As soon as Kristen was left alone with her baby daughter, she lifted Amanda into her arms. “We need to hurry, sweetheart.”
Within minutes Kristen had Amanda dressed and sitting in the middle of the bed. The child resembled her mother, from her pale blond hair to her petite bone structure and delicate mouth. She was a shy little girl, with sweet brown eyes. Her mommy’s eyes.
Kristen went in search of the small black bag she’d stashed earlier in the far corner of the closet. From the bag, she pulled out a pair of jeans, a black T-shirt, and dark deck shoes. She dressed quickly, and while repacking the bag with necessities for Amanda, her fingers grazed hard steel.
Kristen hated guns, but the .22 derringer she’d hidden in the bag looked almost toylike in size, thus not so menacing. She’d actually chosen it because it was the smallest gun in Salva’s private collection and the one that might go unnoticed the longest. Then, too, it hadn’t looked all that complicated to load or shoot. No, she didn’t intend to use it on anyone. But the gun would be good for intimidation’s sake if necessary. No one needed to know she had never fired one before—that is, that she remembered.
Convinced she was doing the right thing, Kristen moved on to the next stage of her plan. With trembling hands, she forced herself to do the unthinkable—an act no mother would ever consider if she had a choice. She drugged her beloved Amanda with a small chip of one of her prescription sleeping pills.
Twenty minutes later Kristen shouldered the black bag, lifted her sleeping daughter into her arms, and slipped soundlessly down the grand hall of the Maland estate. She already knew where the guards would be and which escape route to take out of the house.
Praying Celia had lured Davis Carmichael away from his post at the front gate, she left the house. She had made friends with the guard dogs the first year on the island—her kindness rewarded this day by reaching the iron gate without alarming man or beast.
Unattended… Silently, Kristen thanked Celia for enticing Davis into one of the private gardens. Lifting her sleeping daughter’s foot, she punched the sequence of numbers she’d written on the sole of Amanda’s shoe into the electronic keypad. As the gate opened Kristen blinked back tears and hurried to the sailboat docked a quarter mile down the beach. She didn’t question her knowledge of sailing as she boarded the sleek vessel and stowed Amanda safely below; she simply thanked God for gifting her with a means to escape.
Minutes later the boat moved away from the dock. A few minutes more and Kristen hoisted the white sails to catch the tropical breeze. A mile from shore, she pulled the photo from her pocket. It was one of six she’d stolen from a file in Salva’s office. She didn’t know the man in the picture, but her husband must— Salva had gone to a lot of trouble to have the picture blown up to cover one entire wall in his office.
In the moonlight she studied the reckless-looking man with the shaggy black hair. He appeared to be in his mid-twenties. His sun-baked muscular chest and massive biceps looked as if they’d been carved from a slab of iron. His long, oaklike legs were crammed into well-worn jeans, and his feet were bare.
He had the look of a fisherman.
The unexpected assumption simply popped into Kristen’s head as she searched the photo. The background was out of focus, but the iron man was hunkered down over a hydraulic winch used on a fishing boat.
Hydraulic winch?
How did she know what he was repairing? Or that the winch was part of a fishing boat? Had she suddenly remembered something connected to her past?
From the moment Kristen had planned her escape, her destination had been St. Petersburg, Florida. It made sense. Salva said they’d met there.
But now…
She flipped over the photograph, anxious for another memory to pop out of thin air. On the back was written the name “Blu Devil,” and beneath that “Algiers, Louisiana.” Once again she brought her gaze back to the man in the photo, willing him to speak to her in some way.
Was it possible she knew him, possible he knew her? There had to be a reason why she’d been drawn to his picture besides his good looks.
Kristen had waited three years for a clue as to who she was. And now, suddenly, here it was. She could be trading one nightmare for another, but if there was a chance the Blu Devil was the answer to her prayers…the smallest chance.
Salvador Maland ground Davis Carmichael’s face into the quarry stone beneath his feet while his mother, Miandera, watched. “You’ll die slowly, Carmichael, screaming for a quick end. But it won’t come. Kristen’s gone and you say you don’t know who invaded my home and abducted her. How can that be? You were the guard on duty.”
“No more! Please, no more!”
Ignoring his plea, Davis was kicked in the ribs again where he lay on the terrace bleeding and moaning in pain. Close to becoming unhinged, Salva screamed, “No more, you say! There will be plenty more. She’s gone, you bastard! Gone!”
Another vicious kick stole the guard’s breath, the third rendered him unconscious. Salva motioned to the two guards who stood awaiting his instructions to take the man away.
“Yes, take him,” Miandera insisted. “Then clean up this mess.”
While the guards stepped forward to carry Davis Carmichael away, Miandera tangled her arm around her son and led him out of the gate toward the beach. Nearly as tall as Salva, Miandera Maland was sparrow-thin, and her sleek black hair was the longest on the island—reaching past her knees. Her skin was a golden brown from years spent in the Caribbean, her makeup as spare as her European smile.
As they walked the sandy beach, Salva admitted, “Kristen hasn’t been off the island since I brought her here, Mother. She hasn’t been out of my sight for more than an afternoon in three years. Dammit, how could something like this happen?”
“You feel betrayed. As you should, darling. The guards have failed you…us. They will be punished,” she assured him. “And Kristen, if she left on her own, also must be punished.”
Salva jerked to a stop and gazed down at his mother. “Are you suggesting that she’s left me? That she snuck off in the night while I slept?”
“We must consider every possibility, darling. There was no forced entry. The dogs didn’t even bark. And there’s been no ransom request.”
“Would that make you happy, to learn that she’s betrayed me? You never liked her.” Salva turned his hot anger on his mother. “Answer me! Are you happy that she’s gone?”
“Nothing that pains you would make me happy, darling. And my granddaughter is also gone, remember?”
His mother had been jealous of Kristen from the moment she had laid eyes on her. But when Salva had told her about the baby that he and Kristen were expecting, Miandera had quickly tempered her animosity—a true Maland heir was rare, something to covet, to cherish and protect.
“I’m sorry, Mother.”
“I have every confidence that you will return my granddaughter to me unharmed.” Miandera reached for her son’s hand and clasped it as they continued along the beach. “I did warn you, however, darling, not to fall in love with such a young girl. I do not say this to sting your pride, but Kristen never really came around
