Val didn’t like the sound of either scenario. He flicked the switch on his desk. “Carol, can you come in here please?”
“Right away.”
Once Carol stood before him, he started spouting off orders. “I need a list of every employee assigned to the Wolfe party.”
Carol tossed a nervous glance to Lou and back to Val.
“I want everyone interviewed, the interviews recorded. I need to know what they’ve seen, who they’ve seen. I need to know if the security breach is internal.”
His private secretary’s eyes grew wide. “Breach, Mr. Masini?”
“Someone is watching our guests, Carol. I need eyes on the eyes and a moment-by-moment account of our guests.”
A blank stare fell across Carol’s face. “That might be difficult, Mr. Masini.”
His back stiffened and his gaze narrowed. “And why is that?”
“Mr. Wolfe and his companion took a charter to Key West after breakfast.”
Damn it. It was one thing to contain security on his island, not possible when his guests joined the party in the south.
Val met Lou’s dark eyes. “Put your most trusted man on the employees. I need you in Key West. Find them, follow them, and see if anyone of interest is watching.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Carol, not one word. Right now there are three people who know there’s a breach.”
“Yes, Mr. Masini.”
The two left the office in silence.
“Key fucking West.”
Michael Wolfe and Margaret Rosenthal’s photographs will be in every rag magazine available by morning.
Where Sapore di Amore was silence and solitude, Key West was the exact opposite.
Meg was surprised they lasted two nights and almost forty-eight hours before looking for excitement off island.
The charter off the island was exclusive to Sapore di Amore. Only guests of the island used the charter. They were given a cell phone and were asked to return to the dock by ten that evening.
With so many shops and restaurants and otherwise touristy spots to spend their time, Meg wasn’t sure ten o’clock would be long enough.
They hid behind massive sunglasses, told passersby that Michael wasn’t Michael, but yeah, he could be a stunt double for the man.
Still, Meg noticed a few cell phones swinging their way. She made sure she pushed in close to give the vibe they were together.
Halfway through lunch on an outside patio, Meg felt the need to look over her shoulder. “I don’t know how you do this,” she told him.
“You ignore it.”
“But someone is watching us.”
He shrugged, sipped his margarita. “Isn’t that the idea? See if we’re followed back to the island? See if it’s as secure as Val says it is?”
She glanced over her shoulder, didn’t see the eyes she felt. “Yeah.”
“Then that’s what we do. We play tourist and return to the island at dark. If nothing hits the papers by the morning, we step it up.”
“And how do we step it up?”
Michael looked over the rim of his sunglasses and wiggled his eyebrows. “I’m more than a pretty face on the big screen.”
Meg grabbed her purse and stood. “I’m in need of the little girls’ room and am going to make a quick call to your sister.”
Michael reached for the borrowed cell phone.
“I don’t trust that. I’ll use a house phone.”
“Do they have those anymore?”
Meg laughed, but wondered if there was a house phone once she walked away. She stepped around the bar and found her path cut off by three bikini-clad women. “Is that Michael Wolfe you’re with?” they asked.
Meg glanced at an Asian man watching from across the bar.
“If I had a dime for every time someone asked us that,” Meg said. “We’d be as rich as Michael Wolfe.”
The youngest of the beach-bound women offered a full pout. “We thought for sure.”
“Sorry to disappoint you.” She walked away with a tiny smile.
Meg found a house phone, which was really a cell phone from the manager, and she made a quick call to Judy.
“Hey, chica.”
“Don’t tell me you’re back already?”
“No, we just got started. Snuck away to Key West.”
“I didn’t think my brother would last a week in seclusion.”
“The island is amazing. We just wanted to test the bounds early. Listen, I need you to look something up for me.”
“Find a new client?”
“Nothing like that. We haven’t even really talked to many people outside of the owner of the resort and his family.” Meg went on to tell Judy about Gabi and her fiancé. Asked her best friend to look up the winery and see if she could learn anything about the man.
“If he’s not a prospective client, why bother looking him up?”
Once again, Meg felt eyes watching her. Only she wasn’t beside Michael. I must be paranoid.
Music from the outside steel band filled the bar and made the conversation on the phone difficult.
“Something about him bugs me. Call it a byproduct of screening men for Alliance. It was obvious that Gabi’s mother didn’t like the man, and yet Masini and Gabi were both oblivious.”
“Was he an ass?”
“No . . . just . . . blah. I can’t put my finger on it. And Gabi is so sweet and sheltered. I’d hate to have a gut feeling and not follow up on it.”
“Sounds like Gabi is competing for BFF status.”
Meg tossed her head back and laughed. “Jealous?”