Page 11 of Broken Minds

Chapter Six

I was starting to worryabout my driver and pilot. Why hadn’t anyone gotten back to me? Had something happened? Was something wrong with the plane, or had they been pulled in for questioning about Jolie’s abduction? No, that couldn’t be right. There was nothing that would link me to the letters being sent to Patrick Dorman in prison. Unless someone had reported a suspicious package being carried onto the plane the last time it had landed. Either way, the silence from my employees was making me nervous, and I didn’t like feeling nervous.

I disposed of the bloodied tissues and washed my hands. Gripping the edge of the sink, I exhaled a sigh and hung my head, reining in my emotions. I needed to stop thinking about Jolie for the moment and figure out what the fuck had happened to Henry and Javier. Them not returning had put a serious dent in my plans.

Leaving the kitchen, I went into my office. No one would contact me if something happened to the plane. I made sure nothing was registered to me directly and was instead registered to an offshore company, and the police would have a hard time finding its CEO, since he only existed on paper.

If they didn’t come back, for whatever reason, I’d need to start thinking ahead. There wasn’t time to recruit new men, which meant I had only two options. I could give up on this whole idea, or I could trust Jolie to behave and charter a new plane to take us back to the mainland.

If I gave up on this, what the fuck would I do with Jolie? I didn’t want to have to kill her. The idea made my blood run cold. I’d always figured that once I’d killed her father, I would just hand myself in. She could tell her story, but it wouldn’t even matter by that point because I’d be going down for Patrick Dorman’s murder anyway. I held her to blame in part for my mother’s murder, but I didn’t blame her enough to want to kill her—not like how I felt about her father.

But if I decided to call the whole thing off, and I lost the opportunity to kill her father, I couldn’t just let her go. I wasn’t going to go to prison for her abduction when I didn’t get the payoff. Maybe if I could guarantee I’d end up in the same prison as her father, so I could kill him in there, it would be worth it, but there was no way I’d be able to guarantee that happening. Plus, I figured the man would have protection from other prisoners. I wouldn’t have my money to pay people off behind bars, and he’d have made plenty of allegiances over his years inside.

So, I could let her go and risk going to jail without achieving what I’d worked for my entire life, or I could kill her—which was unthinkable. Or else I could trust her enough to charter a new plane and get her onto the mainland.

I knew Loretta would tell me to kill her. The woman was even tougher than I was. Losing her daughter like that had formed a shell around her heart. But I didn’t want to kill her.

First, I needed to find out what had happened to the plane. If they were simply delayed, none of this would be an issue, and I’d be worrying about nothing, but deep down I knew it was going to be bigger than that. Why else would neither man have contacted me to tell me what was going on?

I fired up the computer. If the plane had gone down, there was bound to be something online about it by now. Opening the online search, I typed in the make and model of the aircraft and then the previous day’s date.

I sat back in my chair, scrolling through the results. I spotted something, and my stomach coiled.

Cocaine worth twenty million seized from private jet. Two men arrested...

“What the fuck!”

I opened the link and started to read. Though neither man were named, I was certain that was my plane. It appeared the wages I’d been paying Henry and Javier weren’t good enough for them, and on the times they’d flown without me, they’d done a quick jaunt over to Mexico and picked up a large quantity of cocaine before flying on to their destination.

“Those sons of bitches!” I brought my fist down on my desk with a bang. One thing that pissed me off more than anything was being taken for a fool, and these two had done it in spades. Not only had they been drug running, they’d also put my own mission in jeopardy. Had they managed to send Jolie’s letter before they’d been arrested? I had my contacts inside the prison, so I’d be able to find out.

I’d trusted both those men, and they’d been using me. I ground my teeth, holding back a growl. Would they use their knowledge of Jolie’s location to use in a plea bargain? I didn’t know if it would be enough to get either of them reduced sentences, but I clearly wasn’t able to trust them.

It was imperative I get Jolie off this island sooner rather than later. If Henry or Javier spilled what they knew, the police would turn up, and that would be the end of this whole thing.

Fuck!

I put my head in my hands. This was out of my control, and I didn’t like things being out of my control.

I thought about what Jolie had said. Could I risk taking her onto a chartered plane? Right now, I was struggling to see that I had any other option.

Needing to clear my head, I decided to go for a swim. I was aware Jolie hadn’t had anything to eat yet today, but she was also being punished for her previous behavior. Now more than ever, I needed to make her understand that I wouldn’t tolerate her stepping out of line. She was already bruised and bloodied—though I hadn’t been the one to do that to her directly—and making her go without food would help to weaken her. She needed to see that I wasn’t someone to be messed with.

The rain had finally stopped. I went out to the pool house to change then went to the pool. The storm had blown leaves and branches into the water, and the pool would need cleaning before I could swim in it. Normally, I’d get one of my employees to clean the pool, but I figured it would do me good to take on a bit of manual labor.

I got to work, scooping the palm fronds out of the water and then the vacuum to clean the bottom of the pool of the dirt that had settled there. It needed new chemicals and filtering as well, but I wasn’t going to waste the time waiting for the water to be safe to swim in again. The pool wasn’t perfect, but it would do.

I dived in and swam front crawl, trying to focus on the movement of my body through the water rather than everything else that was happening. But it was impossible. Even after swimming a punishing number of lengths, with my muscles weak from fatigue, I knew I was going to have to go and speak to Jolie. I needed to figure out if I could trust her enough to take her onto a plane where there were other people who weren’t on my payroll.

I pulled myself out of the pool, water cascading down my body. The sun was growing in strength again, and it was almost hard to believe the weather had been as bad as it had. Heading back into the pool house, I dried off and dressed again.

Then I took a breath, stiffening my resolve to stay emotionally detached from my captive, and took the elevator back down to her room.

She was sitting on the bed, reading a book, as the elevator doors opened. Her eyes widened in surprise, as though she hadn’t been expecting to see me again so soon.

“You haven’t got ice on it,” I said, nodding at her nose. Dark marks had appeared as shadows beneath her eyes, but now the blood had gone, the injuries didn’t look as bad.

She shrugged. “It all melted. Anyway, it’s feeling better. I don’t think it’s broken.”

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