Dalton would have liked to spend the night with Rosa, but that evening Tiny was weak and shaky. Somehow she managed to knock her dinner plate off the table and spill her food all over the floor, and no matter what he said to try to soothe her, she wouldn’t stop crying. When he tried to get her to eat from a fresh plate, she’d raged at him, the words slurred but still sharp enough to cut him. She wasn’t hungry, and what was the point of eating when she was never going to get better?

He didn’t argue, just kept promising her that things would get easier. That her balance would return, she’d get more movement in her arm and leg, and she’d be able to do more.

Eventually he managed to calm her enough that he could help her into bed. By the time Tiny finally feel asleep, he was wondering if he should have put her straight into the speedboat and taken her to the mainland. Probably more disruptive than helpful, but what if her shakiness had been a symptom of a larger problem? Dammit, more than anything, he hated feeling so helpless.

Frustrated, he picked up the phone and called Doctor Cooper. Because it was after working hours, he got a recorded message. “I won’t take no for an answer,” said Dalton on the man’s voicemail. “There’s a way to convince you to treat my sister. I know there is. Call me back, and we can work out how to make it happen.”

He dozed uneasily and checked on Tiny several times during the night. She slept soundly, and probably wouldn’t wake until the therapist arrived. He, on the other hand, needed to burn off some of the restless worry that felt like ants under his skin.

He got dressed before dawn, and his first stop was at his office to check his email while he inhaled a cup of coffee. Then he went to the beach to meet Rosa for their fight training session. When Rosa asked how Tiny was, his automatic response would have been to say she was fine. If anyone else had asked him, he wouldn’t have thought twice in brushing away the question. But he found himself telling Rosa the truth.

Rosa was clearly shocked. “Every time I’ve visited her, she’s seemed cheerful enough,” she said.

“It goes this way. She’ll get better for a while, then for no clear reason, she’ll take a step backward. But at least anger is better than depression. Some mornings she…” He shook his head, his throat closing on the words. When Tiny withdrew from him, sullen and tearful, and only able to answer his questions with grunts, he wanted to yell and shake her. It reminded Dalton too much of what their father had been like before he’d sent them away.

“Training can wait. I want to see her.” Rosa started toward Tiny’s house, but Dalton stopped her with a hand on her arm.

“Let her sleep for now. The physical therapist will be here soon. They’ll work together all morning, then Tiny will most likely sleep again until I wake her for dinner.” And when Rosa still hesitated, he added, “When she’s like this, it’s like walking a knife’s edge. If you say the wrong thing, it’ll derail her whole day. Let the therapist do her job and you can visit her tonight.”

Rosa let out her breath, then nodded. “Okay. Then let’s fight.”

It wasn’t until after their workout, when they were walking toward the resort’s restaurant, that Dalton remembered about the radio call he’d received from Nate, shortly before Tiny had her bad turn.

“The Lady of Lantana didn’t make it back to the resort last night,” he told Rosa. “I was going to take you sailing this morning, remember? But it looks like we won’t be going.”

She stopped dead, her eyes wide. “The yacht didn’t come back? What happened?”

“The engine cut out. When I spoke to Nate last night, he’d been working on the problem. He was confident he’d be able to get it repaired this morning.”

“What about Suzie’s flight?”

Dalton frowned. “What’s Suzie got to do with it?”

Rosa flushed, looking guilty. “She was on board. I asked Nate to take her to Port Denarau.” She had her hands clasped in front of her like she was praying, and her voice was rising. “I lied and told them the ferry was cancelled so he needed to take her on the yacht.”

“Why on earth would you do that?”

“So they’d get to spend more time together.” Her cheeks were getting pinker. “Well, you saw that crazy chemistry they had.”

“Rosa…” He sighed, swallowing his frustration, and the rebuke he’d been about to dish out. Rosa already looked upset enough. “Nate didn’t mention she was on board, so maybe he managed to drop her off before the engine cut out.”

“Is there any way to find out? He’s not in danger, is he?”

“Nate sounded fine last night.” Dalton hadn’t been concerned about him, until now. “Perhaps I should take the speedboat out to check on him. I can take Suzie to Denarau if Nate hasn’t got the engine going yet.”

“I’ll come,” she said at once.

“There’s no need—”

“Please, let me come. If she’s missed her flight, it’s my fault.” Rosa shook her head, looking mad with herself. “It was stupid. I just thought they should get a chance to make it work, even if we can’t.”

He stared at her, a mixture of emotions warring inside him. He wanted to tell her how crazy that was, yet it was also a little sweet. And he wanted to put his arms around Rosa and tell her things could work out between them, when he knew damn well they wouldn’t. At least not long term. It was like Tiny wishing she could stay at Lantana. As much as he might like to, he couldn’t just snap his fingers and change the facts of the situation.

“Can you be ready to go in an hour?” he said instead.

She nodded. “I’ll get changed and call my sister, then meet you on the wharf.”

Dalton showered and changed, then had some breakfast and went to get the speedboat ready. By the time Rosa appeared on the wharf, he was ready to cast them off.

In the front of the boat were the driver’s and passenger’s seats, with a bench seat across the back. She took the passenger’s seat, and it wasn’t until she sat down that he saw how pale she was. Sunglasses hid her eyes, but her mouth was drawn down and her lips looked bloodless.

She hadn’t been this upset when she’d found out about Nate and Suzie. Something had to have happened since then.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice coming out sharp.

“Nothing. I’m okay.”

“No, you’re not.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I can talk about it. Can we just go?” Her voice quivered as though she might cry if he pressed her.

All he wanted was to put his arms around her and demand to know what was troubling her so he could make it go away. It took an effort of will to just give her a nod and cast them off, then steer the boat away from the wharf.

He kept stealing sideways looks at her as they sped up. She stared straight ahead, deep in thought. Her eyes were partly hidden by her sunglasses, but her face didn’t lose its troubled expression, even when he opened the throttle right up until they were flying over the calm sea. At least the wind whipping at Rosa’s face put a little color into her cheeks.

What could have upset her? She’d mentioned calling her sister. Could something bad have happened to Carin?

The roar of the engine made conversation impossible, so they couldn’t talk about it even if Rosa had wanted to. He concentrated on driving, and slowly Rosa seemed to relax, her expression getting less grim. It was a beautiful day. The sky was endlessly blue, and the sunshine sparkled off the water. Small islands were scattered along the horizon. The sun sparkled off the rippling waves, and the occasional fish jumped right out of the water. In the distance, a flock of seabirds were circling and diving for their lunch. If Rosa wasn’t so upset, they’d probably both be enjoying their morning on the water.

Then the motor coughed and the speedboat jerked. It coughed again, then made a horrible grinding sound. Dalton shut it off and they bobbed in the backwash of water made by their sudden stop.

“What happened?” she asked. Without the motor running, the day was very quiet.

Dalton peered over the back of the boat. “My guess is there’s something caught around our propeller. Could be seaweed, or maybe an old fishing line. I’ll need to dive under the boat to find out.”

She leaned against the side of the boat, shading her eyes with one hand. “I could do it. I wouldn’t mind a swim.”

Behind her, a dark shape cut through the water. Dalton frowned. “You might want to rethink that.”

She followed where he was looking, to the lazy shadow moving slowly underwater. “A dolphin?”

“Something like that, only with bigger teeth.”

She chewed her lip. “Now I wish I’d never seen Jaws. Is there a way to check the propeller without going in the water? No? So we sit around until the shark gets bored and leaves?”

“It’ll give us a chance to talk about what’s bothering you.” He pulled a couple of bottles out of the cooler bin and handed one to her before settling back into the cockpit chair.

“Huh. You sure you didn’t plan this?” She took the chair next to him. “Okay. So, I already told you about the guy who stalked me. When I spoke to Carin, she said that yesterday he followed her home from work.”

He’d suspected something like that. “Is she okay?”

“For now. But I’m worried about her.”

“How dangerous is this man?”

“I’m not sure. He killed a dog and left it in my friend’s spare bedroom once, breaking the window to get it inside. That was probably the worst thing. All he did to me was follow me around and send me photos to freak me out. But I’m still worried. Who knows what he’s capable of?”

Dalton was silent for a moment, both thinking about the problem and trying to suppress the anger that had flared in him. He counted to five, then said, “I could do something to help solve this. Make it so he stops bothering you and your sister.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m talking about applying force to get rid of him.”

She laughed, and the sound loosened the band across his chest. “You mean, you can make him sleep with the fishes?” she said, putting on an Italian accent.

Dalton grinned back, relieved to see her back to her normal self. “Bada-bing Bada-boom,” he answered, putting on an accent of his own. “Ah’ll whack him for ye, sweetheart.”

She raised her eyebrows. “A Scottish gangster?”

“Scottish is the only accent I can do.” He shook his head. “But I’m not suggesting giving him cement shoes. Just persuading him to leave you alone.”

“You’re serious?”

He kept his gaze fixed on hers. “I know some people.”

“How do you know people? Is this part of your pirate plundering? Do you intimidate your business competition?”

“I went to military boarding school. Throw a bunch of troubled teenaged boys together with heavy-handed discipline, and it’s no surprise when you get some twisted results. One or two of my old classmates make their living in interesting ways.”

“I’m picturing a class full of assassins-in-training. Would you take me along to your next school reunion? Please?”

“Not a chance. Trust me, some of those guys I’d rather not see again. I’m only suggesting this as a last resort because the police haven’t stopped your stalker yet. If they’d put him where he belongs, I wouldn’t go anywhere near my old school buddies.”

Her brows drew together in a puzzled expression. “So you’re suggesting… what? You’d call up people you don’t want anything to do with, and offer them money to beat Otto up? Wouldn’t you get a lengthy jail term if anyone found out?”

When she put it like that it seemed a lot less sensible than it had in his head. But he still had to do something. “If it would make your sister safer, then yes, that’s what I’m suggesting.”

Rosa’s lips curved up. “That’s weirdly touching. Thank you. I appreciate the fact you’d break the law for me and Carin, but I can’t take you up on it.”

“Then your sister should come to Lantana until the resort’s sold. No charge for staying, and she could eat with the staff.”

Even shielded by her sunglasses, he could see her eyes widen. “Really? You’d do that?” She put her bottle of water on the floor of the boat so she could lean forward with her hands crossed over her heart. “I can’t believe you’d let her come. There’s no way I can ever thank you enough.”

Her obvious relief made him feel warm inside. Dammit, he was more far gone than he thought if she was bringing out such strong emotions in him. He hadn’t known her smile would be addictive until he found himself craving it.

“It may not be for long,” he warned. “Once the new owner takes over, it’ll be up to him if she can stay.”

“At least it’ll get her out of harm’s way for a couple of weeks. You’ve got no idea how worried I’ve been.”

“I have some idea,” he said, thinking of his own concern about Tiny.

Rosa must have picked up his meaning because she flushed. “I know, you have enough to think about with Tiny. I don’t want to add to it.”

Too late. And this was precisely why he’d wanted to keep things casual. In his experience, caring about people meant taking on a burden of worry. It was a good thing he was leaving in a couple of weeks, because this whole thing with Rosa’s stalker was already starting to weigh on him. And if she wouldn’t let him handle it, then what was he supposed to do? Rosa was just as stubborn as Tiny, and having to take care of another headstrong woman was more than he could handle right now.

But when he looked at her, he didn’t care about any of that. All he could think about was how much he wanted to kiss her.

Instead he scanned the water, then pulled out the tackle box from the compartment under the bench seat across the stern. Inside was a diver’s knife. A little blunt, but it would have to do. He handed it to Rosa. “I’m going to swim underneath the boat and take a look at the propeller first, but I might need this. Hand it to me if I do, okay?”

“Is the shark gone?” She got to her feet, peering around.

Dalton stripped off his shirt and took one last good look as well. No sign of it now, but he’d be lying if he didn’t admit that Rosa’s concern was a little flattering. And sure, maybe he was enjoying being a dare-devil. But what were they going to do, sit around here all day? “I’ll be quick,” he said. “Besides, It’s probably just a reef shark or something harmless. If it bites me, I’ll bite back.”