The engine roared to life.
“Get us to the jetty. I’ll take care of the sluice.” The waves might wash out the gold we’d collected all day.
Ben hauled the craft hard to the left to bring her around and headed us toward the safety of the little harbor behind the man-made jetty. “Should I’ve called you up sooner?”
I quickly removed the riffles from the sluice to get at the carpets underneath. The end of the sluice closest to the edge of the dredge had been washed clean of material. “Shit.” I rolled up the mats as quickly as I could and shoved them into the five gallon buckets we used for transport. A hard wave hit from the starboard side, and an empty bucket slid across the deck and into the water. “Goddamn it.” I crammed the last mat into an already full bucket and then dragged both into the wheelhouse.
“We lost a bucket,” Ben pointed out.
“Don’t you think I know that?” I snapped. “It’s lost now. We need to get to the dock ASAP. The wind is only making things worse. I should’ve never left you alone up here.”
Ben’s face grew mottled. “I’ve been on this boat for less than a day and you’re gonna blame this on me? What about you? How the hell was I supposed to know your crap dredge can’t take more than a two-inch wave? Who built this piece of shit anyway?”
I wanted to grab a wrench from my dad’s tool box and swing it at him. “I thought Mr. Soldier had it all under control. ‘I’ve got my own gear.’” I mimicked his deep, gravelly voice. “Guess I thought I was hiring an experienced diver, and I got stuck with a dud.”
He gritted his teeth. “I was in the Navy,” he ground out. “I’m no grunt. The Army’s for people that couldn’t hack it anywhere else. Don’t insult me.”
“Then don’t insult me. My dad built this dredge with his own two hands and never once did we swamp it. Lucky you, you get to be the first.” I picked up one of the heavy buckets and moved it deeper into the wheelhouse to keep it safe. Maybe my decision to hire an unknown, scary-looking stranger had been a huge mistake after all. I went back for the second bucket. The dredge heaved, and I was knocked sideways into Ben, landing in his lap.
He raised up his hands, clearly bewildered by his predicament. “Hey!”
“Oh you love this, I’m sure.” I rolled my eyes and disentangled myself. I still wore my wetsuit rolled down half way and a bikini top. “Probably the closest you’ve been to a woman in a long time, honey.”
“Wait, you’re a woman? Could’ve fooled me.” A small smile tweaked his lips.
I growled. What a chauvinistic…jerkish…nasty… “Argh!” I stormed out of the wheelhouse to take out my anger on anything I could get my hands on. I thought Nate had been badly behaved last summer. Ben, however, took the cake. How in the hell was I going to work with this horrible, terrible, pig? My few thoughts about his attractiveness made me embarrassed.
I ripped off my wetsuit so violently I slipped on the wet deck. I fell on my ass—hard—but I pretended it was purposeful. I tugged one leg of the wetsuit until I got free. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing how absolutely livid I was. I wanted to scream at the sky to get rid of all the negative emotion building inside.
So I did.
The noise of the motor masked my words and the strong winds carried them away. I uttered a stream of curses along with some choice adjectives. I had to get along with Ben. I had to find a way. I had no one else. Last night had been the end game for me. Every avenue searched, every possibility tracked down. Ben had been the only person left.
I stayed out on the deck for the rest of the trip back. I needed to burn off steam. The wind cooled my heated face and brought my emotions down to a more reasonable simmer.
Ben managed to steer us around the jetty. I had to give him that. Under these conditions, with no experience on the Alaska Darling, it was admirable.
“I’ll take over now. Thank you.” I stood in the doorway of the wheelhouse. Calm. Cool. Collected. A business woman in charge. I wasn’t going to let any of it bother me.
“Sure.” Ben stepped away from the wheel. “Feeling better?”
I took the wheel and slowed us down to approach the dock. “Shut up.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.”
*
Ben and I lugged five-gallon buckets to my dad’s truck. The mats were laden with sand, gravel and, I hoped, a decent amount of gold. My hands, chapped from the cold water and biting winds, hurt. I chose to say silent.
When we’d docked, I’d set aside my annoyance and chalked it up to stress. I’d thought for a moment to offer up an apology, but lost the courage. Plus, wouldn’t that be typical female behavior? My dad wouldn’t have apologized.
Cleaning out the dredge was no simple operation. I’d spend the rest of my evening covered in dirt and grime, but the results were so worth it. Since I needed to build trust with Ben, I wasn’t quite ready yet for him to take part in the process. Most divers were present for the clean-up. That way, everyone knew they were being treated fair and square. But for some, after a long day of diving, they wanted to bail and go to the bars or get some sleep before work began the next day. So sometimes the clean-up would be remanded to the captain and one of his more trusted crew.
I’d been cleaning up mats with my dad since I was a kid. At first, it had been Buck and Nate with me as the tagalong. Nate didn’t like it, but my dad had insisted. He’d wanted me to learn everything about the ‘family business.’
We came up on my dad’s truck. “You need a ride somewhere?” My attempt at a truce.
Ben hefted his bucket into the bed and then climbed up to help me load the second bucket in. “Nah, I’m good.” He nodded his head in the direction of a beat-up ATV about fifty yards away.
Wonder where he’d gotten that from?
I thought over my next words carefully. “Why don’t I take you to breakfast tomorrow?”
My pantry stood nearly empty. Either I’d be eating some frozen peas and Potato Buds in the morning, or I could splurge and get a short stack at the Polar Cafe. Besides, I needed to start things out on the right foot tomorrow. Today had been rough for both of us.
He set the bucket down, stood there for a minute, and looked up at the faded blue sky. “I suppose I could do that.”
“I’ll pick you up at 5:30.” I hoped he understood I’d offered him a white flag. “Where are you staying?”
He landed on the gravel with a bound. “I’ll just meet you there.”
“All right. It’s next door to the Post Office on Front Street.”
He wiped his hands together. “Hey, looks like I got some gold.” His lips parted.
A few teeny, tiny gold glints twinkled on his sandy hands.
“Keep it.” I climbed into the truck. I’d left my window rolled down halfway to keep the interior from heating up and stinking like seaweed and dead fish. An inevitable smell if you were a diver. The scent of the sea—salty, cloying and foul— clung to everything.
“Don’t forget to call your sister.” Ben gave me a salute and hopped on his ATV.
I’d completely forgotten she’d called in the rush to get the dredge back to shore. “Oh, yeah, thanks.”
A stranger to Nome, he must be staying at one of the few motels in town. But where did he get the ATV? A quick purchase after he’d arrived? Seemed a strange thing to do. The piers were about a half mile from the center of town. It’d take ten minutes or less to walk the distance. Why go to all the trouble of getting an ATV?
Ben drove up the road. But instead of taking a right to head back to town, he took a left toward the airport and points unknown.
I waited a few seconds. I wanted to follow him and find out where he went. But I knew if I didn’t call Zoe back, it would upset her further to make a second phone call. She’d probably found out about the message I’d left for Henry—I’d been begging for a loan. Thousands of dollars to fly Buck on an emergency medical flight to Anchorage. Henry and I had had it out a few hours later. I’d been rebuffed.
&nbs
p; Although I understood my stepfather’s stance, Buck wasn’t his relative by any stretch of the imagination and had been his wife’s lover for a time, I thought Henry’s love for me—strained though our relationship might be—would override his feelings about Buck.
I hit Zoe’s number on my cell.
“Aurora, I appreciate you calling me back.” Zoe’s words were cool. Not many people called me ‘Aurora.’
“I just got back to the dock a little while ago.” I didn’t know what else to say. She’d never approved of me staying in Nome after my mom had run off. She thought I’d abandoned Henry—or ‘dad’ as she would call him. Probably because she had been a young adult, and I had been a child, when our world fell apart.
“So John’s in the hospital?” Zoe would never use my father’s nickname. I suppose she found it distasteful or maybe a type of disloyalty to Henry. “I’m sorry to hear that. Dad told me.”
“Yes, it was a heart attack.” The words were hard to say. It made it more real, truer. I bit my lip. “Something went wrong while he was diving.” I couldn’t bring myself to relay all the details.
“Dangerous work. I’m surprised he’d made it this long without an accident.” Zoe’s words settled on me like a stone. “So I suppose you had to sell the dredge to pay for the flight.”
“No, I managed to scrape the money together, no thanks to Henry.” I couldn’t help the dig.
“Wow, Aurora, really? You blame Dad for this?”
“I thought possibly he could be a human being for once and help someone in need, but then again, I’m not his real daughter, am I?”
Zoe snorted. “Why did you think Dad would put up his own hard-earned cash to help John? Whatever gave you that idea? It’s not his problem. It’s not someone he cares about. A man John’s age is too old to be chasing some stupid dream of getting rich. Where’s the millions, Aurora? Where’s all the money and success he promised you?”
We were headed back into an old pattern. Zoe was always quick to remind me that I’d bet on the wrong horse. Steady Henry Pomeroy with his good accounting job, nice retirement account, and paid off three-bedroom house. I’d turned away from him and decided to take up with my biological father—someone I barely knew—to chase some idiotic dream about finding gold.
My muscles felt weak. I could’ve gotten all worked up like I usually did. But I wasn’t up to it today. “Why did you call me?”
“What?”
I’d taken her off guard. “Why did you call me? Did you actually have something to say, or was this all about ‘I told you so’?”
Zoe let out a long rush of air before answering. “You really hurt Dad’s feelings. I thought you should know.”
“Great. Thanks.” I wanted to hit the red button on my phone and hang up on her.
“He loves you, Aurora.” Her tone quieted. “He wants you to come home. When he saw you calling last week, he thought you wanted to talk to him. After last year—well, it got his hopes up.”
Henry had had his hopes up ever since I’d told him at twelve I wanted to stay in Nome. I don’t know why he wanted me around so badly. I’m sure I only reminded him how my mother had treated him. How she’d never been serious about their marriage or being a parent or any of it. He’d been used.
“I am home, Zoe. Maybe one day the two of you will understand that.” I ended the call. I had nothing more to say. In my time of need my ‘family’ had let me down. That’s all I needed to know. I might be in debt up to my ears, but I was going to succeed. If Buck had taught me one thing, it was to keep a positive attitude. When things looked the worst, that’s when you found that streak of gold under a rock. Never failed.
And this time, I would come out on top, too. I was sure of it.
CHAPTER FIVE
The phone call with Zoe had rattled me. Although I was curious about my diver, I was too tired to do much with it. I hesitated at the intersection. Ben’s ATV had kicked up the dust and had disappeared over a rise in the road. Maybe I’d learn more tomorrow when we met for breakfast.
In my rearview mirror I caught sight of a familiar vehicle: Nate’s black Jeep. A beat up piece of crap with a huge dent in the hood. He’d had it as long as I could remember. And each year it looked worse and worse.
My instincts told me it wasn’t coincidence Nate turned up right behind me. Had he been waiting for me all day? Did he think he could strong arm me into handing over some of my gold? He’d made it clear he thought my father owed him money for his stake in the dredging operation.
When I had been younger, my dad had a habit of calling Nate ‘partner,’ but he’d never given an indication to me Nate owned any piece of the Alaska Darling. Buck had scraped together the funds to build her and maintain her all these years. Nate had been a trusted worker who stuck by my dad through thick and thin. I’d thought they’d work together forever. Until last summer when Nate had turned into something new, meaner, more out of control. The incident on the deck, while my dad had been under water, had been the last straw.
Nate flashed his brights at me.
He wanted me afraid, maybe wanted me to pull over. Another confrontation on the road side.
Well, I wouldn’t stop.
Annoyance boiled over.
I’d be damned if I let Nate bully me.
He must’ve thought he had a chance to intimidate me with my dad out of the picture and sick in the hospital. He saw me as a sitting duck. He remembered the young girl Buck had brought on board all those years ago. A girl who wanted to please, wanted to earn her keep.
Not anymore.
I kept driving. I gripped the steering wheel to keep my emotions under control. My hands grew sweaty.
Although I wanted to clean up our gold, this new wrinkle made that nearly impossible. Nate knew I had gold on me. His demeanor on the dredge earlier today disturbed me. In his state of mind he might try anything.
I thought about my options. How could I get away from him?
I made a calculate decision and drove past my turn. I’d stop by Kyle’s. A stop I didn’t want to make, but with Nate on my ass, it might be the safest option.
I checked my mirror. Nate inched closer to my bumper.
Jerk.
I made the last turn to Kyle’s. Nate peeled off. He knew where I was headed and didn’t want to follow through on whatever threats he had in mind—not with Kyle around anyway.
Coward.
My hands trembled on the steering wheel. I didn’t think Nate had scared me, but clearly he had. My mind fired on all cylinders. I needed a drink.
Kyle lived in a Quonset hut on the east side of town. It had been some gold dredger’s winter storage place. The previous owner had converted some of it into a live-in with a small kitchen, a rudimentary bathroom with a shower right out in the open, and a small loft for a bed. Kyle rented it from the owner who’d retired from gold dredging and had settled in a retirement village in Florida.
Although my father had his own clean up equipment, he’d stored it all at Kyle’s place for the last couple of years. Kyle had a better spot for doing clean-up work, and, besides, I’d been living on-and-off with him. After our break-up I had yet to pick up everything. If I took the equipment back to the apartment, I’d have to store it inside and then haul it out every time I wanted to use it. A big pain in the butt. I hadn’t left things all that great between us. In fact, I’d accused him of wanting to kill my father. Probably not the best way to break things off.
I’d moved out last week. The same day my father had been loaded on an emergency medical flight to the hospital in Anchorage.
Kyle had left me a few messages since then, asking when I’d get the rest of my stuff. I hadn’t been sure if he’d meant the clean-up equipment or the odds and ends I’d left behind—or maybe both.
We’d had a few fights in the past. I’d quit him before, running off to my father’s place to cool off and think things through. But this time had been different. I’d been—well—meaner. Said some things Kyle probably
didn’t deserve. I’d made a huge mess of it all.
Kyle’s little gray Toyota pickup sat out front. I’d heard another dredge snatched him up after our falling out. He was employed within hours of my impetuous firing.
My treatment of Kyle would likely embarrass my father if he knew. As if Kyle were no better than any of the other gold dredgers in town. A diver with a dream. Just one of many.
Kyle had been different, though. He’d been smart, adventurous and driven when my father met him. He’d been a commercial diver in Louisiana and heard a good diver could make big money in Alaska. He’d bailed on his boring 9-to-5 job and took on the feast-or-famine life in Nome. I’d heard something about a family connection to Nome, but we’d never talked about it.
My father should’ve known I’d fall for Kyle. He had all the makings of my perfect boyfriend: He could dive, he looked good in a wetsuit, he didn’t mind my rambling mouth, and he didn’t treat me like a girl. That last one had been very important to me at the time.
I knocked on the faded green door, but kept an eye on the road behind me in case Nate changed his mind.
“Kyle, it’s me.” I had no idea what I’d say to him. Nerves gathered in my stomach like sour bile. “I’ve got some clean-up work to do. Was hoping I could use the equipment.”
I knocked one more time.
Maybe he’d decided to walk to one of the bars in town.
No answer.
My heartbeat slowed. Maybe I wouldn’t have to confront him after all. I had a key, but it seemed wrong to let myself in without Kyle knowing. I pulled out my phone and texted him about my plans.
There. Guilt alleviated.
I put my key in the lock.
The dark, warm interior enveloped me. A bit stuffy. I could smell Kyle had burned some bacon earlier. In the small kitchenette at the back of the place, greased-stained paper towels rested on the counter. He hadn’t even bothered to set them on a plate before he’d dumped out his bacon. I broke off a piece of the remaining bacon strip—the unburned end—I was hungry.
Not bad.
Under the kitchen counter I found a few plastic grocery store bags. When I saw something of mine, I chucked it into a bag. I’d rather get as much as I could now, then arrange with Kyle a time to stop by for anything I’d forgotten.
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