Free Destination Wedding by REBECCA YORK Page A

well as men.
    Ten minutes after their first encounter, he heard more guards on the move and saw two more flashlight beams. The lights moved back and forth but missed the spot where Nick and Camille were hiding behind another tree. Tense seconds ticked by as the men and the lights headed away from them.
    When the guards had passed, he started for the beach again. Ahead he could hear the slapping of surf on the sand and felt a sense of relief that they’d gotten this far. Now all he had to do was get them off this damn tropical paradise.
    He had left the boat in the underbrush, but as he approached the location, he saw it lying in plain sight at the edge of the sand. Somebody had moved it.
     

CHAPTER TEN
    Nick put out his hand, stopping Camille from going any closer.
    “What?” she whispered.
    “Someone’s been here, and they could be waiting for us.”
    She drew in a sharp breath. “What are we going to do?”
    He led her into better cover, checking to make sure they hadn’t been spotted. Then he went back, moving cautiously, watching where he stepped. When he came to a trip wire, he backed up. Someone had rigged an alarm at the boat. And when he stepped over the wire and moved in closer, he saw that the hull was split.
    Nice. A disabled boat and an alarm. Had they done it before he’d announced his presence? Or were they simply taking precautions?
    Nick returned to Camille.
    “What happened?”
    “The boat’s wrecked, and someone was hoping I’d set off an alarm when I got close.”
    “What are we going to do?”
    “Get the boat to come in closer.” He set down his pack and pulled out the transmitter he’d brought. But when he tried to send a message to Teddy Granada, he found it was impossible to get through.
    “Shit.”
    Camille gave him a worried look. “What’s wrong?”
    “I think Zanov’s got equipment that can block the signal. Either that or we’re very, very unlucky.”
    oOo
    On the Minerva, Teddy looked up from the communications equipment.
    “I think Nick tried to contact us.”
    “You think?” Bobby asked, his voice laced with nerves.
    “There was the start of a transmission, but it cut off before he could say anything.”
    “You think his transmitter went out?”
    “We checked it carefully before he left.”
    “It could have gotten wet.”
    “Yeah. Or Zanov has some way to jam his signal.”
    Bobby uttered a curse. “What are we going to do?”
    “There’s nothing we can do besides wait.”
    “What about going in closer?”
    “Too dangerous, unless we know Nick’s location. If Zanov fires on the ship and takes us out, Nick will have no way to get Camille back to the mainland.”
    “I thought he had a boat.”
    “He can’t row it to Florida.”
    Bobby answered with another curse, and Teddy gave him a sympathetic look. The guy knew he was a major cause of this whole fuck-up. And he was never going to forgive himself if it went south. Which looked like a definite possibility at this point, although Teddy didn’t say so.
    oOo
    When panic bloomed on Camille’s face, Nick stroked his hand over her neck and shoulders. “We’ll get out of this.”
    “How?”
    “Go to plan C,” he said, wondering what that was going to be. Like could they swim back to the Minerva? He knew he could do it, but he wasn’t going to take a chance with Camille.
    His mind scrambled for a plan. He could use his flashlight to send a Morse code message to the ship, but that would give away their location. If he did it, he’d have to be as far away as possible from Camille. That thought made his insides clench. Was leaving her out here alone his best option?
    He wanted to curse in frustration, but that wouldn’t do either one of them any good. In the distance he could see more flashlight beams. None were coming their way at the moment, but that could change quickly.
    Taking her hand, he led her slowly through the underbrush, farther from the shore, where a mound of bougainvillea had grown up, partly