He pointed towards her necklace. ‘I see that after all this time you are still wearing my pearls. I’ll take that as a sign that maybe you don’t fear or hate me quite as much as you pretend.’
Her hand fluttered to her neck and to the three pearls set in a finely twisted white gold setting on a white gold chain. Indeed, these were the same very special pearls that he had given to her all those years before. She took another deep breath, and was just about to ask him about his relationship with Anya, when he claimed the same moment to question her again about her intentions for the island.
‘So, do you still intend to sell? Now that you know you were wrong about our pearls only being good for… what was it you said …fashion jewellery or being ground down for use in cosmetics?’
Isla let her intake of breath go in exasperation. ‘Yes. I think it’s for the best. After all, I can’t stay here. It’s impossible. I have a life elsewhere. I have a business elsewhere.’
‘Why impossible? There is nowhere you cannot be in less than twenty-four hours from here.’
She wanted to scream at him ‘because you have a girlfriend’ but instead, she said, ‘because we have both moved on. We are not the same people we were ten years ago.’
He laughed. ‘Actually, I’m exactly the same person. I’m just older and considerably wiser than I was before.’
‘Well, I have made up my mind. You’ll just have to accept it. Although, you were right about the pearls being of the highest quality, so I do plan to be your number one customer.’
To her surprise, he shook his head fervently. ‘No way, Isla. If you go ahead and sell the island and your share of the farm, then I’ll refuse to do any business with you. Ever!’
She looked shell-shocked. ‘Really? You would do that? You’d blacklist me?’
‘Yes, really. In fact, I won’t even let you be my Facebook friend. You can go back to your princess tower in the land of far far away and you can watch and weep as I build up a pearly empire and sell my treasures to anyone but you.’
She laughed nervously but then stopped when she realised he was being absolutely serious.
Just at that moment, the wind that had been howling around the cave suddenly stopped and the only sound to be heard, other than the constant trickle of water into the pools from the cracks in the walls, was the sound of Jack’s snoring.
Isla scrambled to her feet. ‘Is that it? Is it over? Can we leave now?’
‘No. It means we are in the eye of the hurricane.’ Leo explained, not bothering to move. ‘And sometimes the tail of the hurricane can be the most destructive of all. It will be much safer for us to stay a bit longer than try to make it back over the headland just yet. I mean, you don’t want to get hit by a coconut travelling at a hundred miles an hour, do you?’
She sat down again and tucked her knees in under the large life vest she was still wearing, looking for warmth. It was cold in the cave and she was still soaking wet.
‘Come on over here,’ Leo offered. ‘Take that thing off and share my heat.’
Isla wriggled out of the bulky jacket. ‘That’s some chat up line. Does it always work?’ She shuffled up.
He groaned in pain as she settled down next to him. ‘Yep, every time.’
Sharing his body heat was like getting an electric surge through her entire body.
Leo gestured towards Jack, who was still snoring loudly. ‘Did you believe him?’
Isla nodded. ‘Yes. Despite what Kate always claimed, I don’t think Jack killed Ernest. I think it must have been an accident of some kind. Maybe he fell off the boat in the night after having a few too many beers?’
‘Or the Mob came and took him. As you can see, Jack can sleep through a hurricane.’
She shrugged. ‘We’ll never know for sure. Sharks would have quickly disposed of his body once he was in the water. Maybe that’s why he was never found? It’s sad. But I feel it’s more likely than the mob story.’
Leo nodded. ‘Well, that’s what Jack always claimed must have happened.’
‘Okay.’ Isla broached. ‘As we’re obviously going to be here for a while and as we are already talking about the past, why don’t you tell me what happened on Jack’s boat ten years ago?’
She felt his body tense next to hers and she heard him groan again.
‘Oh, Isla, why must we go over the past? Let’s talk about the future instead. Let’s talk about you not selling the island. Or if you must sell it, then let’s talk about you not selling your half of the pearl farm. Surely you must see what an asset it will be for your business?’
She shook her head. Did he honestly expect her to work with him – to have a working relationship with him – while he was with Anya?
‘Look, you asked me yesterday what it would take for me to forgive you, Leo. I’ve decided it’s an explanation. I need you to explain to me why you went to prison instead of Jack. I know he was on the boat that night. So why did you take the fall for him?’
Leo rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger and looked pained. ‘I took the fall because when Jack told me there were drugs on board, I knew they would lock him up and throw away the key. Jack was a known bootlegger. He couldn’t afford to get caught again. I, on the other hand, was an eighteen-year-old kid who didn’t have a record. So I guessed I’d get a lighter sentence. I’d get out after a few years and he wouldn’t - ever. End of story.’
Tears brimmed in Isla’s eyes and her lower lip trembled. ‘But what about us? Weren’t we supposed to be getting married and spending the rest of our lives together? Why would you want to leave me and throw away everything we had? We were young and we were in love and I just can’t believe that you’d be so willingly prepared to sacrifice yourself.’
Leo was sitting with his head in his hands as if he could hardly bear to relive it all one more time. Anger flashed in her eyes.
‘I think there is something you are still not telling me. Why would Jack willingly go along with something like that? I don’t understand!’ Her voice was laced with bitterness.
Jack suddenly spoke up. He’d either just woken up on hearing Isla shouting or had been feigning sleep this whole time. ‘That’s a nice story but you should tell her the truth. She wants to know. So why don’t you just tell her? She needs to know that it wasn’t me you were protecting.’
Leo looked up at last. Isla’s breath quickened and her heart was pounding.
‘This time you tell me the whole truth and you give it to me straight!’ she demanded.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Leo –Ten Years Earlier
In the darkness, Leo heard the distinctive sound of another boat approaching. A moment later, a spotlight was shining in their direction and catching them in its beam.
He narrowed his eyes in an attempt to see the other vessel. It was low in the water, but it wasn’t yet close enough for him to make out its markings. If it was the coastguard, with five hundred kegs of bootleg rum in the hold of the Poseidon he knew they were in big trouble.
Then he heard the sound of heavy footsteps and a dull thud and the next thing he knew, Isla was laying at his feet on the deck.
‘What the fuck is she doing here?’ Jack’s voice roared.
Leo crouched over Isla. She had blood in her hair and on the side of her face.
‘Jack, what have you done? Why did you hit her?’
‘Because she can’t be a witness to any of this,’ he growled. ‘Now get her ashore and back to her aunt before I throw her overboard. I told you she was trouble!’
Through the white light of a strobe, he saw the gun in his uncle’s hand and in that same moment, he realised two things. One was how they had drifted dangerously close to the shore while he’d been trying to reason with Isla, and the other was that he really needed to get her into the dinghy. He cursed himself for lying to her. Why couldn’t he have simply told her the truth? Why instead had he come up with some stupid story about treasure salvaging?
The approaching boat was now b
roadcasting a message telling them to put on their lights and identify themselves. There was no mistaking now that this was the coastguard.
‘Hurry, Leo, I’ll try to draw them away while you escape with the girl.’
Leo tried to lift Isla into his arms. She was so floppy and slippery and so much heavier than when she was awake. He knew what was meant by ‘dead weight’ although he couldn’t bear to think of her as dead. Panic and adrenalin flooded through him and somehow he managed to lift her.
She moaned as he carried her quickly towards the dinghy and he kissed her bloodied head. Then he hesitated because it occurred to him that, when he got her to the shore and across the beach, it was going to be physically impossible for him to carry her unconscious weight to the top of the headland. The path, if you could call it that, was so treacherously steep and dangerous and in some parts it was nothing but shale and loose rock. If he stumbled or he fell with Isla in his arms, then they would both fall to their deaths. He placed her down carefully into the dinghy and shook her.
There was no response so he lightly tapped her face. Still nothing. She was out cold.
‘Wake up, Isla. Wake up!’
He could hear Jack urging him to hurry and then another broadcast from the fast approaching boat.
‘Be aware. This is the coastguard. Put on your lights and prepare to be boarded.’
He knew that if Isla was found on the boat with them, then she too would be arrested and it would all be his fault. He could only imagine the wrath of her aunt, who had both the wealth and the power to make sure he would pay for this with his life. Then what would become of Isla?
He ran back over to his uncle, who was in the wheelhouse preparing for either his defence or his escape. ‘Jack, I can’t do it. I’ll never get her safely up to the headland. But you can easily do it!’
Lights were now streaming all over the deck. They both ducked down out of sight.
‘Please, Jack, you’ll have to take her,’ Leo pleaded. ‘I’ll stay on board and draw them into the sand bank. If all goes well, I’ll come around and meet you over at Western Cove. If I’m unlucky and they do seize the boat, then I’m sorry, Jack, but they’ll be far more lenient on me than you because I have no prior record. Besides, running bootleg rum isn’t the offence it used to be. So please, for God’s sake, take Isla and go. Before they see you. Get her out of here!’
Jack took him by the shoulders and shook him so violently that his teeth rattled in his head.
‘Leo, you need to know something. I lied to you. But only to protect you. It’s not rum we are running to the mainland.’
‘What! You lied? Then what the hell is in those barrels in the hold?’
‘They’re full of coke,’ Jack blurted.
‘You mean as in Coca-Cola?’
‘No. I mean as in cocaine!’
Leo suddenly felt the weight of the whole world crashing down on him and he wanted to cry like a little boy. If Isla was found on a boat full of drugs rather than illicit rum, then like him, she too would be facing either a long prison sentence, or worse, the death penalty.
In a complete panic, he grabbed his uncle by the front of his dirty greasy vest and spoke to him with a determination that couldn’t be ignored. ‘Like I said, they’ll go more lenient on me than they ever would on you. Now you promise me that you’ll get Isla off this boat and take her safely home. In return, I’ll swear that you were never on this boat tonight, that I stole it and I acted totally alone. Do we have a deal?’
A minute later, Jack was steering the dinghy towards the beach. Leo had started up the trawler’s engine and was making sure he shadowed the dinghy in order to hide it from the coastguard, who were now almost upon him. He was so close to the shoreline that, once he knew Jack had taken Isla safely across the beach, he would turn the boat at full speed and head across the bay.
He knew he had no chance of outrunning the smaller boat. But if the coastguard tried to head him off, as he hoped they would, then they would hit the sandbar two hundred feet off shore and he could do a quick about turn and escape them. Except they did no such thing.
Instead, they came right alongside the Poseidon and he had no choice but to let them board.
Chapter Thirty
Isla – Present Day
Isla stared at Leo with tears pouring down her cheeks. ‘You did it for me? To save me from being found on a boat full of narcotics?’ She then turned to Jack in disgust. ‘Why didn’t you tell him the truth in the first place about what you had on board that night?’
Jack threw his arms up in the air. ‘Because he wouldn’t have done it. I had no choice. It was my biggest consignment.’
‘So, for pure greed, you put your son’s life in danger!’ Her voice was choked with despair.
‘No, it wasn’t for the money. I didn’t need the money, not then anyway,’ Jack tried to explain. ‘Don’t you see? I had no choice. Once I got involved with the cartel, I was at their mercy. They had a hold on me. I wasn’t able to say no to them, but neither could I have handled this job on my own!’
‘Then why did you even get involved with such evil people in the first place?’ Isla reasoned. ‘It just doesn’t make sense, especially if, like you say, you didn’t need their money?’
‘It all goes back to when I didn’t have two coins to rub together. But oh, hell, it’s a long story…’
‘And we just happen to have plenty of time on our hands. So come on, I want to know this long story of yours,’ Isla insisted. ‘Leo’s told us his side of things and now it’s your turn.’
Besides, having also heard Kate’s side of the story, she really wanted to hear Jack’s.
‘Yeah, come on,’ Leo insisted. ‘Tell us more of your tales of daring adventure and priceless treasures. I’d just love to hear them all over again.’
Jack looked momentarily vexed and troubled, but then he conceded and began to tell the tale.
‘Back in 1980, I’d found a couple of old shipwrecks and their payloads just off the island here. They were completely untouched. Lying in their watery grave where they had been for almost three hundred years. I recovered a trove of gemstones and coins and church property from them – all using the small fishing boat I had back then and using borrowed pumps and lifting gear and diving equipment.’
‘And what happened to the treasure?’ Isla asked at this revelation.
‘I gave most of it back to the Spanish government, for a finder’s fee, of course. I bought another boat and my own gear with the royalties – that’s what they call the reward for finding treasure. It’s all legit and completely above board.’ He looked to Leo, as if underlining a point.
‘I don’t get it. How did that lead you into the drug trade?’ Isla asked.
‘Because all that adventure and treasure salvaging gave me a hunger for finding more sunken treasure ships and so I began searching in colonial archives on the mainland for clues to the whereabouts of ships that had once been recorded as lost but never recovered. I discovered there was once a whole fleet of ships lost, led by a flagship called the Santa Valez.’
Isla and Leo were now sitting incredibly still and hanging onto his every word like they were little kids again listening to Treasure Island being read out at school story time.
‘The Valez had been sunk in June 1708, during combat with the British, who’d been attempting to take its cargo as part of the War of Spanish Succession. Every ship in the fleet had been carrying gold bullion and silver and other valuables from Spain’s colonies to King Phillip V and, according to those old records, not one of them has ever been seen since or recovered.’ Jack paused for effect and then continued.
‘Armed with a list of all the ships that had been lost in this armada, I began to study wind patterns and sea currents from three hundred years ago in the Caribbean. After many months of speculating, I eventually came across a wreck, lying on its side, in a place never before referenced on any map. I identified it positively as the Santa Valez, and when I explored furthe
r on the sea bed I found evidence of at least five other wrecks hidden in the sandy depths.’
‘How did you know for sure it was the Santa Valez?’ Leo asked.
‘By her bronze cannons,’ Jack told him. ‘They were quite unique and engraved with dolphins.’
‘How did you know to study wind patterns and sea currents?’ asked Isla.
‘Because when I identified those old ships off the island here, I found they’d been sunk many miles away and yet they’d somehow ended up off our reef. I knew it had to be down to drift tides and the wind and the sea currents over all the years.’
‘That’s very clever!’ Isla acceded.
Leo shook his head as if he’d already heard this story a million times.
Jack continued. ‘I knew that to salvage the Valez and her armada I needed more equipment. I needed money – a considerable amount – and the banks wouldn’t entertain me. I knew the only place I could get it was from the cartel that operated out of Cortes. So I approached them for a loan. I never told them why I wanted the money and they never asked me. They said the money was interest free but it did come with a price. I had to agree to work for them once every month on the night of the dark moon. I was terrified at first. But the first time went off without a hitch. I was back home in my bed before the sun came up. I thought I was on to a good thing. Except that, even when I had repaid my debt to them in full, they wouldn’t let me stop working for them. And, believe me, I tried.’
‘Did they threaten you?’ Isla asked.
Jack nodded and swallowed hard as if he had something nasty in his mouth. He stared at the ground between his feet for a while in silence.
‘But you were wrong about me, Jack,’ Leo told him. ‘Even if you had told me the truth about what was on board the Poseidon that night, I would still have helped you. I’d have done anything for you. Nothing would have changed.’
‘Yes, it would…’ Jack insisted. ‘Because I’d have made sure that you got away that night.’ He threw a glare at Isla.
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