The Trouble With Paradise

TWENTY-SIX

Faster,” Brandy cried. “We’ve got to get him back faster.”

“On it.” Dorie looked down at the swells barreling into the boat. “But I don’t want to kill us.”

“Circle around.” Michael spoke without opening his eyes. “Head into the swells, hit them perpendicular, so we don’t capsize.”

Right. No capsizing. She whipped them around, the boat nearly tipping up on its end when she hit a swell too hard.

“Into them,” Michael ordered again.

Into the swells. Into the swells. Into the swells. Dorie repeated it to herself like a mantra. She could see the house, the little canal they’d come out of, the dock that she was going to pull up to-if there was a God-and a figure standing on that dock.

Legs apart, radio up to his mouth, hair whipping around his face in the wind, Christian looked right at her from hundreds of yards away. “Are you hit?”

The button. God, she’d forgotten Christian still hadn’t heard a word she’d said. She picked up the radio and pushed in the button. “Michael was shot! We’re coming in-theoretically. Because I don’t know how to park this thing.”

“I can’t hear you, you’re breaking up. Are you fucking hit?”

“Not me. Michael.”

“What?”

Jesus! She looked up, screamed at the swell she drove straight into, nearly flipping them over, and tossed the radio aside to use both hands on the wheel. Sorry, Christian. She had to concentrate to turn into the canal.

Only she missed. She actually missed. “Oh, God.”

“Gentle,” Christian’s voice said, and she realized he was speaking to her through the radio lying on the seat. “Gentle on the wheel, that’s all.” His voice came soft and easy. Laid-back. As if they had all the time in the world. “Make a wide turn and come back, try it again. That’s it,” he said as she followed his directions, and this time made it into the canal. “Don’t worry about anything but this,” he said. “Denny’s tied up, and I’ve still got Ethan in sight. You’re doing great, Dorie.”

Bullshit, she was doing great. She was hyperventilating. Her heart was in her throat and her legs were sweating. “The steering on this is stupid!”

He couldn’t hear her, but he responded anyway. “Ease up on it, there you go. Ten more feet and I’ve got you.”

In five, he took a flying leap from the dock and landed like a cat right next to her, pushing her aside to maneuver the boat into the slip with an extremely irritating ease. “Tie us,” he called to Andy and Cadence, who were running toward them to help.

Then Christian let go of the wheel and hauled her up to her toes. “Thank Christ,” he said, looking her over. “Jesus, I thought-” He shook his head, his breathing hard and uneven.

At the sound and feel of him, her heart sort of swelled, and then jammed in her throat, which didn’t explain why her eyes began to burn. Strong as she’d had to be the past few days, she felt strongest right here, right now, surrounded by him. What she felt for him was so, so much bigger than she’d even imagined, and, more shocking, couldn’t be contained. “I love you,” she whispered, the words escaping without permission.

He went still, staring at her.

Oh, God. That thinking out loud thing really had to stop! “Michael’s been shot.”

As a diversion, it worked. He blinked, and very carefully put her down before moving to Michael’s side.

She stood there a moment more, swaying in the breeze, wishing for one good wave to just rise up and swallow her. Yeah, that would work.

But somehow she managed to draw air into her lungs, and then turned to see what was happening behind her. Christian had dropped to his knees at Michael’s side, where he’d pulled Brandy’s shirt away from the wound at his shoulder.

“How bad?” Brandy asked him tightly.

“Not bad,” Michael said.

“Shut up,” Brandy told him, eyes on Christian. “Tell me.”

“Not bad,” he said, echoing Michael’s words. “Bullet went through. Let’s get him up to the house.”

“My boat,” Michael said, looking a bit pasty. “We have to get my boat.”

“Oh my God!” Brandy exploded. “Will you stop being a stupid boy for a freaking minute? Jesus Christ, you’re going to bleed to death and you’re worried about a stupid toy, like a… a-”

“Stupid boy?” Michael’s lips twisted, in a combination of good humor and pain.

Brandy glared at him. “This isn’t funny. Nothing about this is funny.” And she burst into tears.

Michael went immediately contrite, reaching for her.

“No, no, don’t do that,” she sobbed. “I’m okay. Delayed stress. That’s all.”

But Brandy couldn’t stop crying. And because Dorie felt like crying, too, she hugged her tight, and together they watched as Christian and Andy helped Michael out of the boat and up to the house.

“He’s going to be okay,” Dorie said to Brandy.

“Yes, he is,” Brandy agreed. “The son of a bitch. Of course he is. It’s us I’m worried about.” She sighed and wiped away her tears. “So. You love the gorgeous doctor?”

“Heard that, did you?”

“Honey, the whole world heard it.”

While Christian stitched up Michael, his brain whirled so hard it hurt.

Dorie loved him.

How had that happened?

“Shouldn’t he stay lying down for a while?” Brandy asked when he was done, hovering like a mother hen.

“No,” Michael said.

“Yes,” Christian said.

“No,” Michael said again, and got up. He wobbled, swore, then stepped to the door.

On the other side of it stood Dorie, Andy, and Cadence.

Dorie had been pacing, but she jerked to a stop. She looked at a spot over Christian’s shoulder instead of meeting his eyes. “Hi.”

“Hi.” He wanted to haul her up against him and hold on tight. He wanted to yell at her for nearly getting shot. He wanted to kiss her. But mostly he just wanted to look at her.

The others had circled around Michael, urging him to sit. Christian went directly to Dorie.

“Um, about before.” She shifted her weight back and forth on her feet. “You know, when my mouth got the case of the runs? If you could just forget everything I said, that would be good.”

She wanted him to forget that she loved him. He’d work on that.

Fat chance.

“Christian?” Brandy called. “Michael’s insisting on talking to Denny. Tell him that’s a bad idea.”

“Colossally bad,” Christian said, his eyes never leaving Dorie.

“Where is he?” Michael asked.

“On the dock where you last saw him. Tied up.”

Michael headed out.

“Goddamn,” Brandy said, and grabbing Cadence and Andy, followed him.

“We’ve got to go with them,” Dorie said, and walked out, too.

“Goddamn,” he said, repeating Brandy’s sentiment and went after her.

Three minutes later, Dorie was on the dock with the others, standing in front of a trussed-up Denny.

Denny eyed them all. “Ethan get away, huh? Told you.” His laugh was unpleasant.

“Premature elation,” Christian said. “Might want to see a doctor about that.”

Denny’s smile faded. “Fuck you.”

“I want answers,” Michael said, looking pale but strong enough. “Now.”

Denny tucked his lips into his mouth.

Christian sighed. “It’s about the insurance claim, isn’t it.”

“What insurance claim?” Dorie asked.

“On the Sun Song,” Christian said. “We had a claim on our last cruise. One of the passengers lost a bag overboard. She claimed all her jewelry was in it, half a mil worth. The insurance wouldn’t pay out and the woman is suing Denny and the owner personally.”

“Bitch,” Denny said. “Her insurance would have covered it, but she wouldn’t make her own claim. She wanted me to pay out, even though I didn’t take her damn jewelry.”

“That’s what happens when you sleep with so many passengers,” Christian said.

Cadence’s mouth fell open. “You… sleep with passengers?”

“At least one each cruise. The oddest thing is,” Christian mused, “that it should have been the owner’s problem, not yours.”

Denny turned his head and looked away.

“Unless…” Christian glanced behind him at everyone standing there. “See, I’ve never met the owner directly. Denny’s always said the man’s too busy to be bothered. I always found that incredibly strange.” He turned back to Denny. “You’re the owner, aren’t you?”

“No.”

“Working closely with him then, insurance scam, right? Yeah. I’m close.” Christian stared at him. “No, it’s not you, it’s… Ethan?”

Denny’s expression gave the truth away.

“Unbelievable.”

“He never wanted anyone knowing,” Denny admitted. “He likes the anonymity of it.”

“So you, what, sleep with the passengers and then he steals from them? Is that how this works? And then you split the profits?”

“You think you’re so righteous and moral,” Denny said, “but if you’d been in my position, you’d-”

“What? Never have stolen in the first place? Sure as hell never murder someone to keep my secrets?”

“I didn’t kill Bobby!”

Dorie’s mind whirled, back to that first day on the Sun Song, when she’d overheard that odd conversation…

“I’m innocent!” Denny yelled at them.

Christian shook his head. “Then why were you holding a knife on Cadence?”

“I was holding her. And the knife. I wasn’t holding the knife on her! I was trying to flush out Ethan! I followed him down here, hoping to get a confession out of him for killing Bobby.”

Christian crossed his arms in disbelief. “So you didn’t know. Is that what you want us to think?”

“Look at me,” Denny told him. “Do you really think me capable of hurting Bobby?”

Christian looked at him for a long moment, then shut his eyes and shook his head. “I want to say no.”

“Thanks, man. Untie me.”

“Don’t thank me. Because I won’t be untying you. Here’s the thing, Denny. I wouldn’t have been able to say it about Ethan either.”

“I didn’t do it!”

“Maybe not Bobby. But you’re in on the insurance scam. On the theft.”

To Dorie, it was all making sense, terribly horrifying sense. “I heard you talking that first day,” she said slowly. “It was you talking to Ethan, you said seventy-five/twenty-five but then you settled for fifty-fifty.” Her heart stopped. “And then you told him to…” She swallowed hard, understanding. “Take care of the mess. Bobby was the mess.”

Denny closed his eyes. “Killing Bobby was not my idea. But then the kid caught Ethan red-handed and threatened to talk. Threatened to expose us. Ethan… he lost it.”

They were all quiet for a long moment as it sank in.

“But why destroy the ship?” Brandy finally asked.

“Not planned,” Denny grated out. “At least not on my part.” He stared out at sea, his jaw tight. “I’m thinking Ethan had a different agenda altogether. He must have been worried about evidence.”

“So where did Ethan take my boat?” Michael asked in a tone that suggested his yacht had better be safe.

“I don’t know, but I could help find both Ethan and the yacht if you let me.” Denny tried to stand but Christian put a hand on his head.

“Come on, Christian-”

“Where is he, Denny?”

“I told you, I don’t know.”

“See, here’s the thing. I don’t believe you.”

“It’s the truth!”

Christian’s gaze scanned the horizon. “Michael, how many years in jail would you say he’s looking at so far?”

“Without his cooperation? Ten to twenty, easy.”

“Yes, I’d agree,” Christian said thoughtfully. “Too bad he won’t cooperate, I’m sure he could cut a deal.”

“Hey!” Denny shouted when they all turned toward the stairs, leaving him there.

No one stopped.

“You can’t hold me, I didn’t kill him!” he yelled to their backs.

They all kept walking.

“I didn’t do anything wrong!”

No one stopped at that either.

“Fine! So the whole insurance scam thing was a little shaky, but I didn’t do anything else wrong!”

Still walking…

“All right. Fuck! You win! I thought Ethan was going to screw me out of the money so I sabotaged the damn boat for the additional claim. This is before I knew Ethan had offed Bobby, so don’t link me with that crime. You happy?”

They all turned and looked at him, and at their expressions, he deflated like a balloon. “Okay, so you’re not happy.”

“Look at that, a captain and a genius,” Christian said.

“I only did it so we could make a claim and pay off that bitch and still keep our livelihood. Tons of people do shit like that every day. Yeah, it makes me greedy and selfish, and yeah, we pulled the scam as often as possible to line our pockets and buy the boat outright, but I did not kill Bobby. I am not a murderer, and you can’t just leave me here. I didn’t do anything to any of you.”

“Except sabotage the boat,” Andy said.

“Which caused us to shipwreck,” Brandy said.

“That’s attempted murder,” Christian said.

Denny practically choked on that. “Are you kidding me? We were never even in danger! Jesus Christ, did anyone so much as break a damn nail?”

In unison, everyone looked at each other, then began walking again.

“Wait! I didn’t mean that. Stop. Jesus, stop! All I meant is that being on the island wasn’t so bad, right? And look where we are now, in paradise!”

“Except none of us wanted to be on this island,” Dorie pointed out.

“Damn A straight,” Andy said.

“Duh,” Cadence said.

Brandy looked at the sky.

“Um, Brandy?” Cadence said. “Back us up?”

“Maybe none of us planned for the island thing…” Brandy glanced at Michael. “But not all of us are having a bad time.”

Michael, so rich he could have bought God, not to mention had been shot only an hour ago, smiled.

Dorie blinked, then looked at Christian. He met her gaze, with no outward sign of what he was thinking-except for the slight flicker of heat. And suddenly she was vividly reminded of the absolute not bad time she’d had right here on the island.

With him.

In the waterfall, on the beach.

In the shower, only a hour and a half ago.

He arched a brow, and if she wasn’t mistaken, his lips curved. Was he thinking about when he’d tugged off her wet clothes and hoisted her up, pushing inside her until she’d cried out his name?

Of course not. He was more disciplined than she, and could control himself.

Plus, he hadn’t done the unthinkable. He hadn’t been stupid enough to fall in love with her, and then, oh yeah, let’s not forget, admit it in front of everyone.

At least it was almost over. Soon she’d be home.

She’d thought that she’d be going back with a tan, maybe some beautiful pictures. Instead, she was going home with much more than that. Such as the knowledge that maybe she was far stronger than she’d ever given herself credit for. Good to know. And also that she needed to go after her dreams, which meant no more Mr. Stryowski…

But had all this newfound self-knowledge been worth risking her life for?

Yes.

And wasn’t love also worth the risk?

She had no idea where the hopeful little voice came from, but yes, love should be worth the risk-if it went both ways. Too bad it didn’t in this case.

“Well, I’m glad to be getting out of here,” Cadence said, then glanced at Michael. “No offense.”

“None taken.”

“I can’t wait to get back and kiss home plate,” Andy said. “I think I’ll write a tell-all about our adventures here.”

Michael nodded. “Retain those movie rights, and maybe we’ll make a deal someday.” He looked around. “You’ll all be home soon, and happy for it, I imagine.” His eyes cut to Brandy. “Right?”

She didn’t look at him, so he pulled her around, and in front of everyone, tipped up her chin and looked into her eyes. “You could stay.”

“I have a job.”

“Work for me instead.”

“I don’t do private shows.”

“My assistant got married last week. Replace her.”

Brandy’s mouth fell open, speechless for what Dorie suspected was the first time in her entire life.

“Interested?” Michael asked.

“I don’t do sex. Not for a job. Not for any job.”

He arched a brow. “I said assistant, not piece of ass.”

“You are serious.”

“Of course I’m serious.”

“Oh my God…” Brandy looked bowled over.

“Come on,” Michael coaxed. “Take something good out of Denny’s stupidity.”

“Hey,” Denny objected. “If good stuff happens, I should get the credit for it.”

Michael didn’t take his gaze off Brandy. “What do you say?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I’ll be your assistant.”

Michael’s smile was slow and pleased.

“Hey, why don’t you offer everyone a big life change,” Denny said. “Then no one can blame me for anything.”

“Not to let him be right or anything,” Brandy said to Michael. “But did I mention Cadence is an artist?”

“Do you have a portfolio?” Michael asked.

“Why, are you going to put my art on your walls?”

“If you’re any good.”

Cadence stared at Michael. “I’m really good.”

“My idea,” Denny said. “Remember that. And for Andy’s book, and the subsequent movie. I want credit for all of it, because you’re all good to go now.”

“Wait. Dorie,” Brandy said. “She’s-”

“A designer,” Dorie filled in for her, saying it out loud and proud, feeling it warm her from the inside out. “But I’m going home to get started on my own.”

Michael smiled. “Good for you.”

“See? Slate clean,” Denny said.

“What about me?” Christian asked more than a little wryly. “How are you going to appease me?”

Denny laughed. “Like I could appease you.”

“You could.”

“How?”

“I’ve given you two years of my life. You’re going to be lucky to sail away from this and keep your own freedom. So give me mine. Forgive my father’s debt.”

“I can’t, the deal wasn’t mine, but-”

“Ethan’s, as I now know. But you could make it go away, you know damn well you could.”

“How? I’m trussed up like a turkey on Thanksgiving.”

“Say it, goddamn you.”

Denny stared at him, but let out a long breath. “Fine. It’s done.”

“Spell it out.”

“I release you from your father’s debt.”

“Entirely.”

“Entirely. We’re even. Congratulations, you’re now the best doctor in the South Pacific to be both homeless and jobless at the same time, you bastard.”

Christian’s mouth split in a grin that was so beautiful, Dorie felt her heart swell, and then rip wide open. She grinned back, and stepped into his arms for a tight hug.

“You don’t have to be jobless,” Michael told Christian. “After what you did for me, I’d be glad to help you get a job.”

“Thanks.” Christian squeezed Dorie, then let her go. “And the islands have been great, but I’m ready to get back to it.”

“Back home?” Dorie asked with remarkable calm considering the train wreck occurring between her heart and soul.

“Yes.”

To France. She’d known this. She’d expected it. And he hadn’t made her any promises so there was no reason for her to feel like the bottom had just fallen out of her world, no reason at all.

“Do you hear that?” Brandy asked. They all went still to catch the humming that was getting louder and louder.

“A helicopter?” Cadence shielded her eyes. “A helicopter!”

This was greeted with such excitement that Dorie made herself smile along with the others. Because rescue was good. Great actually, because now she could put her new epiphany to the test.

She was going home to live her life. To design clothes, which had been her dream for a very long time. This trip halfway around the world had given her that, if nothing else.

Yep, any second now she’d feel the joy…