Blood, Kat thought, dreading the return of his symptoms, knowing there wasn’t a thing she could do to stop this.
Louis saw Kat first, his eyes going wide and hopeful. “Nestor?”
But as soon as he said it, he clamped his mouth shut. Eloise started crying even harder when she realized that her son really wasn’t with them.
When Duke focused on Kat, she couldn’t help thinking that he’d aged ten years in the last few hours. He tried to smile through his anguish, and she remembered what Will had said about the way Duke looked at her.
Gaze soft, yearning, as if he’d do anything for her.
Kat glanced away, wishing everything was simpler.
When Duke turned his attention to Will, the change in the air couldn’t have been more obvious.
Shock, hurt, puzzlement.
It didn’t take a genius to see that Duke suspected what had gone down between her and her ex-boyfriend.
The older man squeezed his eyes shut, pressed his palms to his temples. Immediately, Alexandra ended her praise of Duffy and bent down to her grandfather.
“My pills,” he said.
No one had an answer for that. There were no pills. There wouldn’t be any until the party was rescued. And, unless the weather let up, that wouldn’t be happening soon.
The sky flashed lightning at them, kind of like a punk giving them all the middle finger.
Duke groaned. “That damned smell is still here.”
“What smell?” Kat asked, coming to kneel next to Duke, too.
Alexandra patted her grandfather’s arm, her eyes red. She held her shoulders just as if the weight of the world was pushing down on them. Much to Kat’s surprise, she felt sorry for her. Kat knew what it was like to be a protector, too.
Another taut rumble shook the sky.
Alexandra heaved a shaky breath, rising. Then she gave her parents an odd, accusatory look and walked away. Weeping, Louis and Eloise followed at a distance, stumbling as they held each other. Will and Larry stood still, obviously not knowing what to do with themselves. Trembling, Chris plopped down in the mud, facing a tree, his dark shirt clinging to his body, his back turned to Duffy’s waiting corpse.
I’ll be here for you, Chris, Kat thought, her own hackles rising for him.
She glanced at the body, shivering. “Let’s bury him.”
Will and Larry nodded and picked up big, flat sticks, trying to conquer the mud. It didn’t go over too well, especially with Will’s injuries, but they continued to do their damndest.
Duke slowly rose to his feet, and Kat rushed over to help him.
“A word?” His voice was hoarse, his body slouched and quivering.
She walked him to a spot nearby, where there’d be enough distance for privacy. The rain splattered over the life jacket he was trying valiantly to hold over their heads, but she took over the job for him, unable to endure the noble, failing gesture.
When he began to pant, she stopped their progress, waiting for him to recover.
“So you found him alive,” Duke finally said.
Even now, as Kat fended off all the old doubts about Will, happiness rushed back. She’d never forget how it’d felt to see him running down the beach toward her.
“By some miracle,” she said, voice quivering from an excess of emotion, “he’s back.”
Smiling sadly, Duke seemed to note her change in attitude, her obvious affection. “You still want him.”
Kat searched for a response. What she felt for Will couldn’t be described with a yes or no answer. She wanted to love him so badly, but her street sense told her to back off, to shield herself.
“When I arranged this trip,” Duke said, “I was hoping you’d find an answer one way or another. But…Hell, who knows if I’ll get a chance to say this to you again.”
He leaned against the bole of a pine tree. Water slithered down the bark of it, splashing over his bald head and his withered, slumped body, but Duke didn’t seem to care.
“The last thing you probably want to hear,” he said, “is sentimentality. But balancing on a line between life and death makes everything else seem a little…”
“Unimportant,” she finished for him. Who knew better than her? Her pulse was pattering, dreading what he wanted to tell her. “You need rest and—”
“I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you, Kat,” he said gently.
Oh, God.
She closed her eyes against the sudden, naked admission.
Was this part of his “refurbishment” ritual with every female “project”? But he sounded very sincere. Or was he just so overcome by the past day’s trials that he was getting dramatic, romanticizing his fondness for her?
Just like she might’ve done with Will….
When she opened her eyes, she caught the hopefulness, then the gradual devastation on his face.
“Duke…” She didn’t know what to say next.
“Don’t answer. I surprised you, I know. And I had to say it before I die, just like I had to go on this one last ill-advised fandango with my family. I only wanted to leave this place knowing everything is set to rights. That’s all.”
But why had he told her this now, after she and Will had finally taken a step forward? She chided herself for the cynicism. If Duffy hadn’t ruined her with his “project” comments, those kinds of thoughts would’ve never entered her mind.
“I mean it, Kat,” he said. “Just having you near me does a world of good.” He managed to stand again. “Not that I can compete with the dashing Captain Ashton. But I only hoped that we…”
Flushing, he staggered away, stranding her in mortified silence.
And aching in regret for not being able to love him in return.
Needing some alone time, she waited for Duke to go back to Chris, then wandered over to where Duffy’s body was laid out. When she got there, Larry was on another one of his rich-people rants, which, Kat thought thankfully, let her concentrate on something other than Duke’s confession.
“Captain, I’ll take orders from you,” the crew member was saying as rain dampened his face, “but not from them.”
He pointed to Chris, who glanced at Kat, confused. Still huddled into himself, he was coping with tragedy in the only way he probably knew—by fleeing from it, planting himself on the outside, where, like Kat, he was the most comfortable.
“All I did,” the teen said, “was tell him to hurry.”
She could see that Duffy’s grave was a slosh of mud, courtesy of the rain.
Will tugged on Larry’s shirt, defusing the situation only a little. “We’re going to have to bury Duffy in a drier place. The shelter I found this morning could work. Or those caves in the back of your shelter that Kat told me about.”
Chris’s eyes filled with tears. “Gramps…?”
Kat responded right away, scooping the terrified boy into her arms and bringing him to Duke. The older man led Chris away. In their wake, a blast of wind wailed through the trees, shaking branches. Thunder grumbled like some muttered curse as Duke cast one more heartsick glance back, then disappeared.
Larry threw down his stick. “So I’m that boy’s slave to order around? I hate to point out the news flash, but I’m not exactly serving drinks on the boat anymore.”
“Larry, that family’s hurting.” Will glanced at Duffy, like he was figuring out how to move the body. “They’re acting out.”
“That excuse is getting real old,” Larry said.
Distracted, Kat kept silent, going over to Duffy.
“He looks so undignified. No one should go out like this. Not even Duffy.”
Not even the guy who might’ve messed with the cage…?
She dismissed that line of thought, not wanting to return to all the suspicions she’d also had about Will.
Telling herself that this was the right thing to do, Kat took a large leaf that had gathered water, then poured the moisture on Duffy’s face. She cleaned him. Hell, she would’ve done the same for anyone—he
r dad, her mom…Duke.
Will and Larry respectfully waited, turning their backs as she wiped away the mud, the blood. Soon, she was down to his ripped skin and…
She gagged.
Was everything getting to her or were these cuts a little too…
Precise?
She cleaned some more. Was she wrong about this? No…precise. That was a good description.
Duffy had been mutilated, and it wasn’t in a random slammed-against-the-rocks way. His lips had been cut to make his mouth hang down, and his eyes had rings around them. Someone had taken their time carving him up.
Feverishly, she pushed aside his ripped clothing, wiping away dirt and blood there, too.
Stab marks in his chest?
“Guys,” she said, “I think I’ve found something—”
And before she could regret sharing her findings with two men she didn’t entirely trust, they were at her side, witnesses to Duffy’s freakishly odd wounds.
Even though Kat and Will had wanted to keep mum about the upsetting information until they could figure out how to handle this, Larry spilled the news the minute they got back. He “didn’t want no one murdering him, too,” so he thought honesty might flush out a guilty face from the crowd right away. There was no stopping him.
“Are you saying my son was murdered?” Eloise asked. She now officially resembled a ghost, her blond hair disheveled, her white clothes tattered and torn.
Suddenly Louis rushed Larry, pushing the crew member. But when Larry held his ground, Kat thought she detected a perverse pleasure in him.
“You, with your mean streak,” the Delacroix patriarch said. “Is this because of the chips? Are you bent on getting some warped revenge for your lot in life by lying to us?”
In the real world, it would’ve sounded ridiculous. But this wasn’t real. It was a nightmare.
“Dammit, do I have to stop another fight!” Kat went to the center of the shelter to stand between the men. “Maybe we’re wrong about Duffy’s wounds, but they’re sure as hell out of the ordinary.”
Eloise’s hand flew to her neck as she sank to her knees. “Do you think there are…natives…on this island?”
Natives. Primitives. Anyone with darker skin color, right? Kat tried not to take offense at the very offensive question. Eloise wasn’t in her right mind.
None of them were anymore.
“Maybe it was a wild animal,” Alexandra said. Her calm voice would’ve been the perfect example of rationality—if her brother hadn’t just been cut up.
“There could be a thousand explanations,” Kat said. “But one thing’s for sure—we’ve all got to be on guard.”
“That’s right.” Louis leveled a glare on Larry. “Stick together. Shouldn’t we do that? Safety in numbers? Well, let me inform you that I don’t plan on turning my back on half of you in here, lest I get stabbed.”
Panic was not on the agenda. “Okay, we—”
But he was already across the shelter, grabbing his life jacket, a bag of chips, a plastic cup and an apple.
Duke watched him. “Where are you going?” he rasped.
Louis gestured for Eloise and Alexandra to gather up their belongings, too. “Anywhere. Didn’t Tinkerbell say that there’s another overhang to the right of our shelter?”
“Yeah,” the crew woman said. She was sitting out of the way with a silent Dr. Hopkins. “Back about fifty yards. It connects to the caves, too.”
“You’re separating yourselves?” Kat said, floored. “That’s more than dangerous. It’s…well, stupid.”
Unless there really was a killer among them and the killer wasn’t a Delacroix.
Kat glanced at Larry, an obvious suspect. Then, unable to stop herself, her eyes focused on Will. It occurred to her that he hadn’t shown up until late morning, and that would’ve given him the chance to…
No, she told herself. What are you thinking? That’s Will, the man you made love with a couple of hours ago.
The man she couldn’t stop doubting.
Louis was already at the shelter’s edge, ready to leave. “Chris? Grandfather? Are you coming?”
Kat’s nerves screeched. Even with everything that had gone on these past few days, she wanted them here; they’d be mincemeat with the Delacroixs one way or another.
“No, Duke,” Kat said. “Stay with me.”
She couldn’t have chosen better words. He lit up like fireworks and broke Kat’s heart all in the same second.
“I prefer to stay with Kat,” Duke said.
His son-in-law bristled. Determined, he darted over to Chris, who was curled up and facing the wall.
“Let’s go. Now.”
The boy shook his head.
“No arguments, Chris.” Louis put his hand on his nephew’s shoulder to turn him around.
Startled, the teen whipped Louis’s hand away, eyes wide and full of terror.
“I won’t go with you!”
Kat stepped back, struck by the level of fear. And why not? Chris had already been a near-victim, too, and who better to suspect than the people who’d benefit the most from his death?
Breathing hard, Chris resumed his cowering position.
As the other man slunk out of the shelter, Eloise followed him into the rain, but Alexandra loitered on her way past Will.
Softly, Kat heard her say, “Want to come?”
A million heartbeats kicked at Kat’s ribs.
Will shook his head, watching the ground as Alexandra shrugged and went on her way. Slowly, he raised his gaze to meet Kat’s, forehead furrowed.
Was he thinking of the day she’d accused him of cozying up to the rich girl? What had Alexandra’s invitation been about anyway? Jealousy rocked through her.
As everyone else began chattering about the latest turn of events, Kat saw Duke in the corner, comforting Chris and glancing at her with sympathy, reminding her that she really didn’t know everything about Will. Reminding her of Duke’s love confession, too.
As if reading her discomfort, Will drew Kat into the opening of the back cave with a gentle hand on her arm. The contact tingled with a buzz that robbed her of all sense. Semidarkness filtered over them, and a cool wind, like the breath of something hidden, fluttered the drying blankets and clothing, chilling her.
“It wasn’t what it looked like,” he said, referring to Alexandra.
Was it ever? “Okay.”
“No, Kat, don’t say ‘okay.’ We’ve got a lot to talk about, and Alexandra is just one of those things. Here, ask me anything you want and I’ll answer it. I’ve got nothing to hide.”
A torrent of questions assaulted her. Where should she start? With Alexandra? The shark cage? His whereabouts when Duffy had been killed?
His comment about “getting what they deserved”?
“What, Kat? What’re you thinking?”
She sighed. “I don’t know what to make of anything anymore.”
“What are you saying?” In the dim light, realization transformed him. “Don’t tell me—”
“Will.” She held on to him. “Someone might’ve killed Duffy.”
“Right…and you think that someone might’ve been me?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Will shrugged away from her hand. “You don’t have to. Kat, I don’t know what’s gotten into you or how you came to think the worst of me.”
Alexandra. Captain Macintosh. The temper he’d shown on the boat with Louis. Ambition. And worst of all, the pregnancy scare. Weren’t those enough?
His shoulders lifted. Pride had taken him over now. “You think I’m capable of cutting into a face like someone did with Duffy. You think I could leave a kid stranded in a shark cage.”
“I don’t want to think it.”
“But you do, goddammit.”
Limping, he stormed back into the shelter. She was on his tail.
Paranoia. It’d gotten to her. But it had always kept her safe on the mean streets after school, the act of always looking over
her shoulder and trusting no one. “Will…”
“I’m going to ask Larry to help me bury Duffy somewhere dry,” Will said over her. “And then I’m going back to my shelter. Alone.”
And before she could convince him to stay, he’d collected most of the items he’d brought with him, recruited Larry and was gone. Just like that.
Hit hard by her confusion, she couldn’t do anything but watch the rain for a while. Larry came back, unusually quiet after he explained that they’d found another cave near the beach to bury Duffy. The weather grew angrier as the sky grew darker, and she wondered how Will was doing on his own.
What if an animal attacked him? What if he got killed by the person who’d gotten to Duffy?
She calmed herself down. Maybe there wasn’t a murderer on the loose. Maybe they were all overreacting, edgy from exhaustion.
As she went to the middle of the shelter, standing between Duke and Chris and the “other” group—the blue collars—she didn’t know where to go. Where she belonged.
But then Chris looked up with those saucer eyes. Duke held his head and hunched over like his stomach hurt.
She knew where she was needed.
They settled down to sleep, wracked by cold, the air blackening around them.
Chapter 10
Kat hadn’t slept well.
She’d been on alert for trouble, her mind snapping with scenarios about Duffy’s death and suspects who would want to see him gone. And she’d been hoping Will would come back, too.
But, at the first crack of light, gray from storm, someone had indeed returned—Alexandra.
“I feel safer here,” she said quietly to Kat. Then, finding a spot nearby, she sank to the ground to sleep.
Soon, Louis and Eloise returned, huddling next to each other without another word. Their eyes held a sadness so deep that Kat couldn’t even begin to grasp. Not only had they lost one son, the other was still missing, maybe even dead.
In memory of the baby she’d almost had herself, Kat’s hand rested on her own belly, then fell away.
“Kat,” Louis said softly as Eloise closed her eyes, her mouth twisting as she cried, “we’ve been talking. We’re all going to work harder with you to find Nestor and to get us home.”
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