Tsunami Blue
Page 25
“So you think you’re a pretty smart bitch, don’t you, Tsunami Blue?”
A tall, thin Runner with a 666 tattooed on his forehead sneered at me. He drew his knife. I wanted to knee him in the balls, stomp on his face, and kick him in the ribs. I could do it in under ten seconds. But I had a new four-step plan. And number one was staying alive. So those…what should I call them? Shenanigans seemed like a good Irish word. Those shenanigans of the old days had to stop. Damn it anyway.
He pushed his blade closer to my eye.
“Look at them pretty, pretty baby blues,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind having one for a little souvenir.” The man grinned.
I wasn’t worried about losing an eye. I’d use the knee-drop-and-stomp thing first. But damn it—another Runner who didn’t use a toothbrush. That in itself was torture.
“Please do not ruin my four-step plan.” I sighed, shaking my head. He only brought the knife closer and shoved me to my knees. Well, shit. There went my advantage.
The man went to his knees right in front of me. His blade dropped from his fingers and he toppled over. On me. Blood splattered everywhere: in my hair, in my eyes, on my clothes.
Indigo appeared over us with a wicked-looking blade that dripped blood. He had just slit the man’s throat.
“No one,” he screamed, “and I mean no one, goes near her. Understood?”
He stepped over the body. A man ran to heave it overboard, and got a blade to the throat instead.
“The body stays. No need to waste perfectly good meat for the whites,” said Indigo.
He reached down and cut the rope from my wrists and offered me a hand up. I didn’t take it, but chose instead to stand up on my own.
“You’re a stubborn one, that’s for sure. I can’t wait to get you trained my way. It will be fun.” He reached over and wiped his bloody blade on my pants.
I slowly breathed in the midnight air, so crisp and clean. It calmed my pounding heart and soothed my frayed and raw nerves. I had to hold it together just a while longer. The wave would be on time tonight. The sea, knowing that I would be joining it soon, had promised.
I rolled my shoulders and stood straighter. I looked Indigo in the eyes and remembered all the reasons I wanted to kill him. And before this night was through, I would. With that thought in mind, I felt surprisingly better.
“So, sometimes”—I wiped the blood from my lips—“I get the timing off.” I heard the sea laugh.
Indigo looked at my breasts, reaching out to grab and squeeze. “My timing’s never off,” he said.
“Sorry.” I swatted his hand away in a teasing gesture that looked a lot like flirting. He seemed to enjoy it, blood dripping from me and all. I wanted to throw up. All over his clown pants. It was all I could do not to.
I proceeded to convince him that I had it all wrong. I talked fast while pressing up against him using what cleavage I had to distract. I even batted my baby blues.
Oh, sure, I had said, the wave is coming, of course. Am I ever wrong? But not for hours. You have plenty of time to keep looting and hoarding. Why would I lie? Do you think I have a death wish? And why not throw in a little absinthe drinking too. Sure, I’d join him. My stomach had rolled at the thought. But if it hadn’t been for the sea, I would not have been able to pull it off. The sea, loving a game, calmed, and sent gentle soothing laps to brush the hull. The rhythm was hypnotic, cryptic. And only I could read the message hidden there. I’m coming. I’m coming. I’m coming.
But it worked. In the end, it was that greed thing, after all. Human nature. At the very least, Runner nature. They turned the boat around for one last run at a supply station.
Phase one of my plan was a success. I had survived long enough to lie and manipulate and bend the truth my way. I played their wicked game and I was winning. Hell—I would win.
Instead of sailing away from the wave, we were right in its path. And all of us would die. Nothing like taking someone with you.
I heard it before anyone else.
The water had started to recede.
Indigo heard it second. “What the—” Indigo sounded hysterical. “The bitch lied. The fucking bitch lied.”
He turned and hit me. Hard. I went down, landing on the teak deck next to the lifeless eyes of a dead man. The 666 that had been inked into his forehead glared at me. I turned away from him.
Down on the deck, with my cheek near the hull, I heard the sea whispering, I’m here, Blue. I’m here.
The chaos on board started. Running. Screams. Crying.
Indigo came back my way and landed a kick in my ribs. Damn, but I was tired of being a human punching bag.
“Get up. Save us, you stupid bitch.”
“I can’t.”
Indigo dropped to his knees and lifted my head by grabbing my hair. “I said, save us.”
I closed my eyes and faked a blackout. I mean, why not? I was done talking to this man. Done.
“I don’t want to die,” Indigo screamed.
Get over it and die like a man.
“Shit, the water. Where’s it going?” a Runner screamed.
Out, Einstein.
“Is that a wave?” asked another.
A big-ass one.
“We’re going to die.”
Yep, pretty much. That was the beauty of a plan: When it worked, it really worked. I had led them into the wave and now, if I were going to die, I would take all these Runner scum with me. Straight to hell.
I thought of Gabriel. The man who thought he could stop waves. I prayed that he could. I mean, why not? I could talk to the ocean. Predict waves. Why couldn’t he be the yin to my yang? Wait. What? Did that ever sound corny. Man, impending death sure messed with your head.
Our boat, caught by the force of the receding waters, spun and spun. I tried to get up and grabbed for the railings.The shark pen was just yards in front of us. The receding water tore and ripped like it had arms, destroying the sea cage.
In an instant the sharks, the whites, were free.
There were so many of them.
Our boat, jolted by confused tides and swells, sent the body on deck flying into the water. A shark leapt in midair, its eyes rolling back into its head as its jaws unhinged. The creature caught the body and half the man was gone before my eyes.
I rolled back on the deck, sick. What a sight to take to the watery grave with you. Shit. Isn’t anything easy?
I heard the sea whispering, Coming, coming.
“You’re already here,” I said. “And you’re off to a hell of a start, I’ve got to say.”
Gabriel, the sea whispered. Gabriel, Gabriel, Gabriel.
“What about Gabriel?” I said. My heartbeat raced as I waited for an answer.
Gabriel. Here, the sea whispered. And then it laughed.
No. No! He could not be here. He needed to be at the Needle. He needed to stop this wave and get the hell out of here and live. He could not be caught up in this. If he tried to save me and tangle with the Runners, the wave would finish the job and take him too. I needed him to live. To take care of the kids and Max and— No. Just no. I did not want him to die. I wanted—no, I needed him to live. I wanted to die knowing that the best, most beautiful thing that ever happened to me would live on. Live on to watch three kids grow into wonderful adults. Live on to run with Max on the beach. Live on to drink Christmas Blend. I needed him to live.
I reached for the railing to hoist myself up. And that was when I saw it.
Tsunami.
Still a good distance away, the wave rose and rose and rose. Moonlight, streaming through dark clouds, highlighted the curl and color, the foam and mist.
It was beautiful. It was terrifying. It was the end.
And one thing was perfectly clear: Anything in its way would not, could not survive.
I focused. Gabriel and his sleek black sailboat were right in its path.
I couldn’t help it: I started to cry. Not for me, but for him. For my beautiful dark angel I had found on my b
each on a moonlit night. I wanted him to live. He had to. He just had to.
Yes, the sea whispered, yes, Tsunami Blue.
My hair was yanked, and my head and neck were pulled back at an impossible angle.
“You die tonight, Blue. As do I. But not before you feel what real pain is.” Indigo held a blade at my throat.
I rolled my eyes. “Real pain”? He obviously had no idea what I had been through in the last few days.
The wave suddenly roared as the water rushed forward now, faster and faster. The sound rang in my ears, straining my eardrums to the breaking point.
Indigo couldn’t keep his footing. The fact that Gabriel had appeared behind him and driven a fillet knife all the way through him didn’t help. I knew this because Indigo had let me drop, and when I turned, no one was more astonished than I was to see Gabriel Black on board.
“Remember, you bastard? I don’t share,” Gabriel said with ice in his voice. “Not Blue. Not ever.”
Wow. He had just saved my life. All three minutes of it.
He lifted Indigo into the air with the knife still embedded. Gabriel personally fed him to a great white, with Indigo screaming all the way.
“Blue”—Gabriel tossed me a knife—“behind you.”
I caught the knife in the air. It felt smooth, familiar. It fit my hand perfectly. My bowie. I turned, twirling my blade like old times. The Runner stopped short. My blade was bigger. He turned and ran down the deck. I smiled down at my knife. A girl and her knife. Now that was what I was talking about.
“We gotta get out of here,” Gabriel said as he swung me up over his shoulder. Again.
The sea had become Gabriel’s new best friend. Kind of like Max. Which explained how Gabriel got on Indigo’s boat. Just in time to save me.
The sea whispered, and Gabriel heard.
The sea protected us, and before I could say tsunami, the sea delivered us to the Space Needle, with only moments to spare.
We climbed into the interior of the Needle and ran up the little stairway to the top as fast as we could. Stepping through a large crack in the Needle’s tip, we found ourselves standing on a little ledge facing the deadliest wave in our blue planet’s history.
So we were either going to die together in a few minutes because my guy was nuts, or I would be pleasantly surprised and we would live happily ever after.
Gabriel tossed off his duster and stripped off his shirt. Wave or no wave, I was just enjoying the view when he took out a knife and turned to me.
“Do not tell me you need a blood sacrifice, Gabriel Black. Because I don’t think I have a drop left.”
“Blue, calm down. I just want you to hold this for me.”
“Oh.”
“And I need you to be real quiet.” He put a slender finger to his lips. “Okay?”
“’Kay,” I said, borrowing from Aubrey.
And then he kissed me. Who knew we had the time?
Gabriel spread his arms out in front of him, his golden and bruised skin now damp with the salt mist. He murmured words foreign to me. His concentration was such that I ceased to exist, as did the entire world around him. It was freezing and well past midnight, but the heat radiating from his body warmed me to the point where I stripped off my torn thermal.
His golden skin turned white as sea salt dried against it. And still the heat grew. The wave had paused like a rearing horse, and the sight was so unbelievable that my breath caught and tears stung my eyes.
I thought of my mother and father, and lastly, but mostly, of Finnegan. I whispered his name on the wind, and the wave, monstrous yet so beautiful, shimmered just like my tattoo did when it was wet. I fell to my knees as my brother’s name appeared in the mist. And just like that the monster tsunami was gone, folding back into the sea from where it had come. Gabriel had somehow turned it away.
Good-bye, the sea whispered to me. Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye.
Gabriel dropped to his knees, exhausted, and I rushed to embrace him, crying.
“I know, Blue, I know. I saw it too.”
“Do you think it was a message?”
He leaned against the steel, holding me in his arms. “Or a good-bye,” he whispered, and kissed the top of my head.
They found us in each other’s arms a day later. Hungry, battered, bruised, half-naked, we were quite the sight.
Gabriel had a reason to be half-naked.
I, on the other hand, did not.
But luckily, Aubrey was below deck when John anchored, launched a dinghy, and brought us home. Unfortunately, Nick and Alec were topside.
Home was a sleek black sailboat that would, if Gabriel got his way, belong to both of us. And time would tell if our little whiskey-brown-eyed Aubrey would remain with us. But for now she was part of our family. We loved her already.
Nick and Alec and Aubrey were thrilled to spend a little more time with John, and had hitched a ride back home to New False Bay. After all, he had a real pirate ship. And dogs, namely Max and Bacon, were allowed on board. And it seemed, according to the boys, that the new kid, Aubrey, turned out to be a lot of fun. Hanging with us? Not so much. They said something about “old” people.
They lost some future pancakes on that one.
Sailing away from New Seattle the next morning, with Starbucks in my hand and a wonderful new soreness in my body, I saw a shark.
It was blue.
“Don’t ask,” Gabriel said. I didn’t. But I did feel sorry for the shark. I just hoped he ate the hat too.
Epilogue
New San Juan Island
Six months later
“And so, my friends, I come to you today with news of a different sort. News that’s been in the wind, and I’m here to set you straight. It’s true. A little tsunami is heading our way.”
I paused for effect, just for fun.
“Actually, my way. And”—I couldn’t help but smile, remembering Gabriel’s reaction, the soft tears and kisses—“Gabriel’s too. Yep. We are going to have a baby, folks.”
“I’m so thrilled and proud and honored to share this news with you. Together we can build a safe, sane, waveless world for all our children.”
“This is Tsunami Blue signing off on another of many, many, many smooth-sailing days.”
I put down the mic and touched my belly and smiled. I’d been doing a lot of that these days. I watched Nick and Alec playing in the surf with Max. I watched our Aubrey—Aubie, as we had come to call her—draw pictures in the sand. She had considerably more talent than I. We continued to search for her family, putting out messages in the wind and on the air. But word had it they had last been seen in New Vancouver, trying to reach high ground. So for now, she was ours. Maybe forever. And should that be the case, it was more than all right with all of us.
My heart swelled at the sight of my new wonderful family. A tear slipped down my cheek. I’d been doing a lot of that lately too.
“Blue? You okay?”
Startled, I turned and saw Gabriel, my pirate, my dark angel, my husband, at the door. And he was in trouble again.
“Fudge, Gabriel, do not sneak up on a pregnant woman that way.”
He walked over, took me in his arms, and kissed the tear away.
“Happy tears?”
“Yeah.”
“‘Fudge’?”
I walked over and pointed to the nearly empty pickle jar. I’d really been working hard at it.
“Damn right,” I said proudly. Then, “Damn it! I mean, darn right, darn it.” I socked him in the arm for laughing.
Gabriel reached into his pocket and put two twenties in the pickle jar for me.
He gathered me into his arms once again. “I love you. Keep up the good work.” He released me and rubbed his arm. Smiling, he said, “Don’t ever change, Blue. Don’t ever change.”
Gayle Ann Williams lives on a small island off the coast of Washington in the amazing, beautiful, wet Pacific Northwest. Growing up in a small, cowboy town in Eastern Washington, Gayle, after
numerous visits to Seattle during her college years, fell in love with the ocean. Trading her spurs for a sea kayak, she left her Rodeo Queen roots behind (yes, she really was a Rodeo Queen) and moved to the “rainy” country. For a time she lived on a sailboat and to this day she thinks sailing throughout the San Juan Islands and the Canadian Gulf Islands as one of the best experiences of her life.
To learn more about Gayle and Tsunami Blue visit her on the web at www.gayleannwilliams.com
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six