“It’s hard for me to imagine, but you guys all function as such a big machine.”
“We do, indeed. And that’s a good thing.”
“If you say so. Do you think it’s safe to sit up now?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t,” he said cheerfully. “We don’t know what other kind of firepower they may have.”
She groaned. “So, once you’ve checked out this section, then what?”
“I’m coming up around the side where I expect to see the island open up more to the beach area.” He shifted, and she watched as he rose up ever-so-slightly and adjusted his position. He sat on the bottom of the boat, reaching up to steer, but he could see over the rail.
Following his example, she shifted too. “It’s so beautiful. How can there be such danger here?”
“I think it must still be connected to Leia somehow.”
“So, do you think that whoever it was who exposed her location to her kidnapper is the one causing the trouble?”
“I’m sure he thinks that us being here is a problem,” he stated. “Imagine if you’d done something like that. Wouldn’t you be looking over your shoulder to see if the people you sold the information to were coming back to clean up their loose ends or if the person you betrayed was coming back, seeking revenge?”
“Or, as in this case, we’re coming back because we love the area but now are fully aware that somebody sold information about us.”
“Which means, in many ways, that we should suspect everybody,” Dave murmured. “When you’re talking about an environment like this, secluded as it is, in an area where money is hard to come by, you have to expect that people could be talked into doing an awful lot for some cash.”
“It still sucks,” she muttered.
“More than you will hopefully ever realize.” But then he smiled. “Don’t worry. It’ll all be good.”
“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “You’ll have to fix all this in the next two days, before I’ll be doing any wedding catering.”
“We will,” he replied cheerfully. “Not to worry.”
She groaned. “Says you.”
“Is Sam the captain on the yacht?”
“Yes, it’s Sam. How—”
“Text him to contact Bullard and to let him know what’s up.”
“Okay.” Soon her phone kept buzzing back and forth, as she messaged Sam. Then Dave’s phone buzzed. “Oh, so they’ve switched to talking to you now.”
“Yeah.” He groaned. “It’s definitely part of the deal, but a little inconvenient to text while steering a boat from the floorboards.”
“If it keeps me out of the middle of it, I’m happy. I don’t really need to be involved in this part.”
He looked at her. “Why not? You make a killer quiche.”
She stared at him and started to laugh. “Oh my God. If that was supposed to be funny, that’s really sick humor.”
“Hey, anything to lighten the atmosphere.”
“We could have been killed,” she whispered.
“We could have, yes,” he stated matter-of-factly. “Believe me. That’s pissing me off more than you can imagine.”
“Yeah, I guess you didn’t travel all this way in order to get shot to death.”
“It’s not about me. It’s you. I feel terrible and never intended for a moment to put you in danger. I just didn’t expect any real threat remained here.”
Her heart warmed at the thought. “It’s very nice that you worry about me,” she said. “And I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting any danger. I’ve been looking at this as a paid vacation. Plenty of work to do, of course, but a fabulous setting. I just assumed, when the threats against Bullard and Leia got resolved, all the trouble was over with, and it would all be good.”
“After we got Leia back from the kidnappers, we had a team come here and collect her personal belongings, her ID, clothes, things they thought she may need or want,” he told Katie. “But I don’t really know what the end result of that was. I didn’t ask if they had any harsh words with any locals or if anybody tried to stop them while they were here.”
“Surely they wouldn’t be so foolish as to do that, would they?”
“You’d hope not,” he replied, “but people will be people.”
“Isn’t that the truth.”
*
Dave really hadn’t expected any danger here and was pissed at himself that he hadn’t done a more thorough security check of the island when he had first arrived. But then again, he had done a cursory check and hadn’t found anybody on Leia’s land or any signs that he could see of vandalism. But he’d then gone to the village and been seen there, so the word would have gotten out that he was around. Was his presence causing a problem for someone? He frowned at that, wondering whether the old woman was behind it or if she was in danger herself.
Something like that would make Leia very unhappy. She had grown quite close to certain people on the island. She’d helped deliver several babies, had set a few broken bones, and had looked after several children with fevers. In all cases receiving food as payment, and she did regular doctor visits for other food supplies. At the same time, Dave had to consider that some people resented her. He hated for that to be the case, but not everybody held outsiders in high esteem. But none of this gave him any reassurance that something wasn’t going on locally. That gunshot had been all too real. He pulled up along one of the village piers and tied up.
Reaching out a hand, he said, “Come on. We’ll go talk to the medicine woman.”
She looked at him in surprise. “Why?”
“To see if she knows what’s going on.”
“What if she’s the one behind it?” Katie asked bluntly. “Maybe she was jealous of Leia’s healing skills.”
“That’s possible. In which case, we need to go check it out.”
“That’s a little disturbing though,” Katie said.
“It’s all disturbing.”
“You don’t really think of guns in paradise.”
“Sorry, but we’ll have to now.”
As they walked forward, several people stopped and stared. He had a smile on his face, and he made sure he was holding her hand.
“Your grip is a little tight,” she noted. “Are you thinking that I’ll run away or that somebody will try and snatch me?”
“Leia was kidnapped from here, so it’s a little hard for me not to worry.”
She squeezed his fingers gently, continuing, “I’m fine, and I do know some self-defense. You know that Bullard requires it of anyone working with you all.”
“I know,” he muttered. “But that gun wouldn’t have given a shit who had self-defense training or not. The bullet was intended to take us out permanently.”
Chapter 4
No point in arguing with Dave because, of course, he was right. Katie did tighten her grip on his fingers as they walked through the village. She had a smile on her face, but she didn’t know how to react when no one smiled back. Were these people not used to seeing strangers, not used to seeing tourists, or just naturally suspicious?