Three hours later, soft moonlight fell through the curtains, highlighting Alex’s body on the bed like a lover’s caress. Elaina hated to do this to him, but it was the only way to prevent him from following her. The only way to protect him from her father. The only way to keep him alive so they’d have a chance at staying together forever.
She opened his laptop in front of his sleeping form, the tickets to New York she’d purchased for him displayed on the screen. That was the carrot to get him to do what he needed to do. The letter in her hand was the stick, an attack on the core of his abandonment fears in her heartbreaking attempt to convince him that he didn’t have a choice.
The woodcarving he’d made for her a few days earlier leaned against the laptop. She longed to bring the small, vaguely dragon-shaped lump with her, but then he’d know how much she treasured the flawed chunk of wood. How much she treasured him.
Logically, she knew she should leave the engagement ring behind as well, but she couldn’t do it. The reminder of what she hoped to return to, hoped to save, was her source of strength in carrying out this plan. With luck, he’d assume she’d taken his mother’s ring simply because of its diamonds.
“Goodbye, Alex,” she breathed, quieter than a whisper, and tucked the letter full of heartache beside him.
If their relationship was real, it would survive this lie.
She silently gathered her things and left the cottage behind. A stop at the island’s greenhouse provided plastic sheeting for waterproofing, and she took the opportunity to reorganize her laptop bag. Traveling light and leaving no trace meant everything had to fit in this one case: laptop, phone, cash, the fake IDs and credit cards she’d never used in front of Alex, and whatever clothes she could stuff inside.
After covering herself with all the coins that didn’t fit into her overflowing lockbox, she changed into her swimsuit. The clothes for later this morning went on top of the laptop bag, and she wrapped the plastic sheet around the pile, over and over, until watertight. Next, she needed to deal with her lockbox.
Down in the pitch-black underwater cave, the faint blue glow still shining from her eyes enhanced the night vision she naturally possessed from growing up in a cavern. She set the metal box on the shelf next to the remains of the pirate chest and opened the lid to her treasure.
Her talisman flickered in the low light. She picked up the palm-sized ruby and held it to her heart. “I’m not leaving you. I’m not abandoning you. I’m hiding you in a safe place.”
She unburied the ruby necklace and fastened it around her neck while continuing to strengthen the bond to her talisman. “I’m bringing your friend with me so we can stay in contact. But it’s too dangerous for all of you to go where I’m going. I need to know you’re safe so I can do what I have to do.”
She touched her talisman to the necklace, and the two gems cemented their connection to her and to each other. “I will come back for you.”
Once she was certain her talisman understood her intentions, she placed the precious stone back into the lockbox. Hopefully, her discovery of the rubies’ affinity for each other would hold even over thousands of miles. If not, this was going to be a short trip.
Other dragons had to have a way to leave their collections and yet tap into the full power of their hoard. Maybe this technique was part of the Dragon 101 training she’d missed by leaving early.
She grabbed a few of the lesser energy pieces, which might come in handy for bribes or extra cash, and the first gift from Alex, the diamond tennis bracelet. The extra room gave the coins stuck to her body a place to go. She added the silver discs to the safe and closed the lid. The combination locks wouldn’t protect her treasure from someone desperate to get inside, but only Alex knew of this cave.
She double-checked the plastic wrap around her laptop case and strung it across her body, messenger-bag style. Her lungs filled with air, she lowered herself into the water again.
Outside the cave, moonlight filtered through the waves above her. Walking to the main island along the sea floor was easier than attempting to swim. Even so, moving through the dense water took longer than she hoped.
Time wasn’t on her side for this part of her escape. She needed to get to Marsh Harbour before Alex awoke and thought he had a chance to catch her.
She monitored the surface for any boats, both for hitchhiking purposes and for Alex. But none passed overhead.
The physical exertion made her lungs ache for oxygen by the time she climbed onto Abaco Island, and she sucked in huge gulps of air. Luckily, the plastic wrap had done the trick, even after the long walk, and the clothes piled against the outside of her bag were dry. The dark night hid her change out of her swimsuit.
Once dressed, she stretched her senses to hunt for any metal on the water. One boat hull caught her attention a half mile down the coast. It didn’t feel like the Buttercup or the Revenge. Maybe she could save herself the twelve-mile trek to the Marsh Harbour marina.
Her jog down the beach revealed she was on a barrier island, not Abaco Island proper. Damn. Would she have to rewrap her bag and change clothes again?
Her worry about how to get to the main island for the next step of her plan sharpened when she neared the metal hull she’d sensed. The vessel wasn’t tied up to shore. Instead, the boat drifted in the sea several hundred feet away. Could she still get to the boat somehow and save herself the trouble of transferring off this barrier island and hiking to Marsh Harbour?
“Help! Is someone out there? I need help.”
“Hal-lo?” A man’s voice drowsily answered in an unfamiliar accent. A tourist, probably.
“Over here.” She decided to go for blonde hair, and she carried her shoes and splashed a few feet into the waves. “I need help.”
A sputtering motor churned, and the moonlight revealed a deep-sea fishing boat coming into view. The man at the helm sized her up with a leer. “What are you doing out here in the dark all by your lonesome, sugar?”
She hugged herself tight and bounced on her toes, faking worry. “Please, can you take me to Marsh Harbour?”
He stretched, peering behind her. “You running away from something?”
Latching onto this man was a risk, but she didn’t have a choice if she didn’t want to take the time—time she didn’t have—to wade to Abaco Island and hike to Marsh Harbour. At least his obvious interest made her job easier, now that her time with Alex had honed her flirting skills.
“My father.” She tilted her head and fluttered her eyelashes. “Will you please help me? You’d be my hero.”
His lips curled into an unattractive smile. “Of course, sugar. Come on up.”
She stepped farther into the water and let him help her aboard. Beer cans and chip bags littered the deck. The guy was probably living on the boat during his fishing vacation.
He eased out the throttle and popped open a beer for a pre-dawn breakfast. “Marsh Harbour, huh? What’s in Marsh Harbour?”
“An airport. I need to escape before he hurts me.”
“Oh now, why would anyone want to hurt such a sweet young thang? You sit right here next to ol’ Phil, and I’ll protect you.”
She ignored his invitation and cast a faux-worried glance over the back of the boat. “Can this boat go faster?”
“Sure can, sugar.” He revved the engine. “Let me show you how much power I’ve got for you.”
His innuendos were tolerable as long as she was getting what she wanted. But right as they neared the lights of Marsh Harbour, he finished off his beer and cut the motor.
She stifled a groan. Of course he was going to try something.
He swaggered toward her, a hungry look in his eye, and started sliding down his shorts. “I’ll take my payment for being your hero now.”
The engine restarted just as he lifted one leg out of his shorts.
“What the—” He spun around and stumbled to the ignition key.
The motor spluttered more than it had before—she couldn’t mentally control all its metal pieces and parts well—but the boat slowly carried them closer to land. Her would-be assailant didn’t notice their approach, his concentration solely on the misbehaving engine. She braced for impact before the boat knocked against a half-submerged boulder.
Clunk.
Off balance and hobbled by the swimsuit around his ankles, the guy fell to the deck. While he was disoriented, she heaved him overboard.
“Bitch!” He splashed, his arms flailing in every direction, but got his feet under him. Lucky for him, the water was too shallow to let him drown. “What the hell you think you’re doing?”
Despite his wild strokes, he closed in on the boat.
She grasped the wheel and steered away from the boulder. As she passed him on the other side of her circle, she threw an empty beer can at him and let her glowing eyes shine through her façade.
“You shouldn’t drink and drive. Leads to hallucinations.”
The guy recoiled enough that she had time to turn the ignition key before he reached the side. The motor now puttered more happily, and she had a chance to figure out how to work the boat.
Although she’d told the man she was running for the airport, the truth was that short of stealing an aircraft, no flights left from Marsh Harbour soon enough for her purposes. And her chances of being able to fly a stolen plane were somewhere between nil and none.
Boats were easier to operate. The only question was whether she’d take advantage of that slimeball and use this boat, or whether she should steal a different boat from the marina. A check of the fuel gauge told her the next stop needed to be the marina no matter what.
By the time she pulled up to the fuel pump on the marina’s dock, she’d gotten a feel for the boat’s controls. Meant to be a rental for fishing vacations, this craft was perfect for someone who didn’t know what they were doing. Someone like her.
It wasn’t the fastest thing she could get her hands on, but the ability to make it do what she wanted was important too. The fact that stealing a different boat—one whose owner hadn’t done anything wrong—would twist her insides had nothing to do with her decision.
Nothing at all.
She snorted. Even she didn’t believe her lies anymore. That fact had everything to do with her decision. Her time with Alex had irrevocably changed her, and she didn’t want to change back.
More to the point, she wasn’t really leaving him. She was just making him think she was. So her promise to follow human rules still applied.
On that note, she slid some cash under the door of the fuel and snack shop after filling the boat’s tank. The old-fashioned pump’s levers and switches had made it easy for her to turn on the flow of fuel without an employee in sight.
Next stop, Freeport. Most flights to the mainland went through Nassau, which meant if Alex chased her, Freeport would be safer. Freeport had one non-stop flight each morning to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Like her decision to go through Freeport, Fort Lauderdale wasn’t where they’d stopped before. Every choice was about trying to do what Alex wouldn’t expect.
The waves were choppier than when they’d come through weeks before, and the dim light of sunrise made it impossible to see well, but she plowed through the breaking swells as fast as she could. Even though she pushed the engine, she reached the canals of the Queen’s Cove neighborhood of Freeport with precious little time to spare. The subdivision was the closest place to dock a boat near the airport.
She killed the engine, left the keys in the ignition, and adjusted her bag across her chest before jumping onto shore. Her landing wobbled, and she took a second to get her land-legs back. A car approached on the main highway up ahead, and she scrambled to get there in time. The driver passed by her—and her thumb. She was about to make its engine quit when another car pulled up next to her.
An older woman with skin even darker than Uncle Lenny rolled down the window. “Where you going, chall?”
“The airport. My rental broke down, and I don’t want to miss my flight.” She bit her lip. Normally, she wouldn’t let her desperation show. “I have money.”
The woman swept her hand dismissively. “That’s not but three minutes down the road. In with you, chall.”
Elaina didn’t argue. Sure enough, they arrived at the airport before the woman could interrogate her. After a sincere “Thank you,” Elaina sprinted to the ticket counter.
Confirming her earlier research, seats were still available even though the plane was a small turboprop. Most tourists probably opted for the afternoon flight to extend their vacation for as long as possible.
An hour later, she sat heavily in a chair at her gate in the Fort Lauderdale airport. In her grasp was a one-way ticket for a non-stop flight to New York, where she’d find a way to get her father’s attention right before she boarded for Europe.
More importantly, she’d be over North Carolina before the first flights from Marsh Harbour arrived. And that was if Alex guessed she’d come here rather than Miami.
Only one thing could stop her now. If Alex had seen—and remembered—her other fake identities, he might be able to pull strings to keep her in the States. But to do that, he’d probably need George’s help.
She checked the time on her phone. Five minutes until they started boarding. That was time enough to see if George was on her side.
He picked up on the first ring. “Elaina?”
“Yes.”
She waited. Would he quiz her on where she was?
At his sigh, she asked the only question that mattered. “Is he on his way to the plant, or is he chasing me?”
“He’s not functional enough to chase you. What the hell did you tell him?”
Her eyes burned, and sharp pain shot through her, as if her ribcage had split open. She sank deeper into her chair, and cold crawled up her limbs. That answer was what she hoped for.
And what she’d dreaded.