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Schneizel remained strangely silent and simply stood observing Cain through an eagle-eyed, black gaze that didn't seem to miss much.

"Say something!" I hissed loud enough for only him to hear.

He didn't even warrant a look my way.

"Boss? What do you want us to do?" Cain's man stepped forward, his finger resting on the trigger.

My heart plummeted.

So, this was it. This was how I died. Gunned down on a remote island with my lover and friend. What a pitiful end.

I slipped my hand into Schneizel's, closed my eyes and braced myself for the end.

"Lower your guns. You are not to harm them."

My eyes flew open. Was I hallucinating or had I heard Cain, right?!

I grinned at him, immensely pleased that he had not disappointed me, but mostly pleased that he had not decided to kill us.

As oddly as it sounded, I felt pride in him that he'd done the right thing.

I couldn't have been able to bear it if we had been killed when I was the one who talked Schneizel into sparing him.

"What do you think, Cade? Is that proof enough?"

"I think we should shoot him in the head and get the fuck out of this island before that greedy tanker captain leaves without us. I can't swim."

Schneizel raised an eyebrow at Cade. "You're a grown ass criminal and you can't swim?"

Cade defended himself indignantly, "I had a traumatizing experience as a child!"

"Wait, am I missing something?" Why the hell were Schneizel and Cade talking like they had the upper hand in this situation?

"You can lower your guns, boys." Cade said.

The armed men immediately did as they were told and stepped back. Confused, I repeatedly blinked and searched for some sort of explanation. When I glanced at Cain, I saw that he was just as confused and shell-shocked as I was.

"Can someone please explain to me what the hell is going on before I lose my mind?" I shrieked.

"Don't worry, Aiden; you didn't miss anything. We just gave Cain the opportunity to prove himself to us, that's all." Cade said.

It took me a few seconds to understand the meaning behind his words. It finally dawned on both Cain and I at the same time.

"You mean these aren't Cain's men?!"

"Nice going with the Irish accent, Kevin. Cain didn't suspect a thing." Cade grinned at Kevin, the one who'd stepped forward and addressed Cain.

My eyes flew to Schneizel's profile, and I slowly began to realize that this had all probably been planned from the beginning. Somehow, he knew that Cain would have a change of heart, and to ensure that this change of heart was genuine, he'd disguised his own men as Cain's.

Had Cain chosen wrong, I suspected it would have been him who was gunned down on the spot.

I shivered at Schneizel's genius.

"How did you know he'd change his mind and stop wanting to get revenge on you?" Softly, I asked.

"Cain was never cut out for the life of a criminal. He was always too soft-hearted." It wasn't much by way of explanation, but I doubted I'd be getting much more.

"Where are my men, then?" Cain asked incredulously.

"They're tied up at the dock on the other side of the island." Schneizel replied.

"How did my cameras not see that?"

"Wireless signal jammers."

"So, from the beginning, I never had a chance of defeating you." Cain chuckled ruefully.

"No." Came Schneizel's straight answer.

We arrived at the dock an hour later to find a group of men bound and tied by the side of a tiny shack on the dock. In a matter of minutes, Cain's -understandably grumpy- men were untied.

I turned and said to Schneizel, "Take me somewhere cold. Nowhere tropical or sandy."

"I'll take you wherever you want." He smiled and leaned down to kiss me.

Every time -every single time! - his lips touched mine, an electric current passed through me.

At first, I thought the feeling would pass, that his kisses would sooner or later become just normal kisses, but now I knew that would probably never happen.

I now looked forward to the many kisses we'd share from now onward.

A weird noise drifted to my ears, and then suddenly a white beam of light engulfed us.

Surprised, I pulled away from Schneizel and looked up to see a hovering helicopter nearly right on top of us. The sound of the upset ocean beating against the shore had drowned the sound of the chopper's spinning blades until it was almost above us.

Now, it was too late to hide. Someone had found us. The question was: Who?

Were they friend or foe?

Shielding my eyes with my forearm, I squinted past the beam to see a few men in uniform inside the helicopter. One of the men was holding what appeared to be a white megaphone.

"This is INTERPOL! Put your hands in the air!"

Okay, they were definitely not friends.