All The Queen's Men (Fantasy Heights) (11 page)

“If you say so. But I bet you a hundred bucks she’s the one who took Steph.”

Good lord, Amanda thought. All she did was take part in Derek’s stupid interrogation fantasy, and the DriveRate people thought she was a terrorist or something.

Her knee started to bob, wondering if Thomas had gotten her texts, and whether he and his team were on their way to stop Marla from taking Warnous. What if Thomas’s phone was dead, or something had gone wrong?

Knowing she shouldn’t do it, she got up and headed for the door. She slipped quietly into the night, and nearly screamed when she saw a silent crowd of dark shapes moving past the cabin.

One of them veered her direction.

Eric. He bullied her back into the shadows. “What the heck are you thinking?”

She grabbed onto him to babble whispered questions. Why was Eric back already? Was Steph okay?

Eric assured her that Steph was fine. Furious, with him and Thomas and Warnous, but fine. “Now, shut up and watch.”

He hauled her around the corner of the cabin so she could see moonlight reflecting off the lake. A single, startled yelp alerted her that something was happening on shore. So eerie. Bodies swarmed, but there was almost no sound. It took the security team less than forty seconds to capture Marla and her companion, secure Warnous, and leave the beach deserted once more.

No one got hurt. Not a single client would ever guess they had just had a major security situation. And never in her wildest dreams had Amanda ever thought she would be a willing accessory to kidnapping.

* * * * *

Three hours later, she sat curled up in one corner of a Queen Anne sofa. Thomas sat beside her, his elbows propped on his knees while Josh stood staring out a window, so coldly angry that she and Thomas had ice-cream headaches.

Josh had asked them both to meet him at Prescott house. He and Thomas had just returned from an emergency Accord meeting. Things were bad, now that Marla had been exposed as a DriveRate operative. Her betrayal hit much harder than Brent’s. This time, the enemy had been at the hearth for years, seated in the innermost circles.

Worse, there was one more DriveRate operative to identify and if Marla could remain hidden among them for so long, who else might turn out to be an enemy?

Thomas must have been thinking along the same lines. He spoke quietly, trying to reassure Josh. “We don’t know for sure that there’s another operative inside Fantasy Heights. Scott still suspects Nicole might have been the third operative. If it’s true that Derek’s woman-in-white was Yvette made up to look like someone else, then that means Yvette was on the resort at least fifteen times. She could have been the one responsible for the computer activity we haven’t explained yet.”

“Maybes and mights and ifs aren’t good enough. We need to know for certain. And we need an ID on the guy with Marla. Why can’t they figure out who he is?”

“Because his prints aren’t in any system we have access to.”

Josh muttered something. “Tell me they’ve increased security on Gail Warnous, at least.”

“No one will get near her or the boy. You have my word.”

They all fell silent once more. Josh turned toward the window while Amanda and Thomas gave each other cautious, speaking looks. They both felt terrible, and they both worried about Josh. Thomas had already confessed his plan to return to the military. He’d owned up to Steph’s kidnapping, too, and even Josh had to concede that Steph would never have left Warnous to go into treatment willingly.

Thomas had done the right thing. Those DriveRate drugs would have killed Steph rather sooner than later. If she and Thomas hadn’t scared the tar out of Warnous, they would never have exposed Marla as an enemy operative.

Josh was still trying to wrap his head around everything. “A barter. It was all about a stupid barter. Warnous couldn’t afford to pay DriveRate to kill Gail, so they made a deal. DriveRate agrees to drive Gail to suicide with those drugs in exchange for Warnous delivering Steph. Why does it never die? Why does Janos keep resurfacing? It’s like it’s got a will of its own.”

“It doesn’t,” Thomas told him. “It’s just people, and people can be stopped.”

Josh fell quiet again for so long that Amanda got up to join him. He had to stop doing this to himself. Janos was not his fault. Nor was it his problem alone.

Thomas said, “Enough already. You called us here to tell us something. Out with it.”

Amanda put her arms around Josh’s waist and held on while he turned to look at Thomas. When Josh spoke, the edges of his voice were colder than ever. “Marla knew about the safe house where Wade was keeping Carter. Earlier, before the meeting, Wade decided to move him. I agreed to let them stay here at Prescott house. When they got here, I led them through the conservatory on the way upstairs.”

“Yeah? And?”

“And Carter saw the pictures and paintings of Kay. He insists that Kay was the DriveRate counselor who convinced him to sing for his dad, then threatened him afterward.”

Silence. Thomas stared blankly for a moment or two, and then shook his head. “No. Don’t even think it, man. I saw the crime scene. I saw what Dixon did with… what was left of Kay and the doctors. There’s no way she’s alive.”

Josh held up a hand to silence him. “I showed Carter pictures of Yvette. They were sisters, passably similar in looks, and I thought the resemblance might be the most logical explanation. But Carter was adamant. It was Kay, not Yvette, who threatened him.”

Feeling a bit as if she’d just swallowed a live spider, Amanda said, “He has to be mistaken.”

“No, I don’t think he is. You heard Derek on that recording. DriveRate has someone as good as Kara at special effects makeup. They were able to get Yvette onto this resort without anyone recognizing her, weren’t they? And Yvette was an attachment disorder on legs. She was obsessed about the competition between her and Kay. How big a stretch is it to think Yvette might get a Kay makeover?”

Thomas leaned forward and let his head fall into his hands. “God, I hate the Prescotts. Bill was the only one who understood their bullshit.”

“Not true. Jennifer understands, and she says we need to be careful about assumptions. Just because Yvette owns DriveRate does not mean she’s in charge. In fact, it’s more likely she’s got lieutenants to handle any duties requiring sanity.”

“Yeah, well, this isn’t ironman football, Josh. I don’t have an army. I can’t defend this place and go after DriveRate at the same time.”

Josh snorted. “Funny. A couple days ago you felt we had a scout to spare.”

“Huh?”

Amanda understood. She’d been wondering herself if there wasn’t more behind Jerod’s disappearance than Thomas was telling. “He thinks you sent Jerod into the wild. You thought he was our best hope to find out if there’s really a Fantasy Heights clone out there, so you staged the fight to make it look like you can’t stand each other. Jerod resigns, and embraces his inner Anakin to infiltrate DriveRate.”

Thomas picked his head up to give her an incredulous look. “Are you kidding me? I admit to siccing Jerod on Ridley, but I had nothing to do with his resignation. If he went looking for DriveRate’s fantasy camp, he did it on his own.”

“Keeping your own counsel again. Wow. What a shock.”

“I’m not lying. This time.”

Both Amanda and Josh peppered him with wry looks.

“Don’t expect me to apologize. If you know everything I know, your behavior changes. You get nervous around people who are nervous about getting caught. In your case, ignorance isn’t just bliss. It’s shelter.”

“You can’t fault him for that,” Josh said. “He’s right.”

“Except sometimes you take it too far. There was no reason why you couldn’t tell me Jerod was my mystery client.”

The two stared at each other for what felt like a geological era before Thomas finally cracked. “Yes, there was. I’m not saying I believe it, but it’s possible we’ve been missing the obvious all along. Jerod could be the third operative. And maybe he resigned and took off because he knew the game was up.”

“No,” Amanda said. “No way.”

Josh said, “Or maybe they figured out Jerod has a soft spot for Amanda and they’re threatening to make another correction out of him.”

She tightened her hold on Josh. “You don’t… Whether that’s true or not, we have to find him. Get him away from those monsters.”

“Believe me,” Thomas said, “if we can find him, we will. But you have to be realistic, Amanda. Think about everything he’s done. I thought I understood why he warned you about those three names in that note, but looking back on it… Why would he warn you to avoid Gail, Marla and Lily specifically? Gail they were trying to drive to suicide with drugs that made her incredibly dangerous. Marla is a DriveRate operative. We don’t know about Lily yet, but how could Jerod know you needed to stay away from those people if he wasn’t in on it?”

“Oh, God. We have to tell his father. Please. Don’t let him find out the hard way. Or from someone who doesn’t care.”

“I will,” Thomas assured her.

“You have a decision to make, first,” Josh said. “We can’t afford any more upheaval with all those gamers about to descend on us. Are you keeping Jerod’s job or not?”

“No. The job should have been Eric’s in the first place. He’s more than earned it.”

“Then what about you? If we offer you Wade’s job again, will you take it?”

Again? They’d offered it to him before?

Josh said, “If it makes a difference, Jennifer wants to retract the Paramour invitation and make a formal offer to Amanda. With Steph gone indefinitely, we are in dire need of an operations manager.”

She couldn’t have heard that correctly. “I beg your… What?”

No one answered her. Josh and Thomas were staring at one another again, having one of those extremely irritating silent exchanges that left her no idea what they were thinking.

After a moment or two, Thomas conceded. “Fine. Tell Wade I’ll do it. But I want Helen re-instated to be my second.”

“Of course,” Josh said.

Thomas got up and left. Amanda opened her mouth to ask what the heck was going on. Josh clamped one hand over hers in a silent command to be still.

Once Thomas had gone, Josh said, “That went better than I thought.”

“I don’t understand. You made him an offer before? And why would Jennifer want me for an operations manager?”

“Because she knows a ringer when she sees one. And she and Thomas are afraid you’ll get bored and leave if we don’t throw you a challenge pretty soon.”

“Challenge? A challenge, he calls it. Right. Learn everything about an operation of this size and complexity overnight. And take over as chief penny-pincher with a major event looming, a possible mole still inside, and the entire staff scared and stretched too thin. Toss in one sociopathic owner, another in treatment and hey, I’m currently shacked up with the other and his best friend. Pretty sure ‘challenge’ wasn’t the word you were looking for, Mr. Taylor.”

She felt his stomach muscles tighten on a begrudged laugh. Then he took hold of one of her hands and lifted it to kiss her palm. The look he cast over his shoulder nearly melted her knees. “Thomas and I will make it worth your while.”

“That’s not fair.”

“You’re right. It’s not. The two of us combined don’t add up to half what you deserve. Think about it, though. Beverly can’t keep up at this pace, and you’d still be able to perform if you want. Come on. At least try. For me?”

As tempted as she was to agree, she had too often jumped on the yes button without thinking things through, lately. This time, maybe she should look before leaping. And it wasn’t only professional responsibility that gave her pause. She was now personally involved with two men at once.

She felt everything inside turn pointy and jagged. Until this week, she would have waspishly reminded anyone who would listen that she hadn’t come to Fantasy Heights to get entangled with anybody. She’d just had her entire, flawed worldview kicked out the window by her last failed relationship. Why would she willingly forget the lesson she’d learned?

But maybe it was already too late. Thomas had certainly sneaked past the radar, and he was not some passing, physical fling. He expected things from her, and made her expect more from herself. His unique combination of armor and vulnerability made her aspire to be every bit as brave and strong and loyal as he was himself. It was hard to ignore the value of someone who required you to be everything you most admire.

Josh, too, had become vital without her realizing. Her quiet Highwayman always made her feel cherished and capable, as if she were every bit as important around here as he was.

Saying yes to a job meant saying yes to much more than that. Far more. And if there was some sort of rule book on how to have a relationship with two men at once without anyone getting hurt, she sure would like to get her hands on it.

Josh hauled her around to his front, and she rested her cheek against his chest. “Can I have some time to think about it?”

“Of course.”

When he kissed the top of her head, she closed her eyes. This would not be an easy decision to make.

Always a pleasure...

Meg Silver writes fun, fast-paced erotic fiction. Passion and pleasure are always the main themes, and the series installment format makes for great light reading, whether readers are looking to spice up a quiet evening, or warm up the engines for something more adventurous.

For Meg Silver information, news and updates, please visit http://megsilver.com.

For all the latest, spoiler-free info and updates, please visit http://megsilver.com/fantasy-heights/