Page 52 of Forking the Billionaire

Then he ran toward the bush.

I wasn’t sure why I was trying to talk him out of it. This whole thing had been at least half my idea. Maybe I justhadn’t expected him to be even more enthusiastic than I was. I scrambled to pull out my own phone and activate the flashlight.

“Rabies, then,” I called after him, as I finally caught up to him with my flashlight. “You’re going to get mauled by a seething mongoose.”

A dark shape darted from the bush and into the ruins. I didn’t catch what it was, but my heart shot up into my throat. “There. I saw something.”

I pointed into the darkness and tried to make sense of what I’d seen. It was something smallish, somewhere between the sizes of a monster rat and a small child. And it wasfast.

Jasper turned the way I pointed and shrugged. “I missed it.”

I had no idea what it was. Maybe it was a scaredy mutant mongoose.

Jasper lifted something up off the ground, then turned and held it out for me to see. In his hands was a pair of underpants with some sort of colorful pattern on them. I squinted as he walked closer to me, a satisfied smile on his face.

We’d actually found clothes here. By the look on Jasper’s face, they were his clothes. I couldn’t believe this was actually happening. What were the chances?

The pattern was gummy bears with surfboards. A chuckle bubbled up in my throat.“Thoseare your underpants?”

“My favorite pair. And all I had to do was scare the pants off a pants-stealing ghost to get them back.”

“How much rabies did you get?”

“No more than I can handle.”

I laughed, utterly bewildered by the fact that we’d actually found Jasper’s missing underpants.

“I can’t believe these were here,” Jasper said.

“It’s ridiculously unlikely,” I said. “Any chance the rest of your bag is behind the bush?”

“Nope.”

A ringing sounded. Jasper’s smile faded as he pulled out his phone and checked the screen. “It’s Gabriel.”

I frowned. “He’s probably checking in on me.”

“Probably.”

And just like that, our silly adventure and all of my pleasant distraction was over.

FIFTEEN

JASPER

Jules wasn’t in our room when I went to bed, but I still slept on the sofa. I woke with a sore neck and an aching lower back, and still no Jules. Even with the stiffness, I felt lighter than I had since leaving North Carolina. It seemed she really was content doing her own thing and leaving me to do mine. If we didn’t cross paths again until the plane ride home, that would suit me just fine.

With my bag still missing, I had to buy swim trunks and a few other necessities from a resort shop before the day’s outing. I met up with everyone as they were about to head out. But Esme wasn’t there.

A pang of worry twisted my gut. I’d witnessed her vomiting twice in two days. I’d been charged with helping her safely home last night, and I hadn’t done that until much later. What if that was a mistake, and despite her cartwheel and proclamation of being fine, she wasn’t? She’d definitely lied about what was going on last night at dinner. What if she had something more serious happening to her, and I’d made it worse?

“Where’s Esme?” I asked Gabriel as we loaded into the taxi. Layana slid in the middle between us. “Is she feeling all right this morning?”

Gabriel considered me a second before responding. “Esme’s fine. She’s meeting us there.”

Relieved, I deflated into my seat.

“Is there some reason she wouldn’t be?” Gabriel asked.

---