Marco glanced where I was pointing. “Fuck.”
I opened the door, ready for an attack, but the room appeared empty now. I pointed toward my laptop which was sitting at an angle on the coffee table instead of facing the couch. Marco’s suitcase was on the opposite side of the bed from where it had been.
He nodded, obviously noticing what I was indicating. I placed a finger against my lips, signaling him not to talk. There was a good chance whoever had searched the room had planted a bug. Compton would be my number one suspect, but he’d been with Marco. His companion? I’d assumed he was resting, but maybe he’d come out to the pool late because he’d been in our room.
We checked everything thoroughly but didn’t find anything. I was worried that meant whoever had come in thought they’d found all they needed.
Once I knew we were clear to talk, I looked at Marco. “Was there ever a time Compton wasn’t with you?”
“No.”
“What about any of the others?”
“Walsh left to go to the bathroom, but he wasn’t gone very long. I don’t think it was long enough to do this.”
“He’s definitely low on my list of suspects, but that doesn’t mean we can rule him out. What did you learn during the meeting?”
“Lots of things, but I’m questioning all of them now. If they thought they needed to search our room, why were they saying they’re ready to bring me in? Why give me more details?”
Our eyes met. We were silent for the space of a few heartbeats. Then Marco said what we were both thinking. “They don’t care what they tell me because they have no intention of letting me off this island alive. Or you either.”
“Unless they found no evidence we were going to betray them.”
He raised his brows. “What are the chances of that?”
“It depends on who searched the room. Malachi wasn’t with us for much of the morning. I assumed he was sleeping after a rough night, but…”
“He might have been the one to do it. Who else had time?”
I considered that. “Dalton went for a run early in the afternoon, but…”
“He’s not a top suspect.”
“Unless…”
“He and Walsh are playing us harder than the others.”
Marco sighed. “It’s a possibility we have to consider. I also found out New Orleans is one of the other locations where they’re bringing in victims. Arlington let that slip. No one mentioned Swain by name, but they kept referring to their other partner.”
“Lavender slipped up and named Swain when we were by the pool.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. She said she’d been looking forward to sleeping with him again. I learned things about him I never wanted to know, but I recorded the conversation.”
“Good. You were right that they’re trying to make the operation bigger. This is so much more than grabbing a few people off the street here and there like what my cousin started. Compton said Stefan wasn’t enough of a visionary. I got the sense they intended to push Damian and Stefan out, and they weren’t at all sorry the Marchesis took care of them.”
“Fuck.”
“I’d already guessed, but I’m now certain Orly and Compton can’t be counted on for loyalty or any sense of morality. Arlington seems to go along with anything if he makes a profit, but I’m still having a hard time getting a read on Walsh.”
“Which is alarming considering he and Dalton both had opportunity to search our rooms.”
Marco nodded. “What’s our play now?”
“You’re letting me make that call?”
He grinned and despite everything, I wanted to push him onto the bed, kiss the fuck out of him, and forget everyone else existed. We didn’t have time for shit like that, though. I’d like to think there’d be time later, but if we’d been made, that wasn’t likely.
Marco gave me the other details he’d learned like locations and numbers. The more I heard, the more determined I was to make it out of here and take these men down. We couldn’t let their operation continue, not even for the rest of the week.
“We go on with the day like we didn’t notice anything.”
Marco ran a hand over his hair. “So we’re getting on Arlington’s yacht?”
“It’s either that or we run now, and if we run—”
“We’d tip them off, assuming they don’t already know.” He blew out a harsh breath.
“Right.”
“And if they do know, we’re fucked because we’re trapped on a yacht with them.”
He was right. “We go in with the best plan we can to make it off that yacht alive, but yeah, we’re pretty much fucked. I’m going to let X know where things stand. How long do we have before we’re expected on the ship?”
“An hour.”
“Okay. Let’s plan, and if there’s any time left, we should…”
Marco shook his head. “No. We’re not having a goodbye fuck.”
“Because we’re going to survive this?”