Terrors of the High Seas

Chapter

Twenty-five

“DAR?” KERRY TIED the laces on her sneaker. “I have a question.” They were in the bedroom changing, by only the dim light of the bedside lamp. It was quiet and cool, and presented a last moment of peace before they went to do battle with the weather and DeSalliers.

Dar was fastening the top button on her jeans. “Mm?”

“How are we going to get to DeSalliers’ boat?”

Dar’s hands paused and she looked up. “He’s got a skiff, I think. I saw it hanging off a winch when we were onboard.”

Kerry at her gazed seriously. “What if we need to get back in a hurry? I hate to be at his mercy like that.”

The boat pitched, making them both grab for balance. After it steadied, Dar put her hands on her hips and frowned thoughtfully.

“We could swim, I suppose,” she said. “But in this weather, damn, I hope we don’t have to.”

Kerry stepped closer and slid her fingertips inside Dar’s waistband. “You think we should dress accordingly, just in case?

Not that I don’t love you in jeans, sweetie, because I do, but they’re a bitch to swim in.” She gave the waistband a tug. “Even if they are loose like these.”

“You’ve got a point,” Dar acknowledged, studying Kerry’s own outfit of a T-shirt tucked into shorts. “I could just go in my bathing suit with a pair of gym shorts over it,” she said. “You have a suit on under that?”

“Yes, I do, so that would be perfect,” Kerry agreed. She watched quietly as her partner changed, sliding out of the jeans and folding them neatly before she donned her bathing suit. “Dar?” In the relatively dim light, she could still see the reflections off Dar’s eyes. “Are you scared?”

Dar adjusted the shoulder strap on her solid black suit. “Of doing this?”

Kerry nodded.

“A little.” The dark-haired woman sighed. “Scared something else will happen and someone, us maybe, or Bud, will get hurt. Sure Terrors of the High Seas 293

I’m scared.”

“I feel a lot better now that we have this.” Kerry touched the plastic coated sheet on the dresser. “It’s not just a bluff anymore.”

Dar nodded.

“Shame he gets to win, though,” Kerry observed. “Kind of frustrating, really. We get the answers at last, and now it’s for nothing. Patrick Wharton wins anyway.”

“I’ve got a theory about that.” Dar pulled a light, cotton short-sleeved shirt on over her suit, leaving it unbuttoned. “What goes around, comes around. He’ll get his one day.” She carefully stored her precious pocket watch in a drawer, tucking it into a fold of one of her spare shirts.

“Like my father did?” Kerry asked quietly.

Dar paused and looked at her thoughtfully. “You could say that,” she agreed slowly. “It catches up to you.” Her eyes dropped.

“Like it did to me.”

Kerry moved closer and her voice rose with her indignation.

“You’re not seriously comparing yourself to either Wharton or my father, are you?”

“No, not exactly.”

“Good.” Kerry bumped against her. “Then what are you talking about?”

Dar circled Kerry’s neck with her arms and rested her forehead against her partner’s. “I’m not really sure. Ask me again later,” she said.

The boat swayed and they both swayed with it. Kerry took hold of Dar’s waist and leaned in to kiss her. “Time to get going,” she said. “I’ll be glad when this is over.”

Dar rubbed noses with her. “Me, too,” she admitted. “Because when it is, I’m gonna kick everyone off this damn boat and put a do not disturb sign on the railing.”

“Right there with you,” Kerry said.

Dar tucked the plastic sheet into her back pocket and zipped it, then put her arm around Kerry’s shoulders and steered her toward the bedroom door. “Know what I was just thinking? The old man was a bastard. Maybe it’s poetic justice the kid took everything.”

Kerry sighed. “That thought had occurred to me. Though I’m not sure that the wife should be punished for the sins of the husband.”

They opened the door and walked out into the boat’s living area. “I’m going to go start up the engines,” Dar told Charlie, who was keeping a dour eye on the still-glowering Bob. She grabbed her rain slicker off the counter and slipped into it, fastening the catches. “Might as well get moving.”

“I’ll go on up there with you.” Charlie got up carefully, getting his balance over his artificial leg.

294 Melissa Good

‘ Thanks a lot, guys,’ Kerry telepathically sent to them, as they hastened to leave her with the furious Bob. “I’m going to heat up the soup, Dar. We missed dinner.”

Soup. Dar’s stomach suddenly rumbled loudly. “Great idea.”

She gave her partner an appreciative look. “Thanks.”

“Mm.” Kerry let her eyes rest on Bob, then met Dar’s. One pale eyebrow quirked.

Dar returned a mildly sheepish look and a shrug. “Call me when it’s ready. I’ll come get you,” she said. “I mean, get it.”

‘I liked the first one better,’ Kerry mouthed, before she turned and made her way into the galley.

Up on the bridge, Dar navigated carefully through the storm, edging closer and closer to the meeting point. It was so dark she could barely see past the bow, and she was relying only on her radar and her depth finder to keep her out of trouble. The rain lashed hard against them, moving almost sideways in its intensity.

Charlie was huddled in the seat next to her, also staring out into the darkness. “Nasty,” Dar murmured.

“Yeah,” the ex-sailor replied softly. “Listen, Dar—I’m sorry about that mix up before.”

Dar glanced at him. “It’s all right. It’s too much stress for all of us right now. I know you’re worried about Bud. So am I.” She watched the radar, then pointed at the screen. “Looks like our friend abandoned us. One less complication.”

Charlie nodded. “Saw that,” he said. “I feel a damn sight better about the whole thing now that you found that paperwork,” he added. “Ain’t that I didn’t trust you to do the right thing, Dar, but—”

“But it’s a hell of a lot easier when you’ve got something to bargain with,” Dar finished for him. “I wasn’t feeling any too comfortable, either. There’s just so much bullshit I can dish out before I run out of cards.” She made a slight adjustment to their course. “I’ll be glad to give him that damn paper, get Bud, and get the hell out of this God damned storm.”

“Doesn’t bother you that the bad guys win?” Charlie asked, watching her face.

“Bad guy’s a relative term in this viper’s nest,” Dar muttered, turning as she heard someone coming up the ladder. “Ah.” A smile crossed her face as she recognized the sturdy form in its rain slicker. Kerry, a Thermos jug hanging around her neck by a lanyard, was using both hands to pull herself up the ladder. “Told you I’d come and get you!” Dar called out.

Kerry steadied her balance and made her way across the pitching bridge. “Let’s just say there’s only so much petulant whininess I can take in one sitting, okay?” She thumped down into the third seat, on the other side of Dar. “Stupid little wuss bag. I Terrors of the High Seas 295

almost put him through a porthole.” Her voice sounded exasperated. “We almost there?”

Dar nodded. “Almost.”

A crack of thunder made them jump and the entire sky lit with lightning, brushing the heaving waves with silver incandescence for a brief instant.

“Wow.” Kerry exhaled. “This is getting pretty bad. What if he doesn’t show?”

No one answered or looked at one another.

“He’d better,” Dar finally said. “If he doesn’t, we’ll go find him.”

Lightning flashed again and Kerry started, grabbing Dar’s arm.

“Dar!” She pointed off the bow. “There’s something out there!” she shouted. “Someone! I saw a person!”

“What?” Dar barked, incredulous. Immediately, she cut the throttles and slowed the big boat into a wallowing idle. “Where?”

Charlie half stood and peered. “Can’t be, Kerry. Not in these waters.”

Kerry strained her eyes. “There was,” she said with utter certainty. “I swear it.”

Dar checked the time, then looked at Kerry’s face. “Get the spotlight,” she said. “I’ll circle.”

Kerry jumped up and started for the ladder, then froze as a light from the darkness of the waves seemed to ignite, pinning them with its brilliance. “Oh!”

Dar felt the world going out of balance. “What the hell? Now what?”

“Dar.” Charlie’s face had a strange expression. “That there’s a Navy underwater lamp.”

Naval light? A suddenly realized possibility made Dar’s heart jump. As she idled the engines, she heard the faint echo of a much smaller craft nearby. “Kerry, stay up here.” She held on to the railing as she edged around her partner. “I think we’re okay.”

Kerry held onto the rail for dear life as she watched Dar scamper down the ladder to the lower deck. “I hope she’s right.”

Her only answer was thunder rolling ominously overhead.

So close to the water, Dar could see the outline against the waves. It was a low riding boat with a single occupant. The light swept across her and blinded her for a moment, then went out. She opened her eyes and blinked. “Dad!”

“Hey there, Dardar,” Andrew Robert’s voice boomed back.

“Toss me one of them lines.”

With a feeling of relief so profound it almost made her dizzy, Dar lifted one of their dock lines and tossed it over, aiming accurately at the shadowy figure. She felt it go taut. “Keep it steady, Ker!” she yelled up to her partner. “It’s Dad!”

296 Melissa Good

“Yes!” Kerry hopped up and down a few times. “Something goes right at last!”

Dar smiled as she caught the words. She leaned over the railing and watched as her father lashed the black rubber boat to the rope.

“Want me to let the ladder down?”

“Yes, ma’am, I would like that,” Andrew shouted back, tying off a second line to his waist, then making a neat dive over the side of the craft into the water.

Dar scrambled across the deck and got to the back ladder, hanging on as the boat pitched wildly in the worsening seas. She unlatched the diving hatch and booted it open, then unhooked the diving ladder and let it down into the sea.

It was only there, it seemed, for a brief moment before its sheen was engulfed by a large, dark figure that rose dripping up out of the water and invaded the deck. Despite the boat’s rocking, Andrew easily held his balance as he removed his neoprene headgear. “’Lo, there.”

“Hi, Daddy.” Dar felt the words emerge before she could censor them. Andrew’s grizzled eyebrows lifted in mild surprise, but he acknowledged them by stepping forward and clasping Dar in a brief hug. “What’s a nice guy like you doing out in a storm like this?”

Andrew chuckled. “Don’t you go there, Paladar,” he warned, releasing her just in time to be assaulted by a smaller figure bolting across the rolling deck. “You prob’ly don’t know it, but a storm like this here one’s the reason you’re standing out in it.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Kerry threw her arms around her father-in-law. “Whoo!” she gurgled. “Hi, Dad!”

Andy’s voice gentled perceptibly. “Hey there, Kerry,” he said.

“Ah do thank you for keeping them letters coming.”

Dar’s ears pricked. “Letters?”

Kerry peeked at her. “After that initial outline we sent when he called on your birthday, I’ve been emailing him about all the stuff that’s been happening,” she told her lover with a touch of apology in her tone.

“You knew he was coming out here?” Dar asked.

“Naw.” Andrew put a big arm around his daughter. “Just decided that this here morning. Let’s go topside and have us a chat, and get out of these here damn swells.” He looked up. “That Charlie up there?”

“Yeah,” Dar said.

“Got us a regular boatload of trouble, don’t we?” Andy commented.

“Where’s Mom?” Kerry asked as they started towards the ladder.

“Painting that there dog of yours,” Andrew replied, pausing as Terrors of the High Seas 297

the cabin door opened and Bob looked out at him. “This here that feller that ran out on Bud and Chuck?”

Bob’s eyes widened at the growl, and he hastily closed the door again.

“Yes,” Kerry answered, distracted. “Dad, she’s painting a picture of Chino, right?”

Andrew peered at her, then chuckled. “Yeap.”

“Phew. Just checking.” Kerry started up the ladder first. “I like her current cream color.”

That even got Dar to smile. Andrew turned to her as they waited for Kerry to ascend. “Your momma knows them people up in Boston,” he said in a serious tone. “And Ah will tell you, she does not have good words to tell about the lot of ’em.”

“Gee, what a surprise.” Dar gestured upward. “G’wan. I just want to get this damn thing over with.”

As Andrew started up the ladder, the door to the cabin opened and Bob peeked out again. “Who is that?” he hissed at Dar. “Where did he come from?” he added. “What’s he doing here?”

Dar rested her elbow on the step. “That’s my father. Do yourself a favor and just stay in there and out of our way.”

A flash of anger crossed Bob’s face, but he retreated and closed the door. Dar let her hands rest on the ladder for a moment, then started her climb to the top.

Andrew emerged onto the flying deck, which now seemed very cramped. He greeted the deck’s other occupant casually as he followed Kerry over to the controls. “’Lo, Charles.”

“Hey, Andy,” Charlie murmured. “Nice surprise.” His eyes stayed on the console, unaware of Kerry’s attention on him. “Glad they got the paperwork wrong on you.”

“Yeap,” Andrew replied easily, settling into one of the seats.

“All right now, you got us a plan, kumquat?”

“Dar does.” Kerry waited as her partner joined them. Dar took the center seat and revved up the engines, starting them forward.

The boat’s motion slowly counteracted the swells, and Kerry relaxed as her stomach settled down somewhat. It was hardly the time to ask Dar for another dose of her ear medicine. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you, Dad, we found something concrete, finally.”

“Did you now?” Andrew studied the controls.

“Yes.” Kerry fished inside Dar’s back pocket and removed the folded sheet, leaning past Dar’s shoulder to hand it to him. “It’s all kinds of legal stuff.”

Andrew studied it, cocking his grizzled head to one side.

“Well, lookit that,” he murmured. “You fixing to give this up as part of your trade off?”

“For Bud,” Charlie blurted suddenly. “Yeah.”

Andrew rested his jaw on his fist. “Mah wife says that feller 298 Melissa Good Wharton is one right scumboat,” he said. “He’s using all them dollars to fix up folks the same kind as your papa was, Kerry.”

Kerry stiffened, then frowned. “He’s a conservative, you mean,” she said. “There’s no law against that, is there?” Her hands were resting on Dar’s shoulders for balance, and she leaned in a little against her.

“No, ma’am, there surely is not,” Andy agreed. “But seems they’ve taken a right dislike to folks who ain’t just like them.” He hesitated uncharacteristically.

Dar spoke up finally. “You mean he’s funding hate groups?”

she asked. “I know there’s a couple up there that think people like Kerry and me…” her eyes went to Charlie, “and Bud and Charlie should be euthanized,” she added bluntly. “Is that what you mean, Dad?”

Andrew released a breath. “Your momma does think that, Dar,” he acknowledged quietly. “And Ah do believe she’s right.”

“Son of a bitch,” Charlie whispered.

They all looked at the sheet resting in Andrew’s big hand. The rain drove harder against the console Plexiglas, making a sound like rapid gunfire.

The situation had changed, Kerry realized. Andrew’s arrival and the information he brought threw a whole new facet into the mix, and now there was a question of what they should do, and she wasn’t sure who exactly was going to make that decision. Dar had once told her there could only be one captain of the boat.

“Well,” Dar broke the silence after a long period, “regardless, we have to get Bud out of there.” She focused on the problem at hand. “There’s always going to be assholes out there who want to take over the world. We have to deal with the critical issue first, and that issue’s a friend in trouble.”

It was a quietly strange moment, and Kerry felt the oddness.

Dar had, she realized, simply moved forward and taken on the leadership of the situation, making the decision and accepting its consequences in a completely natural way. Both Andrew and Charlie were watching her intently, and Kerry held her breath as she waited to see what their reactions would be.

“So, we’re going to continue with our plan the way it is,” Dar went on. “If something develops that lets us come back around and nail Wharton or DeSalliers, or both of them, great. But we get Bud out first.” Her voice was quiet and steady.

Andrew nodded in acceptance. “Right. Ah figured Ah could get up there on that boat and see if Ah could rock it while you had them there people distracted.”

Dar thought about it. “I’m sure they have him below decks,”

she said. “I’m going to try and force them to bring him up before I start dealing, but I don’t know how far I can push.” She edged the Terrors of the High Seas 299

throttles forward a bit. “It would make me feel a lot better to know you were there. Just in case.”

A tiny smile appeared on her father’s face. “Ah jest bet it would,” he drawled. “Though it seems like you done got most of your bases covered already.” His eyes watched his daughter with silent pride.

Dar accepted the compliment with a slight nod. “We tried. But I like having a card up my sleeve. Makes the game a lot easier.”

“You can say that again.” Kerry held on as the boat cut through what appeared to her to be twenty-foot waves. “Now let’s just hope they show.” She felt the muscles in Dar’s neck relax under her hands and felt her own follow suit, glad that her partner was comfortable in taking the lead and that the two ex-sailors were willing to accept that.

It had been a tough moment for Dar, she knew. Her lover was a natural born leader, but just as naturally, she loved and worshipped her father who was also, Kerry knew, a natural born leader. Dar could have deferred to Andrew, and yet she’d chosen to trust her instincts, and do otherwise. Time would have to prove whether or not those instincts were true.

THEY FOUND THEIR spot in the ocean. The wind had risen, driving the waves against the boat, but Dar had anchored them into it, and the bow rose and fell with steady regularity instead of rocking side to side. Andrew had tethered his boat to the back of the Dixie, and now they were simply waiting.

“Kerry was worried about trusting DeSalliers to carry us over there. I think she’s right,” Dar commented to her father. “Better if you drop us off.” They were standing side by side in the stern, protected from most of the wind by the craft’s cabin.

“Hell, yes,” Andrew agreed. “Ah’ll park that thing ’tween us, then go off. Won’t even realize it.”

Dar eyed him curiously. “It’s a pretty high bow,” she said.

“You planning on roping up it?”

Andrew gave her a mildly smug look and fished in one of the belt packs he was wearing over his black neoprene dive suit.

“Nope.” He held out something that had a cup-like surface of what seemed to be soft rubber, and a sturdy hard rubber handle of some kind. “Put that there up on that fiberglass and twist this piece.

Makes you a handle.”

Dar took it and fit her hand in it, then activated the suction.

“Hmph,” she murmured. “Pretty cool.”

“Dar!” Kerry called down from the bridge. “Radar just picked up something.”

Dar handed her father back his toy. “About damned time.” She 300 Melissa Good felt tension grip her guts, and she wanted the confrontation to be long over and done with.

“Heck of a vacation there, Dardar,” her father commented wryly. “Maybe next time ya’ll should go find you some little farm somewhere and just do you a picnic or something.”

Dar shook her head. “I should have guessed. Even when we spent a couple days up at the lake, Kerry’s horse got bee stung, she fell off, we almost capsized, and we managed to out ourselves on a family hay wagon ride.”

Andrew ruffled her hair. “You always did get into the damndest things. You remember that time we done went up to that ranch and you rode up on that bull?”

Dar covered her eyes. “Don’t mention that to Kerry, please?”

“Mention what to me?” Kerry materialized at her elbow, peering out through the rain. When it appeared that neither of the Roberts was going to answer, she asked, “Any sign of them yet?

Charlie’s going to stay up at the controls. It’s tough for him to get up and down the ladder.” And it gave him something very useful to do, Kerry reasoned, since no one was willing to trust Bob with the boat.

“Couldn’t hardly see nothing yet in this spit,” Andy said. “You two ready?”

Kerry patted her rain slicker. “About as ready as I’m going to get. Dar?”

Dar had her hood down, and the wind was whipping her dark hair relentlessly. “I’m ready.” She lifted her chin. “Lights.”

They looked in the direction she indicated, and sure enough, a moving speck could be seen very faintly through the storm. Kerry flexed her hands nervously, her heart rate picking up speed now that things were happening. She wasn’t stupid enough to ignore the fact that she was scared; any reasonable person would be in her place.

She trusted Dar, and she certainly trusted Andy. However, she didn’t trust DeSalliers, and part of her worried that logic didn’t have a lot to do with his planned actions. She worried about Bud, trapped in the man’s hands, and she worried about what they would find over on the other boat.

The cabin door opened and Bob stuck his head out. “I think he’s on the radio,”he said, just as Charlie called down from the bridge with the same news.

Dar squared her shoulders and walked over to the door. Bob backed out of her way as she went for the radio console inside, Kerry and Andy at her back.

DeSalliers’ voice cut through the static. “Roberts? One more chance at answering, then I slit this piece of shit’s throat.”

Andy’s eyes narrowed. “Ah already do not like this man.”

Terrors of the High Seas 301

Dar picked up the mic. “I’m here,” she answered shortly.

“About time you showed up.”

“You have what I asked for?”

“I have what you need,” Dar replied. “So let’s get this over with.”

DeSalliers laughed. “You don’t like not being in control, do you, Roberts? Well, that’s too bad. You just sit there. I’ll tell you when I’m ready.”

The transmission was terminated and Dar dropped the mic on the console as though it were a dead rat. “I’ve encountered more appealing things than that six days dead on the roadside up to Marathon,” she commented. “What an asshole.”

“Yeah, well, he’s going to get what he wants, isn’t he?” Bob asked bitterly. “To hell with the rest of us.” He stomped over to the chair and flung himself down in it. “Fuck you all.”

Andrew folded his arms over his broad chest. “This here situation’s just chock full of jackasses, ain’t it?”

“Yeah, isn’t it?” Bob shot back at him.

“You know something?” Kerry addressed Bob before either Dar or Andrew could answer. “I’m really starting to regret risking my life for you, and I hate that. So cut it out and grow up before I have to do something about it.”

Bob subsided into a sullen silence, his eyes fixed firmly on the floor.

Kerry expelled a breath in disgust and gave herself a tiny shake. She pushed her hood back, revealing damp and tangled blonde hair that she ran her hands through in agitation. “Jesus.”

Dar put an arm around her and pulled her close. She hit the intercom. “Hold steady here, Charlie. Let’s wait to see what this bastard has in mind.”

“Ain’t no good, whatever,” Charlie replied glumly. “Sons of bitches.”

“Mah gosh, listen to this here language,” Andrew drawled. “Ah ought to spank the lot of you.”

The comment eased some of the tension and drew a smile from both Dar and Kerry. “I hate waiting,” Dar admitted. “And he’s right. I hate not being in control.” She released Kerry and turned, choosing a path and pacing it across the living area.

Kerry leaned against the radio console and watched her, resigning herself to the knowledge that all they could really do is wait.

As Dar paced, Andrew merely leaned back against the door frame and relaxed.

At last, DeSalliers’ boat approached them, circling their position twice before they were contacted again. Dar’s nerves had tightened almost to the breaking point. She’d stopped pacing and 302 Melissa Good ended up back out on the stern in the rain, counting to several thousand under her breath in a vain attempt to relax.

Kerry stuck her head out of the cabin. “Dar. He’s on.”

Dar stalked to the door and ducked inside. She could feel her breathing coming quickly, and she took a second to inhale, hold it, then exhale before she picked up the mic. “Yeah?” She unkeyed and waited. The sudden warmth of Kerry’s hand on her side almost made her jump, but after a second she relaxed a little, calming as Kerry’s thumb idly rubbed her skin.

“I see you’ve got a canoe back there,” DeSalliers said. “Get in it and get over here. No bullshit, no smart talk, or I’ll gun the engines and run your sorry ass over.”

“Make sure you hit me the first time,” Dar growled back. “Or you’ll end up upside down talking to crabs.” She keyed off and dropped the mic, then headed for the door. “C’mon.”

Andrew held the door and waited for them to go ahead of him.

As they passed him, he turned to face Bob. “You mess with anything while them girls are over there, Ah will kill you.”

Bob stared at him.

“That is not a bluff, it’s a promise,” Andrew said quietly. He turned and closed the door after him.

Dar made her way down the ladder and into the solid black watercraft in which her father had arrived. It was a familiar sight: two incredibly tough rubber pontoons and a flexible but stiff inner structure, and engines that could probably propel a jet. It had hooks and catches everywhere that were intended for military use, not surprising since its primary purpose was to carry Navy SEALS into battle. She didn’t ask how Andrew had gotten it.

Dar turned and took hold of Kerry as she climbed down, keeping her steady as she joined her in the bottom of the craft. They were both in dark rain slickers, and Andrew was almost invisible as he made his way into the boat, causing it to rock under his weight.

He was dressed in full-length black neoprene, with a canvas vest buckled over it that held all sorts of things, including one waterproof case Dar knew usually housed a sidearm. The thought put a sudden prickle down her back, and she tried not to think about how dangerous the situation was.

DeSalliers sounded like he was capable of anything. Dar let out a slow breath, acknowledging the fear she was now feeling in her guts. But the fact was, her father was also capable of anything, and having him there shifted the odds, if not in their favor, at least more toward equality.

Andrew took a seat at the controls and started the powerful engines. “Want to let us loose, Dardar?”

“Sure.” Dar untied the craft and tossed the end of the rope up onto the Dixie. The waves were pitching up and down severely, but Terrors of the High Seas 303

apparently she’d gotten used to them because they didn’t disturb her much. Kerry, however, sat down on one of the hard seats and wrapped her arms and legs around the stanchions.

Andrew aimed the boat toward DeSalliers’ craft, visible as a brightly lit outline against the rain. “Here we go.”

Dar held on with one hand and put her free hand on Kerry’s shoulder. She leaned close to her ear. “Scared?” Kerry turned, and Dar knew she was looking up at her even though the darkness made her features invisible.

“Yes.”

“Me too,” Dar replied. “My knees are shaking so badly I don’t want to sit down in case I can’t get up again.”

Kerry laughed faintly. “Are you trying to make me feel better?”

She squeezed Dar’s hand. “If you are, it’s working.”

Dar pressed her cheek against Kerry’s. “I love you.”

Kerry smiled, a motion Dar could feel against her skin. “That works even better,” she admitted. “I love you too.”

“We’re gonna be fine,” Dar went on. “But if you want to stay in the boat with Dad, it’s okay, Ker. I’m not joking. I know this is scary as hell, and it’s no reflection on you if you want to stay here.”

It was so tempting. The thought of staying at Andrew’s very, very safe side was so enticing, Kerry could almost feel the agreement tickling the back of her throat. However, the image of her waiting in the darkness while Dar went into danger alone was far more horrific. “Thanks for the offer,” she turned her head and kissed Dar, “but where you go, I go. I’d croak from anxiety if you left me here.”

Dar nodded, as though she had fully expected Kerry’s answer.

“Okay.” They watched the boat grow larger and larger in front of them. “I need to play tough with him, because of the twenty five thousand.”

Kerry nodded. “I know.”

“So, if I sound like I don’t give a damn about Bud, it’s for a reason.”

Kerry patted her hand. “Honey, I know that. If you didn’t give a crap about Bud, you wouldn’t be here,” she said. “I’ll back you up, whatever you do or say. I trust you.”

“Even if I walk out?”

Kerry drew in a breath. “I’m with you, no matter what.”

As the motor slowed its rhythm, Dar straightened up.

DeSalliers’ boat swam in her vision, armed men visible on the stern deck.

“Paladar, those fellers have rifles,” Andrew said suddenly.

“I know, Dad,” Dar acknowledged. “We’ll be careful.”

“Ah do not like this,” Andrew objected. “Ah do not like this one bit.”

304 Melissa Good Dar clenched her hands on the grips that lined the edge of the boat. “Neither do I, Dad, but I can’t leave Bud there. What else can we do?”

Andrew frowned at the approaching vessel. “You listen here,”

he said, suddenly. “I signal you duck, you do it, hear?” He took hold of Dar’s arm. “Ah am not fooling, Dar.”

Dar could see the utter seriousness in his eyes. “I hear,” she repeated. “Be careful.”

The big ex-SEAL snorted. “You all be careful or else ah’m going to be spanking the both of you for a long time.”

“We’ll be okay.” Kerry stood up as they neared the back of the boat, which was pitching up and down nauseatingly. “We’ll keep their attention, Dad. See if you can cause them some trouble while we do, okay?”

“Ah will give them trouble,” Andrew muttered, pulling the boat even with the deck and holding his position. “Ah will blow that god damned thing up and out of this here ocean if that feller so much as tweaks any of your toenails.”

Dar took a deep breath. ‘Here we go.”

“Paladar Katherine, you be careful,” her father said suddenly.

“Please.”

Dar felt a little warmth spread in her guts. “I will, Dad.” She reached for the ladder hanging down from the stern of the huge boat, ignoring the armed men watching her from above. Now that it was happening, she felt some of her nervousness drop away as it was replaced by adrenaline. Her nerves steadied, and she felt her heart rate slow as she climbed up to the pitching deck.

She put her hands on the top railing and pressed her body over in a swift, easy motion, forcing the guards to move back or else be slammed into. Dar took a step forward, her body blocking access to the ladder in order to give Kerry time to climb on board.

“Only one of you,” the man nearest her said suddenly. “Tell the other one to get lost.”

Dar turned as Kerry’s head emerged over the top of the ladder.

Ignoring the guard completely, she offered Kerry a hand over,.

“I said—”

“Shut up.” Dar pinned him with a hard stare. “Either we both come, or we both leave. You choose.” She watched him hesitate.

“Pick!” she added in a loud bark.

He backed up a step and Kerry climbed down and joined Dar on the deck, brushing off her rain slicker. Dar took a breath. “All right.” She caught her balance on the heaving stern. “Let’s go.”

The guards looked over the side as the engines on the watercraft gunned and it backed away from the yacht. The guard captain regained his attitude. “Who is that?”

“My canoe paddler,” Dar told him. “Now, are we going inside, Terrors of the High Seas 305

or should I just call him back?”

The guard gazed at her. “I didn’t forget you from last time, bitch. You’ll pay for that before you leave.” He gestured with the gun barrel toward the door to the yacht’s cabin. “If you leave.”

Dar and Kerry walked past him. Three guards fell in behind them, guns held at the ready. It was too late to turn back.

ANDREW RAN THE watercraft back to the Dixie, and fastened it to the line he’d left in the water for that purpose. He slipped his slimline tank on, adjusted his mask, and entered the water in barely the time it took to think about it.

Under the surface, the conditions were a lot easier. He could feel the pull of the waves above him, but they didn’t impede his progress, and he finned quickly toward the other boat. The sound of the hull breeching the water guided him, his light left unlit on his belt. No sense in advertising.

He could sense the boat near him and he went vertical, pulling out his new gadgets and fitting them to his hands. Carefully, he approached the hull of the boat and extended one arm, feeling the jolt as it contacted the fiberglass. “Gotcha.”

He triggered the lock and hung on as the boat nearly heaved him out of the water. “Hell.” Andrew got his other hand up quickly and latched on, hanging from both hands as the boat rolled. He waited for the hull to dip back down into the water, then released his first hand and stretched higher, moving up the surface like an extremely large spider.

Inside the door to the cabin, Dar paused, ignoring the prodding from the guard behind her. She checked out the room, then walked inside, keeping a light hand on Kerry’s back. DeSalliers was standing near the bar, and three men holding guns were stationed around the room.

Dar’s lips twitched into a feral smile. “Six guys with rifles?”

She glanced between herself and Kerry. “I’m flattered.”

“I feel so dangerous,” Kerry added, folding her arms over her chest. “And I’m not even wearing my brown belt.”

“Shut up.” DeSalliers waved three of the guards out. “You’re empty handed, Roberts. I thought you were smarter than that, but on second thought, I should have realized you aren’t.”

Dar deliberately turned her back on him, strolling across the cabin’s interior to study one of the maps on the wall. “I’m not empty handed; you’re empty headed.” She looked over her shoulder at him. “Here’s my deal: you show me Bud.”

“This is not your deal,” DeSalliers interrupted. “Now you just shut up and listen to me.”

“No!” Dar turned and walked right past the gun barrel of one 306 Melissa Good of the guards. “You listen to me, you scumbag.” She felt her temper rise, and a rush of energy filled her body. “You want the information I have? Do you? Otherwise, I’ll just walk out of here and sell it to the highest bidder.”

“You don’t have shit.”

“Don’t I?” Dar smiled. “ You’re wrong about that. I know about the poaching.” She ticked off one of her fingers. “I know Wharton cut a deal with the locals.” She paused and waited. DeSalliers now watched her with lethal, bitter silence. “I know about the will. So, you jackass—if you want what I’ve got, then you do what I say and it’s yours.”

DeSalliers’ entire face twitched.

“You’ve only got two days before your loans default,” Kerry broke in. “If I were you, I’d just salvage what I could out of this.”

The man stared at her. “You don’t know shit.”

“Sure I do.” Kerry kept an even, almost kind tone. “It’s all in a database somewhere. You realized that, didn’t you? Public debt filings.”

DeSalliers snorted softly. “Yeah. That’s how you ruined your old man, isn’t it? Killed him, didn’t it?”

It was like taking a spear in the gut. Kerry only just clamped down on her emotions and somehow managed to keep her expression unchanged. “Yes, it is,” she answered. “I’d gladly do the same to you.”

Dar dealt with the realization that if she’d had a gun in her hand at that moment, she would have shot DeSalliers without a moment’s regret. “So, here’s the deal,” she repeated. “You show me Bud. You give me a transfer account, and I’ll transfer your skunk money. Then I give you your smoking gun, and you let Bud go.”

DeSalliers watched her from narrowed eyes. He remained silent for a minute, then very, very slowly, he nodded in agreement.

“How do I know you’ve got a smoking gun?”

“Because I say I do,” Dar told him. “You’re not worth lying to, and Wharton’s not worth lying for.”

The tall man’s head cocked slightly to one side. “Fucking amazing. We finally agree on something.” He walked over to the window, keeping them guessing as to what his answer would be.

“Tell me something first.” He turned. “What is your real percentage in this, Roberts?”

Leaning against a bulkhead, Dar ears picked up a soft clanking somewhere nearby. “I’ve already told you,” she said. “You just don’t believe me.”

“That you stumbled on this by accident?” DeSalliers laughed bitterly. “ You’re right. I don’t. He pointed at one of the guards.

“Bring the piece of scum up here.”

Kerry released the breath she was holding and wished for a Terrors of the High Seas 307

glass of water. Her insides were churning so badly, she felt like a washing machine. She forced herself to move slowly and casually, wandering back across the cabin to end up next to Dar again. Her eyes met her partner’s, and for a brief moment Dar’s mask dropped and Kerry saw sympathy and regret in the pale blue eyes watching her. Kerry tensed her lips in acceptance and patted Dar’s hip as she came to a halt beside her. So far, she decided, the plan seems to be working. She prayed to God it stayed that way.

ANDREW SLOWLY LIFTED his head above the edge of the hull and peered across it. It was empty. The guards had clustered on the stern, out of the storm, exactly what he’d been hoping for. With a light sniff, he released one of his grips and removed it, sticking it in its pouch and transferring his hand to the railing. He repeated the motion with the other one, then pulled himself up and over onto the deck.

He lay there a moment, listening and catching his breath.

“Ah’m too damn old to be doing this,” he muttered to himself. The deck remained silent, so he lifted himself up and snaked across the top of it to the two prominent hatches set in its center. Then he lay back down and examined the hatches.

With a soft grunt, he fished in a vest pocket and drew out a slim tool. He slipped the edge of it under the hatch and pried gently upward near the hinge, working the fiberglass cover back and forth.

With a soft crack, the hinge broke. Andy left it as it was and eased to the other side of the hatch, working on the next hinge point.

A soft creak sounded a warning, and he pressed his body against the hull and listened. Someone was coming along the railing toward the bow. Andrew cursed silently but remained very still, tensing his muscles as he watched the space between the cabin and the railing. A man wandered through it and leaned on the rail, watching the waves. Even after a few minutes, he didn’t seem inclined to move on. Andrew put his hands on the surface of the hull and pushed himself upward, getting silently to his feet and rising to his full height behind the man. He paced forward even with the roll of the boat until he was just behind his target.

The man had a rifle slung over his shoulder. Andrew studied him for a brief moment, then balled his hand into a fist and slugged the man in the back of the neck. With a soft choking sound, the guard’s knees buckled. Andrew stripped away the rifle and dropped it into the water, then debated throwing the man in after it. Wouldn’t have been the first time, by any means.

With a faint sigh, he dragged the man over to the edge of the bow instead, and laid him down on the curve. Then he went back to 308 Melissa Good the hatch and dropped down next to it, easing the edge up and peering underneath.

THE GUARDS DRAGGED Bud up to the edge of the steps that led to the cabins of the boat and held him in Dar’s view. Bud’s eyes were swollen shut and his face was covered in bruises. He didn’t appear to be conscious of what was going on around him.

“You’re a nice host.” Kerry kept her voice even.

DeSalliers laughed. “He probably enjoyed it. He’s the type.” He motioned to the guard. “Put him back until I call you again.” He seemed to be in a slightly better humor now. “Here’s the numbers.”

He handed Dar a slip of paper.

Dar was still gazing at the doorway, seeing the beaten form in her mind’s eye. She took the paper and stared at it. “Blood money.”

She took out her cell phone and accessed its web features.

DeSalliers watched her. “Must be killing you,” he taunted.

“Loser.”

Pale blue eyes fastened on him. Dar handed the paper back.

“It’s done. It’ll process when the banks open tomorrow.”

“You expect me to believe you?”

Dar shrugged. “DeSalliers, it’s pocket change,” she said. “It just means a bit more of your crap I have to clean off my shoes.”

“Pocket change?”

“Actually,” Kerry spoke up, having to say something to keep from throwing up, “it’s the budget for table mints for Dar’s outer office.” She paused thoughtfully. “For six months.”

DeSalliers looked at her, then looked back at the paper with a shake of his head.

The guard returned and leaned against the door, watching Dar and Kerry with scornful eyes.

DeSalliers crumpled up the paper and tossed it. “Enough bullshit. Hand it over.” He held out a hand towards Dar. “You’re polluting my boat and I want you off it, along with your disgusting faggot friend.”

Dar reached behind her and unzipped her pocket. She withdrew the folded piece of plastic and tossed it at DeSalliers almost casually, zinging it across the cabin and hitting him in the chest with it. “There,” she said. “Now get Bud up here, and we’ll be more than glad to vacate this shit hole.”

DeSalliers unfolded the plastic and leaned over to read it, bringing it to the light. “You can’t think I’d go for th…” He stopped speaking for a moment. Then he slowly looked up at Dar. “Well.”

He seemed a bit incredulous. “Imagine that. You told the truth.”

Dar felt extremely tired, and she wanted nothing more than to get Kerry, herself, Bud, and presumably her father off the damn Terrors of the High Seas 309

boat and out of that patch of water. “Yeah. So give me what I want and you can go crack a bottle of bad champagne over it.”

Their host folded the paper and put it into his pocket, patting it with one hand. Then he removed his cell and dialed a number.

“When I’m ready.” He smirked at Dar as he waited for the call to process. “I want a chance to savor having beaten you.”

Kerry let her hand rest against Dar’s back. It was almost over.

The tension had given her a migraine to compete with her already upset stomach, and she felt like walking over and kicking DeSalliers right in the shins.

“Wharton? DeSalliers here.” The man spoke briskly into the phone. “I’ve got your proof, right in my hand.” His eyes lifted and regarded Dar. “No, I got it out of her. No problem.”

Dar felt a burn start at the back of her neck.

“What?” DeSalliers said. “That wasn’t part of the deal.” He listened again. “Now, look—” He was cut off, and they could hear an angry voice, though not the distinct words. The sound ended abruptly, and he was left looking at the phone with an expressionless face. After a moment, he lifted his eyes and stared at them coldly. “Well, it wasn’t something I really didn’t want to do anyway,” he said.

“He double-cross you?” Dar asked, as a sudden dread filled her gut.

“No. You,” DeSalliers said remotely. “Gregos?” He turned to look at the guard near the door. “Kill them.” He stepped back through a small doorway nearby. “I guess the pirates will get blamed for something else.”

“Yes, sir.” The guard lifted his gun and pointed it. “My pleasure.”