by Donna Hill
In all the years they’d been together, he’d never been banished to the couch. If this was some new trend, then Eva had another thought coming. He figured he’d give her a play for one night, but that was it. She knew how hard being on this ship was for him, the old terrors that it inspired. Was this her way of getting back at him, using his confession against him Is that what their relationship had been reduced to Trust was a bitch. It could turn on you like a pit bull, tearing you apart until you were nothing but shreds of what you had once been.
He pulled himself up into a sitting position, hearing his joints creak in refusal to bend to his will. The shower water was running, and he had a mind to go in there and have it out with her. But good sense intervened. Eva could be pretty physical when the mood hit her. And according to statistics, the majority of in-home accidents happened in the bathroom. The fact that they were on a ship didn’t ease his mind any.
The bathroom door opened. Eva stepped out, wrapped in a towel. She looked in his direction and kept walking.
“Don’t I even get a good morning How did you sleep last night” he grumbled.
She cut her eyes in his direction. “Good morning. How did you sleep last night” she singsonged along with her fake smile.
He stood, stretching his back as he rose. “Do you really care”
“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” She pulled open the closet and took out her clothes, tossing them on the bed.
“So this is how it’s gonna be, huh”
She whirled toward him, hands on hips. “How what’s gonna be Us Me and you” She craned her neck forward.
“Yeah. Us, Eva. Me and you.”
She let the towel fall, waited a beat to let his eyes feast on her curves.
Heat flushed his body. He started toward her. She held up her hand, halting him in his steps.
“Take a good look, Jake, because this is the last time you’ll be seeing me like this.”
Slowly she bent and picked up the towel. Then she draped it back around her body. “From now on, Jake Kelly, it’s strictly business between me and you.” She picked up her clothes from the bed and returned to the bathroom to get dressed, slamming the door behind her.
His jaw clenched so hard, his head began to pound. Had she lost her natural mind He was her husband, damnit! Not some stiff she picked up in a bar. Although that is how they met. But that was beside the point.
He stormed over to the bathroom and jerked on the doorknob only to find the door locked. He pounded on the door.
“Eva! Open the door. We need to talk.”
She snatched the door open, and he nearly tumbled inside. “There’s nothing to talk about,” she said with a haughty lift of her chin. She brushed by him.
“Eva … please. Don’t do this. There’s stuff … that you don’t understand.”
Eva drew in a breath and turned slowly around. “What is it that I don’t understand, Jake Tell me.”
He spat out a laugh with no humor in it. “So you can throw that back in my face too”
“What are you talking about”
“I’m talking about … what I told you about the beach and the water and my fears and guilt.” He swallowed. “And last night…”
Her hard stance eased as she recalled how the ship pitched and rocked during the night. The thought of putting him on the couch so he could suffer wasn’t part of her agenda. She wanted him to miss her and realize how he’d hurt her. She told him as much. “I wanted to teach you a lesson, but that wasn’t it. I wanted you to want me, to miss me.”
He sat down on the chair by the bed, but said nothing.
“I may be a bitch sometimes, but I wouldn’t do that to you.” She came around to kneel down in front of him. “You hurt me, Jake. Bad.”
He nodded. “You know I didn’t mean to. I wouldn’t do that.” He reached out and stroked her hair.
She rested her hand on his lap. “But it still hurt. What are we going to do”
It was a question he still wasn’t ready to answer. “We’ll work it out.”
She raised her head. “What does that mean”
He swallowed. “If this … baby is what you want … then we’ll work it out.”
She jumped up so fast, she nearly knocked him over. “If it’s what I want! I didn’t screw myself and make this baby. We did it together!”
He turned away from the truth and accusation flashing a warning in her eyes. He wanted to get the words out, to explain. But he’d broken his oath to himself once already by allowing her beyond the barricades of his past. He wouldn’t do that again.
Jake straightened his shoulders and stood, forcing her to look up at him. “I told you I was sorry for hurting you. I don’t have a thing to add to that. Now if you want it to be business only between us, then so be it. We get this job done, split the profits, and then…” He shrugged, seeming not to have a care in the world. “The rest is up to you.”
Eva stayed crouched on her knees, looking up at this man whom she’d adored, loved, and admired for so long. Who the hell was he
She pushed herself up to a standing position and walked right up to him, so close, her breasts pressed up against his chest.
“Fuck you, Jake Kelly,” she said in a deadly whisper. “Fuck you straight to hell.”
She grabbed her cell phone, put on her shoes, hooked up her headset, and was gone so fast, the heat of her words still hung in the air.
Jake stood in the center of the empty room. The emptiness of it as much a metaphor for his life as the reality of the environment.
“Fuck me, then,” he said, his focus returning. He had a job to do. He was going to do it, get them out of this mess, and … And what, live a life without Eva
He glanced toward the door. He would accept that if he had to.
Jake crossed the room to where Eva had tossed the sketch of the suitcase. He picked it up. He had to admit, it was damned good. The detailing was precise enough to be a snapshot.
He sat down and studied the sketch, then took it to the portable scanner and scanned it into the computer. Once he had the picture loaded into the computer, he enhanced the details and used a virtual simulation program to make it three-dimensional. He keyed in several equations to get an estimate of weight. According to what the computer spewed out, the suitcase weighed approximately sixty-five pounds.
He sat back, ran his hand across his chin while he stared at the screen. Sixty-five pounds. He quickly keyed in another set of variables.
Slowly he nodded his head as the numeric possibilities spread across the screen.
Based on the information he’d keyed in, the weight of the suitcase was consistent with the two million in cash—large bills, of course—and forty mil in diamonds. Either that or Suarez had a shitload of dirty laundry.
Still, they couldn’t take the risk of simply lifting the suitcase without knowing for sure that the stash was actually in there. The reality was, Suarez could have split up the goods: half in the suitcase and the other half in the ship safe. Jake didn’t even want to entertain the thought that maybe Suarez didn’t have the goods with him at all, but that one of his boys had it.
No. Suarez was too cautious. He’d never turn over that much loot to some bodyguard. He’d want to keep it close to him.
They’d just have to get into the suitcase to know for sure.
Jake peered closer at the computer screen, studying the locks, particularly the one in the middle with the combination. It would take him a few hours, but he was pretty sure he could figure out the combination. He hoped so, anyway. The image of Eva pantomiming her lifting the card key from the housekeeper and getting into the suite sat on his shoulder, mocking him. He swatted the image away.
Sure, she was an excellent pickpocket. No one could match her on that score. But he was an expert on locks and alarms. One slip did not a slouch make. He’d figure out this combination, and then they were in there. Simple. Right
* * *
Eva went to one of the restaur
ants on the upper deck. She was starving. She joined the buffet line and began loading her plate. Food was a comfort, and she needed all the comforting she could stomach at the moment.
She still couldn’t believe that Jake had acted so cold. She scooped a large spoonful of eggs onto her plate followed by a heaping dollop of grits. Being a single parent had never crossed her mind. Being a parent period was something that had for years been a nonissue. She inspected the bacon but then decided on sausages. She inched down the line of hungry travelers.
But lately she’d been feeling different. She wanted something more substantial than the next job. She wanted her life to mean something. Maybe there was some truth to the whole biological clock thing.
She approached the refreshment section of the buffet line. Instinctively she reached for coffee and then stopped midway. She had a baby to think about now, and so she filled her mug with orange juice instead. A baby. Damn. She smiled to herself, thinking of the life growing inside her. What kind of mother would she be Better than her own was her immediate thought. Never would she treat her child the way she was treated. She’d spoil it and love it unconditionally, make him or her feel special every single day.
She took her food and found an empty table near the rear of the restaurant and began to dig in. Her stomach sighed in delight.
She should have told Jake that she’d stopped taking her birth control two months earlier. Why hadn’t she She lifted a forkful of eggs to her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. Because she knew what he would say.
Still, there was that part of her that was willing to take the risk, a part of her that hoped that Jake would be as excited as she was.
But he wasn’t.
Her stomach suddenly heaved in protest. A cold sweat broke out across her forehead, and her mind felt like mush. The room moved in and out of focus. She was going to be sick.
“Eva! I knew that was you.”
Eva lifted her eyes. She was definitely going to be sick.
25
Jake called Jinx on his cell phone. There always had to be a Plan B in the event that Plan A fell apart, he thought as he listened to the phone ring on the other end.
Finally Jinx picked up.
“You sound like you’re just waking up, my brother,” Jake said.
Jinx glanced over his shoulder. Rita was still asleep. They’d had one helluva night, and his body was still humming. He gently lifted the sheet from his body and sneaked out of the room so as not to disturb her.
“Hey, what’s up” he said, his voice still sleepy.
“I need Rita to make a visit to the safe today. We need to get in there and get a good look around. I’ve hooked up a microcamera that she can use undetected while she’s in there.”
Jinx yawned loudly and stretched. “I’ll let her know. When do you want to do this”
“Sooner rather than later. I want to have a chance to examine the pictures.” He brought him up to speed regarding the sketch of the suitcase and his calculations.
Jinx chuckled. “That Eva is a master,” he said.
“Hmmm. Anyway, give me a holla when she’s ready.”
“Hey, hold it a sec. What’s going on I hear something in your voice. Everything cool” He scratched his head.
“Nothing. I’ll work it out.”
“Good, but work what out Is it Eva And the baby thing”
“Something like that. Look, I really don’t want to get into it right now.”
“All right. Whatever you say. We’ll give you a shout when Rita is ready.”
“Cool.” Jake disconnected the call. Slowly he put down the phone.
Generally he wouldn’t have a problem kicking it with Jinx. He may not always have the best advice in the world, but he was always willing to listen—and sometimes that’s all you needed.
But this was different. He couldn’t even rationalize with himself why he’d acted like such an asshole. And he certainly didn’t need Jinx to tell him what he already knew.
Sighing heavily, he returned his attention to the problem at hand, cracking the combination for the suitcase.
* * *
Eva hoped that the spinning in her head and stomach would slow down to a manageable level.
“Are you okay You look perfectly ill,” Traci enunciated in that annoying New England accent—even though she was born and bred trailer trash.
Eva gulped back down the bile that had risen to her throat and washed it away with several swallows of orange juice.
Traci invited herself to sit down as if they were old friends instead of two women who secretly hated each other—at least it was a secret to everyone else.
“I was so sure that was you I saw the other day getting on the elevator.” She snapped a white linen napkin open and spread it on her lap. “But then thinking about it, I decided I must be wrong. No way would our Eva be caught dead in a servant’s uniform.”
Our Eva. Who in the fuck was she talking about
Traci’s trilling laugh was like nails on a blackboard.
Eva cringed. “You got me there,” she muttered.
Traci frowned momentarily in confusion. Then shook it off with a toss of her strawberry blond hair. “So tell me, what are you doing on the ship Vacation Business And where is that gorgeous husband of yours” She looked around as if expecting all the answers to her numerous questions to line up beside her.
Think girl, think. Eva rummaged through the lie she’d told Sebastian about needing the time off to look after Rita. She couldn’t imagine he’d think she meant on a cruise ship. Geez, this was getting sticky. Maybe they would hit an iceberg and plunge into the ocean.
“Actually it’s a mixture of business and pleasure.”
Traci’s thinly arched brows rose with expectation. “Oh, really” She reached for the extra glass of water on the table and brought it to her bloodred lips. “What kind of business and pleasure”
“The pleasure part is with my husband, and the business part is just that—business.” She flashed a sneer.
“I see.” Traci took another dainty sip of water. “Is Sebastian about” She looked around again.
“No.”
“Hmmm, he let you take care of business all this long way all by yourself” Her mouth puckered in a tight line of challenge, daring Eva to cross it.
Eva put one foot across the line and then the other. She balanced her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “Let’s not bullshit each other, Traci. I don’t like you, and you don’t like me. I think you’re a gold-diggin’ phony that deeply hurt a very good friend of mine, and you’re still pissed ’cause I’m around and you’re not. And now that we have that old business out of the way, I’d like to get back to my breakfast before it gets cold.”
Traci’s near alabaster complexion flushed a deep crimson, almost a perfect match to her lipstick. She jutted her chin upward, giving Eva a perfect view up her Michael Jackson nose.
She tossed down her napkin as if she’d never been insulted before and pushed back from the table. “I was only attempting to make conversation. But I see that you still lack an iota of class.”
What in the name of all that’s holy did Sebastian ever see in this bitch “I missed that lesson. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m sure you have some unsuspecting fool lined up in your sights. Besides your perfume is disturbing my digestion.” She proceeded to chew on a piece of sausage.
Traci spun away with a huff, muttering something about a female dog while she marched off.
Eva rolled her eyes. Her hands were shaking. She’d been so pissed off at Jake, she’d totally forgotten about looking out for Traci. Shit, shit, shit. She should have tried to make nice, but it wasn’t in her to do so. Now she’d gone and ticked her off.
What if Traci called Sebastian just out of spite Or just caused some yet-to-be-seen trouble just for the hell of it Shit, shit, shit.
She let her fork clink onto her plate, her appetite gone. Wiping her mouth, she pushed away from the table and slowly stood, testing the
readiness of her legs. At least her head had stopped spinning and her stomach was slowly settling down.
Now what she wondered as she exited the restaurant. No messages on her cell phone, so all must be well for the time being. Well, when in Rome, do like the Romans do. She was going for a swim. She headed back to the cabin, determined to give Jake the cold shoulder if he was still there. All she needed to do was pick up her bathing suit and she was out.
When she walked into the cabin, Jake was busy at the computer and didn’t hear her come in. For a moment she stood in the doorway watching him, wondering how things could have gotten so ugly between them.
She knew she was being stubborn and maybe even a little vindictive. It was her own guilty conscience gnawing at her, and she was taking it out on him. They’d promised each other that kids didn’t factor into their lives, but she’d decided otherwise without him. She supposed he had every right to be upset. But still …
She shut the door. His head snapped up and then turned in her direction. Her heart stilled. Say something, damnit. He turned back to what he was doing.
Eva walked off to the bedroom area. She took her swimsuit from the dresser drawer, a pair of flip-flops from the closet, gave him one last look from across her shoulder, and walked back out.
Jake hung his head, feeling like a pin-pricked balloon. Why did he let her walk out He knew why: He had no idea what to say to her.
He turned back to the computer and tried to concentrate on cracking the combination.
A light knock on the door drew his attention away from his work. He got up to answer.
“You look a little beat down,” Rita said, and stepped inside.
“Thanks.”
“Rough night” Jinx asked, clapping him on the back. He’d followed Rita in.
“Something like that.” He closed the door and walked inside. He went to the bed and picked up the micro digital camera and handed it to Rita.
