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I’d make sure he went away for life.
Then, it’d be my pleasure to conveniently let slip to his fellow inmates that he was a child killer. His stay at His Majesty’s pleasure would be less than pleasant—exactly what the bastard deserved.
I looked across at our girl. She was preoccupied, staring out the window at the cloudless blue sky, her knee bouncing. She was dressed casually in one of Tristan’s button-down shirts, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Her stilettos had long since been kicked off and her legs were now covered with a blanket, but she was still cold. Her nipples were peaked, hard buds under the material of the shirt.
I closed my laptop, not in the mood to finish the report I’d been writing. Shifting over to sit opposite her on the armchairs, I asked, “Want to talk about it?”
She blinked, her gaze slowly coming into focus as she turned to me. “Sorry?”
“Want to talk about what’s going to happen?”
“No. It’s better if I just go there alone and kill the fucker myself.”
I couldn’t help the bark of incredulous laughter that bubbled up. I softened the blow by reaching for her dainty hands and threading our fingers together. Hers were cold. I rubbed them, trying to warm her up, but she needed another blanket. First, though, I needed to clear up the misconception she was living under.
“You have four men who love you like the earth loves the sun and the moon.”
My gaze flicked to Tristan, who stood up and gestured at the extra blanket perched on the end of his seat. I nodded, and he brought it over, then wrapped it around her shoulders before tucking a loose lock of hair behind her ear.
“There is no way on earth that you’re seeing that man alone,” I continued, leaving no room for argument in my tone. She may be our queen, but I was prepared to risk her accusation of treason if it meant keeping her safe.
Tristan added, “If he was dangerous enough to kill your mum and brother, he could do the same to you. Between the five of us, we can stop him, but only if we’re there too. We can’t keep you safe if you go alone.”
“He killed my mum and my brother—”
“Sure, okay. Let me just go tell Ry that you’re doing this alone, then,” I threatened.
She huffed and rolled her eyes. It was a low blow, but if he had any inkling that she’d even thought of doing it alone, he’d turn the damn plane around.
Tristan added, “We know how important it is to you to get justice. But if he hurts you, then what? If we’re together, we can take the bastard down.”
“Fine,” she grumbled, but I suspected it wouldn’t be the last we’d heard of her cockamamie suggestion.
Flynn chose that moment to walk down the corridor from the cockpit. “We’re about half an hour out from starting our descent. The resort knows we’re on the way. They’ll have transportation waiting to take us to the hotel.”
The resort he was talking about was a private getaway for the uber rich on an island off Langkawi. It was serviced by its own private airport. Even though the reason for our trip was hanging over us like a storm cloud, I couldn’t wait to see it. I was more excited for Zali. Tristan had wanted to treat her to a night of luxury. He’d looked in Kuala Lumpur, but Ry had asked for a smaller airport. It wasn’t until Zali had handed Tristan her platinum card and cancelled the price ceiling on his search that he found the resort.
And it was perfect.
There were four traditional chalets on the island, each one resembling a log cabin constructed on a platform over the water. But while they looked simple from the outside, inside they were opulent. The beds—covered in silk sheets and mounds of pillows—were strategically placed under retractable ceilings, allowing for stargazing at night. The lounge featured a sunken glass viewing floor to the reef below, and the deck immediately outside allowed easy access to the water and the perfect spot to watch the sunset over the Malaca Strait. The staff, including the Michelin-star chefs who prepared every meal and delivered them anywhere on the island, were on call 24-7. They catered to guests’ every whim.
We would be sticking to the chalet, but the island itself looked magical too. Walking tracks that meandered through the jungle led to twin waterfalls with deep clear pools perfect for swimming in. Others led up the steep slope to the lookout—the perfect place for a proposal if the photos online were anything to go by.
Despite the staff and the other chalets, the resort was entirely private. The chalets were secluded, separated from one another by both the natural landscape and swipe card access to the private beach they were perched over. Apart from the private airport and obvious luxury, the main drawcard was the resort’s seclusion. The only guests we wanted to see were the ones we were travelling with.
Clothes would be optional from the moment we stepped into the chalet until the moment we left.
It was exactly what Zali needed.
It was exactly what we all needed—a chance to connect with one another before this next step. It was naïve to think that we’d be the same people on the way home. Tris had admitted to needing a moment for all of us to be together before everything went down, and I’d wanted something special that we could remind ourselves of when we were facing dark days. I only hoped it worked.
*****
The sun was starting to dip low in the sky as I looked out at the ocean beyond the cove our chalet was situated in. Icy mocktails were waiting for us on a tray, and there were more in the frozen slushie machines on the deck behind us. A fruit platter was delivered to our door as the porters were carrying our luggage into the chalet.
Dinner was three hours away—the staff would deliver our seafood spread so that we didn’t even have to go to the restaurant. It was enough time for us to have a swim and possibly even snorkel at least part of the reef surrounding us.
Tristan’s heat blanketed my back, the sun warming my front. It was humid, not even a faint breeze coming off the Strait of Malacca to our west. The glasslike surface of the water, marred only by the occasional ripple from a fish’s tail breaking the surface, was calling to me, but I didn’t want to get in without the others.
