Colby
You could have heard a pin drop. Briella stares in shock at the intruder. The intruder stares at her with knowing eyes, and me? My head flicks back and forth between them like a cartoon character. When I had the text from Skylar dropping the bomb on me that Colm is in fact Briella’s dad, it didn’t occur to me that would mean the man we’d watch bone like a pornstar was her uncle. I hope to god she doesn’t make that connection in her head right now, I’m grossed out enough for the both of us.
The thing is, now that he’s standing right here, her calling him Uncle Keith… I know it’s him. How many times had he pushed us both on a swing? Taken us out for ice cream? Wherever she went as a child, I went too so I saw a lot of this man. And then one day he just stopped coming around and her mother couldn’t tell us why.
“What the fuck is going on right now?” Briella whispers. Her face has gone ashen and for a second, she looks like she is either going to throw up or pass out.
He glances pointedly at our surveillance equipment. “Ask your boy there, I’m sure he has it all figured out by now.”
She looks to me, all confused, and for some unknown reason I feel guilty. “I can explain…”
Her hand whips out and slaps me around the face. “You fucking asshole!”
My head slams to the right, nearly coming off my damn shoulders. That woman has a hell of a right hook. “First… ouch.”
“Never start a sentence with I can explain. You’re just asking to get slapped Maitland.”
“That explains a lot,” I quip, rubbing at my abused cheek.
She rolls her eyes, clearly frustrated with me. “Talk, Colby. Right now.”
I hold my hands up in the universal gesture of peace and move closer to her. “I didn’t have a clue about their identities until we were on the boat. You know that.”
I can see her mulling it over and finally she gives me a little nod.
“There was no way I was telling you that Colm is your sperm donor, not while we were on the boat with him. Just think Bri, it would have been an epic mistake and our cover would have been blown. No way was I putting you in danger like that.”
Her anger wanes as she takes a few steps back and drops down onto the bed. “Yeah okay. I get it.”
I want to go to her. I want to hold her and tell her that everything is going to be okay. That we are in this together. However, uncle dearest choses that moment to clear his throat and make his presence known again.
“This is all very touching, but we have much to discuss.”
Her anger jumps straight back to the surface. “No fucking shit. Want to explain to me what the fuck is going on? How the hell did you know we were here? Just what in the hell are you involved in?”
“I think the real question is…”
“Oh my god,” Briella jumps from the bed and runs for the toilet. She dry heaves, coughs, dry heaves some more and slumps down on the floor. “I’ve seen you banging the ho.”
He has the decency to look away, but I can tell he wants to laugh.
“It was horrific when you were just some random guy but now? Oh my god… you touched Gomez’s balls!”
“Hey now, that was an accident.”
“There was cupping Uncle Kei… Calvin, that wasn’t an accident.”
“Give me a break, there was a lot happening all at once. It was confusing.”
She points a finger in his direction. “Do I look stupid to you?”
He runs a critical eye over her Beach Barbie costume and opens his mouth to comment but Bri cuts him off. “That was a rhetorical question.”
“Are you guys done here? Because I think we need to sort some things out. Just saying.” I sigh and take position on the bed, back against the headrest. I have a feeling these two could keep going for hours if given the chance. If that happens, I’m going to need beer and maybe a few snacks.
Calvin acquiesces, walks over to a chair and gets comfortable while Briella sits there sulking. It doesn’t take long for her to come around however. One thing you can say for my girl, she isn’t one to dwell.
“Fine, but I need information from you Calvin, not some half-assed crap.”
He steeples his fingers under his chin and gives the slightest nod of his head. “I can do that, but I’m going to want something from you in return.”
I laugh. “That isn’t how this works.”
He makes a move to stand. “Then we have no deal.”
“Wait!” Briella turns to me with a scowl. “A word outside please?”
She stomps over to the door and pushes her way through it before I can answer.
Calvin on the other hand, finds this all to be highly amusing. “She’s just like her mother.”
I shush him quickly. “Jesus Christ, don’t let her hear you say that. Her mom drives her nuts.”
He holds a hand over his smirking mouth and gestures to the door.
Bri’s pacing the deck, her hands wringing in front of her. She looks so adorably confused and angry at the same time, that I can’t help grabbing her around the waist and hauling her back towards me.
She slaps at my chest and pulls away from my arms. Not quite the reaction I was hoping for. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” she hisses. “We need to find out everything we can from him.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“Well, you were about to lose him, so forgive me for thinking you were going to blow it.”
“Well ex-fucking-cuse me for not running everything by you before I speak. I didn’t realize you sucking my balls meant that you owned them.”
At least this time she slaps the other cheek. She stands there, breathing heavily and I take a moment to ponder whether that had been a good move on my behalf. My sore, red face tells me no. No, it wasn’t.
“I’m sorry.”
Her eyes light in surprise but she doesn’t respond which makes me nervous.
“That was out of line. It just pissed me off that you didn’t assume I had a plan. I always have a plan.”
The corner of her mouth turns up a fraction and I know I’ve got her. But of course, she’s going to make me wait for forgiveness. She has, after all earned the right.
“I know we need to find out as much as we can from him but Jesus Briella, this is a dangerous situation. He knows who we are, he obviously knows what we’re doing here, and we don’t know jack shit about him, apart from that he used to prefer strawberry ice cream to chocolate when we were kids.”
“I know, I know,” she whispers.
I take the cue and step up to her, wrapping her up in my arms. “I’m not prepared to make any kind of deal until we know what we’re dealing with.”
“I agree,” she leans her head on my chest and sucks in a deep breath. “This is a lot to take in Colby. I’m trying to not think about what him being my uncle means, but it’s hard. That slimy bastard Colm… is my dad.”
I don’t know what to tell her, the situation is surreal. Shaking my head, I rub her arms and get us back on track.
“We aren’t going to get any answers standing out here on our own. Let’s go back in, hear his terms and take it from there.”
She doesn’t look like she wants to go back inside our cabin, but curiosity wins out in the end. I follow her in and stop dead in my tracks when I see Calvin watching the monitors avidly.
“What the hell…”
“Shhhh,” he beckons us over and points at the screen. “You might want to see this.”
The image inside Nadia’s cabin is much the same as it has been since she arrived on this island. Her naked and someone going to town on her pussy. This evening was no exception, well, except for one glaring difference.
My gun’s in my hand before he has a chance to react. I hold it to his temple and growl. “If you’re setting us up I swear to god, I’ll fucking kill you O’Leary.”
His hands rise and drop down onto his head without hesitation. “I can put my hand on my heart and assure you this is nothing to do with me.”
I press the barrel of my gun harder into his temple and look at Briella. Her eyes are locked on the screen. “Briella.”
She doesn’t glance away from the screen, just holds a hand up to her forehead and rubs furiously at the skin there. “I need to call Sydney.”
She whips her phone out and doesn’t bother with pleasantries. “Check the feeds, we’ve been compromised.”
We share a concerned look until she turns away and starts pacing the cabin floor. Grunting comes from the audio so I reach over and quickly kill that shit. Calvin offers an apologetic smile in my direction, then he turns back to the feed and sighs heavily. This is looking more like a clusterfuck with every second that passes. Briella mutters quickly into the phone behind me but I daren’t take my eyes off the screen because our lives are quite literally balancing on the edge of a knife right now.
Because the man banging the shit out of Nadia, her on all fours and her hair held back in a fist so her face can be clearly seen by the cameras, is Colm O’Leary.
And he’s staring right at our camera.