Free Blue Velvet by Iris Johansen Page A

There’s no way I’m going to take you back to Mariba. It would be sheer suicide to turn you loose on the streets.”
    “It’s not going to be all that dangerous,” she argued desperately. “Look, I’m not asking you to sail right into Mariba harbor. The plane is hidden clear on the other side of the island. That side is almost uninhabited. It’s all rain forest and a few fishing villages along the lagoon. We have the Cessna stashed and camouflaged in a glade in the forest.” She made a face. “On an island like Castellano, it was best no one knew its location. It’s right on the main drug routes and planes and yachts are prime hijack targets. We keep it gassed and ready to go, so I can be in the air in less than an hour after I hit the beach. It will all be perfectly safe.”
    “If it’s so perfectly safe, why don’t we drop Julio off and let him ferry it?” Beau asked silkily. “You’ve just been telling me what a hotshot pilot he is.”
    Darn, she’d been afraid he’d ask that. “Well, there’s a slight possibility Despard may have ordered an island-wide search for the plane,” she admitted reluctantly. “He’s bound to have discovered who you are by now. There aren’t that many Americans who dock at Mariba. He’ll put two and two together and realize we left Castellano by ship. Which leaves a very valuable commodity in the form of the Cessna just sitting there unguarded.” She paused. “If he can find it.”
    “So you don’t want to risk Julio but you’re willing to put your own neck on the block.” His voice was rough with impatience. “Do you have some kind of death wish or something?”
    “This isn’t Julio’s responsibility,” she said stubbornly. “It’s mine. Jeffrey’s my friend and he needs my help.” Her eyes met his steadily. “He helped me when I needed him. I owe him.”
    The anger faded from his face but the exasperation remained. “A debt.” He muttered a veryexplicit curse. “Why the hell did it have to be a debt?” He turned to the captain, who was leaning on the rail some distance down the deck talking casually to one of the seamen. “Daniel,” he roared. “As soon as that blasted dinghy gets back, set sail for Castellano!”
    Seifert’s navy blue eyes showed no surprise as he straightened and turned to look at them. “Again?” he asked laconically. “I may not even have to use a navigation map this time.”
    “Very amusing,” Beau said. He turned back to Kate. “I trust your Cessna has instruments. It will be almost sunset by the time we get back to Castellano and I want us to be off that island in one hour flat.”
    “Us? But I told you—”
    “Us,” he repeated with emphasis, his eyes flickering dangerously. “And if I were you, I wouldn’t argue. At the moment I’m feeling a bit hot under the collar, to put it mildly. I’m within an inch of saying to hell with it and telling Daniel to head for Trinidad.”
    “The Cessna has instruments,” she said absently, her curious gaze on Beau’s irritated face. “Why
didn’t
you tell Daniel to do that?”
    “Because you hit me where I’m most vulnerable,” Beau said tersely. “I believe in the payment of debts, damn it.” He turned away. “And now I believe I’ll go volunteer my help in getting under way again. I could use a little hard physical labor to work the edge off this temper.” He was striding away from her toward the captain. “There are times when I wish to hell I still drank like a fish!”
    “We should be sighting that lagoon you told us about in ten minutes or so.” Daniel Seifert’s deep voice was lazy as he paused beside her. “And so far no sign of the Castellano version of the Coast Guard. We just may make it after all.”
    Kate glanced up at him from where she was sitting on the hatch. The red-haired giant looked even more like a pirate the way he was dressed—in khaki shorts and rubber-soled tennis shoes, his massive bronze chest bared to the waist. “You