Billionaire and the Sisters Ch. 91

I said a few other words to the men to drive home the point that we would shoot first and ask questions later.

In the distance I could hear the sirens of several police cars approaching the beach area. Our radios had apparently done their magic. I spoke again, more calmly but authoritatively, "Just continue to stand where you are. Do not move towards the boat or towards either of us. Continue to hold the backpacks just as you are. If you move, either my sister or I or both of us will shoot you dead. We are very accomplished with these weapons and we have killed people before with them. We are not police, but we are your worst nightmare because the girl you kidnapped is our sister ... and that REALLY PISSED US OFF."

When I saw the fear and resignation in their faces as my gun shook in their direction. I held the Glock with one hand and reached into my pocket and took my knife out. I flipped it open with an authoritative flip of the wrist that wasn't lost on the men, leaned down, and cut the ropes binding Izzy. She rapidly shed her bonds once her hands were free, and then leaped up uncertain what to do next. She had tears running down her cheeks and a wild panicked look in her eyes.

I said to her, "Izzy, run. Head towards the Jeep in the parking lot." I pointed with my free hand holding the knife. "If you need to, the keys are in it. Get out of here. The police are coming so you should be all right now. Calm down." She took off at a run, difficult in the best of conditions in the sand.

I returned my full attention to the two kidnappers who were in knee-deep water standing perfectly still. The kidnapper's boat had turned parallel to the shore and seemed to be content to stay nearby bumping slowly in the light tidal action against the beach.

A half-dozen police cars screamed into the parking lot, passing Izzy as she ran towards the Jeep. She stopped and pointed in our direction for several of them. She slowed and stopped and watched from a hundred yards away as the police piled from the cars and stormed down to the water. One police car stopped beside Izzy and two men and a policewoman got out by her. I watched Izzy go and hug the policewoman.

Four policemen waded into the surf and surrounded each man. The backpacks were removed in tact, and the men handcuffed and led ashore. The thugs were put in the backs of two different police cars. They seemed docile, and I knew they were facing long prison sentences in less than hospitable conditions in the notorious island prison. I wondered if there were any accomplices, but would leave that to police interrogators to discover. I felt that the extraction of additional information from a perp might be more thorough and a little more severe in the islands despite the relatively laid back atmosphere.

Cindy and I holstered our weapons after the cuffs were on the men. Captain Huston nodded at us, and gave us a smile. This had been a textbook arrest, especially since the two hadn't put up any kind of resistance. Had the men had guns, we were prepared to give them the money and let them leave providing we got Izzy back.

Two more island Jeeps raced into the small parking lot, each crowded with some of our sisters and brothers. I saw Mark leap out and hug and kiss Izzy, and then keeping an arm around her as he watched the arrest scene where we were on the beach. She was sobbing wildly as he tried to hug and comfort her. The boat was beached by a couple of the policemen onto the sand. I heard one officer comment that it had been stolen two days earlier from a nearby marina.

Other police arrived at the scene including some crime lab personnel and a photographer. They took special interest in the boat and the overall crime scene. Apparently, one of the photographers had used a telephoto lens to watch the scene unfold from a distant copse of trees. Our radio communications had also been recorded.

Mark and Izzy joined us. Some of the other sisters were nearby. Izzy was struggling to get herself under control. For almost the entire day she'd kept her cool, and now that the tension had been broken the river of tears had started.

Mark was almost frantic, "I listened to the two of you. You were so brave and so competent."

I said in a nonchalant tone, "Those two duds that kidnapped Izzy weren't the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree. They completely discounted that we were any kind of threat or that we'd offer any kind of resistance to their leaving the scene with your money."

Mark shook his head and looked each of us over, "It's OUR money, and you were a success because you both managed to look like you're fourteen and helpless. Look at the two of you. What a good makeup job ... and your hair. Cindy is that a blue streak?"

She nodded. "It's the rage among teens, especially emo girls. I thought that was a nice touch to drop my age another couple of years. Stacy uses it all the time. I actually looked like I was younger than Izzy. We wanted to look very innocent and disarming."

Izzy eventually talked to several police officers making her statement and telling them what had happened. We'd heard a compressed version of most of it and I knew there'd be several retellings when we got back to the villa and to the rest of our family and friends. Even as Izzy talked to the police, Mark held her close but didn't intervene; she'd occasionally sob as she realized that she could have died or been raped.

As we made our statements to the police, we were able to make quick work of things because several recordings of the radio traffic had been made, so that and the long-range video would supplement the few additional words we had for our statements.

When we left Pirate's Point to return to the villa we had a caravan of our three island Jeeps plus a war wagon that had also appeared with some of our security staff. A police car also followed our slow-moving group of cars all the way to the large house.