Wham.
And for giving him the keys, Ben, you traitor...
This set of thirty felt effortless, but she was sweating when she was done. Wiping her streaming forehead, Audra pulled off one of her gloves and reached for her water bottle. As she sucked down the cool liquid, she heard the squeak of the door.
Serge was back. She was ready for the next set. Leon first, then she'd go back to Ben's misdemeanours.
Claws dug into her shoulder, tearing through her shirt and trying to spin her around.
"It's your fault, you fucking bitch! You're just jealous!" Penny screeched, dragging on Audra's shoulder with all her weight so Audra almost keeled over backwards. "Just because you're too frigid for a rock star like Jay Felix to even look twice at you, you reported me for giving him what he wanted. You're the one who should've lost her job, not me, for being so fucking useless!"
Audra flailed to maintain her balance and clocked Penny on the side of her head with the water bottle.
The girl's eyes seemed to ignite. "YOU'LL DIE FOR THAT, BITCH!" She grabbed both Audra's shoulders and forced her to turn around. Claws reached for Audra's eyes.
This is for sleeping with Jay and making my job a living hell.
Audra slammed her gloved fist into Penny's face, knocking the girl off her feet. Blood spurted from Penny's nose as fear filled her eyes.
Audra's breakfast welled up in her throat, threatening to escape, but she fought it down. She pulled off the bloodied glove and let it drop to the floor. She was done training and she needed to find the safety officer to report Penny's injury. She didn't trust herself to give the girl first aid without smothering her.
The gym door squeaked and Serge stood on the threshold, grinning, with his arms full of vinyl pads. His smile slid into a look of horror. "No!"
Yes, Audra thought. Even nice girls snap under pressure and the bitch had it coming. Besides, she hit first, so it was only self-defence. But this time, she wouldn't be cleaning that bitch's mess off the gym floor. She refused to take any more shit from –
Something slammed into the back of Audra's head and reality was sucked away like the retreating tide.
FORTY-SIX
Audra woke with the worst hangover in the history of hangovers. I'm never drinking again, she thought groggily. No more alcohol, ever. Especially the kind of drink that was so potent you couldn't even remember drinking it the following morning.
"Audra?" Pamela asked softly.
A tentative hand patted hers. "If I say I'm not, will this headache go bother someone else?" Audra grumbled.
Nervous laughter. "I doubt it. How are you feeling?"
"Like that bitch hit me with one of the mining trucks from the next island over." With effort, Audra pried her eyes open and blinked painfully in the light filtering through her flimsy blinds. "I should've hit her harder so she stayed down." Even as the words left her mouth, Audra regretted them. The feel of Penny's face crunching under her fist was enough to make her throw up. She'd never hit anyone so hard in her life and never wanted to again.
"I think Serge did it for you. He got arrested."
"What?" Audra sat up and her head exploded with a burst of light and unbearable pain. She slumped back onto the pillows. "He wasn't even there. The police should've taken me instead."
"You mean you broke her arm? No wonder she knocked you out, then."
Audra winced. She couldn't remember any broken bones. Unless you counted Penny's nose, but wasn't that cartilage, like sharks? "I punched her in the face."
Pamela grinned. "I've wanted someone to do that for a long time. I wish I'd seen it. But if you didn't break her arm, it must've been Serge. And they were fighting. I was in Reception with Hana and Heloise when we heard screaming. Dennis came running out of his office and Hana and I followed. When we got to the gym, Penny and Serge were grappling on the floor and she was shouting all sorts of things at him. Dennis and Annette took Penny to the first aid room and that's when I saw her arm was bent all wrong. She was still screaming, too. They called the Flying Doctors, I guess, because the rescue helicopter came to get her. Hana went to help, so that left just me and Serge. He had claw marks all over his face and his shirt was ripped like he'd been attacked by a dropbear or something."
Audra managed a faint smile. There weren't any dropbears in Western Australia.
"I didn't even see you until he pulled you out from between the weights benches. You'd been lying there unconscious on the carpet through all of it, I guess. He lifted you up like something from one of the covers of a romance novel, all those muscles bulging through the rips in his shirt, and carried you in here. He told me to stay with you until you woke up and then he left. When the helicopter came back, there were police in it and they took Serge away in handcuffs." Pamela scanned Audra's body. "They should've taken you to the hospital on the mainland, too. I'll go tell Dennis you're awake and to call them back."
"No. I'm not going to any hospital while Penny's in it. Tell him to get the security footage for the gym. That'll show what Penny did." And what Serge had done while she was unconscious, Audra thought uneasily. He shouldn't have gotten involved. He'd never get his personal training qualifications if he was in prison on an assault charge. Didn't he have to get police clearance to do his job? He'd lose everything.
"Are you sure?"
Audra lifted her hand to the spot on her head that throbbed the worst. She touched a tender lump that unleashed a fresh burst of agony. Her head hurt too much to talk, let alone think. "Yeah. I'm fine," she lied. "I probably need a bit of extra sleep, anyway. Go tell Dennis to check the tapes and he'll see that Penny started it."
"If you're sure." Pamela rose and opened the door. "I still have half the rooms to clean. Lucky we're not full. If I go now, I might get them all done by dinnertime."
Audra nodded encouragingly, but that made her head ring again, so she stopped. The moment the door closed behind Pamela, her smile vanished and she let out a groan of pain. She didn't want to move ever again.
FORTY-SEVEN
Urgent beeping startled Audra out of her doze. Thank heaven the pain in her head had lessened. Or was that because there was less light in the room? It looked like night-time outside, but that could mean anything. 7pm or 5am looked the same out here: pitch-dark and sparkling with stars. She glanced at her wristband. Oh, lovely: 1am.
Her stomach grumbled, reminding her that she'd missed not just lunch but dinner, too, and there'd be nothing until the staff dining room opened at six.
Would that bloody beeping stop already?
It took her a moment to realise the source was her ID. She touched the display and up flashed the last two words she wanted to see:
MAXIMA URGENT
It would beep until she scanned her wristband at Maxima's door or the summons got diverted to someone else. Audra rolled out of bed, wincing, but managed to make it to her feet. She was still fully dressed, so she slipped a pair of thongs onto her feet and shuffled to the main building, where the night porter, Dan, occupied the Reception desk.
"I'm not responsible for the Pearls any more," Audra told him, pointing at her ID. "You have to send someone else."
Dan glanced at her flashing display. "No can do. You're the most senior of the Housekeeping staff on the island. Annette left with an injured girl and put you in charge."
Annette hadn't known she was unconscious, Audra realised.
"You have to send someone else," Audra repeated, not willing to tell this man she barely knew about what had happened in the gym.
"You send someone else. You're the boss. But you better send someone quickly, because the guest in Maxima calls every hour to ask why a maid hasn't turned up yet. Been trying to get maid service since noon, he says, so now he's one angry bastard." As if on cue, the Reception phone shrilled. "That'd be him. I'll tell him you're sending someone right over, yeah?"
Audra nodded mutely, her brain struggling to find a solution. With Penny, Jackie and Annette on the mainland, that left her and Pamela. Pamela had already worked both hers and Penny's jobs today. It wouldn't be fair to send her to deal with an irate idiot. Audra would have to go.
She headed outside, breathing deeply to let the cool, night air settle her pounding head. At least, hoping it would. She'd explain the staffing situation to Jay and tell him that someone would see to his request in the morning. For all his rock star reputation, Jay was a reasonable man.
Every light was on in Maxima, illuminating the jungle around it and the path outside, too. The door stood open, as if Jay was waiting for her. Audra stepped over the threshold and almost tripped on a drift of linen that blended with the white floor tiles. It wasn't the only pile, either – a trail of white led from the front door to the bathroom, where the remainder had been piled into the spa. Broken glass littered the mess like pieces of brittle on top of a cake. Well, except for the corked top of a champagne bottle. The rest of the bottle was smashed into pieces and, judging by the smell, the contents had been poured over the linen. Audra inhaled deeply, smelling more than champagne. Yep, the multicoloured glass confirmed it – it looked like he'd smashed the whole contents of the fridge in here.
For a moment, she hoped he'd bled to death from cutting himself, but she banished that thought. She wanted him alive so she could kill him for making this mess, but first she had to find him. Hurrying out of the bathroom, she slipped on a damp patch and caught the doorjamb to stop herself from falling flat on her face. Glancing down, she recoiled at what looked like a pool of blood. No, it couldn't be.