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“You will report to your quarters with me, where you will be sequestered until the matter is resolved.” The robot held out the weapon a touch further.

“No need,” I said, moving between the machine and a rather panicked-looking Travis. “There’s been a misunderstanding.”

“You yelled for him to let go of you,” the robot said, tilting its mechanical head in a questioning gesture.

“He’s my friend. It was a mistake,” I said, holding my hands palms out. “He let go when I asked.”

“What’s going on over here?” Alyssa asked, jogging over from the path and tugging out an earbud. Sweat glistened on her skin, and her breath was ragged from exercise.

“This man has assaulted this woman,” the robot said.

“No,” we both said. “It was a misunderstanding. I already told you that. Can you help, Alyssa?”

She looked between the three of us and shook her head with disappointment. “You’re dismissed, Terry. I have the situation under control.”

The robot’s arm, weapon and all, slid back inside it’s body, and it rolled away. I released the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.

“What are you doing out here all alone?” she asked, staring down Travis with a hand on her hip. “By the aquarium?”

“Just walking. We wanted some exercise, just like you,” I said, gesturing to her dangling ear pods. “That thing is crazy. I mean, you gave it weapons?”

Alyssa pursed her lips. “That thing, as you call it, is programmed to save your life in a situation gone wrong. Listen, you should both go back to the hotel and relax before the gala tonight. It doesn’t look good for you to be out here alone.”

“I’m not a child, Alyssa,” I said with a snort of indignation. This conversation was long overdue. She treated me like a stepchild when she was barely five years my senior.

“Your sex life is none of my business, Sam,” she said, shutting me up. “But I’m trying to do you a favor.”

She pulled me aside, and whispered, “Someone defaced the Poseidon statue last night.”

“What?” I asked, stunned. “So, what? You think I’m angry enough to go throw paint on my own mother’s art?”

Travis joined me at my side.

Alyssa’s jaw dropped open. “How did you know it was paint?”

“Defaced property?” I said with a laugh. “Ever heard of tagging? What else would have happened to a marble statue the size of a house?”

“It just doesn’t look good to find people out here so far from the main area,” she said, glaring at Travis like the protective step-mother she wasn’t.

“You were out here,” I snapped.

Travis’s eyes narrowed at her as he stroked his beard again. “She was sent out to look for anyone suspicious.”

Alyssa shifted her weight to her other foot and glanced in the direction of the statue. But she didn’t deny it.

“And I’m on the Bennet watch list. I’m honored,” he said.

“You got a warning because you’re with my fiancé’s daughter. Don’t make me regret it.” Alyssa stuffed her earpiece back in and took off pounding the pavement.

“Did she just say fiancé?”

“’Fraid so,” Travis said, reaching for my hand.

That little tidbit of bomb-dropping information was new to me. I backed away. “Look, I’ll see you later. I have to go.” Before he could respond, I ran back toward the hotel. I never should have left my room to begin with.