Trial by Fire

Reagan and Lanston picked Danni up from the hotel and they went car shopping. They found a dealership that sold Volkswagens and Jaguars. Lanston and Danni immediately fell in love with a red F-Type. Reagan disagreed and all Danni's wiles failed her.

"We need a four-door car, or even better, a mini-van," Reagan insisted. "A two-seater won't work."

"But it's so cute," she begged. "I hate mini-vans, Dad. We can't drive around in a mini-van."

"We don't live here, button," he reminded her. "None of us are going to stay here and where would you drive that F-Type on Carriacou? Remember, you have a motorcycle for there."

"I know, but I like this one. Mason would like it too."

"I'm sure he would," Reagan agreed. "I like it too, but it's impractical. There will be four people going to school every day, and when you get here there will be six. We aren't buying three 75 thousand dollar cars when one will do quite nicely. Now come over here and look at this one."

"'This one' was a red XJR long wheel base with the 5.0 liter supercharged V8. "Get in, Danni and see if you like it," he told her.

She looked longingly back at the 2-seater one last time and allowed Lanston to open the passenger door for her. He slid behind the wheel and Reagan got in the back seat.

"Wow," Lanston whistled. "This is top of the line."

The smell of new leather filled the air. The salesman tapped on Danni's window. She couldn't get the window down without the car running so she opened the door.

"Want to take it for a spin?" he asked.

"Oh yes," Danni cried. "Can we Dad?"

"Sure," he told her.

The salesman went inside and came back with a clipboard and a key. "Take it and keep it overnight," he told them. "Just sign here and have fun."

Danni took the clipboard. "Not you. You don't even have a license." Reagan signed the form and Lanston pushed the button and the V8 whispered to life.

They pulled out onto Maurice Bishop drive and headed toward the hotel.

"I want a license," Danni said. "I can drive a ship, but not a car. That's silly."

Lanston mashed the accelerator to the floor and the acceleration sucked them back into their seats as the supercharged V8 surged to life.

"Wow, son," Reagan said. "This baby can really travel."

The speedometer quickly spun and Lanston backed off as they overtook some traffic.

"This is like riding in an airplane," Danni said. "Can I drive?"

"No Danni, I'm sorry, but you need to get your license first."

"That's silly," she said again.

"I know," Reagan laughed. "If it was up to me, you could fly spaceships, honey, but people have rules."

"People are silly," she said.

"I know. According to you the world is full of silly people. I know you have some justification, but we try not to offend them. Don't worry, we'll get you a license, but we can't do it today."

She settled back with a sigh and stroked the leather seat. "I love this car. Let's keep it. Mason will like it too. He likes fast cars. It's not a Judge, but it's a nice red color."

"What do you know about Judges?" Lanston said.

"I know they were only made in 1968 and 1969, they were bright orange, had the 455 HO engine and the Hurst 4-speed and would go 0-60 in four seconds."

"I'm impressed," he told her. "How do you know that?"

"Because I'm smart," she said. "Besides, Mason told me all about them.

"This girl has a mind like a steel trap, son," Reagan said. "I was there when Mason mentioned this to her and she remembered every word he said. It's unbelievable."

"Of course I remembered," she said. "I love Mason and I'm looking for a Judge for him. Someday I'm going to find one and buy it for him."

"Well, with you as his guardian angel he's bound to get one," Lanston said.

"I know," she missed the irony, "I can figure stuff out."

"Yes you can, Danni. He's lucky to have a sister like you." Reagan patted her arm.

Mason did indeed like the Jaguar. "I'll bet this group of cars that they are selling new now is the last we'll see for a while," he said. "American cars are done, same for German and Japanese and Korean. I don't know about Italian, but I bet we don't see any imports from there for a long time either. There aren't any home grown auto manufacturers that I know of in the southern hemisphere at all. There are a few subsidiaries, but with the parent companies down it's likely they go under too. If we want new cars, now is the right time to buy them. Used ones will be around, but the price is going to skyrocket," he told Reagan and Joseph.

We might buy a truck or a cargo van for here and a van or two for home," Joseph said, "but most traffic is by water taxi around here anyway. I'm counting on you and Lanston to expand your company beyond shipping and navigation anyway and I hope you will look into all types of water transportation. If you ever need an investor, you know you should come to me first. I'll even loan you money, interest free for as long as you need it."

"We owe you a lot, Joseph," Mason said. "You're a good man."

"On the contrary," Joseph objected. "I am the one that is so deeply in your debt I'll never get out. I pulled a lot of shady deals and stepped on a lot of people to get where I was. I'm hoping to square the accounts a little with the rest of my life. You kids taught me that when you risked your lives to save some strangers you had never even met."

Mason hugged him. "You know they were going to attack us anyway," he said.

"Yes, but that doesn't change what you did, Mason."

They occupied Villa Zanzibar the next morning. Joseph, Reagan and Sara spent most of the week out, taking care of business. The kids toured the island in the new Jaguar and occasionally helped their parents and Joseph in some task they were assigned.

The new staff showed up for work the day they were to depart and introductions were made and instructions left for the kid's return later in the month. Satisfied that they had accomplished everything they needed to get done they boarded the yacht for home.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Work on the new pier was well underway when they returned and earth works at the ART headquarters were progressing. They were building a defensible compound with earthworks and hurricane fences were going up on top of the earthen walls.

"Well, it looks kind of like a prison so far," Reagan remarked to Joseph.

"Yes it does, but it's designed to keep people out, not in," he pointed out. "Landscaping will help the aesthetics of the place, but we won't be able to hide the fact that we intend for it to be a fortress."

"We need to see about security too," Reagan was making a list. "We'll see if George knows some ex-military types to get that set up."

The framework of a large metal central building was beginning to take form and concrete was being poured by a fleet of trucks. They had dumped concrete rubble and clay to form the pier and heavy machinery was at work everywhere around the 30-acre site. Leaving the oversight in George's capable hands, they both went home to catch their breath.

Lanston and Danni were at Shell House for the week and Cinnamon Villa was peaceful and quiet. Mason and Kierra were in and out. They had located a horse for sale on the other side of the island and planned an excursion to look at it.

The Honda's were delivered later in the week and Lanston and Danni came to pick theirs up. The kids were all excited with the strong little bikes. Sara forbade them to ride until they purchased helmets and they scoured the island for helmets large enough to fit Mason and Lanston.

They all needed a driver's license and they rode the bus to the transportation office to acquire one.

They ran into problems with a lack of identification and Senator Prius was forced to intervene on their behalf. When Reagan called him, he informed them that their citizenship papers had come through and they were now official residents of Carriacou. They emerged with official identification and Danni was very pleased that she would now be able to drive the Jaguar next time she was in St. Georges.

High school started the next week and Lanston and Danni returned to Cinnamon Villa to start the term.

Danni was very nervous about going to a new school. "What if they don't like me," she cried on Lanston's chest.

They were in their customary sleeping place on the veranda in a hammock, and the sound of insects of the night filled the air. The sweet odor of jasmine floated up from the gardens.

"That's not possible," he reassured her. "I loved you the moment I set eyes on you."

"Yes, but you love everyone, Lanston. They all like you too because you're so beautiful and everyone is afraid of you because you're so big."

"Well, you can't do the big thing, but you're the most beautiful little sprite in the world. You will captivate them with your charm. You're always telling me how charming you are. I agree. Don't worry about it, pixie. Everyone will love you. If they don't I'll scare them and then they'll be nice to you. I'll always be just down the hall if you need me and we have two classes together. We'll be fine. What's with the beautiful thing, anyway? Boys aren't supposed to be 'beautiful.' I'm ruggedly handsome."

"Yes," she agreed, "especially when you don't shave for a while. But you are beautiful, Dad said so."

Senator Prius sent his personal car and driver around for them the first morning and delivered them to school and picked them up afterward. Lanston was right. They were celebrities at school. Everyone knew about them and the stories had made the rounds of how they had escaped the volcano. Many of them were heroic and many absurd, but everyone in the school, including the teachers deferred to them.

The girls all loved Lanston and the boys were equally entranced with Danni. They quickly settled into their new routine. They drove their scooters to school each morning and stopped at a juice stand on the way home to recount the day. Often they changed residences and moved into Shell House for a week or two, disrupting the lives of Jason and Alex for the duration.

The college term began and Jason, Alex, Mason and Kierra left for St. Georges. They flew over in a small plane and their absence left a void in everyone's life. Danni and Lanston moved permanently into Cinnamon Villa. The rainy season began at mid-term and the hammock was abandoned for Lanston's bedroom. Danni slept in Mason's bed. She moved her things into Hummingbird into the empty apartment, but she seldom went there. Most of her time was divided between the lap of either Lanston or Reagan.

Reagan had begun writing a book about their escape and Danni often curled up in his lap and read the book on her iPad. She had many helpful ideas, mostly about the heroism of her father and brothers. Reagan sometimes included them in the narrative. She was an excellent copy-editor and made corrections and saved them to Reagan's computer. Lanston was working on a contract to begin harbor work with the tug as soon as school ended.

Sara was offered a job managing the town's only clinic and she was busy with Angela in setting up the free clinic at the ART headquarters.

The Ramseys were fishing. They sold their catch locally and business was good. Fuel had become in short supply and the price was rising steeply as shipping became more dangerous due to the activity of pirates.

Reagan and Joseph made a bi-weekly two-day circumnavigation of the Island and were always at Senator Prius' disposal in case of trouble. Twice they fought engagements with drug runners that had seized private vessels and taken hostages. The firepower of the cutter dismayed the pirates and they surrendered on both occasions after losing their boats to the cutter's powerful weapons. Carriacou soon gained the name in the underworld of a place to leave alone.

Chapter Twenty-Three

The kids came home for Christmas for a month between terms and Jason and Alex were married on the yacht. Senator Prius and the President of Grenada, Tillman Thomas, were present for the occasion.

Lanston was the best man and Danni the maid of honor. Joseph gave away the bride. Lanston claimed the first dance with Alex.

"Remember back on the tug when you asked what kind of cake we were going to have?" she asked him as they slow-danced.

He laughed. "Yes I do. I only said it to get you going,"

"Well you did, but I never dreamed it would really happen. I never really thought we'd get away. I put on a strong face for you and Danni, but I really thought at least some of us would die back there."

He held her a little tighter. "I always knew we would make it, I swear Alex, you feel just like Danni when I hug you. Jason is a lucky man. What kind of cake are we having, by the way?"

She pinched him. "Chocolate, but I don't think you should have any. You're getting fat."

"You are just like Danni," he laughed. "She told me that last week. Not playing sports always makes me bulk up. I've got to start running, but I lift weights every day. My bench press is up to 415 lbs. That's all muscle you feel."

"I know you're very strong, Lanston. Come on and I'll get you a piece of cake."

He kissed her, just as Jason walked up to claim her. "Good Lord, here's the old man now," Lanston said. "Do you suppose he saw?"

"You're a horrible kid, Lanston, Trying to steal my bride on my wedding day?" Jason laughed. "Go find Danni. She's probably kissing some boy behind a tree. I want to dance with my wife."

Mason and Kierra were also on the floor. Her forehead was tucked against his chin as the band played a slow song. "This is so romantic," she said.

"Yes it is," he answered. "You know we only have two semesters left at school. Once we graduate, I'm going to ask you to marry me. You know that, right?"

"If you don't, I'm going to ask you," she told him. "You make me so happy, baby."

"That's my job," he said.

Danni found Lanston and fed him the last bite of his cake. She had on a pale yellow gown in a mermaid style with a one-shoulder sweep and some diamond earrings that Joseph had given her for Christmas. She had her hair up and she looked stunning, Lanston thought.

"Let's leave and go back to my place," she said. "Mason is going to need his bed and I'll have to sleep over there. We can have a fire and drink some wine. Dad said I could have a bottle but I wasn't to drink it alone or all of it," she told him. "Just one glass is all I can have. I promised him."

"Okay baby," he said. "Just let me tell Mom we're leaving."

Danni found Reagan and Alex talking and informed them of her plan.

"We're going to drink some of that bottle of wine you gave me, and make a fire in the fireplace."

"Dad, what were you thinking?" Alex protested. "You gave her wine?"

"This is a big day, Alex," he said. "We're celebrating and I told her she could drink one glass. I trust her, Alex. She's a big girl now and everyone drinks wine every day on this island. She'll be fine, right button?"

"Oh yes," she said. "I promised. Lanston wouldn't like it if I got drunk."

"That's right," Alex told her. "Don't get him drunk either."

"Lanston doesn't get drunk," Danni said. "He says he's dumb enough sober. He doesn't need to kill any brain cells. I think he's very smart though. He's just lazy."

"You are a very perceptive girl," Reagan told her. "I think you've got him pegged."

She hugged them both and went away to find Lanston.

"Did you hear that?" Reagan asked. "That girl is smarter than all the rest of us put together."

"I know," Alex laughed. "That's what worries me. But she won't ever do anything she thinks Lanston wouldn't like. That's going to be her salvation."

Lanston and Danni caught a taxi back home. He stopped by his room and changed into shorts and a t-shirt. It was raining softly as he climbed the steps to Hummingbird.

He knocked on her door. "Just a minute," she called. "I'm changing."

"I want to watch," he called back. He heard her giggle and then the sound of bare feet across the floor.

She was still wearing the gown but her shoes were gone and she had taken her hair down. "Okay," she said, "you can watch, but first, make a fire for us to look at."

He heard the clinking of glassware and a plop as she removed the cork from the bottle and he got the fire going. Danni had a fake white fur rug she loved and she pulled it in front of the fireplace and got a pillow and a blanket. She pushed Lanston down on the rug and arranged the pillow under his head. He handed him his glass of wine and turned on his iPod dock that she had borrowed. The mellow sounds of Earl Klugh's guitar filled the living room."

"Are you planning to seduce me?" he asked.

"No," she said. "Well, maybe sort of. I promised Dad that I would make him proud, so I can't really seduce you, but I've been burning up with wanting to be with you for months and I can't stand it anymore. Will you play with me and hold me?"

"Let's start with me watching you change, sprite."

She knelt beside him with her back to him. "Unzip me, Lanston."

He eased the zipper down and brushed his fingers down her to the small of her back. A soft golden down dusted the hollow there just above the swell of her buttocks, and as he stroked her she shivered. She rose and stood with her back to him facing the fire.

She looked over her shoulder, her long lashes outlined by the flames. She eased her shoulders out of the dress and allowed it to slip to the swell of her hips. He could glimpse the rise of the sides of her breasts.

She wiggled and the dress slid to the floor. He gasped and took a sip of his wine. She reached for hers on the mantle and took a sip. She shivered a little at the taste.

"I don't think I'll be a drunk," she told him. "I don't like the taste much."

"Me either," he said, "but this isn't bad."

He admired the upside down heart shape of her butt, concealed only by lacy white bikini panties. As usual, she hadn't worn a bra.

"Turn around slowly and let me look," he told her.

Holding her glass and with her arms crossed over her breasts, she slowly faced him, the firelight flickering over her brown skin; giving it a ruddy glow.

"You're a fire goddess," he told her. "What were you going to wear?"

She turned away again, picked up a shirt of his and slipped it on. She buttoned the bottom two buttons and turned to face him again.

"I don't know how you can make that old shirt look so good. Come here, beautiful," he patted the rug beside him.

"Just a minute," she sat on the sofa and pulled on lacy black thigh high stockings.

She got back up and stood in front of him with her legs apart and a hand on one hip. Her face was framed by her golden hair and the diamond earrings sparkled in the firelight. The shirt covered her down to the top of her panties and then the tails spread over the swell of her hips leaving the lace exposed. A few wisps of golden curl escaped.

"I wish I had a picture," he gasped. "I've never seen anything so sexy in my life."

"I thought you would like it," she said. "I bought the stockings in St. Georges and I've been waiting to show you for months. You do like them, don't you Lanston?"

"Yes I do. Can I touch or are you just going to let me look?"

"Oh yes," she breathed. "I want you to touch."

She sank onto the fur beside him and laid her head next to his on the pillow. "Kiss me Lanston," she commanded.

He was glad to oblige. He tasted wine on her full lips and the taste was intoxicating. He took off his shirt and shorts and was only in his boxers.

He spread the shirt, exposing the fullness of her firm little mounds. He dipped his finger in his wine glass and made a wet circle around one hard little nipple. It puckered and rose in the chill and he captured it in his lips, tasting the wine and her skin in a wild explosion of taste.