Tropical Panther's Penance (Shifting Sands Resort 6)

Tex winced. “In the middle of the new guest rush?”

Scarlet’s face was as angry as Wrench had ever seen it, and Wrench thought he could hear her teeth grinding. She turned to Travis. “Tell me Jenny made her connecting flight.” Her voice dared him to have a different answer.

Travis replied cheerfully, “She did! She’ll be coming up with the second load in the van. With the roof supplies. That I need Wrench to help carry—ow!”

“Sorry,” Wrench said insincerely as Travis stepped back to nurse his trod-upon toe. Had the man never lied about anything in his life?

This plan to hide Ally was looking more and more unlikely.

On the other hand, if there were already unwanted visitors coming, that was the kind of chaos that would do an excellent job of masking one small girl’s secret occupancy.

“I am going to fight this with every legal advantage we can get,” Scarlet said fiercely. “Jenny said she’d found some language in the contract that we might use to block a sale, and at least stop these unscheduled visits.”

“Surely they aren’t all going to end in a hostage situation,” Tex said lightly.

“They might,” Scarlet said savagely. “Each set of buyers seems worse than the last. I can’t imagine where Benedict’s lawyer is even finding these monsters.”

“Surely ‘monsters’ is a little harsh,” Tex said peacefully.

“I’m not sure it is,” Scarlet said suspiciously. “These buyers are the dregs of bad people. Not just self-centered rich jerks, but… drug dealers and slavers.” She looked over at Travis thoughtfully. “What’s up with you?”

Wrench swallowed hard, watching sweat bead on Travis’ forehead.

“Up? With me?” the lynx shifter asked, brown eyes wide with desperate innocence.

“Why aren’t you getting the last batch of guests to the airstrip?”

Wrench gathered up an armload of luggage. “Off we go,” he rumbled, pushing Travis in front of him before he could open his mouth again.

“Off we go!” Travis echoed obediently, taking a load of his own luggage. Guests downed their last drinks and straggled out after them as they headed for the tiny parking lot at the peak of the resort.

“Whew,” Travis said, as Wrench helped him stash the luggage in the back of the courtesy van. “That woman, I swear. She just looks right through you sometimes.”

Wrench refrained from pointing out that Travis’ performance might have been a tad suspicious. It had worked for the moment, now he just had to wait.

And he knew just how to fill the hours he had to kill now.

Chapter 22

Lydia frowned, surveying her spa.

“Someone left a jar of honey treatment open overnight,” Laura told her, looking a little wild around the eyes.

“Let me guess,” Lydia said with a sigh. “Ants.”

“Ants,” Laura agreed.

Two of the assistants were clustered by the door, refusing to step any closer to the stream of wriggling invaders.

“Go get a mop and bucket,” she told them, striding into the room. Their little island off the coast of Costa Rica had absolutely wonderful weather, perfect humidity, and any rain was short-lived and warm, but it was a jungle, and a jungle that came with bugs. The resort rule about food in private cottages was strict for a reason.

The sugar ants, though tiny, made the cosmetics shelf look like it was alive in their relentless march for food.

“We’re going to need to clean them off of all the product bottles,” Lydia said, surveying the scene. “And wipe up their trail all the way out the door. Use the spray bottle in the cabinet that is marked 50% alcohol.”

As they went to work, Laura elbowed her. “Made the earth move, did you two?”

Lydia smirked sideways back. “We didn’t move the earth until after the earthquake, thank you,” she sai, mock-primly.