“Our boat will meet us there,” he murmured. Lottie followed his gaze and nodded. He did not add that they would be dangerously exposed until then. If they were spotted, they would have only a few precious minutes to escape. Alec looked around one last time, but there was no one else about. He took a deep breath and hurried them toward the dock. He did not dare look back until they reached the end.

“Where is it?” Lottie asked tightly. “Where is the boat?”

“See there?” he gestured to a light out on the lagoon. “That’s for us. The driver has been keeping watch.”

As if on cue, the light began to move toward them. They stood side by side waiting as the nimble little vessel came into view. It would be here in less than a minute. He had kept her safe. Alec closed his eyes as the tension slowly ebbed from him.

Then came the telltale creak of someone stepping onto the dock. It was the same imposing guard from the hallway stalking toward them. He was a head taller than Alec and outweighed him by at least thirty pounds. All of it muscle.

Beside him Lottie whimpered.

“Watch the boat,” Alec told her, his voice deadly calm.

“What are you going to do?”

He shot her a glare. “Charlotte.”

Lottie’s eyes widened and she immediately turned around.

Alec pulled out the switchblade he always kept nestled in his breast pocket and waited until he could see the whites of the brute’s eyes. Then in one swift motion he released the blade, striking the man below his left shoulder. He let out a grunt and fell to his knees just as the boat pulled alongside the dock. The driver was a man called Marco, who also ferried tourists around the city.

“Go,” Alec said, pushing Lottie toward the boat.

But she clung to his arm with surprising strength and dug in her heels. “Not without you.”

Alec glanced back. Despite the knife buried in him, the guard was attempting to stand up. There was no time for this. Alec lifted Lottie off her feet and practically tossed her into Marco’s arms. She wrenched around and looked back at him with a wild desperation that cut him to the quick. “Wait.”

Alec forced himself to ignore her and caught Marco’s eye. “Go at my signal,” he said in Italian. “No matter what.”

Marco gave a single nod as he held fast to Lottie, who was still crying out and trying to wriggle from his grasp. Without another word Alec turned around. Then he pulled out the stiletto knife he kept strapped to his ankle and marched toward the guard. “Leave now and I won’t kill you.”