Destination Wedding (8 page)
When she eyed the weapons, he said, “It’s still important not to make any noise that will alert guards to our location.”
He left the radio, his automatic rifle and some explosives inside the knapsack. The latter were a last resort, if he didn’t have any other defense against a vastly superior force.
She eyed the heavy pack and the items he’d removed. “You swam here with all that stuff?”
“Yeah.”
“Do I have to swim away from here?”
“No. We were able to see the island from a satellite. And while I was looking, I found a boat we can use.”
“How did you even know to look for me on this island? I mean, I’m sure Zanov figured nobody was going to find me.”
“His mistake. Decorah already had a list of people your father considered enemies. Of course, he and Zanov weren’t feuding, but he remembered the Big Z had asked to marry you.”
She snorted. “The Big Z. That’s what he thinks of himself. Or maybe the King of Zanovland.”
“Yeah, he’s quite the evil overlord. We knew he’d had some dealings with your father, and we knew his private plane had taken off from an airport near Longboat Key. So we zeroed in on this place because it was our best lead and moved a satellite into position over the island.”
“And you saw me?”
“We saw Zanov and a woman come outside, but we couldn’t be sure it was you. I was praying you’d look up, and you did.”
“I remember! I’m not sure why I tipped my face up.”
“It was like you were looking at me,” he said, unable to keep the emotion out of his voice.
Their eyes met. She lifted her face, and he lowered his head, his lips coming down on hers for a greedy kiss that he broke off only seconds after it had begun.
She gave him a questioning look.
“Like I said, we can’t stay here.”
He saw her clench and unclench her fists, and he thought she was wishing they had already gotten off the island. But her words were a surprise. “I should have told you to kill him,” she whispered. “Then we wouldn’t be in this fix.”
He closed his hand around her arm. “That doesn’t mean the guards wouldn’t have come after us—for revenge. Even if he’s a dangerous guy to work for.”
“Right. I saw him get angry at a gardener who spilled some mulch on the path in front of us. I thought he was going to kill the guy. Then he realized I was with him, and he got himself under control.”
“Nice.”
He looked through the door, making sure no one had followed them to the hut, then motioned her outside, taking them away from the house and toward the patch of underbrush where he’d hidden the boat.
They had gotten only about fifty yards when he saw flashlight beams cutting through the foliage.
He pulled Camille behind a palm tree, then brought his lips to her ear and whispered. “Don’t move.”
She went still beside him, and he focused on the approaching lights, thankful that Zanov’s men weren’t using night-vision goggles. At least this way, they could see the searchers coming.
From the beams, it looked like two men. He finally saw them emerging from the shadows, walking carefully through the brush, flashlights in one hand and weapons in the other. He was sure they would shoot him if they saw him, but what about Camille? Had the Big Z ordered her death, too? Or did he still want her alive? And what would he do if he caught her? Probably not kiss her and say all was forgiven.
Nick put his mouth to her ear and whispered in a barely audible voice. “I’m going to disappear.” He hoped. He’d gotten so emotionally entangled in this rescue mission that he wondered if it was possible to use his talent.
But he’d better give it a try, because it was his best option at the moment. Clearing his mind, he ordered himself into neutral mode. Long seconds passed, and he wasn’t sure if he’d succeeded until he heard Camille draw in a startled breath.
Hopefully, it was because she couldn’t see him. But what happened when a flashlight beam hit an invisible man?
Moving silently, he stood and stepped out from behind the tree, waiting with a tranq gun in each hand as the guards approached. As they came into easy range, he shot one in the chest. When he made a sound of surprise and crumpled, the other guy turned to him with a startled expression. But Nick had already shot the second guard, who went down beside his buddy. He crouched over them, feeling for the darts. He knew he was visible again when Camille ran to him, then eyed the two men on the ground.
“The tranquilizers again?”
“Yeah. Nobody’s going to come running at the sound of gunfire. The downside is that you have to reload after every shot.”
“Why didn’t you use it on Zanov?” she asked.
“I should have. But I thought he was out cold, and I only have limited ammunition for the tranq guns.”
As he spoke, he pulled the needles from the men and pressed them down into the bushes, then shoved another cartridge into each gun.
She was still staring at the two guards. “If those guys are this far into the jungle, others could be too.”
“Unfortunately. And they’ll know we were here when they find these two.”
As he led her toward the place where he’d left the boat, she looked back at the unconscious guards. “How long will they be out?”
“Hours,” he answered, hoping they’d be off the island by the time the men came to.
As they moved through the wilderness area, all his senses were on alert, but they didn’t meet any more of the security force.
“Where does he think we’ve gone?” Camille whispered.
“We could still be in the house, for all he knows. And an assault team could be on the way.”
“But they’re not.”
“I figured it was safer for you if I came in by myself. An assault on the property could have gotten you killed.”
They continued cautiously across the island, on the lookout for wildlife as well as men.
Ten minutes after their first encounter, he heard more guards on the move and saw two more flashlight beams. The lights moved back and forth but missed the spot where Nick and Camille were hiding behind another tree. Tense seconds ticked by as the men and the lights headed away from them.
When the guards had passed, he started for the beach again. Ahead he could hear the slapping of surf on the sand and felt a sense of relief that they’d gotten this far. Now all he had to do was get them off this damn tropical paradise.
He had left the boat in the underbrush, but as he approached the location, he saw it lying in plain sight at the edge of the sand. Somebody had moved it.
Nick put out his hand, stopping Camille from going any closer.
“What?” she whispered.
“Someone’s been here, and they could be waiting for us.”
She drew in a sharp breath. “What are we going to do?”
He led her into better cover, checking to make sure they hadn’t been spotted. Then he went back, moving cautiously, watching where he stepped. When he came to a trip wire, he backed up. Someone had rigged an alarm at the boat. And when he stepped over the wire and moved in closer, he saw that the hull was split.
Nice. A disabled boat and an alarm. Had they done it before he’d announced his presence? Or were they simply taking precautions?
Nick returned to Camille.
“What happened?”
“The boat’s wrecked, and someone was hoping I’d set off an alarm when I got close.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Get the boat to come in closer.” He set down his pack and pulled out the transmitter he’d brought. But when he tried to send a message to Teddy Granada, he found it was impossible to get through.
“Shit.”
Camille gave him a worried look. “What’s wrong?”
“I think Zanov’s got equipment that can block the signal. Either that or we’re very, very unlucky.”
oOo
On the Minerva, Teddy looked up from the communications equipment.
“I think Nick tried to contact us.”
“You think?” Bobby asked, his voice laced with nerves.
“There was the start of a transmission, but it cut off before he could say anything.”
“You think his transmitter went out?”
“We checked it carefully before he left.”
“It could have gotten wet.”
“Yeah. Or Zanov has some way to jam his signal.”
Bobby uttered a curse. “What are we going to do?”
“There’s nothing we
can
do besides wait.”
“What about going in closer?”
“Too dangerous, unless we know Nick’s location. If Zanov fires on the ship and takes us out, Nick will have no way to get Camille back to the mainland.”
“I thought he had a boat.”
“He can’t row it to Florida.”
Bobby answered with another curse, and Teddy gave him a sympathetic look. The guy knew he was a major cause of this whole fuck-up. And he was never going to forgive himself if it went south. Which looked like a definite possibility at this point, although Teddy didn’t say so.
oOo
When panic bloomed on Camille’s face, Nick stroked his hand over her neck and shoulders. “We’ll get out of this.”
“How?”
“Go to plan C,” he said, wondering what that was going to be. Like could they swim back to the Minerva? He knew he could do it, but he wasn’t going to take a chance with Camille.
His mind scrambled for a plan. He could use his flashlight to send a Morse code message to the ship, but that would give away their location. If he did it, he’d have to be as far away as possible from Camille. That thought made his insides clench. Was leaving her out here alone his best option?
He wanted to curse in frustration, but that wouldn’t do either one of them any good. In the distance he could see more flashlight beams. None were coming their way at the moment, but that could change quickly.
Taking her hand, he led her slowly through the underbrush, farther from the shore, where a mound of bougainvillea had grown up, partly on top of some low bushes.
“Wait here.”
He felt her tense as he detached himself and pushed aside one of the woody vines.
“Shit.”
“What?”
“A thorn got me.”
“They have a lot of thorns.”
“The good news and the bad news.”
He got out his knife and cut the branch off, shoving it into the top of the vine. By morning, it would be wilted, but now it just looked like part of the plant.
Stopping to clear a path through the thorns and shoving the cut branches into the mass of leaves and flowers, he wove his way in among the bushes. For several minutes, he thought he wasn’t going to find what he was looking for. Then he crawled into a place where the level of the ground cratered.
Turning, he retraced his path, seeing Camille waiting tensely in the darkness. She gasped as he crawled out from the tangle of vegetation.
“I didn’t hear you at all.”
“Silent and deadly,” he muttered. “And I’ve found a hiding place.”
“In the bougainvillea? Didn’t you start off by getting scratched?”
“Yeah. That’s why it’s a good place to hide. Nobody will look for us there, but I cut a path to the interior. And the bougainvillea has grown up over some other bushes, so once you get inside, you’re not in contact with it. But follow me and keep your head down.” He turned and crawled back into the path he’d made through the thorny branches.
“What’s this?” she asked when he stopped at the depression he’d found.
“A place where you can hide while I signal the ship.”
“Signal how?”
“With a flashlight, using Morse code, but I have make sure you’re hidden and that I’m not leading the guards here. What you’re going to do is lie down. Then I’ll cover you with brush.”
He heard her swallow hard. “I want to stay with you.”
“Yeah. I want that, too. But it’s safer this way.”
After a moment, she whispered, “Okay.”
He left her in the depression and went out to gather dried palm fronds, stopping to listen intently to make sure none of Zanov’s men were in the area. First he spread some of the dried vegetation on the ground where she was sitting, making a little nest. Then he brought more.
“Lie down.”
She did as he asked, and he came down beside her, piling more of the camouflage material on top of her, spreading the fronds out so that she was invisible in the darkness.
“Are you okay?” he asked when he’d finished.
“Yes.”
Reaching into his pack, he pulled out an automatic pistol, and handed it to her. “I know your father made sure both you and Eden had shooting lessons. If you have to defend yourself, do it.”
“That was shooting at targets.”
“This will be shooting to avoid capture.”
He heard her swallow in the darkness. “I don’t want to mistake you for one of Zanov’s guards when you come back.”
“Yeah. I’ll whistle a happy tune.”
“Which one?”
He whistled a few bars from
Nobody Does it Better,
and she laughed.
“Keep your head down. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
She sobered again quickly. “You know I’m going to worry about you.”
“I’ll be okay. And I’ll move as fast as I can, but it could take an hour or so because I need to be as far away as I can from you when I flash the ship.”
She reached up through the layer of dried vegetation, grabbed his hand and held tight. He squeezed her fingers for a moment, then eased away.
“The sooner I take care of this, the better.”
She sucked in a breath but said only, “Be careful.”
“Stay put.”
“What if you don’t come back?”
“I will.”
He left before he changed his mind, crawling to the end of the tunnel he’d made and stopping to make sure nobody was waiting in the darkness to overpower him. When he was certain he was alone, he covered the entrance to the tunnel with the branches he’d cut off. Then he made sure he could find Camille’s hiding place again. He’d studied the geography of the island, and he knew approximately where he was. More specifically, the bougainvillea was in the middle of a triangle of large palms which marked the spot well.
Moving as silently as possible through the jungle, he stayed on the alert for guards. Twice he encountered the flashlight beams of nearby search parties, but when he moved to the far side of a tree and flattened himself against the trunk, they went past.