The Power Trip

Too damn late.

Chapter Ninety-Nine

The 378-foot, high-endurance Coast Guard cutter Sunrise pulled up next to The Bianca. Several maritime law enforcement officers immediately boarded the vessel, guns at the ready.

Flynn greeted them. ‘You’re too late,’ he informed them with a cynical shake of his head. ‘Guess we did your job for you.’

Captain Dickson was on deck. He led the officers straight to the captured pirates — Cashoo, Hani, Daleel and Galad, who were put in handcuffs and taken away.

Medical personnel also boarded and began getting the wounded onto stretchers before transferring them to the cutter’s helicopter.

Aleksandr insisted that his guests were taken care of first. Jeromy got the star treatment, with Renee next in line, then Den, and finally Aleksandr — but not before he’d made sure that Bianca and the other women were safe.

A medic attempted to attend to Flynn, but he waved her away. ‘I’m fine,’ he said curtly.

Aleksandr personally gave Sierra the news about Hammond. Her reaction was not what he’d expected. She’d remained dry-eyed and surprisingly calm.

Then came the morbid part. The photographing and removal of the dead bodies from the yacht. First Senator Patterson, then the bodyguard Kyril, and finally the two dead pirates.

Cliff Baxter was hailed as a hero, for he was the one who’d shot and killed the man who’d brutally raped Renee then murdered Senator Patterson.

In her mind, Renee had convinced herself that this was exactly how it had all gone down. She was a victim, and she told her story with great conviction. It was all about how she’d been in her cabin when the pirate had entered, attacked and raped her. Then Senator Patterson had burst in to try to save her, only to get himself shot.

Nobody questioned why the Senator was naked. Aleksandr had spoken on the phone to certain people in power, and the investigation was cursory.

Case closed.

Nobody cared about a dead Somalian pirate.

Den, the barman, was somewhat bummed. Just his luck that the friggin’ movie star had been the one to shoot the wanker. It should’ve been him. He was the person who deserved hero status.

The guests were all anxious to get off The Bianca as soon as possible. The crew also couldn’t wait.

Captain Dickson headed back to Cabo full speed ahead, where chaos waited.

The world press were in ecstasy. What a story! One of the greatest ever. A gaggle of stars. Power. Money. Fame. Sex. Murder. Luxury.

Headlines roared across the world. The Internet blew up.

Senator Patterson’s sex scandal was forgotten. Along with Cliff Baxter, the Senator was now a hero. Albeit a dead hero, but a hero all the same.

Aleksandr made arrangements for an army of bodyguards to meet The Bianca when it docked. A fleet of private jets awaited to take his esteemed guests to wherever they wished to go.

Aleksandr’s personal doctor had flown in to tend to him. Fortunately the injury to his thigh was not as serious as he’d feared, and he jetted off to Moscow with Bianca by his side.

Ashley and Taye flew back to England, where the British press descended on them in full force. So many photographers, so many flash bulbs blinding them as they stepped out of the airport.

Their two mums were waiting to greet them, accompanied by the twins, Aimee and Wolf, in matching girl/boy outfits.

Ashley let out a yelp of pure joy as she bent down to cuddle both her children. ‘Mummy’s home,’ she crooned. ‘And I promise you that Mummy will never leave you again.’

‘You got that right,’ said a grinning Taye.

To Jeromy’s chagrin, Luca left him languishing in a hospital in Cabo while he flew back to Miami. ‘If I stay, the press’ll drive us crazy,’ Luca explained. ‘It’s better that you recover quietly without all the fuss of me being around.’

Jeromy was not a happy camper. Cliff, feted as a hero, avoided the press altogether. He and Lori returned to L.A. and holed up in his mansion while the furore died down. ‘I’m no hero,’ he kept on protesting to his inner circle.

But everyone — including Lori — knew that he was.

Xuan refused the offer of a private jet and took a commercial flight to Syria, where she had an assignment to write an in-depth piece for the Huffington Post.

Which left Sierra and Flynn.

And where exactly did it leave them?

Not in a perfect place, for although outwardly calm, Sierra was horrified at what had taken place. She might have hated her husband, but she’d certainly never wished anything like this on him.

Flynn made an attempt to comfort her.

She rejected him. Turned away from anything he had to say.

They parted ways without resolving anything.

Sierra travelled to New York.

Flynn took off to Paris.

Both understood that for now — sadly — it was not to be.

Epilogue

Three Months Later

Scandals come and go. There is always something outrageous going on in the headlines, whether it be political, sexual or money-oriented. Sometimes all three combined.

The Bianca debacle was up there with the best of them, much as the main players involved tried to leave it in their wake.

Aleksandr Kasianenko would always be known as the Russian oligarch whose yacht was taken over by pirates.

Bianca, the famous super-model whose name was synonymous with the scandal, would always be known as the girl after whom the infamous yacht was named.

The press never tired of writing about the pirating of The Bianca. Especially as the main pirate, and the mystery girl who was apparently working on the inside, were never captured. Their speedboat vanished, and since a second storm came in later that same day, the most popular theory was that they had been caught in the storm mid-ocean, and that possibly their boat had gone down, and they’d both drowned.

* * *

Mercedes couldn’t help smiling when she read the stories on the Internet. Talk about a clean getaway!

After Cruz had tossed the Captain overboard, a move she considered genius, he’d disposed of Jabrill the same way — although ill-fated Jabrill had no one to rescue him.