Page 12 of Lucky Shot
His tone sounds indifferent. “How did they die?”
By watching his shadow, I can see him shrug. “The police reports suspect they were murdered. But the case hasn’t been solved and I don’t believe anyone is working on it.”
“Who raised you? Why don’t you push them to look for their killer?”
“The house staff raised me. And I don’t really care who murdered them. They weren’t good people.”
I wasn’t sure where to go with that, so I focused on the house staff. “You’re rich.”
Azure shrugs. “I come from dirty money, yes. Did I say my parents weren’t good people? Neither were theirs. Or the generation before.” He pauses. “Maybe I’m not either.”
Chills race down my spine, making my skin prickle with gooseflesh. Azure continues to paint.
“What makes you think you’re not a good person?” I ask, though I’m suddenly not sure I really want to know the answer.
I’m watching his shadow as he continues to paint, his fingers slip into my bathing suit elastic and then wedge it under my ass cheeks so he can paint continuously down my spine.
“I don’t know. Everyone has reasons for their behavior, right? Environment. Trauma. Chemical. Biological. But some people think they can determine whether that behavior makes them a good person or a bad one.”
“I don’t think you’re a bad person, Azure,” I say quietly.
The head of his shadow turns and his brush stills. “Thanks. Hopefully, you’re right.”
Fuck’s sake. Hopefully, I am!
FIVE
ELIXON
It’s alwaysweird when I don’t have a set workout routine. I swear I canfeelmy muscles weakening. While the yacht doesn’t have a gym, I use the jet stream swimming pool as a means to work out every morning until I can’t feel my arms or legs. Then I sit in the sauna for a while.
I also stumbled upon a snow room. Which is exactly what it sounds like. A room filled with snow.
Okay, it’s not just snow. The walls are painted with a wintery scene with snow banks, trees, and shrubbery all covered in snow. There are also three stumps with snow on them that sit within a clearing that, you can guess, is covered in a light dusting of snow.
For a while, I stared at it through the glass doors in disbelief. Why is that even here?
Conveniently, there’s a brochure that explains the purpose of the snow room and lists all its benefits. Apparently, it’s cold enough to put the body through ‘positive stress,’ which results in both mental and physical health benefits. It goes on to list that these techniques (as with intermittent fasting) bring us back to our early ancestors, who often went without food for a while and didn’t have the luxury of a climate-controlled environment.
Since I’m slightly curious and have occasionally toyed with the idea of sinking into an ice bath, I finally decide to give it a chance. I slip on a pair of sandals and open the door to the room. I’m immediately hit with a cold blast of air and shiver. The door shuts behind me and I see a reflective number within the glass counting down from five minutes.
This is stupid.
The thought springs across my mind before it’s frozen in place when I step further inside. The thermometer on the wall says it’s 20°F. I stare at that number for a minute as I wrap my arms around myself.
Yep, stupid.
However, I stick it out. I can spend five minutes in subzero temperatures, right? My entire life is on the ice.
I’m not nearly naked on the ice.
It’s fine. I’m fine. Even as my teeth begin to chatter and my muscles tense, I keep mentally repeating this mantra. I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine.
At one point, as I’m staring at the numbers counting down, I think the timer has frozen and the numbers are standing still. Is it moving? What if the door has frozen shut? I might die here with my junk retreated back into my body, nearly naked, on a yacht just south of the US in 100° heat.
The buzzer is quiet. Almost serene. I nearly lunge for the door and then step back into the warmth of the room just outside. I take a deep breath as the glass door of the Snow Room closes, and glance back.
Okay, that wasn’t so bad. Which I admit is easier to say now that I’m not standing inside. I take a towel and leave this part of the ship. Hopefully, that added like six years to my life. One five-minute torture session in below freezing should do that, am I right?
