Jess relaxed a little, but then noticed that the bathroom door was closed and hesitated. But there was nothing for it. She had to check the bathroom too. Crossing the room, she opened the door to darkness, and automatically flipped the switch on the wall. Light exploded into the room, making her wince, but it revealed for sure that Allison wasn’t there. Not that she’d imagined her cousin was sitting there in the dark.
Jess started to back out of the room, but paused as her gaze landed on the shower. She always showered before and after going swimming, but she hadn’t got the chance to last night. Having one before she put on Allison’s clean clothes would certainly be nice. Nodding, she crossed the room, stripping off Santo’s shirt as she went. Jess almost let the shirt drop to the floor, but aware that it wasn’t hers to treat so shabbily, she laid it over the end of the tub instead, and then opened the shower door and reached in to turn on the taps. The water came out ice cold, of course, and she knew from the first two mornings they’d been here that it would be slow to warm, so Jess left the bathroom, pulling the door closed as she went. There was no need to add more humidity to the rest of the suite, she thought dryly as she crossed to the closet.
Both trifold doors were still open from her visit last night, and Jess surveyed the clothes still in the closet as she approached. Even with all of her clothing missing, the closet was three-quarters full. Allison was one of those overpackers. In a serious way. She probably wouldn’t even miss anything Jess took, but she didn’t want to borrow anything expensive. Allison wasn’t above insisting Jess replace rather than return anything she borrowed.
Jess was about to start shifting hangers to go through what was available when she realized that not only had she left the closet doors open last night, she’d left the door to the safe built into the middle of the back wall of the closet wide open as well.
Nice, she thought with self-disgust. Let’s get Allison’s stuff stolen too. Shaking her head, Jess reached for the safe door, intending to close it, but then thought better of it. She should really check and make sure nothing of hers had been left behind. It was pretty obvious that her wallet was gone, but her passport was thin; maybe it had slipped under Allison’s stuff and they’d missed it. With that hope in mind, Jess stepped between the hanging clothes to check out the items remaining in the safe, and that was where she was when she heard someone say, “Sounds like she’s in the shower, Capitan.”
Freezing, Jess turned her head sharply to look into the bedroom, but there was no one there yet. The voice had come from the sitting room, drawing nearer with each word. Panic racing through her, Jess stepped to the left, behind the hanging clothes on that side, her mind scrambling for a way to save herself.
“It would appear so.” There was no mistaking Vasco’s voice. “And I’m thinking I should join her.”
Jess closed her eyes, just barely restraining a groan. He was about to find out she wasn’t in there, and then they’d search the room.
“Do you think that’s wise?”
Her eyes popped open, and she listened breathlessly.
“I’m just thinking,” Cristo continued after a pause, “that maybe it would be better to wait until you get her to the ship to start anything. You’re not like to want to stop once you start, and—”
“Aye-aye, ye’re right. Better to wait until we’re back at the ship,” Vasco said with obvious disappointment. “I guess we might as well take a seat, then. Women take forever at these things.”
There was a grunt of what she assumed was agreement and then silence.
Jess slowly let out the breath she’d been holding, afraid to make any kind of a sound to let the men know she wasn’t in the shower, and then bit her lip and tried to think what to do. She had to get out of there, obviously, but couldn’t leave through the suite door with the men in the sitting room. That left the sliding glass doors to the balcony, but there were two problems with that. One, she wasn’t sure she could get to them without being seen by someone in the sitting room. It depended on what seats the men had chosen. If they’d chosen to sit at the small table by the window she’d be okay, but if they were seated on the couch she’d be seen. The other problem was what did she do once she was on the balcony? This was the fourth floor and that made it a long way to the ground.
Although, she thought suddenly, the suite Raffaele, Santo, and Zanipolo shared was right below this one. Maybe she could climb over the railing and lower herself to their balcony.
Jess grimaced at the very thought. She so hated heights. On top of that, she really wasn’t very athletic. She spent most of her time studying or counseling. The only exercise she really got was slinging drinks at the bar.
The murmur of voices from the sitting room made up Jess’s mind for her. She didn’t really have a choice. She had to at least try to escape. Swallowing, Jess eased slowly out through the clothes, wincing and stilling when one of the hangers let out a small screech as it scraped along the metal rod. She listened desperately for anyone coming to check out what the sound was, but when the murmurs continued from the next room, she decided the small sound hadn’t been heard and eased all the way out, her gaze locked on the open doors to the sitting area as she did.
Jess nearly sobbed with relief when the couch came into view and she saw that it was empty. They’d sat by the window. She could slip out unseen, Jess thought, and started to do that, but then realized she was only wearing her bikini bottoms. Pausing, she glanced swiftly over the clothes available, chose the dark blue sundress with white flowers because she knew it was older, and then eased it carefully from the hanger.
Afraid of bumping the hangers and sending them screeching along the rod, Jess didn’t take the time to put it on now. She simply clasped it in her hand and tiptoed to the sliding glass doors. She unlocked it slowly and cautiously, wincing at the snick of sound it made. But when the voices continued from the next room, she eased the door open along its track, moving it at a snail’s pace to avoid any sound or sudden change in air pressure that might alert the men. It seemed to take forever, but eventually she had it wide enough to slip through. Jess didn’t bother to close it, but turned to peer nervously toward the sliding glass doors off the sitting room.
If the men were seated at the table as she suspected, they would see her the minute she stepped away from the door. She had to move quickly during this next part, Jess thought, and glanced toward the balcony railing, only to stiffen with shock. It wasn’t a railing at all. Well, it was, but only a half railing on top of a two-foot-high half wall. Why hadn’t she noticed that? How the hell was she supposed to climb down that?
Jess closed her eyes and just managed to bite back a moan. This so wasn’t good. She was going to kill herself in the attempt. But she didn’t have a lot of choices here. It was try, or just surrender to Vasco.
Mouth tightening, Jess opened her eyes, slung Allison’s dress around her neck and raced for the rail. She had reached it, stepped on the half wall, and slung first one leg and then the other over the rail before she heard a sliding door open and salty curses. Uttering a salty curse of her own, Jess grasped the rails tightly and stepped backward, letting herself fall. Her hands slid down the metal rails with a squeal, but stopped abruptly at the half wall, jerking her to a halt.
Biting back a scream of pain as the metal dug into her hands, Jess glanced desperately down, her heart sinking when she saw that the two feet of half wall wasn’t all the wall there was. Two feet only reached the top of her balcony floor, then there was the thickness of the balcony itself and apparently more wall at the top of the third-floor balcony. At least, that was what it looked like to her, because she was hanging from the top of her half wall, but the wall stretched down to just above her waist. She could barely see the edge of Raffaele’s balcony, and didn’t think she’d be able to swing herself anywhere.
“Hang on, lovey. I’m coming!”
Jess jerked her head up just in time to snatch her hand off the railing as Vasco appeared above her and made to close his fingers over hers. That had been instinct, and a stupid one, she realized, squawking in alarm as her body swung out so that she hung sideways to the balcony, dangling from one hand that was starting to slip. She was almost glad when Vasco slapped his hand over that one instead, and tightened his grip.
“I’ve got ye, love. Ye’ll be all right,” he assured her, managing a smile that didn’t hide a real concern. Turning his head, he bellowed, “Cristo! Get over here and hold her hand while I climb over to get her.”
Jess closed her eyes and debated what to do as awareness slid through her body at his touch. Should she try to make the balcony below? Or wait to be rescued and taken away by Vasco? Hanging there from one arm that felt like it was being dislocated, while her body hummed in response to just their hands touching . . . well, his saving her actually didn’t seem that horrible. After all, Vasco wasn’t so bad—a bath, shampoo, and a muzzle would even make him amazing . . . Except for the whole biting thing.
“Here, I’m going to take my hand away and you slap yours on. Don’t let her go,” Vasco ordered.
“Just pull her up by her hand, Vasco,” Cristo suggested.
“I’ll not risk dislocating her arm or something jerking her up by her wrist,” Vasco growled.
Jess was just telling herself that was very thoughtful of him, when he added, “I can hardly give her a good rogering if she’s got broken bones.”
“Dear God,” Jess muttered, and lifted her head, intending to swing her lower body toward the balcony below and let go when he let go. But she was too late; her eyes were only half-raised to him when his hand was gone and another immediately closed around hers in its place.
“Trying to escape again, I see, little dove,” Cristo said by way of greeting when her eyes met his through the rails.
“Nah,” Vasco said for her. “I’m her life mate. No one can resist their life mate. She’s just playing hard to get to prove she’s not a doxy,” he continued good-naturedly as he straightened and stepped up on the half wall. Peering over the rail at her, he paused to add, “You’re adding a little spice to the rum, love, and I like spiced rum.”