Matt glanced at him. “Seamen believe it’s bad luck to kill one.”
“Well, duh. It should be. They’re beautiful. But it’s not bad luck to, like, see one, is it?”
“I don’t think so. And at least we know there’s land not far away, even if we can’t see it. That’s kind of reassuring.”
“Yeah.” Lincoln glanced around. “‘Cause we’re like a toy boat in the middle of a freakin’ big ocean.”
“I know where we are, so don’t be scared.”
“I’m not scared, dude.” Lincoln tried to look cocky. “I was just asking about this albatross deal.”
Matt was guessing the kid was at least slightly scared. “Well, an albatross is kind of like a black cat. Some people say they’re bad luck, but personally I like black cats.”
Lincoln nodded. “Me, too. I wish I could have a cat. Or a dog. But Mom’s all, Nobody’s home enough to take care of a pet, which is true.”
“What you do is get two cats, so they keep each other company.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.” Lincoln sighed. “But that’s twice as much food and stuff.”
Matt’s thoughts leaped ahead. He and Lincoln could get a couple of kittens at the pound. Matt would keep them, so Annabelle wouldn’t have the bother or cost, but Lincoln would have visiting privileges whenever he wanted. Then again, Annabelle would probably nix the whole thing.
“Guess I’ll go dump this over the side,” Lincoln said.
“Okay.” Matt glanced at the sun and estimated about two hours of good light remained, just enough time to make it back to Kauai. They needed to turn around and abandon this wild-goose chase. Nothing was here. The only
other vessel he’d seen was an old trawler, which shouldn’t be fishing because it was a protected area. But Matt didn’t have time to play wildlife cop. Other than the trawler, which he’d spotted about thirty minutes ago before it motored out of sight, they were alone.
They’d checked around a couple of tiny deserted islands and found nothing Now there wasn’t even one of those in sight. Like he’d told Lincoln, he wasn’t lost. But he still felt isolated. “Lincoln, come here a sec,” he called.
“Yeah?” Lincoln climbed the steps, his plate empty.
“Are you still picking up vibes, or whatever it is you’re going on?”
“You think I’m, like, making this up, don’t you?”
“No, not exactly, but I—”
“Hey, never mind. That’s cool. I don’t expect you to believe me. But we’re getting closer.”
“How much closer?”
Lincoln shrugged. “I dunno, dude. Just closer.”
Matt gazed at him in frustration. “That’s all you can tell me? You’re not picking up anything more specific than that?” He couldn’t believe he was actually asking such a question, but Lincoln was all he had.
“Not on that deal, but I can, like, tell you something else.”
“What’s that?”
“Mom thinks you’re hot.”
Genevieve knew they had about two minutes to decide how to handle this new development.
“You’re sure it’s the pickup men?” Jack asked.
“It has to be. It’s an old green and white boat, just like Nick described. Who else would be roaming around? I guess they finally figured out where to go to pick him up.”
“This might be our only shot at getting rescued for a long time,” Jack said.
“That’s what I’m thinking.”
“Okay, so we tell them Brogan tried to kill us and see if we can get them on our side,” Jack said.
Genevieve shook her head. “Too risky. Nick will try to say otherwise, and they might believe him, considering that he gave them money to begin with.”
Nick opened his mouth, and his voice was a harsh croak. “What’s…going on?”
“Nothing,” Genevieve said. “Jack, stuff my makeup bag in his mouth and use your belt to hold it there. Then throw the towel over him. I’ll go down to the beach and wave them in.”
“Wait! We haven’t figured out what to do!”
“We’re out of time.”
“Then at least take the gun!”
“Oh, sure. They’ll definitely want to row in if they see me waving a gun. No, I’m using the bikini as bait. And let me do the talking.” She didn’t have the foggiest idea what she’d say, but she had a little while to think about it.
She ran down to the beach and started jumping up and down, hoping she looked like a star on Baywatch instead of a sunburned chick with bad hair. The thing to remember about these guys was that they were in need of money.
Money. She turned and ran back up to where Jack was draping the towel over Nick. “Go into his back pocket and fetch his wallet. See if he has any cash.”
“Oh, man.”
“Come on, Jack. This is no time to turn homophobic on me.” She ran back down to the waterline and continued her Baywatch jiggle.
The trawler chugged within about two hundred yards. Because she was still in possession of Jack’s glasses, she was able to make out the two men on board. One stayed behind the wheel while the other one watched the bottom, obviously looking for reefs.
“Cut the engine!” the guy in front yelled. Then he busied himself with the anchor. Apparently her Baywatch imitation had worked, because once the anchor was lowered, they dropped a little motorboat about the size of Uncle Rufus’s into the water and pointed it toward the beach.
Jack came up beside her. “A hundred bucks in twenties. Looks like he took it out of the ATM before he left.”
“That’s it? I thought he was planning to pay these two off.”
“I think he was planning to bump them off and use their boat to get to his next rendezvous point. Why waste cash when bullets are so cheap?” Jack patted his back pocket. “But we’re okay. I have a little over three hundred, so that’s four hundred all together. That might get their attention, at least.”
Genevieve gazed at him in astonishment. “You have three hundred dollars in your wallet? Why?”
Jack shrugged. “I didn’t know if you might need it.”
“Me?”
“Well, yeah. I thought you might get fed up with Brogan and want to catch a commuter flight back. I wanted to have enough cash that I could give you the plane fare and I wasn’t sure what it would run, being a last-minute reservation.”
Unexpectedly, her eyes filled with tears. Fortunately, because she had the glasses, Jack probably couldn’t see well enough to notice. “That is the sweetest thing any man’s ever done for me. Thanks, Jack.”
“But the money turned out to be useless.”
“Maybe not. Maybe it’ll be enough for these guys.” It was hard to tell. They didn’t look all that smart, but looks could be deceiving.
Both of them wore dirty white T-shirts and stained work pants. One, obviously the older, had a gray-streaked beard. The other one just looked like he hadn’t bothered to shave. Both were on the paunchy side and wore mirrored sunglasses.
“From the looks of them, ten bucks would be a vast improvement.”
“They do look pitiful. Now that we know Nick planned to kill them, I almost feel sorry for them.”
“Don’t.” As the boat drew nearer, Jack lowered his voice. “If grungy bad guys had a union, they’d be card-carrying members.”
“They remind me of some of the good ol’ boys back in the Hollow. All they need is a chaw in their cheek and Red Man gimme caps instead of those cheap tourist ones.”
As if to prove her point, the younger guy spit a stream of tobacco into the water.
“Oh, boy,” Jack said. “You’d better let me do the talking. Uh, what are we going to say?”
Genevieve almost laughed, but she stopped herself in time. She didn’t want these two men to think anything at all was funny about their situation. And it really wasn’t, but Jack still made her smile. “Seeing as how you don’t know, you’d better let me do the talking. Just go along with whatever yarn I
spin, okay?”
The prow of the boat crunched on the sand and the younger guy climbed out.
“I don’t know about this,” Jack said. “I think—”
“Hi, there,” Genevieve said, walking toward the boat. “Are we glad to see you!”
Chapter Twenty-One
The younger guy, his teeth stained with tobacco juice, leered at Genevieve. “You looked very glad, jumping up and down like that.”
She stuck out her hand. “I’m Gina and this is Jeff. What’s your name?”
“I’m Sl—”
“That ain’t important.” The older guy climbed from the back of the boat and jumped awkwardly to the sand. With a grunt, he tugged the boat a little farther up on the beach. “We’re lookin’ for a guy who said we should meet him here. Seen anybody around?”
“Here?” Genevieve pretended to be amazed. “Out in the middle of nowhere?”
“That’s right,” the older guy said. “He’s about my height, brown hair, nice dresser. Real educated type. Easy to talk to.”
Uh, oh. Nick charmed them, she thought. “Gee, we haven’t seen anybody who looks like that, have we, Jeff?”
“Nope. And we’ve been all over this little island. Nobody like that here.”
“Well, shit.” The younger one spit into the sand. “I’ll bet he drowned, Merv. I think we’re outta luck.”
Merv scratched under his beard. “Damn it all, Slick, I always thought this was a dumb idea. I shouldn’t of let you talk me into it. I shoulda known the minute I saw that albatross flying around the boat a while back that this was a huge mistake.”
“Maybe not,” Genevieve said. “Maybe Jeff and I can keep this from being a wasted trip for you. The thing is we’re on our honeymoon, and we took a boat for a little sail. We got way off course, and the boat sank. We’re marooned here.”
“Is that so?” the younger guy said. “You got any money?”
“Some,” Genevieve said. “And we’d be glad to pay you to radio for help. Just one little message, so the Coast Guard or the—”
“Sorry, lady,” Merv said. “Our radio’s broke.”
Genevieve stared at them, unable to believe they’d be stupid enough to come out here with no means of communication. “You must have something.”
“Nope.”
She felt dizzy with disappointment.
“Then we’ll pay you to take us to Kauai,” Jack said.
Genevieve spun to face him. “Ja—Jeff, is that a good idea, honey?” She couldn’t imagine how they’d get Nick on the boat without causing themselves problems, and if they left him behind, he might die on them.
“It’s the only idea, sweetheart.”
“But—”
Jack grabbed her arm and steered her away from the two men. “Excuse us for a minute. We need to have a private conversation.”
Genevieve leaned in close and lowered her voice. “Are you out of your mind? What about Nick?”
“We send somebody back later,” Nick muttered.
“He could die in the meantime!”
“So could we! Listen, we can’t let—”
“Uh, folks?” The older guy, the one named Merv, interrupted. “I’m afraid me and Slick can’t take you with us.”
Jack turned back toward them, his expression intense. “Why not?”
“We, uh, don’t have no extra room.” His gaze flicked up to the lump that was Nick under the towel.
They know something’s going on, Genevieve thought.
“We don’t need extra room,” Jack said. “Listen, we have four hundred dollars. We’ll give you that if you’ll take us to Kauai.”
Merv was already backing toward his boat. “That’s okay. We’ll tell somebody to come and get you. Yep, we’ll surely do that.”
“Merv!” Slick said. “If the people want to give us four hundred dollars to take them to Kauai, I say let’s—”
“Can’t do it, Slick.” He started shoving the boat back in the water. “Now help me get this tub afloat.”
“Wait!” Jack said. “We’ll give you more money after we get there! Name your price! A thousand! Two thousand!”
Slick looked really upset. “Listen, Merv, what’s it gonna hurt us to take—”
“Into the boat, lamebrain.”
“Can you spare us some food, at least?” Genevieve didn’t think they’d get aboard that trawler now unless they used the gun, and she and Jack weren’t the type to pull off that sort of maneuver.
“Don’t have no extra food, neither.” Merv yanked the cord to start the outboard motor.
“Water, then!” Jack shouted above the roar of the engine. “Have some common decency and leave us some bottles of water!”
Merv didn’t answer as he headed the boat out toward the anchored trawler.
“Damn it!” Jack stared at the departing boat. “Damn it to hell!”
“Something spooked them.” Genevieve glanced back at Nick under the towel. She could see him moving. Probably Merv had seen that, too, and he didn’t want any part of whatever was going on. She couldn’t blame him, considering he and Slick were already working on the wrong side of the law and had something to be spooked about. But now she and Jack were in a terrible pickle.
“I thought of going up to get the gun, to see if I could force them to take us,” Jack said.
“Me, too, but I decided we weren’t the type.”
“I should have done it, anyway.”
Genevieve turned to him. “No, you shouldn’t. Be true to who you are, Jack.”
“Even if it means we won’t make it?”
“We’ll make it.” She couldn’t think otherwise. “And goodness, you offered them your life savings! What were you thinking? Two thousand dollars, indeed!”
His laugh was hollow. “Are you kidding? It would be worth twenty thousand, or twenty million, if I had it, just to make sure you’re safe.” He gazed at her, and his throat moved. “God, I want you to be safe.”
The tenderness and longing in his eyes was so strong, so potent, it nearly hypnotized her. She didn’t believe any man had ever looked at her like that. She could get hooked on Jack’s brand of adoration. But she couldn’t expect it to last. He’d forget her when he was able to return to his true love, computers, and she’d be left hanging like a ham in the smokehouse.
“Gen,” he said. “Listen, I—”
“Here’s your water! Three whole bottles!”
Genevieve turned, and sure enough, Slick was in the boat, a bottle of water in one hand.
“I’ll toss it to you!”
Genevieve ran to the surf line just in time to catch the first bottle as it sailed toward her.
“Give it here,” Jack said.
She passed it off and darted forward to catch a second one. After lobbing it back to Jack, she had to leap in the air for a third. Then she raced toward Jack. “Water! We have water!”
“Yeah.” He was grinning.
“We need to go check on Nick. Even if you don’t want to, we have to give him some of this water.”
“I know. But let’s each have one swallow first. We worked damn hard for this.” Carefully he set down one bottle and twisted the cap off the other.
Genevieve followed suit. “We have water. Thank you, Jack.”
Jack smiled at her. “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.” Then he raised his bottle in her direction.
In that moment she felt something happen to her heart, like it was swelling and might just bust out of her chest like the crick when it flooded its banks. She hoped it wasn’t love.
Annabelle could tell that Matt wanted to turn around. He’d warned them that he wanted to save enough daylight to head back to Kauai, and they were pushing that limit now. She sat on a bench seat in the cockpit next to Lincoln, who was plugged back into his earphones. Annabelle used the binoculars to scan the ocean.
About two minutes ago she’d noticed an island glimmering on the horizon, almost like a mirage. She wanted to see what was on that island, but t
hey weren’t going that far.
Matt had vetoed the idea of anchoring there for the night after he’d looked at his charts. Too many submerged reefs surrounded the island. A sudden storm could push the boat and cause the anchor to drag along the bottom. The coral beds would rip the hull to shreds. Besides, the island wasn’t big enough for a plane to land on it.
Standing up, Annabelle brought the island into focus. Imagining Genevieve was on that island was probably only wishful thinking. She wasn’t giving up hope, would never give up hope, but any fool could see that the odds were not good out here.
Then she saw a boat coming toward them from the general area of the island. “Matt, should we stop that boat and ask them if they’ve seen anything?”
“Let me take a look.”
Annabelle lifted the strap from around her neck and handed the binoculars to Matt. When their fingers brushed, the warmth of his skin reassured her. At a time like this, a person needed a human touch.
She had a feeling Matt knew that and would have comforted her even more if he could. He’d probably sent Lincoln after her when she’d lost control a while back. She hadn’t liked having Lincoln see her cry, but his firm hug had helped her pull herself together.
Matt handed the binoculars back. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to flag them down, Annabelle. I have a feeling they might be up to something illegal, like fishing in protected areas. I don’t know how they’ll react to being stopped.”
Annabelle trained the binoculars on the boat. “What makes you think they’re breaking the law?”
“Their speed, for one thing. I saw them earlier going in the other direction. Either they’re not worried about the reefs out here or they know these waters a heck of a lot better than I do. They really move out.”
“It’s about time for us to turn around and go back, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. I know you don’t want to, but—”
“I’d feel better about it if we tried to talk to the people on that boat. At least they’ve been as far as that island.”
Matt gazed at the boat as it rapidly closed the distance between them. “Okay, but I’m keeping my distance. They’re probably fine, but I’m not taking any chances. Pirates still exist, you know.”
Nerd in Shining Armor Page 27
