“Don't move.” His voice was a mere thread of sound in her ear.
Mattie shook her head quickly to indicate she understood. She struggled to breathe. There did not seem to be much point in mentioning the obvious fact that she could not have moved, even if she had wanted to do so. The man weighed a ton.
The ominous silence that hung over the cove continued. It seemed to Mattie it went on for months, weeks, years, eons. She finally began to wonder what would happen next. After the initial terror wore off, the suspense became somewhat boring.
Finally, just when she had begun to think she was going to have a permanent reduction in the size of her already small bustline, she felt Hugh move.
There was no sound, but Mattie discovered the grip of the Beretta being pushed into her hand. Her finger was guided to a small mechanism.
“Safety. You take it off before you pull the trigger. Got it?” Again, Hugh's voice was a whisper of breath directly in her ear.
Mattie wondered if she should explain about her extremely limited experience with the Annie Oakley Special. She decided this was not the time to tell Hugh she had never fired a real gun in her life. Weakly she nodded her head again, knowing he would sense the movement.
“Stay put. Be right back. And for God's sake, take a good look before you pull that trigger. I don't want to end up like Cormier.”
Visions of the horrible red mess in Paul Cormier's chest rose up to temporarily blind Mattie. She clutched the gun and fought a scream of protest.
Then she realized the weight that had been pressing her into the earth was gone. Hugh had risen soundlessly and disappeared into the undergrowth.
Mattie lay where she was and strained to hear some hint of his passage through the greenery. She could hear nothing.
Somehow, the utter lack of noise from Hugh was almost as terrifying as the too-silent cove. It spoke volumes about his unconventional lifestyle. How could she possibly have ever considered marrying the man, she wondered bleakly. Definitely not her type. Absolutely nothing in common.
The answer, of course, was ludicrously simple: She had been certain she was in love with him; certain that they shared some deep, common bond; certain that she understood him as no other woman would ever understand him; certain that he was lonely and needed her just as she needed him.
The only certainty about the entire situation was that she had been an idiot.
There was a crackling sound off to her right. Mattie instinctively froze like a deer caught on the road in a set of headlights.
The sound came a second time, louder. She thought she could hear heavy breathing.
Not Hugh, then. He would not be making so much noise.
She was slowly turning her head, her fingers clenching the gun, when another shot roared out over the lovely cove. She went totally still once more.
The crackling noises stopped.
Silence.
More eons of silence.
And then the crackling sounds came again. Closer this time.
With a sinking heart Mattie realized that the noises were headed straight for her hiding place. She sat up very carefully and braced her back against the trunk of a vine-covered tree. The vines shifted silently behind her like a nest of writhing snakes. Mattie stifled the impulse to leap away from the tree.
She gripped the Beretta in both hands and pointed it in the general direction of the soft crackling sounds.
From the far side of the cove came a rush of crashing, breaking, and splintering. A man's startled screech started to climb into the dawn sky but was abruptly choked off.
Mattie did not move. She was fairly sure the scream had not been Hugh's, but that was all she could tell. She kept the gun in her hand pointed into the mass of leaves and vines in front of her.
The crackling sounds escalated abruptly, as if someone who had previously been creeping through the undergrowth was now racing forward toward the sandy beach.
And then the reality of what was happening hit Mattie full force. Someone else was headed for the escape boat.
The thought of another trip back through the caves and another day spent in the cavern while Hugh hunted up a second boat was all the impetus Mattie needed. Her fingers tightened on the Beretta.
A large man burst through the wall of green leaves less than two feet away. He did not look down as he dashed toward the beach.
“You can't have it.” Mattie pointed the gun straight up at him. “It's ours.”
There was enough dawn light to see the startled expression on the man's unpleasant face. He slammed to an abrupt halt and looked down at where Mattie was sitting with the gun clutched in her hands.
“What the fuck?” The man blinked, first in astonishment and then in growing outrage. “Give me that gun, you little bitch.” The voice was a soft hiss.
He stretched out a beefy hand, intending to take the weapon from her as if she were a child.
Mattie fumbled for a second and then found the safety. She slid it off without a word. The soft snick was very loud in the small space between herself and the man.
“Fucking bitch.” The huge hand retreated instantly.
“Don't move.” Mattie sat very still, holding the gun trained on the man's midsection. “Not one inch.”
“That boat ain't yours.”
“It is as of now,” she told him. It was amazing how quickly the principles of a lifetime could collapse under the pressure of the need to survive, Mattie reflected. Stress, no doubt. She had never stolen anything in her entire life, and now she was planning to participate in grand theft.
“Look, lady, we can do a deal,” the man said urgently.
He was interrupted by sounds out on the beach. He turned quickly to look at the boat.
Mattie risked a quick glance and saw Hugh appear from the jungle on the far side of the clearing. He was holding his gun trained on a short, wiry little man.
“Mattie?” Hugh spoke quietly as he neared her hiding place. “It's okay. You can come out now. Hurry, babe. We've got to get moving.”
“Uh, Hugh, we have a problem here.”
“What the hell?” And then Hugh was close enough to see the still-life scene of woman-seated-on-jungle-floor with-gun-pointed-at-very-large-man.
But it was the short, wiry man who burst into a stream of abuse which he promptly hurled at the huge man Mattie was holding at gunpoint.
“Goddamn your sorry ass, Gibbs. I knew you were gonna try for my boat. I damn well knew it.” The small man spat viciously into the sand. “You always was a slimy son of a bitch.”
“That boat is just as much mine as yours, Rosey,” the big man retorted sullenly. “I knew you'd be plannin' to sneak off in it this mornin'. Some pal you turned out to be. All that garbage about how we was gonna get out of here together today. It was all bull. Well, you ain't goin' nowhere without me, you hear me?”
“Gentlemen, please,” Hugh said, “restrain yourselves. This is neither the time nor the place for an argument.”
“Oh, yeah? Says who?” The small man named Rosey glared up at him. “You ain't any better than Gibbs, here. Worse. You're plannin' to steal my boat, too, ain't ya?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I am.” Hugh looked at Mattie, who was still sitting on the ground. “Come on, babe. I'll keep an eye on Mutt and Jeff here. Take the bags down to the boat and get in. I'll be right with you.”
“Now, see here, mister, you can't just take off and leave us here.” Rosey's voice started to rise into a wail.
“That boat's ours. We need it to get off this island until things cool down. No tellin' what's happenin' here on Purgatory. It's a goddamned revolution or somethin'. We'll get our throats slit if we hang around.”
“Keep your voice down or I'll slit your throats myself and save the revolutionaries the work.”
The new and strangely terrifying lack of emotion in Hugh's voice rather than the threat itself had an electrifying effect not only on Mattie but on Gibbs and Rosey. The two men stared open-mouthed at Hugh
. It was clear they believed every word.
Hugh flicked an impatient glance at Mattie, who was getting unsteadily to her feet. “I said move, babe.”
Very conscious of the heavy weight of the gun in her hand, Mattie edged around the massive Gibbs and started toward the beach. As she passed Hugh she glanced uneasily up at his set face. She thought again about what they were about to do. She started to speak, found she could not, cleared her throat, and tried again.
“Uh, Hugh, this is their boat.”
“Jesus, Mattie. Not now, okay? We'll discuss the ethics of the situation later. When we're ten miles out at sea. Move.”
“I just meant maybe we should take Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Rosey with us. After all, they probably want off this island as badly as we do. And it is their boat.”
Rosey and Gibbs turned their heads instantly to stare at her. They looked startled at first, and then a gleam appeared in the short man's eyes.
“I can see that you're a real lady, ma'am. Lord knows why you're hangin' around with this scum,” Rosey said, nodding in Hugh's direction. “But I want you to know I sincerely appreciate your thinkin' of us in our moment o' crisis. Poor old Gibbs and me will probably be gutted like a couple of fish by the locals, but I want you to know our last thoughts will be of you. We surely do thank you, ma'am.”
“Hell,” said Hugh. “Mattie, will you do as you're told before the idiots who are running this two-bit coup decide to come down here to take a morning swim and find us all standing around chatting?”
“Like Rosey said, it's real sweet o' you to think of us, ma'am,” Gibbs whispered forlornly. “When they're slicin' us up for fish bait or hangin' us in front o' the post office, you can bet your sweet little, uh, backside, we'll sure be thinkin' o' your kindness. Like an angel, you are, ma'am. Just like a pure little angel.”
“Move, damn it,” Hugh snapped.
Mattie bit her lip. “I don't see why we couldn't take them with us, Hugh. After all, it is their boat and it's quite large. There's plenty of room. If we leave these two men here, they might very well be killed.”
“No great loss, I promise you.”
“Hugh, please, I'll never be able to sleep at night if we just abandon them to their fates. It's not right.”
“Lord love us,” Rosey said piously, “you was right, Gibbs. She is a pure little angel. And real good lookin' to boot.”
“Hugh, I really think we should…”
Hugh groaned. “Mattie, listen to me, it would be downright stupid to take these two with us. They're a couple of professional lowlifes. Trust me on this. We'd have to keep an eye on them every inch of the way. Don't you understand?”
“We could tie them up in the boat or something,” she said eagerly, sensing she was making headway.
“No, damn it,” Hugh vowed, “I am not going to go against my better judgment just to please a woman who doesn't know what the devil she's dealing with here.”
“Please, Hugh. It's just not right. And it's not as if we don't have the room.”
Gibbs and Rosey waited with hopeful expressions.
“Shit,” said Hugh. “I know I'm going to regret this.”
* * *
Half an hour later, comfortably ensconced under the canopy of Rosey's swift cruiser, Mattie watched the Pacific dawn explode across the sky. For the first time since she had walked into Cormier's beautiful white mansion, she was able to take a relaxed breath.
Purgatory was no longer in sight. The boat's wake was churning merrily as it made rapid headway toward Brimstone. All seemed right with the world again.
The large man, Gibbs, was sitting across from Mattie, his hands tied behind his back. Rosey was at the wheel. Hugh was sprawled in the seat next to Rosey, his gun still held casually at the ready. He was the only one of the group who did not look cheerful.
“What in the world was happening back there on Purgatory?” Mattie asked to break the ice that had settled over the crew the instant the boat had been untied from the dock.
“Fuckin' idiots, you should pardon my language, ma'am,” Gibbs said, pitching his voice over the dull roar of the engines. “Don't have the sense to leave a good thing well enough alone. Ain't that right, Rosey?”
Rosey's small, wiry shoulders lifted in a philosophical shrug. “Right enough. Everyone on Purgatory was happy the way things was. Had ourselves a right nice little government that didn't believe in taxes and committees and paperwork. Kept things simple, ya' know? Didn't interfere in a man's business so long as he kept his nose clean while he was on the island. Worked real well for everyone.”
“Fuckin' right,” Gibbs volunteered with a sad shake of his massive head. “Worked real well. Can't imagine why some fool would want to mess things up.”
“Apparently someone wanted to modernize things,” Hugh muttered.
“I guess,” Rosey said.
“Had there been an active opposition party on Purgatory?” Mattie asked with a thoughtful frown. “Some group that had been agitating for reforms?”
“Nah. Weren't nothin' to reform,” Gibbs told her.
Rosey scowled. “The whole thing just kind o' blew up outa nowhere, ya' know? No warnin' or nothin'. All of a sudden the airport's closed, everyone's told to stay in their homes, and there's armed men in fatigues all over the damned place. No one was ready for that kind of takeover.”
“What happened to the president or whoever was in charge on Purgatory?” Mattie inquired.
“Don't rightly know, ma'am,” Rosey said. “If he had any sense, which he did, the old pirate, he got hisself off the island right quick like. Either that or he's probably occupyin' the one jail cell we got on Purgatory.”
“Or else he's dead,” Gibbs said gloomily. “I'll kind o' miss old Findley. Me and him was drinkin' buddies. Man played a mean game o' pool.”
“It's incredible,” Mattie said, shaking her head.
“It happens,” Hugh said, sounding bored.
She shot him a quizzical glance. “What do you mean by that?”
Hugh shrugged. “Just what I said. These things happen. There's always some idiot around who wants to run things.”
Gibbs and Rosey nodded in worldly understanding.
“Yep,” Gibbs said. “Always some joker around who figures he can line his pockets a little better if he's in charge.”
“It usually comes down to money,” Hugh explained. “Money and power. They always go together.”
“Put the two together and you get politicians,” Rosey said in disgust. “There's always a few of'em, even on a nice peaceful island like Purgatory. Can't trust'em as far as you can throw'em. Nothin' but trouble.”
There was a profound silence as everyone considered that unalterable fact of life.
“Will you go back to Purgatory?” Mattie asked Rosey.
“Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on what happens.”
“Yeah,” said Gibbs. “Depends. Had a good setup on Purgatory, but I reckon we can find another patch o' ground, huh, Rosey?”
“Yep. Always a good deal out there somewhere if you got the brains to look for it.”
They arrived at Brimstone late in the day. Mattie gazed around with interest as she stepped off the boat. The village looked a lot like other backwater Pacific island communities with its pretty little harbor and a waterfront filled with taverns and small shops. The jungle rose behind the small town, looming over it like a giant green monster that threatened to absorb the small cluster of buildings in one gulp.
Mattie realized she'd had enough of jungles.
“Now what?” she asked, turning to Hugh, who was untying Gibbs. Rosey was securing the boat, his eyes already scanning the waterfront for the nearest tavern.
“Now we say a fond farewell to our two cheerful guides. Then we hunt up a place to spend the night.”
“We're going to be stuck here overnight?” Mattie looked askance at the buildings along the waterfront. There was nothing resembling a world-class luxury resort in sight.
“Probab
ly. Brimstone only has one flight out a day. Next one isn't until tomorrow sometime. No charter operation based here. Yet.” Hugh finished releasing Gibbs from his bonds and vaulted out onto the dock. “So long, gentlemen. Good luck and thanks for the use of the boat.”
“Sure. See ya' around,” Rosey said cheerfully. He grinned at Mattie, his eyes crinkling. “Nice to have met you, ma'am, and we sure do thank you for convincing your man to take us off Purgatory with you.”
“Fuckin' right,” Gibbs said with a toothless smile. “Thanks, ma'am. You all take care now, you hear?”
“Come on, Mattie.” Hugh took her arm and propelled her forcefully along the dock.
“Good-bye,” Mattie called over her shoulder. “And thanks.”
“I'm glad to see the last of those two,” Hugh said as he tugged Mattie up the steps to the paved road that fronted the harbor.
“What an odd pair. They seem like the best of friends, yet Gibbs was apparently planning to steal Rosey's boat and Rosey was waiting with a gun to stop him. What on earth do you suppose they'll do now?”
“I don't know and I don't particularly care. But let's get one thing straight, babe. Next time we're in a situation like that, I don't want you trying to call the shots. You do as you're told and you don't stand around arguing with me. Clear?”
“I knew you were just waiting until we were alone to start lecturing me.” She lifted her chin. “But I don't have to stand here and let you chew me out, Hugh Abbott. We are now back in civilization. Sort of. I can book my own flight off Brimstone and be back in Seattle in a day or two. And that's exactly what I'm going to do.”
Hugh came to a halt and stood glowering down at her. “What the hell are you talking about? You think that now the excitement's over you can just casually go home?”
“I don't see why not.”
“You're supposed to be on vacation, damn it.”
“I've got news for you, Hugh. I find life in Seattle far more restful and relaxing than life out here in the islands. Do you know that in all the years I've lived in a city I have never once walked into a house and found a man who had been shot to death? I have never had to crawl through horrid caves or spend a night in a cavern or steal a boat or point a gun at someone?”
Silver Linings Page 7
