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“I went to the town today. I didn’t see any celebrations taking place.”

“Take the car and go back. It’ll be different tonight. Of course, you won’t be joining the festivities—outsiders aren’t allowed to attend. But I’m more than willing to lend you the car. I’d enjoy seeing you come back with your tail tucked under your ass. The staff won’t be back until Monday. They’ll be recovering tomorrow, and they refuse to work on Sunday because it’s a—”

“Religious holiday,” Desmond finished for him. “How in the fuck do you manage to run this place?”

Rhone grinned at him. “Hence why my ass is out here, getting umbrellas.”

“Damn. Gabriel didn’t do you any favors.”

“Nope. I didn’t find out about all the holidays until the third day of construction when everything came to a standstill. I thought my construction manager was going to have a stroke.”

Desmond couldn’t help but to start laughing, too. “And you’re tied to the contract to build the hotel and run it for fifty years.”

Rhone gave him a pained look. “Not only that, but I was losing my ass on construction costs. So, to get them to work on holidays until the job was finished, I had to promise that either I or a family member would be responsible for running the hotel to prove my commitment to them. Gabriel didn’t do me any favors. He sabotaged me.”

“Damn.” Desmond gave a low whistle. “Why didn’t you just tell me this shit when I kept asking about Clindale?”

“Bro, it was bad enough to get suckered by Gabriel, then the locals here. I wasn’t about to confess this clusterfuck to you, Mister Dot Every Fucking I Twice.”

“I warned you about Gabriel when you joined, and then again when you left AWR.”

“Which is another reason I didn’t tell you. I’ve never been good at hearing I told you so.”

“Is there anything I can do—”

“Actually, there is. Quit playing mind games with Haley. I was serious when I said I would marry her. She would run this place like a champ.”

“While you’re out running around, resuming your other pursuits? Namely, bagging every woman or business that catches your interest.”

“Yeah … well … let’s not go into what I would do,” Rhone deflected his own motives for wanting to use Haley to switch it back to him. “What are you going to do?”

“What I have to do,” Desmond said grimly.

“At least don’t sound so cold-blooded about bamboozling Haley. What’s the deal with you, anyway? I know you want to help find them. Hell, I would give my left nut to find them, too, but … fucking hell, you even sent some big dude here looking for them. You need to chill.”

Desmond’s chest tightened. “What big dude?”

“He said his name was Reaper. Scared me out of ten years of my life. Flew in here using a distress call to get my permission to land. He wouldn’t leave until I gave him a tour around the island and he talked to several of the locals.”

“You gave him a tour?”

“He was a scary dude. I wasn’t telling him no for anything.”

“He’s the reason I’m trying to find them.”

Rhone gave a sympathetic glance. “Now I understand. I would be scared shitless if he were on my back to find them, too.”

“Reaper has no idea I’m trying to help him.”

“Then …?”

“Reaper was kidnapped and tortured within an inch of his life. Not only did they violate him, they videotaped their torture of him over a span of ten years. I would have offed myself after ten days, yet the man you met survived ten years. I’ve been able to get the videos scrubbed from the Internet and set off malware to anyone who tries to view the videos that were downloaded to other computers. Cost me a fortune. Dante Caruso has a computer whiz who can hack into Area 51 if he wanted to.

“Reaper won’t stop until he finds out what happened to the people who lived in Clindale. Next time, he might not be so lucky when he goes searching. Reaper is doing it for his wife, and he won’t stop. He doesn’t know how to.”

“Now I wish you hadn’t told me. I’d give both nuts if it helped. Unfortunately, I’m clueless.”

“Welcome to my world. I’m at a standstill unless Haley or Sal find someplace else I can search from on Gabriel’s computer that I gave him.”

“I hope you find them, bro. I really do. Anything I can do, just let—”

“There is… quit flirting with Haley.”

“Since when are you jealous?”

“I’m not jealous. I just don’t want to make this a competition between you and me.”

Rhone chortled at him. “Because you know I’d win. Who could resist me?”

“I could name a few, but I won’t,” he said snidely. “By the way, that reminds me, you gave Haley your cell number and wouldn’t me; why is that?”