Juno didn’t move. She stared up at him with those huge dark eyes.
“But she will be back. I’ll get her back. Don’t give me trouble, okay?”
Juno slowly got up and came toward him.
At least Juno trusts me, he thought as he went to the kitchen bar to get her bowl and food. She should believe me.
Because I’m going to move heaven and earth to get Margaret off that damn island.
*
“Stop here,” Margaret said when Cambry reached the end of the dock. She sat there gazing at the sleek white yacht anchored off the long pier. She could feel the muscles of her stomach clench. Her heart was beating hard.
In a moment she would see Nicos.
Three years.
Black-and-white tiles.
“Margaret?” Cambry said. “You can still change your mind. I’ll turn this car around and get you out of here.”
“No, I can’t.” She moistened her lips. “He probably has someone with a gun trained on us right now. I just wanted to catch my breath for a minute.” She swallowed. “Here’s what you do. I get out and walk down that pier until I reach his yacht. You stay until you see him take me. Then you turn and get the hell out of here. No matter what happens, what you see, you don’t stop. You don’t try to come back for me.”
“I can’t promise that I—”
“If you don’t, you’ll ruin everything.” She met his eyes. “And Patrick will die. Do as I say, Cambry.” She tried to smile as she opened the passenger door. “Juno needs someone to take care of her. I can take care of myself.”
“I’m beginning to think this wasn’t such—”
She didn’t hear the rest as she slammed the car door behind her.
She started to walk down the long pier.
She could see someone standing by the gangplank now. Dark gray jeans, white tunic shirt, swarthy skin, sleekly barbered black hair.
She inhaled sharply. Don’t get sick. Don’t stop. You have to go all the way.
Stan Nicos. He was standing there, smiling at her with smug triumph. He didn’t say a word as he watched her walk toward him.
Of course, it was one of the ways he showed her how he could dominate her. He made her come to him as if he were some kind of royalty. But she couldn’t let him play that game now. If she let him dominate her, then she’d be helpless to do anything but be a prisoner on the island.
First, get Cambry safely on his way back to Lassiter.
She stopped when she was several yards from the gangplank. “Here I am,” she called defiantly to Nicos. “But it wasn’t you who brought me here. You had to turn loose that son of a bitch Lassiter on me. You would never have caught me otherwise, Nicos.”
“I would have caught you. It was just more convenient to have Lassiter at my beck and call.” He looked beyond her shoulder at the gray Toyota on the dock. “But that’s not Lassiter behind the wheel, is it?”
“It’s Neal Cambry,” she said curtly. “He’s had a gun pointed at my back all the time I walked down this pier.”
“And where’s Lassiter?”
“He said he was through with me. I hadn’t been able to get him what he wanted, so he turned me over to Cambry for delivery.”
Nicos smiled. “He thought that he had a true ace in the hole in you, Margaret. I’m sure he was disappointed.” He came down the gangplank. “And I see your Neal Cambry is taking off and leaving you to my gentle care.”
Good. Cambry was doing as she asked. “I didn’t expect anything else. Lassiter told him that he was done with me and he wasn’t to waste any more time on me than necessary.” She looked him in the eye. “Lassiter’s a monster, just like you.”
“That’s not polite, Margaret,” Nicos said. “I thought I’d taught you better manners. I guess I’ll have to start all over again.” His hand lashed out and connected to her cheek with a force that sent her down to the deck of the pier. “But I’m looking forward to it. I even have your old suite ready for you.” He stood over her. “Memories, Margaret?”
She shook her head to clear it of dizziness. She had to get to her feet. Cambry might have seen her fall and she couldn’t trust him not to stop and come back for her if he thought she was hurt. She got to her knees and then struggled to stand. “Why should I have memories? I blocked those months out of my mind. I blocked you out of my mind. Anything we do together is a fresh start.” She raised her hand to her burning cheek. “And if I show up at Montego Bay looking as if I was someone’s punching bag, it’s going to raise red flags. Not that I care, but I’d think you would.”
His smile ebbed a trifle. “I might be able to wait until after Montego Bay. It might be all the sweeter.”
“I’m not that same girl you knew three years ago, Nicos. I know I have to do what you want me to do, but you’ll have to allow me some measure of freedom.”
“I allowed you freedom before and you ran away from me. That won’t happen again.”
“Then have me watched. I don’t care. I just can’t be a prisoner anymore. I’ll do anything you say.” She paused. “I’m three years older, Nicos. I’m more powerful now. You always said I had more power than your mother. I can do things that you couldn’t dream I could do.”
His eyes narrowed on her face. “What things?”
She shook her head. “I won’t be a prisoner. We work together.”
“Perhaps. I don’t like the idea. Maybe if you make it worth my while…” He took her arm and pushed her toward the gangplank. “But you’ll have to convince me. I had it all my own way before.”
“You don’t have Rosa now. You made a mistake.”
His hand tightened on her arm with bruising force. “That was your fault.”
She had thought that perhaps he was right, and it had tormented her for a long time. “You made a mistake,” she repeated. “You don’t have any weapons. Make a deal with me.”
He scowled. “I’ll consider it.” He pushed her up the gangplank. “But now you have to reacquaint yourself with Juan Salva. He’s been looking forward to having you back with us. He’s such a fine businessman and it upset him as much as it did me that we lost several shipments when you weren’t here to take care of the dogs.”
“I’ll be wherever you want me to be from now on, if we can make a deal. If we can’t, someday at the most inconvenient time, those airport dogs are going to let their handlers know they’ve discovered a bonanza.”
He scowled. “I don’t appreciate threats. I said I’d consider it.” He gestured to Salva, who was sitting in a deck chair with his laptop computer. “Come and greet our Margaret. She’s coming home again.…”
*
Cambry had to park far down the driveway when he arrived back at the beach house. There were three cars and one truck that he knew belonged to Mandell already there ahead of him.