Page 16 of First Touch

The attendant began shaking his head before I’d even finished speaking. “Nope. Don’t know her. Excuse me but I have to get back to folding these towels. Have a nice day.” He turned completely so that his back was to me.

I stood there for another minute before picking up my bag and heading for a nearby deck chair. I slumped down and shot a glance back at the towel bar. The attendant had acted weird, hadn’t he? Or was I just imagining things again?

“You’re one crazy woman,” a voice said behind me.

I turned to find a man wearing a Sallis resort shirt picking up a used towel off the empty seat beside me. “Excuse me?”

The man gathered another few towels from the ground, speaking to me without looking at me, his voice low. “You can’t ask about Sallis’s women and expect anyone to tell you shit.”

My brow creased until I realized he must have overheard the exchange at the counter. And if my interest hadn’t been piqued before, it was now. “Does he tell you not to say anything?”

“Sallis? Not exactly. It’s unspoken. His women are not to be touched, not to be talked about. End of story. Not an out-and-out rule. The staff just knows.” He said it like the subject was over.

It wasn’t. “But how do you know? There has to be something that began the idea in the first place.” Like, Reeve planted it. It would be so typical of him with his control-everything-yet-seem-aloof desire. I wouldn’t doubt it for a moment.

But the attendant simply shrugged. “No idea.”

He shot a look over at me and must have seen the determination on my face because he stopped what he was doing and sat on the chair next to me. Perhaps overdramatically, he looked around to see who was watching us, then leaned toward me and said in a hushed voice, “Okay, you didn’t hear this from me, but there was an incident. Once. A cook who made a not-nice comment about the lady Sallis was dating.”

Though I felt silly doing so, I lowered my own voice. “What happened to him? Did he get himself fired?”

“He got himself dead.”

My stomach dropped. “Dead? For a simple comment?” Then I realized the guy was laughing. “You’re making this up.”

He grinned, straightening. “Yeah, I am.”

“Jerk,” I said playfully, returning his grin. I looked him over now, discreetly behind my sunglasses. He was cute. A nice-guy sort. Clean-cut and well mannered. He probably didn’t try anything on the first date. Maybe not the second either. He’d probably be someone that would be really good for me.

And I wasn’t interested in the slightest.

“Sorry,” he said, not at all sorry. “Couldn’t help myself. Really, there’s no story to back up my point. Just trust me – Sallis is a good employer, but he’s not the guy you want to cross. He’s the kind of guy you respect. There isn’t anyone here who will fuck that up.”

“You sound pretty confident about that.” I narrowed my eyes. “You must have worked here a while. Were you here last summer?”

He laughed. “Seriously? After what I just said?”

“You gave me no reason to be afraid of the question.” My tone was serious, but I let the teasing show in my expression. “Come on. I won’t tell anyone. Just… did you? You did, didn’t you? Work here.”

He laughed again, shaking his head. “Shit. I can’t believe I’m doing this. Let me see the picture.” He looked around once more before taking it from me. After only a second of studying it, he returned it. “That’s Ms. Pries.”

“Yes! Yes, that’s her!” It was surprising how overcome I was just by the simple sound of her name. How happy I was to find someone who had, so far, only verified that Amber had been there. A fact that wasn’t at all new to me. “So you knew her?”

“I knew of her. Everyone knew of her. Never talked to her or anything, but I saw her around.”

“Okay, okay.” I was too excited to think. “Do you know anyone who did talk to her?”

“I don’t know. Maybe someone at the spa. I heard she was there a lot. But no one’s going to tell you shit there, so don’t bother.”

I made a mental note to book a massage and admonished myself for not thinking of that already. “Do you know when she left?” He was shaking his head again so I encouraged him. “A ballpark time frame. The season. Anything.”

His knee bounced as he considered. “She left in June maybe. Probably. Same time as Sallis did. Before you ask, no, I don’t know where they went. Sallis didn’t come back here until Halloween.”

“With her?”

Another head shake. “Alone.”

I bit my lip. “And you don’t have any idea where he went? No guesses?”