Chapter 9

The following morning, Pembroke was buzzing with adrenaline. He had barely slept, his mind too consumed with excitement for what lay ahead. By midday, he was set to meet the German family at the harbor, where they would take their boats together.

He had been doubly delighted by the morning’s deliveries. While some items were too bulky and conspicuous to bring along, the essentials had arrived: bondage restraints, hooks, gags, blindfolds, ropes, chains, padlocks, and carabiners. All neatly packed into his supplies, along with food provisions, including copious tins of spaghetti. One item brought him particular amusement—a cat food bowl adorned with little foxes. Pembroke had grinned when he bought it, already picturing Rita on all fours, eating her favourite spaghetti from it like the obedient creature she would soon become.

His plan was clear. Everything was falling into place.

The Germans arrived at the harbor, their cheerful voices cutting through the quiet, empty expanse. Pembroke smiled. The lack of witnesses was exactly what he had hoped for.

Pembroke’s eyes were drawn to Rita as she approached. She was dressed in tight tracksuit bottoms that clung to her small frame, revealing a bare midriff between the waistband and her tight T-shirt. Her tracksuit top hung open at the zip, and her blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail, exposing more of her cute face behind the glasses.

“Hello, Edward,” she greeted him with a shy smile, though her voice betrayed a flicker of unease.

The little girl’s instincts had screamed at her to stay away from this scarred, hulking man. He was huge, fat, and ugly, and something about his presence filled her with dread. She had argued with her parents not to travel with them, insisting he scared her, but they had waved off her concerns. “As Christians, we shouldn’t judge others,” they had said. “It’s our duty to invite him into the community.”

Now, standing before him, Rita couldn’t shake the feeling that her parents had made a terrible mistake.

“Edward, maybe I join your boat, and Jan and Rita can go in ours,” suggested Heidi cheerfully, her tone light and practical.

“Good idea, Heidi,” Pembroke replied with a smile. Jan, ever the optimist, grinned as he began loading their belongings onto their boat, oblivious to the silent calculations Pembroke was making.

As Rita bent over to lift a bag, Pembroke’s gaze lingered. He raised an eyebrow as he caught a glimpse of a thong strap peeking above her waistband. “The things young girls are wearing these days,” he muttered under his breath, smirking to himself. He could already imagine treasuring that thong when the time came to take it off her.

With everything loaded, the boats pushed off, gliding side by side into the open water. He smiled at Heidi, seated beside him, exchanging polite pleasantries, while his gaze occasionally drifted to Jan, cheerfully piloting his own boat alongside them.

A few miles out into the open water, the rhythmic hum of Pembroke’s boat engine suddenly faltered, replaced by a sputtering sound. Heidi glanced at him, her expression puzzled as the engine coughed again before falling silent altogether.

“Oh no,” Pembroke muttered, feigning frustration as he leaned over the controls. He tapped at the dashboard, twisted the key in the ignition, and gave a low sigh. “It seems we’ve got a problem,” he said, shaking his head as if genuinely perplexed.

Jan, noticing the issue from his boat, slowed to match their pace. “Everything alright, Edward?” he called out, his voice carrying over the gentle waves.

“Engine trouble,” Pembroke replied with a shrug, masking the flicker of satisfaction behind his calm demeanor. “It’s strange—it was working fine earlier.”

Jan quickly maneuvered his boat alongside Pembroke’s, cutting the engine. Before anyone could say a word, he leapt onto Pembroke’s boat with surprising agility, landing lightly like a cat.

“Let me take a look,” Jan said confidently, crouching by the engine without waiting for an invitation. His cheerful demeanor was undeterred, his hands already inspecting the controls as if solving Pembroke’s problem were just another part of their adventure.

“Shit,” Pembroke thought, watching Jan expertly inspect the engine. “He knows his stuff—he might even realize I sabotaged it myself.”

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. The plan had been simple: lure Jan onto the boat, knock him out, and dispose of him. Heidi would follow quickly, a punch to the stomach rendering her defenseless before he removed their life belts and threw them overboard. Rita, even if she panicked and jumped into the water, would be easy to retrieve with her life belt keeping her afloat.

Once they were dealt with, Pembroke would remove the hidden screw he’d planted to sabotage the engine, restart the boat, and head back to his island with Rita. The Germans’ boat, left adrift with their bodies nearby, would tell the story of a tragic accident.

But Jan’s competence—and the possibility he might discover the deliberate tampering—meant Pembroke had to act fast. Heidi, standing nearby, was partially obscuring his path, but he wasn’t deterred. Picking up a hammer, he crept along the edge of the boat, balancing carefully to get around Heidi and position himself behind Jan. He raised the hammer, ready to strike the back of Jan’s head.

As he prepared to swing, his eyes flicked to Rita. She was watching her father intently, oblivious to Pembroke’s movements. The spray from the water had soaked her tracksuit bottoms, gluing the fabric to her skin. The outline of her thong was now clearly visible, and Pembroke momentarily hesitated, his lust distracting him.

He turned back to Jan, tightening his grip on the hammer. But just as he stepped forward, his foot slipped on the slick edge of the boat. His balance gave way, and he was suddenly airborne, the hammer flying from his grasp. It spun upward before crashing back down, striking him square in the face.

Everything went black as Pembroke toppled backward, his body splashing into the cold water below.

Pembroke came around a few minutes later, his head pounding. The cold water lapped around him, seeping into his clothes and chilling him to the bone. He blinked rapidly, trying to piece together what had happened. The taste of salt and the metallic tang of blood filled his mouth.

Disoriented, he realized he was still in the water, clinging weakly to the side of his boat. His face throbbed where the hammer had struck, and his hands slipped on the slick surface as he tried to pull himself up.

“Help! Help me!” Pembroke wailed, his voice breaking into a strangled cry as he flailed weakly in the water.

“Edward! Don’t panic!” Jan shouted, his voice steady with reassurance. Without hesitation, he grabbed a life ring and jumped into the water.

The cold hit Jan immediately, but he pushed through, swimming toward Pembroke. Reaching him, he wrapped an arm around the dazed man, keeping him afloat while the life ring bobbed between them. “You’re alright, I’ve got you!” Jan said, his calm presence a stark contrast to Pembroke’s chaotic flailing.

Heidi stood on the edge of the boat, clutching the railing tightly. “Bring him closer! That’s it!” she called.

Jan grunted with effort as he maneuvered Pembroke toward the side of the boat, the life ring supporting the bulk of the man’s weight. Together, Jan and Heidi worked to push and pull him upward, the boat rocking under the strain.

“Mummy be careful” Rita called from the other boat.

With a final heave, Pembroke landed in the boat with a loud, jarring thud, water pooling around him as he sprawled on the inside deck, coughing and gasping for air. Heidi knelt beside him. “Are you alright? What happened?” she asked, her voice filled with concern.

Pembroke groaned, pushing himself up unsteadily. As he leaned over the side of the boat, a violent heave wracked his body, and he vomited up seawater. His whole frame was numb from the cold, his soaked clothes clinging to him like ice. He rubbed his hands together, struggling to feel them.

“I slipped,” he croaked, his voice weak and hoarse. He forced himself to meet their concerned gazes. There was no way he could admit he’d been distracted by the thought of raping their daughter, while in the process of trying to murder them both.