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“It’s a good solution, but not a great one,” Dom chimes in. “Ferrying employees back and forth to work will be a logistical nightmare.”
“The Richardsons have their hotel sitting empty right now, and they’ve offered to rent it to us in the past for events. I'm going to get on the phone with them and see if we can take it over for the next few months as employee housing. But for now, taking the twenty people who have nowhere to go but the hotel lobby and getting them settled on Merit is the best plan we have,” Sam says, nodding to me in agreement.
“We can get a couple of the local guides to run boat shuttles a few times a day. It won’t be perfect, but we’ll make it work,” I say. “Do people need time to go to their houses and get things, or should we start taking them down to the docks now?”
Dom narrows his eyes at me. “There’s one employee who wasn’t on Faraday last night and probably needs to head home and see if there’s anything there she wants to salvage.”
It’s a challenge, issued head-on, and I don’t back down. “Indeed. I’ll take her over there now and then we’ll head down to the docks in an hour. She knows the road well enough to drive people from the dock to the house, and we’ll have Max driving as well. With two boats and three carts, we should be able to pull this off fairly quickly.”
As I lay the plan out, the logistics do actually seem pretty simple. It’s the unusual feelings coloring my thoughts that guarantee things are going to be more complicated.
Chapter Sixteen
Victoria
“It was crazy, Vic. One minute we were watching the storm, the next the water was coming into the house. We went next door to Paul’s top floor apartment and stayed the night there with like ten other people. This morning, I went back and the water was still almost knee deep. The furniture, the kitchen, everything is going to be garbage.”
Her eyes brim with tears as she recounts her harrowing night, and my own tears roll down my cheeks. Sure, it’s just a short term, furnished rental, but it was home to us.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there.'' It's true. As much as I would hate to give up my night with Ben, playing scary games in the storm, I would have traded it all to have been there for my friend as shit went down. “I’m going to head to the house now and see if there’s anything I can grab. Then everyone is coming to stay at the Merit house.”
Her eyes go wide. “Really?”
I smile, glancing around at her raised voice. “Yeah, but don't say anything yet, okay? I don’t know exactly what the plan is.” I glance over at the three owners, huddled together with the police chief, talking solemnly.
“Well, that’s a bright spot in this whole mess. I’m finally going to get to witness you two lovebirds in action.” My eyes go wide, and she breaks into giggles. “Not that kind of action!”
I can’t help but laugh with her, but the humor soon turns to lead in my gut. I grab Sally by the shoulder and pull her further into a corner. “Sally, it can’t be like that, okay? People can’t find out. I don’t know who knows about Ainsley, but he wasn’t exactly subtle about who he was sleeping with, and there are at least a handful of people in this lobby who we partied with.”
“Hmm, yeah.” Sally glances around and then grimaces back at me. “Your secret is safe with me.”
I inhale a long breath and sigh. I can trust her not to say anything. But convincing Ben might be another story. Luckily, I have his sense of propriety and his concern over litigation working in my favor.
Perfect, Vic, you know the man well enough to successfully manipulate him. Well played.
It’s a depressing thought, especially after the closeness I’ve been feeling to him, but I don’t have a choice. Yesterday, the man was only holding my heart, and the most fun sex I’ve ever had, over me. Now that my home has been destroyed, he’s holding my safety and security as well.
“Victoria.”
I jump and turn at Ben’s voice right behind me.
“We can head over to your house and grab a few things. We’ll probably need to take a few other employees with us as well.”
He glances at Sally, and I smile. “She knows.”
Ben relaxes visibly and nods. “Great, why don’t you come along. We have two open seats if there’s anyone else who wants to grab things from your neighborhood. Sam and Dom are letting their employees know the plan now. Starting in an hour, we’ll be ferrying everyone to Merit on a couple of tour boats. Max will be able to drive people from the dock, but we’ll need you to drive a cart as well, Vic, if that’s okay. Not many people know the way.”
“Oh, of course. Sure, I can do that.”
“Great. Meet me out at the cart in ten. And if you find two neighbors, bring them along.”
And he heads off toward the offices.
“Does he know that you guys are in a secret relationship?” Sally hisses into my ear.
I groan and close my eyes. “Kind of? I mean, he doesn’t want to cause a scandal by dating an employee, so we’ve kept it pretty quiet, but I’m not sure how serious he is about the whole secret relationship thing.”
“And of course you haven't talked about it, because that would be too easy, and now a bunch of employees are coming to live in the mansion with you two. This is better than reality TV.”
