Page 29 of Empire of Shadows

“Stuffed crocodile,” Adam corrected him automatically as he dropped the key into his pocket.

“¡Espera! Your mail.” Diego plucked a small pile of envelopes from a slot under the desk and handed them over.

Adam took a quick glance at them. They were return-addressed to San Francisco, which meant they were from his mother—more missives berating him for wasting his time in the colony when he should be preparing to take over the family business.

He mentally pictured himself walking into the boardroom of Robinson, Bates, and MacKenzie in his current state. It would almost be worth the trip just to see the look on the stockholders’ faces.

Diego’s eyes were already back on his registry book.

“Dinner is at seven,” he called without looking up.

“Aye aye, captain,” Adam replied.

He trudged down the hall, leaving a trail of flaking mud behind him—which he did feel alittlebad about. Ximena de Linares ran a tight ship at the Rio Nuevo.

Adam spent so much time with termites and parrots for company out in the bush that he had a hard time remembering how ordinary people did things.

The rooms that lined the ground floor hall were quiet. At this hour, most of the Rio Nuevo’s guests were either out working or had lain down for a siesta—which was probably for the best. There would be fewer people to complain about a swamp monster roaming the hotel.

Adam paused outside the door to the washroom, allowing himself a sigh at the thought of what lay on the other side of it. The tub was large enough for even Adam to sink down into it, and he was a solid two inches over six feet. Without the Rio Nuevo’s steam-powered hot water generator, it would have required an hour just to boil enough to fill the thing.

The sign on the door had been flipped over. It read:Occupied / Ocupado.

“Woulda been nice,” Adam muttered.

He turned to go… just as a quick, feminine scream sounded from beyond the wooden barrier.

There was really only one reasonable way to respond to that. Adam dropped his boots, whipped the machete neatly from his belt, and kicked through the door.

?

Seven

All Ellie wantedwas a soak.

The washroom at the Hotel Rio Nuevo had been a delightful surprise. The floor was tiled in cool, clean white. Frosted glass on the windows let in the light without risking any immodest peeks from the outside world. The shelf on the wall was packed with soft, freshly laundered towels. A polished brass rack for them stood beside the tub so that Ellie could wrap herself up as soon as she emerged from her soak. The massive clawfoot bath was currently filled with steaming hot water.

Someone had added a sprinkle of rose-scented soap flakes. They had dissolved into a perfect froth of bubbles that covered the top of the water.

Ellie had peeled off her travel-worn clothes and slipped into the light summer dressing gown that Constance had thrown into the valise back in Canonbury. At the time, Ellie had thought the garment an unnecessary extravagance. Now, she was grateful for the light, airy length of blue silk.

The blissful quiet of the room was everything she hadn’t known she wanted since leaving the ship earlier that morning. It should have been the perfect start to her stay in British Honduras.

And it was… right up until Ellie gave the temperature of the water a check with her hand, and a sleek, narrow black head lifted through the bubbles, fixing yellow eyes upon her.

The scream that escaped from Ellie’s throat at the sight was not particularly violent. It was really more of a yelp—just an involuntary spasm of the lungs.

The door to the bathroom crashed open, splinters flying from around the shattered lock.

A filth-covered stranger stalked inside. His feet were bare. He lacked a coat, and his muddy shirt sleeves had been rolled up to expose his forearms.

He was holding the biggest knife Ellie had ever seen.

“Where is it?” he demanded.

For possibly the first time in Ellie’s life, words flatly deserted her. All she could do was stare at the intruder, mouth agape, as a distant part of her brain wondered if she had caught some tropical ailment and started to hallucinate.

“Hey!” He snapped his fingers. “No fainting. Where’s the thing?”

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