Lure of the Wicked Part 2

"Anything else?"

Phin jerked a thumb to his right, where a green exit sign glowed in the distance. "That's the services center. There are ten floors, ranging from dining to socializing to relaxation and beauty, all yours from that elevator. Did you receive your program?"

"Program?"

"Your people scheduled your services in advance," he explained, and couldn't help curiosity from leaking into his voice as her mouth twisted. "If you don't like the choices-"

"I'm sure whatever they are will be fine and dandy," she said, her expression so indifferent that he wondered if he'd misread the signs.

"The program should be in your suite." He'd make a note to check with housekeeping. "This atrium connects all three towers." As if she'd read his mind, her gaze flicked to the third set of doors. Answering her unspoken question, he added, "That's the family quarters. As much as I'd love to show you my parlor-"

"Got it, slick," she said, her lips twitching. "I'll keep that in mind."

"And that's it." It was the shortest, most precise tour he'd ever given.

Not that she cared, he realized wryly. The smile she flashed him was distracted. "Great," she said, dismissal once again clear in her tone. "Thanks."

"Of course." He stepped out of her path, easing down the few steps separating the surrounding walkway from the central garden. "Welcome to Timeless, Naomi."

The next few weeks were going to be woefully long with this particular heiress around. Phin let out his breath in a silent sigh of relief as she turned away. "Good night, then," she said. "I'm sure we'll meet again soon."

"Do you need anything right away?"

Naomi flung a hand to the side without turning. "No. You're an interesting man, Phinneas Clarke."

He grinned at her back. "Phin, and if that's not a compliment, I'd like to take it as one."

Her shoulders lifted. "Take it however you-" she began, then froze as a m.u.f.fled, ragged scream echoed through the courtyard.

Chapter Two.

She didn't wait to see what the so-polished Phin Clarke would do. She didn't even consider what an equally polished heiress should do. As the first cry reverberated through the dimly lit courtyard, Naomi whirled and sprinted toward the pool hall.

Somewhat to his credit, Phin was barely a second behind her.

He'd labeled this the pool hall. She didn't know what to expect as she barreled through a second set of doors. Water, obviously, maybe a splas.h.i.+ng swimmer in distress. She didn't like to swim, but she steeled herself to dive into whatever body of water she had to.

The screams s.h.i.+fted into panicked screeching that echoed eerily in the vast s.p.a.ce. A quick glance took in a truly ma.s.sive pool area. Two full-sized swimming pools and eight different bathing pools filled every available floor s.p.a.ce, each rimmed with gold-veined white marble. Some bubbled, some boasted waterfalls, some steamed in welcoming heat. Along the walls inlaid with what looked like imported bamboo, doors vanished into mysterious interiors.

She homed in on a mid-twenties blond in a bright pink bikini hammering on one of the doors, screaming incoherently.

Naomi ran across the stylish slate flooring, the water-slick stone precarious as h.e.l.l in her heeled boots. Phin broke off behind her, slammed a hand on an intercom she hadn't seen by the door. She didn't stop to check what he said. She slipped twice, managed to right herself before she tumbled a.s.s over elbows into treated water.

With a sick feeling of dread building in her stomach and adrenaline boiling through her blood, Naomi caught herself on the door frame of the sauna beside the hysterical girl and pushed her out of the way. She slammed her hands around her eyes as she pressed her face to the hot pane of gla.s.s set into the door.

Beside her, the blond grabbed fistfuls of her wet hair in rigid, petrified fingers. "Oh, G.o.d, hurry," she pleaded. "She's not moving!"

Steam rolled thick and white through the sealed room, too dense to see a d.a.m.n thing. Dread unfurled into cold certainty. "How long has she been in there?" Naomi asked.

"I don't know!"

Naomi grabbed the door handle, jerked on it with all of her might. It didn't budge. "Where are the locks?" she demanded.

"It's mechanical." Phin's voice was grim behind her. "Maintenance is on the way."

Naomi pushed away from the door, checked the gauges placed discreetly around a s.h.i.+ny gold panel. They vibrated in the red.

The blond threw herself at the door. "Grandma!"

"Cally!" Phin's voice boomed across the pool, echoed in distinct, modulated authority. Calm, even despite the volume. Despite his pallor. "Barbara, I want you to go with Cally."

"But-"

"We'll get your grandmother out, all right? You need to go over there where it's safe." He took the blond by the arm, turned her forcefully, gently, toward the small crowd of guests and staff gathering at the end of the room. "It'll be okay, just go with Cally."

A trim redhead in the Timeless green uniform hurried to collect her, wrapping an arm around the blond's shoulders. "Come with me," she said in low, soothing tones. "Everything's going to be fine."

Naomi didn't know if that meant help had been called. It didn't matter. Another few minutes and anyone in that locked-up sauna would be ready for a side serving of b.u.t.ter.

What the f.u.c.k was going on in this spa?

"Give me your jacket," Naomi ordered swiftly.

"What-"

"Give me your G.o.dd.a.m.n jacket!"

Phin stripped off his tailored coat. She took it, shook it out, and wrapped it tightly around her right arm.

This was going to hurt like a b.i.t.c.h.

Shouldering him aside, ignoring his startled protest, she pressed her back against the door and turned her face away.

Pain was the least of her problems.

In one brutal slam of her padded elbow, the windowpane fractured. Air hissed wildly. A crack split all the way past her ear, sent aching shockwaves clear to her shoulder.

It wasn't enough.

Steam whistled from the sudden vent, blisteringly hot. Holding her breath, the trapped steam sizzling by her cheek, she brought her arm up and slammed her elbow harder into the gla.s.s. Fractures split, segmented up the pane.

Another crash, and pressure shattered the rest. Shards exploded outward in a glittering storm, tinkled to the treated floor like diamonds. The crowd jumped, screamed.

Naomi ignored them, coughing as she batted at the air in front of her face. With a fierce surge of adrenaline hammering through her blood, she grabbed an edge of the window.

Phin caught her arm. "Naomi, don't-"

She flicked him a glance, noted the hard edge to his mouth. Shaking her head once, she rolled her shoulder, disengaging as easily as if he'd never touched her, and leveraged herself up and through the narrow break. One spiky heel caught on the windowpane, wrenched her ankle, and she pitched to the floor on a stream of choked curses.

She couldn't breathe. Hot, thick air slammed into her like a fist. She was drowning in a hot blanket of steam, like breathing in lava. Coughing, she forced herself to her hands and knees and croaked, "h.e.l.lo?"

m.u.f.fled voices trailed through the broken window, died in the stifling heat. She strained to hear through it, but only a faint, m.u.f.fled rattle of pressure and machine filled the choking silence.

f.u.c.k. Not good.

"If you can hear me, help is on the way!" She crawled forward, squinting in the roiling steam. It filled her lungs, strangled her as it soaked through her clothes in seconds flat. All but blind, she cursed as her foot snagged and sent her sprawling. Swore again as her hands found hot skin and wet spandex. Damp, stringy hair.

Relief flickered. "I found her!" she shouted.

But was she alive?

The light over the sealed door guttered. Electricity crackled, sparked a blue-white arc over the door and exploded in a shower of sparks.

The locks slammed open.

With a shudder of displaced pressure, the door swung wide and sweet, blessed cool air rolled in on Phin's heels, battering her sweaty skin. Soaked to the bone with steam and sweat, Naomi sucked in the fresh oxygen as she struggled to maneuver the old woman to a sitting position. Her dead weight strained Naomi's balance.

"s.h.i.+t-"

"Easy." Phin slid his arms under Naomi's, heedless of the wet tracks her saturated sweater left on his designer s.h.i.+rt. His features set into harsh lines. "Let her go," he ordered quietly. "I've got her."

"She's not breathing." Naomi ignored his direction, rearranging her grip and curving her arms around the woman's knees. "Grab her shoulders, keep her steady."

"I can-"

"Just do it," she snapped. His mouth closed, lips sealing into a thin, taut line, but he didn't argue. Together they navigated through the door and out into the fresh, cool, richly oxygenated air.

"Here," she gasped, sucking in as much air as she could. "Hurry."

They knelt to set the sweat-soaked woman on the tile, and Naomi ignored Phin beside her, tuned out hysterical sobbing from somewhere in the small crowd, and bent over the woman's head.

She was so thin. Fragile as h.e.l.l in her one-piece bathing suit, her gaunt limbs sticking out of the obscene splash of color and too d.a.m.n still. Her skin was cherry red. Naomi prodded at her thin throat. It took too long, but she found it.

A pulse.

Thank G.o.d.

The routine came as familiar as breathing. Naomi checked her throat, cleared it, and folded her hands over the woman's chest. Four pumps, sharp, short bursts of pressure, and she covered the woman's mouth with her own. She breathed hard, fighting back the spots flickering in her peripheral vision as her lungs protested.

Another breath. A third.

Four more pumps against her chest. "Come on," she gritted out. "Three, four-come on!"

Before her second round of breath, the old woman gagged, coughing violently.

Phin wrapped an arm around the woman's back, pulling her up to sit. She hacked and choked, gasped something unrecognizable, and over her head, Phin's eyes locked on Naomi.

Stark, raw grat.i.tude lingered there. Approval.

Much more appraisal than she needed.

Naomi sat back on her heels, sc.r.a.ping back her stringy hair, and deliberately looked away. She didn't need his grat.i.tude.

And she sure as h.e.l.l didn't want to answer the questions she saw behind that silent, raw acknowledgment.

She backed away, striving for indifference. For casual relief. Just a run-of-the-mill heiress doing her good deed for the day. Flushed and sticky with sweat, she stripped off her sweater, balled it into a sodden ma.s.s between her hands, and watched Phin take control with easy, deliberate authority.

Even with sweat drying on his face, with his pale gray dress s.h.i.+rt stained, wilted, and damp, they listened to him. As a gurney arrived and they carried the woman out on a stretcher, the small crowd nodded as Phin promised to investigate the accident. He a.s.sured them gravely that they would take every precaution and check every automated system in the resort. His expression was concerned. Everything about him was steady.

Blah, blah, and f.u.c.king blah. Naomi ignored the wide set of his shoulders and watched the crowd instead.

Four guests. Seven staff, some wearing the dusky green uniform that the witch had worn, and others in crisp black and white.

Were any of them in league with Joe Carson? With the unknown witch?

Or was this just the accident it looked like?

She pictured the shower of sparks above the door and licked at her lower lip thoughtfully. Her head pounded, a wicked echo of exertion and the knot aching at the back of her head. She'd give someone's left nut for painkillers.

Instead she inhaled the pungent odor of hot chlorine and drying sweat and watched the group trickle out. There'd be talk tomorrow. Gossip.

Questions.

She rubbed the back of her neck and narrowed her eyes at the two women who remained behind, industriously cleaning up the mess of towels and broken gla.s.s. They wore identical light green dresses designed to accommodate the kind of work she imagined hotel staff had to do. Clean, laundry, fold s.h.i.+t. She didn't know.

They looked upset. Worried. They looked at their boss often, as if gauging their own reaction to his. Waiting for him to rea.s.sure them, maybe.

He directed the dispersing crowd back to the double doors and Naomi watched them as they filed out, eerily silent in the wake of the nearly fatal accident. None looked like accessories to murder. But then accessories rarely did.

She stood cautiously, locking her unsteady knees before they dumped her right back onto her a.s.s. Although she wasn't cold in her clinging, wet camisole, goose b.u.mps rippled over the bare skin of her arms.

Death by steam. Not a pleasant way to go.

She cleared her throat. "Has anyone called emergency services?"

Phin sc.r.a.ped a hand through his hair, forcing his damp curls to stand on end. "No." The structured planes of his face were taut. Troubled. Inquisitive as he studied her.

She turned away. "I'll call-"

"No," he repeated. "They've taken her to the clinic. We have an excellent doctor and staff in house. She's in the best hands possible. She'll be fine."

Naomi jerked her gaze back to his. Read steely resolve as it locked into place. Her eyebrows jerked upward. "Are you serious?"