“Fy faen!” Oskar said and began to pace back and forth. I took a step back from Oskar. I had never seen him this agitated before. It reminded me that I hadn’t seen a lot of different parts of him due to the years that had passed.
“I could hide? And you guys could come back with a boat or send someone to collect me?” I offered a little timidly.
Ettore shook his curls, tossing his head.
“No, I didn’t think that they would, but the fact that they didn’t say anything about our families means that we are going to be placed in custody.”
“For what?” I asked, beginning to twist my hand together, my anxiety building.
“Despite the fact that we literally fucking shipwrecked,” Bartosz spat, his eyes dark, “we missed most, if not all of the conference. Any Renai who fits within the parameters and fails to attend the conference must be punished. Punishments can range from extreme fines to imprisonment; there are too few of us for capital punishment. If you flee from prosecution, you find all investment pulled from your company, criminal charges against you in your home country, and if you try to flee, well, they send the Rats to find you. They always do, and they are never gentle.”
I had wondered how the Renai had kept their population of wealthy, global individuals in line. I guess I knew how now.
“So you don’t know if you’ll be able to send anyone to collect me, at least not for a while. Maybe I could sneak on the boat? One of you could go to the far side of the island, the rest of you could say that that person was missing, maybe injured, and they would go to find them, and while they were away from the boat, could I sneak aboard?” I offered.
Jin Woo slowly shook his head.
“They are highly disciplined; they would leave a couple of armed men behind to guard the boat. No, we have to figure out something else.”
“We could take Constantine hostage?” Bartosz offered, “There is no way that jerk off is not jumping at the opportunity to arrest me. We could use him as a hostage to negotiate to let you come with us safely to the mainland. It might give us enough time to explain that we plan to take you as our mate and that you are no threat.”
That plan seemed to have more holes in it than Swiss cheese, but I only pointed out one.
“If they are that highly trained, wouldn’t they be willing to take a shot to eliminate whoever is holding Constantine or whatever hostage?”
“No,” Oskar replied to me, finally still, “We are still too precious, there cannot be any loss of Renai life, they wouldn’t risk harming Constantine or us. Killing a Renai, even by accident, is the one crime that merits the death penalty, well, if you are a male Renai.”
“What happens if it’s a woman?” I asked, curious.
“There have only been like ten female Renai murderers in the last hundred years, and one was killed by another for vengeance. I think they typically get rehabilitated or contained under careful supervision.”
Once my curiosity was sated, I was all business.
“How long would the court procedures take?” I asked
Ettore was the one who answered.
“Probably a week or two.”
“Fine. I’m not going to let you all get in extra trouble on my account, no, Bartosz will take down another sheep for me, I’ll take most of your jackets and borrow Oskar’s pocket knife, and I’ll just stay here until you can send for me.”
I didn’t listen to the little voice in my head that whispered to me that they would forget me, that I would starve to death or die of hypothermia on this island alone because I had overestimated how much they cared for me. Didn’t guys ‘hit-it-and-quit-it’ all the time? I put a confident smile on my face.
“Don’t worry, guys, I’ll be fine, I’m a tough cookie.”
Jin Woo reached for me and pulled me into his arms, and Bartosz leaned down so his face was on the same level as mine.
“You must be smoking crack if you think that we are going to leave you on this island.”
“What he said,” Ettore agreed, "Honestly, if Constantine doesn’t come along, with our combined social capital, we could probably convince them that you are a male Renai that wasn’t documented, or maybe even just hide you until the last moment and then reveal you and bully them into letting you come aboard.”
“Why is Constantine messing everything up?” I asked. In Jin Woo’s arms, everything seemed less scary, more easily surmountable.
“There are superhuman traits that some Renai have. Constantine can tell if someone is Renai or not, and his mother is the current head of the Renai council, which means that he has more social capital than we do.”
Ettore crossed his arms across his chest and scowled.”
“For now,” he grumped.
