Three Tequilas (Althea Rose 3)

by Tricia O'Malley

  Trace cursed next to me and I shook my head at him. “It’s not your fault.”

  Adrenaline coursed through me; it was the strangest sensation – I couldn’t stop myself from smiling because of the godstone, yet I was simultaneously terrified for my life.

  “We’ll take the stone, Hermosa. Or stones? I’m not sure what you’ve picked up down there, but I’m assuming it’s at least one of them.” Tlaloc smiled at me all friendly-like, and I grinned back at him like a maniacal cheerleader.

  “Don’t give it to him, Althea. You can’t,” Trace hissed.

  “Shut up or I’ll shut you up,” said a man on Trace’s boat, kneeling so the barrel of the gun was inches from Trace’s face.

  “It’s fine, you can have it. It’s not worth our lives, Trace,” I said, reaching into my BCD and pulling out the stone. I held it above me in the water and handed it off to the man on the boat. He took it and immediately turned and handed it to Tlaloc, clearly reluctant to hold it for too long.

  Tlaloc’s face lit up with pleasure as the stone was passed to him, and he held it up in the light.

  “This. This stone. El Serpiente has come home to its people!” Tlaloc kissed the stone and held it in the air amidst the cheers of his men surrounding us.

  Tlaloc looked down at us, a smile still playing across his face.

  “Thank you, Hermosa, you’ve been a tremendous help. I’m sorry I won’t be needing your services any longer.”

  I cringed and instinctively ducked my face under the water. I don’t know why; not like I’d be able to dodge the bullets from twenty different guns. But when nothing happened, I poked my face back up, sputtering in the waves.

  “Let go of the ladder.”

  It dawned on me suddenly what he meant to do. It was stunning in its simplicity, a beautiful plan. It was clear why Tlaloc made such a fierce leader.

  “No, please, don’t do this. I gave you the stone. Spare us,” I begged.

  “No loose ends, Hermosa. Vaya con dios,” Tlaloc said, saluting me with the stone.

  “Let go of the ladder or I will shoot you in the face,” said the man on Trace’s boat, and we both let go, hooking our arms together tightly.

  “My boat,” Trace whimpered. I didn’t blame him. It was his everything.

  “They’re going to abandon it somewhere and let it drift. If they find our bodies it’ll just look like a diving accident gone wrong,” I said bitterly.

  Trace swore, long and loudly, as he wrapped his arms around me.

  “Hook your legs around my waist,” he said, pulling me tight against his body. I wrapped my legs around his waist and hooked my arms around his neck, pushing my face close to his. It was a somewhat awkward way to hold each other in the water, but with our BCDs inflated, we were able to keep our faces above water.

  I closed my eyes as the engines fired up and the boats took off, not able to bear watching Trace’s boat drive away. Well, any of the boats, really.

  Because now we were floating at sea, at night, without any way to get help.

  If the sharks didn’t get us, the ocean would.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  I only freaked out for like a minute or two, tops. But once I’d gone through a few hysterical moments, I calmed down. Mostly.

  “Shh, Thea, it’s going to be okay. People know where we are. If we don’t text after the dive they’ll come looking for us.”

  “Yeah, but did you notice how quickly we’re moving, here? We’ve caught a current,” I moaned, as the mainland faded further away from sight.

  “Just breathe. We’re okay for the moment,” Trace said against my neck, just as a wave smashed us in the face.

  I spluttered out the water. “Wind’s picking up,” I commented.

  “If need be, we’ll put our regs in. We’ve got air still,” Trace pointed out.

  “Okay, okay, okay, calm down, Althea,” I lectured myself.

  Not going to lie – it wasn’t easy. Being at sea in the pitch-black night with waves kicking up and no way to be found was not my idea of a fun night.

  To be found.

  To find and be found.

  “Trace!” I squealed, tightening my legs around his waist.

  “Althea, as much as I would like to get romantic with you, now is probably not the time,” Trace joked, and I realized that I was rubbing up on… well, certain parts of his anatomy.

  “Um, sorry. I just remembered something my mother told me,” I said.

  “Well, mentioning your mother is one way to rid me of my lusty thoughts,” Trace observed dryly.

  “The finding spell. My mom called me from halfway across the world and insisted I learn the finding spell. I thought at the time it had to do with finding the treasure. But it can be used inversely – to be found.”

  I almost squealed in his ear again, and he hugged me tighter to him as we drifted in the water.

  “So now might be a good time to do that,” Trace pointed out.

  “Oh, right – okay, let me remember it.”

  I thought back to the spell, then prayed I had the words right.

  “By the moon, sun, earth, air, fire, and sea,

  Where we are now lost, draw help to me.”

  I focused on calling upon the elements, and being sure to follow up the spell with my intent.

  “I intend for Luna and Miss Elva to find us.”

  “Good, I hope they do,” Trace said into my ear.

  “Shh,” I said. Closing my eyes, I repeated the spell three times – and on the third, I felt the pulse of magick begin to surround me.

  “I feel something!” Trace exclaimed.

  “It’s working,” I said. “Now we wait.”

  The push of magick continued to throb around us, its beat insistent, cocooning us in its spell. It wasn’t long before I heard something.

  “Here!” I screeched, making Trace jump.

  “Dang, Althea, that was my ear.”

  “I swear I heard someone calling.”

  “Althea!”

  “Rafe!” I shouted back, surprised and yet not. There was no way anyone else could have reached us so quickly. “Rafe, here we are!” I lifted my flashlight and waved it back and forth.

  “There you two are! Miss Elva told me to come find you. There are boats on the way. A police boat and everything!”

  “How did the police know about us?” I asked, genuinely confused.

  “Miss Elva got a feeling and alerted the Coast Guard. Turns out they were already on their way out, tracking some other boats.”

  “There! I see lights!” I pointed to the horizon where I could just make out the flashing lights of a police boat.

  “I’ve got to go tell my lovemountain. Keep shining your flashlights so she can point the boats your way.”

  And with that Rafe zipped away.

  Trace and I waved our flashlights frantically, and I looked up at the sky, silently thanking the goddesses for looking out for us.

  “Trace, I have to tell you something.”

  “You dream about me naked?”

  “Haha. I gave Tlaloc a fake stone.”

  “What! How?”

  “Miss Elva gave me a dummy stone. Said she felt like I would need it. I have the real one on me.”

  “Is that why I feel so damn happy, even though I’m trying not to panic about sharks?”

  “Yup. It’s in my BCD, along with the cross I took for Rafe.”

  “So the good guys win?”

  “So long as we don’t get eaten by a shark in the next five minutes? Yeah, I think we’re good.”

  It was more like one minute; Rafe must have gotten to Miss Elva quickly. In moments a boat was drawing close, a searchlight hanging from the front. I shielded my eyes as it blinded us.

  “Sorry about that,” a voice said as they cut the engines and threw us a life ring. I closed my eyes as I hooked an arm around the ring, then looked up at the owner of the voice.

  “Hey, Nicola. Fancy seeing you here.”

&nb
sp; Chapter Thirty-Eight

  It was only after we’d rescued Trace’s boat, watched an enraged Tlaloc being loaded into a paddy wagon, and were wrapped in towels back at the dock that we finally got to talk to Luna and Miss Elva.

  “So she’s one of the good guys?” Trace asked, as we watched Nicola cross her arms and nod as a police officer lead another handcuffed man down the dock.

  “Looks like it.”

  Nicola spoke with the officer briefly and then detoured to where the four of us sat.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you,” Nicola said immediately, her British accent long gone.

  “I can’t believe I didn’t read it on you,” I admitted, a little embarrassed that my psychic powers had failed me.

  “I studied up on how to block you from reading my mind. I’m sorry – I work for a private firm that investigate stolen art cases. They’ve honed in on El Serpiente and we were trying our best to recover it. We get a little more intensive training when we’re on a case like this.”

  “Is that why you stayed on the boat? To make sure nobody hijacked us?”

  “Yes. That’s also why I specifically ordered you to stop diving once I confirmed – or thought I had confirmed – where the treasure was. I didn’t need you two getting hurt.” Nicola sighed and shook her head at us. “And yet, it was still a close call. Luckily we’d been tracking Tlaloc pretty closely – worried that he would interfere when we were finally so close. When he actually stepped onto a boat tonight, we knew he had to have found the treasure. That emerald is amazing, isn’t it?”

  “Just stunning. What are your plans for it?” I asked, lying through my teeth.

  “I think once all the paperwork is done, it will go to a private gallery. El Serpiente is a famous historical piece. It deserves to be on display – and it will command a high price.”

  “How come some art firm is involved in this anyway?” I asked.

  “I can’t share that with you. Other than we’ve been following Tlaloc and his plans for a while – he’s crossed international borders illegally and has run some pretty major operations. This isn’t the first piece of treasure that he’s gone after.”

  I nodded at Nicola.

  Miss Elva didn’t say a word. And as far as I was concerned, Miss Elva trumped some private art detective agency or whatever Nicola was. She obviously had her own plans for the stones, and I trusted her implicitly.

  I wondered if we’d have to return the money we had been paid.

  “Nicola, what about the money in our accounts?”

  Nicola waved her hand.

  “Keep it. You won’t be getting the rest of it, but you can keep what’s already been transferred. Too much paperwork to transfer it back. It’s a business expense.”

  My eyes grew wide – that was some business expense. The art world must pay well.

  A crowd had begun to gather at the dock – with all the police activity, I’m sure people thought someone had drowned. I gasped in surprise as Cash pushed his way through the crowd and stormed over to where we sat.

  I stood up – a bit shaky on my feet, and a bit shaky as to where we stood as a couple.

  Cash stopped in front of me, visibly agitated as he surveyed me.

  “You’re okay.”

  “I am. I’m safe.”

  “Do I even want to know?”

  I shook my head, feeling my heart cracking open a bit.

  Cash reached out and pulled me in for a quick tight hug, and I blinked back the tears that threatened. Stepping back, he kept his hands on my shoulders.

  “I’m going back to Miami for a while. I’m not sure how long. I don’t know where we stand – I’d hoped I wouldn’t keep finding you in these situations. I don’t know how I feel. I… I can’t stop thinking about you. And yet I can’t live with you constantly putting yourself in the line of danger.”

  “I know,” I whispered, fighting for control as I looked up at him. “Maybe we are just too different.”

  “Maybe we are. But you know, I honestly thought we’d beat the odds.” Cash shrugged and looked away for a moment before looking back at me. Reaching up, he ran a finger down my cheek. “Take care of yourself.”

  I blinked back tears as I watched him walk away – completely unsure if I was letting one of the best things that had ever happened to me just walk out of my life.

  “That guy,” Trace shook his head in disgust.

  Miss Elva chuckled.

  “Honey, there’s plenty of fish in the sea. Don’t you be forgetting that.”

  Epilogue

  Later that night we all stood in Miss Elva’s living room as she held both stones in her hands.

  “Four hundred years they’ve been separated. Maybe all they wanted to do was be back together.”

  The stones – bigger than Miss Elva’s hands – began to glow and pulse, as if sensing each other’s nearness.

  I missed holding El Serpiente. It had been like mainlining joy. But too much happiness wasn’t good for people. You can’t know joy without knowing pain.

  And even though I was in a lot of pain right now, it was important for me to feel it. Because if I didn’t feel it, how would I learn from it?

  See? I’m maturing.

  “Wow,” I breathed, watching as Miss Elva slid the stones together along the grooves that joined them. We jumped as they emitted a brilliant flash of light and one crystal clear ding! The etchings of the rose and the serpent glowed a brilliant green before the stone quieted down – content to be together again as one.

  Miss Elva lowered the complete stone into a gilded box and pulled the cover tight, locking it with a key.

  “Where will this go?”

  “I have a friend who’ll return it to its rightful place – at a temple high in the mountains of Mexico that still survives and operates to this day.”

  “But what if it falls into the wrong hands again?”

  “It’s meant to be with its people – the legend lives on through them. We can no more contain it and put it on display than we can decide where it belongs. The godstones know where they’re meant to be.”

  “Oh! Rafe, I have something for you,” I exclaimed, having forgotten in all the craziness. I went over to the couch, where my bag was tucked next to Hank.

  “A gift!” Rafe exclaimed. “For me?”

  Reaching into the bag, I pulled out the intricate cross I had tucked in my BCD earlier in the night. It was no longer than the length of my hand, and the workmanship was exquisite. Turning, I held it out to him.

  “I know you can’t hold this. But I thought you’d like to at least have it in the house with you. A souvenir of your pirating days.”

  Rafe floated over to me and hovered above my hand, looking in awe from my face back to my palm. His eyes grew huge in his face, and I was astonished to see a sheen of tears film his eyes.

  “My mother’s cross. You brought my mother’s cross home to me. It was the only thing I had of hers.”

  “I didn’t know. I just saw it and knew it was for you. I’m glad I could bring it back to you,” I said, realizing I wasn’t going to be able to hold back my tears either.

  “My mother’s cross. Oh – oh, she loved me so. And I her,” Rafe turned, embarrassed as he wiped his tears. He flitted over to Miss Elva. “Do you see, lovemountain? Do you see the beautiful cross my mother gave me? She would have loved you.”

  Miss Elva’s eyes grew wide as saucers at that comment.

  “Now you know I’m not about meeting no parents, Rafe. I don’t do in-laws.” She hooted out her huge laugh and lifted the cross from my hand. Holding it to the light, she nodded.

  “But this? This is a good piece. We’ll put it in a place of honor, and you’ll tell me all about her,” Miss Elva said, walking away with Rafe babbling after her. He shot me a look over his shoulder.

  “Thank you, psychic.”

  “No problem, pirate. Be nice to my dog from now on.”

  Miss Elva’s chuckle followed me as I picked up my bag
and left the house.

  Trace and Luna followed me out.

  We all looked at each other in question.

  “See you at Lucky’s?” Luna asked.

  “Oh yeah, Beau’s going to lose his shit when he hears about this.”

  I laughed as we headed for Trace’s Jeep, Hank at my side. Maybe there was a small hole in my heart from Cash, but I always had my friends to fill it.

  And maybe that’s what El Serpiente had wanted to tell me about love.

  Read an Excerpt from Tequila Knots & Valentine Shots

  An Althea Rose Valentine’s Story

  “That should be enough to add a little zing back into the bedroom,” Miss Elva chuckled as she spilled a dash of oyster powder into a brilliant red liquid she was stirring in a copper bowl in her pint-sized kitchen. Howlin’ Wolf poured out his pain on the CD player behind her and she sang along as she stirred, pitching her deep alto voice to match his gravelly one.

  As the liquid began to turn crimson with purple undertones, Miss Elva stopped singing and focused on infusing the potion in front of her with the touch of magick she carried – old magick – the kind many of the new sect of ladies dabbling at witchcraft these days didn’t seem to understand.

  “Hacks is all they are,” Miss Elva grumbled as she finished up her spell and went back to humming along with Howlin’ Wolf as she considered how to package her love potion.

  Love Potion No. 7, to be specific. Love Potion No. 9 was nothing to be trifled with.

  Miss Elva bumped her considerable girth around the kitchen, shaking her hips as she sang along to the music, her mind on the couple she was concocting the potion for. Sheila had come to her because her marriage had ground to a halt in the bedroom. Miss Elva had done a quick reading of her energy just to make sure that there wasn’t anything else going on that was contributing to the absence of the bedroom boogie-woogie. All she’d found was a lot of love between the two that just needed a little kick to get moving again. And Love Potion No. 7 was the perfect antidote to their problem.