Just Another Day in Paradise

by Justine Davis

  “Unfortunately that doesn’t help. They control the cell towers. If you use it, they’ll know you know they’re here, and they might come after you.”

  Kyle, who had been standing quietly and listening, asked, “What about that boat? The one I saw at the dock?”

  Mr. DeSouza frowned. “Which boat? We have many.”

  “The big blue one. With all the nets.”

  “Ah, Tikina’s fishing boat.”

  “It had an antenna on it,” Kyle said. “Does it have a radio?”

  A marine radio. Paige couldn’t help herself, she reached out and hugged Kyle. “They’d probably never think of that. You’re brilliant, Cooper,” she teased in the old way. And Kyle responded, grinning at her in the old way that gave her such hope she was almost afraid to acknowledge it.

  “Yes,” Lani’s father said, then cautioned, “but it doesn’t work well here, only out at sea.”

  “But he could go out to sea, couldn’t he?” Kyle asked. “And call for help? It would be safe, really. Mr. Rider—he damaged their boats, they can’t go after him even if they see him.”

  “Who should he call? We do not want war brought to our island.”

  He had a good point, Paige thought. “Take all the children with you on any boats you have. Then call Redstone,” she said. “Tell them what has happened. They have to stop the people who are coming in, it will only give these men more hostages.”

  DeSouza nodded. “It will be done.” He looked at her consideringly. “You are going now?”

  She nodded.

  “Going where?” Kyle asked.

  She took a deep breath, then faced her son. “Back to the hotel.”

  “The hotel?” He got there quickly. “You’re going for Mr. Rider!”

  “Yes.”

  “But you said it was crazy to go back there!”

  “I said it was crazy to try and storm it with no weapons. I’m going alone.”

  “Alone! And that’s not crazy?”

  “Maybe it is, but I have to.”

  “But they’ll kill you!”

  He sounded so upset at that possibility that Paige dared to hope perhaps he didn’t hate her quite so much anymore.

  “I hope not,” she said, as calmly as she could manage, given that she was trembling inside.

  “I’m going with you.”

  “No, Kyle. You—”

  “Why is it okay for you to go but not me?”

  “Remember what you said? About needing something to bargain with?”

  “Yeah,” he admitted warily.

  “Well, I have something. Ares wanted me to speak to the world for him. So I will.”

  “You mean…you’ll help him if he doesn’t kill Mr. Rider?”

  “Something like that.”

  “You still shouldn’t go alone,” Kyle insisted.

  “I have to or he’ll get suspicious. He may be, anyway.”

  “But it’s too dangerous.”

  “He won’t hurt me, not as long as he needs me,” Paige said. She only wished she believed that herself. For that matter Kyle didn’t look particularly convinced.

  “I still should go with you.”

  “I need you out here, free, Kyle.”

  She didn’t say that she’d never be able to do what she had to if she didn’t know he was safe. She didn’t think he’d be too amenable to that argument. So instead she told him something equally true. She pulled out the small cell phone Noah had given her. She gave it to her son and told him what Noah had told her.

  “If it all goes wrong, if shooting starts, push these two buttons. And tell whoever answers who and where you are and what’s happening, that the time for stealth is over.”

  “They’ll probably think I’m just some kid playing a joke,” he said glumly, thankfully not arguing with her.

  “Maybe. But tell them you’re using Noah’s phone because he’s in trouble. If Joshua Redstone is who I think he is, that will be enough.”

  The villagers had been right, Paige thought. The terrorists were stretched thin. There was no other reason she could think of that she’d made it this far without being spotted.

  She had delayed her departure a bit longer than she’d wanted, while she and Lani’s father made some further plans for the children’s safety. But now she was here. She crouched in the trees, watching the two men in the courtyard. They were armed like the others had been, and as she watched, one took a cigarette from the other, then lit both with an old-fashioned silver lighter. After a moment of what she supposed was the terrorist version of pleasantries exchanged, both turned and walked in opposite directions.

  She edged as close as she could get to the main building. There was only one guard that she could see, and it seemed as if he was staring right at her. Or at least at her hiding place. She stayed motionless, barely breathing, holding her position until her muscles ached with the strain. And finally, just when she knew she had to move, something drew his attention toward the water.

  She saw it was a pelican, having made his scoop, now landing to let the excess water drain from his bill. A moment later a laughing gull arrived, perched incongruously on the pelican’s back, waiting for any small fish that might escape from the bigger bird’s pouch. It was a comical act she’d seen a couple of times since she’d arrived, and she could only bless the birds for putting on the show again now.

  She stood up and ran for the doorway.

  If she hadn’t been so cramped from her forced stillness she might have made it. But she stumbled trying to dodge one of the artfully placed benches, and the guard whipped around, hands on his weapon.

  He yelled. Paige ran. She made it through the door before he had a chance to fire, but she could hear him running toward her. She ran to the elevator lobby, surprised there was no sign of other guards. It appeared Lani’s father had been accurate in his estimate of their strength.

  Then she took a deep, steadying breath and sat down on one of the richly upholstered sofas next to the elevators. She tried for an air of unconcern, crossing her legs and leaning back with her arms stretched out along the back of the sofa.

  As she’d hoped, the guard rushed in, then came to a skidding stop when he saw her.

  Confused, he just gaped at her for a moment.

  “You’re just in time,” she said, proud of how calm she sounded.

  The man’s confused expression turned to utter puzzlement. “In time?”

  “To take me to Ares.” She smiled at him, and his eyes widened. “He’s expecting me.”

  Rider wondered if the hum in his left ear would ever go away. It had begun after Filipo had whacked him on the side of the head with his rifle butt. That constant, low-grade buzz was going to drive him crazy.

  It was also something else to think about besides the ache in his head, the bloody nose he could barely breathe through anymore and the eye that felt swollen to about the size and consistency of an overripe tomato.

  The man who called himself Ares was having a great time. Of course, what was there not to enjoy? He’d taken over a small island of unarmed people, he’d established himself in the most luxurious of the suites—a large, three-bedroom affair that had been decorated with the care lavished on all Redstone resorts, and he had prisoners to serve him at his beck and call. The only glitch in his whole operation had been the escape of the children.

  And that, Rider thought, was the only damn thing that kept him going. No matter what else happened, Paige and the kids were out of the clutches of the terrorists.

  He doubted if Ares really believed him when he’d insisted he didn’t know where the kids had gone, that he’d just helped them get out. But when his story hadn’t changed despite the not-very-loving attentions of Ares’s two bodyguards, they’d finally stopped, just short of literally knocking his block off. Why Ares hadn’t ordered him killed on sight escaped his battered brain.

  He couldn’t deny that the leader of this force seemed to know what he was doing. And his men seemed ready to march int
o hell after him, if he ordered them to. In a different world, he’d be a politician, the kind that could blind people to what they were really doing by the sheer force of his personality.

  He let his head loll back on the chair. His arms ached from being tied behind him so long and his shoulders were in knots from the strain. His ankles were secured to the legs of the chairs. Ares had already made clear that he may have underestimated Rider once, but he wasn’t about to do it again.

  So here he sat, helpless in the living room of this spacious suite, watching Ares go over his plans for the arrival of the true prize of this venture: Redstone guests with a net worth in the billions. And he didn’t like being here, didn’t like what it implied—that Ares didn’t care what he saw or heard, because Noah wouldn’t be around to tell anyone about it afterward.

  It did him no good to think about it. He had a couple of ideas, but nothing he could put into action now. So for the moment he could only sit. And wait.

  He closed his eyes. And he summoned up the image of Paige in those seconds before she’d given in to his urging and run for her life. Those seconds when he’d put everything he was feeling into his gaze, those seconds when it almost seemed as if she knew, as if she saw everything he couldn’t say.

  He had really blown that part of his life, he thought with an almost wistful sadness. Carrie had been a nice person. He couldn’t blame her for leaving him because she wanted more from a husband than he’d been able to give. Linda had been a good person, too, only she’d been a bit smarter, smart enough to take off before she was tied to a man who didn’t know how to live except out of a suitcase.

  And Paige. The woman he’d never been able to forget, even after only one week with her under the worst of circumstances, even after only a single, stolen kiss he never should have taken. And now, just when he’d found her again and was beginning to realize that maybe he had a reason to think about slowing down, enemy troops roll in. If it wasn’t so disastrous, if those guns weren’t so damned real, it would almost be a farce.

  The cell phone Ares had commandeered for himself rang. So far Paige shouldn’t have had to use his, Rider thought, because so far Ares had kept his men under control. But now Rider was worried. He should have had her call, anyway, and at least try to get a message through to Redstone to stop the incoming guests. But all he’d been able to think about at the time was her safety and the children’s.

  That was why Josh left the action stuff to Draven, he thought wearily. John Draven could have saved the kids, the resort employees and everybody else without breaking a sweat.

  “Yes, right away,” Ares said into the phone after listening for a long moment. “I’m most curious.”

  Rider pried one eye open, wondering what could make a man like Ares curious. His wondering increased when, for the first time in what seemed like hours, Ares spoke to him.

  “It seems we are about to have company,” he said.

  “And here I am such a mess.”

  A flicker of something—Rider wasn’t sure if it was irritation or admiration—flashed across Ares’s face at his sarcasm.

  “I’m sure our guest won’t mind, since it’s someone you know.”

  Since he knew almost all of Ares’s hostages here in the hotel, that didn’t narrow it down much. But he did wonder which of them would, apparently voluntarily, ask to see the man.

  “Perhaps they even wish to check on you?” Ares suggested.

  Rider doubted that, but something about the amusement behind the suggestion made him wary. He was fairly sure he didn’t want to know what a terrorist would find amusing.

  Moments later he was certain. The door to the suite opened. Ares turned. Rider looked.

  And in walked Paige Cooper. Not quite smiling, but certainly not looking frightened.

  Looking as if she were perfectly happy to be there.

  “You’ve searched her?” Ares asked.

  “Of course he did,” Paige answered sharply, cutting off the guard’s reply. “And enjoyed it, pig that he is.”

  Rider stared, even though his field of vision was narrowed somewhat by his swollen eye. He stared as Paige walked into the room as if it were any hotel room under normal circumstances. As if Ares were any ordinary man. As if the entire world hadn’t gone insane.

  And then she spotted him. For an instant her steps faltered, and he thought she paled slightly. He could only imagine how bad he must look. But then she recovered and turned to face the man she’d apparently come to see.

  “Really,” she said, with a vague gesture toward Rider, “was that necessary?”

  Ares seemed a bit taken aback at her casual ease. Rider couldn’t blame him. What was she up to? Why on earth was she here? Had Ares recaptured her somehow? And the children? Had it all been for nothing? But he seemed as bemused as Rider was feeling.

  “He has caused me much trouble,” Ares said. “He is very lucky to be alive at all.”

  “Well, he must stay that way. I won’t have you indiscriminately hurting innocent people.”

  Ares gaped at her, his cool definitely rattled. “You dare to give me orders?”

  “I’m only following your example,” she said, and Rider wondered if she could possibly be as calm as she sounded. “I’m setting terms for my cooperation.”

  “Your cooperation?”

  “You wished me to speak for your hostages. I will, but only if no one is hurt or killed.” She glanced at Rider, and this time he knew he saw worry in her eyes. “Or hurt more.”

  It was there, in a faint tightness of her voice. He doubted Ares would see it—she sounded almost casual, as if her concern for him was an afterthought—but he could see in her face that he was why she’d done this. Surreptitiously he tested his bonds and found them as tight as ever.

  He felt a rush of tangled emotions. Anger that she’d risked herself to come here. And shock over why she’d done it, the reason that was so clear in her eyes and her words. And, he couldn’t deny, a selfish bit of warmth, that she would try and bargain for his life, using the only weapon she had.

  But most of all he felt despair, because if there was anything he’d learned in the hours he’d been sitting here, a captive audience to Ares’s actions, it was that this man, beneath his charismatic exterior, was utterly, totally ruthless. He would only use her concern against her.

  Ares shook his head slowly in amazement. “Are you truly so brave? Or are you just stupid?”

  “I’m neither,” Paige said. “I just don’t want anyone else hurt.”

  “How noble.” His voice was full of scorn now.

  “No. Just civilized.”

  It was the wrong thing to say. “And you think I will allow you to dictate terms? To me?”

  Ares’s voice was so incredulous that Rider knew Paige couldn’t help but realize she’d misjudged her importance to him. Then he looked at her face and realized she hadn’t misjudged, she’d guessed all along that this wouldn’t work.

  But she’d done it, anyway.

  “You,” Ares exclaimed, pointing a finger at her in a way that made Rider think he’d prefer to be pointing a gun, “have caused me as much trouble as he has. In fact, I now believe it was probably you who plotted the escape of those children.” He gestured toward Rider. “He doesn’t have the nerve.”

  You got that right, Rider thought. I haven’t got half the nerve she has.

  Paige gave it another try. “You said you wanted me to represent—”

  “I’ve changed my mind. Why should I trust you, when you’ve already ruined part of my plan? Where are they?”

  Paige went silent.

  “Where are they?” Ares demanded again.

  Her gaze flicked to Rider again, pointedly, and he wondered what she was trying to tell him. It was as if she was trying to reassure him, but about what he couldn’t be sure.

  “Does it matter?” she asked, looking back at Ares. “You’ll have your big hostages soon. Why bother with children whose families have no money, no prestige?”<
br />
  “You are a naive little fool, aren’t you? They are my backup plan, my insurance.”

  “Insurance?”

  “Of course!” It seemed he was losing patience now. “The world may be willing to let some rich pigs die, but they will always cave in for children. I will kill just one, and they will crumple!”

  Paige stared at the man. Then she said something, too low for Rider to hear.

  Ares backhanded her across the face.

  Rider’s shoulders screamed with pain as he fought to get free. Paige went down to her knees, one hand to her face. Rider could see her biting her lip, could see the tears of pain welling in her eyes, but she made no sound. He didn’t care if Ares shot him here and now, he had to—

  “You wish to die for her?” Ares said, looking at Rider.

  Rider could see that Ares looked almost hopeful. And he knew that if he betrayed anything more than a normal concern, Ares would realize what Paige meant to him, and he would use it against them both. He knew that no matter what Ares did to him, he would never tell him where the children were. But if he instead did it to Paige…

  “She’s a woman,” he protested, making sure it sounded rather weak as Paige slowly stood up.

  “And she has crossed me. Be still, or you will die right here, and she can watch it.”

  Without even looking at her, Ares hit her again. This time a small cry escaped her, and she staggered back a step and a half. Rider jerked as if he’d been the one struck. Only then did Ares turn to her.

  “Where are they?”

  She straightened, met Ares’s gaze. The tears were spilling over now, but she stood squarely, refusing to speak. Rider’s stomach knotted at her courage.

  “You will tell me,” Ares promised.

  “Go straight to hell,” Paige said.

  He hit her again and again, punctuating each blow with a shouted “Where?”

  Rider couldn’t stand this. It was ripping him apart inside, causing a pain much worse than the one in his wrists, which were now bloody as he fought his restraints. Only the memory of the children, trying so hard to be brave, kept him from breaking and telling Ares himself where they were. The memory of little Hannah, clinging to him as if he were her only protection in a world suddenly turned ugly and cruel. If he broke now, what they had done—and what Paige was doing now, enduring this pain—would be for nothing.