“Oh, girl, what have you been doing that your neck is so tense?”
Poppy lay under a heated blanket, her face pressed into the circular cushion of the massage table. Layla dug her fingers into the giant knot in Charla’s shoulder.
“Just work.” Charla’s voice sounded like a croak. Layla’s magic hands unwound the terrible lump of pain in her shoulder.
“No, girl, you been doing a lot more than work. I smell it on you like garlic. A man.”
Charla tried to jerk her head up, but Layla gently pressed the back of Charla’s head with her hand. “Girl, not like that. No one else be able to smell you. No one else except that man who’s got his hands all over you. The scent of him is seeping out of your pores. This man has you in deep. I can feel the love oozing out of your body.” Layla’s hand pushed down Charla’s spine with a long, gentle stroke. She stopped at the small of Charla’s back. “Oooo, what’d I say?” Layla pressed around the vertebrae in the small of Charla’s back. “Not two minutes before these muscles were relaxed, and now I’ve gone and said how bad you have it for this man … Oh, you don’t want to have it bad for that man? Is that what I’m feeling here in your back?”
Layla continued with long, slow, firm strokes. “I see it now. You’ve been lied to or you think you have, yes?”
Charla’s fingers tingled. Of course Layla knew. Every person on the island said Layla had a strong gift.
“He’s not what he say he is.” Layla moved her fingertips to the back of Charla’s neck. “It’s not bad like you think.” She softly pressed around each vertebra in a gentle circular motion. “He’s more than he says.”
More? More, like he had a wife and four kids somewhere? More, like he’s a completely different person with a secret agenda? More, like—
“Stop,” Layla said. “I hear your mind running a furious race. He’s different than he’s led you to believe. He’s not told you all about his life for good reason, not for bad. Not at all like that other man you’re so mad at.”
“Bertram? Gerome? I’ve worked through that. They’re in the past.”
“If your past is worked out in your mind, then why are you letting it affect your future?”
“I’m not … I don’t see Ryan differently because of what happened.”
“You do. I’m not the first the universe has sent to tell you he’s good.”
“I believe you,” Charla said. “Or I want to believe. It’s just … I guess I’m scared.”
Layla’s hands rubbed the muscles along Charla’s shoulder blade. “Fear is a powerful motivator. Don’t make decisions to be on the safe side. This man, he is playing a big part for all of us on the island. He’s a good man. I feel it in my bones. And he’s in love with you. Not yet sure though whether you going to let yourself love him back.”
Charla closed her eyes. Ryan wasn’t who he said he was. She’d known that … maybe since the beginning.
“He’s been trying to find the truth for himself. Then … well then … I think he fell in love and was scared,” Layla continued. “Scared like you.”
“So the man I love is not the man I thought Ryan was?”
“No.”
“Pretty typical. I seem to fall for the liars, the cheats.”
“He’s not like the man who tried to put his hand on you. Not a bit like that man. Do you understand what I’m saying? He is a good man. The type of man a girl would be lucky to love.”
“And you see that he cares about me? That I wouldn’t be giving away my heart to the wrong person? I need to know that. I need to—”
“You don’t need to know nothing,” Layla interrupted. “You think you need to know, but even when you do know, you don’t. Life doesn’t follow the path you’re after. It’s crooked and weaving with turns and twists, but we all going to the same destination in the end. We’re going leave this husk of skin and muscle and bone behind and be souls.”
How would Charla trust him? How could she see the goodness in him and forget that he’d lied to her?
“We don’t forget what’s been done. We take all of our lives with us, we keep all that’s been done to us in our bodies. We carry it. We got to believe the truth comes when it’s time. The truth is always there, and maybe we’re not told the truth in the beginning because a thing bigger than us is trying to become.”
A lump formed in Charla’s throat. Her heart squeezed tight. Maybe … Maybe, but she wasn’t certain that she had the ability to forgive a lie anymore. So much pain had come to her from lies. From people not wanting to see the truth. What if Ryan couldn’t be true, couldn’t be honest? What if this was a character flaw he carried much like the flaws she’d discovered in Bertram and his family?
“There, girl.” Layla pulled the heated blanket up over Charla’s back. “I’ve done all I can for those muscles. You lay here for a bit. You get out all the emotions running through you. You let them come clear out.” Layla dimmed the lights, and Charla heard the soft sound of her feet padding across the floor. The door closed.
Then came Charla’s tears.
*
Ryan walked along the path to the staff dorms. Antoine walked toward him from the opposite direction. Trevor had asked if Ryan would trade the afternoon mid-shift for Trevor’s mid the next day. Ryan needed to see Charla. He wouldn’t wait until tonight to tell her the truth. He couldn’t wait any longer.
“Mr. Antigua.” Ryan nodded. There was no one around, but still, discretion was key until Ryan told the staff his identity. Antoine stepped closer to Ryan.
“I was just coming to see you,” Antoine said very quietly. “They’ve found Mr. Orso. I received a call from Parpetai after my meeting this morning with Miss Duvall—”
“Wait, what?” Ryan interrupted Antoine. His heart beat double-time in his chest. No wonder Charla’d been so cold as they got off the elevator. “In the Versailles room?”
“Exactly. She recommended Liam Dunbar for the food and beverage director position.”
“Hire him.” Ryan scrubbed his hand across his jaw. “Was the meeting in the morning? Finished around ten?”
Antoine nodded.
“I told Miss Duvall that I was meeting with you at that time.”
“That is a conundrum.”
“I had a meeting with Steven about Mr. Orso, and when I descended to the sixth floor, Charla got onto the elevator. She questioned me, and I lied.” Ryan shook his head and closed his eyes. “Not to lie in that moment would have forced me to tell her the truth.”
“I’m certain if you speak with Miss Duvall, she’ll have the utmost discretion. She’s managed to keep secrets before. I found out one just today that may provide us with necessary information to make an appropriate offer to Liam.”
Was Antoine completely unaware of Ryan’s relationship with Charla? How could he not see it? Wasn’t his love for Charla written on his face? The love seemed carved into his soul, and he thought it was as apparent to everyone around him as it was to him.
“Sir, I’m certain you need only speak to Miss Duvall.”
“Yes, I suppose you should know that I’ve been—”
“There is no need for explanation as to your private life. We all have one.”
“But my actions may have put Mesquale at risk. I mean, I don’t believe so because I think our feelings are very deep. Very real.”
“Whatever risk you believe you’ve created can’t be any larger than the risk I maintained within your hotel by allowing Mr. Orso to keep his job. Even though I’d heard some rumblings, he was able to snow me with his apparent dedication.” Antoine pressed his lips together. “We do have a security team, and while they don’t know who you are, aside from Steven now, I have requested on occasion that they provide me with a brief of you and your roommate Mr. Brice’s whereabouts. I apologize, sir, if this was overstepping, but you refused a security detail of any kind, and I would have been derelict in my duties had I allowed you to ride about Mesquale without anyone knowing where you were.”
“Spying on me?”
Antigua nodded. The chief operation officer must have a whole lot of faith in Ryan’s patience, because five years ago if an employee had said they were spying on him, he would have terminated them. But Ryan was finding Antigua was the most valuable of rarities. He was a loyal man with noble and good intentions.
“I should probably thank you for being so diligent about what was best for the resort.”
“To be honest, the new insurance refused to cover us unless you maintained a security detail when you were in residence. Generating security reports while you’re on site was enough to satisfy those requirements.”
His plans to find the systemic weaknesses of Mesquale had put not only him at risk but the resort, their insurance, and Charla. How had he failed to think this through?
“Will you go to the police station in Parpetei? See what you discover regarding Orso? You know if you need me, I’ll be there.”
“On my way now. Steven will accompany me. If you’re needed, you’ll be advised.”
Ryan turned and walked faster toward the staff dorms. Charla. He had to tell her his true identity, and he needed to do so now.