by Cherry Adair
Ignoring the threat, no matter how lovingly couched, she hugged him back, just as hard. Damn it to hell, she had tears in her eyes and hurried to blink them back before he saw and started asking questions.
She punched his arm. "I'm about to make you a multi-gazillionaire, so don't mess with me, big brother. I almost raced out here when you arrived last night, but I figured you needed all the beauty sleep you could get."
Ry was the person she loved the most in the world: She'd do anything for him. Up to and including keeping a secret that would destroy him if he ever found out. A secret she'd take to her grave. But there were other semi-secrets she'd better fess up to, sooner than later.
Her brother was too smart to be fooled for long. Unless she changed course, she was about to sail directly up shit creek. Without a canoe or a paddle.
Reaching up to cup his smoothly shaven cheek, Peri gave him a misty smile. "Ugly as ever I see." Turning to her sister-in-law, she opened her arms. Addy walked into them, enfolding her in a gardenia-scented embrace. Unlike herself, Addy's redheaded complexion was almost freckle free. "You, on the other hand, get more beautiful every time I see you."
God, she'd missed them. They’d married, had baby Sophia, mourned the baby's death, divorced and finally remarried, and now had a newborn son. Peri hadn't been present for any of it. "Where's my favorite nephew-"
Baby Adam was her only nephew. Her sis-in-law stepped aside and with a dramatic sweep of her hand indicated the portable crib in the shade. Peri walked over to look down at the sleeping six-month-old.
She'd never particularly been a baby person, but this little guy was the prettiest little human she'd ever seen. Her heart melted, and her throat tightened. That they’d named the baby for the brother they’d loved so dearly, and lost, made the child even more precious.
"Oh, my God, Addy, he's. . .He's perfect!" Allowable tears stung her eyes as she leaned over to marvel at his impossibly small hands and his full cap of silky dark hair. Wearing a fluffy blue outfit with BORN TO DIVE on the front, he was sprawled on his back, arms and legs extended, like a little blue starfish.
“Go ahead.” Addison draped her arm over Peri’s shoulder. “Pick him up. He needs to wake up. He’s a typical Case. Not adhering to anyone’s time schedule but his own.”
Peri shook her head. “He’s too freaking. . . breakable.”
"You won't drop him. How can you resist kissing on him for hours?"
Considering they were a mere ten feet away from water that was eighty feet deep, Peri would pass. She felt light-headed just thinking about the responsibility. "Resist I must." She stared, drinking in the wonder of this incredibly small human. If she had one of these she'd never sleep. "I’ll wait until later, when I'm sitting on something large and soft. Then you can hand him to me."
The thought of having children had never crossed her mind. But suddenly her biological clock was chiming like Big Ben. She ignored it. She remembered that she and Finn had had unprotected sex three days ago. She ignored that, too.
Of course, the option might already be out of her hands since they hadn't used a condom the other night, and no birth control was one hundred percent foolproof. What was Finn thinking about the situation? As little as she knew him, it didn't take a rocket scientist to know he was a very cautious man. With his wealth, he'd have to be. She believed him when he'd said he'd never had unprotected sex before her.
She was in the midst of the most exciting salvage of her life. Not only was there no time for children or a relationship like her brother's, she hadn't even had a real date in eighteen months. Having wild monkey sex with Finn didn't count.
"Deal." Eyes glowing, Addison looked incandescent with happiness. "He'll be awake, and therefore full of beans by the time you two get back. You can hug and kiss him to your heart's delight then."
"Ready to suit up? A couple of my divers just went down." Ry shot Peri a smile as he stroked his wife's hair.
Peri yanked the damp sweater over her head and unzipped her jeans, revealing a white bikini and a lot of goosebumps underneath. "Already?"
Later it would be a gorgeous sunny morning with just a light chop on the water. Perfect for diving. Now it was cold and not bright enough to see much of anything beneath the glossy surface.
"Momo and Kev couldn't wait. Thanks for rigging the spotlights already, good job all around." He narrowed his eyes. "You haven't been diving alone at night, have you?"
"No, but that doesn't mean I haven't been tempted!
He booped her on the nose. "I'm shocked and impressed that you showed so much restraint waiting for me."
She and Ry began to suit up to join the others on the ocean floor. Addison walked over with the sleeping baby in her arms. Rydell paused, drysuit half on, and leaned forward to kiss his son on the forehead.
Taking in the tenderness of the lingering kiss, the way her brother gently touched the infant’s hair, Peri fought to keep her jaw from dropping. Ry looked more interested in domestic bliss than diving. He looked more rested and relaxed- hell- happier than she'd seen him in years. He was going to be a whole hell of a lot happier when he saw what lay below, just waiting for him.
Recovering from the shock, she managed to glance into Addy’s eyes and share a smile over the two dark heads. Clearly, loving and losing made his family even more precious to him.
Was Finn thinking about her? She dismissed it as foolish fancy. They'd had sex. Exceptional sex. No reason for him to suppose it wouldn't happen again, and as often as he liked, when she returned to his ship. She'd take a bet that if- when- that happened, he'd have a lifetime of condoms on hand. She'd bet he wasn't a man who made the same mistake twice.
"Are you okay?" her brother asked, "We're not diving if you don't feel well."
"I feel peachy, thanks. Napolitano awaits." She made a sweeping gesture to the water, and pushed aside the scorching heat surging through her blood at the mere thought of sliding a condom onto Finn's impressive erection. "Be prepared to have your socks blown off." Telling him, and showing him, were two different spheres –like being on the surface breathing air, and being under the waves breathing through a regulator.
Heartbeat elevated, and hyper-aware of the four Cutter ships, now hidden by the black bulk of the Blackstar, Peri should've been feeling the adrenaline rush that came with a dive. Instead, she just felt that nasty sense of dread that came with having to deal with something unpleasant.
It pained her to know she was the thing that was unpleasant.
Had Finn told the Cutters about the redhead he'd met at the museum? Had he mentioned that the government oversight person was a redhead? Had they put two and two and redhead together to come up with thief?
Damn it to hell. Pushing aside the niggles of self-doubt and foreboding, Peri reverted to her old standby feeling of up-from-the-bootstraps bravado.
With Ry's unnecessary help, Addy settled onto a nearby lounge chair with Adam in her arms. "I can't wait to see Callie, it's been years." With a warning glance at her husband, Addison said, "You'll play nice, Rydell Case."
Eyes serious, he looked at Peri as he stroked Addy's cheek with his knuckles. "I'll always love Callie."
Callie had been married to Rydell and Peri’s brother Adam, who'd died of leukemia several years ago. She was now engaged to Jonah Cutter. They’d planned on marrying in Switzerland last year, but the wedding had been postponed. Peri wondered what Ry had had to do with that. She hadn't seen Callie at the party, but if Jonah Cutter was here, Callie would be, too. She'd show up sooner or later.
“Regardless, Ry, we’re a family. We have to make an effort.” Her love for Callie ran deep. Probably because she'd had to work really, really hard to overcome the resentment caused by the fact that her mom had loved Callista like a daughter. Supremely unfair when she'd treated her own daughter like an unwelcome guest in her own home.
Still, over the years, she and Callie had formed a tight bond and were as close as real sisters. Peri wanted her to be happy. But when Calli
e married into the Cutter family, she’d be firmly ensconced in the enemy camp, and the last connection they had to her brother Adam would be gone forever.
Ry arched an eyebrow in reply as he picked up his tank from the rack.
"No, seriously." Addy lay the baby back into his bassinet, then positioned her laptop on her thighs. "For Callie's sake, we really must try. It would be cruel to force her to choose between us and the man she loves."
"I have no problem loving Callie exactly the way I've always loved her." Ry checked the valves on his tank. "That love doesn't extend to a Cutter."
"You’re a bullheaded ass. But I love you anyway," his wife told him, pulling a light blanket over the baby, then tightening her towel cape around her own shoulders.
"There’s no reason for me to be in the presence of any of those lying, cheating bastards." Ry shot a glance in the general direction of the Cutter ships. "Callie’s always welcome to come and visit Tesoro Mio if she wants to see us. I’ll welcome her with open arms. Just not her future husband."
With a serene expression, Addy glanced from Peri to Ry. "I'm going to welcome the man Callie loves to the family, so live with it. Peri, tell your brother to stop helicoptering so I can enjoy my vacation." Comfortably ensconced, Addy took a sip from a mug of what must be cold coffee by now, before opening her laptop. Even a beach towel slung around her shoulders looked like a million bucks on Addy, who always looked as elegant as a model in an upscale magazine.
"She's already forgotten we're here," Peri smiled as her sis-in-law started typing. “Come on, Ry,” she teased, yanking up the zipper of her drysuit, “we’re only going down for a couple of hours. They’ll both be here when you surface. Let’s go."
It was her brother's first official day here, but Peri had a five-year leg up. She'd found the scattered remains of the Napolitano, first. Then other carracks on subsequent dives.
To grant the necessary permits and permissions, the Argentinian government had insisted on being paid an estimated future value of the treasure. Even low-balling what she thought her salvage would net, she didn't have the resources to stake a claim on all four wrecks.
Even with her brother's help, it would've been impossible. Peri had to choose which ship she wanted. The Italian ship was the most intriguing to her. She'd left the three Spanish ships, figuring she’d make enough money on the first ship to cover the other three. Then the damn Cutters had swooped in and laid claim to them.
Tesoro Mio and Sea Witch's claim straddled the miles-long spill of the Napolitano. Peri had hired a group of divers to build the grid and, under her direction, do the prep work for the dive. They’d painstakingly created a topographical map of the sea bed and marked the search areas in a grid that spanned their claim. Over the last few years, as the prep work had been accomplished, Peri and her small team of divers had salvaged hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of treasure. Relatively easy pickings.
Based on what they’d retrieved, she’d bet it was merely a drop in the bucket of what the rest of the wreck would give them.
Salvage sites were required to register with the Ministry of Antiquities of the Argentinian government, all a matter of public record. So, Peri had known almost as soon as the Cutters had staked their claims a year ago. How they'd discovered the location of the wrecks was a mystery.
If she were in their position she'd want to know as much as possible about who was salvaging so close to their dive site. To that end-they were shit out of luck, because Peri and Ry had shell companies inside shell companies.
"Any prods?" Ry asked.
He was referring to the Cutter people trying to ascertain who else had filings for salvage. "As to who Koúkos Corporation is?" she smiled. "They tried. Several times. My business people in Greece disavowed any knowledge. They'll never release the information."
"Good. Let them wonder."
Peri rubbed her arms through her drysuit. "Get the lead out, I'm getting goosebumps on my goosebumps here."
Ry paused, giving his sister a narrow-eyed look. "Now, that's a smile to put the fear of God into a man."
Peri's smile widened. "I was just thinking about their reaction when they see Sea Witch and Tesoro Mio so close together. You know they're already gnashing their teeth and sticking pins in voodoo dolls seeing you show up. I'll just be the cherry on top of their misery sundae."
"And when do you plan to do that?"
"A couple of days, I think." Coiling her hair on top of her head she stuck several long pins into the mass to keep it in place under her helmet. "I'll lull them into a false sense of security, and then, bam!"
"Evil."
"True." Drawing a deep breath, she hesitated before going forward. "And in spirit of full disclosure-"
Closing his eyes, her brother rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Oh, God--"
"No big deal. I'm working temporarily as Theo's oversight person, so he doesn't have to take up residence for the duration. A big plus is I'll be able to monitor what they're doing as they do it. Plus, we have the home team advantage."
"Jesus, Persephone. Why would you do something so damn stupid? Unnecessary even. Worse, dangerous."
"It's short-term," Peri placated. "Don't worry. Nothing will go sideways, I promise. Just until I figure out what they’re finding. It's all very low key."
"They're aware that you're my sister?"
"Theo only knows me as Ariel Andersen."
"A fake identity?" Ry asked, sounding less than happy. “Peri, what the hell are you doing?”
"Are you still dating that guy?" Addy called out.
"Not since forever. No. But this suits him just fine. He wants to know the value of the artifacts they find."
Looking across the water, Ry commented, "They seem to have a big gun, that's Phineas Gallagher's Blackstar. The space exploration guy, right?"
"He’s the one. Big-time Cutter investor, apparently. When he’s not adding to their piles of exploration capital, he’s working on colonizing Mars."
"Then what's he doing on a deep-water salvage? Especially one that could take decades?"
"Good question, I'll ask him later this afternoon when I see him." If he allows me back on board or sweeps me off my feet to have wild monkey sex with me in a closet somewhere.
Ry gave her a stern big brother look. It had never worked on her, but she loved him for trying. "I don't like the subterfuge, Peri. It's unnecessary and could prove dangerous." He held up a hand. "Shouldn't have said that because obviously, that's why you do this shit. I want you to stop whatever the hell you've put into motion. Especially with Callie on her way down here. I mean it, Persephone."
"I'm just going to check on what they've found for a couple of hours a day. It's not forever."
"No, it'll just be until they figure out your dual role and someone drowns you."
Something she’d taken into consideration. "Good thing I'm an excellent swimmer, then, isn't it?" She pulled the hood over her hair and stuffed loose strands inside as best she could. Her hair tended to have a mind of its own. "If you like, we can go to the house soon so I can show you what I've already found." Better to change the subject sooner than later. "Not just coins, and some impressive emerald jewelry, but all the other artifacts I told you about as well. Your minds will be blown."
"Looking forward to it. But it would've been nice if you’d kept me informed of where you were and what you were up to during the last three years." As they donned their tanks in unison on the edge of the platform, Ry gave her a stern glance.
"If I'd known you were going to play cat and mouse with the Cutters I would've done everything in my power to dissuade you. They're not good people, Magma. I don't want you pulling their tails just for sport. Stay the hell out of their way. For my sake. Please. I’ve lost too much in one life. If I lost you, too . . ."
"A week - max," she agreed, surprisingly not as reluctant as she would've thought. This new Ry, the one willing to acknowledge emotions in words, confirmed what her gut had been trying to tell her
for months. It was time for her to get over the Cutters. Time to move on. Time to be free of the Cutter albatross around her neck.
She was the only one left in the world who knew who she truly was, and why she was hellbent on dogging the Cutters. But now that her brother was here to hold up a mirror .. did any of that really matter? Would any of the things she'd done over the last seven years serve to turn back time and rewrite her life?
"Theo really needs the information. I'm a subcontractor to the Argentinian government, so I'm there legally."
Peri felt bad for worrying Ry when he already had so much on his plate. And she had no illusions about how her honorable brother would feel if he ever learned she'd been a pirate for the last seven years.
There was only one person in her life she could depend on, and that was her brother. He hadn't heard the accusations their father had hurled at her that day. She'd never tell her brother how worthless she'd felt, how scared, how absolute and utterly isolated and alone. And she never would. She'd always put on a happy face around him.
The last thing she wanted was for him to think less of her. He'd reconciled with Addison. They had a new baby. He was happy. Ry hadn't had any problem not seeing her for three years. He'd drifted away. Into a new life, with a new family. As it should be.
She'd learned early and hard how little she could depend on anyone but herself. She'd better pull up her big girl panties and deal with this as quickly as possible and get it the hell over with. No point dragging it out. She'd tell them this afternoon. Be done with them once and for all.
"But when they find out, they won’t come after this Theo guy. They’ll come after you. Stay the hell out of their way. The fact that they're here now shows us just how cutthroat they are. I just fucking spent the better part of a year in South Africa fighting their lawsuit about wrongful ownership of a salvage. Be extra careful, Magma. The Cutters are bad news."
"Got it. Are we diving or chatting? I'm freezing my ass off here."
