Bermuda Nights - The Boxed Set

by Sikes, Ophelia

  Evan’s voice eased into the conversation, mild interest in his tone. “Won’t your current distributor mind this new competition?”

  Sven shook his head. “Not at all. We’ve always had three contacts on shore. It spreads the load, creating a nice safety net. There’s no one central location for the cops to work on or swoop up. So Kamran knows we’ll be setting up two new groups, fresh from the ground up.”

  Evan raised an eyebrow. “Two?”

  Sven’s gaze darkened for a moment. “The previous two men had come recommended by Kamran, and I’m afraid I trusted him with the choice. I had too many other things going on to worry about that end.” His fist clenched. “Recently I discovered Vaisak and Chandak were planning on going into business for themselves. Cutting me out.”

  His eyes glowed. For a moment he was a Viking warrior, standing on the field of battle, looking with grim satisfaction across the bodies of his slain enemies. “Their contract was permanently cancelled while we were docked in Bermuda.”

  Evan stilled. “What happened to them?”

  Sven chuckled. “Let’s just say, Kamran has gotten the message loud and clear. There won’t be any trouble from his quarter any time soon, if he wants to keep his lungs breathing air.”

  A wave of nausea ran through me; Evan slipped his arm around my waist, holding me steady. I willed myself to stay on my feet, whispering to him, “I’m fine.” I knew Evan had a goldmine of information just open up for him. I would not let my own weak stomach lose him this critical opportunity.

  I forced my voice to remain steady. “Sven, I’m sure Kayla’s just the girl for you. She’s loyal to the bone, and she knows everybody who’s anybody in Boston.”

  He smiled. “That’s exactly what I thought. She’s exactly the type I want in this position. I heard how she’s stuck with you through all sorts of challenges. Her location in that bar is absolutely perfect. We’ve got plenty of time to work out the details and to build our relationship, before we get started next spring.” His jaw set. “I’m not going to rush it this time. I will do whatever it takes to guarantee it’s solid.”

  There were light footsteps on the stairs. We all turned as a pair of giggling teenagers, boy and girl, pulled up in surprise. The girl, her long, blonde hair nearly to her waist, took a tenuous step backward.

  Sven stretched his arms magnanimously. “We were just leaving,” he assured the pair. “The rooftop suite is all yours.”

  He gave them a wink, then headed down the stairs, the rest of us following. In a moment we were strolling along the long wooden planks of the main deck.

  I peered through the mist. Was that Nantucket I could see in the far distance? It gave me an odd jolt. This ship had become a twisted fantasy - a world where heroin and drug dealers and even murders were as commonplace as cobblestones on a quiet street. But there, on that grey island – so close I could almost touch it – was the reality I knew so well.

  It was almost within reach.

  Evan’s tone remained my steady foundation in a world of spiraling chaos. “You said you had two new contacts you were grooming. Kayla was the first. Who’s the second?”

  Sven nudged his head aft, to where the wake streamed in its moonlit ribbons. “I had him wait back here, to give us a chance to find you alone first. I’m sure he’ll fit in perfectly to our growing family.”

  We came around the corner.

  Jeff stood by the back railing, his eyes bright with challenge, his grin the predatory gleam of a shark.

  Chapter 10

  I staggered to a stop, my throat closing up hard against the words which almost burst from me.

  You can’t be serious?

  I clenched my teeth together, forcibly holding in any sound or word. Evan’s team had worked for months, maybe years, setting their operation into motion. Whatever it took, I would do my part to see it through. If Sven thought Jeff would make the perfect man-in-charge for his drug operation in Boston …

  Was he insane?

  Sven was watching me, his eyes dancing in delight. “So, Amanda, what do you think of my choice?”

  I curled my fingernails to cut into the heel of my palm to sharpen my focus. Then I put on the brightest smile I could muster. “I think you’ll be in great shape.”

  Sven burst out with a roar of laughter, and I nervously stepped back against Evan. His hand came up to rest on the back of my hip, holding me against him.

  Sven looked to Evan, smiling widely. “You’ve got it made, man. This woman will never cheat on you or lie to you. She’s incapable of it.”

  I flushed. “What I meant was –”

  He waved his hand in the air. “Ah, no need to get all wound up. I know you have issues with Jeff. I know he’s locked in some sort of magnetic love-hate cycle with you! And I know that Kayla’s getting spun around like a kid’s top in the middle. That’s what makes Jeff the ideal third leg of this little stool of ours.”

  Jeff came up off the rail, his eyes glowering. “Hey, there, I ain’t no shit pile.”

  Sven barely glanced at him, speaking as if to a third-grader. “Stool, as in furniture, not as in excrement,” he corrected. He continued to look at me. “And I imagine you see why this will be ideal. My problem with the Three Rajas was that they were in too tight with each other. They enjoyed coordinating projects and sharing information. That coziness led to … well, to where we are now.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “So, what do you think? Will you be able to work with him?”

  All eyes were glued to me. I drew in a breath, paused as if giving the matter serious thought, and then nodded. “This is a business transaction, and I’m sure I can leave our past personal challenges out of it.” I stepped forward to Jeff, putting out my hand. “I’m sure we can find a way to make this work.”

  Jeff’s eyes lit up with pleasure, and his strong grip closed around mine, holding me in place. “Oh, absolutely,” he agreed. “We’ll need to spend lots of late nights discussing our plans and hammering out the details.” His fingers slid along mine. “Maybe all-night sessions.”

  His eyes flickered to Evan for a moment, then returned to me, his smirk growing. “Your summer fling will be down in New Orleans all winter long. I’m sure he won’t mind that you’re spending every minute with me.”

  I knew it was all a ruse – that none of this would ever actually happen. And, yet, panic rose within me; a wild sense that somehow, inexplicably, this could all come to pass. It was like I was trapped in a nightmare and the doors to freedom were slamming shut with deadly finality.

  I clung to the thread which might preserve my sanity until we made it through the maze. “And Kayla, too. We’ll have Kayla there as we work on this.”

  His brows furrowed in confusion. “But Kayla will be staying here on the ship. I convinced Sven that you were the one we needed in Boston, to manage this by my side.”

  Jeff’s grip on my hand tightened, and he turned to Sven, his shoulders bunching. “What’s this about Kayla?”

  Sven’s eyes were dancing in delight. “A minor change in plans, Jeff. Kayla’s decided to disembark in Boston as well. So she and Amanda will be in charge of their hub.”

  Jeff shook his head. “But then Kayla would be back at the bar, working that entire crowd.” His voice slid into a petulant whine. “That was where I was going to set up my base of operations!”

  Sven shrugged. “Boston’s a big town,” he pointed out. “Plenty of space for all of you. That’s what you’ll spend the winter figuring out – I’m sure you’ll come up with a plan.”

  Jeff’s face darkened. “But I had a plan,” he countered. “Me and Amanda. Amanda and me. We were going to take over that bar and beat Kayla at her own game. Wipe out her presence there and make it our own. The way it was meant to be.” His eyes glazed. “At night, when I’d sit there after a few beers, it was almost like it was Amanda there with me. Finally being the way I wanted her to be. A big-eyed doll, smiling at my jokes, listening to my stories all night long.”

/>   His grip on my hand made my fingers throb, and he turned on me. “I bet this is your fault, somehow, isn’t it? I know you were trying to convince Kayla to get off the ship in Boston with you. You finally did it, didn’t you? You’ve screwed everything up, just like you always do.”

  I bit my lip, saying nothing. Blaming Sven for the situation might cause Jeff to back out of it all, and we were only six hours away from Boston. Just six hours away from my part in this coming to an end. I could only pray that Evan and his team could wrap the rest up as quickly as possible. I didn’t know how much more I could take.

  A tremor ran down my spine.

  Evan’s voice came, slow, smooth, the gentle trickle of rainwater at dawn after a night of pounding rain. He put out a hand toward me. “Amanda, sweetie, come on over here. It’s getting a bit chilly out.”

  I felt the pull as if he were a powerful magnet, and I was crafted from solid iron. My only desire in life was to move to him and press against him. I turned –

  Jeff spun me, bringing me around behind him, spreading his shoulders. “She’s with me, now,” he snapped. “Staying in Boston. With me. Working the town. With me.”

  Evan’s gaze steeled, his stance moving into sharp alertness. His voice remained low and calm, but a honed edge appeared along his words. “Jeff, let her go.”

  Jeff’s eyes flared into brighter life, and I was afraid his death-grip on my hand might break bone. “She was yours. Past tense. You’re going off to New Orleans, now. That’s over a thousand miles away.” His shark-grin was back again. “Guess you’ll be out of the picture.”

  Evan’s tone was low. “You touch one hair of her head while I’m away and –”

  Jeff barked with anger. “You’ll what? You’ll leap off the ship and swim back up here to get me? If I want to do something to Amanda, by the time you could get into Boston, you’d be far too late.”

  Before I knew what was happening, he swept me up with both hands and was holding me like a weight-lifting bar over his head, one hand on my arm, the other on my calf. He’d done this to show off so many times when we were dating that I stiffened into a board before I realized consciously what was going on.

  Exasperation crept into my voice. “Jeff, cut it out. Put me down.” It was one thing for him to have treated me like a piece of gym gear when showing off for his frat buddies at a college party. But I just couldn’t take any more. Maintaining all these pretenses had reached its limit. I wanted to go back to my cabin, pack, and the moment the ship landed, race to my apartment. I would lock myself in for however long it took.

  Jeff’s fingers dug into my body. His voice billowed with rage. “Not until this back-door lover of yours agrees you’re mine now.”

  To my surprise, Evan’s voice came back soft, almost placating. “She’s yours Jeff. All yours. Just put her down.”

  I looked at him in confusion. He had his hands up in a sign of surrender, and his whole body shimmered with attentive focus. His eyes flicked between me and the railing behind me.

  I looked down – and the world swirled sickeningly around me. I’d been so focused on Jeff’s juvenile shenanigans and maintaining my balance that I’d completely lost track of where we were.

  I was now precariously balanced above a nine-story drop into the churning ocean. I could barely see the waves streaming below me in the moonlight. Most of the balconies and windows between me and that drop were pitch black, the inhabitants soundly asleep. There were no screams of panic, no fingers pointed in disbelief. Just silence as the ship moved, like a massive office building, above the flowing ribbon of water.

  At this height, a fall onto its surface could shatter bone.

  A wave of panic rolled through me, and it took every ounce of my will not to tumble, to flail to get away from Jeff. It was only by focusing on Evan’s steady eyes, on losing myself in those depths, that I clung to the thinnest sliver of sanity.

  Evan nudged his head toward the safety of the wooden deck. “Put her down, Jeff. You’ve made your point. Amanda is yours. You and she will be in Boston, and I’ll be far away.”

  “That’s fucking right,” agreed Jeff, his stance firming. “I’m the one in control. I’m the one with the girl. Once I’m through with Kayla, I’ll be in charge of that little situation, too. And you’ll be off playing slow songs for some eighty-year-old couple, the same songs day after tedious day, and by the time your tour ends –”

  He froze, suddenly, his brow creasing in confusion. “Wait a minute. Kayla said you were just a temporary replacement. She said you only signed on for a six month tour. That would mean you’d be back –”

  His voice dropped into a growl. “You’d be back before the spring run. Back in Boston with Amanda.”

  Evan shook his head. “It’s not like that, Jeff. I’m going to stay on the ship with the band. You get Amanda. You’ll be with her in Boston. Put her down.”

  Jeff’s volume rose. “This was all a plot. Get me off the ship with Kayla and Amanda, get all the hard work done. Then once I had everything planned and running smoothly, you’d step in and get all the credit.” A grating harshness layered into his tone. “You’d snatch Amanda just when I’d softened her up good.”

  Evan took a step forward, his eyes fixed on me. “Put her down, Jeff. Then we can talk about –”

  Jeff’s voice peaked at a screech. “Talk about what? Talk about how you’re planning to rip her away from me, just when everything is perfect? There’s no way! No way in Hell I’m going to let you have her!”

  Evan was nearly there. “Jeff –”

  “No! If I can’t have her, then no one will!”

  I was launching.

  I was a cliff diver, soaring, sailing, releasing from the cliffs of La Quebrada, Acapulco into the ocean below. I had the luxury of depths of water beneath me, unlike the scant six feet that those daredevils routinely faced. I knew that the key was absolute focus – absolute calm.

  I had swum competitively for years. I knew the techniques. I could do this.

  It seemed Evan’s voice sounded in my head, steady, soothing, reciting each step for me.

  Rotate so the feet are down. You don’t want your head absorbing this kind of a powerful shock.

  My twist is graceful, elegant, as if I’m performing ballet in a marbled theater of ebony and sparkling diamonds.

  Enter in a perfectly straight line. Feet, arms, shoulders, head, all as straight as possible. Tighten each muscle. Point the toes.

  I am a ballerina. I am designed for this, and my entry into the water will be a pinpoint of space, providing as little resistance as possible to the massive surface of water below me.

  Focus. Focus. Breathe in slowly … deeply …

  I know I have to maintain calm. Perfect calm. Everything depends on it. The rippled waves are nearing, closing in, and I have to let it all go.

  Close your eyes. Breathe out … now!

  SLAM.

  Book 4: Wanting All

  Chapter 1

  I wanted all to sparkle,

  And dance in a glorious jubilee.

  -- Emily Brontë

  SLAM!

  My body shook with the force of the impact. The violent collision seemed to shatter every bone, crunch each vertebra into the next as if I’d been a battering ram crashed into the iron gate of a castle. The shock of it stunned me; I nearly exhaled all my breath before I clamped my lips shut.

  Flowing, cool sensation flooded around me, and it was a second before awareness hit. I flung my arms and legs out, trying to slow my descent into the inky depths. Resistance grabbed every limb, thick like molasses, and I slowly spun to a stop.

  I opened my eyes, but everything around me was dark. There was no sense of up or down. I might have been sinking or buoyant. In the directionless water I could not get a sense of which.

  My years of swimming training kicked in. I’d surfed off of Mexico and Hawaii; I’d had my fair share of wild tumbles. I brought my hands to my face and carefully breathed out a portion of m
y precious oxygen. The bubbles swirled in my cupped hands, then slowly leaked out to the right. I stretched one hand in the direction they’d gone, reoriented my feet to the opposite direction, and then began kicking. Hard.

  I was moving, and a frisson of panic darted through me. Was I indeed going up? What if I was instead driving myself down further into the stygian depths? I risked a small trail of bubbles and eased as I felt them stream up my cheeks. I kicked harder. Now I just had to hope that I hadn’t driven too deep by the nine-story plunge. I had to reach the surface before my air ran out. Every movement of my leg took an eternity, every stroke a lifetime. I imagined a column of water above me, miles high, the shimmering top forever out of reach.