“I’m finished. I’ll go get changed.”
Desmond continued eating.
Rhone had shown them the bedrooms, placing Haley’s suitcase inside before he had left. The suite contained two bedrooms; one on each side of the main room. The fucker had left Desmond’s by the other door.
Losing his appetite, he rose from the table to go into the other room. Taking a quick shower and finding a bottle of Tylenol in the medicine cabinet, he took them to ease his pounding headache.
He looked worse than Leighton had last night with the dark circles under his eyes. He had managed less than thirty minutes of sleep after drinking himself into a drunken oblivion when Ice had called to tell him that Haley’s brother was using his wife as a punching bag. Desmond hadn’t been surprised. He had expected it would be just a matter of time before Gilbert couldn’t control his temper.
After the reunion party, he had Ice place one of his men on watching the couple’s home. It had paid off. Desmond hadn’t let the Predators have the pleasure of dealing with Gilbert, though. He had taken care of it on his own.
Showing up at Gilbert’s door in the middle of the night had shocked the son of a bitch enough that he had managed to get Leighton and the boys out without incident.
He had received pleasure when he had used the opportunity of Leighton gathering their belongings to threaten him within an inch his life if he tried to contact Leighton ever again. Desmond knew it was only a temporary fix, as Gilbert viewed Leighton and his children as his property, and no one was going to take them away from him, regardless of him mistreating his pregnant wife.
Personally, Desmond believed the only way to deal with his maniac behavior was to place him behind iron bars or six feet under, but he was going to give the SOB a way to save his life before he had him eliminated from the woman’s life altogether. As much as he wanted to give the order to Ice, he really didn’t want Haley’s brother’s death on his conscience.
Dressing in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and placing his sunglasses back on, he went to the other room to find Haley waiting. She was wearing a tan and cream floral button-up shirt dress and sandals, with her hair spilling down to her shoulders, and all he could think about was unbuttoning the dress to bare the body underneath.
“Ready?” she asked excitably.
“Yes.”
At the raspy sound of his voice, she looked at him quizzically.
“Are you sure you don’t need a nap?” Her eyes filled with concern.
Wanting to snap at her that he didn’t need a damn nap because what he really wanted was to fuck her, Desmond pushed back his surging libido and centered on finding out the information he was searching for. “No, I took some Tylenol. I’m good to go.”
Leaving their suite, they walked through the hotel and went outside.
“Where should we start?”
Desmond gazed around the area in front of them. They were facing the beach where several tourists were swimming or lying out. He needed local information. “Wait here. I’m going to go see if there are cars available for rent.”
“Okay.”
It didn’t take him long to secure a small compact car that Rhone made available to his personal guests. He returned to Haley’s side, and they only had to wait a few minutes before a car was brought to them. It was a two-seater and ran on electric.
Leaving the windows down, he started driving after giving Haley the map of the island that he had received when he had asked for the car.
“If you stay on this road, we should reach a small town in a few miles. It doesn’t seem far.”
As they drove, the hotel and the beach fell farther behind them, leading them past the airstrip and over several dips in the road that had their heads hitting the roof of the car.
After the third time, Haley gave him a caustic look. “You think, if you had been nicer to Rhone, he would have let us borrow his truck?”
Desmond grinned at her. He liked her snappy comments. Usually, women tried to appear either unflappable or so nice it made his stomach turn, which was why his relationships never lasted longer than a hot second.
“We’ll live.”
“I hope Rhone has medical services on this island. We’ll be lucky if we don’t get a concussion on the way back.”
“The hotel has a doctor from the island on call.”
“How do you know?”
“I asked while I was at the desk. I didn’t want to take you out exploring without knowing what emergency services the island has available. There’s a hospital, also.”
“That’s good to know.”
“Yes, it is.” Especially if Rhone continues to flirt with Haley in my presence, Desmond thought darkly.