“What are you looking up?” Ella asked, slipping into the seat beside me, pouring a cup of coffee from the carafe I’d ordered from room service. She was flushed with sleep, looking slightly rumpled but thoroughly satisfied. The sight of her wearing my T-shirt made my chest swell with my own sort of satisfaction. It made me wonder what it was about seeing her in my clothes that made me feel that way.

“A way out of the wedding,” I answered, scrolling down the page to continue reading about the little stretch of islands we were anchored offshore from.

I’d thought about it from the time I’d woke. Ella hadn’t come right out and said that it bothered her. She’d been upset about it, that much I knew without her having to go into any details. A wedding would only be a reminder of what she’s already lost. And I knew deep down that she wasn’t over Trent, or the hell she’d been through since the day she thought he’d died. I wouldn’t be if the roles were reversed and I were her.

What I didn’t understand was how he could still be alive and not trying everything in his power to come back to her. Had he not loved her the way she thought he had? He’d been an operative like us. Someone fighting for what was right. And then, suddenly, he wasn’t. He proved that when he’d almost succeeded in killing us in Barbados. Ella hadn’t been the same after that. And I damn sure didn’t want to send her further down the rabbit hole by going through with a fake marriage. But it wouldn’t be a fake marriage though, would it? I’d be husband number two. Another mistake.

“Find anything?”

“I did. Did you know that Parrot Cay has its very own pirate legend?” I asked.

“Can’t say I knew that,” she answered focusing on her coffee.

“Supposedly, Annie Bonny, a female pirate, was said to have camped out there in the 1720's, making the original name to the island Pirate Cay,” I told her as I clicked on the webpage tab for weddings. “And according to this,” I pointed at the screen and continued, “we need everything from birth certificates to a vial of blood in order to be married here, so…”

“We’re off the hook. Good work, Josh,” Ella said, lifting a muffin from the tray in front of her and taking a big bite.

“We’re off the hook. You just have to tell Allyson,” I said, smirking.

“Ass,” Ella mumbled past the food in her mouth. “Why do I have to be the one to tell her?”

“Because I’m going to be the heartbroken one here. I mean, imagine finding out our pirate wedding can’t happen on a legendary pirate island. I’ll sulk for days.”

She rolled her eyes and then took another sip from her coffee with a contented sigh.

“I was thinking…”

“Did it hurt?” Ella asked, brushing muffin crumbs from her shirt.

“Funny,” I said as she gave me a toothy smile.

“Couldn’t help it. What were you thinking?” she asked, popping the last bite of her muffin into her mouth.

“We have two more cameras. We should set them up.”

She chewed her muffin, nodding. “That’s not a bad idea. You thinking of putting them anywhere in particular?” she asked.

“The bar by the pool. If we can get it set up in the right spot, not only will it pick up footage, but conversations too,” I said, bringing up a mental picture of the bar area beside the pool. “Might work if we can get it inside one of the tap handles.”

“It might, but if the bartender doesn’t push the handle all the way back, we’d get nothing but a shot of the umbrella, or blue sky, depending. Not to mention if someone is talking… saying something we need to hear, and the bartender puts his hand over the tap, it would muffle whatever is being said,” I added.

“I wonder how good the sound quality is…”

Her eyes popped wide and she got up from her seat, moved to the open balcony door and closed it.

“Why’d you do that?” I asked, picking out a muffin from the tray and watching her as she moved to the balcony rail, fingers pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Do you have the phone out here with you?” she asked.

“It’s here somewhere,” I said, digging it out from underneath a linen napkin. “Want it?”

She dropped her hand and crossed her arms as she shook her head. “Can you bring up footage from the other night on it, or do you have to do that on the computer?”

“Computer. The phone app will only show me real time.” Wondering what she’d want to bring up, I asked, “Is there something you want to see?”

We hadn’t been alerted of any intrusion, and housekeeping wouldn’t come in so long as we kept the ‘do not disturb’ tag on the door.

“No, but there’s something I want to hear,” she said, eyebrows raised with a look that told me exactly what she was thinking as she added, “Or hopefully not hear, Captain Josh.”

“Oh, shit.” If it picked up sound like it was supposed to…

“That’s one way of putting it,” she replied with a snort.

“Only one way to find out.” I pulled the computer closer to me and logged into the secure network, then into the app.

The picture was clear; we’d seen to that when it was installed. The black-and-white image of us on the balcony reflected at me. “Not bad for a mutilated teddy bear,” I said, finding the timestamped folder from the previous day. “Let’s see how well it picks up sound.”

She moved to my side, shielding the computer from view of the camera recording us.

The video came up and I held my breath, hoping everything we’d said up until the point of Ella closing the balcony door just moments before couldn’t be heard.

I wasn’t sure who heaved the bigger sigh of relief, hearing the sound cut in and out. Blips of conversation were missing, and what could be heard was so jumbled it didn’t make sense. The video was there, but thankfully, once Ella moved closer to the bedroom door, it put her out of frame.

“Is there a way to shut the microphone off?” I asked.

“If the sound isn’t picking up now, it won’t randomly start. Probably a bad connection, or a crimped wire,” Ella answered.

“That’s a relief,” I said, finger hovered over the button to log out of the app.

“Hang on. Let’s check the other camera and see if it’s picking up sound,” Ella said. “Hopefully it’s just this one that’s glitching.”

I brought the other camera up, and we waited for a few minutes before Summer strolled down the hallway. The clang of her metal bracelets came across the speakers.

“Well, that one works,” Ella said, resting her hand on my shoulder.

I chuckled. “Thank God the screwed up one is in our room.”

She let go of my shoulder long enough to thump me on the shoulder. “How can you laugh? What if—”

I cut her off and trapped her hand under mine, gave it a brief squeeze, and said, “None of the if’s matter. The sound doesn’t work. Now let’s get back to the important stuff, like where we’re going to mount the other two cameras.”

I watched as she took a deep breath and then sat down to finish her coffee.

We hadn’t been sailing for long, less than a week, but that didn’t mean plans weren’t being hatched somewhere on board. No moves had been made on Allyson, which was a good thing because we hadn’t really had our crap together since we boarded.

“Do you think it was just a scare tactic? The threats, I mean,” I asked, shutting down the laptop.

Ella sat back and closed her eyes briefly before answering, “It’s hard to say. Garett Baron is a well-known man. And has made just as many enemies as he’s made friends. Anything is possible, given the right circumstances.”

“But why his daughter? What does she have to do with anything? Revenge against someone who isn’t your enemy seems dumb,” I said, wondering what sort of people would threaten someone’s child because they felt slighted.

“People always say how badly they want to be rich. You hear it all the time. But I wonder if those people ever stop to consider what being rich really means,” Ella said.

“Well, for one thing, you wouldn’t have to ever worry about your power being turned off, or your credit card being declined,” I answered.

“No, you wouldn’t. You’d be worried about who was using you to get to your money. You’d never have a moment’s peace because there would always be someone hovering close by to keep an eye out for you. Then there’s death threats and embezzlement. Someone always trying to take from you the thing you have and they don’t. Money. It’s the root of all evil.”

“That’s skeptical,” I said, wondering if she weren’t right after all.

“What good is having a fortune if you can’t even enjoy the smaller things in life without wondering who might come along and try to take that from you too?” she asked with a half shrug.

“Well, I guess it’s something I’ll never have to worry about because the chances of me even remotely having a tenth of what Garret Baron has is like catching a star to keep in my pocket,” I answered, leaning back in my chair and lacing my fingers behind my head.

She laughed, pulling her legs up and hooking her arms around them. “You and me both.”

“So, what’s on the agenda today? Other than crushing Allyson’s wedding plan and installing the other two cameras?” I asked, trying to ignore the fact that she was in my shirt and a pair of underwear that were both on display to me.

“Not sure. Gotta see what the newlyweds are up to and find a way to tag along, I suppose,” she answered, sighing as she let go of her legs.

“I wonder what made her choose this particular stretch of islands. I mean, there’s stuff to do if you like diving and historical buildings, but I don’t really see Allyson being interested in things like the history of Salt Cay, or the fact that it’s only two-point-five miles.”

“She’s happiest on the water,” Ella answered. “She loved sailing even when we were little. I guess it really didn’t matter where she went. Plus, when you’ve traveled like she has, nothing is new anymore, so you tend to stick to the places where you enjoyed spending your time. You must admit, it is beautiful. You could almost forget the reasons why we’re here.”

“You make that sound like a bad thing,” I said, unable to keep from baiting her.

“It could be. If we get too comfortable, anything could happen. If it did, it would be our fault for letting our guard down. It’s bad enough that we’re coming and going without a clue where Allyson is most of the time.”

“She can’t get too far, Ella. We are on a boat, remember?”

“We’re on a boat, anchored for a week at a time. There’s more than enough opportunities for her to slip off somewhere, or be taken right out from under our noses should we be in here. And that’s not if she gets the idea to go to shore before we see her. Anything can happen, Josh. And it could happen fast.”

I nodded, acknowledging I understood her concerns. “So how do we insert ourselves into all of their comings and goings?”

Ella sighed, a very long and drawn-out sigh that ended with a groan. “We go through with this farce of a marriage. It’s the only way I know she’ll be wherever we are.”

“Why’s that?” I asked, wondering what would make her choose to go through with a wedding we could easily get out of. There were always other ways to insert ourselves in their day to day plans.

“Because I’m going to put her and Summer in charge of planning it,” she answered, clasping her hands together between her knees as she sighed once more.

“Okay, but I’m insisting on Parrot Cay,” I said, winking at her when she glared at me.

“It’s a private island. The chances of that happening are…” She sputtered to a halt. “Slim to none. Good thinking. That might just put her off until the end of the cruise. By then, we’ll be headed home.”

“I’m not just a pretty face, ya know,” I replied, causing her to bust out laughing.