Page 60 of Sunburned

The captain’s voice crackled in our headphones. “You can see our ship,Sea Ray,down below. We’ll be landing shortly.”

I’d never been on a yacht before, either, and while I knew close to nothing about boats, I would definitely putSea Rayin the megayacht category. It was a gleaming colossus of the seas, proof of Tyson’s stupendous success for all the world to see. I wondered what would happen to it if Tyson sank the company. Was there a CarMax for yachts?

Jennifer grabbed my hand as our helicopter hovered above the ship and our captain slowly lowered us onto its helipad, the motion of the blades whipping the water beneath us into whitecaps.

The pilot helped each of us down, the wind from the slowing blades buffeting our skin. I was last to exit, and I gazed at the view of the mountainous island as I trekked across the helipad, paying no attention to my feet until I felt something squish beneath my sandal. The stench hit me as I lifted my foot, and I wrinkled my nose in disgust.

Dog shit. Just my luck. But also: what the hell?

“Oh no,” a willowy crew girl in a navy polo and khaki shorts cried as she rushed over. “I am so sorry.”

“Well, that was unexpected,” I said, wincing.

I could almost laugh, thinking about the kick Rosa was going to get out of my stepping in dog shit on a megayacht when I told her, but at the moment, the smell was too foul to do anything other than gag.

“We had a dog here this morning. Two, actually. What are they called with the short nose?” She placed her hand on her nose.

“Bulldogs?” I guessed, clamping my fingers over my own nose to stifle the smell.

She shook her head. “Black and brown…”

“Pugs?”

Her auburn ponytail fell over her shoulder as she lifted my foot, removing my soiled shoe. “Yes! Pugs. They are very cute, but oh no. I do not know how we miss this.”

“Oh gross, it’s on my foot,” I said, pulling a face as I noticed the smear of dog shit on the side of my foot.

“I am so sorry,” she sympathized, indicating the room at the far end of the tarmac. “Right there, you can wash in the sink.” She held the compromised sandal as far away from us as she could. “I will take both and clean them, okay? My name is Justine.”

“Thank you, Justine,” I said, stepping out of my other shoe. “It’s no problem.”

She lingered behind me, cleaning up the mess as I walked barefoot through the open glass doors into a chic cocktail bar that faced a rooftop deck featuring a large spa. Another pretty, smiling young woman in a navy polo and khaki shorts greeted me. “Welcome aboardSea Ray,” she said, her English lightly accented, like Justine’s. She proffered a tray of cold hand towels. “For your hands.”

“Um, I also need one for my foot,” I said, smiling ruefully as I wiped my hands and the back of my neck with the towel. “I stepped in dog poop.”

“I’m so sorry about that,” she said, soaping up a rag.

“Who had dogs on board?” I asked. Tyson had never been a dog guy. Or a cat guy, for that matter. Not much of an animal guy at all. Which, again, should have been a red flag back when we’d dated. So many red flags I’d missed.

But the crew girl just shrugged silently as she applied the rag to my foot, then used one of the cold hand towels to wipe it down. Odd. I made a mental note to ask Tyson later.

“This way, please,” she said once my foot was clean. She indicated the stairwell on one side of the room. “The primary suite is one deckdown on level three, the game deck on level two, and on the main deck, level one, you will meet Evan, who will show you to your room belowdecks.”

I nodded, trying to memorize what she’d said as I followed the stairwell down a level to what appeared to be a lavish gray and cream lounge, the front of which was completely open to the sea. I paused, gazing at the view. This place was incredible.SuccessionandBelow Deckhad given me glimpses of the interiors of yachts, but actually being on one was surreal. I felt a bit like Dorothy waking up in Oz.

Before I could continue down the stairwell, the door of the primary bedroom flew open and Cody burst out, fury radiating off him. Damn, he’d only beaten me downstairs by perhaps ten minutes, and he and Tyson had already gotten into it. I inhaled sharply, stepping to the side to let him pass, but he didn’t so much as give me a backward glance.

So much for talking like adults.

Chapter 18

I prayed Cody hadn’t ratted me out as Tyson emerged from his room, looking at me like a cat who’d trapped a lizard under his paw. He was shirtless, his emaciated torso tattooed with an array of symbols and runes I’d never seen, and he was holding a polished black rock the size of my fist in his palm.

“Audrey,” he said, swinging the door wide. “Come in.”

I felt my breath grow fast as I followed him into the large primary suite, also decorated in luxurious shades of gray and cream, with sleek ash wood accents and a king-size bed covered by a gray duvet. Like his lair at the house, the temperature was freezing cold, and blackout curtains covered the windows, the room lit only by the dim lamps on the bedside tables and the glowing humidifier responsible for the strong scent of rosemary and sage that permeated the space.

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell Tyson what I’d discovered in the arrest report, but now that I had a choice as to when to deliver that blow, I realized it would be more beneficial to have a civil conversation with him and Cody about how to deal with the investigation before playing that card. If a civil conversation was still on the table after the way Cody had stormed out of here a minute ago.

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