“What do you mean it isn’t?” I wave toward the inferno where the house used to be. “You saying it survived that explosion?”
“I’m saying the dinosaur never went to Amato’s house.”
“It did. I saw it for myself, set up in his lounge like a fucking sculpture, sprayed in gold paint and with diamonds glued to the bones.”
“That wasn’t your dinosaur,” Leo says, letting the boat drift so he can talk to me.
“What was it then?” Fleur asks. “It sure looked like our Gorgo.”
“That was a fake that Sergio arranged for collection. Packed with explosives primed to go off when I pressed this button.”
“Sergio,” I say, the memory coming back to me. “He betrayed you. He’s working for Amato.”
“No, he isn’t.”
“He is. He made me record that video. I didn’t want to say those thing but I had no choice.”
“I know. Clever work with the double blink by the way.”
“Thanks but what about Sergio? He double crossed you.”
“You really think I’d have someone working for me for so long and not know the truth about them? I know people, Anna. You’re right about one thing though.”
“What?”
“Sergio is a mole but he’s a mole for me. Been infiltrating Amato’s organization for years. Gave him the skeleton’s location but had the bones switched out for the fake we had made before I came to get you.”
“You had a fake dinosaur made? That must have taken forever?”
“Nothing takes long if you have enough money. Sergio’s job was to get you to Amato so we had an excuse to kill him without the Commission killing us. You can kill a fence to rescue your wife with no consequences.”
“So I was bait? Is that it?”
“You could put it that way.”
“That’s all I am to you? I could have been killed.”
“I told you to stay on the island. I made it clear that you shouldn’t leave. I could have taken him out without you being involved at all. But once you decided to go, Sergio had no choice but to move things forward. Make the best of a bad situation.”
“Why didn’t he keep me on the island if that was so important?”
“Because you’d have escaped anyway and then he wouldn’t have been able to keep an eye on you. Make sure Amato believed he’d won. Don’t look so pissed at me. You didn’t need to get involved. You chose to leave the island.”
“To rescue my friend, not to get messed up in all this shit.”
“Mission accomplished. Fleur is fine.”
“No, I’m not,” she says, wiping spray from her brow as a wave splashes over the side of the boat. “I’m getting a headache from you two bickering. Knock it off, would you.”
“Sorry,” I tell her as Leo returns to the wheel. “But where is the dinosaur then?”
“You’ll see.”
“What about my father?”
“What about him?”
“Did you kill him?”