“Hasn’t he left already?”
“Not yet,” Dave said. “Well, at least they hope he has, but he slipped away from them.”
“That’s not good. He’s one of those guys you never can trust.”
“That’s one of the reasons I’m calling,” he said. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” she asked cautiously.
“No reason.”
His rush to reassure her was not working. “Okay, that’s not making me feel any better,” she muttered.
“I’m on the way back. Does that make you feel better?”
“If you were here on the yacht already with me, it would, yes. But I’m used to being alone, so it’s fine.”
“Ten minutes,” he said.
“Good enough.” And Katie paused, frowned. “Of course I run all my plans through Bullard, but does Leia know about all this wedding planning he and I’ve done here?”
“Yes,” he confirmed.
“Glad to hear that.”
“Have we got enough supplies?”
“I think so.” Katie laughed. “I just wanted to make sure that Leia herself is part of all this.”
“She just wanted a simple island wedding,” he replied. “Oh, and all the villagers have been invited.”
“Ohhh,” she said, with a slow exhale of breath.
“Is that a problem?” he asked curiously.
“Only in terms of food.” She sighed. “Okay, so that’s what I’ll do next—try to figure out what else I might need.”
“I think they’ll be bringing some island fare too.”
“That’s good. That’ll help,” she replied, “because we still don’t have ourselves set up here. Any chance we can push the wedding back a few days?” she asked hopefully.
“I don’t think Bullard would be up for that. He wants to make sure they’re married as soon as possible.”
She laughed at that. “You mean, now that he’s waited this long …”
“Exactly.”
She smiled. “Okay, you’d better get your ass back here in ten minutes.”
“Will do.”
She hung up, and, as she turned around, she cried out. “Oh my God! What are you doing here?” Right there in front of her was a man with a heavily bandaged wrist. And a gun.
“You’ll take this boat back to the mainland,” he ordered, “and we’ll sell it, so I have some way to make a living from here on out.”
“Do you really think, with all the men on shore, that you’ll get away like this?”
“If you drive us away from here, they’ll just think you’re going for supplies.”
He really didn’t understand how things worked because she’d never actually piloted this yacht, beyond messing around out in the open ocean in calm seas. She’d certainly done plenty of that, but she had never pulled into a port and docked it or anything. Besides, it was still tied onto the floating dock out there.
“You don’t understand,” she replied gently. “This can’t happen. If you want to get away—like you’re supposed to get away—you need to just leave.”
“How am I supposed to do that? Nobody would give us a lift.”
“I think you’ve used up all the goodwill anybody here has for you after killing the medicine woman, who I understand is a blood relative to you.”
“Stop talking and drive this boat,” he yelled.
Katie huffed. “I can’t even start the engine. The captain has the keys.”
He glared at her in frustration and looked around, as if trying to find an answer. “You must have money.”
“Money?” she repeated “Why the hell would I have money out here?”
“I have to leave.” He waved the gun around, with a panicked look.
“I get that, but what is it you expect from me?”
Just then a man’s voice came from behind Pietro. “It doesn’t matter what he expects because he’s not getting it.” She looked up to see Dave glaring at Pietro. The guy turned the handgun, lifting it to point it at Dave. But Dave grabbed his injured wrist and squeezed, then turned his right fist into a battering ram and hit the guy as hard as he could on the jaw.
He went down in a heap.
She frowned in disgust and glared at Pietro. “I don’t know if anybody is planning a trip to the mainland, but he needs an escort. That’s what he was trying to do, just get out of here and get to the mainland, before the rest of the island found out he hadn’t left yet. We should help him do that. Hand him off to the police there.”
“In that case, we’ll arrange for somebody to take him.” And, with that, Dave yanked Pietro up, tossed him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, and headed to the main part of the dock.
*
As Dave unceremoniously dumped the unconscious man’s body at the bottom of the ramp, Bullard came over and stared at Pietro, then looked at Dave. “Is Katie okay?” His voice was harsh.
“She’s fine. I might not be, but she is.”
“No, I understand that completely,” Bullard snapped.
“So, Pietro needs a lift to the mainland. And now.”
“Get somebody from the island to take him,” Leia suggested. “They should look after their own.”
“Can we trust them to get rid of him?”
“He’s been banished. They should have taken him before, but he disappeared.”
“Looks like he came here, hoping to steal the yacht,” Bullard added. “Somebody needs to contact the villagers.”
It took less than an hour, but they had somebody from the village come around via boat on the same side of the waterway that Dave had traveled many times. Soon Pietro was loaded into the boat, now conscious and tied up, but sullen as all hell. In no time the boat was underway, hopefully headed for the authorities on the mainland.
“Do you think that’s the last we’ve seen of him?” Katie asked.
“The islanders won’t take him back,” Leia said quietly. “That’s his punishment for the death of the old medicine woman.”
“Not to mention all the other crimes he’s been involved in,” Bullard added. “He had way more than that coming.”
“I know.” She patted his arm, then hugged him tight.
Even as Dave watched, Leia linked fingers with Bullard. “And now we let it go. We came here for a holiday.”
“And to get married,” he said, squeezing her fingers.
She smiled, reached out, and kissed his cheek. “Tomorrow.”
“We can do it today,” he suggested.
She laughed. “The wedding will be tomorrow. You’ll be fine.”
“Says you.”
Dave had to chuckle. “You’re really in a rush, huh?”
“I feel like a new man,” Bullard admitted, “completely different.”
“Good, so tomorrow’s the big ceremony.”
At that, Leia turned and shook her head. “No. Not a big ceremony. It will be short and simple.”
“Okay,” he said. “If you say so.”