and she was raving to Cheyenne about something. Cheyenne
looked like she was trying to keep a poker face.
“So I went to their room, and they were still passed out in
their beds. I counted seven hairy men in their rooms. Seven!
What a bunch of cadelas!” Yara gesticulated wildly with her
hands. Saffron shrugged, and David chuckled.
“Yes, it’s hilarious, David!” She glared at her groom-to-be,
and he sipped his coffee quietly. “And you two!”
Steph looked over her shoulder to see who Yara was yelling
at and saw Phillip and Bret sauntering up. Both men looked at
each other in obvious confusion.
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“You had them doing booby shots before they even got to
the bar last night.”
“Body shots, darling.” David offered as Nathan cackled.
“Whatever! Thanks for contributing to their antics,” she
snapped. Phillip glanced uncertainly at David, and Bret
shrugged.
“What? Did they get arrested or something?” Bret asked,
and Cheyenne made a motion with her hands to silence him.
Steph tried not to laugh and glanced toward Phillip, who seemed
to be enamored with her boots. She crossed her legs defensively, and his eyes slowly shifted to her face. He seemed caught off
guard that she was watching him, and without releasing her gaze, he swiftly took the seat next to her. Steph felt her eyebrows
shoot skyward in surprise as he turned his entire body to face
her, leaning in as if he were going to start a private conversation.
A hushed silence fell over the table, and Steph yanked her
eyes away from Phillip’s to see the assembled band members
gawking at them.
“Feeling a bit bold today, Kersey?” Nathan’s droll delivery
made Bret snort. Cheyenne shot Nathan a deadly glance.
“Shut up!” she snarled and stood, crossing to Steph’s side.
“Stephanie, I need your help with something before we leave.”
Steph realized her chest was rising and falling rapidly. Her
cheeks felt feverishly hot. She stood automatically and followed Cheyenne with a backward glance at Phillip, who had flopped
back in his chair looking frustrated.
Once they were around the corner by the hammocks, Chey-
enne spun on her.
“What was that?” Steph asked, and Cheyenne shrugged in
genuine confusion.
“Did you get ahold of Christopher?” Cheyenne asked, peek-
ing through the windows at the group behind them. Steph
glanced back over her shoulder, suddenly feeing paranoid.
“I just tried. No answer.”
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“Try again,” Cheyenne snapped.
“Chill out, Cheyenne. What the hell’s with you?”
Cheyenne grabbed Steph’s arm, her eyes emphatic. “Phillip
knows.”
“Knows what?” The look on Cheyenne’s face told her eve-
rything she needed to know. A tidal wave of nausea swept over
Stephanie, and she shoved Cheyenne out of the way as she ran to
the nearest bush and threw up.
As she stood, gasping for air, Cheyenne spoke. Her voice
was calm and matter-of-fact.
“I told you to tell him last night.”
“Well I didn’t! So who the hell did?” Steph sucked in a
large amount of air, trying to keep some of her breakfast down.
“Cedric. It seems he didn’t realize that Phillip didn’t know.
Because, you see, it’s just fucking madness that you didn’t tell him ages ago.” Her nonchalant delivery would normally have
made Steph verbally attack her, but she’d been thrown off her
game.
“Dammit, Cedric!” Steph exclaimed, and Cheyenne glow-
ered at her furiously.
“He’s leaving. Today, actually…in a couple of hours. He
said something about not wanting to enable you anymore. He’s a
pretty wise man. Are you sure the two of you are related?” Steph was too stunned to respond.
“Cheyenne…” She finally found her voice, scratchy from
vomiting.
“I don’t want to hear it, Steph. I’m tired of listening to your
twisted logic, and I’m pretty much tired of talking to you. Or
should I say talking at you? It’s like talking to a brick wall.”
Cheyenne turned and headed back in the direction of the group.
Steph stood staring after her. She scrambled around the building and made her way up to her room, where Kara was putting on
her shoes.
“Good God! You look like shite! What’s on your dress?”
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she asked. Steph grabbed a black sundress from her suitcase and
vanished into the bathroom without a word. She hurriedly
cleaned up, reapplied make-up, and brushed her teeth. She raced
to the front desk to arrange for a ride to Cedric’s pousada. She had the same chauffer, Enrique, with whom t she always seemed
to get stuck. This time, Enrique wouldn’t even look at her for the entire ride.
Without knocking, she flung open the door to Cedric’s
room. He was zipping up his suitcase.
He peered at his watch. “I was wondering how long it
would be before you showed up.”
“Why can’t you ever keep your mouth shut?”
“Funny, I’m usually the one saying that to you.”
“You had no right!” Steph’s exasperation was crippling, and
she had to sit on the edge of the bed.
Cedric shrugged. “That’s true. And yet Phillip had every
right to know.”
“What did you say to him exactly?” Steph asked as her
mind raced.
“I’m not giving you a blow by blow, so you can try to find
some way to spin this.” Cedric slung his bag over his shoulder.
“You have a lot of thinking to do, baby sister. And a hell of a lot of growing up to do.”
“Piss, off Cedric. Who died and made you judge and jury?”
The look on his face stopped her from saying another syllable.
He took a step toward her, and she withdrew a step on instinct.
His eyes were hard and unforgiving. ““If you could have
seen Phillip's face after you collapsed that day, you would have never let him go.”
He left without as much as a second glance in her direction.
As she watched him go, Steph collapsed back on the bed. He was
right, as always. She was responsible for it all. She fought back angry tears, and she argued with herself for ten minutes before
jumping back into the SUV and having Enrique drive her to the
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RAGE
tiny island airport. When she spotted Cedric, she hurried over to him. His shoulders heaved with a silent sigh when he saw her
coming.
Tears sprung from her eyes, and she flung her arms around
him. For a moment, she felt like a fool as she clung to him like a bawling baby, but his cane-free arm soon came up around her,
and she knew they were okay. She
