Sunset Rivalry: The Caliendo Resort (By The Lake: The Caliendo Resort Book 2) (11 page)

“Eliza, we were just talking about you,” Quinn said, overly pleasant, overly loud and overly dishonest. That summed Quinn up to perfection: Dishonest.

Eliza and Carl stopped in front of them looking fresh and ready for the day in their pressed outfits.

Carl had on a dark green suit with a charcoal tie that highlighted his greying hair. Eliza wore swooping black dress pants, that could easily be mistaken for a dress, and a slim fitted pink chiffon blouse with billowing sleeves.

Anya cringed at the appearance of herself and Quinn. Disheveled and sleepy, like they’d both just climbed out of bed. The same bed. 

Anya could have melted and trailed across the tile floor and into the pool. 

Why hadn’t she pulled her unruly hair in a ponytail? Why hadn’t Quinn tucked in his shirt? Why did everyone in this house wake up so darn early?!

“We were up all night talking,” Quinn continued.

His sudden admission worried Anya into silence. Would he tell them about the room? No, he wouldn’t...
would he?

“All night?” Eliza observed out loud, sending
Carl an approving smile and a wink at Anya. 

You’re kidding me? You are voting for Quinn? Really? Really!

“About both of our pasts. There is so much that we have done. You both know my indiscretions...”

Quinn sent a look at both Carl and Eliza, not hiding the fact he was referring to his work with Robert. They acknowledged it with solemn faces. They believed Quinn. They
trusted
him.
Fools.

“Mistakes, bad choices...” 

Barker I am going to elbow you in the gut. Or literally clamp your mouth shut.
If fear hadn’t paralyzed her wondering where this conversation was headed. Would he tell them about his theory that Robert was involved with her file?

“But we want to put the past in our past and look forward for our future.”

Anya’s anger faltered.
Their future.
Gloom dulled the moment. He was lying and yet it sounded so real she had to look up at him for confirmation it wasn’t.

He smiled a fake smile at her. He offered Anya nothing.

“And we agree that it would be a good idea if we sit down and talked with you, Eliza.”

Eliza sent such a happy look in Anya’s direction that she couldn’t break her mother’s heart with the truth about Quinn. She returned the smile. 

“So we would like to cook you and Carl dinner. Tonight.” 

Eliza clapped her hands together. “That’s wonderful. Yes, I would love that.” 

What was he talking about?
Couldn’t he loosen his grip? 

“In your suite,” Quinn added.

There it was, weighing Anya’s heart down. Quinn was gaining access to her mother’s suite and stepping into Anya’s life after she’d shoved him out to check off suite number one.

That sneaky son of −

“We were just going to get ready to head into town and fetch some groceries. Maybe stop for breakfast somewhere and we were considering spending the afternoon at the beach. Afterwards, we can head over to your suite and prepare everything.” Quinn dropped his giddy tone and released his smooth charm to the doting couple in front of them. “Well, I will only be setting the table. Anya is the real chef and I wouldn’t want to get in her way.” 

Liar. You’ll be snooping. 

Eliza and Carl laughed. 

“No. Stay out of the Caliendo women’s way,” Carl warned, wrapping his arm around Eliza and giving her a little squeeze. Anya swore her uncle was warming up to Quinn too.

Like the advice made a difference with Quinn. That man’s goal in life seemed to be getting in Anya’s way. 

“I will see you two later,” Eliza said looking thrilled.

Quinn let go of Anya long enough for Eliza to give her a hug, then he replaced his arm and they watched Eliza and Carl leave.

His overly pleasant tone was sickening. His lies were disheartening. It only made Anya’s need to get rid of him multiply.

“You play people just like my father did,” she said, disgusted she’d ever thought any different. 

“In no way is my end result even remotely close to Robert’s objectives or outcomes.” He actually believed what he was saying.

Anya rolled her eyes and walked away.

Who really knew what Quinn’s objectives were? 

He caught up to her. No surprise.

“After you’re finished getting ready, you can drive me to the cabin where I have a change of clothes in my truck.”

How convenient, as though he planned on sticking around with her. But not for any reasons that pleased her...like for her instead of his stupid file.

Anya waved an irritated hand at him and continued through her house, down the hall and into her bedroom, this time not bothering to lock the door. What difference did it make? Quinn did whatever he liked. 

Hanging a clean dress on the hook on the bathroom door, she stripped down only to realize her key was missing. 

Quinn. 

Did his dishonesty never end?

She jumped in the shower and decided she better tighten her armour around Quinn if he was planning on sticking around until they found the file. 

AT THE CABIN, Quinn changed into a clean t-shirt and dark wash denim pants. He jammed his dirty clothes into his bag and slugged it over his shoulder.

How did this woman have the ability to set him off? Why did setting him off mean that he automatically turned into a giant ass?

One minute he was watching her soft features as she lay awake in his arms, his body longing for her and the next minute they were in the middle of a fight about who was the better manipulator, only to have him, once again, screw her over by inviting himself to dinner in Eliza’s suite.

Anya knew what his motive to the invite was. It went unsaid, but she wasn’t a fool.

Quinn was having a difficult time overlooking the solemn look on her face. It was a mix of betrayal, anger and sadness. She visibly expressed all shades of her emotions. When he was making her angry, her eyes narrowed in and her lips pouted fully. When passion consumed her, she let her bottom lip drop enough to lick her lips. When he was crushing her heart, the look she sent him crushed his own. The latter of the three was disrupting Quinn’s goal and making him question his motives and future actions.

He combed his fingers through his hair and mentally shook off the maddening thoughts before he left the bathroom.

Anya was waiting for him by the front door with her suitcase. He was relieved there wouldn’t be a fight about her packing and coming back to the resort.

An hour later, Anya had finally emerged from the bathroom at her suite, showing a look of defeat so harsh that it broke his heart. Her fight was gone. She looked more frail and alone now, which left him wanting to wrap his arms around her and protect her.

Quinn didn’t dare touch her. The only person Anya needed protection from now was him.

Quinn drove them into town, but passed the market where they planned on doing grocery shopping for tonight’s meal.

“Where are we going?” she asked, sending him a distrusting look.

He didn’t blame her.

“Breakfast,” he replied, parking on the Main Street across the road from Mrs. Calvert’s Bakery.

The sandy beach stretched out in front of them with a wooden boardwalk and brightly colored huts. Even early morning, tourists had their umbrellas planted in the sand, shading towels and coolers from the sun.

Quinn wished he was on that beach relaxing instead of worrying about bringing justice to his sister. He would rather be on that beach with Anya, but she would never know that. Clear from their past and the present, their lives could never intermesh like they wanted them to now.

Quinn climbed out of the vehicle and started walking across the road before Anya had a chance to object.

She followed behind...slowly.

Anya looked like a passing tourist, wearing a cream colored strapless summer dress that hugged her breasts snuggly then flowed down to her strappy sandals. Her wavy hair looked like she’d spent the morning at the beach, helping her blend in with the vacation crowd. Everything about her suggested “tourist” except her pinched lips and glaring eyes directed at him.

Didn’t she have any idea how adorable she looked?

Quinn held the door to the bakery open for her.

She passed him by with arched eyebrows and full pink lips. Pouty lips. Kissable lips. Damn, he was in trouble, lips. 

The fresh smell of baking bread welcomed them into the cozy little bakery. An old-fashioned looking shop with an antique counter across the far wall garnished with covered pedestal trays of sweets and racks of more baked goods behind the counter.

Anya ignored Quinn when he asked what she wanted and sat down at one of the bistro window tables sprinkled around the sitting area of the bakery.

Quinn tried to not notice Anya’s long legs as she hiked up the dress to climb onto the high stool. He did however miss the
don’t you look at my
legs
look from Anya until she dropped the material back over her legs and his eyes found hers. 

Oops. Busted. His bad. 

He turned and waited in the lineup, ordering them each a coffee and a muffin. 

At the table, Anya had gone from glaring at him to completely ignoring him as they ate breakfast.

He was thankful that even if she was quiet, she consumed the food instead of being stubborn and disregarding breakfast altogether.

It hadn’t been like this between them before she left two years earlier. But then her time spent with him had been with the belief that their relationship was authentic. Only to have him admit to her that it was a sham.

Quinn had thought, at the time, that omitting his feelings would save her the pain of the truth, but he was seeing now that even those lies were causing her pain.

What was he supposed to do?

He knew what he shouldn’t have done. He shouldn’t have told her his feelings ran deeper than only sex when that had been all she was offering. That admission had complicated her hatred for him.

This morning when she’d looked at him with hope for something more between them, he’d known that he’d really messed up. Sure, he’d been considering the possibility only moments earlier. But when he lay beside her, he realized that he had nothing solid to offer. That had ignited fury at himself.

It hadn’t been at Anya. She was the innocent in all of this, but that was who he’d taken his anger out on. In turn he’d hurt her, once again.

After a sleepless night−as wonderful as the company had been−and two emotionally and exhausting days, Quinn decided that he didn’t deserve Anya. She deserved happiness and she could never find that with him.

Quinn needed to cut the ties that bound them and let her find genuine bliss with someone who wasn’t dedicated to slaughtering their own life.

He still didn’t even know what he was doing after he had his sister’s file. Situations had changed. Robert was dead, making the exposure futile and bringing unnecessary implications against the resort that, in turn, would bring an enormous amount of pain to Anya.

It was all especially complicated now that Quinn had involved Anya in the process of accessing the file. Anya’s realization of her assistance would inflict guilt on her for playing a part in the discovery and exposure of Robert.

That didn’t sit well with Quinn. He hadn’t come here to destroy other’s lives, especially not hers. He’d come here to make sure she was alright. 

When Marc had called him concerned about Anya, it left Quinn with a bad flavor in his mouth. But as soon as he had arrived and the possibility of finding the file presented itself, so did his past target to find it...like a bad drug. Was that how his life would always be? With the file in the back of his mind and Robert’s history of torment boiling inside him? He couldn’t be certain and for that, he had to let Anya go. To drag her into his life of depression was unfair for a woman who once lit up a room.

He just didn’t know how to obey his dad’s last wish and not damage the woman before him in the process.

At the same time, Anya was certain those files had been in the hidden room. Now that they were missing, it presented a whole new problem. Did Robert have an accomplice? Was it a Caliendo? Quinn couldn’t allow anyone else to hurt innocent people like his sister.

“We need to figure out a plan,” he said, not meaning for it to come out as gruff as it did, but needing to concentrate on something else. He was used to having everything pre-planned and this winging it was driving him crazy.

Anya said nothing and Quinn didn’t push until they had finished eating.  

They had all day to sit around and ignore each other, but it wouldn’t get them any further to their goal.

“If we are going to go have supper with Eliza and Carl we need to stabilize a convincing plan in case they inquire about where you’ve been, what we are planning,” he explained.

When Anya finally did look at him, her face was skeptical. “Is this your way of turning things around so I tell you where I’ve been?”

He hadn’t thought of it that way, but if it had worked it would have been perfect.

“No.”

“Do you want me to lie to my mom? Because that is the predicament you have put me in. Either I tell her what I have been doing for the last two years or I lie to her.”

“I didn’t mean to−”

“Maybe not, but you did.”

She shook her head and looked back out the window, leaning back in the chair and cradling her coffee mug.

“I don’t want to play house with you, pretending we’re in love or that we have a future together. I am not sitting around making fake plans with a man who can’t figure his shit out.”

Quinn said nothing.

“I will figure out my own story. I don’t need to run it by you.”

“Okay.” That was fair.

“Maybe we could just sit there and discuss your dealings with my dad. That could make the hours go by and, by then, you will have already got what you wanted, access to my mom’s suite.”

“Anya we both needed it, I just opened a window for us.”

“For you,” she accused. “You opened a window for yourself. I was perfectly capable of getting in myself. This is my family you’re screwing with now. Not just me, so back off. I won’t let you hurt them.”

“I didn’t come here to hurt them.”

“Really?”

No. But she wouldn’t understand and he couldn’t explain something he didn’t really understand yet.

“I came here for my file.”

Anya eyed him skeptically.

Her legs were crossed and she bounced the top foot slightly. He could tell she was considering whether to trust him or not. He hadn’t given her much to go on.

“Why is my family accepting you so willingly?” she asked. “Why do they assume you and I are...I don’t know...connected...
dating
?”

Quinn sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. He decided the truth was the best answer. “When you left after Robert’s funeral, your mom was concerned. She asked me to arrange a security employee to backtrack the resort’s footage for the days leading up to your departure. She wanted to know where you might have gone. I arranged it. The days turned into weeks and months...”

Anya’s cobalt-colored eyes widened, comprehending what his story meant. 

“I was distracted searching for the file. Robert was gone. You were gone. And I still needed that file. I didn’t notice how deep into footage Eliza was getting until she arranged a meeting with me.”

Anya looked horrified.

“She saved me the discomfort of watching our multiple pop-ups together on the resort. However she made it clear that she was aware from the various
mouth-locked moments.
..her words not mine...” He grinned.

Anya’s eyes fell shut for a moment and she uttered a loud and embarrassed sigh. He waited for her to open her eyes before he continued.

“Eliza didn’t ask me anything about our relationship, but she did ask me if I knew where you were. Which I didn’t.”

But he could have found her. He should have found her. Why hadn’t it occurred to him that Robert was behind her disappearance? Maybe because after Robert’s death Quinn had been desperate to find the file. Another fail.

“She also asked me if I thought you were okay.”

Anya broke their eye contact. Turning her body back to the table, she set her coffee down and stared at it like the steaming liquid held all the answers.

Quinn felt his wall of deception tumbling around him. “I thought you were okay, Anya.”

Quinn slid his hand across the table and covered hers.

“I believed you were alright. If I had known that Robert set you up with whatever you’re fighting, I would have tracked you down. I would have found you.”

Her small gasp of surprise indicated to Quinn that he had pinpointed something about her disappearance. Her head snapped up and her eyes looked deeply into his, obviously trying to decipher if he knew her secret.

He didn’t know anymore than that...yet. He was still waiting for the phone call that would provide some information on her whereabouts and possibly the reasons why.

“I would have helped you,” he said softly. 

“Why?” 

He smiled at her but didn’t let go of her hand. “I don’t want to complicate things between us anymore than we already have, but I want to clear up some details.”

Anya said nothing, watching him closely with her large round eyes. Those eyes had once sparkled in his presence, but now they were protected, coated in suspicion. He didn’t like it, but he liked the strength she possessed to stand up to him.

“When I took my father’s place on your dad’s payroll, my thoughts were consumed with an obligation to obtain the file. I didn’t know you. I didn’t want to get to know you. As far I was concerned you were just like Robert: arrogant, conceited and greedy. That made it alright to use you.”

It was a bad judgement call, but he’d spent a year trying to find Nikki’s file and had come up empty-handed. Taking advantage of Anya’s evident attraction to him had been a step he’d been willing to explore for the bigger picture.

Anya’s eyes flickered down at the words but bounced right back up as if sensing there was more. And there was. So much more he could never tell her.