Chapter 68

Dinner was another fancy affair featuring creamy spinach stuffed salmon in garlic butter, Barilla lasagna, cole slaw, and fruit salad.

Yasmin was the first to compliment the chef on his exquisite culinary skills. “You have outdone yourself again, Javier,” she said grandly. “Well done.”

“Thank you, Yasmin,” he beamed.

“How did you manage to prepare all these meals alone?” Rachel wondered.

“I worked in a restaurant kitchen for seven years and one of the things I learned in that time is speed and quick thinking. I can whip up several dishes all at once in a matter of minutes. It’s all about time management,” he said confidently.

“I salute your stamina,” said Derek, raising his glass of wine to the chef.

“I’ve tasted better meals,” remarked Sam, dryly.

“Where? In your trailer park kitchen?” Javier fired back smoothly.

Sam’s face turned red with fury. “What did you say?”

“Simmer down, gentlemen,” said Yasmin. “Might I remind you that we have a toddler sitting with us here?”

“I apologize,” said Javier quickly. “I’ll return to the kitchen now but please, do not hesitate to call on me if you need anything else.”

Once he was back inside the kitchen, Derek zeroed his attention on Sam and said, “Let that be the last time you will antagonize my chef like that. You are a guest here and I expect you to conduct yourself with respect and restraint. I don’t even know you but I allowed you to partake in my honeymoon vacation because my mother wanted you to be with her. Do not overstep your boundary with me, Sam.”

He glared back at Derek in defiance before looking at Yasmin. “Aren’t you going to say something?” He demanded.

Yasmin took her time to slice a piece of salmon delicately and picked it with her fork before responding. “You heard what my son said, behave like a guest or be thrown out. Your choice.”

Sam’s humiliation was hard to watch, so everyone busied themselves with eating their food and ignoring him. He stood up abruptly and flung his napkin on the table.
“I don’t need this!” He said and stormed out of the dining room.

“You need to send him back to the U.S. tomorrow,” Derek told his mother. “I don’t need a sour puss funking up my honeymoon. I don’t even know the guy, to start with.”

“I am so sorry, darling,” Yasmin apologized. “It was selfish of me to force you to allow him to join us on this trip. I didn’t know he would turn out to be the jealous type.”

“Where did you meet him?” Rachel asked.

Yasmin sighed. “At Derek’s birthday party.”

“I knew it!” Rachel laughed. “I thought his face looked familiar.”

“Good Lord, Mom. Do you have any idea how dangerous it is for you to get involved with a complete stranger?” Derek asked. “What if he’s a murderer?”

“Well, he hasn’t murdered me yet, has he?” She laughed.

“This isn’t funny, Mom,” said Derek with a straight face. “What do you know about him?”

She shrugged and kept eating. “He’s a part-time waiter and part-time DJ. He dropped out of college because he wasn’t sure if he was going to school for himself or simply to please his parents.”

“Great, you got hooked up with a rebel,” said Derek.

“What’s so bad about that, honey? He’s not a bad guy, just a jealous one,” said Yasmin.

“Jealous guys turn out to be bad guys eventually,” he said.

“Not Sam. Trust me, he’s just a bull-headed young man but he’s not bad.”

She was proven wrong one hour later after they’d finished eating and she’d gone into the room she shared with Sam to look for him. He had packed his things and disappeared into thin air with her box of jewelry worth nearly a million dollars.

“Damn,” said Derek. “He was a criminal, after all.”

“I can’t believe it,” Yasmin fumed. “That ungrateful bastard!”

“Should we report this to the police?” Rachel asked.

“Yeah, we’ll do that first thing in the morning,” said Derek. “I’ll just change the security code on the door and we’re good.”

“I am so sorry for exposing you all to danger,” Yasmin apologized. “I should have known better than to drag a stranger along on a family holiday.”

“Actually, it’s a honeymoon, but yeah, you could still call it a family holiday,” said Derek with a smile. “It’s ok, Mom. I’ll replace your jewelry.”

She scoffed. “I’m not worried about that. I have more jewelry than I need. I’m just mad at myself for bringing a criminal into the fold.”

“Well, he’s gone now and we don’t have to worry about him showing up here again and causing trouble,” said Rachel. “He’s probably already left the island.”

“I hope so because if not, I’ll break his neck if I ever run into him anywhere around here,” Derek threatened.

Rachel cleared her throat theatrically. “We don’t talk like that around Zoe,” she said with a grin.

“Oops, sorry,” he replied with a sheepish grin.

“So, how should we relax together before going to bed tonight?” She asked.

“Swim?” Zoe asked expectantly.

“We already did that at the beach,” said Derek. “Besides, the weather is getting cooler outside, so let’s do that tomorrow, ok, sweetie?”

“Ok,” said Zoe.

They eventually agreed to go to the cinema room to watch a movie and settled for a child-friendly comedy that had them laughing from the very first scene. It was a relaxing way to end a great day if they didn’t count all the times that Sam tried to stink up the place with his bad energy.

When they went to bed that night, Rachel fell asleep with a wide smile on her face. She was in her happy place and life was good! What more could she ask for?

**********

A loud crash woke Rachel up and her eyes flew open with alarm. She could tell instantly that something was wrong.

“What was that?” Derek asked groggily.

“You heard it too? It sounded like something breaking,” she said and began to get out of bed.

“No, you stay here and I’ll go and check it out,” said Derek, getting out of bed.

“You go to the kitchen and I’ll go and check on Zoe and Elaine.”

They quickly put on their dressing robes and ran out of the room to investigate the strange noise and make sure that the other occupants of the house were ok.
Rachel was relieved when she was that both Elaine and Zoe were still asleep in their room and they hadn’t been disturbed by the crash that woke her up. She quietly closed their bedroom door and moved to Yasmin’s door, but as she raised her hand to knock on it, Derek showed up with a barely conscious Javier leaning on him. The chef’s head was bloody and he looked dazed.

“Oh, my God! What happened to him?” Rachel asked, hurrying over to the hall to join the men.

Derek helped Javier to sit on one of the white couches and the chef groaned in pain.

“What happened?” Rachel asked again.

“I don’t know,” said Derek. “Javier, can you hear me? What happened to you?”

The chef groaned and reached up to touch his bloody temple. “Sam,” he rasped weakly.

“Sam? Where is he?” Derek asked. He and Rachel were alarmed to know that their runaway guest might still be in the vicinity. “Where did you see him?”

“Outside,” said Javier with a wince. “I went outside to smoke and he showed up out of nowhere and said he was going to take me out. Next thing I know, he whacked me on the head with something hard.”

“We need to take him to the hospital,” said Rachel. “His injury looks serious.”

“What’s going on here?” Yasmin asked, coming into the den, wearing a purple silk robe and oversize pink slippers. When she saw Javier’s injury, she gasped in shock.
“What happened to him?”

“He was attacked by Sam,” said Derek. “We need to get him to the hospital before he passes out again.”

“Sam?” Said Yasmin in surprise. “Has he returned?”

“I don’t think so,” said Rachel. “I’ll call the resort manager and tell him to call an ambulance immediately.”

“Hold on, buddy. I’ll get a clean towel and some water to clean your wound,” Derek told Javier who was barely hanging on to consciousness by now.

“But why would Sam attack you like this?” Yasmin asked Javier while gently brushing off a lock of dark hair away from his forehead. “Did you two get into a fight?”

“No,” said Javier weakly. “He looked… mad. Very mad.”