Page 59 of Last Ticket to Paradise

Chapter Twelve

“Brice!” Georgette covered her mouth with one hand. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to take you home, sweetheart. Home where you belong.”

“I’ll leave you two to work things out.” Jake shut his office door with a click, leaving her on the outside—with Brice.

“This is crazy, Brice. I’m not going home with you.” She raised her voice in the hope that Jake would hear her. He couldn’t really believe she was engaged to Brice, could he?

She’d never told Jake about her former engagement. Had been too embarrassed and ashamed to admit to him that her sister had stolen her fiancé from her with a crook of her little finger.

Brice grabbed her arm and laid a very wet kiss on her lips, which were still tender from Jake’s kisses last night.

He pulled her away from Jake’s office, back toward the pool, and she stumbled along, her heart aching. When he stopped behind a tree, he put both hands on her shoulders and shook her. “Your mother has been updating me about your...investigation here. I finally got her to agree with me that we need to let the authorities straighten everything out and find Jamie. Your sister is a flighty creature, Georgette. Frankly, if she’s run off with someforeigner, that’s probably best for everyone.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You clearly didn’t feel that way when she was...riding your cock.”

Brice’s mouth dropped open, and his fingers pinched into her flesh even harder. “What has gotten into you? I’ve never heard you use such language before. It’s...unbecoming in a professor’s wife.”

She twisted away from his grasp. “That’s just it. You haven’t been hearing me. We’re not getting married—not now, not ever. It doesn’t even have to do with your betrayal of me with my sister. You’re not the man for me. Go home.”

She ended her proclamation on a sob, not because of Brice, but because of the misunderstanding with Jake. She had to tell him about Brice—but first she had to get rid of Brice.

And she knew just how to do it.

“Georgette, you don’t mean any of that.” Brice removed his glasses and wiped the sweat from his brow with a white handkerchief. “I told you I was sorry about what happened with Jamie. She seduced me. That will never happen again with any other woman. I promise.”

“Don’t care.” She flicked her fingers at him and began to unbutton her shorts as she backed away from him. Then she kicked off her sandals and yanked down her shorts, dropping them at Brice’s feet.

Turning from him, she pranced out to the pool deck, calling out, “Who’s gonna come and save me?”

She pulled her blouse from her head, untied her bikini top, and threw it at a group of men lounging poolside. Then she screamed and ran, topless, to jump into the pool, making a big splash.

Two of the men from the targeted group dived in after her, one coming up between her legs, lifting her out of the water on his shoulders. A few seconds later, the other man had another bare-breasted woman on his shoulders, and she and the other woman tangled limbs in a game of chicken.

As she shrieked and giggled, Georgette gazed across the deck to see Brice, arms folded, looking ready to blow a gasket. Just beyond him, Jake stood at the door of his office, shading his eyes. Then Jake turned and shut the door.

And Georgette’s heart broke just a little.

***

She stayed close to her resort friends, avoiding Brice and his icy stares. When Brice finally left the pool area, Georgette gathered her shorts and blouse and pulled them on over her bikini, which had dried in the Palumba sun.

She traipsed through the Costa Azul and crossed the street to the overgrown path toward the area where many of the locals who worked at the hotel lived. She traversed the bridge over the river and held her breath as she passed Fiso LaCroix’s house.

Last night, Jake had mentioned Hallie’s mother’s name and where the family lived. If he thought she’d forget those tidbits of information, he didn’t know her memory for details.

Her sandals squished the wet sand on the trail, and she slapped at a mosquito as she rounded the last bend into the thick island foliage. She drew up in front of a cottage, very similar to Fiso’s, but neater and better tended.

She tapped on the screen door. “Hello?Mrs. Bonnaire?”

A petite woman with a long braid over one shoulder appeared on the other side of the door and opened it. “Yes? I’m Mrs. Bonnaire. Who are you?”

Georgette twisted her fingers in front of her. “I’m here to ask you a few questions about your daughter, Hallie.”

As the woman began to close the door, Georgette held up her hand. “My sister disappeared, too. I’m trying to find her.”

Mrs. Bonnaire glanced over her shoulder and then pushed through the screen door. “Over here.”

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