outer door swung open slowly and Debbie took a deep breath. She was going to be firm. She would insist on speaking to the owner of the island. Demand that they straighten this mess out and let her go. No more feeling sorry for herself. From now on, she was going into battle mode. She’d been standing up for herself for years. And this was no time to quit.
She braced herself for whatever was coming. At least, she’d thought she was braced. But how could she ever have been prepared to see the man who walked through that door and looked at her through hard, green eyes.
He wore black slacks and a long-sleeved white shirt with the collar open at the neck. His long, sun-streaked brown hair hung loose, almost to his shoulders and when he smiled, Debbie felt a jolt of something hot and rich that she hadn’t experienced in nearly ten years.
“Gabe?” she whispered, hardly able to believe her own eyes. “Gabriel Vaughn?”
“Hello, Debbie,” he said, and his voice was as deep as she remembered it. “Long time.”
She blinked at him and watched as he strolled casually across the jailhouse floor toward her cell. Despite her situation, emotions charged through her system, nearly battering her with memories and images of what she and Gabe had once shared. She couldn’t help it. Just looking at his face was enough to wipe away the years between and remind her all too clearly of the last night she’d seen him.
The night he’d asked her to marry him.
The night she’d said no and walked away.
Now, his footsteps sounded loud against the concrete floor. When he came closer to her, the slanted bars of sunlight outlined him, keeping his face in shadow. “Looks like you’ve got some trouble, Deb.”
“You could say that,” she admitted, and when he didn’t speak again, only stared at her, she kept talking, as though she couldn’t stand the tense silence that stretched out between them. “It’s all a mistake, obviously. I mean, I haven’t done anything wrong…”
“Haven’t you?”
“No.” She didn’t like the speculative tone of his voice, as if he were wondering just what kind of criminal she’d turned out to be. “It’s some mix-up with my passport or something and they brought me here to talk to the owner of the island. But he hasn’t come around and I’ve been here two hours already and—”
He braced one arm on the bars of her cage and looked down at her, with something like amusement flickering in his eyes.
“What’re you doing here, Gabe?” she asked as a slow curl of suspicion unwound in the pit of her stomach.
“Here on the island? Or here in the jail?”
“Here,” she said. “At the jail. Why’re you here?”
“When there’s a problem, I get called in to handle it,” he said, lazily pushing away from the bars to wander back and forth in front of her cell again.
“Oh.” Debbie’s gaze followed him as he walked to the far end of the jail, then turned and strolled back again, like a man in absolutely no hurry at all. Of course, why would he be bothered? He wasn’t the one in the jail cell. Impatience fluttered to life inside her. “So you’re the police chief or something?”
One corner of his mouth quirked. “Or something,” he allowed as he stopped directly opposite her and stared down into her eyes. “We don’t really have a police force on the island. Just security. If we happen upon some real criminals, we hold them here until we can ferry them over to Bermuda. But the little stuff, we handle ourselves.”
“And what am I?” she asked. “Small stuff or ferry-worthy?”
“Well, now, that’s something we have to figure out, isn’t it?”
“Gabe,” she said quickly, “you know me. You know I’m not a criminal. Heck, I don’t even jaywalk.”
His smile faded and he shook his head. “Ten years ago, I could have said I knew you. At least, I thought I did at the time…”
He let that statement hang there for a moment and Debbie knew he was remembering their last night together ten years ago. Just as she knew he wasn’t smiling at the memory. She’d turned down his proposal, despite the fact that she’d loved him madly. She’d walked away from him when everything in her had yearned to be with him.
“Gabe,” she said softly.
“But now,” he quickly interrupted whatever she might have said, “who’s to say? It’s been a long time, Debbie. People change. Maybe you’ve become a master thief.”
“I have not.”
He shrugged. “Or a smuggler.”
“Gabe…”
Fixing his gaze on hers, he said, “Look, bottom line, you’re not going anywhere until the owner of the island says you are. He makes the rules here.”
Debbie’s hands tightened on the slick, cold metal bars. She wouldn’t be getting any help from her long-ago lover. She could see in his eyes that he wasn’t exactly thrilled to be seeing her again. So, fine. She’d handle this on her own. All she needed was five minutes with the mysterious island owner and she knew she could talk her way out of this mess. But it would help if Gabe would at least give her a little information on who she might be facing.
“So there’s no police here. No courts. Just some rich guy who owns his own little universe?”
“Pretty much.”
“So he’s like a king?”
“He thinks so.”
He gave her a quick grin and just for an instant her fear eased off. Gabe was a good guy. No matter how things had ended between them, she knew he’d never let her come to any real harm.
Of course, she was still in jail.
“Fabulous.” Anxiety churned with anger and became a frothy, unsettling mix in the pit of her stomach. “Is he reasonable? Will he listen to me?”
“Probably depends on what you have to say.”
“Damn it, Gabe, at least tell me what he’s like. What I can expect.”
A slow, lazy smile curved his mouth and his green eyes darkened until they were the color of shadow-filled forests. “I think you should expect to be staying at Fantasies for a while, Deb.”
“What?” Her stomach dipped again and her mouth went dry as she watched his features tighten. “I can’t stay. I have a life. A job. Responsibilities.”
“All of which will just have to wait until you’re allowed to leave.”
Debbie snorted despite the trickle of fear dripping through her bloodstream. “Allowed to leave? What? You think the island’s owner can somehow keep me here?”
Gabe lifted one shoulder in a shrug that said clearly he didn’t care one way or the other. “You’re the
