Page 75 of His Talisman

I touched my lips, feeling that glow that you get from kisses, and smiling. “You nutter.”

“None of that.” He smacked my butt. “Couldn’t let the doc beat me at kissing. I’ll be back though, Charity. Bet on it.” His eyes were hard, reminding me of his promises.

The doctor didn’t know how possessiveandobsessive this man was.

Or that Cassius was doing more than supervising my so-called treatment by the doctor, because his employer had suspicions.

“Ignore the show-off. These are for you to use when swimming at Rose Bay.”

That was the name on the island map for the beach where we swam…where I swam, beside the fallen tower. He placed a gift-wrapped shoebox on the table. The wrapping paper was thin pink tissue.

“Don’t open this until after we leave. Stay safe, Charity.”

* * *

I obeyed the doctor. I didn’t open the gift until they’d left. I guess I had sensed some importance attached to the gift because I procrastinated. I went to the Inner Sanctum, finished a comprehensive list of a modern interpretation of the wordintemerata, which didn’t take me long because all I really did was visit a few extra sites on Latin translations. I added one more that came to me, pushed back the chair, and went down to breakfast in the main dining room. By myself, eating there felt ever stranger. The men had kept their hands off me at mealtimes ever since the first time.

I climbed the stairs to the bedroom, sat on the now very empty emperor-sized bed—I liked to imagine that was its size. The loneliness was new, yet I’d felt this as the helicopter rose into the air.

I undid the tiny gold ribbon, unwrapped the shoebox, then pushed off the lid. I doubted Cassius knew what was in this.

Reef shoeswas written on the cardboard informational insert.Guaranteed to keep your soft mortal feet safe from all the nasties like scrapes, stings, and spines. Note, we can’t guarantee these will ward off the bitey sharks. Take care in the sea, hoomans!

Reef shoes. It suggested someone had been watching me swim where I was told not to. And yet, the doctor had merely given me these. No punishment, nothing else at all.

Tentatively, I figured he must be okay with me exploring, despite the possible dangers. I’d never worn the pendant in the sea because it wasn’t waterproof. Maybe the pendant location had given him ideas about what I was doing, since I was frequently going to the beach where he’d warned me about the stonefish.

Whichever, this had to be his way of saying ‘you can do stuff, just be careful’.

I pulled the shoes from the box and tried them on.

“Perfect.” I wriggled my toes inside the skin-hugging shoes. The red, pink, and blue design on them was of an abstract coral reef with squiggly seaweed, coral, and fish.

Nothing in the box explained the mild dread occupying my mind and stomach. I dressed in a sun dress and one-piece swimmers, hat, pendant, then found the car keys and all the paraphernalia I needed for a beach visit and a swim into the tunnel. With one hand, Icupped my stomach.

I thought I knew why the existential dread was squirming about inside me.

I’d come to like both men for who they were, for who I thought they were.

I liked them, but here I was again about to try to prove the doctor was a murderer or had concealed some other bad thing.

And there was Cassius, still following Jacob’s orders, aiding me in my explorations, and wanting those answers.

Did the doctor know we were digging for this? He might sense something was not quite what it should be. He must do. If I took his side, if I said anything, I might have to reveal Cassius as a betrayer.

I frowned. The doctor must knowsomething? If he discovered our deception and it was a total shock, the two men would be pitted against each other. And me? I really did not know that answer. All the balls were in play and bouncing off each other.

Maybe he did know, and he was in fact grooming both Cassius and me for something. These past few days, he’d changed, he’d altered course in some way.

I sighed. “Fuck this.” I clattered down the stairs to the car.

22

CHARITY

I left the reef shoes on a brick beside the beach hut. They’d become a sort of a symbol of my commitment.

I climbed the path up to the fallen tower then approached the cliff.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com