by Dale Mayer
She shrugged. “I haven’t given it any thought. I don’t know.”
“Maybe it’s something you should consider,” he said, “because, if you feel like you need to be forgiven, at what point in time have you done enough to be forgiven?”
Such reasonableness was in his tone of voice that she just smiled. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m already there.”
“I’d think so. That was a long time ago.”
“It was,” she said, “but time passes so quickly that you tend to forget, and, before you know it, you look around, and a decade’s gone by,” she said in bewilderment.
“I’ve had that awareness a time or two,” he said. “Every time friends of mine get married, I always stop and think about it and realize that the plans I had thought would happen, would materialize down the road, haven’t. And now that road is fading.”
“I get it,” she said, with a murmur. “It is frustrating, isn’t it?”
“Very,” he said. “But you know? Like you, life happens when you aren’t looking, and life happens when you’re busy.”
“That’s what I was hoping,” she said.
“Did you ever find anybody else in your life?” he asked curiously.
She looked up at him, happy that at least he was as open and as friendly as he was. He had the right to completely shut her out. But he was being as amiable as always. That had been one of the things that she’d always bugged him about, saying that he was too open, too friendly, more like a puppy dog. And that had been insulting in itself. Just one more of a long list of insults that she’d handed out with regularity. She sighed. “No,” she said, “I haven’t. Probably won’t either.”
“Another penance?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “It just seems like that’s not something in my future, as if I’ve lost that one chance I had.”
“That’s rubbish,” he said in a stout voice. “Don’t even send yourself down that pathway.”
She smiled at him. “You’re being very generous of heart.”
“I’ve always been a very generous soul,” he said. “I don’t suffer fools easily, and I certainly don’t like getting screwed over,” he said. “But I walked, and it was on my own cognizance that I did so,” he said, “if you remember.”
“I do,” she said. “I hated it. I slammed everybody about your behavior and who you were and why you were no good and how it wasn’t my fault.” She added, “Now, of course, I realize how absolutely wrong that was.”
“Ah,” he said. “Back to that guilt again. You’ll have to walk away from that.”
“Pretty damn hard to,” she said.
“Not really an option,” he said. “You can’t keep doing this.”
“I’ll figure it out sometime.”
He smiled, nodded, shrugged. “Yeah, every time I hear you mention it,” he said, “I’ll slam you for it.”
She laughed. “How will that be any better?”
“Doesn’t matter if it’s better or not,” he said. “If you’ve made as many changes as you seem to think you have, then it’s important for you to understand that there is an end date, where you go back into the living, where you go back to a normal life, and where you get to have the things that you always wanted but then decided that you were being punished and so denied yourself. Such as a family. Such as a husband and a house of your own and the life that you always wanted.”
“I don’t even know what I wanted,” she said. “I feel like everything I wanted was based on what my parents wanted for me.”
“I don’t think that’s all that unusual either.”
Jerricho was stunned at the maturity and the growth of the woman beside him. He thought back to all the rough times he’d had with her, and much of what she’d mentioned were the reasons that he had walked finally. He had been young enough to only see what she wanted him to see and not old enough to understand that layers were going on behind it. But now, what he had seen here was this sincere person waiting on the inside to come out.
She had said all the right words, and she certainly appeared to be a very different person than she was back then. He was all for letting bygones be bygones. At the same time, he wanted to visit the asshole who had done that to her at the wedding ceremony. Princeton deserved a good swift kick in the nuts for that. It was one thing to take your grievances public, which was already bad enough, but to do it on your supposed wedding day was terrible.
No reason why Princeton couldn’t have called Brenna several days beforehand and said, “I’m done. I’m done, and I’m leaving, and I’ll go quietly in the night.” He didn’t have to make a public spectacle out of everything in her world and humiliate her like that. That was revenge, pure and simple. And, for that, Jerricho was sorry. Because that was a shit deal for anybody to deal with.
Hearing noises around him, he shifted to look behind him. Several women were having animated discussions. He glanced at Killian, who gave him a thumbs-up, and Jerricho turned back around again, steering the boat along, watching for enemies.
“Are we still in danger, seriously?” Brenna asked Jerricho.
“Given what you know about how much trouble the men went through to get the women here and the fact that buyers are lined up already for the women,” he said, “do you really think that anybody who finds a cargo full of women won’t try to kill Killian and me and take all of you for themselves?”
“Meaning, the system will stay in effect, even though the perpetrators of the actual sale itself are not?”
“Exactly,” he said. “Not to mention that a lot more women were planned for this auction,” he said. “So we have to take into consideration that many more men and women are involved in this. We do have our guys out looking. We have satellite feeds running to track down these people.”
He checked his watch. They were down to less than two hours. But it was a nerve-fraught couple hours ahead of them. Because the closer they came to meeting with the ship, the more problems were likely to happen. And what ship was it? How safe would the women be? How would they get the women back to where they needed to go? And what happened if somebody saw them doing the transfer?
As he watched the first beams of sunrise appear on the far horizon, he studied it, checked his time, and murmured, “It’ll be tight.”
“What is?”
“We were hoping to make the rendezvous in full darkness,” he said, “but the storm’s past, and dawn is approaching.”
“And we still are one hour and forty-five minutes away from our backup?”
He nodded.
“But nobody’s out here,” she argued. “So surely nobody cares.”
“Or they just haven’t regrouped enough.”
She turned around to study their surroundings.
“It’s almost too quiet,” he murmured.
She looked at him, startled.
He shrugged. “It’s a massive waterway. I would expect to see more traffic.”
She nodded slowly. “But, as you said, with the storm and being nighttime, why would that bother anybody?”
“Maybe not, but I’m used to looking for trouble, finding spots where it’s bad,” he said. “It’s better to be prepared and have nothing happen than to have something happen and not be prepared.”
“Sounds like a Boy Scout rule,” she said.
“It’s not that so much,” he said. “It’s just part of the training. Why don’t you go back, sit down, and close your eyes for a bit? It could get pretty rough going up here. The weather, although that storm’s gone,” he said, “left a lot of high turbulence in the atmosphere, and the waves are picking up.”
She glanced around and nodded. “I wasn’t even thinking about how rough it’s getting,” she admitted.
“Go back and rest,” he urged.
She shrugged and looked at him. “I was enjoying being with you.”
“Oh, I’m not trying to stop you,” he said in surprise. “And you’re welcome to stay. I’m not trying to chase you away. I’m just worried about you
being tired.”
“I’m too keyed up,” she confessed. She had her arms crossed over her chest. “Funny. I miss my family. I miss being home,” she said, “and, in the end, everything I’ve just said is in complete contradiction to that.”
“No, it’s just you’ve probably opened up a wellspring or a dam,” he said, “and now all that emotion will be pouring through you. Once you start making peace with your past, you’ll find that it’s that much harder to hold back everything.”
“Maybe,” she murmured. “At the same time, I’d like to find peace inside.”
“Aren’t you there yet?”
She thought about it, her gaze up at the sky, as he kept an eye on their surroundings.
He loved the meditative look, that peace on her face. “You look very peaceful now.”
“Maybe the fight to improve myself,” she murmured, “is already over, and I just didn’t tell myself. Maybe it’s just I had to struggle for so long, and then you turn around, and you realize it’s no longer an issue.”
“That’s what the passage of time is for,” he said. “That decade’s come and gone. The one that’s been there, driving you crazy, while you were so busy. And now it’s, … it’s over and done, and you don’t know what to do about it. It’s … not an issue. Just let it all go.”
She nodded slowly. “Maybe, when I get back from this, I’ll contact my parents.”
“And something like what you’ve just gone through, that would make complete sense to contact your parents. Heads up,” he said suddenly, peering through the horizon. He could make out shapes up ahead.
“What are you seeing?” She peered out the side. “It’s so dark I can’t make anything out,” she said, a strange note to her voice.
“I’m not sure,” he said, “but we’ve got boats.” He turned and looked back at Killian and whistled once.
Killian nodded and checked out his view of the horizon and then came forward. With that, the three of them stared into the ocean, the great big waterway in front of them. Killian said, “I count three.”
“I do too,” Jerricho said, his voice going hard.
“Three what?” Brenna said.
“Ships.”
“Is one ours?”
“Possibly,” Killian said. “But then they’re either being escorted or it’s been taken over.”
“I don’t like the sound of either of those,” she said. “How the hell would we find out?”
“The only way we’ll find out,” Jerricho said, his voice dark, “is as we get closer.”
“And, of course, getting closer means getting into a more dangerous position because we’ll be within their arm’s reach, right?” she asked in a quivering voice.
He looked at her, nodded, and said, “Hang on to that rifle.”
She looked back at him and looked to where it sat, beside Jessie, and said, “Good point.” And she quickly disappeared.
“You sure you want to let her have a rifle?” Killian said.
“I taught her to shoot way back when,” he murmured. “She’s good with it.”
He looked at him in surprise.
He grinned that lopsided grin. “Hey, we had some good times too.”
“I’ll say. Sounds like you just might be right back there now again.”
“I don’t know about that,” he said. “But it’s nice to know that we can be friends at this stage of our lives. Especially if it’s about to be cut short,” he said, motioning at the scene in front of them. “The more I look at this, the more I think that ship’s in trouble.”
“The question is, is it our rescue ship?” he said.
“I think the answer to that is a flat-out yes.”
Chapter 7
Brenna sat slightly apart from the other women, the rifle Jerricho had given her across her knees, as she stared out at the sea. She could tell from the men’s discussion that something wasn’t quite right. She studied the boats around her. The last thing she would do was get taken captive again.
Just then Jessie woke, got up, and walked toward her. “What’s going on?” she asked in a low whisper.
“We’re supposed to rendezvous with a ship that’s picking us up,” she said, her voice equally low. “But the ship up ahead appears to have an escort.”
Jessie’s eyes widened in the darkness. “An escort? What kind of an escort?”
“That’s up for discussion,” she said. “We have no way of knowing at this point.”
“Okay, so that’s not good.” She motioned at the rifle. “How come you have one of those?”
She smiled. “Jerricho taught me to shoot years ago,” she said. “I took to it very well. And now, because he knew that I could shoot and had done a lot of it back then with him, he thinks that I’m okay to have a weapon.”
“I wouldn’t mind having one myself,” she said enviously.
“No, I get it,” she said. “I was thinking to myself that I won’t get taken captive again.”
Jessie looked at her in horror. “Jesus,” she said, “neither am I.”
“But we have to stay strong and realize that that’s not the likely scenario. Against all odds, these men got us out, and we are here, and we’re safe.”
“And heading for disaster apparently,” Jessie said, her tone caustic.
“I trust these men,” she muttered. “And, even though the odds don’t look in our favor right now, it feels very much like we can do this.”
“We’ll do it,” Jessie said, with a strong vote of confidence. “But, Jesus, there are a lot of us to look after.”
“And maybe that’s something we should be helping to do,” she said. “Is there any place to hide the women?”
“Unless they need us to get off the ship really fast,” she pointed out, “we could go below deck. But then how will we get off fast? A lot of us are here.”
“And that just complicates the issue.” Brenna studied the boats as they approached. “The men don’t like it at all.”
“How can you tell?”
“Look how stiff they’re standing, and look at the way they’re holding their weapons.”
“Okay, but they’re not doing anything about it.”
“No, they’re still giving the impression that all is well,” Brenna said, “but it’s obvious that it isn’t.”
“I’m of two minds to go talk to the guys,” Jessie said, “but I’m afraid then it’ll tip off whoever is approaching that I’m here. I’m female, and that’s something then that could just make us more of a target. If they think all the women are here, we’ll just confirm what they’re hoping.”
“And if it isn’t the same men?”
“You mean, the same group of kidnapping gunmen? All we’re doing is tipping them off, letting them know that I’m here anyway,” Jessie said. “At the moment it just looks like two men to these boats. Two white men,” Jessie added in a soft voice.
“Yes, but they’re heavily tanned, so I’m not exactly sure that that would be picked up, particularly not in this light.”
“But the gunmen coming aren’t fools.”
“Nope, they aren’t.
“And they’re likely to shoot first and to ask questions later,” Jessie said. “Won’t our guys do that too?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Brenna said. “Jerricho and Killian will do what they need to do to get us out of here, but they won’t shoot until fired upon.”
“Too bad,” Jessie said. “I think if I had a weapon myself right now, I’d take them out as soon as they were within range.”
“What if it’s not … What if they’re not predators? What if they’re escorting the boat so that they get here safely?”
Jessie looked at her in surprise. “I hadn’t considered that,” she said, “and I wouldn’t have given them even time to have explained it. I would have just shot them and run.”
“And that’s the fear speaking,” she said gently. “We didn’t get to where we are in our industry by being cowards,” she said. “We need to
stand firm.”
“Oh, I hear you,” she said. “I’ll stand firm already, but you’re the one holding the weapon.”
An ugliness was in that tone in her voice. Brenna thought about handing it over and then realized she couldn’t because it had been entrusted to her by Jerricho, and she didn’t dare lose that trust. “I get that you think that’ll help,” she said, “but it won’t. And, if you’re in the wrong, or if somebody comes upon us, and they try to take it away from you, chances are that it will go that much worse for you.”
“And you’ll be any better?”
At that, she looked at her friend. “I know you don’t have any reason to believe me, but I do know how to shoot.”
Jessie looked at her doubtfully and then sagged beside Brenna. “I’m sorry. I’m just being a bitch. I’m just so scared.”
“We all are,” she murmured. She watched the boat approach. At that, she whistled forward.
Jerricho turned, looked at her, held up a warning finger, and motioned with his hand, patting it in a downward motion, and said, “Stay low.”
“He’s not happy either,” she said. “We need to stay quiet.”
“Oh, I’ll stay quiet all right. If I thought there was a place to hide on board, I’d be long gone,” Jessie said, “but I don’t even know how to get below deck.”
“There has to be a way,” she said. “Why don’t you look around and see if you can find it? Or at least some tarps or something that we can all hide under.”
“Too late for that,” she said.
But it really wasn’t. And, with a little more coaxing, Jessie got up and headed over, keeping low so that nobody would see what she was doing, and walked to where at least a small rowboat was off to the side, which looked completely ineffectual.
As Brenna watched, Jessie slipped inside the boat. Brenna frowned at that because that wouldn’t help anybody but Jessie. Plus it would be hard to see her, unless somebody was looking, yet it was a fairly obvious hiding spot. On the other hand, it would also look like maybe she just had gone to sleep. Not sure what to say or do about it, but knowing that she needed to remember her friend was there, Brenna sat on edge, waiting for disaster to strike in front of them.
