Page 40 of Rio
I’m not sure Alma would know.Thoughts run rampant in my chaotic mind as I try to process this.Rio being here, Knight Enterprises being behind the eco resort and the injunction Alma wants me to file.I am in utter shock.“We need to go back.We need to confirm who is behind Delport Realty.I need to do some more digging.”
Alma can see I’m wound up, because she doesn’t press me for any answers.She takes me back to HQ, and I look through the paperwork, both hers and mine, and check online.
Just as I suspected, it all leads back to Knight Enterprises.No wonder I didn’t know at first, when I decided to take this on.The Knights are hiding behind a shady shell company.Typical trickery.
I really shouldn’t be surprised.
Chapter 11
RAQUEL
I’m in my room now and I imagine it’s different from where Rio is staying.Daddy’s credit card will have expensed the very best.
It’s been a long day, but my emotions are further frayed by running into Rio Knight.I wonder why he’s here.What connection he has to the eco resort.These Knights seem to get their dirty little paws everywhere.
A big part of coming here was to do the work I love, but equally, it was also to get away from Rio.I’m still trying to recover after the last weekend where he showed up unexpectedly in Miami.Now, my situation just became a million times worse, because not only is he here, but he’s involved in the very case I’m working on.
It’s my worst nightmare.He’s my enemy, and one I lust after when my thoughts are adrift.I’ll have to work even harder to focus, though he did look pretty fine in his shades and T.
It’s too much of a coincidence and it doesn’t add up, that of all the places in the entire world, he showed uphere.
Naturally, my mind starts working overtime.Did he follow me here?I shouldn’t be too presumptuous.He’s not here because ofme.He’s here because Knight Enterprises have business interests all over the world, and while this is eerily freaky, crazier things have happened.Such as Dani marrying a Knight.
It’s humid in this room, even though I have the AC cranked up high.It looks old, like it could do with a replacement, and every now and then it sputters, like it’s going to die on me.I swipe a hand across my neck, my sticky, clammy skin feels uncomfortable.I’m tempted to take a cold shower but I need to work.I glance at the papers strewn across the desk and the bed, and sigh.I have so much work to do and I’m not sure it’s possible within the week Pierce has given me.I might need to stay longer.
But I’ve lost focus.Concentrating has become harder.Things might have been different had I not run into that man, had he not been here, but now he is, my thoughts are as scattered as the documents showing the eco damage.Somehow I’m supposed to put everything together into one big cohesive report that clearly shows the construction is not above board.It means long days, working on this around the clock.
My laptop buzzes and an email from Pierce pops up.“How’s the eco vacation?”
“Not a vacation,” I whisper to myself.I don’t even click the email.I don’t want to read it.This is meant to be a break from Pierce as well.But I’m going to have to tell him soon about EcoGuardians changing their position.That’s one conversation I’m not looking forward to.I click away from my email, feeling more conflicted than ever.This wasn’t supposed to be a case.I wasn’t supposed to get involved like this.I was supposed to walk around, take notes, maybe snap a few photos for the firm’s newsletter—”CEO’s firm supports the planet”—then fly back and bury myself in Pierce’s work.
But now?
Now there’s a village losing its water.Mangroves are dying.And a woman I look up to looks at me as if I’m the only one who can help them.
The sounds of distant waves and chirping birds distract me and I pad across the floor to look out of the window.I could have said “No” to this.Maybe before I went to see the coastline, a part of me was thinking it wasn’t going to be so bad.That I could still walk away.Tell myself it isn’t smart, that I need to think of my career.
I wanted to have something worthy to put on my résumé, and now I have it: a possible fight with a subsidiary of the Knights.I’ve always loved a good fight.
I pull my hair up and fix it with a crocodile clip, the way I always do when I’m getting ready for battle.I need to start documenting the land and water damage.Alma’s anxious that we file soon.I get nervous just thinking about it.Pierce needs to know, but I can’t bring myself to call him just yet.What I want to do is bury my head.
I’m drowning in so much stress, not just career stress but personal stress.
Rio Knight stress.
He’s the last person I expected to see.The last person Iwantedto see, even if I do lie awake at night thinking about him more than I should.
***
RIO
I set down my emptied third glass of tequila when the old man calls and demands an update on the situation.
I wonder if he’s heard something.
“Everything’s fine,” I assure him, even though it’s absolutely fucking not.Raquel Monteiro is everything that’s wrong.
I’ve been trying to piece it all together.The NGO’s been causing some noise, sure, but they’re moving pretty quickly if they’ve been talks with a law firm in the US.I could ask the old man if he’s heard any rumblings, but if I do, he’ll know something is up.He’ll think I can’t handle things over here, and I don’t want that.So I remain quiet on that front.Maybe Raquel can give me answers.I’m sure she’d love throwing her facts at me.She likes one-upping me, and I quite like it, too.
