*
The cove is the same, she thought as she walked toward the surf pounding against the sandy shore. Beauty, sunlight, and a gentle breeze that soothed. Three years ago, she had welcomed that beauty because of the dark ugliness to which she had to return every single day.
To which she’d have to return today.
But today she’d not be helpless; today she could take action.
Set a precedent.
She carelessly dropped her backpack on the beach, close to the surf. It was too soon to expect Lassiter to have arranged to send someone with her phone, but she would do everything exactly as she’d repeat it tomorrow.
Ricardo would notice and be more lulled into accepting what she would be doing.
Then she waded into water. It was warm, but she felt chilled. It was almost sundown, but that probably wasn’t the reason. It could be that Ricardo Basanez was sitting on that dune watching her as if she were going to be his next meal. Or it could be that there was no way she could predict what Nicos was going to do. Or wondering if she would be up to the task when he finally exploded with his usual venom. Because it always came; the question was when.
Just swim. Look like she was enjoying herself. Not too far from shore, or she’d have Ricardo coming down and dragging her out of the surf. She kept swimming for the next twenty minutes and then leisurely headed for the third rock formation in the group of boulders.
Set the precedent.
She stayed in full view of Ricardo as she pulled herself out of the water onto a flat rock and lazily wrung out her hair. Then she tilted back her head as if enjoying the last long rays of the sun.
And that’s when she saw it.
It was small, not more than three inches, and wrapped in a dark green waterproof package.
She was so shocked, she found her herself staring down at it before jerking her gaze away.
Good God, how had Lassiter managed to get this to her so soon?
She knew how he’d done it. He’d started the minute that he’d seen she’d left the beach house and mustered every bit of effort and manpower he had at his disposal. Who knew better than Margaret what a powerhouse he could be when he was driven?
She drew a deep breath. She wasn’t chilled any longer. She felt glowing with warmth and vitality. Incredible how the sight of that small package could chase the cold and fear away.
Because it told her that even in the house of the enemy, she wasn’t alone.
How to get that package into the backpack she’d left on shore? It was small enough for her to palm and not be seen if she waited until the light faded a little more. She’d left the backpack unzipped, as she would have done tomorrow, when she might have actually expected to retrieve the phone. Okay, the only moment of danger for Ricardo to notice anything wrong would be when she ran out of the water and grabbed the towel out of her backpack. There was no place to hide the phone in this bikini.
She could do this. If Lassiter could get this phone to her, then she could get it safely back to the house.
Think. What would distract Ricardo?
Ten minutes later, it was dim enough to start swimming back to shore. It took only two minutes to reach the point where she could stand. She could feel Ricardo’s eyes on her as she stood up and started to walk toward the shore.
She stopped short as her bikini bra began to slip down, baring her breasts. She frantically reached around to the fastening in the back with the hand holding the phone as it slipped even farther. Holding the bra in place, she ran for the backpack, grabbed the towel and wrapped it around her upper body while slipping the phone into the backpack in the process.
She saw Ricardo laughing as she started to try to refasten the bikini top. “Do you need help?” he called. “Nicos told me to watch you closely. If you’re having trouble, I think I should get even closer, don’t you?”
No suspicion, she realized with relief. For once, Ricardo’s lechery had been her friend. “Nicos also told you not to touch me.” She finished drying with the towel and tossed it into her backpack and zipped it closed. “I had enough bother with that damn hook; I don’t want to have you thinking it was some kind of invitation.” She got to her feet, grabbed her backpack, and started to stride back toward the house.
She didn’t look back, but she heard Ricardo laugh again.
I did it, Lassiter.
Yet, that wasn’t quite true. She was again feeling that sense of having someone here for her. Of not being alone to face what was to come. It was as if he were beside her, out of sight, but still … there.
No, we did it, Lassiter.
*
Lassiter surfaced near the seaplane in the cove at the far end of the island. He took the rope Mandell threw him and went hand over hand until he reached the door. Then Mandell pulled him into the plane.
“Long swim.” Mandell handed him a towel. “Did you have to land this far out? Maybe a little overkill?”
“No. We don’t take chances,” Lassiter said curtly. “Not with this one.”
“You said she probably wouldn’t be able to make the pickup before tomorrow. Why the hurry?”
“I wanted it there for her. She’s running her own show, but I’m not going to let her do without anything she needs … when she needs it.”
“Not exactly your way of handling an operation. You like to be in control,” Mandell said. “No wonder you’re a little tense.”
“You could say that.” But Lassiter couldn’t even imagine how Margaret was feeling now. Not only tension but the isolation. “Let’s get out of here.” He began stripping off his scuba gear. “Keep on the water for the next five minutes or so before you take off. I don’t want any noise that would let Nicos’s men know we’ve been here.”
Mandell nodded as he started toward the cockpit. “You know, I could have done this drop-off, Lassiter. Once you supplied us with that map of Vadaz Island, I’d have had no problem. There was no reason for you to have to do it.”
“There was a reason.” He trusted Mandell, but there was no way that he’d have let anyone else complete that mission. He had to know Margaret was as safe as he could make her. Know that she had the tool that would make a dangerous task less perilous. “Don’t worry, once we get Patrick back, your knowledge of Nicos’s island will come in very handy. Just not this time.”
Not this woman. Not Margaret.
“But we’ll be heading for Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, after we take off from here, and you may get some action there. I’ve tracked down George Bildwan to that city, and we have a contact who may be able to locate his current address.” He started pulling on his clothes. “I’ve ordered the Gulfstream flown into the airport there and we’ll trade off this plane for it. We’ll need its speed from now on. We may be bouncing from island to island until we locate the man we need. Thank God almost everyplace in the Caribbean is only a few hours distant from the next.”