Four of Hearts

by Roz Lee

  Drew admired the ship’s state of the art digital navigational system. “Nice setup, Captain.”

  “Thanks, but you aren’t here to admire the equipment, are you?”

  “No, sir. I need to see the charts around the islands.”

  Captain Whittier brought up the charts Drew asked for, then turned to his employers. “What’s this about?”

  Ryan handed him the photo. Captain Whittier paled and handed it back. “What do you need me to do?” he asked.

  “Just take this bucket where ever Drew needs it to go.”

  Drew pointed to a spot on the southern end of the island Richard called home, as well as the one they were currently building the resort on. “Can you put her in here?”

  Captain Whittier studied the chart. “I can.”

  “When?”

  The captain punched some numbers into the computer and said, “Late afternoon today, at the earliest, and that’s if we push the Lothario to her limits.”

  “Make it after dark, and lets stay as far away from Ryan’s island as we can. I’m sure they have lookouts posted around the island. I don’t want them to see us coming,” Drew said.

  “I can do that, but how is that going to help our women?”

  Our women. Ryan liked the sound of that. Everyone onboard knew and liked Candace and Fallon. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that Captain Whittier felt that they belonged. The crew of the Lothario was family. A big—dysfunctional at times—family.

  “You won’t need to drop anchor, just get us in close enough for Bree and I to take the Zodiac to the island. As soon as we’re off, take the Lothario back out, and bring her into the usual anchorage off Ryan’s island, but I want it to look like you plotted a course straight there from here. Can you do that?”

  “Sure.”

  “What are we supposed to do?” Richard asked.

  “You and Ryan deliver the ship, as promised. If all goes as planned, the passengers will still have their shore day, and we’ll put an end to this before the bastards know we’re there.”

  “I’m going with you,” Ryan said.

  “No, you’re not. If we can’t get the women out, then you’ll have to deliver the ship as promised. You and Richard have to be on the tender, otherwise, they’ll know we’re up to something. Besides, Sean would kill me if I let his baby brother get involved in something like this.”

  “Damnit, Drew! I am involved. Those women. . . .” he choked on the rest of the words.

  “I know,” he put a hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “I know. We’ll get them out of there.” He turned to the Captain. “Plot the course.” He turned to Bree. “Get the Zodiac ready. We’ll need scuba equipment for the four of us, and we’ll be going in silent. Knives, anything else in the arsenal you think we can use. We’ll need weapons with some clout once we get in close.”

  “I’m on it,” Bree said. Her eyes traveled between Ryan and Richard. “Don’t worry. We’ll get them back.” And then she hustled off the Bridge.

  “Come on. Let’s let Captain Whittier do his job. I need you two to tell me everything you can about the island and the house, and we need your satellite connection to call Sean.”

  * * * * *

  Richard was numb on the inside, but his skin felt like someone was using him as a pin cushion. He guessed his involuntary muscles were still functioning. He was alive. Somehow. It didn’t seem possible when his heart was on the island, and he was stuck on the Lothario, impotent in the face of whatever evil could do a thing like this.

  He couldn’t stop looking at the photo, or hearing the voices on the phone. They had to get them back. Both of them. Anything less than a one hundred percent success rate was unacceptable.

  They went over every detail of the island with Drew, then again when Bree returned after seeing to the supplies they needed. Richard paced, listened, answered when asked a direct question. He’d never prayed harder for anything in his life as he did for the safe return of Fallon and Candace, and somewhere in the waiting and watching silence of early evening as they approached his island, it hit him. He was in love with both of them, had been for sometime.

  The realization doubled him over. He’d gone out on the balcony, searching the darkening waters for peace, and he grabbed onto the rail as the pain ripped through him. Christ, how had it happened? How had Candace come to mean as much to him as Fallon did? It was fucking screwed up. He was screwed up. But self-criminations would have to wait. He had to focus on getting them back first, then he’d deal with his fucked up heart.

  “It’s going to be all right.” Ryan’s shoes came into focus next to him. “It has to be.”

  “Yeah,” he said and forced himself to straighten. “I can’t contemplate any other outcome.”

  “Me either,” Ryan said. “Look, Richard, this may not be the time to say this, but I want you to know I want them both back.” Richard dared a look at his friend. Shadows hid Ryan’s face, but the pain in his voice was evidence enough of his emotional state. “I mean. . . I can’t. . . I can’t contemplate losing either one of them. I love your wife, Richard. It’s fucked up, I know, but there it is. I love them both.”

  Well, shit. Richard turned back to the black void of open sea. Fucked up didn’t even begin to cover it, in his estimation. How could two men, two very different men, be in love with two women at the same time? It went against everything he’d grown up with, every moral value his straight-laced parents had taught him. Not that they thought any of it had stuck to him anyway. The Lothario was proof enough of their failure in that department, but they’d been hopeful for his soul when he married Fallon, even if her career was in Sex Therapy. They saw her as a stabilizing influence in his life, and she was that, and more.

  “I don’t know how it happened, but I love Candace, too. I understand if you want to pitch me overboard, but I’d appreciate it if you could wait until we get them back. I’d like to see them one more time.”

  Their staterooms were high above the water line, but the silence was broken by the stiff wind whistling and the bow slicing through the dark water as the Lothario slid through the night, racing against time.

  “What are we going to do?” Ryan asked.

  “Get them back. Then we’ll see. One thing at a time.”

  “You’ve met my family. I wasn’t raised this way, any more than you were. One man, one woman. That’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Ryan said.

  “Adultery. That’s what my family would call it,” Richard said.

  “Is it? I’m not so sure anymore. When we first. . . you know. . . well, I thought I was being disloyal to Candace because of my feelings for Fallon, but, as strange as this sounds, I’m not sure of that anymore. Maybe Fallon’s right. Maybe humans are capable of loving more than one person at a time.”

  “Maybe. Even if she is right, and maybe we’re living proof of it, society doesn’t see it that way.”

  Ryan didn’t respond. Richard supposed they had bigger things to worry about than a future they might not even have. Lights from the lower decks made a weak attempt had holding back the darkness, a darkness Richard felt creeping closer like a smothering blanket over his life.

  “We have to get them back.” The words fell from his lips. Shards of broken glass ground under pressure.

  “I know. I think Drew’s plan will work. Sean hasn’t ever said much about his work with the DIA, but I do know he trusted Drew and Celeste with his life, and that means something. They have to be good. Bree has a good head on her shoulders too, despite her behavior where Drew is concerned.”

  “I hope to God those two don’t get into another shouting match in the middle of this. There’s too much at stake.”

  “They won’t. They both know what’s at stake, and they’re professionals at this sort of thing. We’re lucky to have them onboard.”

  “You’re right. It’s just hard to sit back and do nothing. I feel like I should. . . .”

  “We are doing something. If all else fails, we hand over the sh
ip, and anything else the bastards want.”

  “Yeah, I know. I’d rather kill someone though.”

  “If there’s any killing to be done, I think we’d better leave that to the people who know how to do it, as scary as that sounds.”

  “I don’t care if they kill the lot of them. I know they’re hoping it won’t come to that, but I really don’t care. I’d do it myself if I could.”

  “And here I thought all my troubles were over when I married Candace.”

  “Candace has been nothing but trouble since you met her,” Richard smirked.

  The wind snatched Ryan’s laughter and carried it into the night. “That she has, but it’s all been good trouble. She never ceases to surprise me.”

  “Did you tell her we saw them in the hammock?”

  “Yeah. The little minx didn’t care. I think she knew we were watching all along.”

  “Really?” Richard chuckled. “Damn. I hadn’t thought of that. I wonder if Fallon knew?”

  “Probably.”

  Richard thought about that for a while, turning it over in his mind. “I think Fallon has a thing for you.” His comment hung in the silence between them. “It’s okay with me. I know she loves me.”

  “Could this be any more fucked up?”

  “I don’t see how.”

  Bree stepped onto the balcony. “We’re almost there. Drew and I will take the Zodiac to the island. Sean and Celeste are waiting for us.”

  They accompanied Bree and Drew to the tender launch on Atlantis Deck. As soon as the ship powered down, the Zodiac was released from its moorings above the Odyssey Deck and lowered to the water. A crewmember brought it around to the gangway where Richard and Ryan helped load the diving equipment into the small boat. Drew insisted on handling the arsenal garnered from the ship’s security office himself.

  “I hope you don’t have to use any of this, but do anything you have to. I want them back,” Ryan said.

  “We’ll bring them back. Don’t worry about that part. Give us a minute to get away from the ship, then call Captain Whittier and tell him to get the hell out of here. In the morning, you two do everything just the way they told you to, unless you here from us sooner.”

  Richard nodded. “We will. I wish I was going with you.”

  “I know you do, but neither one of you is dive certified, you’d just be a liability.” He turned to Ryan. “Your brother is the best there is. If he says this plan will work, it will work. I’ve never known him to be wrong.” Drew handed Bree a backpack filled with communications equipment, then turned back to the two anxious men. “You have the best team possible at your disposal. Let us do what we do best.”

  Bree kissed Ryan on the cheek, then did the same for Richard. “Don’t worry. Drew is right. We’ll bring them back, safe and sound.”

  “Godspeed,” Ryan said as the Zodiac disappeared into the night.

  They helped the trusted crewmembers stow the gangway and made the call to Captain Whittier. The engines rumbled to life beneath their feet. Richard led the way to the Bridge. Neither one wanted to be alone for the interminable wait for dawn.

  * * * * *

  Ryan glanced at the clock above the bank of windows that encircled the Bridge. Sweat trickled down his spine as he prowled the confines of the room. Drew and Bree left with communication equipment, but there would be no word from them, not until Candace and Fallon were safe. He understood the need for absolute quiet. They couldn’t take the chance these people, whoever they were, were monitoring for any communication from the ship. It made sense. Someone had known the women would be on the island alone, and Ryan had no clue how they had gotten their hands on the information.

  None of that made the wait any easier.

  “They should be getting close to the island by now,” Richard said.

  Ryan looked at the clock again. Midnight. “I hope so.” He tried not to think of the terror Candace and Fallon must be experiencing. They had to know he and Richard would do everything they could to free them, but he was sure that did nothing to alleviate their fears. Just thinking about Candace or Fallon facing armed thugs stole the breath from his body. He dropped into the nearest chair and let his head fall between his legs. Captain Whittier came to his side.

  “Hang in there. They’re going to be okay.”

  Ryan nodded, not trusting his voice. Trust. He had to trust his brother and the others. Sean wasn’t the kind to talk about his exploits, but Ryan suspected many of those exploits were the kind the general public never heard about. The kind that only the top echelons of the cloak and dagger world knew about. Since Sean’s retirement six years ago from the DIA, his security company had made a name for itself among the richest of the rich around the world.

  Sean had suggested a better security system on the island, but because they liked their privacy, Ryan had insisted they didn’t need to make the changes.

  “I’m an idiot,” he mumbled to the floor.

  “Yeah, well, there’s nothing we can do about that right now,” Richard said.

  “I should have listened to Sean. I should have installed the security system he wanted.”

  “No argument there.”

  “Do you think they’re at the island yet?”

  “Maybe.”

  A glass of water appeared in his line of sight. “Here, drink this.” Richard shoved the glass into his hand so he had no choice but to take it. “You may be an idiot, but I’m not sitting this out alone.”

  “I’m okay.” He sat up and took a sip of water. “I just had to sit for a minute.”

  “When this is over, we’re going to do whatever Sean says. I don’t care if it means bodyguards twenty-four seven.”

  “We have to find out who did this. Who would want this ship bad enough to kidnap and threaten our wives?”

  “Vernon Cannon.” Richard said the name without hesitation.

  “You think so?”

  “He’s crazy. This is why he went under the radar, so he could plan this. I wonder where the bastard is.”

  “If it is him, we have to get everyone off the ship before we turn it over. He’s nuts. Besides, we’re giving him the ship, not the passengers and crew. He’s on his own for that.”

  Captain Whittier spoke. “Just how the hell does he think he’s going to get the Lothario out of here? It’s not exactly like driving a ski boat.”

  “Good question,” Richard said. The three of them turned their attention to the Bridge crew. “Why don’t we take this to your office, Captain?”

  Chapter Twelve

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Ryan asked as soon as they’d closed the office door behind them.

  “That one of my crew may be involved with this?” Captain Whittier asked. He walked around his desk and sat in the big leather chair. “I don’t want to agree with you, but you might be onto something.”

  “Who? Who would have the knowledge to get the Lothario out of here?” Richard asked.

  “Several of them, actually. As you both know, we hired the best we could find. Just about any one of them could operate this ship, but it also takes a hell of a lot more people than just someone to captain it.”

  “True, but he could pick those people up somewhere else. All he needs to do is get the ship to the port of his choice. That could be somewhere in Mexico, or Central America, or who knows where,” Ryan said.

  “This is all speculation, but it would make sense. Someone knew we’d left the women on the island,” Richard added.

  “And this person notified the person in charge, and set this in motion. Is that the theory?” Captain Whittier asked.

  “It’s the only theory we have right now. So, who might have done this?” Ryan asked.

  “I want to say none of my Executive Crew, but I’m not stupid. If we’re right, then they may have already transmitted the news about the rescue attempt.”

  “Shit!” Richard exclaimed.

  Ryan closed his eyes and tried to focus. This couldn’t be good.
Not only were Candace and Fallon in danger, but they might have just sent four other people into a trap, his brother and sister-in-law included. “We need to see every transmission of any kind that has left this ship in the last twenty-four hours.”

  Captain Whittier picked up the phone. Ryan listened, the one sided conversation was muffled by the roar of blood in his ears. This morning he hadn’t thought his life could get any worse, but he should have known better. Why hadn’t they considered the possibility of an inside person? If anything happened to his brother, he’d never forgive himself.

  “The communications officer said Drew told him this morning to shut off any outgoing communications. His orders were to monitor anything coming to the ship, but everything else is shut down. He says he’s had nothing but complaints since he disabled the satellite connection for the e-mail server. He’s going to send up a printout of all the communications since Friday, and he wanted to know when he could go back online.”

  “Not until this is over. So, unless this person has some other way of communicating, we have to assume he hasn’t had a chance to inform the people on the island about our rescue attempt. But what if they take his silence as an indication that something is up?” Richard asked.

  “Either way, there isn’t anything we can do about it now. What we can do is try to figure out who this person is. We can get all our answers from them when we do,” Ryan said.

  “Where do we start?” Captain Whittier asked.

  “Let’s pull the personnel records on the Bridge Crew for starters. Did anyone show a particular interest in our change of course this morning?” Richard asked.

  Captain Whittier went through his Executive Crew, recalling everything he could about the morning, beginning when they had come in requesting to see the navigational charts. Richard took notes. Ryan listened while he scanned the personnel files for anything that might be a red flag. He doubted he would find anything useful, but at least he was doing something. It was better than pacing and watching the clock.