AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hello,” she answers, her phone tucked under her ear with her shoulder as she staggers into her panties and pulls them up.
Still on my knees, I rock my head back and sigh. Well, shit.
“Yeah, will do. Thanks for the heads-up.” She hangs up and turns to me. “Marcella and Ilya just got to Ocean View.” Then she adds with emphasis, “With Bojan.”
I take my phone out as I stand up and see two missed calls from Clark.
Motherfucking cockblock.
Stella
“What do you think he’s doing there?” I whisper-yell at Lochlan as we walk quickly through the building. “I assumed he’d be staying out of sight until the ‘boats get fixed.’” Clark reported a fake engine problem on the yacht that ferries people to and from the island to discreetly lock the island down.
“I don’t know, but nothing good,” Lochlan says shortly, and I wince internally. I can still feel the ghost of his lips on my thigh and the tremble in my stomach. I wonder if he’s equally as twisted up as I am right now.
I try to push the echo of his words out my head and focus on what’s happening now. “You really think he’d kill his own son?” I ask incredulously as we slip into our golf cart.
“I think Jakšic is one crazy son of a bitch and his son is right to be scared of him. So, we need to hurry up before either one of them does something stupid.” His cold, serious tone makes my heart beat faster with anxiety. But then he adds jokingly, “Two murders in four days wouldn’t be good for business.” And I breathe a sigh of relief at the break in tension.
I look down at my colorful dress and his floral linen shirt as we race through the resort. “Shouldn’t we be dressed in all black or something?”
He barks a laugh. “Okay, Harlow.”
“I’m serious,” I stress. “We both could be spotted miles away.”
“But we fit in. We look like we’re ready to drink piña coladas out of coconuts, not like we’re about to go on a B&E spree.”
I shake my head as we turn toward the Jakšics’ villa. “I’d make a terrible criminal.”
“You would.” He looks straight ahead while he maneuvers the winding path. “But that’s why I like you.” He still doesn’t look at me, but the corner of his mouth tugs in a cocky smile.
When we get to the villa, Lochlan uses the key Marcella gave us to let ourselves in. We were initially supposed to search their place two days ago, but Ilya stayed home to play poker. Which was probably for the best given my quick nap turned into sleeping for sixteen hours straight.
In the two days since, we haven’t gotten any closer to proving Ilya is the killer.
I scan the vast open floor plan, a citrus cleaner smell clinging to the air. “Okay, so what should I be looking for exactly?”
“Anything. Bloody clothes, a knife or switchblade, blackmail material, drugs.” I follow him into a bedroom as he talks. “Jakšic wouldn’t trust tossing evidence into the island’s communal garbage. He’d keep it until he can properly dispose of it back home.”
A thought occurs to me. “What did you do with my clothes before we tossed them into the ocean?”
“I pulled out one of the recessed lighting cans in my closet, shoved the bag with everything into the rafters through the hole, then put the light back in place like it was never touched.”
I look up at the intimidatingly high vaulted ceilings. “Is that where we should be looking?”
Lochlan chuckles as he kneels by the bed and begins poking around under it. “Let’s start with the obvious places first. Some of the most dangerous people are also the dumbest.”
I decide to start with the walk-in closet. What better place to hide clothes than among clothes? Lots and lots of clothes. It’s hard to believe this is their vacation home by the racks full of dresses and suits, stacks of shoeboxes, and drawer after drawer of jewelry. Searching through it feels like shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue. Except for the illicit pounding of my heart for being somewhere I shouldn’t be.
When I get to a shelf of Birkin bags, all lined up neatly in a row, I feel like I should be wearing white gloves. I carefully open each one, checking inside the pockets.
“Find anything?” Lochlan is leaning against the doorjamb, one hand in his pocket. He looks loose and relaxed, like he’s about to ask me what movie I want to watch. The front of his blond hair is tossed to one side, his blue eyes are sharp and deep, and his fair stubble accentuates his jaw. He looks like he could have walked out of the surfer magazine he was reading before. He looks devastatingly handsome.
He lifts his brows in question with a hint of smugness and I realize I never answered him, only stared. Snapping back to reality, I shake my head and open the next purse. “Nothing useful—oh, wait.” My fingers come across a hole in the lining, way too big for a bag in such nice condition. I slide my fingers inside and feel the corners of something thin and glossy.
I pull out two polaroid pictures. Anticipation fills me until I flip them face up. Lochlan comes to look over my shoulder, close enough that I can smell the clean and fresh masculine scent of his cologne.
In both pictures, Bojan and Marcella are in bed. White sheets hide most of their bodies but it’s clear they are both naked. In one, Marcella is kissing Bojan on the cheeks as he takes the photo. The next looks like she took it as she lies on his bare chest, smiling with her long blonde hair spread out like a fan on her pillow.
