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“We’ll keep working on ideas for that trap door on this end, but assume it’s not doable. You have to get the bastard and stop him.”
Danny needed to return Roxy’s boat to St. Thomas, so arrangements were made for Pete to pick him up at the Shady Shack early evening, take him back to St. John, and deliver him to the surveillance van.
“Where’s Elizabeth?” Danny asked as Scott walked him to the door. “I’d like to say goodbye.”
“I’ll tell her for you. She can’t come down at the moment.”
“Scott, I know she can be impetuous at times, and you’re probably not very happy that she took me into that room, but—”
“What makes you say that?”
“It was locked with a code box.”
“Ah,” Scott said with a nod.
“If you knew our history, and understood her state of mind at the time, I think you’d find her lapse in judgment understandable. Finding me at the front door was startling enough, then she heard I’d been posing as Dan Miller.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not an ogre and I’ll bear that in mind,” Scott promised. “I’ll also let her know you came to her defense.”
“I’ll always have her back,” Danny said with the hint of a smile. “I’ll see you later.”
But watching Danny stride to the car, another question suddenly flashed through Scott’s mind.
“Hey, Danny, how did you break into the Jeep?”
“I didn’t,” Danny replied. “I was curled up under the custom cover in the back. I climbed in when you parked at that small house where you held Jim.”
“But—you couldn’t possibly fit in there.”
“At some point I’ll show you how I did it,” Danny promised with a laugh, “assuming we both survive.”
As the car drove off, Scott tried to picture Danny hiding in the small space, but finding it completely ridiculous, and anxious to see Elizabeth, he hurried inside and ran up the stairs. Walking swiftly down the hall to the double doors, he entered the bedroom to find her sitting on her haunches. As she turned her head and lifted her sad eyes, his heart melted.
“I’m really sorry, Scott. Please forgive me.”
Quickly moving across the room, he helped her to her feet and wrapped her into his arms.
“I tried, but I couldn’t stay on my knees. They were killing me.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t expect to be so long,” he apologized, an unexpected wave of guilt moving through him. “I have some good news. Danny is now officially part of the operation. He had a lot to offer.”
“I’m sure he did. He was privy to a great deal more than I was, but he told me working for Conchello was like sinking in a black swamp and there was no way out.”
“I knew that man was a brute, but I didn’t realize just what a monster he is,” Scott remarked, a frown creasing his brow as he pulled back. “But enough about that. Tell me what you’ve been thinking about.”
“You were right, I should never have taken him into your house. I should have called you from where we were.”
“Which was?”
“A short way up the trail he’d found a plateau overlooking the ocean.”
“I know it, and yeah, you should have called me from there. Why didn’t you?”
“Showing up like he did totally freaked me out. Then hearing he’d been posing as Dan Miller—Scott, it was just unbelievable. Uh, can we lie down for a minute? I feel a bit shaky.”
“Of course,” he replied, kicking off his shoes.
As they stretched out on the comfortable bed, and he heard her let out a heavy sigh, it occurred to him Danny’s sudden reappearance in her life had affected her more than he’d thought.
