“No way. It’s a pirate ship.” Emma’s eyes went wide with excitement.
Everyone held the same stunned expression and started talking at once, telling her what a great ship, they couldn’t wait to go aboard. She looked down at Emma.
“Ready to be a pirate?”
“Yep.”
“Great. Pirates who don’t know how to swim and are five years old wear life vests at all times. Even on the ship, you have to keep it on. If you don’t wear it, we can’t go. Pirate ship rules.”
Marti waited for the little girl to decide. It only took a second. Cameron put the vest on her, silently mouthed thank you to Marti, and they all boarded the zodiac and Marti took them to the ship.
“Okay, Cameron, Sam, Jack, we’ll head toward the Farallon Islands. Let’s see if we can catch some salmon.”
She brought out the fishing poles and got a lot of oohs and aahs over the equipment. The ship was fully stocked, the equipment top of the line.
Shelly had taken note of everything on the ship, from the leather sectional and antique furnishings to the lavishly decorated cabins below. She didn’t have much to say about the stainless steel appliances in the galley, but she did take note of the elaborately stocked bar.
Impressed with the crew onboard, she had a good time ordering them to get her a drink, or move a chair on deck for her.
Pissed off, Marti put up with it for Emma’s sake. She’d probably have to give the crew a bonus for putting up with the snob.
She set Emma up with a fishing rod and made her stand next to Cameron. She was safe enough, but accidents happened and Marti didn’t want to take any chances with her.
They had a successful morning fishing. All the men pulled in a fair number of salmon. The fish were on ice and Marti had just put out lunch for everyone on the front deck. She made Emma a turkey sandwich, some fruit salad, and chips. Shelly insisted on taking her meal at the table below deck, so Cameron went down to eat with her.
It was a wonderful lunch with everyone talking and having a good time. She liked Jack and Sam. They were warm and kind. Even Captain Finn enjoyed the men’s company, and most especially Emma. He relished telling her a number of very tall pirate tales. They all listened and laughed. Emma was having a grand time.
“Sugar Bug, you stay with your uncles and Captain Finn. I’m going to see if your dad and Shelly would like some more lunch.”
“I’ll come with you, Marti. I need a word.”
Marti noted the concern in Captain Finn’s voice. “All right.”
They went below deck. Shelly and Cameron were not in the main living space. One of the cabin doors was closed and she frowned.
“What did you need?”
Sound carried on the ship, and he didn’t want anyone overhearing what he had to say. He’d watched her and the people she’d brought onboard. One thing was clear. She had a thing for Cameron, and although he’d brought the wench with him, he clearly wanted Marti.
He watched Marti when she wasn’t looking, and she did the same to Cameron. He’d overheard the wench say she was having Cameron’s baby and they were getting married. It bothered him, because he’d watched her to make sure she didn’t make any more rude comments or snide remarks to Marti. Every word out of her mouth pissed him off more.
He put his hands on Marti’s shoulders, pulled her to him, and whispered in her ear. She immediately put her hands on his arms to keep herself steady on the moving ship.
“That wench who came onboard with Cameron has been drinking. She’s half-crocked between the vodka-cranberry juice and too much sun.”
Marti studied Captain Finn and saw the serious look in his eyes. “You’re sure?”
“Oh, yes. I’m sure.”
“She swore to Cameron she’s pregnant.”
“I doubt it. If she is, she should be drowned. I’ve caught her three times sneaking down here to add vodka to her juice.”
He was still holding her and whispering in her ear when the door creaked open behind them.
Marti turned her head, eyes connecting with Cameron’s. Shirtless, guilt written all over his face, he slipped out of the cabin.
Shelly called, “Come back, darling,” in a sultry tone that made her heart shatter.
“Thank you, Captain.”
She let go of him and faced off with Cameron, her heart bleeding. “I see I didn’t have to come down and see if you needed anything. Shelly already made sure to take care of you.”
She shouldn’t feel hurt or betrayed, but she did. She also knew it showed all over her face. “I’ll just go back up and make sure Emma is okay.”
Cameron stood there and Marti disappeared up the steps onto the deck. Nothing for him to say or do to change things, not matter how much he wanted to. He didn’t belong to her. She’d never be his.
He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck and wondered how he managed to dig himself deeper and deeper into his own personal pile of shit.
He would never forget the pain on Marti’s face when he walked out of the cabin. He didn’t think he was capable of making someone hurt the way he’d seen Marti hurting when she saw him come out the door.
Hell, he’d spent the entire morning hard and throbbing, watching Marti in her bikini top and cutoff jean shorts helping Emma fish. She’d joked with everyone, been the perfect hostess, and kept the conversation moving from one topic to the next, engaging everyone. Thanks to her, everyone was having the time of their lives. She even included Shelly whenever possible.
Shelly didn’t make it easy. She was too busy cataloguing everything expensive on the ship, or making rude comments about Marti personally. It made him angry, but Marti let it roll right off her back.
And just how did he repay her for a great day out on her ship? He disappeared with Shelly, who tried at every turn to spoil Marti’s day, in a cabin on her ship. In the end, all her overzealous pawing and groping did was make him desperate to get away from her. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t sleep with her. Not when Marti was the only woman he wanted. Going into that room with Shelly, well, he’d crossed the line. He might as well have slapped Marti. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t hide the fact he didn’t want Shelly. Not the way he wanted her. She wanted him too, and he’d thrown it in her face she couldn’t have him. Worse, he hadn’t corrected her assumption he’d been doing the nasty with Shelly.
Why should he feel so guilty? He was engaged to Shelly. He could sleep with her if he wanted. It shouldn’t matter what Marti thought. Except it did matter. It mattered more than he wanted to admit, because he’d made a commitment and a promise, and he owed it to his children to give them the life they deserved.
He sat on the couch and looked out the window at the sea. He didn’t pay attention to Shelly coming out of the cabin on less than steady legs. He sat brooding and wishing to go back in time and not walk into the restaurant and see Shelly who looked like Caroline. He wished to erase her and start with the day he’d met Marti, only this time he would be alone when George introduced them.
Chapter Eighteen
* * *
MARTI FLEW UP the steps and out onto the deck. Jack and Sam saw the look on her face before she took control of her wild emotions. She sat with them at the table and plastered on a fake smile.
“Everything all right with Cameron?” Jack asked.
“I’m sure Shelly took good care of him.” She shook her head and waved her hand to brush away her rude statement. “How about a poker game?”
Jack and Sam exchanged identical concerned looks.
Sam sighed and shook his head in disgust. Cameron was an idiot if he couldn’t see how much Marti loved him and how good the two of them could be together. Sam thought about his own wife and how lucky he was to have her. He hoped Cameron fixed things in his life before it got worse. Sam had a sinking feeling it was going to get a lot worse before it got any better.
“Let’s play. I warn you, though, I cheat,” Sam confessed.
“You’re an FBI agent
. You can’t cheat.”
“I’m an undercover agent. I’m paid to lie and cheat.” He gave her a cocky grin and winked.
He got a half smile in return and thought it better than nothing. She’d recover in a little while and be back to her old self.
Emma sat with her Uncle Jack and helped him play. They were losing badly, but Emma thought the game was a lot of fun. Before long, Marti was laughing and joking again.
“I want to go fish.”
Marti set her cards on the table facedown so Sam couldn’t see them. Poor Emma. Everyone had caught a fish but her. She was too little to use one of the big poles her dad and uncles used to catch the big fish.
“I’ll take you in back, honey.” Shelly came up the steps and swayed, but caught herself with a hand on the railing. “Oopsy.”
Marti didn’t want to let her go, but Shelly walked off and Emma followed. Marti, Jack, and Sam continued their card game. Two of Marti’s crew walked forward from the back deck. Whenever Shelly was on deck, her crew disappeared. Captain Finn stood at the bow watching the sea. She liked to stand up there and do the same thing. It had a calming effect on her.
Emma had only been gone for a few minutes when Shelly sauntered up to the table where they were playing poker. Marti hadn’t noticed Cameron come up on deck. Alarms went off in her head.
“Where’s Emma?”
“Oh, I gave her one of those poles and got her set up. She’s fishing. She’s fine.”
Marti jumped up and ran for the back of the boat. She passed Shelly and yelled, “You stupid, drunken bitch!”
By the time she reached the back deck, Emma was becoming just a speck of bright orange in the water. She rang the hanging bell and yelled, “Man overboard! Come about, Captain!”
She dove off the back of the ship, landing hard in the water due to the height.
Her head crested the water. She dragged in a deep breath and swam hard and fast to get to Emma.
Cameron came up the steps in time to see Marti rush by toward the back of the ship. She rang the bell and yelled to the captain to come about. To his horror, she dove off the back of the ship, a good twenty-foot fall into the water.
He rushed to the railing. Horror and dread filled him when he saw Marti swimming toward his daughter, nothing but orange life vest floating in the far distance. The ship turned quickly and at a steep angle. Everyone held on and tried to keep an eye on Marti and Emma, not wanting to lose track of either of them in the choppy waves.
He never took his eyes from them. Marti grabbed Emma. Relief washed over him seeing Emma safe in her arms.
Fear gripped Marti’s heart like a vice. “Emma, open your eyes.”
Emma didn’t respond. The edge of her lips turned blue in the fifty-four degree water. Marti saw blood in the water and did her best to lift Emma up and out of the water to see where she was hurt. A long gash across her palm bled profusely. Cut by the fishing line.
“I lost the fishing pole. He got away.” Emma’s bottom lip wobbled and turned into a deep frown.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. We’ll get a new pole, and we’ll catch a hundred fish.”
Marti took her hand and held it up out of the water. She kicked her legs hard to keep them both from going under as the waves bobbed and pushed them around. Her legs burned with exertion, but she had to keep them afloat and Emma’s hand out of the water.
She pictured what happened, furious Shelly had left her alone. The little girl had snagged a fish and been pulled overboard by its weight and tug. She tried to hold on to the pole, and the line sliced open her palm.
She wanted to kill Shelly. Emma could have been killed. She wasn’t in good shape right now. Marti needed to get her out of the water and warm.
She checked for the direction of the ship. They’d made the turn. Captain Finn would be there soon to scoop them up. One of her crew threw the rope ladder over the edge. No time to stop the ship and launch the zodiac. She’d have to grab on and hold tight to the rope ladder until they grabbed Emma.
Marti wanted to panic. The little girl’s teeth chattered. Marti felt the cold sapping her own energy. She struggled more and more to keep their heads above the crashing waves. Without a wet suit, she’d freeze and drown in no time at all, especially trying to tread water and hold on to Emma.
Blood and the open sea were not a good mix, especially near the shark-infested waters surrounding the Farallon Islands. Marti was concerned every shark in a fifty-mile radius had caught the scent of blood in the water. She and Emma were sitting ducks.
Chapter Nineteen
* * *
“WE HAVE TO launch the zodiac,” Cameron yelled at the captain, even as a crewmember threw the rope ladder over the side.
“We don’t have time. The water is freezing. We have to get them out quickly. Marti has practiced this. She’ll make it.”
They approached Marti and Emma. They’d never slow down fast enough. As the ship drew closer, the crew dropped the sails, slowing the ship with a lurch before they smoothed out again.
Marti swam, getting in position to grab the rope ladder and waiting as the front of the ship passed her by. She put her arm up and held tight to Emma. It wouldn’t do any good for her to grab the rope only to lose Emma. The water might drag her under the ship, maybe even both of them.
She grabbed the rope, hooking her arm through it. She cracked her head against the side of the ship and fought the force of the water pushing on her as one of her crew took Emma from her arms, flipped her over his shoulder, and carried her up the ladder.
Marti used all her strength to drag herself out of the rushing cascade of water against the ship’s hull with just her arms and finally got her feet on the last rung. Adrenaline gave her the strength to pull herself up and out of such a force. Once she had a foothold, she stepped up the ladder rather well, but fell exhaustedly over the side onto the deck at everyone’s feet.
She coughed up seawater and rolled onto her side. So cold, she didn’t feel Jack and Sam’s hands on her trying to cover her with a blanket and dry her off.
Cameron kneeled next to Emma. He pulled her life vest off and patted her down with a thick towel. She shook violently, her lips and face still blue.
Disgusted, Marti saw Shelly standing back, looking at Emma and Cameron as if she didn’t know why everyone was making a fuss.
Marti dragged herself up to her feet to a great many protests from Sam, Jack, and her crew, and grabbed Emma out from under Cameron’s hands.
“Marti, wait. Let me get her dry,” Cameron called after her.
She ran down the steps and headed for her cabin at the bow of the boat. She ran through the door and into the small bathroom. She grabbed a towel off the hanger and wrapped it around Emma’s hand and pressed it to her chest. She turned on the shower with warm water, stood in the stall, her back to the wall, and slid down to the floor with Emma in her arms. She held her tight. The warm water poured over them, heat sinking through their skin and back into their bones. She shook so violently, it took her a few minutes to notice everyone standing in the open stall door.
“Captain, take us back. Call an ambulance. I want them waiting at the dock. Emma is hurt.”
“Hurt?” Cameron asked, concern filling his voice and eyes as he bent and ran a big hand down Emma’s wet hair, checking her out with a quick scan from head to toe.
Unable to see her injury pressed against her breast, Marti explained, “Her hand is cut.”
“There’s no need for an ambulance for a cut. We’ll just put a bandage on it. I mean, really. What is the problem? She went for a little swim. Once she warms up, she’ll be fine.”
Shelly hoped she’d be fine, or Cameron was going to blame her. The little girl should have been more careful.
“Get that stupid bitch out of my sight.” Marti held and rocked Emma in her arms.
“Come on, baby. Wake up for me, Sugar Bug. Wake up, baby.” Marti kept rocking and rubbing her hands up and down Emma’s back. Her little face remain
ed tinged blue. She didn’t wake up. The fear overwhelmed her and sent tears down her cheeks.
“Why didn’t you wait for us to lower the boat? She would have been fine. She had a life vest on. She wouldn’t sink.”
“I swear to God, I’m going to kill you. Emma is bleeding.”
“So? It’s just a little cut, a little blood. She’s fine.”
“There are sharks in the water, you idiot.”
“Sharks? You’re kidding,” Shelly said, disbelieving.
“Either get her out of here, or Emma or no Emma, I’m going to throw that bitch overboard.” She shook violently now from the cold and pure fury.
Sam recognized the effects of the adrenaline coursing through Marti. She was a mother lion protecting her cub from a predator. He had no doubt Marti would leave Emma in the warm water and attack Shelly. He grabbed Shelly by the arm and pushed her out the door and into the main living area.
“Why don’t you have another drink, sit down, and shut up? You aren’t helping matters. You were supposed to watch her, the little girl who is going to be your stepdaughter. Don’t you have any feelings at all for that innocent child?”
“Really, you’re all making a big deal out of nothing. She got a little wet. She’ll be fine. Sharks, my ass. Marti is just making a scene to get Cameron’s attention.”
Sam tried valiantly to hold onto his temper. “Shelly, this is the California coast. The Farallon Islands are famous for their great white sharks. This is their hunting ground. Marti and Emma are lucky they didn’t get attacked. Now shut up and sit, or I’ll throw you overboard myself.”
Sam’s words penetrated the depths of Cameron’s mind, sinking into his heart. Finally hitting him, he understood what Marti had done. Not only had she jumped overboard to save his daughter, but she’d jumped into shark-infested waters without thinking twice.
He pulled his shirt off over his head, moved Marti forward, sat behind her, and put his arms around both she and Emma. Like hugging an ice cube, they both shivered against him. He hoped his body heat would help warm them faster. He rubbed his hands up and down Marti’s arms. Her bottom nestled against his groin and the feel of her this close and tucked up against him sent a shaft of heat racing through his system. His chest pressed to her ice-cold back, but the feel of her skin to skin sent his mind on a journey to Dirty Town. He’d fantasized about having her this close. She shifted, pressing against his hard cock. To his surprise, she snuggled closer and he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. He brushed the damp hair from her face and leaned his face to hers. She sighed and settled against him.
The Right Bride: Book Three: The Hunted Series Page 10
