38

“Sure you don’t want to join us?” asked Emily.

Chloe wrinkled her nose at her sister. “Why would I want to walk around a hot, wet forest?”

Emily shrugged. “For something different to do. Vallée de Mai is a World Heritage Site.”

“No, thanks. I’m perfectly fine.” Sipping from a freshly opened coconut, Chloe settled back on her beach chair beside the palm-thatched bar on Anse Volbert. She closed her eyes and sighed contentedly.

The exquisite beach, an unbroken line of silky white sand fringed by lush green takamaka trees, stretched the entire length of the bay. At anchor in its crystal-clear waters, the Orchid held court over the other luxury sailing yachts and catamarans moored off Praslin Island. Brad had just returned the tender to the yacht, having dropped off Mr. Sterling and his fiancée at an exclusive golf and spa resort on the island’s northwestern tip. This meant the girls had the whole day to themselves—but Emily was impatient for a change of scenery.

“Don’t get lost,” said Ling, waving Connor off and grinning as she too made herself comfortable on a beach chair.

Taking a little yellow taxi, Connor and Emily were delivered five minutes later outside the entrance to Vallée de Mai. A small group of tourists were filing past a rustic wooden ticket office that marked the start of the forest trail. Connor paid the entrance fee, and he and Emily took the sandy path into the eco-reserve. A tangle of green fronds enveloped them, and they were soon immersed in an Eden-like setting.

“Vallée de Mai is the only place on earth where you can see the rare coco-de-mer palms,” explained Emily, reading from the pamphlet she’d been given. “The palms produce the largest seed in the plant kingdom.”

“No kidding,” said Connor. “Look at the size of them!”

On a wooden bench beside the trail, three massive heart-shaped nuts had been laid out. Emily tried to pick one up and almost toppled over with the weight. Laughing, Connor tried to lift it. It was as big as his upper torso and heavier than a medicine ball, and even he struggled with the enormous seed.

“Supposedly they have aphrodisiac properties,” said Emily, referring to the pamphlet.

“Aphro-what?”

“You know . . .” said Emily, a slight flush to her cheeks, “romantic effects.”

“Really?” said Connor, quickly putting down the two-lobed nut.

Emily laughed and said, “Only when eaten.”

Connor stared at the massive seed. “What? All of it?”

They exchanged amused glances, then sniggered to each other. As a middle-aged couple strolled up behind them, they stifled their laughs and continued down the path. They trekked more deeply into the emerald-tinged undergrowth, and the atmosphere became almost eerie, the dappled sunlight occasionally disappearing altogether beneath the monstrous corrugated leaves of the coco-de-mer trees. Like giant umbrellas, the fan palms soared a hundred feet up to a shadowy canopy where unseen creatures flitted from branch to branch.

“This place is like a real-life Jurassic Park,” breathed Connor, gazing around at the primeval forest.

The call of bulbul birds and the whistling of black parrots sounded among the trees. The air was heavy with the odor of decaying vegetation and the sweet scent of flowering orchids. At any moment, Connor expected a pack of velociraptors to burst from the undergrowth and surround them.

As they wound their way along the path, Emily turned to him, her eyes downcast. “You know . . . I’ve not met anyone quite like you before,” she admitted.

Connor glanced sideways at her, wondering where this conversation was going.

“I mean,” she quickly added, “who could understand my experience.”

Connor smiled gently. “Well, I’ve only got a notion of what you went through. I was a hostage for a few days. You were held for months.”

“Yeah, and it felt like years,” she said, running her fingers through the fronds of a fern. “But it never had to be that way.”

“What do you mean?”

Emily looked up at the canopy where a bright green frog clung motionless to a palm leaf. “My father wouldn’t pay the ransom. He abandoned me.”

Connor tried to hide the shock on his face. “I’m sure he . . . he was advised to get proof of life before paying anything,” he said, fumbling for a logical reason.

Emily shook her head gravely. “My father has always been a ruthless businessman. That’s why he’s so successful. The kidnappers were originally asking for five million dollars. At first he plain refused. Then he bargained them down. And down.”

No wonder Mr. Sterling’s so rich, thought Connor, if he can play hardball with his daughter’s life at stake.

“But isn’t that just part of the normal negotiation process?”

“I suppose so, but he reduced them to five hundred thousand dollars in the end.” Emily looked Connor in the face, her eyes shining with tears. “He makes more than that in a week! Just goes to show how much my father values me.”

Connor shifted awkwardly on the balls of his feet, uncertain what to say. He watched as another party of tourists made its way through the forest toward them. “Look, I’m not really in a position to judge. But your father has hired me and Ling to protect you and your sister. Surely that proves he cares for you.”

Emily’s gaze returned to the tree frog, which still hadn’t moved. “For my sister, at least,” she mumbled, then walked on.

Connor remained by her side as she continued to talk. “Chloe and I may look the same. But in truth we’re yin and yang. I have no interest in business, media or socializing. That’s why Chloe’s always been the favorite. My father expects her to succeed him in managing his empire.”

“But your sister doesn’t seem too happy with him at the moment.”

“That’s because of Amanda,” said Emily, her tone hardening. “We’re supposed to be on vacation as a family, yet we’ve barely seen our father.”

Out of nowhere the hairs on Connor’s neck rose. He had the distinct feeling of being watched. His alert level went up a notch from Code Yellow to Code Orange. While pretending to admire the forest, he swept his gaze over the faces of the tourists behind them.

“I suppose it’s understandable, in a way,” Connor said, spotting a black man in wraparound sunglasses and a blue baseball hat. The tourist was studying his pamphlet and purposefully not looking in their direction. “They seem very much in love.”

“That’s the problem. And it’s not helped by the fact that Amanda is so”—Emily appeared to struggle for the right word—“self-centered. She only shows interest in us when our father’s around. It seems like an act. Chloe’s feeling pushed out by him, and she’s really not used to that.”

Sliding his phone from his pocket, Connor accessed the mug shot of the criminal Doug Carter on his screen. He tried to match the faces, but it was difficult since the tourist’s features were mostly hidden by his hat and sunglasses. Still, Connor’s sixth sense was twitching.

“I can see how Amanda’s presence could cause problems,” Connor replied, his attention now half on the man behind them. “Tell you what, shall we go back to the beach? I spotted a cool-looking ice-cream hut. They have mango and coconut flavors.”

“Do they have coco-de-mer flavor too?”

Connor glanced at Emily, surprised, then realized she was attempting to make a joke. “Well, let’s find out,” he said, smiling.

Following the circular trail around to the entrance, Connor subtly checked behind them. The suspect man had broken away from the rest of the tourists and was keeping pace with them. Connor went to Code Red. High alert. Exiting the nature reserve as fast as he could, Connor hurried Emily over to the waiting taxi.

“You must be desperate for ice cream,” she said, laughing as he opened the door for her and clambered in after her. Connor was now glad he’d been wise enough to pay the driver extra to wait for them. As the taxi pulled away, he glanced through the rear windshield. The man with wraparound sunglasses had disappeared.

“Are you all right?” asked Emily.

“Yeah, just thought I saw someone I knew,” Connor replied, allowing his alert level to return to Code Yellow, “but I was wrong.”

When they returned to the beach, Chloe and Ling were surrounded by a group of boys. Ling stood chatting with one of them, keeping a cautious eye on the scene. Chloe was fully reclined, teasing a lock of hair with a finger while laughing with two boys perched on the end of her beach chair. She looked over and waved excitedly as Connor and Emily approached.

“We’ve been invited to a beach party!”