Infidelity Inlet: A Liars Island Suspense Read online

  I pulled a piece of paper out from underneath my windshield wiper and unfolded it. What I read inside made my blood run cold.

  You’re not very smart for a security professional.

  Nice black couch. It looks really soft.

  I have everything on video.

  If you don’t come up with one million dollars by the end of the week I’m going to send it to your wife and everyone in her address book.

  The whole island is going to see you fucking that waitress.

  Chapter 2

  Casey

  “I don’t know if I’m ready for this yet, Stacy.”

  I was looking in the bathroom mirror, my eyes darting back and forth between the mascara I was trying to apply on my lower lashes and my sister, who was slipping into a slinky, sequined dress behind me.

  “Come on, it’s been two months since Brian broke up with you.”

  “He didn’t break up with me!” I said, turning around in a huff. “He ghosted me! There’s a big difference! If he had broken up with me, at least I would have known what happened, or why he didn’t want to be with me anymore.”

  “Not necessarily. When Randy broke up with me, he didn’t tell me shit. Even when I asked, he just sort of shrugged. It was really annoying.”

  “I don’t know,” I said as I licked my finger and wiped a black smudge from under my lower lashes. “I still say being ghosted is the worst. Worse than the worst.”

  “Yeah, it is. I totally agree with you there. But if you just sit around your apartment every single night moping and watching mindless YouTube videos, he wins.”

  “Maybe I need this time to take care of myself,” I said, putting the cap back on the mascara and throwing it into my makeup bag. “Maybe that’s my way of winning.”

  “You’re not taking care of yourself, Casey. You’re wallowing. You’re lying around your tiny little room and you’re feeling sorry for yourself. You need to get back out there so you can forget about that asshole. Wipe him from your memory.”

  I rubbed my frosty pink lips together, spreading the thick layer of gloss around a bit before answering. “What I’d really like to do is wipe him from this fucking planet.”

  “What was that?”

  “Nothing.”

  That bugged me. I didn’t like the way Stacy said that Brian was winning. I’d never really thought about our breakup like that, like a contest that one of us could win, and the other would be considered the loser. I didn’t want that at all, for anyone—especially Stacy—to think of me as the loser in this relationship.

  I had no control over anything once he blocked me on every single site. He didn’t respond to my texts or calls or emails, and when I went to his house, he was never home. It was infuriating. But I was even more angry at the thought of him thinking he’d won something somehow.

  “There are tons of guys out there, Casey. Millions. All you have to do is show up at the bar and I promise you, in the first hour at least five guys will ask you to dance.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” I said absentmindedly, still scrutinizing my makeup and thinking about Brian crossing an imaginary finish line with his arms in the air.

  “You take this kind of thing way too seriously. You always have. Love is a game. All you have to do is keep playing until you find the right guy.”

  I turned around and looked at my sister. “So you’re saying you think once I have a boyfriend, the games are over?”

  Stacy grabbed a brush off her dresser and stepped in front of the mirror quickly to fix her hair. “Actually, no,” she said, rolling her eyes and laughing. “The games are never over. They just change once you’ve hooked the guy and reeled him in. I still have to trick Greg into helping me around the house. You know, suggest things for him to do, but make him think it was his idea. Otherwise he’d spend all weekend in front of the TV.”

  That didn’t really sound like a game to me at all. It sounded like regular everyday life. Like what I did all the time to make sure I at least got some things to go my way. But I didn’t say that to Stacy. I didn’t like telling people things like that. The doctors always looked at me funny when I did.

  “So what are the games you play to get a guy?” I asked casually. “How are they different?”

  Stacy crossed the room and grabbed her purse off the bed. “I don’t know,” she said with a sigh. “The usual. Laugh a lot, like you just heard a really funny joke. Flip your hair. Bat your eyelashes and tilt your head down while you’re looking up into their eyes whenever you want something. Never … and I mean never … text back immediately. Keeps them waiting for you. Maybe even thinking that you’re preoccupied with someone else. You want them interested, even a little jealous. Then, once you’ve got a ring on your finger, you can do whatever the hell you want.”

  Stacy went on about what to do once you get a man and I listened to her talk, but I couldn’t help but let my mind wander back to Brian. I felt like I’d done everything right. I bent over backwards being the ‘cool girl’ for him. I watched football with him and made all the greasy snacks he could eat, I never nagged him about when he was coming home from a night out with the guys, and I let him fuck me whenever he was in the mood. I seriously don’t understand what went wrong.

  Finally, after Stacy felt like she looked hot enough to attract every man in the bar, but not actually go home with any of them, she said goodbye to Greg and we left. I was spending the night on their couch so I didn’t have to find my own way home. I was hoping, if I actually got lucky with some hot guy, that we’d go back to his place.

  It was Thursday night, ladies’ night at the local bar. Usually, the weekends were busy with people who wanted to dance and hook up, but ladies’ night was always pretty slammed too. The other nights of the week were very hit or miss, so I rarely came Sunday through Wednesday, even before I’d sequestered myself in my apartment after Brian disappeared.

  Stacy and I walked right past the line of men out in front of the building to the roped-off section at the front. The doorman looked us both up and down, then unhooked the rope and let us walk through. He asked for our IDs and we both got hand stamps, then he pulled the door open and let us in.

  A heavy bass line pounded throughout every cell in my body as we made our way past the coat check to the main dance floor. The place was already crowded. That was probably why the line was so long outside. They most likely had a count of how many men were in the club, and as soon as one left, they’d let another one in. Otherwise, this place would turn into a complete sausage-fest.

  I followed Stacy to the bar and waited while she got the drinks. She was a bartender before she married Greg and usually knew the best thing to order.

  “What’s this?” I yelled as she handed me a tall glass filled with brown liquid.

  “It’s 151 and Coke! It’ll get us fucked up quick!”

  I watched as Stacy sucked the entire glass down through a straw, then I did the same. Before I knew it, another glass was in my hand, and within seconds that one was empty too. I don’t remember when it happened, but at some point Stacy and I were surrounded by men, and the drinks just kept coming.

  I kept following Stacy’s suggestions about laughing and flipping my hair, and it didn’t take long at all before I felt more in control. More at ease. More myself, finally. But between the music and the alcohol and all the attention, it was hard to focus on any one thing. Before I knew it, I found myself in a bathroom stall leaning up against a rock-hard chest that was attached to a massive set of shoulders.

  Two strong hands gripped my arms and pushed me against the wall, then turned me around so that my cheek was pressed against the cold metal. I felt soft lips move down the side of my neck until they came to the curve just above my shoulder. I felt tingles as those lips traveled down my back until they reached the band of my bra.

  When the strong hands moved up my stomach and cupped my breasts, I arched my back and pulled my dress up over my ass, and when I felt my panties tugged to one side, I smiled.


  He’s a real gentleman, I thought to myself.

  If it had been Brian back there, my panties would have been ripped right off of me. He was always so rough and demanding. That was actually one of the things that made me fall madly in love with him. The first time we had sex, it was mind-blowing. He pulled my hair and threw me around and made me feel like I was a doll for his pleasure.

  I loved that feeling of being used and owned. It really turned me on. Especially in the beginning, when things were fresh and new. It was incredibly exciting for me to just please a guy. To be on my knees in between his legs and gaze up into his eyes while I had him in my mouth. I loved watching his reaction to me, and the way his face changed when he was getting closer to finishing. That’s what it was always like for me the first month or so of a relationship, anyway.

  The weird thing was, after a while I started to get irritated when Brian wanted to get off without any consideration for my needs. Being used didn’t feel quite so sexy, and I started to get resentful. I even kept a tally of all of the times he came and I didn’t. Or of the times I did all the work around the house on the weekends and he did nothing but sit around and play video games. It got to a point where, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get that feeling back—that super sexy, fresh feeling when we were first together. So basically, all I wound up doing was star-fishing while I waited for him to finish fucking me.

  But this guy was different, and I liked it. He was so gentle and sensuous. Like he was savoring every inch of my body. As I stood there, with my eyes closed and my hands pressed into the bathroom stall, I wished I could remember his face. I wasn’t even sure which guy he was. The one who bought me the Jäger shots? The one who told me I looked like a model? Or was he the one who put his arm around me and smiled and made me feel like nothing in the world could ever hurt me again?

  I decided it had to have been him. He was obviously the one I’d let take me to the bathroom and waltz me backwards into an empty stall. I really liked him, and I could feel by the way he touched me and wrapped his arms around my stomach that he felt the same.

  But there was something else there. A feeling I’d never had with any other man before, not even with Brian. The way our bodies fit together, and how his moved against mine, it was so perfect. Like two pieces of a puzzle that clicked right into place with each other. Every time he moved against me … and inside me … I could feel it.

  We were supposed to be together. I knew it. That’s why I was here. The universe … or God … or whatever … brought us to this place so we could meet. So we could experience our powerful connection. He was the one. I could feel it in every cell of my body.

  Everything he did to me felt amazing, and I wanted it to go on forever. I guess I must have been really drunk, or maybe it was just that I was lost in my thoughts about our cosmic connection. Either way, before I knew what was happening, it was over. I was suddenly being turned around and my dress was being lowered for me.

  I looked up into two of the kindest brown eyes I’d ever seen in my life, and the breath was completely knocked out of me.

  “That was lovely.”

  Those three little words melted from a set of pink lips that were surrounded by incredibly sexy dark stubble, and I wanted so badly to feel them against my skin again. “It was!” I said emphatically. “I’d really love to come home with you tonight.” I pushed my hands under the man’s jacket and wrapped them around his back, but felt him grip my shoulders and move me away from him toward the wall.

  “Not tonight, sweetie. Another time, all right?”

  I was so disappointed, but I was sure he had his reasons. And I knew there would be so many more nights for us, so I nodded my head and smiled. I reached down and fumbled with my teeny, sequined purse and pulled out my phone. “Here,” I said, thrusting it toward him. “Put your number in. We can go out. Any night you want.”

  I watched as his thumbs moved quickly against the surface, then he handed my phone back to me. “There you go. I’ll see you real soon.”

  He leaned down and gave me a long, slow kiss. A kiss that told me I hadn’t been wrong. He was the one. I stood there for a long moment after he left the stall, then I brought my phone up and looked at what he’d entered. His name was Fred. That sounded about right. Solid, reliable, safe.

  I tapped on the blue bubble below his name, then sent him a text.

  I didn’t get a chance to tell you my name

  This is Casey

  I had an amazing time

  Good night

  Then I sent a heart-kiss emoji.

  Less than a minute later, my phone dinged. I was expecting something sexy, maybe even a heart, but that’s not what I got.

  I don’t know any Casey.

  I texted back.

  Sorry, we just met at the club

  In the bathroom (wink emoji)

  The response came back almost immediately.

  Wrong number

  I stood there and stared at my phone. It had to be some kind of mistake. A feeling of panic flooded through me and made my heart ache, so I hit the phone icon at the top of the screen.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, I’m trying to get a hold of Fred?”

  “There’s no Fred here. I told you, you’ve got the wrong number.”

  “But that can’t be right. He just gave me this number a couple minutes ago. He typed it in himself. Are you sure he’s not there?”

  “Look, honey, there’s no Fred. I’ve had this number for about eight years. I’m sorry. He must have typed it in wrong.”

  I stood there and stared at my reflection in the mirror. At my brown, matted hair, the streams of mascara were running down both cheeks, and my smeared lipstick.

  “You okay, hon?”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. Sorry to bother you.”

  I ended the call and put my phone in my purse. I felt so horrible I couldn’t even look back up at myself in the mirror. I knew exactly how ugly I looked. How ugly I had always been. I could barely work up the courage to leave the bathroom, but I knew I had to. Stacy would be waiting for me. But I couldn’t face her. The only thing I could think to do was lie.

  I’m going home with Fred, I texted. Talk tomorrow!

  I didn’t even look to see her response. I just put my phone away and went back into the stall where Fred and I had made love, then I wrapped my arms over my head and sank down to the floor.

  Chapter 3

  Jerry

  “Jerry, what are you doing all the way over here of this hour? Aren’t you supposed to be asleep or something?”

  “Yeah,” I said as I hovered in the doorway to my friend Dave’s office. “I’ve got a problem. You got a minute?”

  “Sure, take a seat,” he said, gesturing to the empty chair on the other side of his desk.

  I sat down and stared at my hands for a long moment. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about my relationship with Olivia, but Dave and I had been friends since college and I knew I could trust him. I wouldn’t have taken the ferry all the way to the mainland in the middle of the day if I didn’t. Besides, I knew I was in way over my head with this whole blackmail thing, and he was the only one I could think of who might be able to help.

  “This is really sensitive, Dave. I need to be sure you won’t breathe a word of what I’m about to tell you.”

  “Of course, Jer. You know me. They didn’t call me The Keeper of Secrets at UDub for nothing. What’s the problem?”

  “Well, that was when we were playing Dungeons and Dragons,” I said with a laugh. “This is real life.”

  Dave just nodded and stared at me. I glanced down at my hands for another moment, but then took a deep breath and looked him right in the eyes. “I’ve been seeing someone. Someone besides Annette. I thought I was being careful, but I guess I was fooling myself. I got this note on my car when I was out doing my rounds last night.” I slid the piece of paper across his desk.

  I watched him unfold the note and read it. When
he was done, he set it back down on his desk. “You think it’s legitimate? That the threat is real? I mean, they could totally be talking out their ass.”

  “Yeah, I thought that too until I got this email about an hour ago.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket, opened up the mail app, and slid it across the desk.

  “So this is the video? You and your …” Dave gave me a lopsided smile and a shrug like he was waiting for me to clarify our relationship with a word or a title.

  “Yeah,” I said, ignoring the stupid look on his face. “It’s me and her … on a couch … in one of the offices I patrol every night.”

  “Oh, shit. Temp agency?”

  “Law office.”

  “Ouch.” He shifted around in his chair a couple times while he stared at the phone. “So, what … you want me to watch it?”

  “No, I don’t want you to watch it. Get your mind out of the gutter. I want you to do that fancy computer tech stuff you do and find out who sent the email. You can do that, can’t you?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I should be able to. I’ll just forward it to my email. That okay?” he asked, his eyes moving up off the phone until they met mine.

  I could tell Dave was just itching to watch that video, and couldn’t blame him. I’d probably want to do the same if I were in his shoes. I didn’t particularly want a copy flying around in the stratosphere, though. But I’d already lost complete control of my private life, so I figured Dave watching me go to town on Olivia in a law office seemed like the least of my worries at the moment.

  “Go for it. You have my permission to do anything you have to in order to get this information. I really need help on this. I can’t afford to pay the ransom, and I can’t afford for Annette to find out about any of this. It would kill her. It would ruin our marriage. Our family. I just need this to go away, Dave. And without any judgment or I-told-you-so’s.”