‘Not on my watch,’ said Darla, going after Patrick. She found him frantically trying to release the mooring ropes.

‘Give us a hand will you?’ he asked, sweat gleaming on his brow.

‘Patrick, this is madness. I’m not going to help you steal the boat. You need to calm down and think straight.’

‘Darla, this is a genius idea. One of my better ones. I need money and I need to get away. This is two birds in one bush.’

Ros called from the back of the boat. ‘It’s either two birds with one stone or a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.’

‘What the hell is she on?’ asked Patrick, finally tugging the line free and throwing it onto the deck.

‘Ros likes things to be right. And it’s a good trait,’ she said, following him around the yacht. ‘Patrick, stealing a boat is a very bad idea. Please stop.’

‘I can’t!’ His voice was almost a shout as he threw his arms up in exasperation. ‘I owe money to lots of people and now it turns out some of them are the wrong sorts of people.’ He scratched his head. ‘I don’t want to get you and your weird mate into trouble so why don’t you get off and say I overpowered you both?’ He grinned at her like it was the best idea ever.

‘That makes us complicit!’ yelled Ros.

‘Fine,’ snapped Patrick. ‘Do what you like. I’m taking it anyway.’ He undid the last line and the vessel was free. He went to the back of the boat where there were two large wheels. ‘Which one do I use?’ he asked Darla.

‘You really are the worst pirate ever,’ she said.

‘Which one?’ he shouted at her.

‘I don’t know!’ she shouted back. ‘I clean the bloody thing. I don’t sail about on it sipping cocktails. That’s someone else’s life.’

Patrick took hold of her by both arms. ‘But it could be our life. We could run away together. Be like the Bonnie and Clyde of the seas.’

‘They were shot dead by the police,’ said Ros.

‘She is pissing me right off,’ said Patrick. He took a breath and turned back to Darla. ‘What do you say?’

‘Stop this now.’ She stared him down. She wasn’t afraid and she wanted him to end the madness for his own sake as much as the bother it was going to get her into.

‘Or what? There is literally nothing you can do.’ Patrick stood at one of the wheels, and put his hand on the throttle. The motor upped its purring.

Darla was starting to panic. There was still nobody about. She decided to yell anyway. ‘Help! Help!’

‘Seriously?’ Patrick shook his head at her and began to gently steer the boat away from its mooring. ‘This is easy,’ he said, his tongue sticking out slightly like it always did when he was concentrating. The yacht was inching backwards so he started to turn the wheel. It was a tight berth with an equally big yacht moored alongside. His inexperience quickly became apparent as a harsh scraping sound indicated something was wrong. ‘What the hell?’

‘Apparently it’s not that easy,’ said Ros, pointing to their anchor now caught on the boat next to them, which was making the rest of the boat turn into the pontoon and wedging them fast.

‘Shit!’ Patrick was getting cross. ‘What do I do?’ he yelled.

‘I know but I’m not telling you,’ said Ros, standing up to inspect the yacht’s position.

‘I can’t believe this,’ said Patrick, abandoning the wheel and going over to see what Ros was looking at. ‘You’re no help!’

‘Thank you,’ said Ros, blocking Patrick’s way.

‘Hey!’ came a yell from the docks.

Darla spun around to see Cameron racing along the quay on his bike. She frantically waved back. ‘Get help! He’s nicking the yacht!’ Cameron leapt from his bike, ran along the pontoon and jumped towards the side of the boat and grabbed hold of the guardrail wire, making the whole vessel rock. He hung there for a moment, looking at Darla. ‘Not the best rescue,’ she said.

‘Thanks. You could give me a hand,’ he said, clinging on the side of the boat.

‘Who the hell is this joker?’ said Patrick, making a move towards Cameron. Ros stepped in front of Patrick to block him and give Cameron a chance to climb safely on board.

Patrick pushed Ros firmly out of the way, making her topple over the back of the cockpit seat and disappear from view, landing with a thud on the deck. ‘Whoops, sorry!’ he called after her. As he turned around he walked straight into Cameron’s fist and went down like an anchor.

‘Ow, shit, that hurt,’ said Cameron, shaking his hand and stepping over Patrick to get a look at where Ros had fallen. ‘Bloody hell,’ he said, looking shocked. Cameron handed Darla his phone. ‘Call an ambulance,’ he said before jumping over the seats to help Ros. Darla peered around him. Ros was lying on the deck as motionless as Patrick, but there was a pool of blood around her head. Darla gasped. The boat started to swim as her stomach churned at the sight of the blood.

‘Stop! Police!’ yelled someone, as a policeman pointed a taser at Cameron and Darla passed out.

Chapter Thirty-One

Ros was aware of a lot of anxious voices. ‘Shhh,’ she said, trying to sit up.

‘Thank heavens you’re awake. No, no, no, don’t move,’ said Cameron with abject panic in his voice.

‘Whyever not?’ asked Ros, shuffling herself upright so she could lean against the back of the seating. She tried to focus on the blurry faces in front of her.

‘You’ve had an accident,’ said Darla, who was rather pale and quickly looked away.

Ros mentally scanned her body. She’d likely bruised her bum, otherwise everything felt normal. ‘I’m absolutely fine.’

‘It looks like you hit your head on the metal cleat as you went over the back of the seat. The ambulance is on its way,’ explained Cameron.

‘I definitely don’t need an ambulance,’ said Ros.

‘You do,’ said Darla, still averting her eyes.

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ Ros put out her hand to push herself up further and felt something wet and gloopy. She looked at her palm to see it was dripping with blood. ‘What on earth?’ She looked to Darla for an explanation but Darla was now hiding behind a cushion.

‘It’s coming from your head,’ said Darla. ‘I’m sorry but I can’t clear it up or I’ll be sick.’ She retched at the end of the sentence. Just the thought of it was apparently enough to unsettle her stomach.

Ros felt around her head with her clean hand until she found a wet patch. When she looked at her palm she was surprised to see that too was now covered in blood. ‘Goodness. I think you’re right. It’s strange because it doesn’t really hurt.’

‘How much longer until the ambulance gets here?’ called Darla.

‘Almost here,’ called back a police officer.

Darla told Ros that it was the nice officer who had checked that Darla was okay after she’d fainted and who had been quite keen to taser Cameron seeing as he was the only person standing whilst three other people were all strewn on the deck. Cameron had explained that it was him who had made the 999 call after receiving a text from Ros but the police officer hadn’t been keen to believe him. Thankfully Darla had quickly come round and backed up Cameron’s version of events.

Cameron crouched behind Ros so she could lean against him. ‘You okay?’ he asked.

‘I feel fine. But obviously . . .’ Ros waved her bloodstained hands and that was Darla’s cue to make a dash for the toilets below deck.

‘You had us worried there.’ Cameron passed her a clean tissue.