Page 66 of What Doesn't Kill You…

"There's a storm coming anyway. It's supposed to hit tomorrow night. I'll get management to tell people it's expected to be worse than it is. It won't be the first time we've hunkered down because of the weather. If we're lucky, some of the guests we have already will chicken out and leave too." He sounded disgusted with the plan. "Get out of here. I'm done with you."

There was the sound of a door shutting.

"He can't postpone the meeting," Max said into the silence, sounding panicked. "There must be something we can do to make it happen as planned."

"Like what?" Violet said. "Call Damien up and tell him we had nothing to do with the murder, and we're pretty sure my stalker isn't after his partner either?"

Max cursed and strode to the window, where he stood, hands on hips, staring out into the sun. Frustration emanated from him. Violet wanted to do something to ease what he felt, but she wasn't sure what.

"Hey," Damien said. "Yeah, we've got a problem."

From the pauses it was clear he was on the phone with someone. Evan looked heartbroken because they didn't have a tap on the call. Violet knew how he felt.

"One of my guards was taken out today," Damien said then paused to listen. "If I knew who did it, I'd have already handled it. My guys are running it down right now, but it's going to take some time." Another pause. "I realize your schedule is tight but I'm thinking it would be best to postpone for a couple of nights." He sighed. "That reporter I told you about? Yeah, we looked into him and his fiancée and they check out."

Evan punched the air and grinned at the team. The toddler would need a treat for a job well done.

"Her family are here now too. Don't think they'd arrive if he was here on a story, but I've got my people watching them anyway. He gets married tomorrow. After that he'll be out of here in a couple of days. Monday morning he's off the island. I say we meet Tuesday, just to be safe.”

Max let out an agony-filled groan and Violet couldn't stop herself from going to him. She placed a hand on his back, offering comfort and solidarity. She could only imagine how it must feel to hear years of planning go down the drain with one call.

"No," Damien said. "I didn't realize you had to be in New York on Sunday."

Max tensed under her touch.

"Yeah, yeah, absolutely," Damien said, sounding afraid for the first time since Katrina had shared the audio from the listening device. "I understand. I'm sure we can have the place secured by tomorrow night. No, I realize what will happen if we don't meet. I'm not trying to get out of it?—"

There was a longer silence during which it felt like the whole team held their breaths.

"It's under control," Damien said at last, sounding tight and anxious. Violet could imagine him sweating. Good. "Don't worry, there won't be any more problems. I don't need you to send people to help. I've got this." He sounded a little desperate. "Yeah, okay. I'll let you know."

There was silence for a long moment, during which it was clear the call had ended. Then there was a loud roar of, "Fuck!", followed by a smash. The audio turned to static.

"I think he threw the plant with the bug," Rodrigo said, looking disgusted. "We were lucky to get one near him. Who knows where the other plants are located and what they're picking up."

"Uh," Evan said. "I think one is in a bathroom. We're hearing stuff nobody should listen to."

"Great," Rodrigo said. "You called it though, Max, there's definitely a meeting this weekend. You might actually get to take the bastard down after all."

Max flashed an apologetic smile at Violet. "There's only one problem though," he said. "If the meeting is tomorrow night…"

"Then we have to get married," Violet finished flatly.

Her only consolation was that it wasn’t legally binding, even if her family believed otherwise. Oh, what a mess this was going to be to sort out later.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

They wandered around St. Patrice, doing nothing to hide their activities from the guy Damien sent to watch them. After buying a few small souvenirs, they met up with Rodrigo and Katrina at the boat, acting like excited friends as they chatted about their fictitious tourist trip to the island. The journey to Wedding Island seemed to go faster on the way back, and it wasn't long before they were in their room, preparing for dinner with Violet's family.

Max felt wired. He wanted to scream from the rooftops, tell the world he'd been right, and now he was this close to catching a monster. Only, in his experience, it was when you got close to your goal that things went badly wrong.

Still, he could taste the end. Years of tracking down every tiny lead he could find on Damien Poole was finally going to pay off. He'd be able to write his story and get justice for his friend, for all the people Damien had hurt, and he might even get his job back too. Just one more day and it would all be over. He could hardly wait.

Except…

The end of the mission meant his time with Violet was coming to a close too. And that didn't sit well with him. He watched as she finished getting ready for their evening. She wore a simple dress made of mushroom colored satin that flowed over her curves and flared out into a full skirt ending at her knees. The color made her skin glow and her hair shimmer. To his surprise, she'd applied lip gloss, taking her time to get it right, as though she wasn't used to wearing it. And then she'd produced a necklace from her bag.

"Here," he said, coming up behind her. "Let me help."