Was this man after Bullard? But, if that were the case, why had he taken her? So many questions and she didn’t have any answers. She took a slow deep breath, trying to calm her heart. Bullard had no idea where she was. Neither did Dave, and he was new to the island, so he wouldn’t understand how things work. She closed her eyes and swore when she realized—of anyone she’d ever known—Bullard of all people knew exactly what to do in a case like this.
So maybe she was lucky after all. She couldn’t imagine it would take Bullard long to get back up to speed, since he clearly lived for this kind of action. She’d seen it in his movements, in his need to get fit again, and in the pain in his eyes as he recovered his memories.
An awful lot of dark memories were in his world, ones that he didn’t particularly want to share, but she’d heard so much of it in his nightmares when he had cried out night after night, as she’d sat there, soothing his troubled soul, hearing the pain in his heart. So much about Bullard that she didn’t know, but an awful lot she did, and she knew he meant it when he’d said he wanted her to come back with him. But she’d also been worried about this woman named Ice.
Finding out Ice was married had filled Leia with joy, but not if Bullard’s heart was still committed to her. Leia wanted him free and clear for herself, which was selfish, but then everybody inherently was. As much as they didn’t want to believe it or to even think about it, everything they did was ultimately a reaction to whatever they wanted for themselves. And she couldn’t really do anything about that. A little voice in the back of her head said, Yes, you can. You can survive.
Because one thing that she knew with absolute clarity was that Bullard wouldn’t let her die if he could do something about it. She had to stay alive however she could and wait for him. Because he would come; that was a given. She closed her eyes, her body shivering badly against the cold, as it bounced against another heavy wave. The boat had a decent-size motor, but it wasn’t very big for crossing the ocean like this.
She had certainly seen people travel to the mainland in something similar, but they had a lot of skill. She wasn’t so sure about this guy. He was running, as if he knew that his life was on fire, and, rightly so, since she knew that, as soon as he was caught, his life would be over.
By kidnapping her, he had forfeited any chance at a future for himself, but she found it very hard to stir up any sympathy for him. The asshole had crossed the wrong person when he had taken someone important to Bullard. Whether it was out of gratitude or love she didn’t know, but one thing she knew without a doubt was that Bullard didn’t share well or easily. And he would be really pissed when he found her gone. She could only hope that he’d already found out and that this nightmare would be over soon.
*
Only twenty minutes later, Bullard swore, but, according to Dave, they were forty minutes behind. But they were in the boat and racing as hard and as fast as they could, every bounce jarring his spine and his body. He would feel like hamburger at the end of this day but didn’t give a shit. All he wanted to do was pound somebody else into hamburger for frightening poor Leia.
She may have wanted to spend the rest of her life in the peace and harmony of her island, but the real world had intruded, and, whether she liked it or not, it was here now. Whether it was because of him or her own history, he didn’t yet know. “Why would they have taken her?”
“My guess is to use as leverage against you.”
“Then why not just kill me then,” he murmured.
“Because I was there,” Dave said. “Maybe he thought the odds weren’t good enough. Maybe he thought the rest of the team was there or at least arriving soon.”
Bullard frowned at that and then shrugged. “That would make sense maybe. But, if he was that stealthy, he could have just come in, killed me, and left.”
“Except I was already here,” he reminded him.
“Right.” He stared at his old friend. “We need to find her. She must be terrified.”
“We will. This guy may have gotten the drop on us and got out of the gate first,” he said, “but remember. We’re not alone. We do have people to help us.”
Bullard nodded slowly. “And I get that, but it’s not enough.”
Dave laughed at that. “It’s never enough,” he said. “That’s just a fact of life.”
Whoever it was who Dave had hired to get him over here was still piloting the boat, driving it as far forward as he possibly could. Bullard appreciated the speed and the intensity in his gaze as he fought the wind and the ocean. But he didn’t trust him. Not one bit. At the moment, he didn’t trust anybody. It was a sad return to the real world. Leia had been hiding herself away from the world, but so had he in a way. But now Bullard was back with a vengeance.
Dave stepped up beside him. “Are you okay?”
“I will be,” he said, “as soon as I know that she’s safe.”
“She will be,” he said, with a confidence that Bullard couldn’t just blindly accept.
“Says you, but we don’t even know what’s going on,” he said. “But I want a full rundown on everything we know about that asshole Leo.”
“I doubt it would be him,” Dave said. “He wouldn’t have known that she was here. Unless you started to make inquiries, but he couldn’t have gotten here that fast.”
“No, but a couple days ago we had a cell phone brought over, and that’s when I called you,” he said. “The islanders have known I was here but only started showing interest more recently, after I was up and around.”
“It’s possible that word got out to the big world now that you are finally well enough to be recognizable.”
“She kept me pretty isolated for a long time,” he said. “And I owe her for that too. Because she gave me that time frame, that window, to get better.”
“We’ll find her,” Dave said, and the surety in his voice was something hard to argue with.
And knowing that his buddy was rarely wrong, Bullard allowed some of Dave’s calmness and strength to settle into his soul. Bullard reached up and stretched his neck and his back. “I can’t believe how long I’ve been out,” he muttered. “I feel like I’m way behind and desperate to get up to speed.”
“We can’t believe you’re actually here,” he said, with a smile. “It seems like we’ve been looking for you forever.”
“Well, here I am,” he said, “and apparently I brought trouble where it shouldn’t have been.”
“Come on. You can’t blame yourself for this, even if it does go clear back to the airplane crash,” he said. “Remember. We still have to find out who is ultimately behind all this.”
“I can’t imagine there are all that many options,” he said. “Have I been such an asshole?”
“No, but you’ve put away a lot of people,” he said. “And we have to remember that.”
“Maybe,” he said. “It still seems like I didn’t do anything to deserve all this.”
“Hell yes, you did,” Dave said, with a hard laugh. “Think of all the governments happy for your assistance, and of all the people who have been very unhappy to feel the reach of you and your team.”