Lithium

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

AFTER MY TALK with Emmy, I knew I had to sort out the Vanilla problem so I could get on with my life. I’d start first thing tomorrow morning. After I’d used the gym. And had breakfast. And sorted out my laundry.

No! I’d start now. The ridiculously expensive Gucci timepiece Vanilla had bought me said it was half past seven. I stared at the watch for a few seconds longer, then unbuckled it and hurled it against the wall. The sound of the glass cracking wasn’t as satisfying as I’d hoped.

Embarrassed that I’d lost control, I scooped up the jagged remains, tossed them in the trash, then went downstairs.

Emmy and her husband were the majority shareholders in Blackwood Security, a firm they’d started fifteen years ago and grown into a global player through hard work and possibly a few of Black’s shadowy connections. While the public face of the company offered executive protection, training, technology solutions, and investigations, behind-the-scenes Emmy and a few others provided services similar to my own.

They’d offered me the use of whatever resources I needed, including the backup control room at their opulent home, and that was where I headed. As I walked in, Daniela di Grassi rushed up and threw her arms around me. She’d been one of Emmy’s best friends for as long as I’d known her, and that made Dan a friend of mine too.

“How are you? It’s been what, five months?”

Five months, two dead bodies, and a whole lot of sleepless nights trying to forget a man who I should hate. “Yeah, about that. I’m okay. You?”

“Neck’s a bit stiff.” She worked her head from side to side. “And my new Mustang’s two feet shorter than it should be.”

I stopped my eye roll halfway through and went for sympathy. “Aw, another car broken? What happened?”

“Dude I was chasing lost control on a bend and spun into me.”

“And how’s he?”

“Eating through a tube. Emmy said you needed some help locating Raul Barone?”

I grimaced at the sound of his name. “Figured it was time I did something about him.”

“I can’t believe you’ve left it so long. If he’d done to me what he did to you, I’d have shot his bollocks off ages ago.”

If they’d been anyone else’s bollocks, I would have. Although I preferred to use a knife. The intimacy of a blade up close somehow added to the horror. With a gun, one blast and it was all over.

A sigh escaped my lips. “I don’t know why I haven’t. Everything’s messed up in my head.”

“Love and hate are the closest emotions, and you’ve drawn that line a little wonky. One day it’ll straighten itself out.”

“As long as I end up on the right side of it,” I muttered.

“We’ll all be here to give you a shove if you don’t. Now, I’ve got good news, bad news, and worse news.”

“Give me the good first.”

“I tracked down Raul.”

That was what I wanted, right? So why did a pit of dread open up in my stomach? “Where? Atlanta?” That was where he lived, where he and his family ruled their part of the city, untouchable. “What’s the bad news?”

“He’s on vacation. Well, it seems to be more of an extended trip.”

“Where?”

“On his yacht.”

Fuck. Water, water everywhere. “Where’s it moored?”

Raul may have owned the yacht as a status symbol, and he enjoyed hosting parties on it, but I happened to know he got seasick if he spent more than a couple of hours on the open water. On one trip, he’d dashed from our bed six times in the middle of the night to puke over the side. No, he’d be anchored up somewhere, enjoying the nightlife.

“Right now?” She tapped a few buttons on the screen in front of us and zoomed in. “Grand Cayman.”

Sun, sea, and money. Figured. His family had to launder their cash somewhere, and what better place to do it than one of the world’s biggest tax havens? I peered at the picture Dan had called up. “Wow, the resolution on that’s amazing.”

“Emmy got it. I’m not sure how. There’s a rumour floating around that she invested in a satellite company.”

In front of me, Raul knelt on the sun deck, his tan showing he’d spent quite a bit of time up there. He needed a haircut. But that wasn’t my main concern. My jaw dropped as I recognised the brunette beneath him, her mouth open in a sigh as he massaged her ample t**s.

“That’s his f*****g secretary. The one he hired just before he dumped me.”

And when I said dumped, I meant it literally. You may wonder why I got so upset about the revelation that Raul was a cheating bastard when my attempted murder left me numb. Well, to me, murder was business. Trading me in for a different model was personal.

“She won’t be doing a lot of typing in that position.”

“That bastard! He told me she had a big mouth and it drove him crazy.”

Dan clicked on the next photo, which showed Raul on his back, shorts around his knees as the brunette crouched over him. “I don’t think he was lying.”

When Raul told me it was over, I’d asked if there was another woman, and he’d looked me square in the eye when he answered, “There’s nobody else, Sadie.”

Dan flicked to the next picture in the series, with the woman leaning to the side so Raul could unsnap her bikini top. Dammit! He’d been a better liar than me.

“I need a gun and a plane ticket.”

An arm snaked around my waist. “Have you finally seen the light?” Emmy asked.

I pointed at the screen. “He cheated on me. With his secretary. He couldn’t even be original.”

Emmy leaned forward. “He has no taste. Those are definitely fake.”

“She’s had her lips done as well.”

“Ick. I always wondered what that would feel like. Do you reckon they go tingly?” She caught my glare. “Okay, okay. So, now what?”

“I’m going to finish my damn job.”

“On the yacht? You know that thing sits on water?”

I gritted my teeth. “He has to come ashore sometime.”

“Why not wait until he comes back to the States? Have you even been to the Caymans before?”

“Once.” I didn’t want to mention it was only for two days. “And at least it’ll be sunny.”

I motioned at the windows where rain fell in sheets from a leaden sky. Grey, like my f*****g soul.

“I suppose he’ll be off his home turf as well.”

“And he won’t be expecting me.”

“Well, of course not. He thinks you’re dead.” She sighed. “If you’re set on this, I’ll give Bradley a call. He can give you a new look. Unless you plan on haunting Vanilla to death.”

“Now, if I could induce a heart attack...”

“I was thinking more of a poltergeist. Do they throw knives?”

“They do now.”

By nine o’clock, Bradley was fussing around the bathroom, muttering about split ends. “Who did this to you? It looks like a rat chewed it.”

“Uh, a salon in Atlanta. It looked okay six months ago.”

He threw his hands up and gasped. “Six months? You’ve left it six months?”

“I had other things on my mind.”

“Didn’t you look in a mirror?”

“The whole point of my job is to stay out of sight. It doesn’t matter if I don’t look runway ready.” Although when I lived with Vanilla, I went to the hair salon every two weeks, had my nails done each Monday afternoon, and never, ever ventured out without lipstick.

He sucked in a breath. “Well, I’m going to have to take a few inches off.”

“Whatever. I don’t care.”

While he snipped and covered my hair with gunk, I busied myself reading the intelligence files Dan had sent over. According to his credit card statement, Vanilla took his secretary out for dinner at least four times a week, and from the prices, they were living on lobster and caviar. I looked back farther, to the months when we were together, and found he ate out five times a week when he only ever took me out three. That sneaky little s**t! He must have been cosying up to her, even then.

“All done,” Bradley announced, and I looked up.

Lesson number one. Don’t ever, ever give Bradley free reign to do what he wants. “Where the f**k is my hair?”

He pointed to a messy pile on the tiled floor. “Looks fantastic, doesn’t it?”

My waist-length hair was now a choppy bob, with a long fringe sweeping sideways just above my eyes. I’d worn it honey blonde with Vanilla, and in a fit of anger, I’d dyed it dark brown in my bathroom after he dumped me. Now it had cherry red overtones that caught the light as I flicked my head.

“It’s different,” Emmy said.

“Good different or bad different.”

“I’d better say good while you’re in reach of the scissors.”

“It’s Bradley I want to kill.”

He took a couple of steps towards the door. “I just need to check on something.”

As he sprinted along the hallway, I turned back to Emmy. “Maybe I should drink a bottle of wine and go to bed.”

“Don’t think like that. You still look beautiful. New hair, new start.”

“I hope you’re right.”