“He sure does,” I agreed, looking around and marveling at the sheer luxury of the yacht. It was enormous with a myriad of different decks - a dive deck, a sun deck, a leisure area complete with a bar and a swim platform at one end, and according to Victoria there were six different bedroom suites on one of the lower decks along with a fully-stocked kitchen, dining room and even a cinema room.
“Where’s Roy and Layla?” I asked, looking around and failing to spot them.
She leaned close and smiled conspiratorially. “Let’s just say that they’re currently indisposed.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“When you were late, they started getting a little…how do I put this delicately…bored and antsy. They’re having some fun below decks, if you catch my drift.”
“Oh. Oh! That’s a mental image I didn’t want,” I replied, wrinkling my nose.
“Yes, well, I did try to be discreet!” she said, laughing. “Anyway, while we wait for them to surface, wanna come start this thing up with me? It’s way easier than you’d think. The sails and everything are automated. You basically just stick the key in up at the wheelhouse, wait for the engines to get going and then press a couple of buttons.”
“Sure, sounds like fun.”
I followed her across the sun deck and then down a short flight of stairs that led into the wheelhouse, and she pointed out all the various bits and pieces as she got the boat started up. I forgot the names as quickly as she told me, but I was sure I’d get a hang of it eventually. I looked out over the water as she carefully steered us out of the marina, and I closed my eyes for a second and breathed in the fresh coastal air. A light sea breeze tossed my hair around my shoulders, and I looked back over at Victoria as she carefully steered the yacht.
“When we get out far enough, I’ll press this thing here,” she said, pointing to something else on the control panel. “That’ll automatically put the sails up. Then we can slowly drift around for a while and sunbake. I need a tan so badly!”
“I don’t,” I said, holding out my perpetually-brown arms.
She chuckled at my quip. Reaching down, I pulled my sunglasses out of my tote bag and slid them on, and then I glanced at her. “I’m going to grab a drink. Want anything?”
“Sure. Can you grab me a soda?” she replied. “Bar’s empty so you’ll have to head down to the kitchen. And while you’re down there, can you see if Roy and Layla are ready to join us? I’m surprised they haven’t come up for air already.”
“Uh-huh.”
I walked back across the yacht and then down the steps that led to the main lower deck.
“Hey! You’re going to waste the afternoon if you stay in bed!” I called out towards the master bedroom suite as I found my way into the kitchen.
I grabbed two sodas from the fridge and then frowned as I heard zero movement from the bedroom.
“Roy?” I called out again. Jeez, they must have been either totally zonked out or still going at it. Gross. More mental images I didn’t need.
I quietly padded further down the hall and knocked on the closed door. Still no reply. I hated being rude and possibly disturbing them, but it was strange that they weren’t answering at all, so I gently pushed open the door a crack to make sure they were okay. My heart almost stopped as I saw that the bedroom was empty. I quickly checked all the other suites, and they were empty as well.
Roy and Layla weren’t here at all.
Shit. How could I have been so effin’ stupid? The yacht ground to a halt, and my stomach lurched.
It was just me and Victoria, out on the open water.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
MASON
I had a meeting with a popular TV journalist’s producers later this evening for a discussion and planning session on my upcoming interview, and my pulse raced every time I thought about it. Once I did it, there was no going back. Layla’s life in the limelight would be over, and no longer would she be able to try to get rid of Arizona.
But first I wanted to find Arizona and beg for her forgiveness. I very much doubted it would be forthcoming, but it was worth a shot.
I tore down the road towards the house, and the first person I saw was Jan. She was wiping down the kitchen island counter, and she glanced up at me as I entered.
“Hi, Mason. How’s your new apartment going?”
“It’d be better if I had you to make dinner for me every night,” I said with a grin.
She clucked at me and waved her hands. “You know I have my hands full here already. I’m glad that you’re getting out in the real world by yourself, though. Anyway, can I help you with something?”
“Yeah, have you seen Arizona? I need to talk to her.”
“She’s at the marina,” she replied. “She left about fifteen minutes ago.”
“What’s she doing there?”
“She said something about meeting Roy, Layla and Victoria down there. Apparently they’re taking one of the yachts out for the afternoon. I wouldn’t have minded an invite, but I’m just the housekeeper,” she said with an injured sniff.
“But Roy’s still in New York, isn’t he?” I asked.
“I thought so too. Arizona said Victoria called her and told her they were back already. So I guess they came back early.”
My blood suddenly ran cold. Victoria. Of course. That bitch must have had something up her sleeve. This may have seemed like an overreaction to anyone else, but I immediately had a more-than sneaking suspicion that Roy wasn’t home early from New York at all, and Victoria had probably come back on her own and tricked Arizona into meeting her down at the marina alone. Why? I wasn’t sure. But I sure as fuck wasn’t standing around here waiting to find out. If Victoria was still doing coke and had gone off the rails into some sort of drug-induced state of craziness, then that meant Arizona was in danger. Serious danger.
A small part of me told me I was probably getting concerned over nothing; for all I knew, Roy was home early and they’d all decided to get some sun together. But another larger part of me screamed that that wasn’t the case. I didn’t know how, but I could just sense that something was very wrong with this picture. You know how old folks say they can feel stuff in their bones? Yeah, it was like that.
“You absolutely sure that’s what she said?” I asked, and Jan nodded.
“Call Roy,” I added. “Right now. Tell him I think Arizona might be in trouble.”
“Mason, what’s going on?” she asked. “What makes you think that?”
“Just do it!”
I was already out the door before she could press me for more. I sped down to the marina as fast as possible and parked up before heading down to the waterfront, and my pulse doubled as I stepped out onto the boardwalk of the marina. I hadn’t been this close to the ocean since I was eight, and I blinked several times, trying to shake the image of my friend floating face-down in the water all those years ago.
I recalled Roy saying he kept his yacht at the farthest end, and I ran down there as quick as my legs could carry me, trying to spot the Rosa. I remembered the name because my mother had bitched about it behind his back for months, saying she took it as an affront that Roy had a boat named after his first wife…even though he’d bought and named it before he even met her. But there was no time to think about what a heinous bitch my mother was right now. I needed to find the yacht.
As I arrived at the farthest end, I craned my neck and then cursed as I saw the Rosa cruising out to sea already. Fuck. They’d just left.
“Shit!” I shouted, kicking the ground as I considered my next course of action.
Just as I pulled my cell phone out and realized the battery was totally dead, a middle-aged man with a sizable beer gut pulled up in the water just beyond where I was standing in a little silver motorboat.
“Hey!” I shouted, pointing out to the Rosa as he stepped out and tied the boat up. “Did you see who was on that yacht when it left?”
He shrugged. “Two girls, I think.”
“No one
else?”
“I dunno. Don’t think so.”
Fuck. So my suspicions were correct. Roy and my mother weren’t aboard. I knew what I had to do. “Can you take me out in the water? I need to get on board!” I said.
The man rolled his eyes. “Sorry that you missed your little boat party, man, but I need to go pick my kids up from school. Don’t have time to be ferrying your ass around.”
I whipped out my wallet and frantically counted all the cash I had on me.
“Look, I’ve got…er…three hundred and thirty bucks here. I’ll give it all to you and I’ll get out another five hundred for you when we get back. Please? I really need to get out there, now!”
“No can do,” he said. “I gotta go. But if you’re gonna be throwin’ all that cash around, then I guess I can let you borrow it.”
He held his hand out and continued. “But you’re handing over your driver’s license too. If you take off with my boat and don’t come back, then at least I’ve got your name and address.”
“Fine.”
I handed him my license, and his eyes widened a bit. “Mason Crest, huh? Thought you looked familiar. My teenage daughter is always reading all those gossip sites.”
“Err…yeah. Right.”
He dangled the keys in front of me and then dropped them into my outstretched hand. “You know how to drive it?” he asked, arching his brows.
Good question. I’d heard my friends droning on and on about their boats before to have a general idea of how they worked, but that wasn’t exactly the same as actual experience. I’d avoided any manner of watercraft ever since Sammy’s death, but now wasn’t the time to be acknowledging any fears other than my fear that something bad was happening to Arizona. I just needed to push through it. Piloting a little speedboat couldn’t be too hard, right? At least I fucking hoped it wasn’t. Time was running out, and the Rosa was fast disappearing into the distance.
“Err, kinda,” I replied, and the man snorted.
“It’s a bit like drivin’ a stick, I guess. Pull this out to the start position, and then when the engine fires up, use this gear to chuck it in forward. Then steer it with this.”
He pointed to the handle, and I nodded. “Got it.”
“Remember…you fuck up my boat in any way, you’re paying for it. I’ve got your license, and I’m not givin’ it back to you until the keys are back in my hands.”
“I promise I’ll return it in good condition,” I said hurriedly, wanting to get the hell out of here as fast as possible. “Do me a favor and call the Coast Guard. Tell them to find a yacht called the Rosa as soon as humanly possible.”
“Okay, man,” he said, not even bothering to ask why. “I’ll be back down here tomorrow at twelve. I’m serious about this; you bring the keys back then or I’m calling the police and handing them your details.”
I waved my hand at him impatiently. “Uh-huh, I know. Now call the Coast Guard! Seriously, do it!”
With that I started up the motor and carefully steered the little boat out of its docking area. My hands shook as I gripped the handle, but I gritted my teeth and powered through it. Now was no time to be a wimp and give up. It also wasn’t a time to fuck up. I needed to get out to Roy’s yacht in one piece, and the only way I could do that was to be really fucking careful.
The man watched me from the marina with narrowed eyes as I left, but he quickly whipped out a cell phone and held it up to his ear. Thank god. He was calling the Coast Guard. Either that or he was calling the tabloids and giving them a juicy story along the lines of: Mason Crest Hijacked My Boat! Hopefully it was the former.
I got the hang of driving the boat after a few minutes, and I was soon confident enough to push my speed up. The Rosa was still a fair way off in the distance, but I was gaining on them rapidly. After a few more moments they stopped, and I breathed a sigh of relief, wiping the sweat off my brow with the back of my hand.
A couple of minutes later I could see two figures on the sun deck, and as I squinted at them I realized it was definitely Arizona and Victoria. Shit. Arizona was holding her hands up, and Victoria appeared to be holding something in her right hand, brandishing it in Arizona’s direction.
When I’d approached close enough, I steered the boat around to the rear of the yacht. I was fairly sure that most big yachts had a landing deck, and my suspicions were confirmed a second later as I pulled up to a grinding halt and coasted onto the edge of the deck. I grabbed a rope, jumped out and quickly tied the smaller boat to the landing deck, and then I was ready to face whatever the hell was going on up on the sun deck.
My mother wasn’t the only woman who’d soon be going down. If I had my way, Victoria would sink to the bottom of the ocean like a fucking stone for threatening Arizona.
I crept up the stairs to the deck, and on my way up I could hear Victoria’s voice.
“You still don’t get it, do you? You came here and fucked everything up for me!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Victoria,” Arizona replied. Her voice was shaking.
Victoria’s voice rose to a higher pitch. “Yes, you do! You took him from me!”
“Who did I take?”
“Roy!” Victoria shouted. “We were always so close. He used to say he would adopt me and then you came along and took him away. You don’t deserve him as a father. I do!”
What the fuck? Was she serious?
“Victoria...I think he was just making jokes about you two spending so much time together at work,” Arizona said, obviously trying her hardest to keep her voice steady. “Just calm down. We’re friends, remember?”
Jesus, Victoria was even crazier than I thought. She actually thought Roy would adopt her on the basis of a few lighthearted jokes he’d made offhand? She was legitimately unhinged.
“No!” Victoria screamed. “You think it was all a fucking joke? Arrogant little bitch!”
I couldn’t wait any longer. I stormed out onto the deck and shoved Arizona out of the way.
“Mason…what the…?”
Her voice trailed off as I hissed at her. “Stay behind me.”
Victoria’s blue eyes were wide as she processed my arrival. Clearly she hadn’t been expecting any company on this little outing.
“What’s the plan, Victoria?” I said. “You going to kill her and throw her over the edge? Claim it was all an accident and that she tripped and fell in?”
She didn’t answer, and I decided to play up the little crush she’d always had on me.
“Y’know, I have to say… I like your style,” I said, reaching around and grabbing Arizona’s left arm so that she was standing beside me, held firmly in my grip. “I’ve hated this bitch ever since she walked into Roy’s life. He was going to leave her trust fund to me, and now I don’t get a penny of it seeing as she’s back in the picture. Let me help you. We’ll get rid of the body together, and then when I get all the money, I’ll split it with you. Sound fair?”
There was no way a rational-minded person would have believed a word that was coming from my mouth, but Victoria’s dilated pupils told me she wasn’t thinking rationally due to what I assumed was a metric fuckton of drugs. That and the fact she’d just kidnapped Arizona. Not exactly something a sane person would do. She’d obviously had a full on drug-induced psychotic break.
Her eyes narrowed. “You’ll just take all the money for yourself,” she hissed. “I’m not stupid.”
I think everyone else begs to differ, sweetheart, I thought, trying to keep the edge off my voice.
“I promise I won’t,” I said. “You know, I’ve always wanted you. Roy made me stay away because you worked for him and he thought it might get awkward, but fuck that. Let’s do it.”
Her face softened slightly. “Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, if we get married, you don’t even have to worry about all this adoption shit. You’ll be Roy’s daughter-in-law. Close enough, huh? And that’s what you want, right? For him to be your father?”
&
nbsp; I was playing right into her batshit crazy fantasies. Operative word: crazy. She clearly had daddy issues coming out of her ears, but that wasn’t my problem. My only problem was getting Arizona back to shore in one piece.
She chewed on her lip, and I could see that her arm was shaking.
“C’mon, toss that thing over to me,” I said, nodding towards the thick iron bar she was holding. “I’ll do the dirty work. A lady shouldn’t have to do that.”
She finally nodded and threw it in my direction, and it made a loud clanging sound as it hit the deck. I picked it up and held it firmly in my dominant hand, and then I let go of Arizona’s arm.
“Get downstairs and lock yourself in one of the suites,” I said as calmly as possible. “No arguments. I’ll be fine. Go now.”
Victoria immediately realized I’d been playing her and shrieked before charging at me, and Arizona dashed down the stairs behind us to lock herself away. Victoria was pretty tall and strong for a woman, but she was still no match for me. The second she dove at me, I smashed the bar across her middle, and she fell to the deck, winded.
She finally climbed to her feet and stared at me, eyes glittering with malice.
“You won’t kill me,” she said. “If you had it in you, you would’ve hit me across the head. You’re a little pussy.”
“Really?” I said, advancing towards her. “I’m the one holding the weapon, and that’s how you’re gonna talk to me? You really are fucking nuts.”
She slowly backed away to the side of the yacht. “It doesn’t matter,” she said, her eyes glazed over. “None of it does anymore.”
Before I could stop her, she launched herself over the edge and crashed into the water, and I ran over and stared into the deep blue. She surfaced a moment later, coughing and spluttering, and I grinned down at her.
“Coast Guard’s on their way! Don’t worry, they won’t let you drown. They’ll be happy to rescue you and haul your skinny little ass straight into the police department. Bitch.”
Right on cue, a horn sounded as another vessel approached us, and a helicopter whirred overhead a moment later. A voice called out from the vessel for us to stay where we were, and I waved at them. A ladder dropped from the helicopter, and a black-clad man with a Coast Guard insignia stamped on his sleeve climbed down as it locked onto the target in the water. Victoria. I would have loved to see her drown, but it was better like this. This way, she’d spend the rest of her life rotting in jail.
Mine - A Stepbrother Romance Page 17
