He turned and started walking towards the door, “I don’t want them to push the motors full throttle, to keep movement and noise to a minimum for you, so I think it may take us about an hour or a little bit more to get to the marina area.”

He turned the knob and opened the door, and as he did, Bette called out again, “Wait.”

He spun around with a questioning look.

Bette gave him a small smile, “Thanks, again, for rescuing me. And for sharing your story.”

He nodded, and blew out a breath.

“Look, Bette. You’re going to face some challenges in the coming weeks or months. I don’t envy you your task. This could get messy, so at one point, you’re going to have to trust someone to help. Because, believe me, you can’t do things alone — not in this business. And people play rough when they want what you have. They will probe you for weaknesses until they get what they want.”

She nodded her head, and pursed her lips. “That’s what Tina said, too.”

He gave her a small smile, and pushed the door open with one hand as he balanced the tray on another. When he stepped out the door, the door shushed quietly behind him.

Bette sat up slowly, and began circling her shoulders, continuing to stretch and loosen her muscles and joints.

She heard knocking on her door, and saw with surprise it was Peter again who stuck his head through the door.

“Bette, if you don’t mind a suggestion,” he started.

“Yes?”

“If you must, you may have to take extraordinary measures to keep Tina out of this.”

“What do you mean?” Bette asked, and swallowed drily — a knot began to form in her stomach.

“Other people have tangled with them before. Often doesn’t end well when that happens. The most recent one was just this past fall, when one of them teamed up with someone else in the gold collective to push for an acquisition. In that case, they pressured the spouse of a key member of the board of the company that they’d targeted, until they got what they wanted, at the lowest price possible. I found out about the pressure on the spouse only months after.”