Page 94 of The Last Resort
He nodded toward the main residence. “Let’s get out of here.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
“I’m gonna take a quick shower before bed, Matt. I’ve got sand in far too many places for my liking. And there is nothing worse than sandy bedsheets,” said Rachel, as soon as they got back to their room. She disappeared into the bathroom, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
This girl. This woman. She made him feel things he never imagined he could feel for another person. He’d always thought it childish when people said they’d met their soul mate. Now he had an appreciation for what it meant.
He pulled his cell out from his pocket and after opening it, checked the photos he had taken on the beach. They were meant to all be of the model and Rachel’s notes, but he’d also taken a few of her.
I’ll air drop them to her.
She’d tossed her phone onto the bed along with her clutch purse. Matthew picked the cell up and turned it on. The screen immediately filled with a stream of messages from various apps along with missed calls, and email notifications. While she’d been offline the world had still been reaching out to her.
There were eight missed calls from an unknown number.
Matthew almost jumped out of his skin as Rachel’s phone suddenly buzzed. It was another incoming call from an unknown number. Whoever was calling was keen to get hold of her. The sound of the shower still running hard, coupled with the worry of her missing an urgent call, had him hitting the receive button.
“Will you accept a collect call from inmate Scott Davilla at Ware State Prison, Georgia?” asked a female voice.
“Um. Yes.”
“Standby.”
There was a crackle on the line. Matthew’s, “Hello,” disappeared as a gruff male voice bellowed at him, “About fucking time. Are you still with the fancy pants Royal guy at the island? Your mother said you’d gone to the Caribbean with him.”
He was tempted to answer that he was the fancy pants Royal guy, but his instincts stepped in. In as feminine a tone as he could manage, he whispered, “Yes.”
“So how far have you got in getting the money out of him? Come on, Rachel, his family is seriously loaded. Four-million dollars to the Royals is pocket change. Your boyfriend probably spends that much on shoes in a month.”
“Um.”
The sound of the water shutting off in the bathroom reached Matthew’s ears. Fortunately Rachel had longish hair and it would still be a few minutes before she made it back to their bedroom.
“Um. Is that all you have to say? I thought I made myself clear each timed I’ve called, but obviously you didn’t get the message. I’ll explain this to you one last time. Get the money from your boyfriend. I don’t care how you do it. Suck it out of his cock if you have to but get him to give you the four-million bucks, and when you have it, put it in my bank account.”
“Okay.”
“Good. The sooner I have the money the quicker I can get out of this joint.”
The line went dead. Matthew stood staring at Rachel’s phone. Who the hell was Scott Davilla? A cold dread seeped through his veins. How long had this Scott guy been trying to pressure Rachel into asking him for the money?
She’s been keeping this secret from me.
He’d refused to check up on her life when they’d first met, holding to the honorable notion that relationships were meant to be based on trust. But what if that had been her angle all along, using him as a nothing more than a mark who she and her accomplice could extract millions of dollars from?
Love had blinded him to the truth. Had Rachel had been too good a thing, and his secret longing to find someone to share his life seen him walk into this honey baited trap like a billionaire fool?
Teeth grinding, he deleted the call from her recent phone log. The last thing he needed right now was for Rachel to realize he’d taken Scott Davilla’s call from prison. That he’d finally caught on to her ruse.
Is this guy her lover? And he’s giving her instructions from his jail cell.
Matthew turned Rachel’s phone back off, carefully placing it on the bed where she’d left it. He grabbed a pen and paper from the nightstand and hastily scribbled a note, leaving it next to her clutch. Then he headed for the door and the island’s private office where he knew he would find both a laptop and strong Wi-Fi.
As soon as he was out into the hallway, Matthew made a call to the head of Royal Security. “Hi, Matthew Royal here. I need a full background search on a person, but I don’t want itincluded in any of the formal reports which go to the global board, this is a strictly private matter.”
Whoever Rachel Little really was, he was going to check what she’d already told him about herself, and then get the security team to fill in the gaps. He would find out the truth about Scott Davilla. If she and the guy in prison were working some sort of scam, intent on stealing his money, he was going to expose their lies to the world. And when he did, the fate of an old ski lodge in the wilds of Colorado would be the least of Rachel’s concerns.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
