Ti Jean was the one still chasing, on the other side of us, while the other guy with him started firing at us. I ducked behind the screen, cautioning Amanda to stay down. She could be hit by a bullet in all the chaos. I looked ahead and noticed we were approaching the shores of a small island, the Long Island. This meant the Bahamas were not far off. An hour at most, but the big question was if I could hold these guys off till we got there, and then Miami.
I headed toward the shore at high speed, and slowed down when I noticed an arc. The rocks really looked unstable so I shot at them as I passed under the arc, causing a rock fall. It derailed Ti Jean and the guys on the other speedboat, who had caught up by now, but were missing one person. Mandy had hit someone after all. I said nothing to her as she was barely holding up. I increased our speed, rushing past the shores, and thanking my stars for that arc whose rocks had hit the speedboats slowing them down.
“I think I’m going to throw up, Jason. I can’t hold it down again. Can you slow down a little?” Mandy barely said before she was bending over the rail and retching.
I screwed my face up in disgust and sympathy, but I knew that would be suicide for us.
“Sorry, but we need to cover some yards before our pursuers catch up with us. Just hold on tightly to the rail and let it all out.”
I glanced at her, wanting to be there, to at least rub her back or hold her hair back for her. Her face was white and she was really sweating.
“Are you okay?” I asked, my worry growing, and I forgot about my earlier statement. “You don’t look too good. Should I stop?”
She only shook her head in denial. There was a bottle of water by me, I gave it to her and she rinsed her mouth and face, then she drank some.
“I’m sweating because I’ve been try to control the nausea since this race started. I feel much better and stable. Just focus on sailing.”
“Once we reach the Bahamas they will probably slow down and stop shooting as the coast guard there also have helicopters in the air, controlling speed and carrying out rescues. It’s a few yards to Miami, Baton Rouge from there. Once we cross the Bahamas, we will enter American waters, immediately send the SOS then and fire the flare gun. You should be able to do that as the patrol in Bahamas will buy us some time.” I told Mandy this, but my eyes and mind were all focused on getting to safety before anything happened. I knew Ti Jean would catch up with us soon and would want to stop us before we even entered the Bahamas.
If he did, it could mean game over for us.
“Pick up your gun. You hit something last time. Just rain shots and distract them when they get closer.”
Mandy picked up her gun from the deck and checked the flare guns as well. I looked around again; our pursuers weren’t catching up yet. I sped on, passing another small island. A last minute idea popped in my head, and I decided to derail them by going around the island and using a hidden river that emptied into the sea. They would probably have to go around the island a few times before realizing it was a trick. By then I would be reaching the Bahamas and they couldn’t continue chasing, neither could they fire shots, to say less of pulling out their guns.
“Where are we going?” Mandy asked me as she noticed our direction shift, I could see she was worried.
“I’m making a detour,” I joked.
“You can’t, we just barely got away from them and this is a waste of time,” she said, voice shrill.
“Calm down, I’m buying us some time. They will think we’ve docked on this side of the island. The river I’ll use is kind of hidden and will lead us back to our route and closer to Bahamas. Trust me on this, okay?”
Her nod of agreement was hesitant, but was all I needed to feel reassured that she did trust me. Hopefully, that trust wouldn’t be in vain.
The little detour took quite a while out of our time. I steered the boat through the hidden route as I remembered it. I’d used it maybe once before, a long time ago. Once we were out, though, it was to clear sea, and we moved even further with no disturbance. Mandy kept a look out for our pursuers, but we’d lost them, at least momentarily.
I smiled as we entered the southern waters around the Bahamas. We had succeeded in getting this far, but I hoped we’d get closer to Miami before they caught up with us. I noted the coast guard patrolling and felt more at ease as I slowed down, since speeding past them would be suspicious.
“Check the flare gun, Mandy,” I called back to her.
“It’s here, I’ll remember to fire. Is that the coast guard’s boat?” she asked, pointing at the anchored boat.
“Yes, it is. There isn’t an army or air force here in the Bahamas. They have a small navy and an air coast guard team. The US offers them security most of the time.”
“Will the pirates make it past them?”
“Yes, they will, so long as they don’t speed past them or brandish their weapons.”
That seemed to make her nervous, as it should. It meant, as long as the bastards following after us were smart, they might still get a chance of coming after us.
“Okay,” she said simply. “Do you think we can escape them?”
I pursed my lips as I thought through every aspect. As much as I would have liked to say we were in the clear now, we really weren’t, and wouldn’t be until we reached the cost of Miami. I’d bought us more time, but anything could happen, after all. Not that I told Mandy all that in quite those words.
“We’ve done well in escaping them so far. All we need to do now is alert the guards the second we cross out of the Bahamas waters. That’s the only way our safety can be guaranteed. The speed of their response, too, matters,” I tried to explain to Mandy and to reassure her at the same time.
In my heart, I knew we would be caught before we got to safety, but we would have alerted the military forces by then.
I picked up the speed of the boat some yards away from the guards, or more accurately the navy post of the Bahamas.
As we approached Bimini, I heard the sound of the speedboats coming up again. Even though I’d been listening out for it, I cursed because they had caught up with us. They were approaching the US territory quickly and all I could do was pray that we crossed Bimini soon. Ti Jean’s speedboat drew closer due to his expertise with a boat. I swerved to collide with his boat and slow him down, but his boat was too fast. He sped past me and gained some distance, which I tried to cover quickly.
The other speedboat was directly behind my boat now. Ti Jean suddenly turned his speedboat, heading straight toward my boat. Mandy screamed as I swerved the boat, escaping a crash with him slightly and hitting the other speedboat. Mandy almost fell off the boat, but the rails broke her fall, though she’d probably have bruises where she knocked against it later. I didn’t wait for her to recover, nor did I give Ti Jean time to regain control. I turned our boat back on the course, hitting Ti Jean and speeding off.
They recovered quickly and chased us past Bimini now. I instructed Mandy to fire the flare gun as we entered US waters, fucking finally. She was still shaky from her fall, and nervous since she was probably scared of messing up or firing it wrongly. But she’d kept hold of it, and that was all we needed. The pirates were behind us now, and seeing how close they were and the weapons they were pulling out, Mandy fired the flare gun, and it hit one of the pirate boats instead, setting it on fire.
“You need to fire into the air, Mandy. We do not have enough flares. You need to get this right,” I warned her.
Though the fire on one of the boats wasn’t all that bad for us, if only because it reduced the number of people we needed to attack.
Mandy gave me a sharp nod, but didn’t bother to reply verbally. She armed another flare.
The pirates from the burning boat jumped off to escape the fire. Ti Jean kept chase while his partner fired shots at us. Mandy grabbed the second flare, and fired it correctly this time. I slowed down as I realized I was running out of gas, and wanted to curse. Instead, I held my breath, hoping for some miracle.
> One we weren’t going to receive, though. The boat suddenly stopped as the engine died a few minutes later.
“Why did we stop?” Mandy asked in an alarmed voice at the sudden silence that came up around us.
“We’re out of gas,” I said urgently, then cursed under my breath as I gave up on steering. Really, it was a miracle that we ended up as far as we did. “Hand me my gun and grab your own gun. Send another SOS quickly before the shooting starts.”
Mandy obviously tried to be brave and not worry by showing how scared she was, but I could see her body tremble with the boat relatively still now. Her hands seemed to shake as she sent the distress call that we were under attack to the coast guard. The message was delivered before a bullet whizzed past her, causing her to drop to the boat’s floor. I was already making my way to her when she grabbed her gun and fired it randomly without a care.
“Hey!” I had to duck myself so I wouldn’t get shot at.
Ti Jean fired at us as his boat circled ours. I fired back and hid behind the cockpit, worried about Mandy. There was no way I could get to her somewhere so open. After raining another round of bullets on the boat, Ti Jean and his partner quieted, but I still heard their boats circling ours. Where were their comrades? After the flare hit their boat, they fell into the sea and could be swimming toward the boat this minute. I stood up carefully to fire at Ti Jean again, when someone fired at Mandy. I reflectively turned to shoot back, and covered her when a bullet hit me in the shoulder, making me grunt and stumble.
Mandy screamed out as she saw this, but I hardly noticed, lost in the adrenaline. I wasn’t ready to give up the fight just yet. I was enraged and not feeling any pain as I fired at my assailant, hitting him directly on the forehead. It was one of the pirates who had jumped into the sea, I was pretty sure. He dropped dead on the spot and I turned to fire at Ti Jean again.
I moved to the edge of the boat, to make sure no other assailant was climbing from that end when I heard Mandy scream again. I turned to see a gun pointed at her head by one of the pirates.
“Drop your gun or I shoot her,” he warned me. “If you try anything sneaky, I’ll shoot her right now.”
Ti Jean climbed onto the fishing boat, his gun pointed at me as well.
“Throw your gun in the water and don’t try to play smart. I’ll shoot you without hesitation. You’ve caused me enough trouble, so be a good boy and do as I say.”
With no other choice, I threw my gun into the sea, and winced as I started feeling pinches of pain in my shot arm. I looked down at the short and nasty-looking stocky man, more irritated than worried about the capture.
“How do you intend to get us out of here? We are out of gas,” I asked just to annoy him.
“How we get out of here is not your problem. You should worry about staying alive and about your girlfriend over there. After all the trouble you’ve caused us, I’m not sure Taggart would want to keep you alive.”
I smiled, not showing how worried I was. I didn’t know how we would get out of this, but I had to think fast before it was too late for both Mandy and me. Ti Jean pointed his gun in the direction of the cabin and shoved me in that direction. If it were a different scenario, I would have laughed at his effort to shove me. His underling followed us with Mandy and we were asked to sit down while he tied our hands. He scattered the room searching for any hidden weapons or sharp objects. His men stood guard and he went outside to make a phone call, probably to inform Taggart that we had been captured.
I looked at Mandy, and she was holding it together. I could see the fear in her eyes as she looked back at me. The fear turned to alarm when she saw my gun wound, which was bleeding a lot.
“Hey,” she called out to the mean-looking pirates. None of them look at her.
I could have told her not to bother, but I was starting to feel some pain in my shoulder.
“Hey,” she said again, but they ignored her. She got angry then. “Hey, you impolite oaf, can’t you hear me calling you? Or are you deaf, or maybe my flare hit you just where I wanted it to?” she taunted to get his attention.
He looked at her, really pissed off by the reminder that she had shot at him, and I tried to keep myself at attention.
“Now that I have your attention, please can you bind his wound, the bleeding is upsetting me and I feel like throwing up. I’m sure your boss didn’t ask for us to be hurt. And I mean your biggest boss, not the ugly one,” she told him.
The other pirate couldn’t help smiling at her brashness. I understood, of course. She was tough; even though she was scared she still had the courage to make demands. I didn’t fault the man for admiring her, though it did worry me that she was getting attention from them.
While the other guy was stewing, he decided to bind my wound, and was kind enough to apply disinfectant from the first aid kit before binding it. I was lucky the bullet passed cleanly through my muscles. I had, sadly, gotten shot a few times and was able to recognize the signs. If not I would have been in serious pain. It was still painful, though, but at least he tried not to press too hard.
Mandy thanked him when he was done, and I smiled. It was just like her to be polite even when it was toward criminals. I sighed, knowing we would wait there till backup came or Taggart arrived. The longer we waited, the faster the coast guard would get there. They were my plan B, although I had no plan A.
Chapter Nineteen
Amanda
I sat up with a start as one of the pirates touched me, the kind one. The effects of the rollercoaster escape we had been on were wearing me down and I had nodded off. I looked at Jason to make sure he was fine and his arm wasn’t giving him too much pain. He was very quiet and was sitting still as if he was planning something. Jason was a fighter and I knew he wasn’t one to give up easily, so whatever he had planned would either get us killed or get us out of there.
“Can I have some water to drink, please?” I asked one of the pirates, forcing a swallow down my dry throat and almost retching at the taste in my mouth.
I needed to rinse my mouth after all the vomiting earlier. The disgruntled pirate looked at me and muttered something in Haitian without offering to give the water. His nicer mate looked round the cabin for some and saw bottled water on the small kitchenette surface. He uncapped the bottle and placed it on my lips, helping me drink it gently, as my hands were tied behind me. When he was done, I smiled at him in appreciation. Jason huffed and gave him a deadly look, clearly warning him with his eyes to stay away from me. Everybody knew that pirates loved women in all shapes, forms, and sizes and I clearly was appealing to this one.
I couldn’t just sit still, I was restless and worried and tired so I had to talk to get my mind off the chaos. I looked at Jason who was still silent, and the disgruntled pirate who was glaring at me. The smiling pirate was the best choice to communicate with and relieve my restlessness for the moment so I asked him, “What’s your name? I’m tired of thinking of you as smiling pirate in my head and your friend and mate as disgruntled, rude, pig-headed pirate.”
Smiling pirate laughed, unable to hold it in, Jason even smiled at my joke, and disgruntled pirate got more pissed and scolded me.
“Will you just shut up, woman, before I gag you.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Grumpy, but I’m going to be sick if I sit quiet even for one more minute. I’m sure you don’t want to be locked in here with a hysterical woman,” I fired back at him.
He swore in Haitian and started looking around for a piece of clothing to gag me. His mate stopped him and said something in his ear that probably calmed him down. He then turned to me.
“I’m Lee. Now try to sit quiet.”
“Thank you, Lee, you are very polite. Some people could learn how to be polite from you. So tell me, why did you chose piracy? You’re obviously a good man.”
He laughed at me calling him a good man. Then shook his head as he said, “Piracy pay good money, I feed family with. No work in Haiti, so many pirate. Me no good at all. I do plen
ty bad things. Now no talk more, Mr. Grumpy tie your mouth.”
His English was so poor and mangled up that I almost laughed, but I understood because it wasn’t his first language. Just then Ti Jean came in and pulled Lee to a corner. They talked for three minutes, and I was guessing Ti Jean was giving him instructions on something.
Jason looked at Ti Jean as he finished his conversation and approached him.
“You’re lucky my hands are tied, if not I would beat the living shit out of you and place another ugly scar on your already ugly face,” he provoked Ti Jean.
“I won’t satisfy your urge to fight by answering that. The time for me to beat your pretty face up is coming,” Ti Jean replied, although seething underneath.
It was probably fear of Taggart’s reaction that was stopping him from already doing something crazy to us.
“Oh, I get it. You’re not the boss, just the loyal second who will probably get the sloppy part of everything, right? Where is your master anyway, I’m already tired of waiting for him,” Jason spoke again.
Ti Jean seemed to hate being second and being reminded of that in front his men. He punched Jason in the gut and smiled in satisfaction when he doubled over, coughing in pain.
“How does that feel, coming from a sloppy second? Watch your mouth and try not to cause trouble. I will kill you, and face Taggart.”
After saying that, he left and soon a speedboat took off. Jason sat up looking like he hadn’t just been punched. He looked at me, trying to pass a message that I couldn’t read. He coughed and wriggled his hands, which were tied at his back. I followed his actions and realized his hands were free. I then understood he wanted me to distract Lee and Mr. Disgruntled.
“Lee?” I called out. He looked at me and I asked him to come closer by moving my head. “Tell your friend to come closer, too. I have a proposal for both of you.”
Lee looked at me skeptically, but called Mr. Grumpy over. He hesitated to come, but when Lee insisted, he came over and they bent closer to hear what I had to say.
Her Captor Page 11