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Chapter Thirty-Three
- Dante -
NOEMI WAS ODDLY QUIETand much too accommodating when I let her out of the bathroom. I had been prepared to soothe her feelings. I expected that she was anxious and scared. I had told her that I would explain everything to her, and I intended to do that once we were safely aboard my yacht.
While the cleaners took care of removing the bodies, I had quickly worked out what I would tell her. Not everything and certainly not the truth, but I was faced with a dilemma I had never encountered before. Management at the hotel were paid to be discreet. They didn’t ask questions and were as embarrassed as I was angry that my life and that of my guest had been threatened on their property. When I called to get the bodies removed, no questions were asked. They thought I killed the men in self-defense and knew only what I had told them.
My hand had been forced. This wasn’t an anonymous murder with no evidence remaining and no way that it could be tied to me. There was one factor that I had never had to deal with before. This time, there was a witness.
In my line of work, witnesses never lived to tell their tale.
As I packed Noemi into the rental vehicle the hotel offered me as part of my consolation prize, I separated myself fromthat man. What the fuck choice did I have? I’d never murdered an innocent woman before and I sure as fuck wasn’t going to start with Noemi. What would the other man have done? Drive around the beach, put a bullet in her brain, then hide her body in the sand where the gulls and crabs would spend days picking at her until some tourist collecting shells found what was left of her body among the dunes?
I threw what little we had packed into the trunk of the car and opened the passenger door for Noemi. She hadn’t spoken a word since I let her out of the bathroom. While that should have alarmed me, I welcomed the silence. She was still in shock from her experience, but I was sure her cooperation wouldn’t last. I was prepared to deal with her. There would be a new set of rules, of expectations. Not only had she watched me kill a man, she had very nearly been killed herself. I knew she was not fully aware of that. She thought the man I killed was some random intruder and we just happened to be in his way.
Her identity, her self-worth, her confidence, her sense of well-being. I was about to ruin everything Noemi Petrafuso was. I took away her virginity, but now, I had to take away her life.
I took my seat at the driver’s side and turned to face her. I reached into my pocket for the keys and Noemi groaned.
“You’re not going to blindfold me again, are you?”
I pulled out the keys and let them dangle in my hand. “Perhaps it would be preferable to you? You’ve seen more than enough for one day, but no, that wasn’t my intention.”
Her eyes were still glossy, and she looked like she could cry at any moment. Noemi turned away from me to look out the window.
“Where are we going?” she asked as I started the car.
“You’ll see.”
“Or you could just tell me. I’ve had enough surprises for one day.”
I didn’t answer her. We weren’t that far from the marina and I was in no mood for small talk.
By the time we left the hotel, it was seven-thirty. It had only taken the cleaners an hour to remove the dead bodies. While they worked, I gathered a handful of necessities for me and Noemi – a few changes of clothes, our passports, shit like that. Fortunately, Noemi had packed light to begin with. Anything that was left behind would be destroyed and most of the items I had ordered for her before we arrived had been delivered to my yacht.
Before I let Noemi out of the bathroom, I made a call to Captain Smith and told him I wouldn’t be needing Delacroix’s plane for the return trip. It had occurred to me that it was possible it was one of the plane’s crew that had betrayed me and that would explain why the shoddy hitmen were able to locate us so fast. I wasn’t stepping foot on that goddamn plane again. If I found out my suspicions were true, Delacroix would pay for it.
The safest place for me and Noemi was on board my yacht. My original plan had been to sail around the island for a week then fly us home. But the plan was changed and would likely change a few more times before Noemi and I set foot on American soil again.
Five minutes later, I pulled into the small parking area of the private marina where theMary Theresadocked.
“Do you have your cell phone?” I asked her.
Noemi fumbled through her purse, took out her phone and handed it to me.
“I don’t need it. I want you to call your brother. Tell him you’re going on a cruise and will be unreachable for a week or so. That you’ll get in touch with him when you can.”
“Is that all true?” she asked me wearily.
“It is.” I pointed to where theMary Theresasat proudly in the water. “You can say goodbye to Barbados, Noemi. That’s going to be your new home until I say otherwise.”
“Barbados?” she repeated. “That’s where we are? You know, we’re going to have to talk about this.”
“About what, specifically?”
“Your autocratic highhanded behavior,” she replied, flipping her hair over her shoulder.
“It was all part of the bargain, if you remember.”
