“If you lay a hand on her, the entire world will know the allegations are true,” Remi said, huffing out pained breaths. The last thing she needed was an asthma attack in the middle of a murderous assault.

“You can’t ruin me. Neither of you can touch me. You don’t have what I have. The power. The connections. The money. I’ll destroy you both, body and soul. And when I’m done doing that, I’ll make sure no one ever speaks your names again.”

“Delusional much?” Remi wheezed, crawling to her hands and knees.

He landed another kick. This one to her midsection. Camille jumped forward. Warren backhanded her in the face with the gun, and she crumpled like paper to the floor. Remi growled and breathed through the pain.

“Brick is going to kick your ass,” she said through gritted teeth.

“I’m counting on him making the attempt. You don’t think I’d leave without thanking him for his hospitality to my wife and her friend, do you?”

“What made you such a stupid asshole anyway,” Remi asked, trying to buy time. She needed to get help. She needed to get him away from this house.

There was a flash of movement at the top of the ramp, and Remi deliberately drew Warren’s attention back to her.

Hadley, in her pajamas, hovered in the doorway.

“What are you going to do with us, Warren?” Remi demanded.

“I’m going to take you two away from here. I have a place we can be alone. Where I can extract my pound of flesh.”

“Where is that?” Remi asked. Brick would tear the island apart by dawn once he knew what had happened.

She saw William’s hand flex at his side and nearly breathed a sigh of relief.

“It’s on the mainland. I’ll borrow a boat for the occasion. Don’t worry your pretty little head about the details. Just know that tonight will be your last, and if you don’t come quietly with me, I’ll go upstairs and murder every single person in their beds.”

Hadley ducked out of the door.

Remi was going to lodge this man’s balls in his skull the first chance she got.

“I’ll go quietly,” she promised.

“I thought you might,” he said with a twisted, triumphant grin.

“I can borrow a boat. My friend Eleanora Reedbottom has one. She won’t notice if it’s gone.”

“There now. It’s not so hard to cooperate, is it? Things are so much easier when you accept your place.”

When he bent to pick up Camille’s limp form, Remi scanned the worktable for weapons. She pocketed a palette knife and prayed for the chance to use it.

“Brick is going to come after you as soon as he finds out you took us, Warren.”

Her gaze darted to the doorway. She couldn’t see Hadley but knew her brave niece was lurking just out of range.

“Your idiot boyfriend is occupied with an unfortunate fire that started in the hotel’s kitchen,” he said, tossing Camille over his shoulder like he would a sack of feed.