Making Waves

by Tawna Fenske

  “I see,” Juli said, not seeing at all.

  “Hey, Malcolm,” Phillip called. “If there are a dozen books in each of these four boxes, can’t we just consolidate them into these other two and split them up between the boats?”

  Malcolm scowled. “No, you can’t reorganize them! The first editions are in those boxes, and the ones over there have autographed copies! They’re already alphabetized and organized by genre as well.”

  Alex poked at one of the boxes with his toe, then raised an eyebrow at Malcolm. “You boosted a rare bookstore?”

  Malcolm sighed. “Boosted is such a gauche word.” He turned his attention back to Juli and to the hand he was still grasping. “So you see, we really must go quickly, my dear,” he said. “And there really won’t be room for all of us, but we’ve taken the liberty of securing a luxury hotel room here on the island for your friends, Alex and young Cody.”

  He pressed a key into Alex’s hand and smiled. “You gentlemen can go freshen up and nap for a few hours, and we’ll be back bright and early in the morning to pick you up, along with the rest of our cargo.”

  “Gentlemen?” Juli asked, feeling alarmed. “What do you mean?”

  “There’s only room for four now, my dear,” Malcolm said, smiling at her. “Phillip and Percy will take one boat, and you and I will take the other. We’ll come back for your friends in the morning.”

  Juli opened her mouth to speak, but Alex got there first.

  “No way. Sorry, Malcolm, I appreciate your help getting Cody back, but Juli stays with us. Not negotiable.”

  Malcolm pressed his lips into a thin line, and for a moment, Juli feared he was on the brink of throwing a punch. Alex folded his arms over his chest, nowhere near backing down.

  Juli stepped in front of Alex just in case. “It’s okay, Malcolm, really. The three of us will stay here and wait together. It’s already dark now, anyway. Alex and Cody and I will just go to the room and get some sleep and see you here in the morning.”

  Cody frowned down at her, then looked at Malcolm. “But I have to get back. My herb garden needs to be watered, and I have a pork loin marinating. It needs to be turned.”

  Juli looked at Cody. “It’s just a few more hours. We can all return to Barbados together in the morning when they come back for us. Your meat and herbs will be fine.”

  Malcolm shrugged and glanced at his watch. “We have room for a fourth, but you must make your decision quickly,” he said. “We simply can’t delay any longer. We certainly would appreciate young Cody’s strength in off-loading the cargo, of course. And we could use some extra hands with the makeover I mentioned earlier.”

  Cody’s face brightened. “A makeover?”

  “A boat makeover,” Malcolm clarified. “We’ve recently acquired a rather sizeable cargo ship that requires a very different look.”

  Juli looked at Alex, who was watching Malcolm, Phillip, and Percy with guarded interest. Then he turned to Cody, motioning him aside.

  “Cody, can I talk to you for just a sec?”

  Juli watched as the two men moved to the edge of the dock and bent their heads together, conferring quietly as Malcolm checked his watch again. When Alex and Cody rejoined them, Cody was beaming.

  “I’m going with you guys for the makeover,” Cody said, bending down and hefting the remaining boxes in one hand. “Maybe later I can have a tour of the galley on your new cargo ship? I heard it has four ovens and a gas stove with eight burners.”

  Malcolm studied Cody with interest, then nodded to Juli and Alex. Smiling at Cody, he gestured to a seat in the second cigarette boat and stepped around to the other side.

  “Why yes, son. That’s true. Tell me, how do you feel about Aristotle’s Poetics with respect to the concepts of mimesis and catharsis and the notion that poetry is imitative and secondary?”

  ***

  “What the hell was that?” Juli demanded as soon as the boats had pulled away. “I can’t believe you just let Cody go with them alone like that! Are you nuts?”

  Alex turned and looked at her, beautiful in her fury, and momentarily forgot what she was saying.

  “What?” she demanded as she blew an unruly curl out of her eye. “What are you looking at?”

  “Nothing,” he said, regrouping. “I let Cody go with them so we can keep tabs on the cargo ship. I wasn’t worried about it disappearing without Malcolm around, but once he’s back in Barbados, anything can happen. Jake and Phyllis should have an extra set of hands to help keep an eye on things until you and I get there.”

  Juli gave him a dubious look. “So you sent Cody as a spy?”

  “Should I have sent you instead?” Alex asked, folding his arms over his chest. “All alone, with two boatloads of actual pirates?”

  Juli scowled at him. “I can handle myself.”

  “I’m sure you can. I’d prefer it if Malcolm and his brothers don’t handle you as well, which is why I didn’t want you alone with them.”

  “You really think Cody can be a spy?”

  “He’s smarter than you’d guess. Come on,” he said, nodding toward town. “I’m starving, so I know you have to be completely famished, considering how much you like food.”

  Juli shrugged. “How about that burger place up the hill? The one with the ‘all-you-can-eat onion rings.’”

  “Works for me.”

  Alex started up the hill, conscious of his need to slow his steps so she could keep up. She was panting a little beside him and he tried not to notice the way her breasts rose and fell beneath her thin tank top.

  “That was pretty cool how you rescued Cody,” she said. “How did you know you could pull that off?”

  Alex shrugged and looked down at her. “I didn’t. But I could tell right away they were just a bunch of dumb, scared kids more interested in getting the hell out of here than in hurting anyone.”

  “Ballsy,” Juli muttered appreciatively. “Almost as ballsy as trying to rob a cargo boat owned by the largest shipping company in the world. A company that happens to be your former employer?”

  Alex winced. “I was hoping maybe you missed that part.”

  “I don’t miss much,” Juli said. “So you were a VP for Kranston?”

  “Can we not talk about this?”

  She laughed. “You guys did a pretty good job hiding the details from me, but I figured it was something like that. Did you work for Kranston long?”

  “Really, let’s talk about something else.”

  “You know the owner well?”

  “Here we are at the restaurant,” Alex said. He stopped and held the door open for her. “So sorry we won’t be able to continue the conversation. Would you like a booth or a table?”

  Juli rolled her eyes. “I’d like the bathroom, right now. Order for me, okay?”

  “What do you want?” he shouted at her retreating back.

  “Everything,” she shouted back. “In the biggest quantities I can get it.”

  Alex watched her disappear down a darkened hallway, admiring the curve of her hips. He’d probably have to talk with her about the Kranston thing, but not yet. Not until they both had some food in them and their heads on straight.

  He surveyed the dimly lit room in search of an empty table. He found a nice booth in the back corner and ambled over to it, grabbing a menu from the counter on his way.

  “Someone will be right over to get your order, hon,” called a waitress with a gravelly voice and a giant snake tattoo on her arm. “Need anything to drink?”

  “Two waters for now, thanks,” Alex said as he dropped into the booth.

  He studied the menu for a second, watching for Juli out of the corner of his eye. Funny how quickly she’d gone from an inconvenient distraction to someone who laid claim to at least one out of every three thoughts he had. And he’d known her only four days.

  True, there’d been a marriage in there, and a pirate heist, and some of the hottest near-miss hookups in his entire life—just the things to bond two peop
le together. And now they would spend the better part of a night together alone in a hotel room.

  He wasn’t sure what to think of that.

  Of course, at the moment, he really shouldn’t think about that at all. This mission was far from over. They still had to get back to the cargo ship. They still had to figure out what happened to the diamonds—if they ever existed at all. He was still broke, still unemployed, still a total loser.

  Just like Jenny said you’d be.

  Not to mention he was falling hard for a woman he wasn’t sure he trusted. He wanted to trust her—God knows he did—but something was holding him back. What was it about Juli? Okay, so there hadn’t been anything nefarious in the urn. She still hadn’t told him about her mobster uncle and had only shared the genius thing under duress. What else was she hiding?

  A waitress wandered over, order pad in hand, and Alex set his menu down.

  “I’d like everything on the appetizer menu, to start with,” Alex said. “We’ll get back to you on the rest.”

  The waitress frowned. “Everything? There are ten items. You’re expecting a large group?”

  “My friend likes food. A lot.”

  “I see,” the woman said, and scribbled something on her notepad.

  Alex stood up. “Can you tell me where the restrooms are?”

  “Down that hall, out the back door, in the little alley right outside the restaurant. Men’s room is the second one on the left. The one without a door.”

  “Thanks,” Alex said. “If you see a cute blonde wandering around, point her to this table and give her some crackers or something. Otherwise, she may start eating furniture.”

  The waitress nodded, and Alex made his way down the hall and out the back door. He smiled a little to himself as he heard Juli’s perky soprano coming from the women’s room, humming an off-key version of Jimmy Buffet’s “Cheeseburger in Paradise.”

  Alex stepped into the men’s room and froze. The hair on his arms stood on end.

  A pistol was pointed straight at his chest.

  And holding it was his old boss, Tom Portelli.

  “Hello, Alex,” Tom said, flashing a familiar smile as he leveled the gun at him. “Good to see you again, son. I hear you tried to rob my fucking boat.”

  Alex closed his eyes and raised his hands over his head.

  Next door, the humming went on undaunted.

  Chapter 16

  “Come in real slowly and close the door behind you,” Tom said, holding the pistol at Alex’s chest.

  A light Caribbean breeze ruffled Tom Portelli’s white hair, giving him the comical look of a man with wings on the side of his head.

  It was the only thing comical about the moment.

  “There’s no door, Tom,” Alex replied, keeping his voice even. “Would you like to try the women’s room? I’m sure there’s plenty of privacy there.”

  Tom narrowed his eyes. “Don’t get smart with me, boy. Move in here where I can see you. Over there, next to the urinals. And don’t try anything stupid.”

  “May I pee?”

  Tom frowned, clearly unsure whether that was allowed in a hostage situation. Alex didn’t wait for a response, though his mind was racing a million miles an hour. He’d stood shoulder to shoulder with the man at countless board meetings and company urinals for twenty years. Somehow, this wasn’t how he’d pictured the future of this business relationship.

  Alex unzipped as Tom angled away from the door, ensuring no passersby would have a glimpse of any of the proceedings inside the cramped space.

  Alex glanced over at him, hoping like hell Juli had found her way safely to the table and was peacefully devouring her onion rings. He couldn’t hear her humming anymore, so the odds were good.

  Then he froze. Juli?

  She couldn’t be behind this. But she had picked the restaurant, and now here he was with a gun pointed at his back—

  Tom leaned casually against the wall as though he pointed pistols at pissing men on a daily basis. “So Alex,” he began. “I was wondering where you and the rest of the gang had gone after the layoff. Seemed like you just dropped off the face of the earth. Now I know. Sounds like Cody shared a few choice details with my boys from the cargo ship.”

  Alex swallowed his thoughts of Juli and zipped up his fly. He turned to face Tom with his heart slamming hard against his rib cage. “What is it you think you know, Tom?” he asked, wondering what would happen if he went for the gun tucked under his shirt in the back of his pants.

  A shootout in a Caribbean bathroom, he thought grimly. What a way to go.

  “What I think is that you tried to fuck me over,” Tom snarled. “I don’t appreciate that.”

  “No? I didn’t particularly appreciate losing the pension I’d spent twenty years building. Call it even.”

  Tom’s eyes narrowed. “Where’s my goddamn boat, Alex?”

  He laughed. “Not here. In case your boys left out a few details in their telling of the tale, someone else beat us to the punch.”

  “I know it’s in Barbados. ShipSafe alerted me, of course, and my crew told me about the hijacking. I was merely hoping you’d cooperate in helping me get it back. Now that I see you’re not in a cooperative mood, I’m frankly more interested in revenge.”

  Alex took a step back as Tom straightened his arm, leveling the gun. Alex felt everything in his body tense as the breath left his lungs.

  There was no choice.

  In one quick motion, Alex slid a hand to his back, reaching for the pistol. His heart was hammering loudly in his ears.

  Or was that footsteps?

  “Hey, there! How’s it going?”

  Both men whirled around and stared. There in the doorway, with her blonde curls fluttering around her ears and an angelic smile on her face, was Juli.

  She stuck her hands in her back pockets and grinned into the men’s room, leaning back a little. Her cheeks were rosy in the moonlight, and her expression was one of unfathomable perkiness. Alex felt his heart twist in his chest. He opened his mouth to speak—to tell her to get the hell out of there, to ask her if she had something to do with this—but Juli beat him to the punch.

  “Tom! I haven’t seen you for ages,” she chirped. “How are you? How’s Ginny and Fran?”

  There was a moment of silence as Alex stood there dumbfounded, his fingers frozen on the handle of his pistol. He didn’t speak. He didn’t breathe. He stared at Tom’s profile, wondering what the hell was going on.

  Tom blinked at Juli. Then blinked again. His eyes closed for an extra half second, like he hoped she might be gone when he opened them again.

  Then he cleared his throat. “Ju-Ju,” Tom said. “My God, what are you doing here?”

  “Oh, you know. Working on my tan, doing some sightseeing, relaxing on the beach, tossing Uncle Frank’s remains into the ocean.”

  Tom swallowed, his gun still trained on Alex’s chest, his torso turned toward Juli.

  Juli, for her part, was doing a damn fine job of pretending not to see the gun.

  Shit, Alex realized suddenly. She really couldn’t see it. She couldn’t see him. From where she was standing in the alley, she could probably see only the first couple feet of the men’s room and the first couple feet of the women’s room. She couldn’t see him at all. Alex closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

  Maybe that was best. Assuming she hadn’t set this whole thing up, she might just go quietly without trying to be the hero, without getting hurt.

  But how the hell did she know Tom Portelli?

  “I was so sorry to hear about Frankie,” Tom continued solemnly, taking a step to the left, ensuring he completely blocked Juli’s view into the restroom. “You know Frank’s been like a brother to me all these years.”

  “I know,” Juli said, her voice perfectly angelic. “We were all really heartbroken, but it was just his time.”

  “He led a good life, honey.”

  “You’re so right. You know, he spoke fondly of you there at
the end.”

  “Did he? That’s so nice to hear. Tell you what, pumpkin. Why don’t you head inside and grab a table. I just need to, um, finish up in here, and then I’d love to sit down and visit with you. Hear about the funeral and everything. Are you here vacationing with someone, or all alone?”

  “All alone,” she said. “I’d love the company.”

  Alex frowned.

  “I’m so glad, sweetie. I’ll just be a minute.”

  “Sure thing, Tom. Don’t forget to wash your hands, okay?”

  Tom smiled, looking relieved. “Okay, honeybunch. I’ll be right there.”

  “Great,” she said. “Oh, and Tom?”

  “Yes, lollypop?”

  “Uncle Frank really did talk about you on his deathbed. In fact, he talked a lot.”

  Tom’s face went a little pale. “You don’t say?”

  “In fact, he told me every little detail about the heroin ring you’ve been running together for the last fifteen years. A perfect partnership—a mobster and the owner of an international shipping company. What a great team! And you guys made a pretty nice profit. At least, that’s what Uncle Frank said. He gave me spreadsheets and everything.”

  “Did he, now?” Tom said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

  “Yes. As a matter-of-fact, he had quite a lot of documentation that he included in his memoirs. Did I mention that I’m the executor of his estate? A friend of mine at a publishing company in New York City was really excited when I handed it all over to her just last week. Have they not been in touch with you about it yet?”

  Tom stared at Juli.

  Alex stared at Tom.

  Tom turned and looked at Alex.

  Suddenly, he whipped the pistol around and pointed it at Juli.

  Alex raised his own pistol, taking aim at the side of Tom’s head.

  Outside in the alley, Juli rolled her eyes and laughed.

  “Oh, please, Tom. The book is already at the publisher, so killing me won’t do you any good. And if you shoot me, these four FBI agents standing right here in the women’s room will not look too kindly upon it. They’d like to have a word with you, actually. They were really interested when I called them right after I heard your plane would be landing here on St. Lucia today.”