He didn’t stop thrashing at them and struggling to escape, but it was hopeless. “Boy, you cool it now or we hold you under the water,” Sam told him. “Whadd’you think o’that?”
“I don’t want no part in no murder, Sam,” Scott said.
“You already got a part in a rape, what difference is that gonna make?” Sam grunted back at him.
“Least I get a piece o’ that bitch once Jimmy’s done wi’er!” Scott said. When Dylan didn’t stop trying to escape, he added, “Boy, don’t you make me change my mind!”
Celestine was wriggling just as hard in Rich’s grip, kicking at his knees but never landing the blow and trying to bite his arms to no avail, as he climbed the rock with her. “No! Please! My mother’s got money!”
“Ain’t her money I want,” Jimmy said, unbuttoning his pants.
He was just pushing them down when the shot rang out. “Ack!” he snapped, clapping his left hand over his right shoulder, which was already a bloody mess. As if in slow motion, he pulled his hand away and looked back and forth between it and the growing red stain on his shirt.
There was no slow motion for Rich. Not even pausing to discern where the shot had come from, he dropped Celestine onto the rock and dove for cover behind it, while Jimmy stumbled into the lee as well as if in a trance. Sam and Scott released Dylan and ducked into the water. Dylan, unsure as yet of whose side the shooter was really on, followed suit, just in time to see his captors scurrying along the lake floor as fast as they could, while two more shots cut through the water, both missing but both clearly aimed at his captors. Satisfied that he wasn’t in danger, Dylan came up for air just in time to see Sam and Scott scurrying up the rocks. One or the other of them — Dylan couldn’t tell in the panic of the moment — was armed with a stone from the lake floor, and threw it into the leaves of the nearest tree.
“Ack!” A rustling of leaves and branches ensued, and a man fell awkwardly to the ground. Dylan thought he recognized the man, but told himself it couldn’t be — it was anyone but who he thought it was. There was little time to worry about that, as Sam and Scott pounced out of Dylan’s sight, but presumably upon the man. Celestine moaned behind him, but Dylan was rooted to the lake floor.
A jumble of sounds of flesh hitting flesh and screeches of pain ensued for what was probably far less than a minute, but felt much longer to Dylan and Celestine. Presently another shot rang out followed by a howl from Scott-or-Sam. A moment later, whichever of the pair had not been shot burst out from behind the rock and ran as fast as he could down the hill; one last gunshot missed him.
Satisfied that he and Celestine were in no further danger, Dylan rushed out of the water and found her sitting up on the rock where she’d been dropped, shaking with terror and nursing a scraped knee, but otherwise unharmed. “Dylan!” She leapt up into his arms, and he held on to her as if for dear life.
“Oh, thank God!” Dylan kissed her cheek and neck passionately as he rubbed her back, his heart still pounding out of control. When at last he felt a modicum of control returning, it occurred to him to look up to confirm that their saviour was not who he had thought he’d seen.
He stood on the opposite edge of the lake, bloody and dishevelled, and now his gun was trained on them. Dylan gasped, and Celestine looked up to see what had startled him.
What she saw startled her even more. “Troy!” She jumped back from Dylan, realizing a moment too late that she had only made herself even more vulnerable. She crossed her arms over her breasts and crouched down, but the damage was done.
“How could you, Celestine?” Troy sounded so dejected Dylan thought he might even feel sorry for him, if he weren’t still in very real danger of being shot by him.
“You wouldn’t understand!” Celestine forgot her embarrassment and stood up defiantly. “It involves true love. And respect! I never had any of either for you, and you know it! Or you should!”
“I’d watch my mouth right now if I were you, my dear,” Troy seethed.
“You’ll never shoot us! You’ll go up the mountain if you do, and you won’t get Mother’s money!”
Troy glared at them for ten long seconds. At last he uncocked his pistol and said, “You’re right. Far better that I let you live knowing I know what I know. If I were you both, I would keep that in mind before I breathe a word of this to anyone at all.” He holstered his gun inside his suit coat and turned to leave. “I shall see you at home, Celestine.”
“He won’t tell Mother,” she said. “He can’t.”
“Best that we don’t wait and see,” Dylan said. “Let’s get our clothes on and get to my place before Aldrich and them come back.”
Too traumatized to cook up a story, they spilled the whole truth to Lorelei as soon as they had stumbled into the safety of her kitchen. “Good Lord, Dylan, how could you be so careless?” she demanded.
“Mother, please, I’m sick about the whole thing myself!” Dylan said while Celestine sobbed softly beside him.
“You should be.” Then Lorelei clenched her fists and stood up. “But what’s done is done.” She took down a bottle of wine and three glasses. “And I guess there is some celebrating to be done now. Congratulations, both of you.”
“Thank you,” Celestine said.
“And we can’t wait to bring you over too,” Dylan added.
“Should’ve seen it years ago with the both of you.” Lorelei allowed her first smile as she handed them each a glass. “And I have no sympathy at all for that Troy. Thinks he owns the whole town just because his father owns half of it.”
“I just have one question,” Celestine said. “How’d you ever manage to save up all that money just by matchmaking? I know it’s none of my business, of course, but…”
“Well, you’re practically my daughter now anyway,” Lorelei said, clinking their glasses. After a long sip, she went on. “An awful lot of men get off the ships here with only one thing on their mind, and who can blame them when they haven’t even seen a woman since who knows when? But I figured out a long time ago, some of them have too many morals to go see Fliss. And plenty of women in town, well, they’re only human as well, but they’re not supposed to say out loud they want it just as bad as the men do. So for a small fee, I provide discreet introductions.” She paused and chuckled. “Turns out there are a lot of horny ladies in this town.”
“That’s ingenious,” Celestine said.
“Maybe so, but it’s dangerous, too,” Lorelei said. “I feel like I ought to apologize, Celestine. I’ve always had my suspicions that Fliss has it in for me for costing her so much business, and heaven knows those guys at the lake are just her type of clients. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she was mixed up in this. I just thank heaven Troy showed up. But I wonder why?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care,” Celestine said. “I’m almost glad now he knows about us.”
“When’s the ship sailing?” Dylan asked, eager to change the subject. “I realized when I was asking her, I didn’t know exactly when.”
“Tomorrow,” Lorelei said.
“Tomorrow!” Celestine and Dylan exclaimed in unison. They both looked sad more than pleased.