Terrors of the High Seas

Chapter

Nineteen

THE HOSPITAL WAS busy. It was a relatively small group of buildings not far from the town they’d been staying in. Dar led the way inside and they went to the front desk. Giving Charlie’s name, they were directed upstairs.

Exiting onto the third floor, Dar spotted Bud near the end of the hall. She called out in a low voice and he turned, closing his cell phone and walking toward them.

Kerry drew in a breath. Bud’s face was half-covered with an ugly bruise, though he appeared oblivious to it. His shirt was ripped, exposing his shoulder, and the back of one hand was scraped raw.

“What happened?” Dar asked quietly.

Bud looked up and down the corridor, then motioned them over to a bank of chairs. He sat down in one and let his elbows rest on his knees. He studied the floor as Dar took a seat next to him.

“You ever hear of something being too stupid for the Navy?”

Dar stifled a wry chuckle. “Heard that around my house growing up a time or two, yeah.”

“Well,” Bud’s voice was very soft, “I done something too stupid for the Navy.” He glanced at the back of his hand. “I stuck my mug someplace it didn’t belong, and got Charlie hurt for it.”

His pain was evident. Kerry settled in the chair on the other side of him and put a hand on his back, rubbing it sympathetically.

“I’m sorry.”

“Not half as much as I am,” Bud said. “And you know, it kicks my ass to admit being this stupid.” He turned his head and regarded Dar. “Shoulda taken you up on your offer. Worst that’d caused is givin’ me a week’s heartburn.”

Dar managed a relatively sympathetic look. “What’d you get into?”

Bud appeared to struggle with himself for a moment longer, then he shook his head. “That damn kid offered us a chunk of change to go on and dive that site. We did.”

“The wreck?” Kerry asked. “The kid… You mean, Bob?

Terrors of the High Seas 205

Bud nodded. “He approached us the other day when you dropped him off at the island. Said it was a dark dive—get in, get out. Didn’t seem too dangerous to me. No big deal,” he said. “They caught us out there, but we got on the boat and headed out.”

“They followed you?” Dar hazarded.

“Chased our asses all the way back here.” Bud nodded. “We didn’t want to go back home.” He exhaled. “They caught us.” His eyes lifted toward a set of doors. “They had pipes and bats.

Charlie’s got a busted kidney. He couldn’t get away from them,

’cause of his leg, and I—”

“Stayed with him,” Kerry said.

“Something like that, yeah,” Bud admitted. “That piss-ant kid ran. Took the boat and left us there.”

Kerry’s eyes narrowed. “That skunk.”

Dar rubbed her temple. “How much did he offer you?” she asked quietly.

“Doesn’t really matter,” Bud muttered.

“HOW MUCH?” It was amazing how much force Dar could project in her voice without raising its volume.

Bud blinked. “Ten grand. Why?”

“That what the nut is on your place?”

Bud nodded.

Dar checked her watch, then dialed a number on her cell phone.

She waited for it to connect, then she started punching in numbers, leaning back and concentrating on what she was doing.

“So, how is Charlie?” Kerry asked.

Bud turned his eyes from Dar’s simmering form. “He got hit all over. They ripped his prosthesis off. Belted him in the kidney.

That’s the bitch. He’s had problems with that one.”

Dar tapped him on the knee. “This place taken care of?” She indicated the hospital.

Bud straightened. “I ain’t looking for no handout,” he snapped at her. “We’re fine.”

Dar leaned closer to him and narrowed her eyes. “If I have to, I can dial into this place and find out if you’ve got insurance or not, so just answer the damn question and don’t give me a hard time.”

Bud’s eyes dropped.

“That’s what I thought.” Dar stood up. “Okay. I’ve had it. That stupid mother bastard DeSalliers is so damned convinced I’m a part of this, he’s gonna get what he asked for.” She put her hands on her hips. “Can we see Charlie?”

Bud looked like the subject changes were giving him whiplash.

He put his hand on his jaw. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Good,” Dar said. “You got a place to stay out here?”

Bud shook his head.

“Rufus taken care of?”

206 Melissa Good

“Yeah. He’s staying with a buddy.”

Kerry pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket and got up, heading for a nearby pay phone. “I’ll call the hotel,” she told Dar.

“You want me to start calling around to find our friend Bob?”

“Wait until we get back to the room,” Dar instructed. “I need my laptop.”

Bud looked between the two of them, a little taken aback.

“What are you doing?”

“We,” Kerry told him, covering the mouthpiece of the phone,

“are doing what we do.” She glanced at Dar’s fierce expression, then went back to the phone. “Yes? Yes. We have a room, I know.

I’d like a second one.”

Dar waited for Kerry to finish. They entered Charlie’s room, walking quietly into the softly blinking machinery that surrounded him.

Dar closed her eyes. The beating her friend had taken was hideous. DeSalliers, you bastard. You don’t know what you just stirred up. She laid her hands on the iron rails and gazed at Charlie’s battered form. “Hey.”

His eyes were mere slits, but they opened a little wider on seeing Dar.

Bud gently clasped his hands around Charlie’s, chafing them.

“Called in the Marines, Punky.”

A faint hint of a smile pulled at Charlie’s lips. “So I see.”

“Take it easy.” Dar leaned on the rails. “I’m in charge now, and I make the rules,” she said. “They giving you good drugs?”

Charlie nodded slightly.

“Good.” Dar wrote her cell phone number on the pad sitting on the small bedside table. “You need anything, call.” She put the pen down. “I’m going to stop at the desk when I go out. You’ll get taken care of.”

“B…” Bud straightened.

Dar just looked at him, and Bud subsided with a tired sigh.

“I’ve got a wire transfer coming in tomorrow,” Dar went on. “We’ll get your Uncle Guido taken care of, then I’m gonna go after DeSalliers.”

“What are you gonna do?” Bud asked.

“Find out the truth first, then I’m gonna give him exactly what he asked for,” Dar said. “You staying here for a while,” she asked Bud.

Bud nodded.

“Inn at Blackbeard’s Castle. We’ve got a room for you,” Dar told him.

Charlie made a muffled sound that sounded suspiciously like laughter.

“You hush,” Bud growled at him. “I can stay right here.”

Terrors of the High Seas 207

Kerry leaned over and gave Charlie’s arm a squeeze. “Chase him out, okay?”

Charlie nodded, still chuckling. “Runnin’ some tests or suchlike on me. Checking my guts out,” he explained. “Hell, if they get their asses done, I’ll drag him over there m’self.” His bruised eyes went to Dar’s face. “Damned if you don’t sound just like your daddy.”

Dar straightened. “Thanks.” She gave him a gracious nod.

“C’mon, Ker. Let’s go light some fires.”

Kerry’s eyebrows went up. So did Bud’s and apparently Charlie’s, but it was hard to tell.

Dar cocked her head. “What?”

Kerry circled the bed and took Dar’s arm. “You can light my fires anytime, honey,” she assured Dar. “But you don’t need to brag about it.”

Dar opened her mouth to answer and saw the smirks. She closed her jaw and gathered her dignity, sweeping it around her like a cloak as she followed Kerry’s lead out of the room.

Bud glared at the door for a minute, then he released a sigh.

“Son of bitch, I hated doing that.”

“Buddy, Buddy, Buddy…” Charlie squeezed his hand. “She’s a friend, yeah?”

Bud stared at the bleached linen.

“We got any other friends who’d do what she’s doing?”

“It twists my shorts,” Bud ground out. “I ain’t a charity case!”

“Bud,” Charlie’s voice gentled, and he stroked Bud’s cheek,

“for her, it ain’t charity,” he said. “She’s Navy; she’s family. That runs deep, you know. If anyone from back then asked, and we could, wouldn’t we do it?”

“Almost anyone,” Bud muttered. “But…” He slumped a little.

“Yeah.”

Charlie ruffled his hair affectionately. “Well then, they gotta let me outta here, ’cause damned if I ain’t gonna stay with you in Blackbeard’s Inn.”

KERRY PUT THE phone down into its cradle and closed the room service menu. Dar was seated across from her with her laptop open on her lap, its cellular antennae poking up along the side. “Hey, sweetie?”

“Uh?” Dar looked up, blinking at her.

“Could I bribe you to do that from here?” Kerry patted the bed next to her.

“Sure.” Dar got up and carried the laptop with her, dropping down onto the bed and waiting as Kerry fluffed the pillow up behind her. She leaned back and was rewarded with not only a 208 Melissa Good backrest, but a body pillow that propped up her arm and twined between her legs. “What’d ya order?”

“It’s a surprise.” Kerry put her head down on Dar’s shoulder and examined the screen. “What’s that?”

“Police reports.” Dar scanned them. “Not that I really know what I’m looking at. I need a lawyer.”

“Sorry.” Kerry stifled a yawn. “Though, that was actually one of the acceptable alternative careers my family would have allowed me.” She reviewed the cryptic comments on the screen. “They were hedging their bets. I think they knew Mike wasn’t going to cut it.”

Dar rubbed the side of her thumb against the laptop, trying to imagine Kerry as a lawyer. “What kind of lawyer would you have been?” she asked curiously.

“No kind,” Kerry informed her. “I never even considered it.”

She scrolled with the thumb pad and clicked. “First thing I wanted to be was a fireman.”

Dar held back a chuckle. “That shoulda told them something.”

“Mm.” Kerry chuckled softly. “Yeah, now that I think about it,”

she agreed. “Then I wanted to be a research scientist, but I realized in high school that I didn’t have the aptitude for it.” She clicked again. “Then I found computers, and went… Ah hah!”

“Ah hah.” Dar examined the screen. It was a complaint filing, apparently by Bob’s grandmother at the time of his grandfather’s death. In the stark, impersonal language used by the police, the complaint involved the woman’s accusation that Bob’s uncle had somehow been involved in the sinking, and detailing why. Threats had apparently been made. The police had not been impressed, and merely had noted the complaint along with the comment that the woman had been extremely “emotional” when the statement had been taken.

“Hm.” Dar drummed her fingertips on the laptop keyboard.

“What do you think?”

“Well,” Kerry exhaled, “at least it wasn’t just some bs story Bob made up on his own,” she said. “Which does not excuse him from skunkhood for leaving Bud and Charlie behind.”

“Mm. Think you can find him? Where do you figure he went—

back to St. Richard?”

Kerry rolled over and squiggled across the bed, reaching for the island directory. The squiggling intrigued Dar, who enjoyed it as Kerry squiggled on back and opened the book.

“I’m betting he’s here in St. Thomas,” she said. “It’s bigger and busier than St. Richard.” Her finger traced a column of hotels.

“Let’s see if we can find the little stinker.”

Dar watched in bemusement as Kerry selected a number and dialed it on the room phone. “He’s probably not registered under his real name,” she commented.

Terrors of the High Seas 209

“Last name, no,” Kerry agreed, waiting for an answer. “Hello…

Hi, um…” Her voice shifted to a slightly different tone. “This is kind of crazy, but I met this guy today… Yeah… I’m trying to find him again, and I only know his first name. Can anyone help me?”

She paused to listen. “Oh, thanks. You’re wonderful.”

Dar folded her arms over her chest.

“Hi, yeah. No, his name’s Bob, and he’s really cute… Oh, right, um…he’s got red, curly hair, and he’s really well built… Yeah, about that age. Yeah…okay, I’ll hold.” Kerry hummed under her breath. “No? Oh, what? Oh, I see… You did? Wow… Thanks!” She hung up. “They’re full. They sent their overflow to a different hotel, and she thinks Bob was one of them.”

“A different hotel?” Dar laughed.

“This one.” Kerry found the name on her list and proceeded to call it. “Want me to try Southern belle, next?”

“Is that how you conned those circuits out of Southern Bell last month?” Dar was still laughing.

Kerry grinned. “No, but…I’ll have to remember that.” She cleared her throat. “Howdy there… Ahm lookin’ for a real cutie I met down on the beach t’day… Kin you help me?”

Dar covered her mouth and continued her scrolling, keeping one ear on Kerry’s best efforts to sound like Dolly Parton. The information she’d recovered was straightforward enough, but the problem was, it was hard to tell if there was any truth to any of it.

What to do? She really felt in need of an expert to at least look at the case and give an opinion as to who was more likely to be telling the truth, if any of them were. The uncle had answered through a lawyer, in a tone almost insulting in its dismissal of the insinuation, and she instinctively favored the grandmother, but… Grandmothers can be sneaky, too, and maybe she was trying to hold on to her husband’s money. Dar sighed. She checked her address book and looked up a number, then dialed it on her cell phone.

It rang twice, then was answered. “Hello?”

“Merry Christmas, Richard,” Dar said. “It’s Dar.”

“Dar!” Her family lawyer sounded pleased, if a bit puzzled, to be hearing from her. “Merry Christmas and happy birthday, lady!”

“Thanks,” Dar replied. “Listen, I need a favor.” She paused.

“More or less a professional one.”

Richard Edgerton’s gears switched. “Well, sure, Dar,” he answered briskly. “You’re not in any trouble, are you? Hard to believe.”

“No,” Dar answered without thinking, then considered. “Well, not me personally, that is.”

He hazarded a guess. “Kerry?”

“No. We’re on vacation,” Dar explained.

“Uh huh.”

210 Melissa Good Dar could hear rustling, and she guessed Richard was getting a pad to write on. He was a very good lawyer, and he knew estate law like the back of his hand. “Don’t ask me how I got involved in this, but I am,” she began.

“Uh oh.” Richard chuckled. “Let me hold onto something. This should be a doozy.”

Dar sighed. “You don’t know the half of it.”

“He’s here,” Kerry’s voice interrupted her. “He’s staying in this hotel.”

“Hang on, Richard.” Dar looked at her. “Invite him over for a drink,” she said. “Tell him we’d like to chat.”

Kerry nibbled her lip. “I won’t let him know we know about Charlie and Bud.”

“Not yet, no.” Dar smiled grimly. “Wait until he gets here.”

Kerry nodded and went back to the phone. Dar did the same.

“Okay, Richard, here’s the deal. We’re out on St. Thomas—”

“Nice place to spend Christmas,” Richard replied amiably.

“Right. We ran into a guy who told us a horse’s tale about trying to prove his uncle murdered his grandfather to inherit the family fortune.”

A long silence preceded the lawyer’s response. “Dar, have you been at the rum?”

Dar sighed. “Yes, but not today,” she said. “Listen, if I shoot something over to you in email, will you just look at it and tell me what you think? It’s a pile of legal crap I don’t have time to figure out.”

Richard chuckled. “Sure, Dar, send it over. I was stuck watching my second cousin’s vacation video from Mexico. It’s a great rescue.”

Dar packed the files into an archive and sent it. “Thanks. You can call me on the cell once you see what you think.”

“What’s your percentage in this, Dar?”

Hm. Good question. “Like I said, I got dragged into it,” Dar replied. “Now some friends of mine got dragged in too, and they got hurt. I need to know what side the angels are on, so I can figure out what to do.”

“Ah, I see,” Richard murmured. “It’s your crusader side coming out, eh?”

“Why does everyone keep calling it that?” Dar whined. “It’s not crusading. This stupid asshole just won’t leave me alone!”

“Uh huh,” her lawyer replied. “Lemme take a look, Dar. It sounds like some typical sordid, family in-fighting over money, but I’ll give you my best opinion on it.”

“Thanks, Richard.” Dar smiled. “I owe you one.”

“How about letting me handle your investments?” Richard shot back with cheerful mercenary humor. “You know, I hate to admit Terrors of the High Seas 211

this, but you made me a bundle investing in ILS last quarter.”

Dar chuckled. “We’ll talk.”

“How are your mom and dad doing?” Richard asked. “I heard some scandal that they were living out on a boat?”

“A sixty-foot Bertram, yes,” Dar replied dryly. “Having the time of their lives.”

Richard laughed heartily. “Good for them! I love it!” he chortled. “I’ll have to come down and see it sometime. Listen, let me get to this and I’ll be back to you, okay?”

“Thanks, Rich.” Dar hung up the phone and turned to Kerry.

“Are we set?”

“Hook, line, sinker, and a tin can off the bottom.” Kerry nodded. “He’ll be on his way over in a little while. He’s just finishing dinner.” She scratched her nose. “He sounded really happy to hear my voice for some reason.”

Dar gave her a very wry look. “With the Southern Comfort, or without?”

Kerry stuck out her tongue. Dar obligingly leaned over and caught it between her teeth. She slowly released it, then fastened her attention on Kerry’s lips instead. “Mm,” she drawled softly as they parted. “Much as I want to get this nailed, I’d be lying if I said I wanted it to be tonight.” She tilted her head and kissed Kerry again, then moved her nibbles down Kerry’s throat to feel her pulse thrumming against her lips as she suckled the soft skin.

“Guess you see my point then,” Kerry murmured, her hand slowly gliding beneath Dar’s shirt to explore the warm surface underneath. “About feeling selfish.”

Dar set her laptop on the floor and then rolled over, shoving the island guide and phone aside and wrapping her arms and legs around Kerry’s body. “Oh, yeah,” Dar growled, continuing her assault. “Call me selfish. I want you all to myself.”

“Ooh.” Kerry felt her heart rate speed up and a warm flush tingle her skin. There was a faint pressure at her waistband, then Dar’s touch slid beneath her shirt and traced up her ribcage. She laced her fingers through Dar’s hair and nuzzled her ear, nibbling lightly on her earlobe. She could feel Dar’s breath against her neck, then the soft, insistent tug as Dar’s teeth undid the top button to her shirt. Kerry cupped her hand along Dar’s cheek, stroking it as her thumb traced Dar’s lip.

Dar unbuttoned her shirt slowly, and Kerry felt the cool air from the room brush against her, raising goose bumps along her belly. Dar’s lips intensified the sensation, and Kerry rapidly lost any thought of their problems. All that mattered now were the teasing touches on her breasts, the warm, sun-filled scent of Dar’s skin, and the need for Dar’s body that made her hands push aside the soft cotton separating them with bold impatience.

212 Melissa Good

“Grrrrrowlll…” The low rumble tickled her skin. Kerry felt Dar’s teeth close gently, teasingly, on the skin around her belly button. “Mine.”

Definitely. Kerry’s back arched and she wrapped her arms around Dar, feeling the powerful muscles along her spine bunch and move. They pressed together briefly, a jolt of heat before Dar shifted lower and her hand dropped to stroke Kerry’s thigh. Oh, definitely.

“THANKS.” KERRY SIGNED the check and shooed the room service waiter out of the room before his eyeballs could skitter out of his head and ramble across the floor. She shut the door behind him and turned, regarding the bed with a wry grin.

Dar was sprawled across it, the sheet just barely covering what was very obviously a naked body. She had the laptop propped on one thigh, but the other was outside the linen, extending its long, tanned length across the white surface.

Shaking her head, Kerry went over to the table and investigated the tray, peeking under one cover and grinning at what she saw. “Hungry, sweetie?”

“Not anymore,” Dar drawled.

“Heh.” Kerry hitched up the edge of Dar’s red muscle T-shirt, which she’d stolen and donned after they’d finished their lovemaking. She perched on the edge of the table, arranging a few of the plates on it. “Well, okay—we’ll start with this, then.” Taking one of the plates, she walked over to the bed and knelt down.

“Happy birthday to you…happy birthday to you…”

Dar looked up in alarm to see a beautifully made chocolate-something with more chocolate inside and chocolate topping, with berries surrounding it on the plate. In the center was a single candle. “Awww.”

“Happy birthday dear Dar…happy birthday to you,” Kerry warbled.

Dar sniffed at the plate, licking her lips appreciatively. She blew out the candle with a single puff of air. “Share?”

Kerry sat down on the bed and picked up the fork, cutting off a gooey piece and feeding it to Dar.

“Ooo.. I like that,” Dar mumbled. “I just got a data dump from Mark,” she informed Kerry. “DeSalliers’ stats—financial and otherwise. I figured out why he’s so desperate.”

“Why?” Kerry fed her another forkful of cake as she peered at the screen.

“He’s broke.” Dar munched. “He invested in two capital ventures that went belly up, and the banks called in some of his loans when they figured out he had paper that wasn’t worth the Terrors of the High Seas 213

paper it was printed on in his accounts.”

“Ahhh.” Kerry nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. So old Uncle offers him a windfall to…to what, Dar?” she asked. “Not bring up something. That’s the last thing he’d want to do.”

Dar gazed at the screen. “No. He’d want him to scuttle the wreck,” she realized. “Jesus…that’s what it is. He’s gonna cannibalize it.”

Kerry had the fork in her mouth. She drew it out and swallowed the rich mouthful. “Are you saying he’s going to wreck something that’s already wrecked, to keep anyone from getting anything out of it?”

Dar nodded. “Yeah, but…” she flipped to another screen, “he’s got a problem. It’s in AVI territorial waters, and he can’t just go in there and set off dynamite.”

Kerry portioned off another forkful and handed it over. “How do you light dynamite underwater, Dar?”

Dar chewed and typed in silence, then swallowed. “Did you get any—”

“Milk? Yeah.” Kerry set the plate down and went to retrieve it.

“I don’t know.” Dar answered the previous question. “You’d have to ask my father. His specialty used to be called UDX, underwater demolition.”

As if by some supernatural invocation, Dar’s cell phone rang, and when she checked the caller ID, it was familiar. With a tiny, surprised grunt, Dar flipped open the phone. “Hi, Dad.”

Kerry, on her way back with the milk, goggled. “Wow,” she murmured. “Spooky.”

“Hey there, Dardar.” Andrew Robert’s cheerful voice came through the phone. “How’s the vacation going?”

Truth? Dar had microseconds to decide. “Great,” she finally said. “We ran into pirates, we’re involved in a possible murder case, and Kerry got stung by a jellyfish, but other than that, it’s been very cool.”

It wasn’t often that Andy Roberts was rendered speechless.

“Son of a biscuit,” he finally spluttered. “Damn, Dar, what the hell you two getting into out there?”

Dar sighed. It was such a long story at this point.

Kerry took the phone from her and put it to her ear. “Hey, Dad?”

“Howdy, kumquat.”

“I’ve got sort of a running diary of it. Want me to email it to you on Dar’s computer?” Kerry offered. “I think that’ll be easier than us trying to explain it. I’ll set it to print out on the printer.”

“Ah would appreciate that, kumquat. Mah wife is rattling her eyebrows at me wondering what the hell’s going on.”

Dar took the phone back. “It’s not that bad, Dad,” she 214 Melissa Good explained. “Just…complicated.” She lifted her hands off the keyboard as Kerry crawled into bed next to her and pecked out a few commands.

“Uh huh,” Andrew grunted. “Well, anyhow, you having a happy birthday?”

Dar examined the blonde sprawled in her lap. “Yeah, it’s great,” she replied. “Kerry and I have been shopping and…um…relaxing all day.”

“Relaxing?” Kerry murmured. “I certainly wasn’t relaxed…

Yipe!” She squirmed as Dar pinched her. “Stop that.” She ran a finger along the inside of Dar’s very bare thigh, snickering when she heard Dar’s voice break.

“N…no, Dad, honest. We’re fine.” Dar cleared her throat. “I’ve got everything under control.” She bit the inside of her lip as Kerry tickled her thigh again. “Almost everything.”

“Wall, you be careful,” Andrew warned. “Hang on.”

The phone rustled, then a lighter voice came on. “Dar?”

“Hi, Mom,” Dar said.

“I’m not going to pretend I have a clue about what’s going on, so I’m just going to wish you a happy birthday.”

Dar chuckled. “Thanks.”

“And I hope you’re having a good, annual, hyper-commercialized, forced exchange of personal resources, too.”

“Merry Christmas to you, too, Mom.”

“Merry Christmas, Mom!” Kerry leaned back and called out.

“Good Solstice.”

“Tell Kerry I said thanks, and thank her for the card,” Ceci said. “You kids be careful, hear?”

Kerry finished her transmission, then scooted out of bed and ambled back over to the table, before Dar’s close, bare proximity spurred her to further amorous adventures.

“We’ll be fine, Mother,” Dar exhaled. “How’s Chino?”

“She’s just fine,” Ceci assured her. “The place is fine, the island hasn’t sunk, your stock is up two dollars, and I do believe your father has just opened a bottle of champagne, so I’ll just have to let you get on with your celebration.”

“Have a great night,” Dar told her. “Call us if you need anything.”

“How about you call us if you need anything?” Ceci countered.

“G’night, Dar.”

“Night.”

Dar had just closed the phone when a knock came at the door.

“Ah. Bet that’s our friend,” she commented. “Let him in.”

Kerry turned, putting one hand on her hip. She gazed at Dar with both eyebrows lifted.

Dar stared back at her, then realized what she was looking at.

Terrors of the High Seas 215

“Oh.” She put the laptop aside and stood up, shedding her bed sheets and padding across the wooden floor. She opened her bag and pulled out a pair of shorts and a shirt.

Kerry went to the door and leaned on it. “Just a second,” she called, peeking through the eyehole to make sure it was Bob and not something even skunkier.

“Okay.” Dar returned the bed and retrieved her laptop, then settled into an armchair.

Kerry opened the door. “Hi.” She stepped back to allow Bob to enter. “C’mon in.”

He was dressed in pressed chinos and a neatly ironed polo.

“Hi.” He gave Kerry an eager smile, his eyes flicking over her head to Dar and then back. “Thanks for calling me. I was hoping I could find you guys again. I really need to talk to you.”

“Ah,” Dar murmured. “That’s good, because we need to talk to you.”

Bob hesitantly walked over and took the seat across from Dar.

“I’m sorry, I’m interrupting your dinner?”

Kerry had returned to the table. “It’s okay. We’re used to eating during business meetings.” She examined Dar’s plate, then walked over and handed it to her. “Bob, you know, I’m really pissed off at you.”

Dar set the plate on the arm of the chair and continued her work, letting Kerry do the talking as they’d planned.

“M…me?” Bob sounded very surprised. “What did I do?”

“You left two friends of ours in a really bad place last night.”

Kerry gazed seriously at him. “They got hurt.” She sat down on the edge of the window and rested her elbows on her knees. “Why did you do that?”

For a moment, the only sound was the soft, rapid-fire rattling of Dar’s laptop keys.

“I thought they’d be fine,” Bob finally muttered. “I thought the thugs would come after me, not them.” He shifted uncomfortably.

“I didn’t mean for them to get hurt.”

Well, Kerry considered, that was actually marginally logical.

“Why did you think they’d go after you?” she asked.

Bob got up and paced, visibly nervous. “Why? I’m the one they’re after. I’m the one who keeps trying to get down to that wreck. If we’d gotten anything, it’d have been on that boat. Sure, I thought they’d go after me.”

“But they didn’t,” Kerry said.

“No, I…” Bob stared out the window. “I thought I got lucky.”

He turned. “Hey, it’d be the third time, you know? Besides, Bud and Charlie looked like they could take care of themselves. What could I have done, anyway?”

Kerry stared steadily at him.

216 Melissa Good

“Hey, I admit it—I’m no hero.” Bob lifted his hands. “I’m not like you. I’ll save my own skin first, and that’s just the truth, okay?”

Kerry looked at Dar. Dar rolled her eyes and shook her head.

Kerry sighed and took a bite of her dinner. “So, why were you looking for us, then?” she asked. “Did you need another diversionary target?”

Bob apparently felt his grilling was over and that he’d won a point. “No.” He gathered his confidence again. “Look, I realized I was going about this the wrong way. I need resources, and help.”

He faced them. “So, here’s the deal.”

Dar rested her elbow on the chair arm while Kerry leaned forward attentively.

“I want to make you my partners,” Bob said. “Is that a good deal or what?”

Blue and green eyes met across the inn room. Kerry sighed.

“Bob?”

“Yeah?” He grinned at her. “I know, it’s a big sacrifice for me, but—”

“Did you get dropped on your head a lot as a kid?”

“Huh?”

“I should have stayed naked,” Dar commented, shaking her head sadly. “He’d never have noticed.”

“Huh?”

“Another explicit reason why stupid people shouldn’t breed.”

“What are you guys talking about?”

“I think we should just tie him up and leave him in the closet,”

Kerry decided.

“Hey!”