The next day was Thursday. Rosa had worked late into the evening each day since she’d arrived, and still had a lot of last minute things to organize for the wedding. There’d been a problem with the cake, and a delivery hadn’t arrived so the dinner menu needed to be changed. Plus, the bride and groom were both scientists and had decided they wanted their guests to figure out logic puzzles, of all things, to find out where they were sitting at dinner. What the hell was wrong with a normal seating plan?

But she needed to take a break from wedding tasks, and this morning Tiny had asked her again about how far she’d gotten with Dalton. Time to devote some time to helping her friend.

Rosa turned to a fresh page in her pad. At the top of the page, she wrote, The Dalton Project. Then she wrote three column headings: Like, Dislike, and Maybe.

Under Like, she wrote Fight Training. They’d trained for the last three mornings, and she was pretty sure he’d enjoyed it as much as she had. She added Sailing into the Like column too, as he’d seemed enthusiastic about their upcoming day on the water. Other activities, like Jogging, Snorkeling, Swimming, and Fishing went into the Maybe column.

Kava Ceremony also went into the Possible column. She was organizing one for the guests, but she’d make sure he came. Mere’s father was performing the traditional Fijian ceremony, and she was looking forward to it herself.

She hesitated a moment, then added Naked Fight Training to the Possible column. Well, there was no harm in thinking about it, was there?

So far, there was nothing in the Dislike column. Except maybe the whole idea of being on the island, although as far as she could tell, there wasn’t a thing to dislike about it. And how unfair was it that he was set on dragging Tiny away against her will? She was a grown woman who could make her own decisions. Being pressured to sell her home by her brother was practically abuse.

She couldn’t figure Dalton out. When she thought about what he was doing to Tiny, she wanted to strangle him. But being with him meant succumbing to his spell. Nobody who could make her laugh with a half-Scottish half-Pirate accent could really be bad, could they?

Rosa checked her watch. The ferry would be arriving soon, and one of her jobs was welcoming the new guests who’d be arriving. She had just enough time to check her email to make sure nobody had sent her anything urgent.

Scanning her inbox, Rosa spotted a new email from her sister. But the email was already marked as having been opened. Weird. This was definitely Rosa’s first time seeing it, and when she checked the time stamp, Carin had only sent it a couple of hours ago. So why did her computer think she’d already read it?

She stared at her screen for several long moments, trying to figure it out. Computers didn’t make mistakes, so someone must have read that email.

Rosa crossed her arms across her chest, suddenly cold all the way to her bones.

Could Otto have hacked her computer? Did he have her email password? Had he been reading her mail?

The thought was vile. And she should have seen it coming. It was one of the things Otto had done to Rosa’s friend, before Rosa’s photograph had sent him to jail.

With hands that were suddenly shaky, Rosa pulled up the setting to change her password. She contemplated changing it to the worst swear word she could think of, and eventually decided on LeaveMeAloneYouBlisteringButthole. Apparently the longer a password was, the harder it was to crack. Otto could choke on that one.

Finally, she got up. Her stomach was too tight to stay sitting and she needed some air.

Just outside the building, Dalton was stripped to the waist again, hacking at the large, overhanging bushes with his machete, cutting them back from the path. As upset as she was, she stopped, riveted by the way the muscles in his back were working. Perspiration glistened on his skin and branches parted under the large knife with loud thwacks.

On impulse, Rosa strode over to him. “Can I have a turn?”

He turned, obviously surprised. His gaze went first to her capri pants and up to her white cotton top. Then his eyes lifted to her face and he frowned. “You okay?”

“I will be.” She held out her hand for the machete, and with a shrug, he handed it over.

Rosa shifted her grip, feeling the weight of the knife, and imagining Otto’s head poking out from the bush. Her blade hit with a satisfying crack, slicing through the plant’s stem. She swung again and again, until her breath was coming fast and her top was sticking to her back. Then she stopped, panting, and handed back the machete.

“Feeling better, slugger?” he asked.

She nodded. “Little bit.”

“Want to talk about it?”

She considered the offer, then shook her head. “I’ve got to meet the ferry.”

“Then I’ll walk you.” He grabbed his T-shirt which was lying by the path and pulled it on, leaving the machete beside the hacked-off stalks.

“Thanks, but you don’t need to.”

He didn’t bother to reply, just walked beside her toward the wharf. Their shoes crunched over the shells, but neither of them said anything. Rosa’s mind was spinning.

No matter how often she told herself she wasn’t afraid of Otto, truth was, some nights in Sydney she hadn’t gotten a moment’s sleep because every noise had sounded like the footsteps of someone creeping through her apartment. She hated that he could make her palms sweat and her heart race.

All her life she’d fought to do things her way. She’d worked her ass off to succeed so her parents would have nothing to complain about, and when they complained anyway, she’d faced them down. Nothing had ever made her so much as flinch.

Nothing, until Otto.

But she’d refused to run from Otto, even when he’d sent her photos of herself with threats scrawled across them in red ink. Even when Tiny had offered her a job on Lantana, telling her that she should get out of Sydney before the harassment got worse. She’d turned down the offer because she wasn’t about to let Otto drive her away. But when she’d gotten the phone call from Mere saying that Tiny needed her, she hadn’t just rushed to help her friend, had she? As much as she hated to admit it, she’d also been relieved beyond words to let herself get on a plane and leave Otto far behind.

But all that meant was from now on, she had to be twice as tough. She’d work harder at fight training. And she’d—

“No sign of the ferry yet,” said Dalton. “We’re early.”

Rosa blinked. While she’d been deep in thought, they’d reached the end of the pier. The only thing in front of them was sparkling blue sea and a cloudless blue sky. A couple of shags circled, searching for fish. As she watched one dive into the water, Rosa let out a long breath. If only her sister was here with her. It didn’t matter how tough Rosa became if Carin wasn’t safe.

Rosa snuck a glance at the man beside her. She only came up to his shoulder, and he was wide and strong beside her. A man-rock of solidity and reassurance. His black, tousled hair lifted in the slight breeze, and his chin was unshaven, the stubble dark. He looked like he could wrestle sharks and break coconut shells apart with his bare hands.

Part of her yearned to lean into him and find out what it would be like to be folded inside the safety of his large, capable arms. But that was the part of her that was weak. She’d never been able to depend on anyone but herself, and Rosa Roughknuckles didn’t need any help, did she?

“Thanks for walking me here. I’ll just sit and wait.” She sat down on the wooden boards of the wharf with her legs dangling over the edge and the water just under her feet.

“I’ll wait with you.” He eased down next to her, his own legs dangling next to hers.

She glanced sideways at him again, but he was looking down at the water. Maybe he was there because he was worried about her, but he didn’t push or try to coddle her. The silence between them was restful. Companionable. It was nice.

Under their feet, the fish were nibbling kelp off the wooden posts. If Otto ever came to Lantana, she’d like to push him in the water and let the fish nibble his face off.

“Those fish,” she said. “You think they’d eat human flesh?”

His only hint of surprise was a twitch of his eyebrows. “Should I be worried about that question?”

“I was wondering if you could dispose of a body by attaching it to the posts.”

“The fish would eat the flesh and leave the bones. You’d still have the skeleton to deal with.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Somebody upset you that much?” His eyes were still on the water, and his tone stayed mild.

She sighed. “I was hoping I’d never have to so much as hear his name again. No such luck.”

“Someone in Sydney? An ex-boyfriend?”

“Not an ex-boyfriend. But I don’t want to talk about him. I won’t give him a single thing, not even the amount of time it would take to tell you about him. He’s trying to upset me, but I won’t let him.”

He grunted. After a moment, he said, “The fish like bread. Sometimes as kids, Tiny and I used to bring our breakfast down here, and we’d crumble leftover toast into the water.”

What a sweet picture that made, his sister and him sitting in just this spot. And she was grateful he wasn’t pushing her to talk about Otto. A lot of guys would, and she hated that kind of crap. The fact he was being so understanding was completely at odds with the way he was pushing Tiny around.

“Shame we don’t have anything to feed them with,” she said. “We should bring some bread down, next time.” It was another entry for her Dalton Project spreadsheet. Another activity to put in the Like column.

“I like the idea of tying the bodies of our enemies to the piles. We should do that.”

She laughed. And was immediately surprised that she could laugh so soon after discovering Otto had violated her email account. It was entirely thanks to Dalton.

Sitting here like this, she couldn’t help but like him. Especially remembering how he’d looked with his hands full of the flowers he’d gathered for Tiny. It was easy to forget he was forcing Tiny out of her home. In fact, doing something so awful seemed entirely out of character.

“You have many enemies?” she asked.

“Don’t worry, I’ll leave a little space for yours. Even if we need to stack them ten deep, we’ll fit ‘em all in.”

Watching him smile, the way his eyes sparkled and the light fell across the angles of his face, she felt light, and her worries about Otto seemed unimportant. She’d work things out. All she had to do was make sure Otto was locked out of everything, and that Carin was safe. After all, Otto couldn’t touch her over here. Hacking her email was probably a last-ditch desperate measure to get under Rosa’s skin.

“You know something?” she said. “I can’t figure you out.”

“In what way?”

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him about his plans to sell the resort. But the ferry had finally appeared and they didn’t have long before it docked. Besides, if she laid all her cards on the table, the Dalton Project might not work. He’d probably suspect what she was up to.

She shook her head. “Never mind, Captain Plunder.” She got to her feet. “The ferry’s almost here. But thanks for sitting with me and taking my mind off things. It helped.”

“What’s your pirate name?” he asked, looking up at her, but not making any move to rise.

“How do you know I have one?” When his expression took on a ‘you’re not fooling me’ look, she flushed. “Rosa Roughknuckles.”

To her surprise, his lips didn’t so much as twitch. “Rosa Roughknuckles.” He gave her a nod and rose slowly to his feet. “Suits you.”

“Really?” She grinned, a warm flush going through her. “You think so?”

He tipped his head forward, a single acknowledging nod, before turning to walk back to the resort. She watched him go, a little unsettled. How come he was being so charming?

She didn’t want to be attracted to her boss, especially when he was her best friend’s brother. That would be a terrible idea. Totally unprofessional. Stupid, even, considering he was trying to force Tiny to give up her home. The ultimate betrayal. Not to mention that Rosa could be out of a job.

But if Rosa managed to change his mind, what then? She could stay on and look after the resort while Dalton took Tiny to Sydney for the treatment she needed, and then brought her back to Lantana. He wouldn’t be the bad guy anymore, and everyone would get what they wanted. Surely she could make him see that was the only option that made sense?

If she could, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if she were attracted to Dalton. Would it?