“Yes, Mrs. Lewis-Adler. I absolutely agree. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Believe me, we’re just as upset as you are— No, no, of course we don’t feel as you. I can’t imagine what you’re feeling.”
Hendrix had been on the phone with Belle’s mom trying to placate her for the last forty-five minutes.
Belle taught me the rules of the dame. Never raise your voice. Never swear. Never resort to common insults when proper education affords you a wider vocabulary.
I was pretty certain she broke all three rules five minutes after Hendrix called her with the news.
I felt bad for the guy. What happened wasn’t his fault. But then again, I didn’t know a mother who’d be calm and heed her manners after finding out some idiot cracked her daughter’s skull open and she almost drowned.
“He is gone,” Hendrix repeated. “Mr. Finnegan and Mr. Gunnar are packing their bags as we speak. They’ll be off the island by morning. What would you like to do? We have spare rooms now if you’d like to come and be with Belle. Yes,” he said. “I will. Thank you.”
Hendrix slumped at the end of the call. Sinking in the seat like a puppet with cut strings.
“This a first for you?” I asked. “Gropers and head injuries.”
He shot me a wan smile. “This is my third year helping Mrs. Desai run the event. The first year a couple drove a golf cart drunk through town and crashed into a fruit stand. The second year, the guests decided the parties we hold regularly weren’t enough, threw one in their room, and managed to break a hundred-year-old vase and set fire to the rug. But this... no, I wasn’t prepared for this.” The smile dimmed. “We take our job to look after you thirty-six very seriously. I can’t face calling her mother back if something is really wrong.”
My throat closed. “Nothing is wrong,” I rasped. “Head wounds bleed a lot. Making it look worse than it is. They’re back there, slapping a Band-Aid on and laughing about making us sweat.”
Hendrix shook his head.
“Seriously, Belle will be fine,” I said. “Don’t blame yourself. We’re all adults and it’s not on you if we don’t act like it. Finnegan, Gunnar, and their crew were a bunch of moronic piss-stains at school too. Once they snuck into the laundry and tossed purple dye in the washing machine. The kids on scholarship were out over three hundred bucks having to buy new uniforms and they laughed in the faces of whoever told them to pay for replacements.
“Guys like that cause trouble because they are bored. They would’ve gotten themselves kicked off this island eventually.” I dropped my head. “I just wish Belle wasn’t the reason.”
Hendrix changed seats and grasped my shoulder. It was just us in the waiting room.
Citrine Grove Hospital was a small facility for a small island. What they lacked in noise, crowds, and people rushing about, they made up for in comfortable chairs, a nurse who took the time to learn our names, and quiet while I told myself over and over again that Belle would be all right.
“You all are still young,” Hendrix said. “We’ve tried not to hover and micromanage you because it doesn’t make sense to treat you like children when you’re here to make a very adult decision. It’s not easy. Any of this. But you didn’t let Miss Adler down today, and I hope you know that.”
“Mr. Hendrix? Mr. Prince?”
Shooting out of the seat, I crossed to the nurse in five strides. “Belle. Is she okay?”
She put up a staying hand. “She’s fine. She has a mild concussion, but we’ve given her an MRI and nothing looks amiss. As for the cut on her head, it’ll heal nicely,” she said. “Miss Belle has been given strict instructions to rest for a few days. She said she’d jump on any excuse to get out of being paraded around like prime mating stock.”
I snorted. “Yeah, that sounds like our Belle. She’s going to be fine.”
“She is.” The nurse waved me on. “You go on and see her. It’s room 405.”
She didn’t need to tell me twice. I took off through the double doors in search of her room. I found it at the end of the hall, next to an open door. A passing glance caught a glimpse of a bare backside peeking through the hospital gown on the way to the bathroom.
I stepped inside and her small, pale, bandaged head turned to