Page 184 of Merciless Daddy

“Hmmm, not a place I’m familiar with.”

“Really? You go there every night. And it is the first destination of our trip.”

I glared at him.

He took my hand and drew a blanket over my legs. He kissed my forehead and whispered, “Sleep, sweet one. Daddy’s here.”

The plane crossed night. I slept in pieces, waking to Sal’s shoulder beneath my cheek and the steady vibration of engines. When we landed, the air outside had changed.

It smelled wet. Green. Warm enough that my lungs did not hurt when I breathed.

We transferred to a small boat beneath a moonless sky. Stars shone like gems, so bright that I barely recognized them. The constellations slowly shifted in the sky, so many that I couldn’t take them in. So many that this didn’t really feel like planet Earth anymore.

Sal kept one hand at the center of my back as we crossed the dock. Not forcing. Guiding. The sea made soft black sounds against the hull.

“Still no answer?” I asked.

“No.”

“I could throw you overboard.”

“There’s no way you pick me up.”

“I don’t know—anger gives me a lot of strength.”

He laughed again, that low, pretty laugh, and kissed me slow, soft on the lips. “You’re never allowed to change, do you know that?”

The boat moved through darkness for what felt like an hour. Maybe two. I lost track. Sal sat beside me beneath a blanket, his arm around my shoulders, while the engine pushed us farther from every map I knew.

At some point, I fell asleep again.

When I woke, dawn had opened over the water.

I lifted my head from Sal’s shoulder.

An island rose ahead of us.

Green hills. White sand. Water so blue it looked invented. Palm trees leaned above a private dock. Beyond them stood a single villa built from pale stone, low and open to the sea, wrapped in flowering vines.

For several seconds, I could only stare.

The boat slowed.

“Sal.”

“Yes, little one?”

“What is this?”

“It’s called a cay. Like a kind of sandy island. Just for us.”

“You brought me to a private island?”

“Yes. We’re in the Bahamas. This is hidden a

“That seems excessive.”

“I am an excessive man.”