Granted, as a male, he was told to tamp down his feelings, unless they were rage and anger. Not so much about tears and empathy. The military had furthered that mind-set too. Yet he knew, for all he had been through, the training and the tough personal years, he had retained his humanity. He was proud of that.
Still, he wasn’t sure quite what to say or how to react to Katie and her honesty, but everything that they’d gone over so far matched what he already knew. She was a very independent and capable woman, and he liked an awful lot about her and enjoyed her company very much.
The fact that she was stunning and his type was something else in her favor. He noted a little flare of residual guilt about his wife, but, after all these years, the deaths of his wife and daughter had become a memory in the background that he refused to pull out anymore. He preferred to remember their lives and how special it had all been for the time they had shared. Was he ready to move forward? With Katie, most definitely.
Smiling, he added, “Well, I’d say, I’ll bring the wine, but, in this case, I think you probably have something better.”
“I definitely do. I can’t believe you were even planning on staying here on the island, even in Leia’s cabin.”
He shrugged. “I’ve got my backpack. That’s all I really need, and, hey, if it was good enough for Bullard …”
“Well, you’re a better man than I am,” she stated. “There’s not much in the way of running water and plumbing here, and the yacht offers that and much more.”
“It does, indeed, and I’ll gratefully accept your offer.”
“In that case”—she smiled broadly—“why don’t we head back there now?”
“Sounds good.” And he led the way back to Leia’s place, crossing over the same natural bridge again.
Katie glanced behind her. “Don’t look now, but we’re being watched.”
“I felt it too. The trick is whether we’ll have company who faces us or if it’s just somebody being curious.”
“It doesn’t feel curious to me.” She shook her head. “There is an ugliness to it.”
Dave moved forward, careful of what he thought of as his bum leg, which really meant the prosthetic, wondering if she actually knew about it, yet thinking that she must, after all the many years they had spent working together. “Go ahead in front of me,” he said, “just in case.”
She looked at him in surprise, and he just shook his head and tucked her up in front, so that his body blocked hers. Once on the other side, she moved quickly toward Leia’s hut and the accompanying beach. “We can’t let anything mess up this special day for Bullard and Leia and however many others who are participating.” She turned to ask him, “When are the guys coming?”
“In two days,” he replied.
“Could they come sooner?” she asked nervously. “At least a couple of them? It seems like maybe we should get some things squared away before the whole group gets here. Certainly before Leia arrives.”
“Yeah, I’ll take care of doing just that. Pulling out his phone, Dave quickly sent off some text messages.
Fallon replied first, with a phone call. “Hey, Dave. Sounds like we need to check out things there and make sure nothing’s going on.”
“Well, definitely something is going on. I just don’t know if it’s ugly or not.”
“Can you do a full search today?”
“Yeah. I’ll send Katie back to the yacht. We were just assessing what we needed to do for the wedding, and we’ve had company watching us. I didn’t see them, but I’m sure of it.”
“Right,” Fallon noted. “I’ll see what I can do about moving up the timetable, for at least some of us anyway. I’ll get back to you when I figure it out. Stay safe until then.”
Glad to have reinforcements on the way, Dave slipped his phone in his pocket. “Come on, Katie. Let’s get you back to the yacht, and then I’ll return to the island to do a full reconnaissance.”
She frowned at him.
“It’ll be fine.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “This is what we do.”
Just then a shot rang out. They both reacted quickly, dashing a short distance, and diving to the ground at the water’s edge. He managed to get her up into the transport boat, then down on the floorboards. Crouching outside of the boat, he pushed off and jumped inside. Firing up the motor, they were out of handgun range within seconds.
Chapter 3
Katie stared at Dave, as they both remained low in the boat, waiting as it quickly pulled away from the shore. “Oh my God,” she breathed. “They fired at us, didn’t they?”
“Yeah, but that was no warning shot.” His face was grim, as he pulled out his phone and sent Fallon a message.
As they continued to putt along, she asked, “Shouldn’t we be at the yacht by now?”
“We’re not going there,” he explained. “I want to check out the coastline.”
She stared at him in shock. “But, in the yacht, we can get away.”
“We’re out of danger and getting away just fine right now,” he stated. “What I don’t want to do is lead them to the yacht, so they know for sure that that’s where we are. Obviously they’ll know we could be there, but, if they don’t see us heading that way, they may not attack it.”
“Attack?” she repeated faintly.
“Yeah.” He shook his head. “But I can’t guarantee either way.”
“I don’t like talking about attacks.” Her phone rang just then, with a text message. She pulled it out. “It’s the captain on the yacht, asking what we’re doing.”
“Tell him what happened. He knows the drill.”
She quickly sent a message, as best as she could, asking if he saw a shooter. He did not and included a warning to stay safe, saying he’d have the engines running, just in case. “He’s warming up the engines, getting ready for a getaway—or to come pick us up, if requested.”
“Good enough.” Dave peered over the edge of the boat as he directed it around to the far side of the island. “I don’t see anybody along here.”
She frowned. “The village is on the other side though, right?”
“It is. This is the deeper area by the cliffs. On the other side they have a beach, so it’s easier to bring boats in and out.”
“Right. So, Leia’s got a little bit of beach there, but mostly it’s deeper water. I hadn’t considered that.”
“The rocks just drop way down,” he noted. “Better for big boats, worse for smaller boats.”
She smiled at that. “So, better for us if we wanted to bring the yacht closer.”
“I was just wondering about that. Part of what I could do is check to see if we could anchor the yacht somewhere close by. Obviously it wouldn’t be close enough to run a gangplank or anything,” he said, “but, if we’ll be building a dock anyway, it could help.”
“Well, you won’t go out very far with a dock.”
“Yes, but, if it’s really deep here, we could do a floating dock at the end,” he suggested. “It’s just part and parcel of the logistics we have to take into account because, if we’ll be coming here on a regular basis, it will need the same security and accessibility as every other place we go.”