“Yeah,” Robby insisted, dragging him from his thoughts. “But now they know we’re here.”
“They know wewerehere,” Carter corrected. “If we can’t see them, they can’t see us. They’ll assume we missed the flare and moved on.”
“I still think we’re wasting time,” Jane said with a huff, adjusting her hat when a gust of wind tried to tug it off her head. “We have a gun. They have a gun. But we have the advantage because we have the element of surprise. They’re never going to think a boat motoring up to the island is filled with people looking to kill them. They’ll think they’re being rescued. Kenny can take out the one who’s armed first. After that, killing the others will be like shooting fish in a barrel.”
Kenny lifted an eyebrow. “Idolike shooting fish in a barrel.”
“No way.” Robby shook his head. “It’s too risky. What if you don’t kill the gunman? What if you only wound him and he has time to draw his weapon? I didn’t sign up for getting shot.”
“Robby’s right,” Carter agreed. “Plus, this way we don’t have to kill anyone but Mia. The one we’re really after.”
“But if we leave the others alive, don’t you think they’ll wonder what happened to her?” Jane pressed. “Don’t you think they’ll wonder how and why she vanished off an island in the middle of nowhere?”
Carter shrugged. “They mightwonder. But there won’t be any way for them to figure it out. We’ll make sure of that.”
“And the plane?” Jane persisted. “If we leave them alive, they might want an investigation into what happened to it. Ever think of that?”
Carterhadthought of that. “It’s too deep to dive out here. What? You think they’re going to convince the Key West police department to spend cash on a submersible to come out here and take video of the wreckage?”
Jane crossed her arms and frowned—Carter ignored that his two best friends stared at her cleavage—but she didn’t offer up another excuse.
“Good.” He dipped his chin. “Then we’re all agreed?”
None of them had time to answer him before the radio tuned to the Marine Emergency channel came to life. The voice sounding over the airwaves was low and a little tinny, but otherwise as clear as a bell. “Be advised all ships sailing in Hawks Channel or the Straits of Florida. An amphibious aircraft, body color blue and white, has been reported missing in the area. Four people on board. If anyone has seen the aircraft or signs of the aircraft, please report in. Over.”
Carter felt his stomach drop down and try to exit his ass. “Shit. They’re starting the search.”
“Not yet,” Kenny assured him. “They’ll wait to see if anyone has spotted the aircraft before calling in the Coast Guard.”
“But how long will they wait?” Robby demanded.
“Not sure.” Kenny shrugged and glanced up at the sun. “But we only got a coupla hours until sunset. Chances are nobody’s gonna stumble across the sandbar before dark. We can still stick with the plan. Or we could do as the lovely Jane suggests”—he winked at Carter’s aunt who preened like a teenager—“and hit ’em now. Take ’em all out.” He looked expectantly at Carter. “What’s it gonna be?”
“Let’s stick with the after dark plan,” Carter decided with a firm dip of his chin. When he heard his aunt snort, he curled his hands into fists and added, “We’ll keep listening to the radios, and if we think they’re getting close to searching this area, we’ll go with Aunt Jane’s plan, move in early, and end them all.”
He looked around the boat at the three faces staring back at him. Robby looked relieved. Kenny looked indifferent since, either way, he would get to off someone. But Jane? Well, she looked impatient. And maybe a little pissed.
“Don’t worry. We’ll get it done,” he assured her. “One way or another, you’ll have your justice. And we’ll all get our money.”
Chapter 15
6:15 PM...
“I thought that would be a crap-ton of disgusting, but it was actually pretty good.” Cami wiped the back of her hand over her mouth and sighed contentedly.
Romeo smiled briefly at the lawyer. But it was like Mia was a magnet and his eyeballs were metal. Because before he knew it, he’d turned back to watch her pop the last morsel of fish from her improvised palm leaf plate into her mouth. She delicately sucked on her fingertips, and when her pink tongue flicked out to lick her lips, he barely refrained from groaning out loud.
Sweet Mother Mary...
He had a hard-on fat enough to choke a mule. And since fully half of the people sitting around the fire would no doubt like nothing better than tonotbear witness to the party in his pants, he distracted himself by wrapping the leftover portion of fish into a palm frond.
The meat wouldn’t keep for long. But it would still be good in the morning for breakfast. And as the sun sank farther into the west, he thought it was a sure bet they’d still be on the sandbar come the dawn.
“What kind of fish did you say that was?” Cami asked him over the orange and yellow dance of the flames from the fire they’d built to cook the fish.
“Snook,” he told her.
The long silvery fish with the big, black stripes down its sides had given him quite a fight. By the time he’d pulled it onto the shore, he’d been covered in sweat and his forearms had burned with fatigue.
