Bending down, she picked up a shell and launched it into the vast blue. She watched it skim the water for a few seconds before it landed and sunk.
“No matter how many times you throw stuff in, it isn’t going to change,” Erik said coming to stand beside her.
They were lucky. The plane had been a few miles from a little island. She still shuddered, remembering the impact of the water on her body. The worst kind of belly flop in the world.
“I want to get home,” she complained. Kelly wanted to know what was going on. Her secrets ran deep. Her father had been a drug cartel. A crook of the highest order and Kelly had finally found a way of getting rid of his sorry ass. For years she watched her father parade woman after woman inside their house in front of her mother.
As a young girl she hadn’t thought anything about the constant supply of women in her home until she grew up. The moans and groans sickened her and soon she found herself listening to the staff and the talk that went on behind closed doors.
Being a young girl no one took much notice of her, and they believed she was in her own little world when in truth she was listening to every single word they said. Kelly use to watch her mother and see the tears of despair in her eyes. When her mother thought no one was looking, she would sit and gaze out of the window sobbing. It broke Kelly’s heart to see her lovely mum so heartbroken.
When she finally grew up and moved away to attend college and get some work experience, she had the time to find more information out about the man she called a father. Once she started finding out more about her father and his business dealings, Kelly found, she wished she hadn’t. There were tons of articles and newspaper clippings not to mention the gossip surrounding her father and the family. Soon, some of the women she recognised as having been paraded through her home, were now on the lost newspaper pages of missing people.
When her mother died, she left her a small inheritance and a letter. A letter so informed and detailed, it had shredded all of Kelly’s ideals and spun her little world on its axis. Her mother and father’s marriage had been the result of some bargaining chip. Arthur, her father, had used her mother to gain ground on the drug export business.
The final words written in the letter...
I know you’ll probably think a little less of me, but I thought I loved your father. I’ve since learnt differently. Everything that has happened is my fault. I should have realised I wouldn’t get away from this hell. But, baby, I can’t be ashamed of everything I got. I had you and you’ve been the best daughter a woman like me could ask for.
All I ask of you, honey, is don’t become a pawn in this vicious game. Your father will use you to his advantage.
Get out, get out and stay out.
I’m sorry you’ll be alone but I offer you my love and pray I will be watching over you. Love,
Mum xxx
Reading the words her mother wrote made things a lot clearer to Kelly. She understood why her father had brought men into her life. He’d forced her to go on dates. He was shopping for a new son-in-law and a means to extend his already bulging empire.
So, fear playing a vital part in her plan, she walked in on the special agent’s department and requested to see the man in charge of Arthur O’Donald’s case. Not one of her brightest moments but it fuelled her desire to seek out justice. From that day forth, she turned rat on her father and became an informant for the secret agents working his case. Every shred of information she could provide, she did. This was three years ago. They were supposed to have taken him down while she was transported to Italy.
The plane accident and being trapped on a deserted island hadn’t been part of the plan.
“I just want to get home,” she repeated. The need to see her father behind bars was strong. This was payback for her mother and all the other women who’d suffered at his hand.
“You and me both, honey. I’ve got important stuff to be getting on with as well. I don’t have all day to be babysitting a spoilt little rich girl.”
Erik was her father’s right-hand man and most trusted contact. She’d seen them together a few times. Always with a woman resting on his arm, or perched in his lap while her father talked business. About three months ago, Arthur had forced her to play hostess and keep Erik company. The man reeked of danger and even if her body stirred, the thought of the wire she wore and the calls she use to receive and make to the special agent in charge would always be a wake-up call and make her keep her distance.
One of the deals she made was she would never know the name of the people involved working the case, which helped to protect her because other than answering the phone and wearing a wire she didn’t know anything. The other was to keep their specially designed, untraceable phone on her person at all times. In case she was ever in danger, she would phone and they’d get the signal. Other than pre-planned calls, the phone was rarely used.