Page 27 of Bound in Paradise
Pulling out his phone, he dialed Saul's number. After a few rings, the other man's suave voice answered.
"Zack, how’s it going?"
"All your searches are up and running. It’s a process of elimination now. In the meantime… you mentioned you might have some ideas about my, ah… situation," Zack said, cuttingstraight to the chase. "I could use a little insight right about now."
Saul chuckled, a low, rumbling sound. "Ah, yes. Well, what I have is more like speculation, but it has its basis in a lot of inside information. Sadie’s at work right now, so if you come over here, I’ll explain. I think you'll find what I have will at least put you on the right track.”
Zack didn’t wait, hurrying out of the house as soon as he ended the call.
A short while later, Saul strode onto the veranda of Sadie’s cabana, his usual confident swagger on full display, despite his recent injury. Zack accepted the drink Saul offered with a nod of thanks.
"So, what's this insight you have?" Zack asked, leaning against the railing, too antsy to sit down.
Saul took a sip, savoring the cool liquid. "I think I have a lead on your wife, or should I say, the woman who's technically your wife."
“I still don’t understand how you know all this,” Zack muttered. Although they were both co-owners and investors in Elysium and the Eden Resort, this was only the second time he’d met the man.
Saul shrugged easily. “Like I said, I work for several alphabet agencies. I check out anyone who comes into my circle with knowledge of my own - ah - extracurricular activities. My life often depends on it.”
“And how does that help me?” Zack asked with a frown. How could Saul Stevens possibly know things Zack himself hadn’t been able to find out?
“Well, you see,” Saul began, wiping the condensation from the side of his glass. “The operation - I call it that loosely, since it was really a favor for a friend - that led me to the little issue I have now…”
Not such a little issue, Zack considered, since the guy’s secret identity was literally about to be auctioned off with video proof, placing a massive target on his back.
“…Involved the kidnapping of one Gabriella Preston, the now wife of Marcus Mountbatten, Duke of Buckingham. You may know him better in lifestyle circles as Marcus Thorne.”
Zack pursed his lips. “I know who you mean. He and his sister are also investors in the island.”
“That’s right.” Saul nodded his agreement.
“As you know, the video up for auction shows me charging to Gabi’s rescue, after she was abducted by Vito Rossi.”
Zack shook his head in confusion. “That’s not the guy who set up the auction.”
“No. He got the evidence out, somehow, but the man himself has already met his end.”
“So, I don’t understand. How does he figure in all this?”
“Well, this story goes back eighteen years… does the time scale seem familiar to you?”
Zack narrowed his eyes on Saul, but stayed silent, sipping at his own drink.
“You see, Gabi’s father got into a spot of bother with Rossi - otherwise known as the Viper - in his role as consigliere to La Cosa Nostra.”
“Jesus! The mafia?” Zack exclaimed, dragging his fingers through his hair.
“The same.”
Fuck!
“So where does Emylyah fit into all this?”
“Well, you see, Gabi wasn’t the original target. That would have been her sister, who Gabi’s father had promised in marriage in exchange for his debts. Except…”
Saul paused, and Zack had to curb the urge to snap at the man to get on with it.
“Her mother wasn’t having it, so the story goes that the sister was married off to someone else, real young, and then she disappeared.”
