Riverboat Blaze

by J. R. Roberts

  She turned her head and saw Dillon walking across the floor to her.

  “Hey, sweetie, I need a card,” one of the players said. “You fallin’ asleep there?”

  “Sorry,” she said, and dealt him the card he needed for twenty-one.

  “Yes!” he said.

  Dillon wasn’t alone. He had one of the male dealers with him. Had he finally figured out that she was bad at this?

  “Okay, honey,” he said to her, “why don’t you take the rest of the night off?”

  “And do what?” she asked, wondering what the catch was.

  “Why don’t you just relax?” he asked her.

  She put the cards down. “Fine with me.”

  She got out from behind the table and allowed the male dealer to move into her spot.

  “Thank God,” one of the players said. “I hope you at least know what you’re doin’, son.”

  “Don’t worry, my friend,” Dillon said.

  As Angela walked away, she heard the player say, “Send her to my room, if you want, but don’t let her deal anymore.”

  Dillon laughed, the bastard.

  She crossed the room to Clint’s table, moved up behind him, and bent over, pressing her lips to his ear.

  “I have the rest of the night off,” she said. “Come to my cabin.”

  He looked up at her and smiled, but before he could say yes or no, she walked away.

  He looked at the cards in his hand. Three kings. He made a point of not looking at Kathy, but it was becoming harder and harder.

  “I call,” Galvin said, calling Clint’s bet. “Three sevens.”

  Clint put his cards down, raked in his pot, and said, “I think that’s it for me, gents.”

  “You leavin’ already?” Galvin asked. “We just got started.”

  “There’ll be other nights, Mr. Galvin,” Clint said.

  He pocketed his money and stood up. Before he played with Galvin again, he’d have to have a heart-to-heart with Kathy—if he could separate the two.

  He knocked on Angela’s door.

  “Did I take you away from something important?” she asked when she opened it. “A winning streak, maybe?”

  “Winning, yes,” he said, “but nothing really important.”

  She backed away to allow him to enter.

  “Dean gave me the rest of the night off,” she told him.

  “So you told me. Any idea why?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe he thought I’d spend the time with him, but I’d much rather spend it with you.”

  “Angela, Dean’s my friend,” Clint said. “I don’t want to get in between you two—”

  “There’s nothin’ goin’ on between me and Dean, Clint,” she said. “He may want to, but I don’t, and I made that decision before I ever met you.”

  She moved closer to him and put her hands on his chest.

  “We have more time now than we did the first day,” she said, playing with a button on his shirt. “I’d like to go nice and slow this time.”

  “Sounds good to me—” he started, but that was when they heard the noise. It was a great big Whump! that they felt in the floor.

  “What the hell was that?” he asked.

  SEVENTEEN

  When they got to the deck, they saw people running back and forth and, beneath them, the flames. And the boat started to list to one side . . .

  They were going down!

  Still holding tightly to Angela’s arm, Clint practically dragged her down the stairs to the next deck. The crush of people kept them from getting to the first deck, however.

  “Angela, do you have any idea how many people this boat holds?”

  “I think I heard Dean saying he could get eighteen hundred on board.”

  “And how many for this cruise?”

  “Not a full load,” she said, “but there still has to be eight or nine hundred.”

  And they were all trying to get to safety as the flames started to spread.

  Clint looked around. There was no way he could find Dean or Ava in this crush of humanity. The boat listed even more to the left, and they had to hold on so they wouldn’t be thrown off balance.

  “We should get to the other side if we’re gonna jump off,” she said. “That side is lower.”

  “No, the boat’s listing that way,” he said. “If we jump off that side the boat might roll. Anybody in the water then will be crushed. We’ve got to go over on this side. If it rolls, I want to be on the other side of it.”

  He wondered where the captain was. If the man was good at his job, he was still on the bridge.

  Captain Hatton gritted his teeth as he held onto the wheel of the big riverboat. This damn boat . . .

  He knew that this was not his fault. He hadn’t hit anything. The fault was with the boat itself, and when he saw the flames he was convinced that the problem came from belowdecks. He’d felt the explosion beneath his feet and knew immediately what it was.

  The boat continued to list to the port side, no matter how he tried to fight it. It was his guess they were taking on water on that side.

  He maintained as much forward motion as he could. There was just the slightest chance he could reach a bend in the river where the water was shallow. It could save the boat from going completely under.

  Goddamn weight of the damn vessel!

  Dean Dillon felt the deck shudder beneath his feet and knew something was wrong.

  The rest of the people in the salon all stopped what they were doing and froze. Cards, dice, the roulette wheel—they all stopped. The piano ceased to play and Ava stopped singing.

  “What was that?” one person yelled.

  Dillon knew he had to do something quickly, so he left the bar and hurried to get up on the stage with Ava.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “everythin’ is under control, I assure you. Just go on with your gambling, enjoy the music. This boat is quite safe. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation—”

  Abruptly, the boat listed to port, and Dillon was almost thrown off balance. Some glasses hit the deck and shattered, and the piano rolled on its rollers.

  “We’re sinking!” somebody shouted, and that was it.

  Everyone panicked and ran for the doors.

  Dillon reached out, grabbed Ava’s arm, and said, “Come on!”

  THE PRESENT . . .

  Clint and Angela were flattened against a wall on the second deck as people ran by. The majority of the passengers did not seem to have grasped the gravity of the situation yet. They were still running to and fro rather than abandoning ship. People were being knocked off their feet and trampled.

  Clint helped an older woman to her feet before she got trampled, and he said to her, “You have to jump overboard.”

  She stared at him as if he was crazy, then shook loose and started running.

  “You can’t help everyone, Clint,” Angela said. “We have to save ourselves.”

  “All right,” he said. “Let’s get off this thing.”

  They had to push through a wave of people in order to get to the rail.

  “Can you swim?” he asked her.

  “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I guess we’re about to find out.”

  EIGHTEEN

  When they hit the water, it was ice cold. The shock went right through Clint, but he knew he had to keep hold of Angela. Otherwise, if she couldn’t swim, she was finished.

  The force with which they struck the water took them under immediately. Angela started to thrash, almost pulling free of his hold. He grabbed her around the waist so he’d be sure not to lose her, and kicked for the surface. But she was struggling so much she was keeping them under. There was a chance she could drown them both. If that was the case, he’d have to let her go or die with her.

  He shook her, trying to send her a message to relax and let him do the work. Finally, she seemed to get the message. Her struggles ceased and he was able to carry them both to the surface.


  Their heads broke the surface and he took a deep breath. He looked over at her and saw the reason she had stopped struggling. She was unconscious. She had probably swallowed a lot of water.

  “Angela!” he called. “Angela! You have to wake up.”

  His arm was around her waist, so he squeezed, trying to drive water out of her lungs. He did it again and again, and finally her mouth opened and water came streaming out. She choked, and he tried to keep her chin above water, so she didn’t just take more in.

  She choked again, her eyes fluttered, and she looked directly at him, which was a very good sign.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “You’re all right,” he said. “You swallowed some water and lost consciousness for a few minutes.”

  She looked around, then turned and looked up at the burning boat.

  “Oh my God,” she said, as it all came back to her.

  “Dean’s perfect boat.”

  “Yeah.”

  Something hit the water to their right, and then to their left.

  “What’s happening?” she asked.

  “People are getting the message,” he said. “They’re jumping off.”

  But it was only a smattering of people. He was afraid the majority of them were jumping off the left side, seeing that it was not as high a jump.

  If the boat rolled, they’d all be crushed.

  Dean Dillon could not believe his eyes. His perfect riverboat was on fire, and sinking. That goddamn captain, he thought, he must’ve hit something.

  He had Ava by the arm, pulling her along as she panicked.

  “We’re gonna die!” she told him.

  “We’re not gonna die, Ava,” he said. “We gonna get off.”

  Although what he was thinking was that he should probably die. Go down with the ship, because after this he was finished. His investors would be after him, and there’d be a thousand lawsuits.

  No, he was going to stay alive, if only to get his hands around that captain’s throat.

  “Come on, Ava,” he said. “we’ve got to get off this boat.”

  “How?”

  “We’re gonna jump overboard.”

  She grabbed his arm with both hands and said, “I can’t swim!”

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “Just hold onto me.”

  The Warrant brothers had no idea what had happened. They were supposed to be on duty, but they were in their cabin, sharing a little red-haired girl who worked in the kitchen. They often shared a girl between them. The trick was finding a girl who didn’t mind, didn’t find it odd.

  The girl from the kitchen not only didn’t mind it, she was excited by it.

  “I ain’t never been with two boys at one time,” she’d said.

  “It’ll be somethin’ new for you,” Sam had said, and she agreed.

  So they were on the bed, Sam’s penis in the girl’s mouth while Lou fucked her from behind, and when the boat listed to port the first time, they were all thrown off and to the floor.

  “What the hell was that?” the girl demanded. She’d just barely avoided biting Sam as his dick slid from her mouth. From behind, Lou was still inside of her.

  “I dunno,” Sam said.

  “Damn!” Lou said. “We gotta find out.”

  They all got dressed quickly and left the cabin. When they got to the deck, panic had already set in, and they could see the flames.

  “Are we sinkin’?” the girl asked.

  “Looks like it,” Sam said.

  “This boat ain’t supposed to be able to sink,” Lou reminded his brother.

  Sam took the girl by the shoulders and said, “You gotta get off this boat.”

  “What about you two?” she asked.

  “We’re security,” Sam said. “We gotta see to people.”

  “You’re so brave,” she said. She kissed them both quickly and ran off into the crowd.

  “We gotta see to people?” Lou asked. “We gotta get off this boat.”

  “You think this is our fault?” Sam asked. “ ’cause we wuz havin’ sex instead of doin’ our job?”

  “Well, yeah, it could be,” Lou said. “What’s the damn difference? Everybody’s gotta get off this boat.”

  “What if we run into Mr. Dillon?” Sam asked.

  “Well, then that would mean we wuz all still alive, Sam,” Lou said. “We can worry about the rest of it later. For now, let’s just stay alive.”

  “Okay,” his brother said, “that sounds like a good plan.”

  NINETEEN

  “What do we do now?” Angela asked.

  “We swim for shore.”

  “Which way?”

  It was dark. Clint looked around, trying to find some lights that would indicate where shore was.

  “I think we’re simply going to have to swim away from the boat.”

  “What if we’re goin’ the wrong way?” she asked. “What if the other shore is closer?”

  “We can’t swim around the boat,” he said. “It’s too big.”

  Something floated near Angela and touched her. She turned and looked into the face of a dead man.

  “Jesus!” she said, pushing the body away from her.

  There were no marks on the man. He hadn’t been burned, he had apparently drowned.

  “Come on, Angela,” Clint said. “We’ve got to get started before this cold water gets to us.”

  “Aren’t there supposed to be lifeboats?” she asked him.

  “Yes,” he said, “and somebody should be seeing to it that they’re lowered—the Warrant brothers, or Dean himself. Or whatever crewmen are charged with that job. Maybe they did. Maybe the boats are in the water on the other side. Let’s hope so, because that would save quite a few lives.”

  “I’m so c-cold,” Angela said, her teeth chattering.

  “I know, that’s why we have to start swimming. It’ll warm us up.”

  She looked around in vain for a boat.

  “Where are the lifeboats?” Ava asked.

  “No time,” Dillon said. “You’ll have to jump.”

  “What about you?”

  “I am gonna see what’s happening with the lifeboats,” he said.

  “I’ll go with you.”

  “Ava—”

  “I told you, I can’t swim, and if you’re not gonna jump with me, I’ll drown.”

  “All right,” he said. “All right. Come with me. If we can’t find out what’s going on, we’ll jump.”

  “Okay,” she agreed.

  “Are the lifeboats away?” the captain asked one of his crewmen.

  “No, sir.”

  “Why not?”

  “Too much panic, Captain,” the man said.

  “Among the passengers?”

  “And crew.”

  The captain had brought only two crew members with him when he took the job, his copilot and this crewman. The other crew members had been hired by Dean Dillon.

  “Goddamnit!” he growled.

  “What are we going to do, Captain?” the copilot asked.

  “We’re in the shallows,” the captain said. “Deep enough for people to swim, but not deep enough for the boat to sink completely. We should be all right, as long as the boat doesn’t flip.”

  The copilot and crewman exchanged a look. They knew that the captain had saved the Dolly Madison from being a total loss. But would the owner see it that way?

  They had swum only a hundred yards or so when suddenly Clint felt something beneath his feet. The bottom?

  “Is that the bottom?” Angela asked.

  They went a few more yards and then were able to stand.

  “Are we on shore?” she asked.

  “No,” he said, “it’s just shallow here.”

  They turned and looked at the Dolly Madison. “What’s happening?” Angela asked.

  “It’s righting itself,” he said.

  The boat, which had listed so far to the left, had started to come back to the right.

  “It’s not sin
kin’?” she asked.

  “It is,” Clint said. “Look, the first deck is underwater, but it’s not sinking completely. It’s going to sit on the shallow bottom.”

  “Then it’s safe?” she asked. “We didn’t have to jump, after all?”

  “It’s far from safe,” Clint said. “It’s still burning.” He took her arm. “Come on, we still have to get to shore.”

  But they were able to wade the rest of the way.

  TWENTY

  As the boat began to list back to the starboard side, Ava grabbed Dillon and asked, “What’s happening?”

  “We’re straightening out,” he said.

  They were on the second deck, looking down. Dillon could see that trying to get to the lifeboats was futile. The first deck was underwater. At least that would extinguish the fire—but then he saw that the flames had leaped to the second deck. The source of the fire was underwater, but the flames were still traveling.

  “Where’s the damn crew?” he said, aloud. “Why aren’t they fighting the fire, helping the passengers?”

  “Where are Sam and Lou?” she asked.

  “If I find those two, I’ll kill ’em,” Dillon said.

  “Dean, what do we do?”

  He turned and looked at her. “What we were going to do in the first place,” he said. “We have to abandon ship.”

  She clutched him and said, “You won’t let me drown?”

  “I promise, Ava,” he said. “I won’t let you drown.”

  “Captain,” the copilot said, “she’s settled on the bottom.”

  “She’s not gonna sink, Captain,” the crewman said, “but she’s still burnin’.”

  “A good crew would be seein’ to that,” the captain complained. “When I find that Dillon, I’m gonna kill him.”