“How are things back at the ranch?” I asked, doing my best to shove images of her out of my head and shifting so I could watch the older man continue with his gardening. God only knew why Jonah focused on this small patch of earth so far from the mansion. More than likely so he could get away from the Queen Bitch and all of the guests for a few.
Jonah stabbed the earth with his small shovel and overturned the dark soil. “It would be smart for you to go to the mansion more often.”
“Why is that?”
“Seems a man should look out for what is his,” he said.
I watched his gnarled hands pull weeds from around one of the flowers. His leathery skin was filled with deep wrinkles and his white hair raised off his shoulders when a breeze whipped in from the ocean. If it weren’t for Jonah, I probably would have gone insane on this island knowing Rose was the only other human here. I wondered sometimes if he didn’t go nuts from loneliness. Granted, he wasn’t probably too often alone, and overseeing the companions who worked in the mansion probably kept him busy, but a man does well with a partner in life. More than once he’d declined my offer to create a woman just for him. Although every time I offered, I was sincere, I somehow respected him more for saying no. Companions weren’t the same as knowing the touch of a real woman. And a man needed that.
Like I was one to talk.
“I might head up that way.” Maybe I’d run into Natalie. Although she’d be with Nicolas and Tomas, and probably head over heels infatuated with both of them by now. They were both modeled after me.
I blew out a breath and raked my fingers through my hair, realizing that I hadn’t brushed it yet today. I didn’t make a habit out of talking to the guests. Rose hated it when I did, and sometimes a man needed to pick and choose his battles. Staying out of her realm of the island made it easier to argue that she should stay out of mine.
Jonah looked up at me quickly and held my gaze for a long moment. I felt like I couldn’t look away until he did. Maybe he was dubbed the servant and me the master but there was something about Jonah, something that held my respect and, yes, even envy.
“Do that,” he said slowly, and then returned to his garden.
I was about to ask him what he meant. Jonah never came out and explained himself. You had to ask the right questions, and then still interpret the answers. There were days when I just wanted to shake him until he shared what he knew without making me pry it out of him. I actually gave it some thought when my cell phone rang.
“Malachi, it’s Darcy,” Rose said quickly, sounding winded. “She’s damaged. One of the guests got too rough with her.”
“Goddamn it!” I jumped to my feet.
Jonah stood faster than I’d seen him move in a while. “What’s wrong?” he demanded.
“Darcy,” I explained, and apparently, unlike me, my simple answers made perfect sense to him.
“My cart is over here,” he instructed, gesturing for me to follow as he hurried down the path. He whistled once and Pluto, his golden retriever, a gift I’d given him one Christmas after he’d refused a companion, leapt up from the stretch of sun he’d been basking in and hurried after Jonah.
He slipped behind the driver’s wheel of the golf cart, our chosen means of transportation on the island, and Pluto leapt on the narrow backseat/cargo area. The golf carts were aesthetically pleasing to the guests. Cars stole from the captive aura the island offered. And golf carts were easier to have flown out here than cars were.
I climbed in on the passenger side, encouraging him to go faster as we hurried to the mansion. Jonah pulled around back and we both ignored happy guests who laughed and carried on in the gardens surrounding the place.
Rose was already at the back door. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time this had happened, although lately my companions didn’t just break down. If something went wrong it was due to abuse by a guest.
“Thank God we aren’t compromised,” Rose said, offering me a relieved smile as she gestured for Sharay, her personal companion, who easily lifted the long box and carried it toward the trailer we used to hitch to the golf carts and haul supplies when necessary. “Of course, if you’d been at your station where you belong instead of God knows where, Sharay and I wouldn’t have had to resort to plan B.”
“Which is why plan B exists,” I growled, wanting to smack her for her indifference to shutting down Darcy. Sharay slid the box, which was shaped a bit too much like a coffin for my tastes, onto the trailer. I snapped it open and stared down at Darcy’s blank expression. She appeared to be sleeping, which for all arguments’ sake, she might as well be.
Every companion had a shut down switch that could be activated by a remote to make them go into sleep mode. Wherever they were, whatever they were doing, if the switch was triggered, manually or by the remote, they would slump over, appearing to the unknowing guest that they’d passed out or fallen asleep.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” I whispered to Darcy, reaching into the box and stroking her cheek. “We’ll have you back to new in no time.”
“I guess I’ll send Maggie over to Mr. Holloway,” Rose said, sighing. “He and his wife just want a plaything anyway.”
I looked over at her, ready to pounce. In fact, it took so much control not to attack that for a moment I couldn’t say a word. She had the nerve to straighten and look at me defiantly. Jonah shifted, burying his fists deep into his pants pockets while scowling at the ground. Jonah understood that my companions weren’t created to be abused, but Rose didn’t. Rose thought the world was at her disposal, existing solely for her to prance through and do as she pleased.
“You talk to the Holloways, or I will,” I snapped. “The companions aren’t going to be abused, or your guests can just go home.”
“I’m not going to discuss this with you. You obviously have no business sense and you never have. Please Mr. Holloway and he’ll either come back or tell his friends to visit us, or both,” she said, turning toward the door and gesturing for Sharay to follow her. “I expect Maggie to be here within the hour.”
She headed inside and closed the service door with a bang.
“Want help taking Darcy home?” Jonah looked up at me with those watery gray eyes.
“That’s okay, old man.” I looked down at Darcy and then gently closed the lid on the box. “Help me attach the trailer to the cart and I’ll drive her home. I’ll head up that way now.”
“What about Maggie?” Jonah needed to know and I understood. As soon as I left, Rose would be questioning him.
“I’ll see if she’s available.” It wasn’t a good answer and I knew it. But damn it, my companions weren’t for people to abuse.
Jonah didn’t say anything but moved to the other side of the trailer and the two of us rolled it over to the golf cart. Jonah connected it to the hitch. One of the few things Rose and I agreed on, the golf carts were better for the large paths we’d had built on the island shortly after I moved here. They didn’t tear up the cobblestone paths. There really wasn’t anywhere for guests to go that they couldn’t walk, and having gasoline delivered to the island was getting damned expensive.
“Pluto,” Jonah said, and the dog wagged his tail as he ran to the old man. “I guess you’ll have to postpone that visit,” he said, reminding me I’d planned on scoping out the mansion for a bit, and possibly seeing Miss Green in person, even if I hadn’t decided on whether I’d say anything to her, or not. “Our new arrivals will be here for a couple of weeks. You’ll have time,” he added, turning before I could ask him why he would say what he just did.
Climbing behind the wheel of the cart, I