Page 129 of Hard Luck (Blackstone House)

Drugs.

It was drugs.

All those folks on Treasure Atoll had been looking in the wrong place for the spoils.

Plastic-wrapped packages had been stacked in cells on the south side of the prison, almost reaching the ceiling in places. I stuck my knife into several of them and found a smorgasbord of illegal substances. White powder that might have been coke, but I wasn’t about to taste it and check. Black tar heroin, the more refined brown heroin, dried marijuana, as best I could see in the low light. There was money too, US dollars and San Gallician pounds. Several million bucks at a guess. No wonder our visitors had been trigger-happy.

What would happen to the stash? That was above my pay grade, thank fuck. Demelza had some uses. First, she’d interview me, then she’d complain I was making her job difficult and give me a lecture on protocol. Once she’d chewed me out, she’d liaise with whoever she needed to liaise with and explain the situation with as little information as she could get away with giving. My name wouldn’t be anywhere in the picture. I’d simply be an anonymous operator who stumbled across something unexpected while on vacation.

And maybe I’d get that lecture sooner rather than later.

Another boat was approaching.

Friend or foe? The Choir or more drug smugglers?

I had twenty-nine rounds left, and I stopped to collect Six’s spare magazine on my way out of the building. Would this shitshow ever end?

Yes.

Unexpectedly, yes.

I squinted at the single figure in the approaching Mako, and my heart flipped when I recognised him.

Cole.

He was coming back?

I ran down to the harbour and onto the jetty as he drew up alongside. “What the hell are you playing at?”

“I remembered that Makos have storage beneath the seats.”

“Yes, I know that. I checked the compartments.”

“Not this one.” He stood, pulled the seat on the captain’s chair forward, then lifted it from the rear. “My neighbour has a Mako, and this is where he tosses his keys when we go diving. I thought it was worth checking, and there they were.”

“And then you just took off?” The words sounded angrier than I’d intended, so I made an effort to soften my voice. “I thought you’d gone for good.”

“I won’t lie and say I didn’t think about it, but I told you before—we came to this island together, and we’re leaving together. But I didn’t want the gunman to sneak out and escape, and the easiest way to prevent that was to take the boat. Then I heard the shot and figured it was over.”

A sob welled up inside me, but I swallowed it down. After everything I’d done, Cole hadn’t abandoned me.

He hadn’t abandoned me.

Relief flooded through my veins, and so did pain. I tried to smile, but it turned into more of a grimace.

“Great. We can go now.”

“Bella, are you okay?” Cole asked.

“I think I broke a rib. Adrenaline is a wonderful thing.”

Adrenaline and analgesics. I remembered the bottle of Tylenol I’d seen in one of the lockers earlier and retrieved it.

“Damn. And the guy…? Is he…?”

I nodded and swallowed two capsules dry. “No longer a problem.”

“Did you find any drugs in there?”

---