Maid for the Rock Star (24 page)

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.

The pool tapered to a trail that led back into the living area, so Audra followed it. Along the floor she couldn't be sure if it was blood or not, but when the meandering line crept up the wall, she doubted it. Blood wasn't that thick or that red. This looked more like ketchup.

The trail climbed up to the ceiling, and Audra couldn't look away as she followed it to its inevitable end. Audra let rip with every swear word she knew until she ran out of breath, then sucked in more air to repeat them.

"Go on, read it," Jay slurred. He lifted a beer to his lips and flashed a lazy grin.

Audra squinted at the ketchup letters smeared across the ceiling.

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and...what's that word?" Audra pointed at spot where the ketchup splatter obscured whatever the drunken dickhead had tried to spell out on the ceiling.

Jay looked irritated. "Women. It's women. Shit, fine. I'll read it to you." He cleared his throat dramatically.

"All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts..."

He held out his arm, the one with words tattooed down it. "It explains everything."

Audra repeated his words, tracing first the ketchup letters on the ceiling that continued down the wall until the sauce had run out, judging by the empty bottle on the floor. Jay was a bloody artist, all right – he'd dragged the lounge room rug up to the wall for the final, brown lettered lines, probably because the white weave made them stand out better than the terracotta floor tiles. Beside the last word was the empty fondue pot. Chocolate. The arsehole had smothered the rug in chocolate just to spite her.

Breathe, she told herself. Her head was pounding with fury and not pain, now, her heartbeat hammering in her ears. After Penny, she was going to demolish this dickhead.

"Why in God's name did you trash the place?"

"To get your attention. I missed you. It worked, too." He blew her a kiss and drained his beer.

"You wrote Shakespeare on the ceiling with ketchup because you missed me? Haven't you heard of giving a girl chocolates? Oh wait – yes, you have. When you ran out of ketchup, you finished the quote in chocolate on the carpet. What kind of crazy man does that?" Audra felt tears building, but she blinked them away. He didn't deserve to see her cry.

"The kind you kept waiting all day and half the night to see you. If you'd come earlier, I'd have poured you champagne instead of smashing the bottle. As for the chocolate..." He winked.

She was going to kill him if he didn't get out of here now. She ripped off her ID. "Take this. It'll get you into the villa next door. You can't stay here. It's not fit for human habitation. Go. Take it and go!" She threw the wristband at Jay and he caught it. Maybe he wasn't as drunk as he looked, though that only made this worse. If he'd done this sober... "I'll get you fresh towels in a moment, once I'm done assessing the damage here."

Jay rose and sauntered out of the house.

Audra waited until she couldn't hear his footsteps any more, then counted to ten. On eight, she dropped to her knees on the narrow, unsoiled section of the rug and burst into tears. Had Penny put him up to this? One final blow to make her life hell?

"Nope. You're coming with me."

Before Audra could protest, Jay lifted her up, slung her over his shoulder in a fireman's lift and carried her out of the villa.