I feel bad about ditching Dean, but my mind’s made up. I have to stick to the plan.
I head back to the kitchen where Dean is overseeing the repairs.
“Roads are good,” he says, grabbing the keys off the kitchen bar. “Ready?”
I nod. “Yes.”
He leads me to the garage where another set of men try to figure out why the generator isn’t running.
Dean clicks the key fob of a Mercedes SUV, and I slide into the front seat. He pulls out of the driveway and I pay attention to every detail. He drives down a long dirt road, and I watch the odometer to see how many miles we travel. After two miles, he turns left onto a paved road. I scope out the fields of grass, looking for anywhere I can stop to rest if need be.
I take note of every little thing. There are no houses for miles, and if I’m going to escape, I’ll need to do it when Dean brings me into town. We’re already five miles from the house and there’s not anything. Nothing to help aid my escape off this island.
Dean makes small talk, telling me about the history of the island. How it was Christopher Columbus’s first stop before discovering the Americas.
I listen only a little, making sure I’m not distracted from watching the passing scenery.
We make it to town after a good ten miles from the mansion, and it only solidifies my resolve to plan an escape. Whether I do it right now, or on another trip, is yet to be determined.
He pulls into a small market and parks. We exit the car and walk toward the store.
Dean glances around. “The storm really hit hard.” He points to the nearby marina with boats askew from their docks.
“Can we take a look?” I ask, hoping I can find someone to take me to the main island to get away.
“Sure.” Together we stroll across the road to a narrow sidewalk that leads to the marina.
“It’s gorgeous here.” I can’t help taking in the island’s beauty. In another world, this would be a great romantic spot to have a naughty getaway. I haven’t had a relationship in ages. My last boyfriend was a complete asshole who stole all my money and left me with nothing. That was over a year ago. Sure, I’ve dated here and there, but nothing as serious as the asshole.
“Did you get a lot of damage?” Dean asks a man, wearing a red hat, standing next to a boat.
“Well, I didn’t get anything too bad, but the boats on the end down there sure did.” The man speaks in Portugese to the guy next to him, and they both smile. “Yeah, he got nothing too bad either, but has a tree down on his property.”
“I’m glad everything’s ok.” Dean walks away from the two men, but I stand in place, staring at the two men and their boat.
I wonder if they’d take me to the Santa Maria island to find a commercial flight back home? “Hi,” I say to them.
They both nod with a smile.
“Name’s Dean,” Dean shakes the man with a red hat’s hand.
“Terry.”
“Is that a charter boat?” I ask and Dean halts, like he is very interested in what I have to say.
“It is. We take people fishing on the weekends.”
“E você?” I say to the man standing next to Terry.
He blinks at me. “O que você quer dizer?”
Dean watches closely, but my suspicion was right, he has no clue as to what we’re saying.
“O que você faz?”
“Piloto.”
I smile, because the man is a pilot. Dean’s listening, but pretending he’s not, and I need to end this conversation soon. I stare at the man, pleading for him to understand me without words.
And it’s almost like he gets it and says, “Você quer que eu te leve?”
I nod, and Dean steps closer to me. “Everything ok?” He smiles and now I wonder if he can speak Portugese. I’m sure he can, but maybe he didn’t hear the whole conversation. Even if he did, I can’t be bogged down with the worry of it all.
I need to escape, and I just met a pilot.
Chapter 5
Dean
* * *
She’s planning an escape. I know that look. She wants off this island, and there’s no way I can let that happen. I still have information I need to extract from her.
Back at home, Sophia exits the car with her little bag of things we got from the store, and I let her think she can escape on her own time.
Sophia sashays up to the house in her black dress with red flowers blooming on the material. There’s a sexy slit up the front, and I try not to pay attention to the way the dress hugs her curves and pushes her tits up in the most appetizing of ways. There is something about her, something forbidden, like a deadly sin. You know you shouldn’t do it, but it’s so good you just can’t pass it up.