Page 9 of Murder Island

Afterward, we lay together on a thick blanket in the middle of the cabin floor. The berths on either side were barely wide enough for one person to sleep on. Definitely not wide enough for two people to have amazing sex on.

So we’d learned to make do.

Over the past week, we’d been having a lot of sex on theAlbatross. On the cabin floor. On the foredeck. In the cockpit. Morning. Noon. Night.

It was making my head spin.

I still hadn’t gotten used to my new body, let alone being treated like an object of desire—especially by a woman as stunning as Kira Sunlight. Even on the days when I’d hated her, I had been in awe of her. Back then, the thought that I could ever be with her like this seemed impossible.

Sometimes, it still did.

She was lying half on top of me, half asleep. I could feel her breathing. My forearm was hooked across her bare shoulder. Over the past few days, I’d noticed that the sun was turning my skin from its Chicago pallor to a reddish brown. Another step closer to the real Doc. The Man of Bronze.

Kira’s skin was still as pale as ivory, except for some pink on her cheeks and forehead. She didn’t tan. But she didn’t burn. It was like even her melanocytes were under her total control.

I ran my fingers across her back. Then I saw her eyes pop open.

“Do you hear that?” she said.

“Hear what?”

She pushed herself off me and grabbed her clothes.

Then I heard it, too.

The buzz of an outboard engine.

CHAPTER 9

I PICKED MY pants up off the floor and peeked through one of the cabin portholes. Kira was right next to me, pulling on her shorts and top.

About fifty yards out, a Zodiac boat was heading straight for us. Four men aboard.

Kira reached over and grabbed a pair of binoculars.

“Assassins?” I asked. “Don’t tell me they followed us all the way out here.”

Kira pressed the binoculars up against the porthole. She stared for a few seconds. “Nope,” she said. “But almost as bad. Pirates. Local operators. Probably out for cash or drugs.”

I grabbed the binoculars and took a look. The intruders were only about thirty yards away now. They were all scraggly and lean. Wide-eyed. They looked wired and dangerous.

Kira headed out onto the deck. What the hell was she doing? I scrambled up after her. She waved her hands crossways over her head.“No money! No drugs!”she shouted.

I picked up the cue.“No money! No drugs!”

The boat was about twenty yards away now, and closing fast. The engine sounded like an angry hornet.

“No money! No drugs!”Could they even hear us? Did it matter?

I saw the guy at the front of the boat reach down. He came up with a rifle in his hands. He tucked the stock under his armpit and aimed. I grabbed Kira and pulled her down. A blast of bullets hit the hull and rail.

We squirmed across the deck and tumbled down the cabin stairs. I could hear the buzz getting closer.

“Stay low!” I shouted. Kira flattened herself on the floor. Another volley of bullets hit the boat.

I picked up the blanket we just made love on and tossed it aside. I opened the hatch to the large hold underneath. I pulled up a small tank with a hose attached. The end of the hose had a fixture that looked like the barrel of a blunderbuss.

I waved the device at Kira. “You know what this is?” I read about it in one of the stories about my ancestor.