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“He’s right, I did tell him he could have a plus-one,” Christine added.
“Why?” Jasmine asked.Because this mission doesn’t preclude me from finding a partner.
“To be fair, I thought he’d bring his sister or something,” Christine mumbled, and the group snickered. Christine sent me a look that told me she was picking on me in good fun, but I wasn’t laughing.
So fucking funny.
“You guys are real comedians. You are busting my gut here,” I said sarcastically and rolled my eyes. “Anyways, when we interviewed the locals last night, we got two types of reactions. There were those who were real cagey, avoided talking about the disappearances entirely, and told us to go away. They said they didn’t want that bad energy around.”
“What’s even weirder is they didn’t deny that something strange was going on. They just didn’t want to talk about it. They almost seemed…scared,” Jasmine added.
“That is strange, but I can’t believe you went without me. You couldn’t wait until this morning?” Jones asked.
“No, you had other commitments, and I wanted to get a head start on this. Today was going to be busy enough anyway,” Jasmine answered.
“Hey, she was ready to go out on her own. At least I got her to wait until I arrived,” I told Jones.
“Thanks, man,” he said and held his hand out for a fist bump.
“Gotta look out for my girls,” I said with a wink to Christine and Jasmine. They giggled, and their guys rolled their eyes at me. Even Yates looked annoyed that I tried stealing his vibe, funny and charming. He could keep his prosthetic, though.
“What about the other response?” Christine pressed.
“The other response was rambling. Several of the locals would not stop talking about it. They were visibly upset and mentioned this has been going on for years now. A group of Europeans showed up on the island, and there have been disappearances ever since. They happened before but were a lot less frequent,” I answered.
“Did they happen to name drop or say which country the Europeans were from?” Mendez asked.
“No, they said they couldn’t talk about that without their lives being in danger. They were more than happy to talk about the missing women and a few children. There’s a long list. More than we realized.” It was quiet for a moment as we all reflected on that. The only sounds were our chewing and the background noise from the other guests in the dining area with us.
“Did they mention the other islands?” Yates asked, breaking our solemn silence.
“No, they have no idea about what’s going on around them. Most of these people live paycheck to paycheck. They can’t afford to leave the island and observe the rest of the world,” Jasmine said.
I felt a pang of guilt. Everyone thought island life was perfect, but that was only if you were a tourist and had money. The locals who lived in the bad part of the island didn’t have money—and they hardly had the same feelings we did about the island. For us, it was paradise; for them it was just a prettier version of the slums.
“So now what?” Jones asked.
“Now we take some time to look into the Europeans. This Ricketts guy has real estate in Europe, so this could be another way we confirm that the intel from Boss was good. However, when the locals said Europeans, it made me think there are other people involved. Could be his lackeys, they could be business partners. It’s possible that there is someone else involved who outranks Ricketts.” I could only imagine the tangled web an organization like this would have. From what Boss explained, the Vegas trafficking system was a lot smaller and newer. Ricketts was in operation well before Robbie was. “The thing about this intel is that it came from an interrogation, but it doesn’t make it the truth.”
“He’s got a point. I think we need to cast a wide net and see what’s relevant,” Yates said and then shot a look at Guy.
“I’m on it,” Guy said, and he opened his laptop screen. The man didn’t go anywhere without a computer, even breakfast.
Everyone shut up for a few minutes while Guy quietly sleuthed through the internet and ate his breakfast. We were all wrapped up in our own thoughts. There was still a lot to figure out. We had the complication of being in a foreign country. At Vegas, Jasmine was the source of intel and we trusted her. We couldn’t trust anything that Robbie had shared with Boss, even if we wanted to believe it was true.
Christine and Wells were making googly eyes at each other, and if we weren’t here for their wedding, I would have teased them about it. Even Yates was holding back, which was strange.
Things were about to change for our group; I could just feel it. While Christine had practically been a part of our group for over two years now, and Jasmine a year, things were serious. I could tell that Jones was head over heels for Jasmine, and one day we’d be attending their wedding.
A pang of jealousy hit me. We all had issues, and it took a special woman to see past them. Wells was a grouchy, overprotective caveman, and Jones was the reformed player, but me, I was just some intimidating-looking brute with a thing for pain. They were both locked down and happy, and I was over here feeling desperate. So much so that I invited a stranger to a wedding with me because she was hot.
As I stuffed a bite of crepe into my mouth, I wondered what Abby was up to.
“So, how hot is this chick?” Yates asked me as he nudged my shoulder with his.
I rolled my eyes at his question. I knew what he was up to, and I could see right through it. He stirred up trouble whenever he could. That seemed to be a habit of his when a new woman was brought into the fold. Not that Abby was really in our fold. She was just my date for tomorrow. She wouldn’t be in the fold unless she knew all about our mission and was involved, but that wouldn’t happen. I couldn’t take a chance of her interfering with our work. What if she went to the local police to tell them about what we planned to do? Even if she did that with good intentions, it could backfire and blow all of our plans sky high. Our group would hate me for that. Not only could she ruin our plans, but her involvement could put her in danger. I planned on making sure that she stayed safe while she was here on vacation and didn’t end up as another face on a missing poster. There were already enough of those fluttering around the island. I hadn’t missed the young, pretty faces looking back at me from the corkboards in local establishments. I didn’t want her on one.
I couldn’t trust the good intentions of someone without skin in the game. Both Christine and Jasmine had been trustworthy because they had something to lose. Abby didn’t.
