“Oh, hi,” Jess puffed weakly, her gaze drifting toward the hotel entry. Noting the bus parked in front of the doors, she frowned slightly. It was late for a tour to be returning, she thought as she watched the people file off the bus. All were laughing and chattering as they disembarked.
“Jess?” Raffaele said again.
“Hmm?” she murmured, her gaze narrowing on the growing group ahead, gathering in front of the lobby doors. A couple of the people looked familiar.
“I know you want to call the authorities and get help for your friend.”
“Allison,” Jess breathed as she spotted her cousin in the group.
“Yes, for your friend Allison,” he agreed, but Jess wasn’t listening anymore.
She tugged her arm free, dropped the life jacket she’d been clutching since leaving the room, and rushed forward, calling, “Allison!”
Her cousin turned to glance her way at the call, but so did the others and Jess’s eyes widened as she recognized Tyler and several other people from the pirate ship. Dear God, they were all here and all alive and well, she thought, almost faint with relief.
“Jessica!” Allison snapped when Jess reached her and tried to give her a relieved hug. “Get off me! God, it’s bad enough you left me to go on the shark-feeding tour alone, don’t—”
“What?” Jess asked with shock, stepping back to stare at her.
“You heard me.” Allison scowled at her briefly, but then a smile suddenly plucked at her lips and she added with satisfaction, “Your loss in the end. We had a blast. Didn’t we, Tyler?”
Tyler had been standing back, waiting for Allison while everyone else slowly moved through the hotel doors and into the lobby in small, laughing, and chattering groups, but now he stepped forward and smiled at Jess. “She’s right. It was a great time. You should have come.”
Jess gaped at the pair of them, unable to believe what she was hearing.
“Vasco will be pleased to learn you are alive and well, little dove.”
Jess froze at that voice with its strange accent, and then turned warily to see Cristo stepping down from the bus.
“He was crushed when he found you missing,” Cristo said, his expression and tone reprimanding. “We searched the ship from top to bottom three times before he would admit you must have jumped overboard rather than be with him. By then, we were sure you must have drowned.” Eyes narrowing, he said, “The waters were rough and we were far out to sea—how did you survive and make it ashore?”
Jess glanced instinctively down at her hand, but she was no longer clutching the life jacket.
“Ah,” Cristo said with understanding. “Clever lady. You stole a life jacket and escaped through the porthole.”
Jess jerked her head up sharply at the words. He’d obviously read her mind, which reminded her that these creatures could do things humans couldn’t. Like control them.
“Aye, we can,” Cristo said with a smile. “And now I think you should get on the bus. The tourists are all off, and Vasco will be pleased to have you back. He is looking forward to enjoying your . . . company,” he said with a suggestive wink.
Jess didn’t want to get on the bus, and she tried not to, but she was no longer in control. Cristo was. Only it felt different than when Ildaria had taken control of her. Then, Jess hadn’t really realized she’d been under someone’s control until after. Her only thought had been that she must go to Vasco and kiss him, as if her thoughts were not her own. Now, her thoughts were her own, and it was her body betraying her and moving toward the bus against her will.
“I think not.” Those words were spoken in a cold, hard voice as a hand closed around Jess’s upper arm, drawing her to a halt.
Turning her head, Jess peered at Raffaele with surprise, relief, and concern. She hadn’t realized he’d followed her to her cousin, and she was grateful for the intervention, but also worried that Cristo would just take control of him too.
“I believe this is yours.” Raffaele shoved the lost life jacket at the pirate even as he drew Jess back so that she stood a step behind and to the side of him. “I suggest you take it and go, or you’ll force me to do something in front of all these witnesses that we may both regret.”
Cristo didn’t take the life jacket at first. Instead, his eyes narrowed on Raffaele and then widened with something like realization, or perhaps recognition. She saw the pirate’s hand reach instinctively to his side as if to grab a sword, but the scabbard that hung there was empty. Apparently, he’d left his weapon on the ship rather than risk trouble from mortals for carrying it around.
Cristo’s mouth tightened briefly, and then his gaze slid to Jess before moving beyond her and narrowing again.
Jess glanced over her shoulder with curiosity, her eyebrows rising when she saw Santo and Zanipolo pushing their way through the crowd in the lobby, trying to get to the doors and, presumably, out to them.
A curse from Cristo drew her gaze around in time to see the look of regret he cast her way.
“I fear this is one of those situations where discretion is the better part of valor, little dove,” he said, beginning to back toward the bus. “But we will meet again. Vasco will see to that.”
Raffaele released Jess’s arm and started after the pirate, but she caught his hand to stop him. He paused at once and glanced back with surprise.
Jess merely stared at him at first, too surprised by the tingle of awareness that shot through her fingers to speak. She lowered her gaze to their clasped hands with confusion. She hadn’t experienced that same awareness when he’d grabbed her arm, she thought. But their skin hadn’t touched then; his hand had closed around the sleeve of her T-shirt.
Raffaele gave a tug on his hand, trying to free himself, and Jess instinctively tightened her grip. Lifting her head, she said, “Let him go. He can . . . do things,” she finished lamely, and then added, “I wouldn’t want you hurt.”
Raffaele’s expression softened at her words. He covered her hand with his own, sending more tingles up her arm, and then squeezed gently, before removing her hold.
“It is fine,” he assured her, and then turned to start forward again, only to pause almost at once.
Jess glanced around to see that while they had been distracted, Cristo had returned to the bus. She let out a relieved breath as she watched it pull away. They were safe. For now, she thought grimly, recalling Cristo’s promise that they would meet again. He’d said Vasco would see to that, and remembering the passion that had exploded between them on the ship, Jess had no doubt Cristo was right. Vasco would come for her.
The thought was a terrifying one. The man was a big scary vampire, but all he had to do was touch her and she went up in flames. She had managed to override the desire he stirred in her and escape him once, but wasn’t at all sure she could again. She needed to get away from there. She needed to check out, head straight for the airport, and catch the first available flight out of Punta Cana. Jess didn’t even care where it was going. She could catch a connecting flight home to Montana from nearly anywhere, but she desperately needed to leave Punta Cana as soon as humanly possible.
With that thought dominating her mind, Jess glanced around a bit wildly for Allison and frowned when she saw that her cousin was gone. Every last member of the returning party was now inside the lobby, heading for the exit at the back, and the steps down to the short path around the pools. It left only her and Raffaele under the lighted porte cochere. And Santo and Zanipolo, Jess saw as the two men finally pushed through the hotel doors and hurried toward them.
Quite sure that Allison would head back to their room, Jess turned to Raffaele and forced a smile. “I need to speak to my cousin. But thank you again. For everything.”
Not waiting for a response, Jess then turned and hurried back the way she’d come. She could have taken the shorter route this time and tried to catch up with Allison; but while going down stairs was always easier than going up, she wasn’t sure her rubbery legs could manage them. Jess had no desire to take a tumble down the stairs and end up dead, or stuck in a hospital here where Vasco might find her and tempt her to join the dark side.
Grimacing, Jess rolled her eyes at her own thoughts. Join the dark side? Seriously? Could she get any more drama queen-ish? But it did speak to what was happening. Vasco was a huge temptation. Well . . . when he could manage to keep his mouth shut he was, she added on a sigh. However, if she gave in to the temptation he offered, and he turned her into a vampire . . . The thought of sleeping in a coffin made her shudder. As for biting people and drinking their blood? Well, that was just gross.
“Not gonna happen,” Jess muttered to herself as she rounded the corner and started down the slope toward the buildings holding the hotel rooms.
Raffaele watched Jess hurry away, torn between chasing after her and waiting for Santo and Zanipolo to reach him. In the end, he waited for the men. The pirate had left. Jess should be safe . . . for now at least. But he needed to talk to Santo and Zanipolo and come up with a plan to keep her that way. He hadn’t missed Cristo’s last words to her. They’d sounded like a threat to him. The man seemed sure that this Vasco fellow would pursue her, and he probably would. Even rogues weren’t foolish enough to leave mortals running around with the knowledge of their existence in their heads. The pirates would want to wipe the memory of the whole incident from her mind.
“That guy was one of the vampirates from the ship Jess was on,” Zanipolo said as he and Santo reached him.
“Yes,” Raffaele said grimly. “And now that they know Jess survived her dunk in the ocean, they’ll be back. We’re going to have to keep her safe.”
“Hmm.” Zanipolo nodded. “Did you see the people who came off the bus? At least half of them had visible bites on them. Some had more than one.”
“And the others no doubt have them where they aren’t easily seen,” Raffaele said, running a hand through his hair.
“They think they were feeding the sharks,” Santo said in a deep rumble full of disgust.