Page 25 of No Time Off

“What the heck just happened?” I finally asked.

“There was an assassination attempt on the prime minister.”

“And you stopped it.”

“And I stopped it,” he confirmed. “Just in the nick of time, it seems.”

I reached out and lightly touched his shirt near his waist. “Your shirt got ripped. You could have been shot, Slash.” My stomach turned at the thought of it. “That police security detail was either wholly inadequate or poorly trained.”

“Both, in my opinion.”

“Is it normal for the prime minister to gather people in a parking lot to discuss political issues? Couldn’t they just use Zoom?”

He shrugged. “This is a small island, or islands, to be exact. Maybe it’s a thing. If I remember, her office is only a couple of blocks that way.” He pointed in the direction her car had gone.

“Maybe. But she seemed incredibly poised for a woman who was almost assassinated.”

“Politicians have tough skins,” he said. “Part of the job description these days, I suppose. But I wouldn’t recommend she hold another town meeting until she gets her security beefed up or better prepared.”

“No kidding. She said she’d been appointed to protect the nation’s sovereignty. You think she’s anti-Chinese?”

“I certainly got that vibe. I suppose we can ask her tomorrow. But as an aside, I heard one of the officers say the shooter was local. For all we know, he could just have a beef with the government or her in particular.”

“True, I guess.” But somehow, it didn’t feel right. Maybe hanging around Slash for so long, I’d started to get a nose for those things.

I turned to look at the Chinese police station. There were several officers milling around out front of the building, but no one was really doing anything.

“Do you think they’ll get any information from the shooter?” I asked. “Like why he targeted her?”

“Hard to say.” He slipped an arm around my waist. “But there’s one thing I’m sure of. Whatever just happened isnotgoing to stop us from having a nice, quiet honeymoon dinner tonight. Let’s consider that a one-off, an anomaly, a freak moment in time. At least no one was trying to killus.”

He took me by the arm and steered me toward a store. “So, first, we buy a bottle or two of the local wine, as planned. Then, after a fabulous dinner with delicious delicacies, we’ll have a lovely barefoot walk on the beach and then drink some delightful wine on our balcony while listening to the sound of the ocean either in or out of the hot tub.”

“It sounds really nice, Slash.” I leaned my head against his shoulder. “Honestly, that was enough excitement for our entire honeymoon. So, let’s keep it quiet and simple from here on out, okay?”

“Fine with me,cara.”

I lifted my head to look at him. “I just thought of one good thing that did come from this evening—besides no one getting hurt, of course.”

“What’s that?”

“I don’t have to add a new column to my personal black cloud spreadsheet. I already have one for assassination attempts, so there’s that.”

“Thank God. After adding the pig incident, that spreadsheet is getting out of control.”

“You think?” I kicked at a stone. “We really need the universe to stop throwing weird stuff our way.”

“We do, indeed. Maybe I need to have a talk with someone about that.”

“Maybe you do. Who’d you have in mind?”

He pointed upward with a smile. “Not certain it will do any good, but it’s worth a try.”

“It’salwaysworth a try,” I said as we walked into the wine shop hand in hand. “And if anyone has some goodwill there, it’d be you.”

“I’m not sure about that, but prayers won’t hurt.”

“They won’t, indeed,” I agreed.

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