Jill Shalvis - The Trouble With Paradise

“Where is he?” Michael asked.

“On the dock where you last saw him. Tied up.”

Michael headed out.

“Goddamn,” Brandy said, and grabbing Cadence and Andy, followed him.

“We’ve got to go with them,” Dorie said, and walked out, too.

“Goddamn,” he said, repeating Brandy’s sentiment and went after her.

Three minutes later, Dorie was on the dock with the others, standing in front of a trussed-up Denny.

Denny eyed them all. “Ethan get away, huh? Told you.” His laugh was unpleasant.

“Premature elation,” Christian said. “Might want to see a doctor about that.”

Denny’s smile faded. “Fuck you.”

“I want answers,” Michael said, looking pale but strong enough. “Now.”

Denny tucked his lips into his mouth.

Christian sighed. “It’s about the insurance claim, isn’t it.”

“What insurance claim?” Dorie asked.

“On the Sun Song, ” Christian said. “We had a claim on our last cruise. One of the passengers lost a bag overboard. She claimed all her jewelry was in it, half a mil worth. The insurance wouldn’t pay out and the woman is suing Denny and the owner personally.”

“Bitch,” Denny said. “Her insurance would have covered it, but she wouldn’t make her own claim. She wanted me to pay out, even though I didn’t take her damn jewelry.”

“That’s what happens when you sleep with so many passengers,” Christian said.

Cadence’s mouth fell open. “You… sleep with passengers?”

“At least one each cruise. The oddest thing is,” Christian mused, “that it should have been the owner’s problem, not yours.”

Denny turned his head and looked away.

“Unless…” Christian glanced behind him at everyone standing there. “See, I’ve never met the owner directly. Denny’s always said the man’s too busy to be bothered. I always found that incredibly strange.” He turned back to Denny. “You’re the owner, aren’t you?”

“No.”

“Working closely with him then, insurance scam, right? Yeah. I’m close.” Christian stared at him. “No, it’s not you, it’s… Ethan?”

Denny’s expression gave the truth away.

“Unbelievable.”

“He never wanted anyone knowing,” Denny admitted. “He likes the anonymity of it.”

“So you, what, sleep with the passengers and then he steals from them? Is that how this works? And then you split the profits?”

“You think you’re so righteous and moral,” Denny said, “but if you’d been in my position, you’d-”

“What? Never have stolen in the first place? Sure as hell never murder someone to keep my secrets?”

“I didn’t kill Bobby!”

Dorie’s mind whirled, back to that first day on the Sun Song, when she’d overheard that odd conversation…

“I’m innocent!” Denny yelled at them.

Christian shook his head. “Then why were you holding a knife on Cadence?”

“I was holding her. And the knife. I wasn’t holding the knife on her! I was trying to flush out Ethan! I followed him down here, hoping to get a confession out of him for killing Bobby.”

Christian crossed his arms in disbelief. “So you didn’t know. Is that what you want us to think?”

“Look at me,” Denny told him. “Do you really think me capable of hurting Bobby?”

Christian looked at him for a long moment, then shut his eyes and shook his head. “I want to say no.”

“Thanks, man. Untie me.”

“Don’t thank me. Because I won’t be untying you. Here’s the thing, Denny. I wouldn’t have been able to say it about Ethan either.”

“I didn’t do it!”

“Maybe not Bobby. But you’re in on the insurance scam. On the theft.”

To Dorie, it was all making sense, terribly horrifying sense. “I heard you talking that first day,” she said slowly. “It was you talking to Ethan, you said seventy-five/twenty-five but then you settled for fifty-fifty.” Her heart stopped. “And then you told him to…” She swallowed hard, understanding. “Take care of the mess. Bobby was the mess.”

Denny closed his eyes. “Killing Bobby was not my idea. But then the kid caught Ethan red-handed and threatened to talk. Threatened to expose us. Ethan… he lost it.”

They were all quiet for a long moment as it sank in.

“But why destroy the ship?” Brandy finally asked.

“Not planned,” Denny grated out. “At least not on my part.” He stared out at sea, his jaw tight. “I’m thinking Ethan had a different agenda altogether. He must have been worried about evidence.”

“So where did Ethan take my boat?” Michael asked in a tone that suggested his yacht had better be safe.

“I don’t know, but I could help find both Ethan and the yacht if you let me.” Denny tried to stand but Christian put a hand on his head.

“Come on, Christian-”

“Where is he, Denny?”

“I told you, I don’t know.”

“See, here’s the thing. I don’t believe you.”

“It’s the truth!”

Christian’s gaze scanned the horizon. “Michael, how many years in jail would you say he’s looking at so far?”

“Without his cooperation? Ten to twenty, easy.”

“Yes, I’d agree,” Christian said thoughtfully. “Too bad he won’t cooperate, I’m sure he could cut a deal.”

“Hey!” Denny shouted when they all turned toward the stairs, leaving him there.

No one stopped.

“You can’t hold me, I didn’t kill him!” he yelled to their backs.

They all kept walking.

“I didn’t do anything wrong!”

No one stopped at that either.

“Fine! So the whole insurance scam thing was a little shaky, but I didn’t do anything else wrong!”

Still walking…

“All right. Fuck! You win! I thought Ethan was going to screw me out of the money so I sabotaged the damn boat for the additional claim. This is before I knew Ethan had offed Bobby, so don’t link me with that crime. You happy?”

They all turned and looked at him, and at their expressions, he deflated like a balloon. “Okay, so you’re not happy.”

“Look at that, a captain and a genius,” Christian said.

“I only did it so we could make a claim and pay off that bitch and still keep our livelihood. Tons of people do shit like that every day. Yeah, it makes me greedy and selfish, and yeah, we pulled the scam as often as possible to line our pockets and buy the boat outright, but I did not kill Bobby. I am not a murderer, and you can’t just leave me here. I didn’t do anything to any of you.”

“Except sabotage the boat,” Andy said.

“Which caused us to shipwreck,” Brandy said.

“That’s attempted murder,” Christian said.

Denny practically choked on that. “Are you kidding me? We were never even in danger! Jesus Christ, did anyone so much as break a damn nail?”

In unison, everyone looked at each other, then began walking again.

“Wait! I didn’t mean that. Stop. Jesus, stop! All I meant is that being on the island wasn’t so bad, right? And look where we are now, in paradise!”

“Except none of us wanted to be on this island,” Dorie pointed out.

“Damn A straight,” Andy said.

“Duh,” Cadence said.

Brandy looked at the sky.

“Um, Brandy?” Cadence said. “Back us up?”

“Maybe none of us planned for the island thing…” Brandy glanced at Michael. “But not all of us are having a bad time.”

Michael, so rich he could have bought God, not to mention had been shot only an hour ago, smiled.

Dorie blinked, then looked at Christian. He met her gaze, with no outward sign of what he was thinking-except for the slight flicker of heat. And suddenly she was vividly reminded of the absolute not bad time she’d had right here on the island.