Fate Interrupted 3

by Kaitlyn Cross

  Sky smiled, a fond look softening her gaze. “Who knows, Jon, maybe this was meant to be.” She squeezed his hand. “You and me, I mean.”

  Jon pulled his hand back and scooted further away.

  “Here,” she said, digging in her bikini top and pulling out a hundred dollar bill. “It will make me feel better.” She extended her hand. “Take it.”

  Jon held up a traffic cop-like hand. “I can’t take that back.”

  “Yes, you can,” she said, gesturing with the bill.

  “No thanks.”

  She stared at him with her mouth hanging open, holding out the money. “Well, how about this? How about we go out to dinner sometime soon and apply this to the bill?”

  Jon’s eyes lowered to the money before raising back up to find her sky blue eyes. “I have a girlfriend.”

  “That’s okay,” Ben chimed in. “She don’t mind.”

  Sky’s eyebrows pulled together. “Is she pretty?”

  Something bumped against the bottom of the boat and Will froze. His eyes bulged from their sunken sockets. “What was that?”

  “Log,” the captain said bluntly, playing with the wires under the dash again.

  “Or the mermaid,” Kat whispered coldly, pulling the blanket up to her chin.

  Will’s eyes nervously roamed the water around them. “We’re going to need a bigger boat.”

  Dean got up from his chair and gazed out the back of the boat, desperately trying to control his tongue. He wanted to punch Shaun in the face and if he gave Shaun the chance to open his big mouth it might just come to that. He inhaled a deep breath of clean air and let it back out. “Which way are we drifting?”

  The captain poked his head up from the dash, curly white hair escaping his crooked hat. “East.”

  “Great,” Dean grumbled, balling his hands into fists.

  Ben massaged his scalp, wincing a little in pain.

  “Metal plate bothering you again?” Shaun asked.

  “A little,” he replied, dropping his hand and looking up into the sky. “Must be picking up some nearby alien transmission.”

  “Did you know that mermaids actually look more like rotting zombies than beauty queens?” Will asked, lifting his eyebrows. “Saw it on Discovery.”

  Jon leaned in closer. “What if when we get back to shore…”

  “Quiet!” Captain Taylor ordered, scrambling out from beneath the small roof over the helm and tilting an ear to the sky.

  Dean squinted into the pale light of dawn, following the captain’s line of sight.

  Taylor ducked back inside and came back out with a big black gun.

  “Holy shit, it’s the mermaid, isn’t it?” Will cried, frantically rummaging in his backpack.

  Taylor fired a single shot, sending a red streak bursting high into the sky where it bloomed into a red mushroom that oozed back down toward the lake. He watched the small Cessna fly overhead with his mouth agape, heavy breath tickling his bristly mustache.

  Their heads turned with the single engine plane, following it across the sky until it disappeared into the dark western horizon.

  “Holy shit,” Shaun said, “you almost shot them down!”

  Taylor lowered the flare gun to his side. “If that captain is worth a lick of salt, he’ll be callin in our coordinates as we speak.”

  Kat shivered beneath the blanket. “What if he didn’t see it?”

  “He saw it,” Taylor said.

  Dean’s gaze narrowed. “You don’t sound so sure.”

  “Find out soon enough, Dean,” the captain replied, going to put the gun away.

  Dean turned back to the water just as something took one of the fishing lines, pulling it out with a long zing that dragged the boat with it.

  “Oh, shit it’s her!” Will cried, whipping out his gun and aiming at the water.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Carrie arrived at Brooke’s house shortly after Evy had, her blonde hair reaching out in all directions, dark bags resting beneath her eyes. “I still can’t believe this,” she said, dropping her purse onto a gray couch.

  “You?” Brooke retorted, staring at her cell phone, a dumbfounded look hanging from her ears. “This doesn’t make any sense!”

  “If Shaun’s not already dead, he’s going to be when I get through with him.” Carrie checked her cell phone again. “I had to take the girls to the neighbors – who, let me tell you, were just thrilled about someone knocking on their door at four thirty in the morning. We’re lucky we didn’t get shot!”

  “They’re not dead,” Evy said from a high-backed armchair that made her seem as small as her voice. It wasn’t the first time the thought had crossed her mind. Maybe their boat had hit a rock or caught on fire, tragedies she saw on the news more than once each and every summer. Dark thoughts consumed her because only dark thoughts could explain the unexplainable. They weren’t swimming at Shaun’s, or partying in Chicago into the wee hours of the night. Something had happened. Something bad.

  Carrie’s shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry, honey. I know they’re not. My mouth doesn’t work well before coffee and makeup.” She fluffed her bed-head and poured herself a cup of coffee. “Anyone call Pam yet? Because I’m not giving Jon a ride home. This is probably all his fault. He can walk for all I care.”

  “She’s on her way.”

  “What’d she say?” Carrie asked, coming back into the living room and sinking into the couch with a winded sigh. “Was she pissed?”

  “I don’t think she was pissed. She sounded wide awake.”

  Brooke looked up. “At this hour?”

  “God, I miss the days of still being awake at this hour, going to Denny’s for breakfast and laughing at all the people heading to work.” Carrie took a careful sip from the steaming mug and dropped a hand on Evy’s knee, stirring her from her twisted thoughts. “Live it up while ya can, ladies, because the next thing ya know, you can’t even get a quickie in without tripping over some damn toy.”

  Brooke’s phone rang. She looked down at the screen and her heart hitched in her chest. “It’s Ben.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  The shoreline got bigger and so did the foreboding feeling in the pit of Dean’s stomach. Standing on the bow, he watched the Milwaukee Harbor Patrol slowly tow them toward an outcrop of tall buildings looming in the distance. Not even nine in the morning and the sun was already getting hot. If that Cessna hadn’t of called in their location, they would have been getting thirsty by now, too thirsty for three bottles of water to handle.

  “How noided out was that?”

  Dean rotated his head a quarter turn.

  Jon snorted. “Who knew we’d run into the cops way out here. I think they know I’ve got bud.”

  Dean looked back to the Harbor Patrol boat - a cross between a tug boat and a storm chaser – and watched it pull them closer. Part of him wished they were still two hours away, like when their rescue had materialized out of thin air. Now, he was that much closer to the storm waiting for him back at the marina. In a few minutes, he would be in harm’s way. Harm’s way of Hurricane Evy. And there would be no shelter.

  “Hey, man, I’m really sorry, Dean.”

  Dean blinked back to reality and twisted around to face Jon, fantasizing about how easy it would be to push him overboard right now. Into the cold water where the mermaid could have her way with him because that’s what he deserved.

  “We had no idea things would go south like this,” Jon continued, dropping Dean’s chilly glare.

  Dean took off his ball cap and let the wind run through his hair. “Not surprising. You have no idea about a lot of things.”

  The color fled Jon’s face. He pulled his blond bangs from his eyes and held them out of the way. “I suppose I got that coming.”

  “You suppose?” Dean glanced at the whipped cream stain invading his crotch like Custer’s Calvary.

  “Hey, at least I caught a king salmon,” Shaun said, offering up a halfhearted smile.

 
Dean looked at him for a few seconds and then walked away.

  Shaun stared after him, jaw flapping in the wind. “Shit.”

  “We fucked this up good, didn’t we?”

  Shaun glanced at Jon and swallowed dryly. “We did.”

  “So who’s Cassandra?” Will asked.

  Captain Taylor lifted his caterpillar-like eyebrows into his wrinkled forehead. “Cassandra was my wife of thirty-two years.” He watched the patrol boat through distant eyes. “Cancer took her tree years ago and I can tell ya one thing, Dean.”

  Dean looked up.

  “The colors ain’t so bright without her, the rain not as sweet.” Taylor rested a hand on the powerless steering wheel and shut one eye against the rising sun “Time is a precious thing you can’t get back, and Lord knows I wish I could; every fight, every late night spent fixin the boat, every time I was too tired to even kiss her goodnight.” He turned back to Dean and lowered his voice, the smell of cigar floating on his breath. “I wish I could get em all back and just…enjoy being with her.” A weak smile revealed his yellowed teeth. “If only I had known that back then.”

  Dean studied the captain for a few seconds, unable to look away. His cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out, afraid to even look, and brought the screen to life.

  Three voicemails from Evy.

  And five text messages.

  He shut his eyes and grimaced, his stomach tightening. When he opened them again, he could make out four tiny silhouettes standing alongside the dock.

  Chapter Nineteen

  From this distance, Dean could see the four silhouettes had their arms folded across their chests and were, more than likely, shivering in the cool breeze rolling off the lake. The patrol boat nudged Cassandra into her slip before pulling away with a quick wave. Captain Taylor tied the boat down while Dean took a deep breath. He cringed when Sky and Kat dropped the blanket to the bench. In the light of day, their bikinis were even more revealing than he had thought and their tattoos screamed stripper as much as their clear high heels.

  He didn’t wait for anyone else and hopped off the boat onto the dock. His legs felt like rubber as he approached the four women staring back at him from the edge of the parking lot. After what seemed like a three mile walk in the desert, Dean stopped in front of Evy. He opened his mouth to speak but the look on her face choked his words.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, looking him up and down.

  “I’m fine, tired but fine.” He glanced at Pam, Carrie and Brooke before turning back to Evy. “I’m sorry this happened. The boat conked out and there was no cell phone signal. But everyone is fine.”

  Evy’s eyes darted to Kat and Sky as Captain Taylor helped them off the boat, her wounded gaze then lowering to the stain on Dean’s pants. “So, what’d you catch?”

  “By the looks of it, I’d say gonorrhea,” Brooke said, watching Sky and Kat stagger up the dock in high heels that clacked loudly against the planks.

  “It’s not what you think.”

  Evy studied their skimpy outfits and zipped up her purple hoodie. “Oh wait, are those scantily clad strippers leaving your boat?”

  Dean opened his mouth.

  “Then it’s exactly what I think!” Evy examined the stain on his jeans with an intense look on her face. “At least it looks like you had a good time.”

  “Evy, listen…”

  “Is…that my dad?”

  Dean followed her bewildered gaze behind him.

  Will waved, slinging his backpack over a shoulder and hurrying up the dock.

  “Dad?” Evy gasped, clutching her chest. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came up to surprise Dean.” He glanced at Kat and Sky as they stopped beside him.

  “Thank you for the advice, Mr. Burnett,” Sky said softly. “I am going to find a different job and go back to college after all.”

  He pressed his lips together. “That’s great to hear, Sky.”

  She flashed him a tight-lipped smile, carefully avoiding Evy’s piercing glare, and walked away, holding Kat’s arm for support.

  “And were they your idea?”

  Will’s eyes flicked back to Evy. “Me?” He laughed. “No, they weren’t my idea.”

  Evy exchanged an arctic look with Dean and turned back to her father. “Where are you staying?”

  “I was going to stay at a hotel, but I’m driving back today.”

  “Today?”

  He checked his watch. “Yeah, Brooke & Ben are going to drop me off at my hotel on their way home.”

  Evy stepped closer. “Why are your eyes so bloodshot?”

  “Just tired,” he said, “listen, none of us got any sleep last night and Dean had no idea about anything.”

  “This was Shaun’s idea, wasn’t it?” Carrie asked, watching her husband offload coolers and chairs with Jon.

  Dean started to respond and Carrie cut him off with a pointed look.

  “That was a rhetorical question.”

  “Hi,” Ben said, stopping next to Dean and catching his breath. “Miss me?”

  Brooke sharpened her gaze and jerked her chin toward the parking lot. “Did you know about the lot lizards?”

  He followed her heated gaze to the strippers climbing into Mikey’s yellow Hummer. “I had no idea, and neither did Dean.”

  “I knew it,” Carrie grumbled, her hair blowing in the wind.

  Brooke tapped a dubious sneaker against the dock.

  Ben sighed, his coat on his arm. “Brooke, you know I would never lie to you.”

  Her eyes widened. “Oh, really, Roger.”

  Ben’s chest sunk as a long breath escaped him. “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”

  Brooke grabbed him by the shirt. “Come on, Leatherface,” she said, towing him toward his big black F-150. She looked back over her shoulder at Will. “You, too!”

  “Coming!” Will placed his hands on Evy’s arms. “I’m sorry about all of this, sweetie, but don’t take it out on Dean. It wasn’t his idea.”

  She stared at her father, unmoved.

  He kissed her on the cheek and tried to smile. “I’ll call you when I get back home.”

  She replied with a tight nod and, grudgingly, kissed him back.

  Will started for Ben’s truck and then stopped and turned. “And don’t tell your mother about any of this!”

  Evy kept her gaze locked firmly on Dean.

  He pulled his hat down lower to prevent the wind from stealing it. “Why’d she call him Roger?”

  “If you want a ride, I suggest you keep up.”

  Dean watched his fiancé walk away, exhaling a depleted breath. “That went well.”

  “She’ll be fine,” Carrie said, glaring at her husband as he and Jon lugged a large cooler up the dock. “She knows who to blame. We all do.”

  Pam stepped closer, the breeze brushing her long dark hair over the shoulder of a red leather jacket. “It was Jon’s idea, wasn’t it? The strippers?”

  Dean stared blankly at her. “I…”

  “You can tell me, I won’t get mad.”

  Carrie laughed. “That makes one of us, girl!”

  Pam turned back Jon and Shaun and snorted. “Boys will be boys.”

  “Yes, they will,” Carrie replied under her heated breath. “Boys will also sleep on the couch.”

  Dean smiled thinly and got marching before Evy pulled away and left him in the dust. He considered catching a ride with someone else but knew the ride back to his place would be much quieter with Evy. And that was fine with him. Right now, he just wanted his own bed and some serious sleep, even if fever-type dreams followed him down the rabbit hole. It would be no use trying to reason with her now anyway. His mind was a bowl of soggy noodles and he wouldn’t stand a chance.

  Dean climbed into the passenger side of the silver Honda Fit and gently shut the door, trying not to wake the dull thud stirring behind his right eye. Evy sat behind the wheel, staring out over the dash. With the window
s rolled up, it was quiet, the ambiance of the lake replaced by the beating of his heart.

  “I don’t get why you felt like you had to go behind my back to do this.”

  Dean turned to his side window and exhaled a long breath that fogged up the window. “I didn’t go behind your back.”

  “I told you I didn’t care if…”

  His head snapped around. “I had no idea those girls would be coming! Okay?”

  “Well, then why did you get on the boat with them in the first place?”

  “They met us a few miles out because Shaun knew I wouldn’t get on the boat if I knew they were coming.”

  Evy looked him right in the eye and carefully chose her next words. “Did you have sexual relations with either one of those girls?”

  “What?” he replied, body tensing. “No!”

  “Then what is that stain on your jeans?”

  He looked down. “It’s whipped cream.”

  “Whipped cream? Oh, how nice!”

  “She fell into me when the boat hit something, which is when we lost power.”

  “Ha! Do you think I’m really that stupid?”

  An image of Sky going down on Jon slashed through his groggy mind. He blinked it away. “Like I would ever have sex with either one of those skanks! Get fucking real!”

  “I know what strippers do with cans of whipped cream, and it has nothing to do with strawberry shortcake!”

  “Good for you, Evy. And thanks for having zero faith in me. It’s good to know you think so highly of me.”

  “Don’t try to turn this on me, Dean! I’m the one who’s been up all night worried sick!”

  He shut his eyes and cringed, considering calling a cab. He tried to roll his window down, desperate for some fresh air, but the car wasn’t running and the button only clicked dryly.

  She leaned against her door, sizing him up with arms folded across her breasts. “Did anyone else?”

  “Did anyone else what?”

  “Have sexual relations of any kind with either one of those girls.”