Free Destination Wedding by REBECCA YORK Page B

on top of some low bushes.
    “Wait here.”
    He felt her tense as he detached himself and pushed aside one of the woody vines.
    “Shit.”
    “What?”
    “A thorn got me.”
    “They have a lot of thorns.”
    “The good news and the bad news.”
    He got out his knife and cut the branch off, shoving it into the top of the vine. By morning, it would be wilted, but now it just looked like part of the plant.
    Stopping to clear a path through the thorns and shoving the cut branches into the mass of leaves and flowers, he wove his way in among the bushes. For several minutes, he thought he wasn’t going to find what he was looking for. Then he crawled into a place where the level of the ground cratered.
    Turning, he retraced his path, seeing Camille waiting tensely in the darkness. She gasped as he crawled out from the tangle of vegetation.
    “I didn’t hear you at all.”
    “Silent and deadly,” he muttered. “And I’ve found a hiding place.”
    “In the bougainvillea? Didn’t you start off by getting scratched?”
    “Yeah. That’s why it’s a good place to hide. Nobody will look for us there, but I cut a path to the interior. And the bougainvillea has grown up over some other bushes, so once you get inside, you’re not in contact with it. But follow me and keep your head down.” He turned and crawled back into the path he’d made through the thorny branches.
    “What’s this?” she asked when he stopped at the depression he’d found.
    “A place where you can hide while I signal the ship.”
    “Signal how?”
    “With a flashlight, using Morse code, but I have make sure you’re hidden and that I’m not leading the guards here. What you’re going to do is lie down. Then I’ll cover you with brush.”
    He heard her swallow hard. “I want to stay with you.”
    “Yeah. I want that, too. But it’s safer this way.”
    After a moment, she whispered, “Okay.”
    He left her in the depression and went out to gather dried palm fronds, stopping to listen intently to make sure none of Zanov’s men were in the area. First he spread some of the dried vegetation on the ground where she was sitting, making a little nest. Then he brought more.
    “Lie down.”
    She did as he asked, and he came down beside her, piling more of the camouflage material on top of her, spreading the fronds out so that she was invisible in the darkness.
    “Are you okay?” he asked when he’d finished.
    “Yes.”
    Reaching into his pack, he pulled out an automatic pistol, and handed it to her. “I know your father made sure both you and Eden had shooting lessons. If you have to defend yourself, do it.”
    “That was shooting at targets.”
    “This will be shooting to avoid capture.”
    He heard her swallow in the darkness. “I don’t want to mistake you for one of Zanov’s guards when you come back.”
    “Yeah. I’ll whistle a happy tune.”
    “Which one?”
    He whistled a few bars from Nobody Does it Better, and she laughed.
    “Keep your head down. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
    She sobered again quickly. “You know I’m going to worry about you.”
    “I’ll be okay. And I’ll move as fast as I can, but it could take an hour or so because I need to be as far away as I can from you when I flash the ship.”
    She reached up through the layer of dried vegetation, grabbed his hand and held tight. He squeezed her fingers for a moment, then eased away.
    “The sooner I take care of this, the better.”
    She sucked in a breath but said only, “Be careful.”
    “Stay put.”
    “What if you don’t come back?”
    “I will.”
    He left before he changed his mind, crawling to the end of the tunnel he’d made and stopping to make sure nobody was waiting in the darkness to overpower him. When he was certain he was alone, he covered the entrance to the tunnel with the branches he’d cut off. Then he made sure he could find Camille’s hiding place again. He’d studied the geography of the island, and he knew approximately