Fables & Other Lies

I didn’t want that statement to make me smile, but I couldn’t help that it did. “You’re about to let a lot of strangers into your house if you’re serious about selling it.”

“Nope.”

“What do you mean nope?” I let out a laugh. “People will want to tour.”

“People will do virtual tours. That’s what you’re here for.”

“This isn’t a video camera.” I waved my camera.

“Photos will be enough.”

“Not . . . that’s not how this works, not for a house listed at fifteen million dollars.”

“It’ll have to be enough and because I’m sure you want this deal to go through as much as I do, I’m assuming you’ll clean up the photographs and make them work. Surely you’ll get a cut out of that as well.”

I stared at him for a second, jaw twitching. He stared right back. For someone touting the whole it’s all in the past thing, he sure had a sour attitude. A sour attitude that for some crazy reason I wanted to right. I didn’t want him to see me the way he saw them. I wasn’t like them.

“Look.” I took a deep breath and tried again. “I know our families have a long history of . . . disdain.”

“Disdain?” He scoffed. “Your family started a rumor that we were devil worshippers.”

“And on behalf of them, I apologize for the inconvenience, but you don’t seem to be doing badly. I mean, you own so much land outside of this one island. What more could you possibly want?”

“You’d be surprised at the things I want.” His expression darkened when he said those words.

My heart dipped into my stomach. The dream flashed in my head again and I seemed to lose my train of thought for a moment. I blinked away from him and shook my head for good measure.

“What I’m saying is that I can’t imagine being called names was that much of an inconvenience to a family like yours.”

“It certainly wasn’t an inconvenience to the Guzmans to have our name tarnished. Your family employs most of the island.”

“Yours employed a lot of our family members.” I felt my eyes narrow. “And some have disappeared.”

“One disappeared.”

“Oh, so you know about Esteban.”

“I’ve heard of him. Were you close?”

“Yes.” I jutted my chin away from him.

“Well, then, I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Are you though?” I looked at him again. “My grandmother told me that your father never even let my family past the gates to check for themselves.”

“My father could be a bit of a jerk in his day.”

“A bit? Have you ever lost someone and had no body to grieve over and bury?” I let my camera swing, the weight of the motion scratching the back of my neck. “It’s awful. An endless grieving process.”

“I know.” His voice was almost a whisper, but his words were clear.

Had it not been for the anguish that flashed in his eyes I’d have called his bluff. I swallowed the rest of my words instead. I hadn’t come here to blame him for matters he couldn’t help and had nothing to do with. Doing that would make me no better than any of my predecessors and I’d always said I was done with their games. I took a deep breath and exhaled, tilting my head up slightly to meet his gaze again.

“Let’s call a truce. For now at least.”

“For now?” His eyes danced. “Does that mean you still might use those combat boots you brought to kick me?”

“I forgot my boots.” I gasped, turning in my seat.

“Do you want to go back?” He raised an eyebrow.

“No way. I’ll just have Dee get them for me tonight.” We were almost at the gate now and I was half scared of what might happen if we turned back now.

“So, you do mean to kick me with them?”

“Only if you make me.”

“I might just have to.” When he smiled, it was everything I’d been warned against. Devilish, seductive, terrifyingly alluring. He knew it, too. He knew he had me. He didn’t make a show of it though, not the way all the boys my age would have. Instead, he parked the car in front of the iron gates and turned it off. “Shall we?”

“I have one more question.” I got out of the car, as did he. He unlocked the gate for me and I realized Gustavo was standing on the other side with a group of men, guarding the general area.

“Yes?” River tilted his head as he walked me out of the gates and back to Pan Island.

“How did you know I’d be at Carnival?”

“Just a hunch.”

“A hunch?” I frowned. “Did you look at the list of attendees?”

If he’d looked at the list he would have seen my name on it. We all had to sign in upon entering. Though I wasn’t sure why anyone would bother to look at the list of names, and a list of names didn’t include faces. Unless it did. I never saw the list.