Page 46 of Lash

"I don't know!" I shrug, laugh. "I don't know, Lash. The chemistry of love is a mystery, is it not? Why do we fall in love? What causes sexual attraction? Science gives one answer, poetry another. Who knows? I don't. You don't. But I know what I feel and I will not question it." I nuzzle his cheek again. "I have not been through what you have. If you need time to process, or sortthrough your feelings, or just learn to accept what you're feeling, that's okay. I can be patient. Just don't shut me out."

"I won't shut you out. I can promise you that much."

"Hey, captain says we're gonna be docking soon." Solomon's voice comes from the doorway into the lower deck.

I realize with a start that while Lash and I were talking we'd approached the marina. The lights of Ancona shine brightly against the dark of night.

We gather in the lower deck, away from the small huddle of frightened passengers.

"We have to be prepared for an exciting welcome," Solomon says. "We know the captain didn't contact anyone, but our departure wasn't exactly a secret, so we have to assume law enforcement will be waiting for us."

Lorenzo, looking less pale and much stronger, stares out at the rippling dark water for a moment. "What about a lifeboat? Deploy a lifeboat and we find somewhere else to get ashore."

No one disagrees with this plan, so we troop up to the cockpit. When Solomon presents the plan to the captain, the dour, weathered old man just shrugs.

"I have not speak to shore," he grouses. "Is no police."

"Youhaven't," Sol argues. "Someone else back in Split may have."

"Hmmm. Maybe, maybe. You wait. You wait. I call friend." The captain grabs a phone from a cupholder in front of him and places a call.

He speaks rapidly in what sounds to me like a Serbian dialect; being closely related to Croatian, I can follow his conversation, and he is asking if there is anything unusual happening ashore in Ancona.

Pausing to listen, he thanks his friend and ends the call. "Is okay. No police. Maybe people who shooted you in Split," he says, with a shrug, "but no police."

Solomon glances at Lash. "Could you understand him? Is he telling the truth?"

Lash nods and glances at me for confirmation—I answer. "Croatian and Serbian are close enough to understand. He tells the truth."

The captain looks annoyed to have been questioned, but says nothing.

"I think we chance it," Scarlett says. "I don't like the idea of being out on the open water in a lifeboat if I don't absolutely have to."

"Agreed," Lorenzo says.

"Agreed," Solomon says.

Lash looks at me and I shrug. "I am not the expert, do not ask me. Like Scarlett, I do not want to be on the ocean in a little boat if it is not needed. But I also do not want to be shot at again."

Lash wraps an arm around my waist. "Unfortunately, Lovely One, it is very likely you will take fire again before all this is over. I will do everything in my power to protect you, however."

I nod. "I know."

When we departed Split, there was only one crew member aboard, the rest were ashore preparing for departure. That crew member, a young man just past his teenage years, wears a thin jacket with the ferry line logo, as well as a hat. He is at the prow with a coil of rope in hand, preparing to dock.

I point at him through the cockpit window. "What if we disguise ourselves?"

Solomon blinks at me. “Why did none of us think of that?" He glances at the captain. "You have extra jackets and hats aboard?"

The captain glares at him, grumbling under his breath in Serbian about stupid, greedy Americans, but he nods, levering himself out of his seat, and hobbling bowlegged across the cockpit to a narrow closet. He rummages in the closet and comes out with five sealed packages. "Is all I have. Very expensive."

I shrug out of my leather jacket, reluctantly. "This is a very,veryexpensive jacket. Clean it up and you can sell it for a lot of money."

He takes it, turns it this way and that. "Your blood?" He asks me in Serbian.

I shake my head, answering in Croatian. "No. Not mine. He tried to rape and murder me."

He nods. "My wife will clean it up nicely. Maybe you come back and I will give it back to you."