30. Caro

"There's good news, and there's bad news," Knox said.

I'd spent most of the day cleaning out the turtle pools alone. Luna tried to speak to me at one point, I think to apologise, but given that her apology started with "Why didn't you tell me that your ex was crazy?" I couldn't find it in myself to be polite. When I snapped back that my personal life was none of her business, she'd hotfooted it out the door.

I did speak with Franklin, though. After all he'd done for me, I owed him an explanation for my impending departure. He made me tea in his little cabin, and we reminisced about the turtles we'd rescued together over the years. I'd miss seeing this season's eggs hatch, seeing last year's hatchlings find their flippers in the big wide world. Franklin wasn't feeling so great today, and I worried about adding to his stress, but he said he understood, that he'd been both surprised and happy that I'd stayed so long. Maybe someday I'd come back to visit? Aiden was three years older than me, and he drank more alcohol than was healthy. I'd be cheering on heart disease and cirrhosis from the sidelines.

I steeled myself. "Give me the bad news."

"The bad news is that Slater's been delayed in Africa. I can't go into the details, but let's just say that the target they went to pick up wasn't where she was supposed to be."

"When is he coming?"

"The revised mission is planned for Monday. He should be here next Wednesday."

Almost a week. Could I wait that long?

"You said there was good news?"

He smiled. "There is. The first piece of good news is that the sanctuary only got eleven thousand new likes this morning. So either not that many people watched the video to the end, or they don't want to see Luna walk down the Strip in a bikini." Ryder fell into the latter camp, I suspected. He'd been stomping around with a face like thunder all day. "The videos have popped up in a couple more places, but an intern on Blackwood's cyber team is sending takedown notices whenever he finds one."

I pictured a teenager sitting in an office, drinking coffee and trawling the internet for Luna Maara videos. Poor kid.

"I should send him a thank-you note."

"His name is Lamar. I can give you his contact details. But that's not all—I spoke with a colleague who has connections to a charitable foundation. You'd need to fill in an application form and provide a strategic plan, but there's funding available for building renovations here at the sanctuary plus two full-time members of staff. They'll cover the salaries for five years with the potential to extend later on."

Knox's words took a moment to sink in. Funding? I'd applied for thirty-seven grants during my time at the sanctuary—I knew this because I'd kept a spreadsheet—and spent hours writing plans and justification documents, rejigging the wording for each foundation because they all had different requirements. Of those thirty-seven grants, I'd landed four of them, a grand total of forty-eight hundred dollars combined. Knox had made a phone call to a friend and secured enough money to staff the sanctuary for five years?

"Is this a joke?"

"Baby, do I sound as if I'm joking?"

"I just… Nobody gives that kind of funding."

"They do if you ask the right people. Can you write a strategic plan? I'm no good at that stuff."

"I can absolutely write a strategic plan. I'm a pro at writing strategic plans. What should I tell Franklin? Should I tell Franklin? What if the application gets rejected?"

"It still needs to be approved by the trustees, but it'll go through. I already spoke with two of them, and they're on board."

"I think I love you. In a purely non-committal way, of course."

Knox kissed me on the forehead. He said he wasn't interested in a relationship, but when the chips were down, he stepped up. I was beginning to think I loved him a little more than I let on, and the thought scared me almost as much as Aiden did. How could my feelings be this strong for a man I barely knew? I'd avoided asking personal questions in case he reciprocated, sticking to safe topics instead. Turtles, scuba diving, the beautiful nation of San Gallicano. If it weren't for the poaching, I could have passed for a tour guide.

"Mercy said she'd email over the paperwork. That gives you less than a week to write a plan, find two new members of staff, decide where you want to live, and pack your stuff. Can you do that?"

A minute ago, the six days until Slater's arrival had stretched out in front of me like an eternity, but now that didn't seem like much time at all.

"Will Ryder be able to keep Luna in line for the next week?"

"He made her delete her social media apps, Jubilee too."

"I bet Luna's thrilled about that."

"She keeps forgetting and trying to look at her phone. Safe to say the love affair is on the rocks."

For the first time all day, I began to have hope. Hope that I'd be able to live in safety, hope that I'd have a future with Knox Livingston in it.

"When you mentioned Canada earlier, were you serious?"

"Not entirely, but if Canada is where you want to go, then I can work with it. Just make sure your new place is near an airport."

I'd camp in a tent on the freaking runway if it meant I'd get to spend more time with this man.

"Oh, I just love the sound of planes taking off in the morning. Are we really doing this?"

Knox took a deep breath and nodded. "We're really doing it, Caro." But then he rubbed a hand over his face. "Caro… Is that even your name? I know your surname isn't Menefee."

My spine went rigid. How could he know that? The identity was a good one. Had he found a photo? I never had to worry about running into the real Caroline in the marine biology world because as soon as she graduated, she'd gone back to partying. She'd only attended college in the first place because it was one of the conditions she had to fulfil in order to receive her trust fund. If I recalled correctly, she'd get the keys to the kingdom on her thirtieth birthday, and I gave her five years after that to blow the lot. Caroline had no idea how to manage money and no concept of moderation. She wasn't a horrible person—I actually quite liked her—but she'd never had to take responsibility for anything in her life. In many ways, she reminded me of Luna.

But I wasn't about to tell Knox those details. His digging around in my past felt underhanded.

"What makes you think that?"

"I already told you we ran a background check."

"Well, it's still creepy."

"It wasn't personal. Just part of the job."

"That doesn't make it any more acceptable."

"We can't change the way we do things. Last year, a colleague was providing services to a family, and we ran the usual checks. A member of the household staff had a past conviction he hadn't disclosed. Child abuse. There was a four-year-old kid, and the guy had been touching her."

"That's sick."

I mean, Aiden was a monster and even he hadn't stooped that low, at least not that I was aware of.

"Right. So our team shakes the tree, and sometimes valuable information falls out."

I didn't want my tree shaken. If Aiden didn't already know where I was, then someone poking around in my past could tip him off. I knew that in time, if Knox and I continued with our not-quite-relationship, I'd have to trust him with my secrets, but I didn't feel ready to do that yet. Not until I was far away from Valentine Cay. If Aiden came here with revenge on his mind, I feared he'd take his anger out on Franklin if he couldn't make me suffer, and the prospect of that made me feel sick. I couldn't change the mistakes of the past, but I hoped that time and distance might make a difference. Which meant that until I had a proper plan, the fewer people who could let my true identity slip, the better.

"My name really is Caro," I said softly. "I only borrowed the surname."

"What about the rest of your history? If Aiden's a problem, we can help with that."

Exactly what I'd suspected he'd say.

"Trusting people doesn't come easily to me. I'll tell you everything, but I need time, Knox."

"Time for me to prove I'm not the asshole he is?"

Knox understood. He understood, and he wasn't angry.

"Something like that."

He cupped my face in his hands and gave me the tenderest kiss.

"Then I guess I'd better get started."