Still dripping from her swim, she smiled innocently. “What are you two doing down here?”
“Problems with the early harvest. I’ll be up in a minute.”
“Hurry,” she said. “I don’t want to eat breakfast alone.” She gave a bit of a pout, but headed back up.
Ilya waited until she disappeared. “Do you think she heard anything?”
“If she did, she’s not privy to enough to know what it is we were talking about.”
“Never underestimate a woman’s power of observation. Especially if it’s something she thinks she can use for her advantage.”
Adrian looked back at the stairs, glad to see she was no longer in sight. Even so, he lowered his voice. “Back to the more pressing matter. What are we going to do about the escaped hostages?”
“As of now, nothing. We continue with the story that they were targeted by pirates for ransom. The woman comes from a very wealthy family. It stands to reason she’d be targeted.”
“Except she escaped and knows pirates had nothing to do with it. They’ll come looking for me.”
“Not necessarily. Your name was never mentioned, you were nowhere near the Mirage—” He nodded toward the top of the stairs. “And you have an alibi.”
Adrian followed the direction of his gaze, suddenly glad that Phoebe was there. For the first time since Ilya had called him about the escape, he dared to hope that things might work out after all. “Exactly how are you planning to make sure this doesn’t fall on me?”
“Because the guard who was overpowered is now dead. I needed someone to blame if the hostages survived that boat crash.”
“That’s your plan?”
The man’s face remained impassive as he stared out at the water. Finally, he looked at Adrian. “Have I ever given you cause to worry?”
He wouldn’t have survived this long if not for Ilya’s efficiency. “No, but I’m this close to having everything pulled out from under me. I don’t need this added stress.”
“Speaking of, have you heard anything from your parents’ attorney?”
“Not yet.”
“Maybe they’ve changed their minds.”
“Even if they have, once they get word about this, it’s over.”
“I have a plan for that, too.”
Adrian pulled himself up straight, took a deep breath, and looked over at him. “Do tell.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Two days later . . .
You’re not going to like this,” Rube said to Sam when he’d called to update him on the case. “The Kyrils are insisting that their yacht was overtaken by pirates, and that the person they’d hired as caretaker probably facilitated the
kidnapping.”
“What a ridiculous lie.” Sam looked over at Remi and Dimitris. Both stood on the dock, Dimitris instructing Remi on how to use a throwing knife. They took turns tossing it so that it landed point-down in one of the wood planks. The object, apparently, was to move the knife one plank forward with each throw. Remi was starting to get the hang of it. “Did anyone talk to this caretaker?”
“Apparently, he was killed when the kidnappers made their escape.”
“So, the only witness to the Kyrils’ claim is conveniently dead? Considering we left everyone very much alive, I’d like to know how he supposedly died.”
“The Kyrils,” Rube said, ignoring the obvious, “have no knowledge of the kidnapping and are cooperating completely with the authorities. They are, however, taking responsibility for not doing a thorough background check on the caretaker. They’d like to formally apologize to both Remi and Dimitris for anything that happened due to their oversight.”
“No one actually believes this, do they?”