Needless to say, her suspicion that she was being watched made planting the bugs more complicated than she’d expected. In the rooms to which she had free access, it was mostly a matter of slipping them into place during the course of some seemingly innocent activity-selecting a magazine to read, for example, or admiring a potted plant, searching for a pencil with which to work a crossword puzzle, mixing a drink.

The first one she’d installed had been in her own room. That had been Jake’s request. At the time she’d found the suggestion unnerving, an unwelcome reminder of the danger she was about to plunge herself into. But during that first week in the suffocating isolation of the resort compound, that bug had come to seem almost like a friend, her one source of comfort, her only lifeline, a tiny and tenuous umbilical cord connecting her with Jake and her family. With safety. With a world that included work and laughter, children and family dinners and dogs and touch football on the lawn. Brothers arguing and newlyweds snuggling on the sofa, and mothers and daughters bickering, and the smells of dinner cooking in the kitchen. She thought of the bug almost as a living thing, and talked to it under the guise of reading aloud or talking to herself. She tried to imagine Jake’s face as he listened, out there beyond the compound walls.

Would he smile, she wondered, if he thought no one was watching? Someday, she thought, I’m going to make him smile, and I’m going to catch him at it, too.

The thought made the loneliness seem less oppressive.

The biggest problem with the bugs was that after a week she still hadn’t found an excuse to go into Sonny’s private office, not without raising suspicions. He’d been gone most of the week, during which time the office was locked up tight. And when he was home he treated Eve like a convalescent princess, smothering her with attention, gourmet dinners complete with wine and candlelight, breakfast in bed. Business, he said grandly, was off-limits-taboo. He was there to spend time with his Evie, and nothing was allowed to interfere with that.

How strange it was, Eve thought, to realize that the focused attention she’d once considered a major facet of Sonny’s charm she now considered the biggest pain in the neck.

Another problem was, as Jake had explained to her, that the bugs would periodically have to be replaced. They were voice activated to save battery power, but even so…

She was pondering those problems as she returned from her walk late Monday afternoon, one week to the day after she’d arrived at the Hilton Head resort, to find Sonny pacing the white marble entryway.

Her heart gave a little skip of fear. “Sonny…hi! When did you get back?” She went to him for a welcoming kiss, but drew back as he rounded on her with a scowl.

“Where the hell’ve you been? I’ve been waitin’ for hours.”

“I went for a walk on the beach. If I’d known-”

“Yeah? Hell, I was worried about you. You shouldn’t be out there so long. Who was with you? The guys go with you?”

“Ricky was with me.” Eve gestured toward the huge, bull-necked man who’d followed her like a bad smell into the house. “Sonny, what’s wrong? Did I do something-”

“Come ’ere.” Unsmiling, Sonny jerked his head for her to follow him.

Oh God, he knows. Eve’s heart dropped into her stomach and began to pump with a jackhammer rhythm. Her chest felt constricted; she couldn’t get a breath.

As she followed Sonny on wet-spaghetti legs up the long, curving staircase, her mind, paralyzed at first, came to life and began to hurl itself frantically in all directions.

He’s found the bugs! How many? One? All? Jake-are you listening? Help me!

Wait, dummy…if he’d found the bugs, how would Jake know what was happening? And even if he did, how far away was he? Could he possibly get here in time?

Wait a minute-time for what? Why would Sonny necessarily think she’d planted them? He had no reason to suspect her…unless he’d known all along! Unless he had seen her running away that day in the church garden, and knew from the beginning that the “mugging” was a charade. Jake…help me.

No-it was hopeless. This was it, she was going to die. She was never going to see her family again-Mom, Pop, Summer and Bella-not even to say goodbye. Jake!

In a massive, roaring silence she followed Sonny into his bedroom suite, wincing as he shut the doors behind her. Why am I going so meekly, she briefly wondered, like a lamb to the slaughter? I should at least try to make a run for it.

Was he going to give her a chance to explain? Could she deny it all and lie her way out…?

She came to a dead halt.

Sonny, who had stayed by the door, was pressing buttons on a remote control panel. While she stood tense and trembling, the room lights dimmed and the draperies covering the French windows that opened onto an ocean-view balcony rolled back.

Eve gasped and then went limp with relief. She couldn’t say a word. She could only stare.

The balcony had been transformed into a tropical bower, lit with hundreds of tiny Christmas lights that twinkled like stars amidst the foliage. Portable patio heaters held the autumn chill at bay while the scent of flowers and the gentle whispers of tropical rain drifted into the room. In the center of this paradise, a table set for two gleamed with crystal and candlelight.

Sonny, coming close behind her, bent so that his lips just brushed her ear, and whispered hoarsely, “Happy birthday, baby…”

Another gasp escaped her, this one accompanied by the sharp sting of tears.

“Hey, what’s this? What’s this?” Sonny’s hands were on her shoulders, gently turning her so that he could look at her face. “Don’t tell me you’re cryin’ again. What’re you cryin’ for? It’s your birthday-be happy!”

What’s this? What’s this? What was this? Happy? How could she feel happy? Her feelings were confused as hell, an overwhelming sadness mixed up with anger and even touches of regret. Why, Sonny? How can you be so sweet, and so evil at the same time? Why can’t you just be one or the other so I can make up my mind to love you or hate you and be done with it?

Because, a voice more cynical than wise inside her head answered, people are who they are and nothing is ever black and white. And all the other clichés you ever heard of. If life was simple, it wouldn’t take twenty or thirty or…hell, forty-three years to get it figured out.

“I thought you’d forgotten,” she said in a quavering voice, laughing and brushing at her eyes with shaking hands. “I thought everyone had.” To be honest, she had. For the last week she’d been so wrapped up in her situation-worrying about bugs, dealing with the isolation, thinking about the danger…

“Forget your birthday? Come on. The day after Halloween-you think I could forget something like that?” Sonny’s voice was jovial as he ushered her onto the balcony and pulled back her chair. But as he was seating himself, a double take made him pause. “Whadaya mean, you thought everybody forgot? What about your family? Your mom…your sisters? Nobody called?”

Eve cleared her throat. Her mouth was dry, her heart racing. “Ah… well, no, they couldn’t, really. I didn’t give them the number. I was going to call-”

“You didn‘t-Jeez, baby, why the hell not?”

“Sonny, it’s your private number. I didn’t think-”

“What’re you talkin’ about? This is family. Family is family-you know how I feel about that. Your family is my family. Hey-” he reached for her hand and leaning across the table, raised it to his lips “-right after dinner you call ’em. Talk to ‘em all night if you want to. Okay? Okay. Now, try some of this champagne. I know you like champagne… and here-I didn’t forget, I got you a straw, see? One of those bendy ones.”

While Eve was laughing at the prospect of drinking champagne with a bendy straw-how could she help it?-Sonny casually drew a flat velvet-covered case from under the tablecloth and handed it to her with a gruff and succinct “Here-this is for you.”

She set her champagne down untasted and reached for the case, while her cheeks flushed hot and her insides curled with a cold that felt like shame. She knew that case, knew without looking what she’d find inside; she’d seen it before, or one just like it, the night before what was to have been her wedding day, when Sonny had given it to her-his wedding gift.

She opened the case, gazed down at the pearl choker. Her throat closed. “Sonny, you shouldn’t have…”

“Hey-” He waved it off with a gesture. “Like I told you. What’s a pearl? Gives an oyster a bad case of indigestion. I had ‘em put a rush on it so it’d be ready for your birthday. It’s supposed to be an exact duplicate of the one that got stolen.”

“It’s beautiful. I wish-” Her hand fluttered involuntarily toward her collar.

“Hey, hey…” He leaned toward her, his voice low and guttural. “The day that damn thing comes off, I’m gonna take great pleasure in puttin’ these on you myself. I never did get to see you wearing it.” His eyes glittered in the candlelight.

Dry-mouthed, she whispered, “I know, I’m so-”

But he reached across the table to stop her with a finger touched to her lips. Then he closed the velvet case and took it from her and said with a grand wave of his hand, “Forget that-that’s just a replacement.” And with the air of an amateur magician producing a floppy bouquet from his sleeve, he handed her a smaller box instead. “Here ya go, babe-happy birthday.”

Eve took the box, moving slowly, as if in a dream-or a nightmare. She opened it and stared down at the twin diamonds that winked back at her from their bed of indigo velvet. Earrings. Exquisite diamond and dropped-pearl earrings. They must have cost a fortune, she thought dully. She felt strange-almost numb. Earrings. She didn’t even wear earrings, not anymore. Once upon a time she’d been the first in her circle of friends to get her ears pierced, but that had been years ago.