“I did.” Jess threw a piece of pineapple at me. “And you can’t deny it. Just like I can’t deny that Cal is surly and sometimes cold, but beneath those shields, he’s a puppy dog.”

“A puppy with fangs.”

“Exactly.” Jess beamed then turned to Tasmin. “By the way, I overheard you have a dog. Spot?”

“Yes.” Tasmin sighed in total love. “We rescued him.”

“We rescue a lot too.” I pointed at Skittles preening her wing on my knee. “We’re surrounded by animals. It’s heaven.”

“I’d like to be surrounded too.” Tasmin’s face grew wistful. “I’d like to be surrounded by children but...” She pressed her lips together before shaking her head. “After everything I’ve shared, I don’t see why I can’t share this too.” Bracing herself, she said matter-of-factly, “I can’t have kids from what Alrik did to me.”

“Me either,” Jess murmured. “I had to have a hysterectomy to save my life.”

“I’m sorry.” Tasmin reached to touch Jess’s arm. “That sucks.”

Jess shrugged. “I’ve come to terms that I won’t be a mother, and that’s fine because I have the best people around me and a life I adore.”

Tasmin bit her lip, looking again at Elder in the distance as if seeking approval before blurting. “We’re getting married, and...we’re also adopting.”

“Wow.” I sat up, dislodging Skittles. “That’s two big life choices in one.”

“The men Q dispatches...who deal in trafficking and slavery...they often have women who have either had children in captivity or are currently pregnant. Some die, leaving orphans. Most children are traumatised and aren’t able to go to ‘normal’ homes or to people who haven’t endured similar situations.” Tasmin narrowed her eyes at Jess. “He’s arranging us to meet a little girl who’s mute. She’s...like me. I know what it’s like to be silent. To use quietness as a weapon. I suppose you could say I’m uniquely qualified to help her.”

Jess went eerily still. “And there are others? Other children who need homes and help?”

Tasmin nodded. “I can ask Elder to email Q and get in touch with your husband...if you want.”

My heart lurched as something fierce and forever sprung between the two women. I’d always known that Jess had a piece of her ripped away and murdered the day Drake shot her in the womb and almost killed her.

Unlike Sully and me, who thrived on being parents to animals and had no intention of ever bearing our own offspring, Jess and Cal were different.

They couldn’t create their own tiny human, but perhaps they could rescue one who deeply needed their care and comfort? They could rescue children while Sully and I rescued animals.

They’ll need their own island.

Good job Sully had so many vacant ones in his empire because the look in Jess’s hazel gaze hinted just how much she wanted a family and just how much she’d tried to bury such a calling.

She’ll end up with as many kids as Sully and I have creatures.

“That would be...nice.” Jess cleared her throat. “I’d appreciate that.”

“Appreciate what?” Cal asked, appearing sneakily through the sand.

Tasmin and Jess broke apart, their cheeks matching pink. Jess leaped up to press a kiss to Cal’s rough cheek, her eyes glowing. “Nothing. None of your business. Not yet, anyway.”

“Humph.” Cal huffed and swatted at Pika as Skittles’s boisterous brother hurtled himself to me and plopped into my hair. He wouldn’t have come to me if he still had Sully to annoy.

Instantly, I stood and looked at where the men had been by the shore.

Nothing.

My heart pounded with worry. “Cal...where’s Sully?”

Cal rolled his eyes. “That’s why I’m here. Time to go. I’m driving you guys out on the speedboat.”

“But where are Elder and Sullivan?” Tasmin stood too, peering into the dusky twilight that’d abandoned colours and chose heavy greys instead.

“There.” Cal pointed at the quick splashes in the ocean, fading from view. “They decided to swim.”

“Swim?” My eyebrows rose. “All the way to the yacht?”

“Yep.” Cal snapped his fingers, moving toward the pier. “That’s why we’ve got to go now. I want to beat the bastards.”

Chapter Seven

THE OCEAN HAD ALWAYS been a place that washed my mind clean, eradicated the shit I did, and baptised me into the sin I’d chosen.

It was also my personal gym—a nightly ritual to swim in the moonlight as often as I climbed the slippery rocks by Nirvana before leaping off the top and plummeting with the falls into the pool.

I liked to think I was fit and strong. I knew how to propel myself through waves and salt. I had an affinity with the finned creatures beneath me and wasn’t afraid that something could bite me for invading their domain.

I belonged in the sea.

And that was why it gave me cocky belief that I would win over the man who’d become more and more distracted from our conversation about yacht building and business dealings the moment his Phantom had appeared.

He’d practically walked into the ocean fully dressed, signalling an end to our discussions and his undeniable need to trade shore for sea.

Cal had been the one to challenge us to a competition. Jokingly, perhaps, but he was still the instigator and the reason Elder had stripped his shirt, pulled off his trousers to reveal tight black swimming shorts and passed his belongings to Cal. “First to Phantom wins.”

“Wins what?” I crossed my arms. “Another yacht?”

“Respect?” Prest’s lips twitched. “An IOU, perhaps? A favour for the future.”

I didn’t like the thought of owing anyone—even someone I’d grudgingly started to like while sharing a few beers and talking nonsense. He was standoffish and guarded but also quick with sarcasm, which I found mimicked my own love of duelling with conversation.

Cal and I had made it a game.

Elder made it a challenge.

So, of course, I wasn’t going to let him wade into the ocean without accepting his current dare. Stripping off my t-shirt, I kept my shorts on and dumped my cell phone and keys to Singa Laut into Cal’s hold. “See you there, Cal. Bring my wife.”

Cal rolled his eyes. “It’s dusk.”

“So?”

“Feeding time for sharks.”

“Only if they catch us.” I smirked.

“Only if they catch you, you mean.” Elder sniffed. “I’ll be too far ahead for them to bother.”

“Pride goeth before the fall, Prest.”

“We’ll see.” Elder traded dry sand for lapping waves, rolling out his shoulders in preparation.

I followed, sighing in pleasure as the sea welcomed me back, licking at my ankles. “See you soon, Cal.”

Standing beside the man who had admitted he was well trained in martial arts and even that he played the cello—two things that I’d guessed about him back on Calypso—Prest cocked his chin arrogantly. “I’ll warn you, Sinclair. I swim every night around Phantom.”