And something was quite magical about this place.
Once in a while, she carried coffee and cold punch, made from a variety of juices, around to all, going from couple to couple. Katie found that the women were all busily working with the men. Some were helping to erect the prefab walls, building cabins before their eyes. Some were cleaning out ground cover to allow for a new cabin. Some stood off to the side, out of the way, taking photos and videos to remember this time.
Katie stood by, smiling, looking around at all the people here to celebrate Bullard and Leia’s wedding.
When she brought out a big bowl of punch, everybody oohed and aahed, and the women came racing to help. Katie laughed and waved them away. “I’m just working away, doing my thing.”
“That’s the thing,” Izzie said. “You’re working, and the men are working and, while we’re helping where we can, we are almost on a holiday. It feels strange that way.”
“You can help me if you want, but I know the men need to get cabins and whatever built and get it up fast—before tonight, I guess.” As Katie turned to look, she shook her head because already two cabins were up. “Wow.”
“I know,” Izzie said. “It’s like they’re pros at this.”
“Are they really trying to get eight cabins up by tonight?” Linny asked.
Katie nodded. “We all need a place to crash, starting tonight.”
And then Linny quickly rolled off the names of the team. “Not Bullard. I suppose he and Leia will at least take over the yacht for their wedding night. But we have”—and she raised a finger for each name mentioned—“Ry, Cain, Eton, Garret, Kano, Fallon, Quinn, and Dave. Yeah, eight of the remaining team members.”
“I think they’re also hoping to get some kind of cover up for the ceremony itself, in case the weather changes.” Katie pointed out to the ocean. It was still blue skies and white clouds, but the storms here came up quickly.
Izzie nodded. “I guess if that changes, it could be quite different here.”
“Maybe. As long as it’s still warm, it won’t matter.” And, with that, Katie headed back to the yacht, as she worked away on her supply list. It would be something she had to stay on top of. Already she didn’t have enough cutlery for the wedding. And that lack would irritate her. She didn’t want plastic out here at all, but she was multitasking with her kitchen tools as it was. She had hot soapy water in the sink all the time.
Still, she kept herself busy, as she prepped a menu list for the next three days. Then she looked at her current inventory of food and what more she needed. She added 50 percent more in alcohol, another 50 percent in extra hors d’oeuvres. If the team pulled off their joint weddings plan—which seemed nebulous at best and no one was updating her on this—Katie had to accommodate that big surprise too. She wasn’t sure that would happen, but, given the moonlight, the magic, and the romance in the air, she wouldn’t be at all surprised.
At the same time, she wondered if she should be worrying about the opposite effect, what with the danger they’d all been through. But then she had no reason to think that anything untoward would happen anyway, not with the whole team here. So far, everybody had been delighted to be on the island, even though they were hard at work putting things together. And, as long as Bullard and Leia were fine, then it was hard to imagine anything else could go wrong.
Just as she thought that, the captain came down below to the galley, carrying a handgun. She looked at it, up at him, and raised an eyebrow. “Trouble?”
He nodded grimly. “Leia and Bullard are missing.”
She sucked back her breath. “Jesus. Do the others know?”
“They’ve been called to help Ryland and Dave in the village. I’m headed over to the island to keep an eye on the women.” He hesitated. “I don’t really want to leave you here alone.”
“I’m fine. Just leave me my handgun,” she said, waving her hand around the kitchen. “I’ll be right here, so that won’t be an issue.”
He frowned, thought about it, and then agreed. “Okay. I’ll keep the rest of them in one spot down there.”
“You do that, but don’t forget to let me know when it’s over, so I can stop worrying and relax.”
He smiled. “I’ll come and update you. But first I’ll get you a gun and bring it to you.”
“Good enough.” She immediately started baking because, whenever she was upset or happy, baking was one of the things she turned to. If nothing else, she could at least hope for a quick end to this. Otherwise she’d have everybody on the island gaining weight from her pastries and other goodies. That wouldn’t be a bad thing. It had been a very difficult few months for this group, and nearly all the men had been injured, one way or another. A few extra pounds would probably be a good thing, a healing thing.
Sam popped in just long enough to lay her gun on the opposite counter. She nodded her thanks. Katie sighed, then got back to work.
She had favorite requests marked down for each and every one of the guys because she had cooked for all of them at various times, but she didn’t know a whole lot about the women’s preferences. Katie frowned, wondering if that would be an issue, and then decided to just go ahead and do what she always did, offering an assortment.
She immediately made some afternoon tea scones, as if later today there would be a bloody party after rescuing Bullard and Leia. Katie shook her head, knowing it was foolish, but it kept her mind occupied and her hands busy. And that was just as important to her.
The last thing she wanted to do was worry about someone coming after anybody on this island. She thought for sure the danger would have passed, but they had witnessed enough trouble by now that she knew it was too much to hope for. A lot of the team remained around here now, hopefully enough that she didn’t have to worry about anybody attacking them. At least that was the hope. Not a whole lot else she could do but keep busy, so that’s what she did.
Tea scones done. And then she started in on pies. She could always freeze them and pull them out in a couple days. She didn’t have a very big freezer here, but she did have one. She made fresh strawberry pie because some of the strawberries weren’t looking as good as they should. Then she made a spinach and cheese quiche pie, all the while trying to push out the negative thoughts and keep her mind occupied on happier things.
When her phone rang, it was Dave. She quickly answered it. “Oh my God, are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” he said hoarsely. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She eased back against the counter, a hand to her chest. “I thought for sure all this was over with.”
“It is now. Bullard and Leia have been found. They’re fine. The guy who I shot was holding them, trying to get Leia to fix his wrist. Ryland and I had tracked them to where they were being held and were waiting for backup, when Kano broke it all up. Remember? He’d gone to check on them, and then we didn’t hear any more? That’s because he’d caught on and could get right in there with them and hide, until he got a chance to make a move.”
“Of course, and was Leia able to fix his hand?”
“She got the bleeding stopped, but he needs surgery to fix all the bone damage. She also gave him a hard talking to. The medicine woman is dead. She didn’t survive his second attack, after another argument with him. So now the rest of the tribe is very angry with Pietro, and they’re kicking him out. He’s banished and has to leave the island today.”