Rum Runner

by Tricia Leedom

  Jimmy shoved Florez so suddenly, the aggressive move caught the smaller man by surprise. He staggered backward but managed to catch the edges of the companionway to keep himself from tumbling down the stairs.

  “Don’t bring Big Rig into this!” Jimmy growled, and Sophie jumped at the vehemence in his voice. Goose bumps rose on her skin, and she crossed her arms to hug herself.

  The two men aggressed on each other, going nose to nose.

  “His name was Rigoberto,” Florez insisted.

  “Your sister vowed to put a curse on you if you ever spoke her husband’s name again. If you’re willing to flip the bird at old-world voodoo, you either have a pair of brass cojones or you’re just plain stupid.”

  “If anyone is cursed, it’s you. After all, ghosts don’t haunt my sleep as they do yours.”

  There was a silent battle of wills. A muscle worked in Jimmy’s clenched jaw, and then, surprisingly, he backed down and turned away from Florez.

  Two hundred pounds of seething, adrenaline-fueled male searched her out and then stalked toward her, making her shiver for reasons she refused to acknowledge. When he placed a big, possessive hand on the curve of her hip and met her eyes, a queer sensation spasmed low in her belly. This visceral reaction had to be from fear, she insisted. It could not be anything else. Definitely not attraction.

  “Stay behind me,” Jimmy said gruffly and guided her into position before turning back around to face Florez. “Why the hell are you on my boat?”

  “Didn’t Thompson tell you? He broke into Bautista’s compound. Slipped past a state-of-the-art security system and stole something extremely valuable from his safe. Bautista understandably wants it back, but Thompson has proved elusive. We thought we had him in Mexico City, but he got away. We did manage to temporarily intercept a letter intended for Miss Stone here, and we hoped to find what we were looking for in her apartment, but—”

  “You!” Sophie said in disbelief. She tried to step past Jimmy but could go no farther than his arm, which was suddenly holding her back. “You did that to my home? They left it in shambles when they were through!”

  “Take it easy, Duchess,” Jimmy said.

  She ignored him. “I hate to break it to you, Mr. Florez, but I don’t know Mitch Thompson. I’ve never met him. I don’t have any idea where he is and neither does Mr. Panama.”

  “I did not expect you to know where he is, chica.”

  “Then what do you want?” Jimmy said impatiently.

  A slow grin spread across Florez’s boyishly handsome face. “Bait. What better way to draw a fish to your line than with a juicy worm? I only want the woman to lure Mitch Thompson out of hiding.”

  Sophie was affronted. “Did he just call me a worm?”

  Jimmy’s eyes sparkled with humor. He was enjoying this too much. Yet, he was all business when it came to Florez. “You think if you exploit Thompson’s weakness, he’ll do exactly what you want?”

  Florez shrugged. “It usually works that way. Do not fear, gusanito, I have no wish to harm you. I will set you free when this is over…if you behave.”

  Jimmy shook his head. “Sorry to disappoint you, boss, but it ain’t happenin’.”

  A frying pan came down on the back of Florez’s head with a sickening crack, and he crumpled to the ground. The beautiful blonde-haired girl from the pool stood over him in the companionway of the cabin with the handle clutched in both hands.

  “Took you long enough,” Jimmy said.

  “Greenlee wanted to use a beer bottle, but I thought you’d get mad if we wasted one of your Coronas.”

  “Damn straight.”

  The blonde stepped over Florez and her friend emerged from the cabin. The pretty, dark-haired girl looked down at the prone body and made a face. “Gross. Did you kill him, April?”

  Jimmy bent to check on Florez. “Unfortunately, he’s still breathing.”

  April looked over Jimmy’s shoulder, crinkling her nose as she titled her head. “No way that guy was a soap star.”

  “Can you girls help me get him off the boat?”

  “What about her?” Greenlee gestured to Sophie. “Why can’t she help you?”

  “She’s got a phobia of boats.”

  “Not boats,” Sophie said. “And it’s not a phobia. I just don’t care for the water.”

  Jimmy snorted. “You live on an island and you don’t like the water? That’s like a hooker having an issue with germs.”

  “The expression ‘southern gentleman’ must be an oxymoron.”

  He stopped and looked at her oddly. She waited for his snarky comeback, but after a long moment, his mouth spread into a smile and he tossed back his shaggy blond head and hooted at the sky. With the life-threatening moment past them, the urge to laugh bubbled up her own throat until she joined him.

  The teenage tarts stood over Florez, looking at each other with confused expressions on their faces. April’s breasts were one shimmy away from spilling out of her bikini top.

  Sophie sobered abruptly. She couldn’t allow herself to be distracted by Jimmy’s rustic charm. These were the sort of females he associated with and that spoke volumes about his character.

  She was here to find her father not make friends.

  That was why she went against her better judgment once again and didn’t say a word when Jimmy and the tarts dumped Florez’s unconscious body on the dock. Her silence continued as Jimmy untied the boat he lovingly referred to as “The Salty Lizard” and carefully steered “her” out of the marina.

  Jimmy stood at the helm with his legs braced apart. April was in the mate’s chair grinning at him like he’d lit the sun, and Greenlee was sunbathing on the bow. Sophie sat on the rear bench seat, clutching for dear life the life jacket she’d found in the storage cabinet.

  Jimmy downshifted, idling to make way for an approaching sailboat. Behind Sophie, the motor rumbled in the water like an angry bear, vibrating through her body and making her teeth chatter.

  “About four hours,” Jimmy said to April, answering a question Sophie didn’t catch.

  The girl nodded in response. Whatever she said next prompted Jimmy to wink and grin, showing off a perfect set of white teeth.

  Sophie’s heart thumped a bit too hard and heat prickled her skin. Why should she care who the bloody man winked at?

  Jimmy reached down to peel off his wet, stained T-shirt, revealing a masterpiece of tightly packed muscle. The prickling heat crawled up Sophie’s neck and burned her face. She covered her opened mouth with part of the life jacket ignoring the fact it tasted of sea salt and smelled of fish. She didn’t dare remove it. Furtively, she watched his back muscles dance as he bunched up the soggy shirt and tossed it into a corner. She took in his broad shoulders and impressive biceps. His lean waist—

  Bloody hell, the man was fit.

  When he turned sideways to face the tart, Sophie’s tongue turned to dust. His long, tanned torso narrowed into a low-strung pair of cargo shorts that exposed an obscene amount of hip bone and the elastic band of his briefs.

  She squeezed her eyes closed. She had not come this far to be waylaid by a sexy American male made of the same questionable moral fiber as her father. Her mum fell down that rabbit hole once and it had nearly destroyed her life. Sophie would not make the same mistake, no matter how tempting the man might look without his clothes.

  A surge of fresh heat flooded her face. She reached for the medallion hanging from the chain around her neck to steady her nerves. Hidden beneath her blouse, the three-inch disk resting against her heart had become a talisman of sorts, giving her reassurance whenever she needed the resolve to carry on. She had no passport, no money or credit cards, but she still had this. Her bargaining chip.

  “You okay back there, Duchess?”

  “I’ll be better when I’m on dry land,” she said, gripping the edge of her seat to keep herself upright as the speeding boat bounced over the waves. She was no longer feeling the effects of the chloroform, but all the jostling w
as making her queasy. Not seasick, but increasingly more anxious the farther they got from shore.

  “You’re looking a little green around the gills. Take deep breaths through your nose. You’ll be all right.”

  “Don’t be afraid,” April said to her. “Jimmy used to be a Navy SEAL. If you’re gonna get shipwrecked with anyone, there’s nobody better to do it with than a guy like him.”

  That was exactly the sort of thing Sophie was hoping to avoid.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The thirty-five-foot cabin cruiser sliced through the blue-green waters of the Florida Straits as smooth as a hot knife through key lime pie. Jimmy caressed The Salty Lizard’s new leather wheel and juiced the throttle. With her new engine and updated features, the old girl was acting like a boat half her age and Jimmy was inclined to indulge her.

  The ocean spray kissed his face, the salty essence mingling with the taste of lime that lingered on his lips from the Coronas he’d knocked back earlier in the day. The late afternoon sun baked him from the inside out, while the rapacious wind tried its damnedest to pull his hair out of his head. He didn’t care. He had a bikini-clad babe clinched to his elbow and a sweet piece of fiberglass under his feet.

  Life didn’t get much better than that.

  Shame it was all an illusion.

  The Duchess sat behind him, carving a hole into the back of his skull with an imaginary spoon.

  He’d woken up this morning a free man. Now he was knee-deep in bullshit and sinking fast. He’d somehow gotten roped in to escorting a pair of trouble-seeking teens home after tangling with a wannabe ninja and foiling the plans of a notorious Colombian drug lord, and pissing off Bautista’s right-hand man while he was at it. If that wasn’t enough, he was stuck babysitting a snooty, hardheaded woman who was determined to give him indigestion.

  “Who’s she?” April said, glancing over her shoulder at the Duchess. “Is she your girlfriend?”

  Jimmy snorted. “God, no. She’s the daughter of an old friend.”

  April’s head tilted as she studied her. “She’s pretty.”

  “You think so?” He looked over his shoulder at the Duchess.

  Her hand was on top of her head, trying to keep the wind from whipping her hair into her face. Ruddy splotches covered her pale cheeks, and her lips were pressed together as if she’d taken a sip of a sour apple martini and found it heavy on the Apple Pucker schnapps. Despite all of that, she was still a knockout.

  A supermodel on a bad day was still a supermodel.

  “Well, she’s a pain in the ass,” Jimmy said.

  “Why?”

  “She just is. Does your daddy know what you were up to today?”

  April had tied her hair up in a ponytail before they’d set off, but the wind had loosened some of the strands. She pulled a wispy blonde lock out of her mouth as she became interested in something on the deck.

  “That’s what I thought. How’d you end up in Miami?”

  April shrugged and her breasts threatened to dislodge her suit. Jimmy turned his head away, planting his eyes on the water.

  “Greenlee and I had the day off from school. We were looking for something to do this morning, so we went over to the Schooner Wharf Bar. Did you know happy hour starts at eight a.m.?”

  “I’m aware of that. Aren’t you a little young to be hanging out in a bar?”

  “It’s not like we go there to drink or anything. Greenlee is into older men, so we sip Cokes and flirt. That’s where we met Elliot, the guy from the pool. He said he was heading back to Miami and invited us to come along.”

  “You do that often? Go off with strange men to God-knows-where?”

  “No.”

  “Do you have any idea what could happen to a pretty little thing like you? If I hadn’t been there today, your luck would have run out real quick.”

  Surprise had flickered across her face midway through his lecture. Now, her expression softened and she gave him a smile that would have lit the desert. “You think I’m pretty?” She stepped closer, pressing her breasts against his arm.

  “Did you hear what I said? Why would you go off with a bozo like that? What were you thinking? You’re smarter than that, April.”

  She ducked under his arm, sliding between his body and the wheel. Her voice softened seductively, as she said, “When we get back to the island, how about we lose the others and go back to your place so I can show you how thankful I am for the save?”

  Jimmy stepped back to put some space between them and straightened his shoulders. “How old are you, darlin’?”

  “Old enough.” She bit her bottom lip. “I turned eighteen in July. Got these as a birthday present from my stepmom.” She stuck out her chest, showing off her rack.

  Jimmy almost looked down, but he caught himself just in time. He went still as she wrapped her arms around his waist and plastered her nubile body against his. Ripe, luscious, and technically legal. What red-blooded American male wouldn’t be tempted?

  “What do you say, Jimmy?”

  He faced the invitation like a man about to leap off a bridge to his death. He knew he shouldn’t do it, but he also knew the sweet oblivion he would find the moment he hit the water.

  He punched out a breath. She might be eighteen, but she was a little girl in a bombshell’s body, swimming in the deep end with sharks. “Why the hell would you want an old geezer like me?”

  “Because you’re hot and you think I’m pretty.”

  “You’re a beautiful girl. But save yourself for some guy who cares about you.” He couldn’t believe he was actually giving sex advice to a teenage girl. He braced himself for the lightning strike, but it didn’t come.

  She looked confused. “You’re not interested?”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Oh.” She stepped back and crossed her arms.

  “Why are you in such a doggone hurry to grow up, darlin’?”

  She frowned at his chest, and the little seductress was gone.

  “They have a word for men like you,” the Duchess said from the back of the boat. She stood up and staggered forward, catching herself on the mate’s chair, which she slid into a moment later.

  “Princes?” he offered.

  “Predators. She’s half your age. While I’m around, could you at least pretend to have some morals?”

  The cruiser bumped over the cross-waves of a passing boat. The Duchess white-knuckled the dashboard rail as her stiff ass hopped and slid around on the seat.

  Jimmy couldn’t help his slow grin. “Are you jealous?”

  “Concerned. Why are you bothering with a man like him?” she said to April. “Surely, there are boys at your school whom you fancy.”

  April ducked under his arm and braced herself on the frame of the companionway. She smiled shyly at the ground. “There is this one guy. He’s in my advanced calculus class.”

  “Advanced calculus? Impressive. Tell me more about him.”

  April shook her head. “Forget it.”

  “No, please. I want to hear. I’m Sophie, by the way. Sophie Davies-Stone.” She held out her hand. “What’s your name?”

  “April Linus.” The girl accepted the handshake. “I love your accent. I’m from Key West. Where are you from?”

  “England. My family’s estate is about thirty minutes south of London.”

  “Cool. I spent a week in London for my twelfth birthday. My mom and I used to travel a lot.”

  “Used to. You don’t anymore?”

  The girl’s sunny smile faded. “She died.”

  “I’m sorry.” The Duchess frowned and the little quotation mark appeared above the bridge of her nose again.

  “It’s okay.” April shook her head as if shaking off the sad memory and smiled again. “Are you on vacation?”

  “Not really. I came to Miami to meet my father, but there was a misunderstanding. Actually, according to my mum, Key West is the closest thing he has to a hometown. I hadn’t planned on visiting but…” She glanced
at Jimmy, “My plans changed.”

  “What’s your father’s name? My family knows a lot of people on the island.”

  “Mitch Thompson.”

  April repeated the name as if trying to place it and then her eyes widened. “Hamburger Man?” She looked at Jimmy for confirmation.

  He chuckled. He’d forgotten about that incident, but to April and the kids who hung out at The Pelican Cove Diner the story had become an urban legend of sorts. “Yep. That’s him.”

  April’s mouth formed a perfect O.

  The Duchess seemed to gird herself for the worst. She pressed her lips together until they turned white and then said with distaste, “Hamburger man?”

  Jimmy explained. “One afternoon a while back your old man had about ten too many at Louie’s Backyard. He climbed up onto the roof of the old diner across from the high school and started ranting about being a superhero.”

  Nodding, April laughed. “Able to leap super-sized fries in a single bound!”

  “That’s right.” Jimmy chuckled too.

  “Oh, dear God.” A blush sprouted on the Duchess’ high cheekbones on top of the color she’d gotten today.

  “He kept shouting about how he could fly,” April said between giggles, “so we all thought he was going to jump.”

  “The police couldn’t talk him down, so they just left him up there. Figured one story wasn’t too far to fall so he’d probably be all right.” Jimmy finished with a shrug.

  The horrified expression on the Duchess’ face was priceless. “You mean to say, they just left him up there?”

  April nodded. “We went back inside to our tables, but we kept waiting for him to fly past the window.”

  “What happened to him? Was he injured?”

  April rubbed the Duchess’ arm. “Don’t worry. It all turned out okay. He passed out on top of the word ‘Cove’ on the diner sign and then climbed down off the roof sometime during the night.”

  The Duchess looked at Jimmy. “How long ago did this happen?”