Elusive

by L. A. Fiore

  “Those yacht’s that have gone missing, they didn’t disappear, they sank.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I’ve been tracking them, every single one of them. I have a scanner on the coast guard channels and they found one. Our Pride and Joy was located twenty miles from where she was last seen, but what’s interesting is a study of the hull showed several precisely made holes.”

  “Come again?”

  “Someone sank her.”

  “How were they so far off course?” Paddy asked.

  “Someone boards in the middle of the night and either disconnects their instruments or uploads a computer program to scramble them,” Tiggs suggested. “It wouldn’t be that hard.”

  “The interesting part….” Hawk scoffed, “The ship was gutted.”

  An uneasy feeling moved through me. “Someone sank it then salvaged it?”

  “Yeah, talk about stacking your deck. You sink the ships you salvage.”

  “And all the ships were in the Caribbean?”

  “There was that one ship off the cost of South Africa with the same MO, but it was years earlier. Maybe it was their first hit. Maybe a practice run, outside of their normal hunting grounds.”

  “South Africa?” Oh shit. I pulled out my phone and called Willow. It went right to voice mail. “Tiggs, I need her granddad’s number and the number to his museum.”

  “What’s going on?” Zeke asked.

  “We’ve got to move. I think Willow might have led the fox right into the hen house.”

  WILLOW

  I was jarred awake when I was tossed from my bunk and landed in a heap on the cold, iron floor. It was only then that I felt how hard the vessel was rocking; so hard I had trouble gaining my balance. I managed to get back on my feet and went to investigate. The ship was tilting at an odd angle. If I didn’t know any better, I would think she was sinking. It was late; everyone was asleep because we weren’t actively diving, so there were no crewmembers doing the late night shift. I stepped onto the deck. It took a minute for my eyes to adjust and then they widened in terror because we were sinking.

  I ran back and banged on Granddad’s door. He opened it; sleep still clouding his eyes. “Willow, what’s—”

  “We’re sinking. We have to wake everyone.”

  He was instantly awake. “I’ll wake the Captain. He can sound the alarm.”

  “I’ll get Zoe and Decker.” Decker’s room was the closest. I pounded on his door but there was no answer. He was probably with Zoe. At Zoe’s door I yelled for her as I banged on her door. She threw it open and looked stupendously pissed. “What the fuck?”

  “We’re sinking.”

  Her face went from pissed to afraid in a blink. “Sinking?”

  “Get Decker. We’ve got to go.”

  “Decker’s not here.”

  “He’s not?”

  “No. He didn’t join me last night.”

  “Maybe he is already on deck. We have to go.”

  She grabbed her things—luckily we didn’t have much—before we hightailed it back to my room for my stuff. We reached the deck to see everyone moving at a brisk pace, releasing the lifeboat. Captain Willard was shouting out orders. He was pretty amazing even knowing he had to be devastated that his ship was sinking.

  I looked around and saw Granddad, the crew, but I didn’t see Decker, Harry or his divers.”

  “Where’s Decker?”

  “I don’t know. Harry’s not here either.”

  “The ship was searched?” I asked.

  Captain Willard approached. “Twice, they’re not here.”

  “Neither is the captain’s box.” I didn’t hear Granddad’s words initially, because they didn’t make any sense.

  “The box is gone? Decker took it?”

  I had never heard my granddad sound so pissed. “It would seem.”

  “Then he did something to the ship so we would all...” Even as I spoke the words, I didn’t believe them.

  Zoe gasped, her eyes filling with tears. “How could he?”

  “We have to be wrong. I just...” They weren’t here and the box was gone. They had taken it, had left us all for dead. “I can’t believe it, not Decker and Harry.”

  Granddad said nothing, but he was livid.

  “We’ve got to go.” The captain ushered us to the lifeboat. We moved a far enough distance away before he called the coast guard. Together we watched as the Ocean Quest floundered before finally sinking.

  NOAH

  “The Blakely museum. How may I help you?” Fucking finally. I had been calling for the last four hours. Service sucked on the water, but I wasn’t wasting time getting to Cancun because I had a really bad feeling Willow was in trouble.

  “This is Kace, a friend of Willow’s.”

  A pause. “Oh, the young man who bought her the journal. Yes, she told me about you. Hello.” Another pause, “Is she okay? William?”

  “They’re fine.” I hoped. “I have a question about that find Willow and her crew recovered several months back.” Once a thief always a thief. If I was right, he wouldn’t have been able to help himself.

  “Ah, yes, Les Deux Cadeaux. It was created right here by the early settlers. Remarkable, they were able to mine and cut the gemstones for it using such primitive equipment.”

  I didn’t want to be rude, but what the fuck? “Where did that piece end up?”

  He seemed a bit put out that I interrupted him, but then his demeanor changed again. “Oh my goodness, I forgot to call her back.”

  “Who?”

  “Willow. I had called her to mention I had heard from my contact at the Smithsonian.”

  Was he fucking serious? My words were clipped with temper. “Can you fucking focus? Where is that piece?”

  “Nice language.”

  I didn’t have time for this. “The piece?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” He was definitely indignant now. “It never made it to the Smithsonian.”

  Fuck. “Who made the arrangements for the transfer to the Smithsonian?”

  “Decker Acker.”

  “Can you contact William?”

  “I’ve been trying, but it goes right into voice mail. Is something going on?”

  “I’m not sure. Keep trying him and when you get through to him, he needs to call me immediately.”

  “Give me your number.”

  I gave him the digits then disconnected and tried Willow’s phone. No answer.

  “We need more speed.” I started shouting out orders to the crew.

  “What’s up?” Snake asked.

  “It’s Decker. The one behind the yachts is Decker. And I think he intends to steal the necklace.”

  “Oh fuck.”

  WILLOW

  We were back at the hotel when Captain Willard received the word from the coast guard that his boat had been intentionally sunk. On cursory examination, the method was the same used on the yachts that had been disappearing across the Caribbean. Processing that took a bit more time than learning that Decker had tried to kill us. We sat in my hotel room in a haze, Granddad, Zoe, Captain Willard and me.

  “I don’t understand,” Zoe said. “How could the man we knew and loved be...well, a monster?”

  “And Harry? I’ve known him for so long. Sure there was a time when he harbored resentment when your dad fired him, but he moved on.”

  “Harry was fired?”

  “Yeah. It was a long time ago. You were just a kid. What are you thinking?”

  “I don’t know. I’m just trying to make sense of how two people we thought of as family could have sank a boat we were on. What exactly happened with Harry and Dad?”

  “He claimed they took his research.”

  “For what?”

  Granddad looked pissed. I couldn’t tell if it was at himself or Harry or Dad. “The King’s Mirror. I didn’t believe him. Harry had cried wolf a few times, baseless accusations against several people in the industry. He was always loo
king for the shortcut, got himself into trouble a few times by cutting corners, or borrowing from people he shouldn’t have, but after your parents’ stunt with you...”

  “What stunt?” Zoe demanded.

  “They tried to move in and take over.”

  “Seriously? Is that why they left right in the middle of everything?” Zoe asked. She looked angry and confused.

  “I asked them to leave.”

  Zoe reached for my hand. “I’m sorry, Willow.”

  I squeezed her hand but I was thinking about Harry and how it was likely my parents had wronged him. “Even if Harry did lie, them finding it had to be a bitter pill to swallow,” I commented.

  “That explains Harry’s motivation, but not Decker’s,” Zoe added.

  “Mom and Dad had to have known there was animosity with Harry. Dad fired him for crying out loud. They knew he was here on the dive, and yet they said nothing. Do you think it is possible they pushed so hard with the necklace because they feared Harry was going to steal it out from under us...would use me to get his payback on them?”

  “Maybe, but I’m guessing it wasn’t your interests they were protecting. They didn’t want the find to be scooped up, not when they thought it was a Blakeley funded dive. However you look at your parents’ behavior, they were wrong, so very, very wrong.”

  Granddad was right. There was no scenario where my parents were looking out for anyone but themselves.

  “There’s a bigger issue at hand here,” Captain Willard said then added, “What happened to the Ocean Quest has happened to several yachts in the area. He’s been sinking the yachts he salvages. There were people on those yachts.”

  “Which is why he only ever kept you as part-time. You weren’t included in the jobs where they were sinking ships and killing people because he knew you would have turned him in.” Zoe was confused and angry, but anger was winning out. “He stole from us and then he tried to kill us. And for what, a necklace?”

  I felt what she felt. He was my friend. I trusted him, loved him and he lied. It was all a lie.

  Granddad stood. He walked to Zoe and touched her face. “What Decker did was unspeakable. But none of us saw it. I didn’t see it in him or Harry, so don’t beat yourself up over it and count yourself lucky that you know what he is before you got in too deep.”

  Anger shifted to tears.

  Granddad turned to me and blew me a kiss. “See you in the morning.”

  “I’ll notify the coast guard of this new development.” Captain Willard offered before following Granddad out.

  “Do you want to sleep here?”

  “Yes.”

  We crawled into bed. I hugged Zoe as she cried. “I should be comforting you.” She sniffled.

  “Nonsense. I gave him my trust and friendship. You gave him your heart. The bastard.”

  “Do you think they’ll find him?”

  “I hope so. It wasn’t just us. If he really was the one behind those yachts, he hurt a lot of people.”

  “I didn’t see it. The man capable of that, I didn’t see it.”

  “Me either.” I ran my hand down her hair. “You were in love with him.”

  She pressed her face to my shoulder. “Yes.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  I woke in the middle of the night when a hand clamped down over my mouth. My heart leapt thinking it was Noah. It wasn’t.

  “Scream and she dies,” Decker hissed right before the butt of the gun nailed me in the temple. Everything went black.

  I came to on The Mooring that was no longer anchored offshore. We were moving and at a pretty quick pace. Zoe was next to me, bound and gagged, her eyes wide with fear. I looked to where her eyes were glued to see Decker. I didn’t recognize the man standing before us. His eyes were lifeless.

  “The necklace wasn’t in the box.”

  I looked around the deck at the crew who had been like family.

  “Where is the necklace, Willow?”

  “I don’t know. I thought it was in the box.”

  He moved so fast, the back of his hand hit me across the cheek. Stars exploded behind my eyes.

  “You don’t have to hit her.”

  My attention jerked to Harry. Betrayal was a bitter pill.

  “Where’s the necklace?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Did you give it to those fucking pirates?” Decker hunched and yanked my head back by my hair. “Did he fuck you? Did he show you a modicum of attention and you handed it over? Isaac should have fucking killed him. I paid him well enough.”

  I didn’t react at first because I couldn’t believe what he had said. “You hired Isaac? How the hell did you know about him?”

  “Harry told me.”

  My head jerked to Harry. “How did you know?”

  “Your grandfather. He loves you, worries about you. We both do.”

  How could he say that to me with a straight face? “This is your idea of showing love?” His words didn’t make sense though because the timing was off. “I only just learned of Isaac.”

  “Your grandfather told me about the man you met in Cancun. Kace. He didn’t find anything, but if you know the right people, getting information on a man like him isn’t hard.”

  I felt sick because he had been plotting even back then. I looked back at Decker. “Why did you go after Noah?”

  “He came for the treasure. After all these years, he came for the treasure.”

  “But you didn’t know Noah was on the island.”

  “Yeah, we did.”

  “How?”

  “The same way Harry figured out who your pirate was. He knew who to ask and where to look.”

  I had a terrible suspicion that my dream job had nothing to do with me at all. “Why did you really hire me?”

  “Your name got us more legitimate dives than we would have had without it. And I confess…I hoped to ferret information from you on your parents’ hunts so we could sweep in. I didn’t realize they thought so little of you.”

  That didn’t hurt at all. Fucker.

  “The plan was to steal the necklace. You were getting close to finding her and I knew my team was the one you’d be using to dive. It wasn’t your parents’ find, but it was their daughter’s...close enough. Then fucking Warren poked his nose into it.”

  I went numb “What?”

  “He saw me talking to Isaac. He even asked me about Isaac. I couldn’t risk him telling you what he saw.”

  I had been more pissed than scared, but fear filled me after his callous confession. “You killed Warren? Why?”

  “He would have gotten in the way.”

  “Of what?”

  “The ultimate vindication. To right the wrong your parents did to Harry.”

  “Taking his research,” I said and saw the look of surprise on both of their faces.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s why you called my parents after we found Isabella.”

  “Of course. I wanted to see their faces. I intended to fully enjoy fucking them over, but your pirate sent them away.”

  Disbelief, disgust, heartache were some of the emotions I felt when I turned my gaze on Harry. Decker had mentioned he had struggled in his youth, much like Noah, and then in walked Harry, offering him the keys to the kingdom. But he had an agenda. “You played on a lonely and destitute kid, became the father he never had, showed him a lifestyle he only dreamed of just so he could seek your vengeance. In the process you twisted him. How can he stand here and feel justified in killing a harmless man like Warren?”

  Harry didn’t look like the jovial man I had grown to love. He looked soulless, empty. “It should have been me. Me on the cover of those magazines, me riding the wave of success. Instead they fucked me over and left me near poverty. They couldn’t get away with it.”

  “So why not go after them yourself? Why pull an innocent into it?” He flinched, subtle but undeniable. “You don’t have the stomach for violence, so you fostered someone who would.” My f
ocus turned to Decker. “What did he promise you, Decker? What made killing justified?”

  He hit me again. “What the fuck do you think? Money. Where’s the fucking necklace?”

  Tears clouded my eyes. How the hell had we never seen what lurked under the surface? Noah and Decker shared a similar past and though Noah killed, he did have a code. Decker was just a heartless killer. “We never recovered the necklace. You know that.”

  “Where’s your research? The answer has to be there somewhere.”

  “There’s nothing in my research.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “I’m not.”

  He grabbed Zoe and pressed a knife to her neck. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

  “You bastard. Leave her out of it.”

  My heart dropped because it had all been a lie. All of it. And worse, he used Zoe to keep her and me close, to cloud our vision to what he was really doing.

  “Tell me where your research is or I’ll slit her throat.”

  “The hotel. It’s back at the hotel.”

  “Harry, take the lifeboat and one of the crew and head back for it. We’ll rendezvous at your place in the Bahamas.”

  “Don’t hurt them,” Harry pleaded.

  “We don’t have a choice. You know the rules. We don’t leave witnesses. No emotional attachments...” He glanced at Zoe and sneered, “Unless they are a means to an end.”

  “I’m sorry, Willow.” Harry’s face twisted in pain, but he made no move to save us. He just turned and walked away.

  “Take them to the stern and make sure they don’t float.”

  “You unimaginable monster.”

  We were yanked from our places, Zoe was struggling to get free. Gone was the wild terror. She was livid. I think she was capable of murder at that moment.

  “Boss, we have a problem,” one of the crew said.

  “What?”

  “There are two vessels quickly approaching our bow.”

  Zoe and I both jerked around. In the distance, a luxury yacht looking an awful lot like the one Noah had ditched was coming up fast and next to that was the sailing yacht with sails up, full of wind, and flying at the top was the Jolly Roger flag I had bought in Mérida for Noah as a joke.

  The vessels pulled up on either side of The Mooring. Noah was right in the front, his expression blank, his eyes cold. Then he saw me and that mask slipped. Rage, the likes of which I had never seen, burned in his eyes. This was Noah, the cold-blooded, ruthless killer and I was fucking thrilled to see him.