Page 78 of The Big Fix

The place was huge. Six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, on a hillside overlooking the Andaman Sea in Phuket. It was only fifteen minutes from Kamala Beach, Jing told me, and even though I told her to go and take Arden, neither wanted to leave me.

“Plus, there’s a pool,” she’d pointed out. “And a stocked bar, and it’s beautiful here, and peaceful, and…secure.”

It certainly was that. I’d never seen so many cameras and security. Owen updated the system on our third day there because he was bored, and with Garland’s help, moved things around so there was barely an inch of the villa he couldn’t see.

Isaak left the Sunday of the second week. I was surprised he’d stayed that long. Being still made him nervous; constant motion was better. I was on a chair on the deck attached to my bedroom, and he came in and sat with me.

“Thank you for everything, Isaak.”

“I got to shoot RPG. It had been a minute. Was fun.”

I nodded. He reached out and took my hand for a moment, squeezing it, and then got up and left. He was gone the next morning. He and Jing were going to go to Disney World later in the year. I didn’t ask.

Garland was on his way to Syria, and it was possible, since he was joining Army Intelligence there, that he’d cross paths with George Hunt. He promised he would bring him up to speed if he saw him.

“If you leave the agency,” I told Garland the last night he was there, “please call me. I would love to have you work for me.”

“Thank you, sir. I will keep that in mind.”

I noticed that when he left me, he went immediately to Jing and sat with her on the patio. They were sipping beers and talking.

“Oh, I kind of like that,” I said, looking down at them from my deck.

“Don’t get excited,” Arden cautioned me, dropping off antibiotics, ibuprofen, and more vitamins. I’d never seen so many supplements in my life. “You know Jing likes scary men.”

“I think maybe she’s grown out of that.”

She scoffed, patted my head like I was a puppy, and left the room. I would really be happy when I could walk more than ten feet without getting winded and could go back to yelling at everyone.

“Like you yell,” Owen said later when I told him.

Aaron Sutter dropped in on me at the beginning of the third week, and explained that all his business dealings with Chanthara Holdings had been suspended.

“They might be completely clean,” he told me, sitting on the lower deck with me under a canopy, “but we have to do an in-depth dive on them with everything you uncovered.”

I nodded, turning to look at him. I had no idea how anyone in shorts, sandals, and a polo could still look ridiculously rich. Maybe it was the sunglasses or the haircut. But somehow, he looked like he owned the world and the rest of us were just breathing his air.

“I’m paying Owen his full wages for his time here, and his friend Maggie as well.”

“That’s good of you.”

“I’m also setting up a trust for Peter Barrow’s children, and his life insurance is already being paid out to his widow.”

“I’m sure she’ll be very grateful,” I said softly, thinking that Aaron Sutter was a good man. Darius always said so, and Darius was always right.

“So this is a job?” I baited Miguel Romero, who was sitting on his boss’s left, soaking up the rays instead of being with us in the shade.

“Shut up.”

I smiled. This was how it should be with your friends.

Once they left, Owen joined me, and I was surprised that instead of taking Aaron’s spot, he stretched out with me on my chaise, head on my chest, arm around my waist, one of his long, muscular legs draped over mine.

I froze.

“I told you we were going to talk,” Owen said softly, sighing deeply, by all indications enjoying lying beside me.

“Okay,” I murmured, my throat tightening up as I moved my hand gently, stroking his thick auburn hair, loving the feel of it as I ran my fingers through it.