Third a Kiss

In eighteen months, she’d slept with seventy-six guests (I’d given her two weeks to settle into her new employment), and charged fifty-thousand for her services. She’d padded my bank balance with close to four million dollars. Minus the four hundred thousand I would give her when she left and the purchase price, she’d been a worthwhile investment.

Neptune, too.

Younger than Jupiter, she’d served sixteen months and had seemed to embrace the lust of elixir. She wasn’t the instigator in this…Calico was. Neptune didn’t need to go. Without the ringleaders, she would fall back into place with the other goddesses on this island. She might even learn to like Jinx.

But…Eleanor had asked me to free them…and I fucking promised.

What the fuck made me do such a thing?

I didn’t know, but I wouldn’t go back on my word. Unlike other people I knew, I didn’t believe in betrayal.

But it would be hard to say goodbye to assets that kept me rich. Not that their funds came close to what I earned from my pharmaceuticals and successful breakthroughs in the legal drug market. Then again, running Sinclair and Sinclair Group was nowhere near as much fun as being god on this island.

I’ll just have to source new goddesses to replace these.

Eleanor would most likely have an issue with that…but I stood by my beliefs. Black and white was the only way to view the world because it ensured all things were usable, killable, saveable. A stray dog’s life was worth more to me than a goddess’s because the dog had existed in suffering for far longer than my own species.

A stray dog’s life was worth even more than mine.

And that was the goddamn truth.

I didn’t twist my rules to benefit me. If an animal was at risk from my existence, I would put myself down…not them. They came first. Always.

Even over Jinx.

“Where’s Calico?” Jupiter asked, her dress unable to hide her goosebumps.

“She’s alive.”

“Why isn’t she with us?”

“Because I had other plans for her.”

Her eyes glistened with tears. “It wasn’t all her fault. I encouraged her. I know she’s become a little obsessed with you, but…Jinx had it coming.”

I went deathly still. “I suggest you tread lightly, Jupiter. My leash might snap at any moment.”

She gulped, ducking her head. “Just…Calico…she’s nice. Please, don’t hurt us. We promise we won’t—”

“Enough.” I sliced my hand through the air.

Nice or not, Calico had made me the most at almost seven million. Her contract was close to ending anyway. Her punishment wouldn’t be in a cage, but being kicked off my island without so much as a goodbye. I would not visit her. I would not give her the satisfaction of seeing my guilt over what I’d done.

How much I’d ruined her from the shy, skittish beauty when she first landed to the bitter, jealous thing she’d become.

In the morning, Cal would round them up, give them a bag packed full of clothes suitable to whatever climate home was, and an envelope with two things.

One, a thick pile of cash. Not a cheque or bank deposit. Just fresh, crisp four-hundred thousand dollars in American bills. The other was a simple note. A threat, really. A reminder that if they spoke of what happened on my shores, the money in their greedy hands would vanish, their lives would be forfeit, and I would take no fucking mercy on their soul.

But stay silent and slip back into their world as if they’d been working for an exclusive hotelier who required utmost secrecy for his high-calibre guests, then they could keep every penny. They could live. They could resume their existence before I got in the way.

Clean and simple…for all of us.

That note never left the helicopter, burned to ash as the girls slipped onto a plane and went home.

So far, out of the few goddess that’d reached their four-year term and been released, not one had blabbed. Money was a powerful cage…better than any other trap or threat.

Jupiter puffed hair from her eyes impatiently. “Just tell us what you’re going to—”

“You’re going home.”

Both her and Nep jerked, making the cage clang. “We’re what?”

I paced around them again, needing to move as excess rage flowed down my legs. After what they’d done, I found it incredibly hard to reward such grotesque behaviour. But I was also the catalyst for such actions…so the joke was on me.

“You can thank Jinx for my leniency. She begged on your behalf.” I glowered at their shock and suspicion. The girl they’d tried to kill had proven to be above their pettiness in her selfless mercy. “Tomorrow, you will leave my shores. All of you. You will never see me or my islands again.”

I stopped and wrapped my fingers around the bars, making Jupiter slink to the other side. I yanked on the wire, jostling them. “You tell your families that you had an opportunity you couldn’t refuse. If they pry for information, blame no internet or phone coverage for your lack of communication. If they demand to know details, tell them you’ve orgasmed with princes, and fucked politicians, and sucked the cock of billionaires. Willingly.” I smirked. “Or don’t. The choice is up to you. You can tell them whatever you goddamn want, but if you mention my name, my islands, or the other girls in my employ, you won’t need to look over your shoulder for retribution—it will come swift and sharp and your parents will be grieving over your funeral rather than your disappearance, understand?”

Both goddesses nodded. “We understand.”

I let my hands drop from the cage. “Good.” Smoothing out my t-shirt, still smelling Eleanor on my fingers, I muttered, “In that case, I owe you an apology and a thank you. I’m sorry for taking so much from you—for destroying who you once were. I hope you take this experience and use it to improve your life, to know you were strong enough to endure me; therefore, you can conquer anything.” I backed toward the door. “Thank you for allowing me to use you.”

Turning around, I stalked toward the door.

Neptune’s voice halted me as I reached for the handle. “Sullivan?”

I raised an eyebrow, twisting to look over my shoulder, waiting for her to continue.

“Jinx…will you let her go, too? Eventually?”

“Why do you care? You just tried to murder her.”

Nep stood up, rubbing her arms. “I care because she’s not like us…not to you, anyway. We were safe in a way because…you barely noticed us.” She swallowed before adding breathlessly, “You’ve noticed her and I don’t know if that’s a good thing.”

Cracking open the door, I shrugged. “Perhaps she wouldn’t leave, even if I did set her free.”

Jupiter sneered, her anger not appeased with her upcoming demotion. “Keep telling yourself that, Sinclair. Convince yourself that someone could love you. That a woman trapped here wouldn’t use every trick and guile she has to get free.”

I smiled until my cheeks threatened to split. “You didn’t try to get free.”

“No, because I wanted this. I wanted your island…not you.”

My fingers clutched the handle. “Even monsters sometimes find their missing pieces, Lucy.”