Back on Solid Ground (9 page)

Niki shook
his head in acknowledgment. Too many things had happened at once and he was
mentally exhausted.  He needed to vent.  He walked over to where Stacy was
sitting and stood over her, then launched into her.

“You are not
to go anywhere, and I mean
anywhere
, unescorted.  Is that understood?”

His attack
took her by surprise, but Stacy recovered quickly.  “I should have shot you
when I had the chance,” she said belligerently. 

In one swift
motion, Niki reached down and lifted Stacy off the ground and set her down on
her feet.  He grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her hard.  He was so
furious that he wanted to smack her.  “You almost killed my brother!” he said,
his eyes flashing.

Stacy was
scared of him, but she was not about to show it.  “I’m not the one who planted
that bomb!” she shot back.  Stacy was struggling to get loose.  “Let go of me!”
she yelled.

Niki let go
of her and pushed her down in the sand.  Stacy was livid.  She jumped back to
her feet and stormed over to him.  She wanted to slug him, but she held back. 
He was so freaked out, he would probably hit her back. 

“What did you
think I’d do when you kidnapped me, behave politely and wait for you to kill
me?” she said, incredulous.  “Well let me tell you something, mister,” she said
poking him in the chest,  “I am not a fool, and I’m sure as hell not going to
sit on my butt waiting for the executioner!  I will try to escape from you
every
chance I get
,” she yelled, “and one of these times, I’ll get away. And if
you don’t like it, you can . . . kiss . . . my . . . ass!” she said, poking him
with each word.

Eli had
gotten up when Stacy went after Niki, afraid that the two would come to blows. 
He had rarely seen his brother so mad.  “You two need to chill,” he said,
taking Stacy by the arm and physically directing her away from Niki. 

“Stop pulling
on me!” she shouted at Eli, snatching her arm back.  “You people are always
pulling on me!” she yelled, rubbing her arms. 

She looked
like she was about to cry.  “I’m sorry,” Eli said.  He didn’t want to have to
deal with tears.

Niki approached
Stacy.  “As I was saying” he said, in a normal tone of voice, “one of us will
be with you any time you leave your room.  When you are in your room, one of us
will be posted outside your door.  Do you understand?” 

She didn’t
answer.

“Do you understand?”
he repeated calmly.

“Yes, I
understand,” she said, defeated.  She turned around so they didn’t see her
crying, then she walked away from them and sat down by the water. 

Shit
,
Niki thought.  He looked over at Eli, but Eli shrugged his shoulders. Niki
wasn’t about to approach Stacy while she was crying. 
Look what that got me
into last time,
he thought. 

Niki motioned
for Eli to go talk to Stacy, but Eli shook his head adamantly.  Eli pointed
toward Jason and Niki nodded in agreement.   Jason rolled his eyes.  He had
seen it coming.

Jason went
over and sat down beside Stacy.  Her cheeks were wet with tears and she wiped
her face on her wet shirt. 

“You’ve had
quite a day,” Jason said, picking up a broken shell and throwing it into the
surf.

“Why does he
hate me?” Stacy asked, not looking at Jason.

“Who, Niki?”
he said, surprised.

Stacy
nodded. 

“Niki doesn’t
hate you.  He just doesn’t know how to act towards you,” Jason explained.  “He
and Eli are very protective of each other.  Niki just got worked up, that’s
all.” 

Stacy was
silent for a moment then she turned and looked at Jason. Her eyes were
red-rimmed and bloodshot. “Why me, Jason?” she asked.   “Out of all the other
lives you could have screwed up, why did you have to choose me?”

Jason looked
away, feeling  small.  “I can’t answer that,” he finally said.

“Can’t or
won’t?”

“I can’t,” he
said.  Jason looked back over at Stacy.  There was a dark circle on her shirt. 
“You’re bleeding,” he said, pulling at her shirt. 

Stacy looked
down at her side.  There was a thin line of blood running from the bullet wound
down the side of her pants and into the sand.  “Let’s show that to Carlos,”
Jason suggested.

“It’s not
that bad,” she said, wiping off the wound.  Another drop of blood spilled out
as soon as she wiped it.

“Why don’t we
go back to the house,” he suggested.

Stacy nodded
her head.  She had stopped crying, but she was completely dispirited.

Jason helped
Stacy to her feet and they walked back over to the others.  “You guys ready to
go back?” he asked, feeling depressed himself.

“Yeah, let’s
go,” said Eli. 

They all got
up and started walking back towards the house.  Jason pulled Stacy aside to
wait for Carlos.

“Hey Carlos,
why don’t you take a look at this?” Jason said, pointing to Stacy’s side. 

“I told you,
I’m fine,” she protested.

“Just let him
look,” Jason argued.

Stacy pulled
her shirt up to expose the wound.  Carlos dabbed at it with the end of her
shirt.  “I’ll take care of that for you when we get back to the villa,” he
said.  “Can you make it back okay?”

“I’m fine.”

Carlos was
not going to argue with her, so they set off back to the house behind the
others.

Niki, Eli and
Jason discussed security while they walked.

“We need to
scout the island,” Niki said.  “Check the cameras, security fences,
everything.  Eli, you and I will take the Rover and check the perimeter of the
island.  Carlos can check the boathouse and out buildings.  We’re going to need
to make a complete sweep of the villa, too.  Jason, you can do that.”

Jason and Eli
nodded in agreement.

“And while
we’re on security,” Niki said, turning to Eli, “How’d you end up on the wrong
end of Jason’s gun?  What, did she just walk right into your room?”

“Yeah, I
watched her go into her room, then I went into mine, and as soon as I sat down,
there she was with a gun pointed at me,” Eli said.  “She had me send an e-mail
saying she was being held on an island in the Mediterranean or the Caribbean.”

“The Mediterranean?” Niki asked.

“Yeah, I told
her that’s where we were, but she’s not stupid,” Eli said.

“Who did she
e-mail?” asked Jason.

“I don’t
know, Holly somebody and I don’t remember the other one,” Eli replied.

“So then what
happened?” Jason asked.

“We went down
to Consuela’s room and she borrowed those shoes she’s wearing, then we went out
that back door by Consuela’s room.  We started out through the jungle, but she
changed her mind when she saw how dense it was.  So we headed towards the beach
and walked up by the tree line to the boathouse.  You saw what happened from
there,” Eli said in conclusion.

“What about the
snake?” Niki asked.

“You saw the
snake?”  Eli had hoped to avoid that part of the story. 

Niki nodded. 
“It was a big, poisonous bastard – at least eight feet.”

Eli filled
them in on the snake story and on what happened afterwards.

“And the
padlock was cut,” Niki stated.  He thought for a moment.  “When was the last
time either of you was at the boat house?”

“I was there
last night,” Jason said ominously, “and the lock was intact.”

“Each of us
needs to carry a gun at all times,” Niki stated, and Jason and Eli nodded in
agreement. 

Jason turned
to Niki.  “Do you think this has to do with our latest job – with Stacy or the
diamonds?”

“I don’t
know,” he said, thinking about it.  “It wouldn’t really make sense; we’re meeting
with the client on Monday,” he said.  “I just don’t see what purpose it would
serve to blow us up before then.  They’d want the girl alive,” he said.

“Well, who
would want to see us dead?” asked Eli.

“I don’t
know,” Niki said, shaking his head. 

They walked
in silence the rest of the way back, each consumed by his own thoughts.

The kitchen
smelled like freshly baked bread when they arrived.  There were three round
loaves sitting on a cooling rack and a dish of seafood paella on the stove, but
there was no sign of Consuela.  Stacy thought of the housekeeper as being like
a little mouse, sneaking in and out of the kitchen when no one was around.  She
definitely knew how to run a household.  There was not a speck of dust in the
whole place. 

The walk back
had given Stacy a chance to pull herself back together.  She resigned herself
to the fact that her next escape attempt would be tougher, but she determined
that she would not lose her optimism.  She hated being around negative people,
and she refused to become one of them.  Nor would she sulk.  She’d had a good
plan and it would have worked if there hadn’t been a bomb on the boat.  It was
bad luck, not bad planning.  She was as resourceful as anyone she knew, and she
was going to get out of her predicament, one way or another.  By the time she
reached the kitchen door, her pep talk had worked wonders.

“Oh, that
smells wonderful,” she said, taking in the aroma.  She walked over to the stove
to check out what was cooking.

The men were
thrown by the drastic change in her disposition.  On the beach, she had seemed
completely deflated; it was thoroughly depressing to see her like that.  Now
she was practically cheerful.  And for some reason, the whole feel of the
kitchen seemed to be governed by Stacy Trent’s mood.  Right then, it was a very
nice place to be. 

Eli joined
Stacy at the stove and looked into a huge stainless pan. 

“What is it?”
Stacy asked.

“Consuela’s
twist on paella,” said Eli, smiling.  “It’s got this special sauce that only
Consuela can make.”

“It looks
awesome,” she said.

“Wait until
you taste it.  It tastes even better than it looks.  If I was the marrying
type, I’d marry Consuela for her paella,” Eli said.  He broke a loaf of bread
apart and handed Stacy a piece.  It was still warm.

“Yum.  Is
that ready?” she pointed to the pan.

“How can you
be hungry again?  You ate a whole plateful of meat and potatoes at noon.”

“Move over,”
Niki said, displacing his brother. Niki pulled a chunk of bread off the loaf, smothered
it in sauce, and ate it. 

Stacy’s eyes
followed the piece of bread from the pot to Niki’s mouth.  She went for the
loaf but Eli beat her to it.

“A couple of
scavengers!” Niki exclaimed.

Eli handed Stacy
another chunk of bread and they both dunked into the sauce.  Niki watched
Stacy’s face as she tasted Consuela’s creation. He wasn’t even aware that he
was smiling. 

“Stop
watching me chew,” she said, and she turned his head away with her hand.

 “It’s
ready,” Eli declared.   “Let’s get changed and eat,” he told Niki. 

“Yeah,” Niki
said, dunking another chunk of bread and eating it.  He started to  leave the
kitchen but turned back as he got to the door.  “Someone go with her,” he said,
directing the order to no one in particular.

 Eli looked
at Stacy’s wet clothes.  “Wait here,” he told her. 

“I’m going to
change,” said Jason, leaving Carlos and Stacy alone in the kitchen.

Stacy was
rummaging through the refrigerator and came out with a stick of butter.  She
found a knife and cut off a couple of slices of bread, then buttered a slice
for herself and handed Carlos a slice.  She was looking out the window when Eli
returned with an armful of Consuela’s clothes.

“Here,” Eli
said, handing Stacy the clothes, “these should fit better than what you’re
wearing.” 

Eli turned to
Carlos, “You go up with her and we’ll meet you back down here.”

“I want to
doctor your wound again while I’m up there,” Carlos told Stacy.  He stood back
to let her pass.  “After you.”

 Back in her
room, Stacy changed into a pair of faded cut-offs and a tank top. 
Way to go
Consuela
, she thought.  Stacy looked at herself in the mirror.  She had
dark circles under her eyes and her skin was pale.  And then, there was her
hair.  She turned upside down and gathered it up, then twisted it around and
stuck a pen through the knot to keep it in place.  That was as good as it was
going to get, so she called Carlos in to doctor her wound.  When they returned
to the kitchen, Niki, Eli and Jason were waiting. 

“You took
forever,” Eli said grumpily.

Niki looked
at Stacy.  “Are those Consuela’s clothes?” he asked.

“Yep,” Stacy
said.

Niki looked
her up and down. “They look a lot better on you than they do on her.”

“Definitely,”
said Jason.  “And I like the hair thing.  You can’t even tell where Niki cut
it,” he said, opening a can of worms. 

Stacy looked
over at Eli, “I thought you told me
you
cut it.”

“I said it
was my
idea
,” Eli corrected.   He pointed at Niki.  “
He’s
the one
who cut it.”

Shit. 
Here we go again,
Niki thought. “Thanks a lot,” Niki said under his breath,
and Jason shrugged his shoulders.

“Before you
launch into me
again
,” Niki said, trying to head her off at the pass,
“I’m apologizing right now for cutting your hair.” 

All eyes
turned to Stacy.

“Okay.”  She
hadn’t intended to pursue it anyway.  “Where do I sit?” she asked, and there was
a collective sigh of relief.

“Why don’t
you sit here so you can look out the window,” Carlos suggested, setting a plate
of food down for her.  He took the seat next to her and sat down.   The others
filled their plates at the stove and came over and joined the two.  Niki was
the last to the table, so by default, got the seat on the other side of Stacy.

Eli watched
Stacy taste the paella. “What’d I tell you?” he said. “It kicks ass.”