“No—”
“Luna? Make sure he keeps his phone on him today. Plan G is rocking and rolling.”
He hung up on me. Confused, I stared at the phone in my hand. He had some plan in the works and hadn’t deemed me adult enough to share it with me. And no matter how much I wanted to leave this house, I couldn’t. Jasmine didn’t need a babysitter, but she didn’t need to be left alone either. I didn’t mind being there with her, but I minded Tate treating me like I was less. Like I wasn’t someone he could share everything with. Like I wasn’t an equal.
If he wanted a relationship with me, this crap would not fly.
I paced the room, trapped. Every now and then, Jasmine’s gaze would lift from her workbook. Several old board games with yellowed cardboard and dented corners filled the bottom shelf of a shelving unit near the stairs. I lifted the Scrabble box and brought it over to the coffee table in front of Jasmine.
“Game?” I offered.
I spread out the wooden pieces and the board. Jasmine picked up on the game with ease, and we played out the game using three- or four-letter words.
An eternity passed, and the door cracked open. I scanned the nearest coffee table for a weapon.
Alice passed through the door, and I lowered the wooden letter tray I’d been prepared to pummel an intruder with.
“You’ve got the jumps,” Alice teased.
“Can you blame me? And Gabe called and said Plan G is in effect. Do you know what that is?” She’d better not. If he told Alice and not me…
Her gentle hand rested on my shoulder. “He wanted to keep the two of you safe.”
“Well, that’s—” Jasmine’s wide eyes forced me to swallow my anger and frustration. I stood and stretched under Alice’s watchful gaze.
Alice patted my shoulder then squeezed it. “Listen to me. No man is perfect. Talk to him. No relationship works if you don’t.”
Chapter 34
Tate
I shook hands with the FBI agent who seemed to oversee the entire operation. I had to hand it to Gabe, the man had contacts. Boats with flashing lights filled the marina. Small groups of islanders hovered around the marina, looking on and talking. I’d seen more than one finger pointed my direction.
Gabe and I alternated between texts and calls. There would be no need for him to fly down. We’d somehow concocted a plan that worked. I kept checking the time on my phone. Luna would wonder what was going on. Every time I had a second free, another uniformed man would approach, wanting to ask questions. The FBI, US Coast Guard, Homeland Security. Logan directed officers, one by one, to me. I had only seen the guy in passing before this, but he’d taken me seriously this morning when I stopped in and met with him. I owed the guy. Prior to today, his biggest worry had been speeding golf carts. He handled it all like a seasoned pro.
Gabe texted and asked the same question, with different phrasing, multiple times. “Do you need a lawyer?”
A man in khaki shorts, a badge, and a gun holster approached. I’d stopped paying attention to the badges over an hour ago.
“Do you know an Alexandre Gueirrero?”
“No.”
“He was on the offshore ship. There’s a warrant out for his arrest.”
I slipped my hands in my pockets and shrugged. I wouldn’t put it past Zane to be hauling a felon into international waters. The man would do anything for a fee. But I had no information to offer.
Zane would face multiple charges, not the least of which included carrying an unregistered firearm. The more significant charges, as I understood them, would include blackmail, extortion, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and tax evasion. He unwittingly led the feds to an entire network of offshore accounts. Prosecutors sought a minimum thirty-year sentence.
Hours passed before I escaped all the men with questions. Alice’s house came into view through the wooded lane. Jasmine and Alice swung on the front porch.
“You get everything taken care of?”
“Yes, ma’am. Where’s Luna?”
“Once we got word that we were in the clear, she took off.”
She probably had work to do at the center. I climbed the two porch steps and rested my hand on the back of the chair I planned to sit in.
Alice shook her finger and clucked her tongue. “No, sir. Your day’s not done. You’ve got some making up to do.”
I glanced around the porch, clueless.
“Get on with it. Jasmine and I are all good. You got a lot to learn about communication. And partnership.”
You have to be fucking kidding me.
“Uh-uh.” She snapped those fingers, and Jasmine smiled like she was in on a joke. “Drop that attitude. Would you like it if the shoes were reversed? If Luna left you in the dark? Treated you as less? You got some wallowing to do. Now, get to it.”
I gritted my teeth as an argument brewed. Alice’s eyes leveled on me, and the fight deflated.
I found Luna out on the beach and sat down beside her. She threw a shell fragment out into the wake. We both looked straight ahead, out over the crashing wake. Farther down the beach, a dog rushed the waves, its owner trailing behind.
“Everything’s okay now.” Luna leaned forward to pick up another shell fragment, acknowledging my comment with a slight nod. Tension radiated, and I didn’t like it. But I refused to apologize for keeping her safe. I gritted my teeth, debating how to best address her.
“It’s not going to work with us if you treat me like I’m not your equal.” She wiped the sand off the shell fragment, her focus so concentrated on her task it took me a moment to be certain I didn’t imagine her words. I picked up a smooth gray shell and rubbed it between my fingers, thinking. “Or have you decided you don’t want it to work?”
“Luna, I want us to work
