Elusive

by L. A. Fiore

  “We?”

  “Mr. Tuttleman, he’s the curator at Granddad’s museum.”

  “How many people know about the journal?”

  She hadn’t been expecting that question. “My grandfather, my parents, Mr. Tuttleman, Harry, Zoe, Decker, you and the shop owner. Why?”

  “Harry?”

  “Harry Slathers. He’s a family friend. Why are you asking?”

  “I’m curious if we’ll be competing with someone to find the ship.”

  “No, and it isn’t a generally known ship or treasure. That’s what makes it so rare and exciting. People don’t know she’s out there, but she is. I feel it.”

  Her excitement was coming off her in waves. “You said you were researching the journal. Did you bring your research?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you close to pinpointing where the ship sank?”

  “The jeweler lived in Campeche, Mexico. I don’t think the ship got too far off the coast.”

  “You want to find it?”

  “I do.”

  She looked down at her lap but not before I saw the smile.

  “What?”

  “Nothing, just pirates hunting treasure. It seems fitting.”

  “Why haven’t you searched for this treasure before now?”

  “Pinpointing where to start the search for the ship has taken us years, but in all honesty even if we had narrowed it down sooner I don’t have the resources or the funds. A dive of this magnitude is very expensive even with having Decker’s dive team on board.”

  “Why won’t your parents help? They have the money.”

  “They’re too busy.”

  For their daughter? It was her easy acceptance that being too busy for her was not just okay, but the norm that pissed me off.

  “Your grandfather?”

  “He’s ready to help whenever I need it, but his money is filtered back into the museum. Risking that seems wrong when we don’t even know we’re going to find it. The same goes for you. I don’t feel right spending your money when I can’t guarantee a return on your investment.”

  I looked around at our accommodations. “Do I look like a man lacking in funds?”

  “You really want to look for her?”

  “It’s either that or raiding and looting, and though I suspect you and your friend would be quite good at that, I’m guessing you’d rather look for your treasure.”

  “I would. I should get my notes together.” She stood, her legs not quite steady. “I imagine you’ll want your crew brought up to speed about the shipwreck and treasure.”

  “Yes, whenever you’re ready.”

  She reached the door but stopped. She didn’t look back and yet she knew she had my attention. “I don’t pretend to understand your world and I would be lying if I said it didn’t scare the hell out of me…the violence, the ruthlessness. And though you aren’t the same man you were in Cancun, you’re still a good man. Have you done terrible things? I’m sure you have, but you are still a good man. I see it even if you don’t.”

  I sat there a long time after she left. A good man. I wasn’t, but I really liked that she thought so.

  Isaac had looked better. I had a pretty tough stomach but the sight of him had me close to losing my lunch. The mangled mess in front of me didn’t look human let alone like Isaac.

  “Dude has a high threshold for pain. I’ll give him that.”

  “What did he tell you?”

  “I’ll let him share.”

  “Where’s Jasen?”

  Even with his face swollen, the fucker smiled—insolent even under the circumstances. It was hard not to admire the set of balls he had.

  Zeke grabbed a regular pair of household scissors. I didn’t want to think about how much pressure he had to exert to take off his finger. Or how the hell much that hurt. I curled my own hands reflexively, because damn.

  “Dead.” He wasn’t being insolent now. “He offered to pay me well to take you out.”

  Now we were getting somewhere. “Six years ago?”

  “Yes, but he didn’t pay me so I killed him.”

  “So why did you come after me now?”

  “Look at my fucking face. I’ve had to stare at this every day for eight years. Every day looking at my failure, that you fucks got away.”

  “I don’t buy it. What about the woman?”

  “The boss knew about her back then, he had men following all of you after you roughed up Jasen. When I saw her now, I knew she meant something to you. That she was the way to get to you.”

  “You’re lying. I think you came to kill me, but I don’t think it’s because of your scar. You’re not a crew. You’re a mercenary. Who hired you and why?”

  “I asked him the same thing. He ain’t giving it up.”

  “Did you kill that homeless man on the island?”

  “What homeless man?” His surprise wasn’t feigned.

  “The one they found on the wharf?”

  “Not my style to leave a body out in the open.”

  “The cuts weren’t methodical either.” Zeke had mentioned that then too.

  “So whoever hired you may have paid a visit to the island because you were taking too long. Or maybe I wasn’t the target at all. It is a coincidence that Willow knew the homeless man, that I know her?” I didn’t like where my thoughts were going, but it was good she was with us until we figured it out.

  “You’re not going to get it out of him?” I asked Zeke.

  “No. I’ll give him that, dude has some brass balls.”

  I pulled out my gun. Fucker didn’t think I had it in me. He died with a look of surprise buried in his eyes.

  “Time to get out of Dodge.” Zeke wasn’t wrong.

  “Yeah, once you take out the trash we’re out of here.”

  Willow had a way of talking, a pitch and quality to her voice that drew a person in. A glance around the room showed my crew was not immune. We had left St. Croix, heading to Mexico. I had gathered the crew so Willow could share with them about her journal and treasure. I didn’t like the possibility that she was somehow linked to the shit that went down in St. Croix. We would figure out the piece we were missing. She didn’t need to know, her focus should be on her treasure.

  “What happened to Isabella?” Tex asked.

  “Her father married her to the man he had originally selected. She had three children and died in her forties.”

  “What’s this treasure look like?”

  “I only know that it is a necklace of uncut diamonds and platinum.”

  Even uncut, the necklace would fetch a lot of money so I understood the wave of excitement that swept through the crew.

  “And you think this necklace is on the ship?” Tex asked.

  “Yes.”

  “And the ship is off the coast of Mexico. That’s a big search area.” Snake was cautious, but I heard the excitement in his voice. He wasn’t the only one. Willow was downright animated.

  “But if you look closely at the area, he’d have likely sailed close to the shore hugging the shoreline of Puerto Rico and Cuba because at the time the Cayman Islands were a popular hideaway for pirates.”

  “It still is.” Laughter followed Tex’s comment because he was right. We spent time there occasionally.

  “Alejandro wouldn’t risk his ship and crew with getting too close. His path narrows the closer he gets to Campeche, sailing through what is now the Yucatán Channel. On the return trip from Campeche, I’m not a pirate, but I would think if someone was going to lay siege, that would be the best place to trap them. Block the channel and come up behind him.”

  She had the whole room captivated. Fuck, she had me captivated. And she was right, that location would be prime. The problem it presented was now it was a heavily trafficked area. Keeping what we were doing a secret just got that much harder.

  “Here’s the problem though. That channel at it’s deepest is over nine thousand feet, which is too deep to dive. We’d need submersibles and
a whole other setup.”

  “What happens now?” Zeke was actually smiling.

  “I don’t know. What happens now, Miss Blakeley?”

  “We have to ping the ocean floor. If something is down there, we’ll see it.”

  “Flynn, reach out to our contacts, confer with Willow on what kind of equipment we’ll need.”

  “On it.”

  Snake grinned. “Hunting treasure, fucking yeah.”

  I felt the thrill that Snake did but we had to be smart, and right now we were a sitting duck in this thing. There were bodies in St. Croix, grant it at the bottom of the ocean, but this yacht wasn’t inconspicuous. Better to be safe than sorry.

  “We need to lose the ship. We’ll dock at San Juan. Regroup, secure a new ride. In the meantime, we need to be brought up to speed on what a treasure hunt like this one entails.”

  Excitement shone from Willow’s eyes when she said, “I can do that.”

  WILLOW

  I couldn’t sleep so I detoured to the kitchen for a bottle of whiskey before settling in one of the many lounges on the yacht. It had been five days since we left St. Croix. We were heading to Mexico to search for Isabella. I never actually thought I would. I wanted to, but I never thought it would happen. It took so long to piece together their story and once we had, the cost of running a dive was way out of my ballpark. It was even out of Granddad’s. I was a believer in everything happening for a reason. Noah gave me the journal and now he was giving us the chance to find Isabella. I wasn’t naive and I no longer romanticized Noah like I had, but still, it was kind of magical in a surreal kind of way how we were both linked to this love story.

  Noah said he wasn’t a good guy and I suspected he wasn’t exaggerating and yet he had the respect and admiration of his crew. How bad a guy could he be? And with me? He had leveled with me. Somehow I knew it had cost him to be so honest about his feelings.

  I didn’t realize I wasn’t alone until I heard that deep voice coming from the direction of the door.

  “Drinking alone?”

  “After this week, yeah I am.”

  He had moved closer because when he spoke again he was right over my shoulder. “Fair enough. Care to share?”

  I looked at the bottle then up at him. “Get a glass.”

  He poured, which was probably for the best because I was seeing two of him.

  “Are you comfortable in your quarters?”

  “Yes.” I had had a few drinks and was feeling mellow so I asked him something I had been wondering for a while. “Why did you buy me the journal?”

  “I saw the way your eyes lit up when you looked at it. I recognized the look. I’ve felt it a few times in my life.”

  “That doesn’t explain why you would buy it for a complete stranger.”

  He didn’t hedge at all. “I saw something in you I had never seen before and for a little while you let me live in your world, your beautiful untainted world. The journal seemed like the least that I could do.”

  He claimed to be bad and yet a bad person wouldn’t say words like that, wouldn’t even feel them. Telling him that was pointless so I moved on, but I tucked those words away because I wanted to remember them. “That day, when we first met, that wasn’t a coincidence.”

  “It was, in that I didn’t know you, but after the pineapple I took advantage when that would-be thief plowed into you.” He shrugged his shoulders, but when he did it there was an elegance to the gesture. “I see something I want and I take it.”

  My body grew warm as my blood rushed through my veins at how easily he offered that, but the memory of that morning had the next words tumbling out. “And yet just the other day you treated that same person like nothing more than a cheap whore.”

  He leaned forward, his eyes on fire with temper though whether that was directed at me or himself I couldn’t say. “I dragged my entire crew to St. Croix for no other reason than to see you.”

  “To fuck me. There’s a difference.”

  “Sweetheart, you are the best fucking lay I’ve ever had, but do you honestly think if all I wanted was a piece of ass I would have traveled as far as I did for you? You’re good, but if that was all I wanted, you’re not that good.” He stood and started to pace. “Why the fuck am I telling you this?”

  “I didn’t think you lost your temper. Always so cool and collected.”

  “I’m fucking human.” Gone was the cultured voice of Noah. He was Kace now.

  “Careful, Noah, Kace is starting to show.”

  He stopped pacing and when he finally turned to me, I could see more than anger in his gaze. He looked tormented. “Around you I want things I have no right wanting. You make me weak.”

  Even drunk, those words penetrated. “That night, eight years ago, was the best night of my life. Last week, I gave you all of me because you claimed a piece of me in Cancun, a piece I’m never getting back. I don’t know where we go from here, but it wasn’t just a fuck for me.”

  He crossed the room and reached into his pocket before he hunched down in front of me. He opened his palm to show me what he held. When my eyes focused, my world shifted. It was my necklace, the Spanish doubloon Harry had given me, and the limestone rock I had given him from the cenote. Tears filled my eyes seeing that he still had them all these years later.

  “It wasn’t just a fuck for me either.”

  He stood, uncomfortable with his own actions, and walked out. He was right. Kace was gone. I wasn’t sure who Noah Mayes was, but one thing was for sure. I was going to enjoy finding out.

  Zoe and I were sitting on deck. She really had taken to life on the sea, actually had a glow about her.

  “You like this.”

  “I do. I never thought I would, but I love being on the water. Especially how you can stop at any port, visit, and then move on. Of course, it helps that we are on this magnificent yacht. I may not have liked it as much on something smaller and less luxurious. But this…” She held up her arms. “What’s not to like? We’re on a floating mansion, in the middle of the Caribbean with hot men everywhere we turn. Not that I’ll be making a move on any of them because with those guys I would be in way over my head.”

  “Do you think I’m in over my head with Noah?”

  “I honestly don’t know Will. It’s easy to believe they’re just charming rascals. Those twins are, but I would bet money they can be just as ruthless. And maybe that’s the real danger of them. They lure you in with their easygoing nature, but under the affable rogues are killers. Anyway, what did your sexy pirate tell you about Isaac?”

  “Isaac worked for a gangster in Cancun. The nephew of this man got a little grabby hands with a dancer at a club the guys were at. Snake didn’t like it, so he punched the dude in the face. The uncle took issue and so to right the disrespect done to his nephew, Isaac was going to torture Snake.”

  Zoe was taking a sip of her water and immediately spit it out then started coughing. “You're joking, that’s a joke right?”

  “No. Torture is apparently appropriate payback for a punch in the face.”

  “So Noah disfigured the man.”

  “Yes.”

  “Gruesome, but somehow fitting. What happened to the uncle and nephew?”

  “The nephew ran, but the uncle is dead.”

  “I don’t know what is more disturbing, that your answer doesn’t surprise me or that it doesn’t upset me. Where is Isaac now?”

  “Zeke was given two days with him. I imagine he’s dead now.”

  “Zeke?”

  “I haven’t officially met him, but he’s the big dude with the blond hair and black eyes.”

  “So they tortured him for two days and then killed him.” Her hand was shaking a little when she put her bottle down.

  “That scares you?” It was a rhetorical question because I could see that it did.

  “It doesn’t you?”

  “Yeah, it does. But Isaac was going to kill me. He was going to let his man do whatever he wanted to me. I wa
sn’t human in his eyes. I wasn’t anything. Noah and his crew may be ruthless, but we’re here, both of us, for no other reason than to make sure it’s safe for us at home. They’re not like Isaac.”

  Noah appeared on the upper deck talking with Zeke.

  “Speak of the devil.” I noted.

  “I should probably earn my keep then.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re leading them to a treasure. I’m not doing anything. That seems wrong.” She looked past me. “Hey, Captain!” Noah and Zeke both looked down at us. “I feel I should be earning my keep. Is there something I can do, like swab the deck? Is that what it’s called…swab? I could say mop but that doesn’t sound as cool. Or I could polish the plank, feed the parrot. Do we have a parrot?”

  I was surprised Noah answered her. “Chas can always use help in the kitchen.”

  “Food. Perfect.” She jumped up from her spot. “Come, Willow, let’s help Chas in the kitchen.”

  “What was that about?”

  “All those movies where the comic relief gets tossed overboard because they stop adding value. I think it would behoove me to make myself useful.”

  “I think you are being a bit paranoid.”

  “We are on a yacht with killers, being paranoid might be wise.”

  “Good point.”

  Dinner consisted of steak, loaded baked potatoes and a salad. And considering the size of the men and quantity of food Chas prepared, they spent a small fortune on beef. We ate outside, grabbing a spot on the deck to eat under the stars.

  My thoughts detoured to Isabella often. All the time I spent researching her, working with Mr. Tuttleman, even with everything else going on, it didn’t dim my excitement at the prospect of finding her. But it was thinking about finding her that had me pondering the feasibility of using Noah’s crew as the dive team, particularly since I knew Noah was not a stranger to diving. Isabella wasn’t like Blackbeard’s treasure, there weren’t countless crews looking for her. I wouldn’t even be surprised to learn only those on this ship and those I told knew of her. But when word got out about what we were doing, crews would be crawling out of the woodwork. And that was my hesitation. We bring on a dive crew, that’s ten additional people in the loop. I wanted Decker’s crew, but still I worried because if each diver told a few people who told a few people, word would get out. Bringing in professional divers was unavoidable, but we would have better control at keeping the dive under wraps if we teamed up the crew with those divers.