Somehow I’d save them all. I had to.
“Oh!”
I turned at the sound of Juliet’s voice. Three fluffy golden retriever puppies bounded up to us, and her eyes lit up with joy. For a moment, I saw the blond twenty-one-year-old I’d met at the Jamaican resort.
“Hello, babies!” she cooed.
I grabbed one ball of fur and picked him up. “Where did they come from?” I asked Marabel.
“They’re Jewel’s pups. Jewel is the lady’s dog. She was a gift from the master.”
Master? Strange. I couldn’t help myself. I had to ask, given what else I’d seen on these islands so far. “Marabel, are you here willingly?”
“Of course! Why would you ask otherwise?”
“Just… Calling him the master.”
“Out of respect. I’m not here against my will.”
She seemed sincere. I couldn’t think of any reason not to believe her. Except, of course, that I was near an island filled with evil—evil of my father’s doing.
But I couldn’t worry about that as I kissed the top of the pup’s head. He wriggled in my arms and then licked my face. I laughed out loud.
Juliet was busy with the other two pups. She picked them both up and examined them. “So you’re a boy,” she said to one, “and you’re a girl. Do they have names?”
“Not yet, miss,” Marabel said.
I snuggled the pup to my cheek, thinking of Ryan’s gorgeous golden retriever, Ricky. I missed him. So much.
“Then I’ll name them,” Juliet said. “You’re Bo, and you’re Beauty. Perfect.”
I worried for a split second that Juliet was already getting too close to the dogs. But the happiness on her face made my concern short-lived. In fact, I kind of wanted to name the puppy I was holding. He was a boy. You’re Ernie, I said to myself. A man named Ernie had lived above my mother and me in our small apartment when I was a kid. He was kind to me and gave me something to eat if I was hungry. Yes, this puppy would carry that name. Ernie. If I didn’t say it out loud, maybe I wouldn’t grow too attached to the little thing.
He squirmed out of my arms and raced to play with his brother and sister.
Juliet stood and followed the puppies out into the large yard. I thought about stopping her. She was still so weak. But I didn’t want to take these few minutes of joy away from her.
I turned around and looked through the French doors into the kitchen. A man, his back to me, stood talking to Marabel. His hair was dark, and for a moment I assumed it was my father. He’d probably returned to take us back to the horror of the dorms, as Juliet had called it.
But no— This man was taller than my father, and he was wearing blue jeans and a black shirt. Not the black pants my father had been wearing.
He stood talking to Marabel for what seemed like forever. Turn around, I screamed inside my head.
When he didn’t, I stood, my feet moving toward the door seemingly of their own volition.
I opened the door and walked in.
The man turned to face me.
And I gasped.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ryan
I clapped my hands over my ears. The women in the hallway began wailing.
Raj was yelling at Scotty, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. The man started walking, Raj’s gun never moving from his temple. I looked to Talon. As much as it pained me to leave Anna and the others, I followed.
The siren blared on and on for what seemed like hours. We followed Scotty down a flight of stairs and into a dark basement. The sound was muffled a little more here. I sniffed. No smoke, so it wasn’t a fire alarm. We were safe for the moment.
“What was that?” Talon yelled to Raj.
“He said it’s a signal of breach,” Raj yelled back. “He doesn’t think we’ve been seen. What most likely happened is that someone found the two guys we left behind. We should have killed them.”
His use of the pronoun “we” disturbed me. As much as the jerks deserved death, I could never take a life. But I couldn’t argue the point now.
“What’s down here?” Raj yelled.
“You don’t want to know,” Scotty said.
As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I began to make out images. A stockade. A— Fuck. Was it a guillotine? Christ. This must be where the goons doled out the severe punishment.
Raj was dragging Scotty along, clearly looking for something, though I didn’t have the slightest idea what. Talon and I followed them as Raj pushed Scotty down onto a chair.
“It’d serve you right if I locked you in that stockade.” Instead, Raj took a roll of what appeared to be duct tape out of his bag. The man definitely came prepared. He bound Scotty’s hands and wrists together and then taped him to the chair. He held a piece of tape to his mouth. “Lucky for you I’m not a sadist. Any last words, mon?”
“Fuck you,” Scotty spat again.
“Original.” Raj taped his mouth shut. “But I respect the fact that you didn’t beg.” He turned to us. “He’s taken care of for the moment. Since we’re in our black outfits, we can fit in around here. Next step is going back up and seeing what this is about.”
“No offense,” I said. “But I’m sick and tired of smelling and tasting a guy’s blood.” I held my mask out to Raj. Since the masks were black, the blood didn’t show. We could still smell the tang of it though. It was quickly making me gag.
“Me too,” Talon agreed.
“Sorry. They’re all we have. I can trade, but that’ll only help one of you.”
“You take it,” I said to Talon.
He didn’t try to argue. It was the least I could do. Talon had seen more blood in his lifetime than I had. He deserved the clean mask.
“Everyone armed?” Raj asked.
Talon and I both nodded and patted our weapons.
“All righty, then.” Raj pulled Talon’s bloodied mask over his head, his brown eyes black in the dark cellar. “Let’s go.”
We walked slowly and quietly up the stairs. I still had Scotty’s keys, though they hadn’t helped me release Anna and the others.
“We need to find more keys,” Raj said.
“Shouldn’t we call the cops?” I asked.
“This is a private island. There aren’t any cops here.”
Of course. I should have known that. So we’d have no backup.
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit.
Ruby’s beautiful face poked into my mind. How I missed her. If anyone had harmed her…
I couldn’t go there. Not now. Right now, Talon and I had one mission. Find Theodore Mathias and take him down. In doing so, we’d probably find and rescue Ruby.
I hoped so. I prayed to a God I wasn’t sure I believed in anymore to keep her safe. To keep the woman I loved—the woman I was going to marry—safe.
Raj opened the door slightly. The siren was still blaring. “Look,” he yelled to us. “People in black are running around out here like a bunch of maniacs. No one will notice us. Follow me.”
We exited the stairwell into the hall. He was right. Men in black were everywhere checking rooms. We blended right in. That siren had given us the perfect cover.
But where to now? I had no idea. We hadn’t made any plans on the yacht because none of us had a clue what we’d find here. Talon and I had agreed to give Raj the lead, as he was the most experienced at investigating.
So far, he’d proven himself trustworthy, but I still wasn’t sure. Something niggled at the back of my neck. I thought again of Ruby, about how she’d said she’d learned not to ignore her intuition.
My intuition was telling me to tread carefully with Raj. He was hiding something. I was almost sure of it. As soon as I had the chance, I’d relay my concerns to Talon.
For now, we followed Raj, nodding to the other men in black who scurried down the corridors. Some wore masks and some did not. We didn’t dare remove ours. They might not all know each other, but what if they did? What if they recognized that we didn’t belong here? We couldn’t take that chance.
We still had no idea what Scotty’s keys opened.
Raj began stopping at doors. “Cover me,” he yelled to Talon and me.