Chapter Fifteen
~Nolan~
“That’s it,” I announced, even though we had all drawn the same conclusion. “The so-called drowning victim and the uncanny resemblance to Jeff isn’t just a coincidence. It was clearly mistaken identity in the washroom.”
“Which means, the Dead Jeff was more than likely murdered,” Bailey informed, as he looked at each of us.
“Can you all quit referring to the guy as Dead Jeff, please?” Jeff scrubbed his scalp, dropping down onto the one bed in the room. “It’s creeping me the fuck out and I didn’t even see him. Did he really look that much like me?”
“I have photos on my phone, want to see?”
“No!” both Jeff and Pete were quick to answer.
“Side by side, I’d say you looked like brothers,” I told him truthfully, it actually was disturbing how much they looked alike. “Someone who didn’t know you would have easily confused the pair of you.”
“Wow. The floater could have been you.” Pete was looking out the window and turned to face Jeff, his eyes glistening with his hands tucked deep in his pockets. “I’m sorry, man.”
“Do you honestly think Martinez is worried about rumors?” I sat down beside Jeff. “Or could his reputation be at stake maybe.”
“Hmm…” Bailey hummed, scribbling something on the back of the room service menu. “I’m not a fan of Martinez… my gut tells me he knows more than he was letting on. I call bullshit on his story, too. Did you see his face when they were taking photos of Dead Jeff, sorry, the John Doe? There was no question on his face and no curiosity. In fact, I don’t remember him even looking at the body. He was too busy texting.”
“I saw that, too,” I admitted.
“Maybe he was scared he was going to throw up,” Pete explained. “Seeing a dead guy would make me want to yak.”
“No,” Bailey shook his head. “It was almost as if he knew what he was going to see. He stood away from the others, like… like he had already seen the guy.”
“What was this story he told?” Jeff asked.
“Martinez told us that earlier in the evening they had stopped… the dead guy. He was drunk, so they apparently took him back to his hotel room and told him to sleep it off. Martinez concluded that the guy obviously didn’t sleep. He was so drunk when he went for another walk, that he must have tripped, bashed his head and fell into the water and drowned. Except Dead Jeff didn’t drown.”
Jeff rolled his eyes. “So how did Dead Jeff kick it?”
“He was murdered.”
“How can you be so sure?” I leaned against the wall folding my arms across my chest.
“The guy took a major blow to the head, not the kind of bump you would get from a fall, that much was obvious,” Bailey explained, as he paced back and forth, wearing a track in the carpet. “In my understanding, and this is just basic drowning one-oh-one, if you drown it’s face down and it takes time for the body to surface, it could be days. Dead Jeff wasn’t bloated enough and he was face up with a hole in his head.”
“This is fucking creepy,” Jeff stood and turned to the washroom. “I need a piss.”
We waited until the bathroom door closed before continuing our conversation. Poor Jeff wasn’t handling things well.
“What do we do now?” Pete asked, looking from Bailey to me for an answer. “Just stay cooped up in here for the next four days?”
“No,” Bailey shook his head as he sat beside Pete handing him the menu he had been writing on. “We do exactly as Martinez instructed. We enjoy our holiday, we have fun… and we keep an eye on Martinez and his little friends, because I don’t trust that fucker for a minute. But we’ll play his game and see where it leads us.”
“This could turn ugly, someone could get hurt,” I spoke logically, because that’s who I was. “Or worse. Did you call your friend from vice?”
“I was just about to,” Bailey snickered taking his cell phone from his pocket. “I’ll step outside. By the way, someone should check on Jeff.”
Both Pete and I knocked on the washroom door before opening it, finding Jeff curled up on the floor beside the bathtub. He was as pale as the white cotton towels hanging beside him, visibly shaken.
“Don’t bother asking,” Jeff sighed, staring at the cold marble floor. “I have no problem admitting I’m scared shitless and I want to go home, like yesterday.”
“You want your mommy?” Pete teased, trying to lighten the situation.
“Fucking right, I do,” Jeff snorted. “If she could make this all better, then yeah, in a heartbeat. You know what rattles me the most?”
“What?” Pete and I asked in unison.
“Who says that someone couldn’t have mistaken me for him and bashed my head in? And who says if they see me alive they don’t think I’m a fucking unwelcome ghost and do it anyway, for the sake of completing the job?”
“Here,” Pete tossed Jeff a Red Socks ball cap and a pair of heavy black rimmed glasses from the counter. “No one will recognize you wearing these. And not to worry they’re not prescription so they won’t fuck with your eyes. I just wear them once in a while because Mandy thinks they make me look hot.”
“You’d need more than glasses to make that shit happen,” Jeff began chuckling as he put on the glasses and lowered the brim of the ball cap to touch them. “How’s that?”
“Perfect,” Pete sniped. “Ugly as fuck, no one’s going to recognize that repulsive puss of yours.”
“Nice to know nothing changes with you two,” I barked, sick to death of the pair of them and their bitching, but happy we were all here alive.
Not in the know regarding Bailey’s conversation with his friend, he offered only a smile as he raised my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. I wouldn’t ask, I knew, in time, he would tell me. For now, we would fade in with the other island dwellers, faking smiles and acting as if life was one giant cream pie and we were taking our share of bites just to survive the next 4 days.
~
“Not that I’m doing it again in this lifetime, but that was a blast,” I laughed, taking Bailey’s hand as he helped me to my feet. “If you had told me two weeks ago I was going to go parasailing, I would have sent you for a CAT scan or at least taken your temperature…with the biggest anal thermometer I could find.”
“Sorry to burst your bubble, Doc, but I would have liked that,” Bailey crushed me to his chest.
In the last forty-eight hours, we were reminiscent of the four musketeers and so had joined in any and all fun activities, fun being the operative word. Staying in the center of it all, keeping our whereabouts very public and our noses clean, well, as clean as we could, considering Bailey had us tagging Martinez’s’ tail every time he spotted the want-to-be lollipop cop.
Though most of the things we did were pretty tame, a few were a little too out there for me, such as throwing myself from a cliff’s edge at the mouth of a waterfall into a lagoon of murky water below. And then, of course, there was bungee jumping from the center of a rope bridge, dangling above a river of jagged rocks. That wasn’t exactly my cup of tea either. Now the river rafting and the hike through the forest were more my speed. Call me old if you must, really go ahead, I’m cool with that. The honest to God truth was, near death adventures scared the bejesus out me and I was man enough to admit it.
“What do you want to do next?” Bailey asked, loosening each strap on my harness. “We could-”
“I’m so happy I ran into you,” Simon squealed, grasping onto my wrist in that annoying overly excited way of his. “I came by your hut at least a half a zillion times in the last two days and I must be missing you every time.”
“That’s too bad,” Bailey gave a sarcastic titter, though it went straight over Simon’s head. “Did you need something?”
“As a matter of fact,…”
I could have wrapped my hands around Bailey’s throat and squeezed the life out of him at that moment, what the hell was he thinking encouraging my ex’s fiancé? At no time did I show the least bit of interest in involving myself in their so-called relationship. However, as I looked at the excitement bursting from Simon, the way he hopped on his toes with such childlike glee, my heart gave a tug. This kid was too sweet to get involved in Erik’s world of lies and venom. Erik would, because I knew first hand, ruin this young man. Simon would base all other relationships around the pain Erik was sure to inflict. Poor naive kid.
“Daddy’s here, he arrived today,” he grinned proudly. “But momma couldn’t make it, she’s vacationing at a spa in Sweden. And Aunty Bella and Uncle Rocco are tied up with work… I guess what I want is to ask… could you please come to the wedding and fill in my side of the church, not that there’s a church, it’s chairs in the sand and a minister…”
Simon faded off, his sad eyes looking to the ground with his bottom lip tucked between his teeth. I was expecting him to shower us with tears, but he stood there in silence, awkward silence for a long minute. Damn Simon, he was breaking my stupid, compassionate heart. I exhaled a long surrendering groan.
“What time?”
“Really?” Simon latched onto my bicep, his pink polished fingernails digging into my flesh. “You’re not just saying that to make me go away are you?”
I couldn’t believe what he had just said. Where would he get such an idea?
“Of course not,” I looked to Bailey, who was watching us with a deep scowl etched into his forehead. “We’ll be happy to be there.”
Bailey’s brows spiked toward the sky, his eyes nearly bugging out as Simon tossed his arms around my neck, planting a chaste kiss on my cheek. This young man’s enthusiasm brought an unwilling smile to my face as I pried him off. Conflicted with whether to tell Simon to pack his bags and head for the hills or let him make his own mistakes, my mouth opened and then closed before I said something that wasn’t my place to say.
“Let me make something very clear, Simon,” I stepped closer to Bailey. “We will come to the ceremony, but I can’t promise anything more than that, and we are only coming as friends for your sake, not for Erik.”
“Yes, yes, I understand,” Simon wagged his head, I was certain he hadn’t heard a word. “As long as you come. Oh, and dress as you please, it’s a beach wedding after all.”
Simon’s eyes darted towards Pete as he came running, soaked to the bone, hooting and hollering.
“A-fucking-mazing!” Pete laughed, tugging at his harness. “I’m doing that again, I swear I was up so high I could see the entire island. You gone up yet, Bail’s?”
“Twice,” Bailey nodded towards Simon. “You’ve met Simon?”
“Oh yeah, I remember you,” Pete shook his hand so roughly Simon nearly lost his balance. “Sorry for interrupting.”
“Don’t be silly, you weren’t interrupting,” Simon smiled, wiping his soggy palm down his hip. “You should bring your friends to the wedding, too. It’s going to be great. I mean, there will be plenty of food and drinks and who doesn’t love a good party?”
“I’m game and I know Jeff’s not going to want to miss this,” Pete nodded his head with a grin in my direction. “If nothing else, it’s going to be entertaining.”
“Oh, goodie,” Simon clapped his hands together and then abruptly stilled. “I need to tell daddy to add two more to the list. You will never know how happy you’ve made me, just never.” Simon turned on his heels waving a hand over his shoulder as he darted off. “Toodles!”
“Toodles!” Bailey returned as he mockingly fanned his fingers in a farewell gesture.
“The guy’s like a cyclone,” Pete chuckled, stepping out of his harness and handing it to one of the instructors. “Boggles the mind how anyone could keep up with him, especially your ex.”
“He’s too good for Erik,” I snorted, wiping my face with a towel. “So, I guess we’re going to a wedding. Where’s Jeff so we can break the wonderful news? Not!”
“He’s been huddled with that group of old crows since we got here,” Pete pointed to a group of women sitting under a huge beach umbrella sipping cocktails. “Guess he feels safer with them. He’s been a fucking bag of nerves since Dead Jeff washed up on shore.”
“He didn’t-”
“Just a figure of speech,” Pete stopped me from correcting him. “I’ve been trying to keep the mood light, but man, he’s not in a good place. His bones got rattled in more ways than one, the slightest little thing and he’s jumping out of his skin. Maybe this wedding will loosen him up.”
“Speaking of,” I shot Pete my best laser melting stink eye. “Next time you’re invited somewhere check with us first.”
“Aww, come on,” Pete grumbled, as we headed in a group towards Jeff. “You know you want to go. Think of it as the ultimate cure, Doc. Erik getting tied to that particular ball and chain will be very therapeutic for you. Admit it.”
Yes, the idea of Erik struggling to keep up to Simon gave me a warm fuzzy feeling, but Erik wasn’t the one I felt bad for. It was Simon’s future I was thinking about.
“I don’t need therapy, Pete,” I shoved his shoulder forward causing him to stumble as he walked in front of me. “I got over that piece of shit years ago. I’ve happily moved on, isn’t that right, baby?”
Bailey graced me with a beautiful smile and blew me a kiss and a wink. “That’s right, lover.”
“Remind me to call Mandy,” Pete said, directing his eyes away. “You two are killing me with all this lovey-dovey crap… I seriously need phone sex.”
Reaching my hand out to Bailey, I took his hand in mine and squeezed, whispering I love you and watching Bailey’s lips form the same words. He was beautiful, my man, and I couldn’t wait to get him back to the hut and finally have some alone time. We hadn’t made love since that horrible night. First, we impart our love for one another, we make love and then… I shivered just thinking of it. Bailey tugged at my hand, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Don’t do that,” he scolded. “Stay out of that head of yours. We’re going to be just fine.”
“How did you know?” I asked.
Bailey tugged me into his side. “Promise me.”
He giggled at the look of puzzlement swamping my face, he was getting off on my confusion, which in turn caused my dick to twitch with interest.
“What?”
Impeding me from walking further, Bailey stepped into my path and leaned into me, his lips gently brushing the shell of my ear. He knew how turned on I got when he touched my ears. I closed my eyes and smiled.
“Promise me,” he whispered, his warm breath setting my groin on fire. “Next time we make love… it’s with me tied in ropes.”
He broke away, leaving me standing with my jaw open the beginning of a promising hard-on and the view of his lovely ass as it swayed back and forth catching up to Pete. Little fucking tease. I’d be more than happy to show him my idea of kink.