Trouble in Paradise Read online

  “I’m all right,” a man’s voice replied. It was a voice I hadn’t heard before, with just a faint hint of an accent. “I could use a drink.…”

  “I’ll get you some water,” Jenna said. Then she walked out of the lean-to—right past me. I mean right past, not two feet away! She didn’t see me, though, because I was in the dark shadow cast by the lean-to’s wall.

  What was going on here?

  Jenna wasn’t handcuffed. She didn’t even seem scared anymore—not the way she’d looked sitting next to the driver of the car that tried to run us down.

  I watched as she disappeared around the side of the ruins, headed for the bonfire.

  I had to know who she was getting water for! She’d called him “baby.” Was he her boyfriend?

  At that moment I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

  “Joe!” I whispered.

  He put a finger up to his lips to shush me. I responded by pointing at the lean-to, letting him know there was someone inside. He seemed to get it.

  There was no discussion of what to do next. We had to take the chance that we could overcome whoever was in there. After all, it was just one person, and he was sick, supposedly.

  But could we take him down before he shouted for help?

  We had to bet that we could. If we succeeded, when Jenna came back, we could take her away from here, out of danger. Then we could try to find Esteban.

  I lifted one finger, then another, and another. One, two, three—GO!

  We ran into the lean-to and tackled the reclining figure lying on a blanket inside. I put my hand on his mouth to stop him from crying out.

  Then I got a good look at his face. It was filthy—obviously, he hadn’t washed in days—but I recognized him anyway.

  “Esteban!” I whispered. “Joe, it’s him!”

  The face was the same as in the photograph, except he was now in a state of shock. His brow was clammy—it was obvious he had some kind of fever—and his eyes stared up at me and Joe in sheer terror.

  “It’s okay,” Joe whispered to him. “We’re here to help you.”

  “Your father sent us,” I explained. “We’re going to get you and Jenna out of here, then get the police to come round up these dirtbags.”

  His eyes shifted left, then right, then he looked back up at us and nodded his head to show he understood.

  “Quiet, now,” I said. “Don’t make a sound.”

  I lifted my hand off his mouth, and he tried to sit up, resting himself on one elbow. I gave him a little help.

  The whole time, though, I was thinking a mile a minute. Something was weird about all this. Why had Jenna called him “baby”? And why had the gang let its two prisoners be alone together, unguarded and free to escape?

  “Baby? I’m back.”

  Jenna stepped inside the tent, carrying a hacked-open coconut filled with water. Seeing me and Joe, she nearly dropped it.

  “Shhh!” I said, a finger to my lips. “We’re getting you out of here, right now!”

  She looked at Esteban, and then they both looked at us.

  Clearly, they hadn’t been expecting us. As far as Jenna was concerned, we’d been run off a cliff, so I could understand why she looked like she’d seen a ghost.

  Still, you’d have thought they’d both be happy to see us.

  Instead, Esteban’s face grew hard and cold. “Help!” he cried out all of a sudden. “In here! Intruders!”

  His voice rang out in the quiet of the ruins, where all had been quiet and muffled before. Suddenly, the whole place broke into commotion. Everyone started yelling and running, and in a moment, Joe and I were surrounded.

  We stood there like a couple of dummies, totally shocked and stupefied.

  Meanwhile, Jenna helped Esteban to his feet. “You okay, sweetheart?” she asked him.

  “Jenna!” I said, my jaw hanging slack with surprise. “You … and him … ?”

  She shrugged. “Sorry, Frank,” she said. “I was just doing my job.”

  “You mean, getting me out of my room so it could be searched?” I said bitterly.

  I realized now that I’d been tricked—made stupid by Jenna’s good looks. I’d allowed her to lead me by the nose, and the whole time, she’d been spying on our activities for the gang!

  Just then, Corbin St. Clare came into the lean-to. He walked up to Esteban and threw a friendly arm around his shoulder. “How ya feelin’, boss?” he asked.

  Boss?

  Esteban Calderon was the boss of the bounty hunters who were supposed to have kidnapped him?

  It all began to come clear now. “I thought you said they were dead,” Esteban said to Cap’n.

  “I ran ’em down, that’s all I can tell ya,” Cap’n replied with a shrug. “Like I said the last time, they’re hard to kill. Anyway, they’ll be dead soon enough. Third time’s the charm.”

  He laughed, looked at us with an evil smile, and said, “We’ll just have to make real sure you boys die this time.”

  11.

  The Worm Turns

  “Tie ’em up,” Cap’n instructed his men.

  Frank and I were wrestled to the ground and our hands tied behind our backs. Then we were placed back-to-back and tied together.

  “You two stay here while we get packed up,” Cap’n told us—like we could have gone somewhere if we wanted to. “Keep an eye on ’em, Jenna.” Then he walked away, followed by his men.

  Esteban went over to Jenna and kissed her—a long kiss, right in front of us. Then, turning to Frank, he smiled—a really mean, nasty smile that turned his handsome face ugly—and left the lean-to.

  “Jenna,” Frank said, ignoring Esteban, “how can you let them kill us? You’ve got to help us get loose!”

  She stared at the floor, unable to look either of us in the eye.

  “What are you doing with this bunch of cutthroats anyway?” Frank went on. “You’re not like them, I can tell. Help us, Jenna! Quickly!”

  She looked up at him with those huge, sad, green eyes of hers, and said, “Sorry, Frank. I meant it when I said you’re really sweet. And I didn’t know they were going to try to kill you. But it’s too late now. If I help you and your brother, I’ll either wind up in jail, or dead.”

  “It’s not too late!” Frank begged her. “Please! Think of how our parents will feel when they get the news. If you let them kill us, we’ll never get to live our lives … have families … children …”

  I knew Frank was working on her, trying to make her feel guilty so she’d help us. If you ask me, though, he was laying it on a little thick.

  I mean, I could see she was beginning to soften, but she was still far from wavering, let alone cracking. And who knows how soon the others would return and make an end of Frank and me.

  “I told you, it’s too late for you. I’ve messed up royally, but it can still work out for me. Esteban says we’re leaving this island tonight—for good.”

  “And where will you go?” Frank asked her.

  Me, I kept my mouth shut. I figured Frank had a better chance of getting to her, knowing their history together.

  “Esteban’s the son of a famous man,” he said, “a man who can send people like me and my brother halfway around the world to find his son. Do you think, if you let them kill us, we’ll be the last to come looking for him?”

  She was looking at the floor again. He’d gotten to her with that one, nicked her good.

  “But Esteban’s my ticket to the big time.”

  “Are you kidding?” I broke in. “A girl like you, with your looks, could get a big modeling contract! You could be an actress in the movies! What do you need with a skeeve like that?”

  She smiled at me out of one corner of her mouth. “I actually did try acting for a while,” she said. “They told me I was pretty good at it.”

  “You sure fooled me,” Frank said bitterly.

  She sighed. “But I didn’t like Hollywood, and the way people treated me. Esteban knows how t
o treat a girl like royalty. When we get to the Riviera, he’s going to drape me in jewels from head to toe. That’s what he told me.”

  “He’s a liar!” I said, trying hard not to speak above a whisper—which was hard, because I really wanted to scream at her. “Why do you believe him? He’s lied to everybody from day one!”

  “Not to me,” she said. “He’s never lied to me. I’ve known about this whole plan from the word go. Plundering the wreck, the fake kidnapping, everything.”

  Frank sighed. “Sorry, Joe. I let you down. I should have known not to trust anyone.”

  “No worries, bro,” I told him. “We’ll get out of this somehow.”

  “Don’t count on it,” Jenna said.

  By this time I was getting frantic. I kept looking around, trying to find something—anything—that would help us get out of this. Soon the gang would come back. Frank and I had only a few minutes to convince this girl to change her mind.

  But how?

  “Tell me,” Frank said to her, “if we’re going to die, I’d like to know the whole story. Whose idea was this whole scheme?”

  “It was Esteban’s,” she said, with a hint of pride. “He was down here when the wreck was discovered. We were already an item, although we weren’t going out much, because I had to work. He promised me I’d never have to work again, if he could bring this off.”

  “How come you’re leaving tonight, then?” I asked. “There’s still a lot of treasure down there, waiting to be stolen.”

  “It got too hot, with the coast guard and the park rangers and whatnot. We’d only gotten halfway through, but Esteban could see right away it was too much trouble. That’s when he got the idea to get his father’s money now, instead of having to wait till after the old man died.”

  This Esteban guy was really pond scum, if you asked me. Just because his dad happened to be a big-time diplomat didn’t excuse the son’s being a total pig.

  I didn’t like the way he’d rubbed it in with Frank, either. Nobody beats on my big brother in front of me and gets away with it.

  “Jenna,” Frank pleaded in a whisper, “please! You didn’t know they’d try to kill us. You can testify against the rest of the gang and get off with just a slap on the wrist! Joe and I will speak for you, and—”

  “Stop,” she said, her chin trembling now. “I can’t. I told you already, I just can’t.”

  Just then, we heard the footsteps of the gang approaching. Tears streaming from her eyes, Jenna leaned forward, took Frank’s face in her hands, and whispered, “Good-bye.”

  She was still eye-to-eye with him when Esteban appeared, holding up a heavy, old-fashioned metal lantern with a curved glass shade. His eyes flashed darkly in the lantern’s light. He strode forward, grabbing Jenna and yanking her away from Frank.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he yelled at her, shoving her away so hard she crumpled to the ground with a harsh cry of pain.

  Esteban turned back to Frank, murder in his eyes. “Why … don’t … you … die!?” he screamed, swinging the lantern full-force right at Frank’s head. Its metal base hit him square in the side of the head with a sharp, sickening crunch.

  The glass shattered, and I had to duck and wince as I felt the shards whiz by my face.

  My heart was racing now in panic. Every shred of my being wanted to protect Frank, to smash Esteban, and to get us out of here alive.

  But there was nothing I could do. Even the single-edged razor blade I kept near the front of my belt would do me no good at this point, because the thugs were already attaching leg irons to my ankles.

  Welded to the leg irons was a heavy iron chain, and on the other end of the chain, an iron ball that must have weighed a hundred pounds.

  “We found these old things at the wreck site,” Cap’n said, pleased with himself. “I thought we’d keep ’em for souvenirs. Ye never know when a ball and chain’ll come in handy. Like when someone’s goin’ to walk the plank!”

  And with that, he let out a hideous howl of laughter. The gang all joined in, and soon the entire campsite echoed with the sound.

  Meanwhile, I could see the blood matting Frank’s hair. He was out cold, and there wasn’t a thing I could do to help him.

  I stared over at Jenna, wordlessly begging her to help us.

  She was still lying on the floor, propped on one elbow and clearly shell-shocked. I guess being brutalized by your boyfriend is a real wake-up call. The blood on Frank’s head had its effect too. It made our case better than Frank had managed to do with all his words.

  But it was too late. Jenna couldn’t help us now, even if she’d wanted to.

  “Haul ’em aboard,” Cap’n bellowed. “The boss and I will take care of ’em, and then come back for the rest of ya.”

  “You’re going to ‘take care’ of us?” I asked. “How exactly are you planning to do that?”

  Cap’n smiled his gold-toothed grin at me. “Oh, I think we’ll introduce ya to Davy Jones’s locker. They say the sea bottom is chock full of interesting species never seen by man. I guess you’ll find out soon enough.”

  12.

  Walking the Plank

  I woke up with a crashing headache. The ground was moving up and down, making me nauseous. Then I realized—it wasn’t my imagination. We really were going up and down. We were on a boat.

  I was sitting, my back leaning against the side of the boat. Joe was next to me on my left. Both our hands were tied, but in front of us, not behind like before—and at least we weren’t still attached to each other.

  The boat’s engine was roaring. Obviously, we were going full speed ahead. Looking back to my right, I saw the bonfire at the sugar mill ruins getting smaller and smaller. Behind it, the dark bulk of the island with its central mountains loomed blacker than the sky, which was full of stars and lit by a full moon.

  Not that I could appreciate the beauty of the scenery. My head was totally splitting. I knew I’d been hit with something, but I couldn’t remember with what or by whom. All I knew was that the side of my head was caked with blood—I could still feel a drop or two trickling down my ear, but for the most part, the bleeding seemed to have stopped.

  “You okay?” Joe asked me.

  I nodded yes. I could only hear him because he was shouting in my ear. Jenna, Esteban, and Cap’n were up front by the wheel, and couldn’t hear a word—not that it mattered.

  Every few seconds Jenna glanced back at us, then looked away before Esteban caught her doing it. She seemed troubled, which I was glad about. It meant she at least had a conscience buried somewhere inside that head of hers.

  I’d tried my best to get her sympathy so she’d help us get free—but it had been no use. Well, I guess it had made her think twice about Esteban, anyway—because now, every time he tried to put his arm around her, she sort of shied away from him.

  I could tell he was annoyed by that too—he kept looking from her, to me, and back to her again, with a horrible scowl on his face.

  Though my head was pounding something fierce, I wasn’t totally out of it. I was aware enough to notice that in his left hand, Esteban clutched the handle of the briefcase holding the ransom money.

  It was easy to figure out why he hadn’t left it behind. He didn’t trust the gang members with it, and who could blame him? As they say, “There’s no honor among thieves.”

  After a while, Cap’n cut the motor, and we started to drift, bobbing up and down in the swells of the open ocean. He turned to face us and wiped his hands on his shirt.

  “Well, now,” he said, smiling his gold-toothed smile. “We’ve passed the twelve-mile limit. That means we’re out of reach of the laws of the USA.”

  He didn’t have to explain what that meant. He’d taken us out here to throw us overboard where no one would ever find us. Even if he was caught, it would be much harder to convict him of a crime committed in international waters.

  “Time to get rid of the excess baggage,” Cap’n said. “Right, boss?”
/>   “Right,” Esteban said.

  “Hey,” Joe said suddenly, looking at Esteban. “How come he calls you boss, but he gives all the orders?”

  “Shut up,” Cap’n said, scowling at Joe. He picked up a baseball bat that was lying on the deck and raised it over his head threateningly.

  Esteban put out a hand. “Calm yourself,” he told Cap’n. “There’s no need for blood.”

  “You’re a fine one to say that,” Cap’n shot back, “after what you did to the other kid’s head.”

  Esteban turned a steely gaze on him. “When I want your opinion, I’ll tell you what to say.”

  “Is that right?” Cap’n said, tightening his grip on the baseball bat. “Look, sonny, you may have had the original idea, but me and my boys have got the treasure now. Give me one reason why we shouldn’t ditch you—and your girlfriend, too?”

  All of a sudden, he swung the bat at Esteban, catching him in the upper left arm.

  Esteban cried out in pain, dropping the briefcase onto the deck. Cap’n tried to reach down and get it, but Esteban gave him a swift kick in the face, sending him reeling backward. Before Cap’n could recover, Esteban had pulled a pistol out of his pocket and was pointing it at him.

  “How’s this for a reason?” he asked, waving the gun. “You should have broken my right arm, you thug.”

  “Go ahead, shoot me,” Cap’n told him. “What do you think my boys will do to ye when ye get back to shore and they find out I’m not with ye?”

  Cap’n was crouched down low. From where I sat, I could see that he was grabbing something on the deck behind him. Suddenly, he threw it at Esteban, leaping at him at the same moment.

  Esteban’s hands flew up to block the diving mask that was headed straight for his face. His gun went off, but it was pointing straight up in the air.

  He never got off a second shot. Cap’n was on him, pummeling Esteban with his right hand while pinning his pistol hand with his left.

  Jenna, meanwhile, was screaming her head off. “No! No! Stop it!” she cried.

  But Cap’n didn’t stop. Not till Esteban lay still, his nose bloodied. The gun was limp in his hand. Cap’n took it from him, and the man he’d called “boss” did not resist.