The brute clutched weakly at the handle protruding from his shoulder. His sleeve had already turned crimson. “If I let you go, I’m good as dead anyway, Professor. The signore doesn’t take kindly to failure,” he panted.

Alec brandished the stiletto. “Your odds are still better with him.”

The guard let out a low chuckle and went back down to both knees, raising his palms in surrender. “Fine,” he said wearily. “Everyone knows I faint at the sight of my own blood anyway.”

Alec stepped closer and thrust the tip of the stiletto against his opponent’s sizable chest. “Then I suggest you make it so,” he said viciously. It would take a determined push to pierce the skin and could leave Alec vulnerable to attack, but he would stop at nothing to keep this man away from that boat.

The man cast a dazed glance past Alec. “Is she worth it?” They both knew the signore would not soon forget this.

“She is worth everything.”

A knowing smile played on the man’s lips and he let out a faint laugh. Then, all it took was a mere glance at his sleeve before he fell heavily on his side.

Alec kept his eyes on the silent figure as he backed toward the boat and climbed in. As he entered the tiny cabin, he felt Lottie’s arms come around him, felt her tears wet his collar, heard her desperate cries of relief, but only one thought echoed in his mind as the craft pulled away from the dock.

She is safe.

As the boat sped across the lagoon, Lottie clung to Alec, not caring a whit how desperate she appeared now. She was desperate. Besides, even if she had wanted to move, Alec’s powerful arm held her fast by his side. How close they had come. And how very stupid she had been. Lottie did not know if the man they left on the dock was still alive, but she was certain that Alec would not have hesitated to kill him if needed.

And that he would have sacrificed himself to save her life.

She buried her face against his chest as a shudder came over her. Alec’s hand dropped from her shoulder to her waist and he pulled her closer, but he had yet to utter a word or even look at her. Not since that terrible moment when he pushed her into the boat, and she realized that he’d intended to stay behind. In the instant before he turned away, his face had been like nothing she had ever seen—as pale and hard as a plaster mask—while his eyes gleamed with bone-chilling menace. And single-minded purpose.

Before another shudder could overtake her, Alec let out a little sigh: “That was my favorite switchblade.”

Lottie jerked her head up. “What?”