the only dead bodies you have to deal with.”
Three? I slapped a shaking hand over my mouth. There were two more dead men out there somewhere? Had Dante killed them also?
“I should be offended that you even think I would be involved, but under the circumstances, I understand. I assure you that I had nothing to do with any of this and if my own investigation shows that any of my employees were involved, I will take care of them myself.”
Dante didn’t answer him.
The man, who I assumed was hotel management, laughed. “Can I tell you how impressed I am? This is quite good work. You took out three armed men in the dark.”
“Amateurs,” Dante muttered.
“Still, not bad work for a stockbroker,” the man laughed again.
“Shut the fuck up,” Dante growled. “How soon will you be done? My guest is locked in the bathroom. I’d like to get her out sometime today.”
“We’ll be done removing the bodies in a few minutes. Of course, cleaning will take a while longer. You nearly cut his head off, Dante. There’s quite a lot of blood to deal with.”
I gagged again. That must have been why Dante locked me in the bathroom. So that I wouldn’t have to see all the blood. But it was clear to me now that the man Dante spoke to was not the police. If he was seeing to the removal of the bodies, where was law enforcement?
“As soon as you get them out of here, we’re leaving.”
“How is your guest?” the man asked with a small hint of concern in his voice. I doubted his sincerity since he had laughed about the death of the three men Dante had apparently killed.
“She just watched me kill a man. How the fuck did you think she is?” Dante bit out. I could just see the anger on his face, his brow furrowed, his dark eyes narrowed.
“A few more minutes. If you’d like, we’ll pack for you and have your things sent to –”
“No. Thank you,” Dante sneered. “We’ll take what we can with us. You can burn the rest. If you’re determined to make this up to me, you can make it so that we were never here this weekend.”
“Again, my apologies,” the man said more contritely. “I promise you, Dante. We will do everything we can to atone for this incident and find out who is responsible.”
