by KB Winters
“Jackson, please, eat your breakfast,” Melissa begged, an edge of frustration leaking into the normally even-keeled tone she had when speaking to her small son.
Jackson folded his arms and gave her an expression that made it clear the oatmeal was staying right where it was.
Melissa heaved a frustrated sigh as she stood from the table. She snapped up the plastic bowl and sashayed across the small walkway to the kitchen. “Fine. Go hungry.”
It was hard to watch her come unglued with him. Normally, she had the patience of a saint when it came to talking and interacting with Jackson. The fact that she was snapping spoke volumes about her stress level. My stomach churned. I’d wanted to try and patch things up with her, after a long night at the wheel, worrying about the way I’d barked at her after getting back from O’Keefe’s boat. However, it didn’t appear that she was in much of a mood to hear my attempt at an apology.
Jackson banged his spoon on the table and the sound sliced through my head like a sharp poker. I hadn’t been drinking the night before, but my head mirrored the feeling of a bad hangover. “I want to go back to the beach!” Jackson demanded to Melissa’s turned back as she dumped the contents of his bowl into the trash can.
I lowered into the seat across from Jackson and he looked up at me, silently pleading for me to interject on his behalf. “Buddy, we’re going to find another beach, okay?”
I cast a sidelong glance at Melissa and saw her stiffen at my statement. I wished she’d turn back around so I could see her face. That way, I could see if she was pissed that I was interfering in her parenting—or if she was grateful for the extra hand. She didn’t say anything, so I continued. “It’s going to be even better. I promise. Besides, I thought you wanted to go on an adventure?”
Jackson stared at me, unsure. “An even better beach?”
I smiled over at him. “That’s right. With more seashells and less people.”
A small smile twitched at his lips and his eyes sparkled with the possibility. I had him.
“What do you say? You ready for some more adventure?”
Melissa spun around and wiped what looked like tears from her eyes. My heart—no my body—crushed with the weight of whatever she was holding on to. After a second, I felt her eyes land on me as we waited for Jackson to answer my question. Finally, he nodded. “Okay. Maybe we’ll catch another fish?”
I laughed. “We’ll sure try.”
“Yay!” He broke into a series of whoops and hollers until Melissa took her seat beside him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder to settle him down.
“You know what though, bud?”
“What?” he asked, arching a little blonde brow at me. Smart kid. Waiting for the catch.
I pushed my untouched bowl of oatmeal across the table and handed him the clean spoon I’d grabbed from the drawer minutes before. “If you’re going to be strong enough to haul in a big fish, you’re going to need to eat and keep those muscles nice and strong.”
Jackson looked at the spoon in my hand and then grinned up at me. “I’ll eat all of my oatmeal!”
“Good man,” I said, grinning down at him as he dug in. I went to the stove and heaped a large scoop into a fresh bowl, tossed some blueberries on top, and added a sprinkle of brown sugar. Perfect. When I rejoined them, Jackson was plowing through the bowl of oats and Melissa looked a little less pissed off.
When Jackson finished eating, he ran off to his room to change out of his pajamas, leaving Melissa and me at the table. She traced a circle against the surface of the table with the tip of her finger, her eyes down.
“So, about last night,” I started.
She bobbed up to look at me and shook her head. “It’s fine. Let’s just forget about it, okay?”
I didn’t want to let it go, but I couldn’t risk arguing with her again. Everything between us was still too raw and mixed up. We needed a day of peace to regather our strength. “All right. Forgotten.”
“Are we really going to another beach?” Melissa snarked. “’Cause you can’t tell him things and then not follow through.”
“I know,” I replied, biting back my irritation at her explanation. As though I knew nothing about kids. “I wouldn’t lie to you or to Jackson. We’re going to head down the coast a little further, put some distance between us and Cabo, and when we stop for supplies, we’ll take a couple of days to make a long-term plan. While I figure things out, you and Jackson can be sure to get lots of beach time.”
Melissa nodded slowly, turning over my words. “All right. Thank you. For helping with him, I mean.”
“Not a problem.” I turned my attention to my oatmeal and took a big scoop.
She pushed off the table and left the dining area to go help Jackson get ready for the day. I despised the frosty feeling left between us but knew there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. I didn’t even know her well enough to be able to gauge how long to expect her to keep me at arm’s length. We didn’t have any history for me to base my guess on.
I’d just have to wait and see, and in the meantime, keep chipping away at the ice until she let me back in again.
If she let me back in again.
Chapter Four
Melissa
“Mama, I’m going to catch the biggest fish you’ve ever seen!” Jackson exclaimed as he wriggled free of his pajama shirt with Spiderman splashed across the front in a bold, graphic print. It was his favorite and he’d slept in it every night since we’d arrived on the boat. I was going to have to wrestle it away from him for a night so I could wash it and let it drip dry. I hadn’t seen a washer and dryer on board. “Mama?”
“Yes, sorry sweetheart. I was listening.” I picked up the discarded shirt and traded it out for a fresh t-shirt.
“What’s the biggest fish you’ve ever seen?” he asked, his expression so intent that I had to bite back a giggle.
“Probably this big,” I said, holding my hands and arms out about the distance of the fish he’d caught the other day with Chase.
He studied my gesture and then nodded, his mind made up. “Okay! Chase will help me.”
I laughed. “I’m sure he will.”
Jackson finished dressing and I ran a comb through his too-long hair. “Do you think Dad knows how to fish?”
I drew in a breath at the mention of Henry. Jackson brought him up so sporadically that when he did, it was a shock to my system. Henry was dwelling in the back of my mind, on a permanent residency, but he didn’t appear to be the biggest thing on Jackson’s mind. Which, was both heartbreaking and a relief at the same time.
“I think so, honey. But probably not as well as you do!” I smiled at him, infusing as much happiness as I could into my voice.
Jackson beamed. “I’ll teach him.”
I nodded and swiped at Jackson’s hair. My stomach clenched at the sweet face before me. I hated that I had to keep lying to him. “Why don’t you go see if Chase needs help cleaning up after breakfast?”
“Okay, Mama.” He gave me a hug and ran out of the room we shared. Once he was gone, I shut the door, and lay down on the bed.
What the hell are we going to do? Of all the questions in my mind, that was the one that yelled the loudest. Chase had laid out his plan. We would go to another beach, hunker down, and hope for the best. But what if Henry’s men found us there too? How many times would we have to run away in the middle of the night? How many close calls would we face? Would I ever wake up from this nightmare I’d fallen into?
I squeezed my eyes closed. I wish I knew.
I let myself wallow for another handful of minutes before pushing off the bed and going to make sure that Jackson was occupied. He was on the top deck with Chase, scanning the horizon and practicing his pirate vocabulary. Before either of them spotted me, I tiptoed away, and went back down below. My mind was still too busy, so as I gathered up all the dirty clothing from our room, I flipped on the radio that was built into the intercom system throughout the boat. It took some scannin
g around, but I eventually landed on a station playing a mix of upbeat Spanish songs. I couldn’t understand a word of it as my Spanish knowledge pretty much consisted of the words needed to order a margarita or ask where the restroom was located. That was all that remained from the three years I’d been forced into taking Spanish back in high school. I’d always been too busy with gymnastics and my schooling fell into second, third, or even fourth place on my life of priorities.
I cranked the music up before carrying the load of clothes to the bathroom to start washing things in the sink. I hummed along and lost myself in the beat of the music, happy for a reprieve from the voices and questions for once. After the first load of clothes were washed and hanging to drip-dry over the edge of the shower, I went back to the bedroom. Right as I stepped inside, a news broadcast played over the music, this time in Spanish, and then followed in an English translation.
“Reports are coming from Cabo that a faulty fuel line resulted in an explosion of a boat docked in a local marina. From what we’ve gathered, the boat was destroyed and a total of three lives lost. Two others remain in critical condition in the hospital this morning.”
I shivered. Three men had died? We were docked so close to the boat that had gone up in smoke. We could have just as easily been names on the list of the deceased.
“—we have been given permission to release the names of those that lost their lives in this tragic event. Robert Weatherby, Louis James, and Jensen Heath.”
Everything screeched to a stop. All I could hear was the thundering pulse of my heart as it soared up into my throat. Jensen Heath. No…it couldn’t be.
I shook my head and the rest of my body followed suit until I collapsed into the doorway of the bedroom, my legs unable to hold me up. The news report concluded and then the happy, light hearted music returned. The contrast was stark—and jarring.
When I got my legs back under me, I pushed off the doorway and hurried up the stairs. Chase and Jackson were sitting side by side in the captain and co-captain chairs, laughing together as though there wasn’t a care in the world. I stared at the back of Chase’s head and a wave of panic and nausea rolled over me. He killed those men on the boat. I had no doubt about it. They were Henry’s men and Chase knew it. And he’d left Jackson and me alone on the boat to make sure they couldn’t follow us to our next stop.
The news report was calling the explosion a tragic accident, the result of an improper fuel line. But that wasn’t true. Was it?
“Chase?” I said, my tone sharp enough to pierce through and deflate their laughter.
Chase turned in his seat and the smile dropped off his face at the sight of my expression. “What’s wrong, Melissa?”
“I need to speak with you.” My eyes darted to Jackson and then back to Chase. “Alone, please.”
Chase looked at Jackson and clapped a large hand to his shoulder. “You gonna be okay here for a minute?”
Jackson nodded.
Chase stood. “Good man. I’ll be right back.”
Jackson turned his attention back to the front window, watching the endless ocean as we cruised over the glassy surface at a slow pace. Or, at least slow in comparison to the frantic pace Chase had kept the boat at all night to get us away from Cabo as quickly, and as far, as possible.
Chase followed me out of the bridge and to the opposite end of the top deck. “What’s wrong?”
“Where were you last night? Where did you go?”
Chase grimaced. “I thought we discussed this already.”
“No. You discussed it, but only to tell me to drop it. However, I just heard the news report. Three men are dead, Chase. Dead. And there are two others in critical condition. Tell me you didn’t have anything to do with that.”
Chase stared at me, and I could practically see his wheels turning, looking for a white lie or sidestep that would get him out of my sights.
“One of the dead men was Henry’s, I knew him.” I added, sticking out my lower lip in a defiant pout.
I wasn’t letting this go.
“Shit,” Chase exhaled. He brought a hand around to rub the back of his neck.
“Tell me what happened.”
“All right, all right.” He glanced around to Jackson presumably checking that he was all right, dropped his hand and held it up, palm out, between us. “Yes, it was me. I went out for a walk and ended up at the dock. I noticed the boat was parked close to ours and thought it was kind of odd, since there were so many other spots available in the marina. Anyway, I went to check the yacht, and make sure everything was as it should be. On my way there, I heard voices from the new boat, and one of them mentioned you and Jackson.”
“What did they say?” I asked, halfway not wanting to know the truth.
Chase hesitated. He didn’t want to tell me.
Not a good sign.
“Chase, please,” I begged, my voice barely audible over the wind that whipped between us. “I’m a big girl. I can take it.”
He drew in a quick breath, glanced at some spot behind me, and then dragged his eyes back to mine. “They were talking about how they were under orders to take Jackson, separate him from you, and once you were out of his sight, they were supposed to kill you.”
The boat rocked and I didn’t think it had anything to do with the water beneath us. “Oh, God. I can’t believe he’d—” My stomach churned and I grabbed for the railing to steady myself. Chase took my arm and helped me sit down.
“I’m sorry. I did—” I put my hand up, palm out, to let him know I didn’t want him to talk. I needed a minute.
I knew Henry wanted me dead, or at least, I’d put enough clues together to form that theory. But somehow, hearing his detailed plan made it feel more real than ever before and the reality of what Henry was plotting was mind-numbing.
“Go get Jackson please. I want my baby here.”
“Melissa…”
I wiped the tears from my eyes and stood up. Chase put his hand out to steady me, but my strength was back. “So…how has this become my life, you know? Where is the girl who fell in love with a cheesy timeshare salesman with big dreams?” That girl felt so far away to me. As though that hadn’t even been my life. It belonged to someone else.
“Melissa…” Chase’s soft voice brought me back from the edge and I locked my eyes with his, letting him keep my rooted. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to tell you, because, well fuck, because it’s fucking evil!”
“Yes, Chase, he is an evil man.” I nodded. I gathered up my composure and asked, “What happened then? After you got us onto the boat?”
Chase held my gaze. “I got you on the boat and I went to their boat. I wanted to see if I could figure out how the hell they’d managed to track us to Cabo in the first place. I figured if I could find their tracking equipment, I could destroy or steal it before they got back to the boat, and that would give us time to get away and this time not be followed.”
“But?”
“But I ran out of time. So, I did the next best thing I could think of.”
“Blew their ship up?”
“No,” he growled. “Well, at least that wasn’t my intention. Yes, I attached two explosives to their control panel but they weren’t supposed to blow the whole damn thing up. I wouldn’t have put you and Jackson in that much danger. Something must have gone wrong. I set the devices and was trying to get off the ship when I was stopped by one of O’Keefe’s men. I had to kill him, Melissa. He would have killed me and then he would have come after you and Jackson.”
I put the pieces together. “And when you got done with…that…there were more of them?”
Chase nodded. “I’m sorry, Melissa.”
“Don’t be,” I replied. “You were doing your job.”
“I couldn’t let them come after you, even if that meant sacrificing myself. When the explosion went off, I’d just dove overboard, and my first thought when I hit the water was hoping that you guys were below deck and safe.”
“And your
leg?” I asked, dropping my eyes to the place on his leg that I’d patched up the night before.
“I didn’t even feel it when it happened. It must’ve been debris and pieces of their boat. I don’t know why the explosion was so big. The detonators I set should have been more controlled.”
“The news said something about the fuel line,” I offered, not sure if it helped or even made sense. For all I knew that could have been the media spin to keep the tourists in the area from freaking out, thinking there are terrorists on the beach.
Chase shook his head. “They must have had weapons, explosives, on board that got set off.”
Another chill ran down my spine. The idea that they would have killed me and kidnapped Jackson was horrifying enough, but the thought of Jackson on a boat full of brutes, without his mother, and probably a thousand questions…one of them would have lost their patience eventually. They were trained killers—not babysitters.
What was Henry thinking? God, that was a scary idea.
“Thank you, Chase.”
Chase looked surprised at my statement. “You don’t have to thank me. In fact, I’d prefer if you didn’t.”
I reached for him and set my hand on his forearm.
Before I could find the right words, a loud, ear-piercing siren blared from the bridge.
“Jackson!”
Chapter Five
Melissa
I bolted to the bridge, hollering Jackson’s name. He appeared, seconds after the alarm sounded, his hands pressed against his ears and a distraught look on his face.
“I didn’t do it!” he screamed above the noise. “It wasn’t me!”
Chase stifled a laugh and I stopped running, looking back at him. “It’s okay, buddy. Hold up.”
He ducked into the bridge and I stood with Jackson by my side, wanting to cover my own ears from the deafening noise. When Chase reappeared, his expression was grim. “There’s a storm coming, that was the warning alarm.”
I glanced down at Jackson who looked relieved that the noise had stopped but conflicted over the news. “Does that mean we can’t go fishing?”