Page 15

In the morning, Dean didn’t mention her tornado hair or her post-drinking morning breath. He just kissed her soundly and ran out the door for the breakfast shift. He also didn’t mention nightmares, which she considered a good sign. In fact, she didn’t remember dreaming at all, just deep and endless sleep that left her feeling less tattered.

It was a feeling she didn’t want to lose. Jess wondered if she could just stay on this side of the property until Blister decided he’d asked her enough questions. She could tell Trenton she didn’t need his money. She could fly back to Nashville without any guilt whatsoever—but if she did that, she would have to live with knowing she lied to Trenton, because she did need his money.

She’d tried. She really had. But this whole week was starting to feel like a fever dream. From the start, Jess had been chasing the idea that she could make this last-minute, half-assed job into some sort of life-preserving miracle, but now…two people were dead. That seemed like a bad sign, in terms of miracles.

Outside, the wind was whipping leaves off the trees, stripping them bare as fat, cold raindrops spattered against the windows. She saw a bright yellow rain jacket through the haze on the glass, walking toward the door. She rose to open it, but her hand drew back from the knob.

Given all the weird deaths, maybe she shouldn’t open the door to this unknown yellow blur.

“Open the door, Bricker!” a familiar voice called from the other side of the glass. “You brother-seducing hussy.”

Jess opened the door to find Sis standing there under an umbrella with an amused look on her face. “I woke up before dawn to find your bed empty. Clearly, I should have put some sort of bell on the door to alert me to you sneaking out like a hormonal teenager.”

“I couldn’t sleep,” Jess said. “And Dean and I didn’t do…anything, we just—”

“I don’t need details. I’m just happy for you,” Sis said. “Though it goes without saying that if you hurt my brother when he’s opening up for the first time in decades, I will murder you. I might be able to make it look like a spa-related accident, considering the week we’ve had.”

“Too soon,” Jess told her. “But understood. I won’t do anything to hurt Dean. At least not on purpose.”

Sis held up Jess’s bag. “I brought your clothes. Poppy says your group is having breakfast at the main lodge, if you’re up for it.”

Jess groaned loudly. She was not proud of it.

“You don’t have to go,” Sis assured her. “Dean said you have complete access to his fridge or he will make something for you, if you don’t want to see them.”

Jess thought of Kiki, left behind with that den of snakes. Not to mention poor Sev, who was going to have to deal with the logistics of getting Chad home to his family. She hadn’t liked Chad, but Sev seemed like a decent guy. Jess could be of some use to him, as opposed to just sitting around an Osbourne’s house twisting herself into knots. And desperately resisting the urge to go through Dean’s stuff.

“I’ll go,” Jess sighed. She went to Dean’s bathroom and pulled on her most comfortable joggers and claimed a faded blue hoodie of Dean’s.

“I see we’ve given up on ‘lavish, romantic, and innovative,’?” Sis said dryly as Jess walked out.

“Don’t forget ‘genuine’!” Jess chirped, pulling her shoulder in front of her chin in a mockery of a pouty pose.

“Don’t get me wrong. You look cute as a button,” Sis told her. “But I saw Diana when Jonquil and Poppy were driving the group up the hill for breakfast. The girl was wearing what looked like a church dress—in that weird tampon package pink color she’s always wearing. What is with the pink?”

“It’s her signature color.” Jess cringed. “I’m pretty sure that was the dress she wants to wear for the proposal, which I think she believes is still happening today, despite the best man having died in a sauna accident yesterday. I imagine she’s wearing it as a reminder to me. I haven’t gotten the job done.”

“Oh, fuck her,” Sis said as they locked Dean’s front door behind them. “It’s not like you planned to find Chad’s body just to interrupt her precious social media posts—unless, of course, you murdered Chad just to interrupt her precious social media posts, in which case, you were the last person I would have suspected. Good for you.”

Jess shook her head. “Again, too soon.”

***

The yellow crime-scene tape flapped violently in the cold wind as they trudged around the thermal suite. The rain clouds seemed to be passing over them with all the speed of an angry mob. The spa felt more than empty; it felt abandoned, and brought to mind the story Beth told her about location scouts and horror movies. Jess supposed the Osbournes never felt this weird isolation, having one another around.

As they passed the “Y” in the path that led to the main lodge, a piece of litter fluttered across the ground, an anomaly on the pristine Golden Ash campus. Jess bent to pick up the matchbook that Chad must have dropped on the ground the day before when he’d lit his cigarette. Jess turned it over in her hands. The bright green logo was damaged from the rain but it was still there—a leaping bass breaking through the surface of a lake near the Sportsman’s Lodge Motor Inn. Just off Route 9.

Fuck .

Well, that explained why Diana seemed to be taking Chad’s death a little harder than was appropriate. Chad and Diana hadn’t just been arguing that afternoon Jess and Sev had spotted them. That was a lovers’ quarrel. Diana had been sleeping with Chad.

At a fishing motel.

Not exactly lavish, innovative, or romantic.

“You OK?” Sis asked.

Jess nodded, shoving the tattered matchbook in her pocket. They entered the main lodge to find Poppy answering questions with a calm authority usually reserved for press conferences post–natural disaster. Meanwhile, Jess’s party sat like some Renaissance painting celebrating a feast of displeased dickheads.

Dean waved to her from inside the kitchen, but without a weapon this time, so that was nice. Jess idly wondered about the location of Susan Treadaway or Zephyr, but thought she was better off not knowing.

“Yes, but I don’t understand why we have to talk to the police,” Aubrey was saying. “We didn’t see anything. It was Jess—”

Aubrey paused as her eyes bulged, taking in Jess’s extremely casual outfit. “Jessie, what are you wearing ?”

“Clothes,” Jess shot back as Poppy handed her a cup of coffee. Kiki offered her an awkward little wave. Diana was so focused on stroking Trenton’s shoulder that she didn’t even look up as Jess approached. Trenton looked miserable, sallow and drawn, his eyes red-rimmed.

Sev was…where was Sev?

“Never mind Jess’s unfortunate choices, fashion or otherwise,” Aubrey sniffed. “Please tell me that you have some plan to accommodate our party in whatever facilities are still open. I would hope that we’re not expected to just sit around, staring at the walls, while we wait for the police to release us.”

Poppy appeared to be dumbstruck by this.

“You really want to use the thermal suite after this?” Jess marveled at her, shaking her head.

“Well, obviously the thermal suite is closed, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t get our money’s worth,” Diana huffed, turning her attention from Trenton. “You can still do facials and manicures, right?”

Of course, it wasn’t Diana’s money, but Trenton had the good grace not to bring that up. He was too busy staring into his plate, picking at his eggs, while Diana rubbed his arm.

Jess simply stared. Did Diana really expect the Osbournes to continue to provide mani-pedis and facials when someone had just died in their facility?

“I’m sure we can arrange something,” Poppy said, through gritted teeth. “Let me talk to the staff.”

“I was going to help Sev with the logistics of dealing with…everything,” Jess said. “Can you tell me where I can find him?”

“I think he’s still back at the villa. Something about packing up Ch—” Trenton swallowed heavily. “Chad’s stuff.”

“Well, then, I think I’ll just take this delicious coffee and a pastry and go down to the villa to help him,” Jess said, backing toward the door.

“Aw, that’s sweet, Jess,” Trenton said, beaming at her and then turning to Diana. “Isn’t she sweet?”

“Jessie, what could you possibly do ?” Diana asked, following as Jess backed toward the door.

“Something useful,” Jess replied, walking out of the lodge and toward the villas. Dean stepped out of the kitchen as though he was going to follow her.

Poppy cleared her throat. “Jess, why don’t you let me walk you down?”

“I can go with you,” Dean offered. Behind him, Jess could see Jamie working three different pans on the stove.

“You both have your hands full here,” Jess said, looking toward her table.

“At least take this. The rain is picking up,” Dean said, handing her his dark green rain jacket. She took it and slipped it on. Had he been listening to her table’s conversation the whole time? Weirdly, that made Jess feel better, that he was looking out for her. “I don’t love you spending time with Sev, but I also don’t love telling you what to do. So just be careful.”

“I will, I promise,” she told him and then kissed his cheek. Over his shoulder, Jess could see Diana’s brown eyes narrowing, her lip curled back. Jess walked away and, not for the first time, wondered if she was a fool to turn her back on Diana Helston.

***

It took quite a few knocks before Sev answered. He looked…well, perfectly handsome because he was Sev, but tired enough that he had dark shadows underneath his eyes.

The Serenity Villa was anything but. The poor housekeeping staff couldn’t possibly keep up with the amount of filthy clothes and wet towels three grown men had dropped and walked away from. Dirty room service dishes were strewn across the kitchen countertop. And the living area, while just as tastefully decorated as the Tranquility Villa, had a familiar distinct bad Parmesan smell that made Jess gag.

What in the frat-house fuck?

“Come on in, Jess,” he said, sounding very tired.

Would it be rude to ask him to come outside? Into a gathering storm? Just to avoid the odor of his cabin, which vaguely smelled of Chad’s death scene? Probably. She swallowed heavily, stepping into the fray. The dirty, disgusting fray.

“Somehow, I’m Chad’s next of kin,” Sev said, his voice small and helpless. He cleared debris off the couch so Jess could sit. She noticed an empty full-sized vodka bottle amongst the garbage—a midrange brand called Steel Hills. “I didn’t even like the guy, but right now, I’m the closest one in the family who can handle all the details of death. My brother asked me to take care of things until they can get here. They’re at the Bimini house right now, and I guess there’s weather coming up that’s messing with flights all the way up the Eastern Seaboard.”

He nodded out the window to the swirling gray sky.

“The family is sending someone to pick him up, but the sheriff said they can’t release him until the coroner is done with his body,” Sev said. “And then we take him to Algren and Marris in Richmond. They’ve always handled our people.”

“It’s probably pretty routine to do an autopsy on a thirty-two-year-old no matter how they die,” Jess told him.

A tray full of room service domes on the kitchenette counter caught Jess’s eye…and her nose. It seemed to be the source of the smell in the room—in particular, a plate with bits of wide, flat noodles dried to the surface in the gluey remains of cream sauce. Was this the pasta dish Jeremy was raving about? Susan Treadaway was right. It did smell like feet.

“I want to move over to the family place,” he said. “I figured I’d wait there for my brother and my dad, but I don’t want to leave Trenton alone here with Diana.”

“Yeah, that seems pretty sensible,” Jess admitted. Meanwhile, her conscience and her sense of self-preservation battled it out, and only her financial self-awareness kept her from blurting out Hey, the prospective bride you’re here to protect your employer from? Yeah, she was sleeping with your dead nephew. Small world, huh?

So instead, she said, “I guess you haven’t had time to talk to Trenton or Diana about the prenup?”

Sev shook his head, dark gold hair falling into his eyes. “It didn’t seem like the right time before, and now? Trenton’s just taking this so hard. And part of it is not wanting to bother him with something that seems so far off, you know, and unimportant. And the other part is the guilt. I mean, Trenton is mourning…and it’s Chad. He obviously saw something in him that I didn’t, and I’m the guy’s family.”

Sev thanked her quietly while she poured him a cup of coffee from a carafe on the counter. Jess noted that the electric kettle was sitting right next to it…so where was the one from their kitchen? “It sounds like a dick thing to say, but I was the golden child. And I never missed a chance to prove I was smarter, faster, better—because it made my old man happy. For Hardcastles, that kind of thing matters. Something about Chad’s whole being provoked my need to dunk on him. And now that he’s gone, that makes me feel just fucking awful.”

Jess reached out and patted his arm, careful to keep her fingers over his sweater sleeve because she didn’t want to touch him with hands that had touched Chad’s dead body. That seemed…wrong. “I spent some time with Chad this week. I get it.”

“I just never understood the guy,” Sev said, standing up and unzipping a leather weekend bag with Chad’s initials stamped on the side. He pulled out reams of loose paperwork, legal pad pages, and glossy brochure mock-ups. They showed 3D renderings of what looked like an amusement park superimposed over the nearby mountains—and that amusement park catered exclusively to douchebags. Little fake 3D people were riding ATVs on a maze of dirt tracks, wingsuit flying from an obnoxiously orange platform, and bungee jumping from an entirely different obnoxiously orange platform. It looked like Chad had been planning an outdoor sports complex right next to the spa. Frankly, a lot of these mock-up images looked like they were captured from the spa property, and a lot of the proposed changes involved cutting down huge swaths of trees visible from the Golden Ash.

“Hardcastle Pines Extreme ?” Jess said, holding it up for Sev’s inspection. “Ew. On several levels.”

“I found this stuff in Chad’s room,” Sev said, sitting next to her on the couch. “Honestly, it looks like he was trying to come up with a proposal to develop the family property into some sports mecca that only we could use. And unlike most of his dumbass ideas, there was some chance my dad might actually fund this one because he desperately wants the family to spend more time together at Hardcastle Pines. Which means Chad would have spent months, possibly years, dicking around with construction crews while siphoning cash off the budget my dad gave him. Honestly, the cash siphoning might have been the whole point. Other than fucking with the Osbournes, which he also enjoys. Enjoyed, ugh. I haven’t adjusted to past tense yet.”

“Wait, what?”

Sev spread the papers out on the nearby coffee table. “I think he’d been sneaking around here at night, like, scouting the property? It makes no damn sense, but I saw him walking out the first night we got here with a flashlight.”

“Probably not, Sev,” she said, frowning as she looked over the half-assed prospectus. “I never saw Chad go near the woods. He bitched about having to walk to the main lodge.”

Well, she did see Chad walk to the Stillness Villa to hook up with the Yoni Egg Queen, but Jess didn’t think that was a productive thing to add to the conversation. Hell, as far as Jess knew, Chad had snuck over to Hardcastle Pines to raid their liquor supply. That might explain the empty vodka bottle.

“Jess, I was staying with him and even I couldn’t say where he was every minute of the day,” Sev insisted. “And if one of the Osbournes saw him…Well, really, they wouldn’t have had to see him themselves. Chad was just the sort of dickhead to just walk into Poppy Osbourne’s office and announce that he was going to build a loud, intrusive sports playground right next door that was going to ruin her views and disrupt her guests’ tranquility with loud engines.”

Jess’s thoughts strayed to the lights she’d seen bobbing around in the woods all week. Could it have been Chad out there? Wait, no, she’d seen those lights before Trenton’s group had shown up. “What are you getting at here, Sev?”

“I wonder if the Osbournes had anything to do with…all of this. You know, one of them could have messed with the controls on the sauna, locked Chad in. Left him for you to find. And no one would suspect you.”

Jess burst out laughing. “What? No!”

“Why? Because they’ve been nice to you ? I know they seem all sweet and hippie-dippie, Jess. But I’ve known these people since we were kids, and there’s things you don’t know about them. There was a girl who disappeared when we were in college. She broke up with Dean, and the next thing you know, she was never seen again.”

“Wait, you mean Emma Lee Redfern?” Jess laughed, incredulous. “The Osbournes loved her. Dean loved her. They dated for years.”

“Yeah, and the two of them fought all of the time ,” Sev said. “About everything—where to go, what to do, whether to spend time with his cousins. She wanted to move to some big city far away and take Dean with her. Away from the family, and trust me, those girls didn’t like that. Sis especially.”

“Are you sure you read the situation right?” Jess asked. “Sis said she and Emma Lee were close. That the whole family was worried when she disappeared. You were the one who said that you were cooped up doing schoolwork most summers.”

“I don’t know.” Sev groaned, rubbing his hand over his eyes. “Maybe I just got a bad impression when we were kids. I’m just tired and overwhelmed with the bullshit that my nephew left behind for me to deal with. As usual.”

After a long moment, she said, “Neither one of us should be involved in Chad’s eulogy.”

Pursing his lips, Sev shook his head. “Nope.”

***