Sweet Seas

by Scarlett Finn

  “He’s dicking you around.”

  But, there was something about the way Swain was getting defensive that made her worry less about being taken for a fool. If it had been a flat-out lie, he’d have laughed in her face and accused her of being gullible.

  She gasped in delight. “It’s true, isn’t it?”

  “No, it’s not true,” he said, leaning to the side, probably seeking their food.

  His avoidance made her grin. “You’re a pirate!”

  Reaching for her again, his grip was softer this time, but no less deliberate. “Would you be careful screaming that out?” Wow, she was in the presence of a real live pirate. He must have seen how it excited and amused her because he exhaled. “You know that means I’m a felon, right? You’re grinning that you’re on a date with a criminal. Pirates are criminals.”

  “Well, yeah, but not really,” she said.

  Their food was brought over and they both settled back in the booth. Swain ordered more beer though Jockey’s was still sitting there untouched. Sassi pushed the first-mate’s bottle toward the captain.

  “What do you know about the job you took with Eros?” he asked, eating a dozen fries in one mouthful.

  Sassi was still chewing on one when she realized she had no idea what they were going to do. “Are we going to steal something? Hold someone to ransom?”

  There was almost a crooked smile on his flat lips when he began to cut into his steak. “Could be. You never know with us pirates. Are you ready to go to prison for me, Waif?”

  He could be making fun of her. Sassi ate another fry, then picked one up to point it at him. “No, I don’t think so. You wouldn’t have called Karen if you were going to do something illegal. Who calls a temp agency to fill jobs on their pirate gang? There must be some corner of the dark web that caters to that.”

  “Dark web?” he asked, poking the condiments at the end of the table. “What do you know about the fucking dark web?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “My brother sold weed on it for a while.”

  “Helluva criminal background you have,” he said. “You lie to the agency about your criminal record? I asked for someone without one.”

  “Double standard, don’t you think?” she asked, trying her steak. “If you have a criminal background, should you judge others who have one?”

  “Do you have a record?”

  “No,” she said. “And, I don’t think I know anyone who could match being a pirate… You should advertise that, you’d get so many women…”

  “I do fine,” he said, with a lump of steak in his cheek. “Advertising it is not great for my legit business.”

  “Tell me what happened.”

  The steak was good, tender and juicy. People might judge a non-descript place like this from the outside. They’d walk right by thinking it was lowbrow. But, it didn’t matter to Sassi that there were no tablecloths or that there were spider webs in the corners and dirt on the floor. The food was good, it was warm, and right now at least, no one was causing trouble.

  “I don’t like talking about it,” he said. He’d already finished his steak and stabbed into Jockey’s to move it from the first-mate’s plate to his own. “You want some of this?”

  She shook her head. “No, I want to know how you became a pirate.”

  “And I said I’m not talking about it.”

  Inhaling, Sassi sat up straight. “Oh, come on, everyone wants to meet a pirate!” She deliberately raised her voice on that last vital word. “Meeting a pirate is hot! And a pirate would—”

  “Okay,” he said. “Pipe down. Fuck… you know how to get what you want, don’t you, Waif?”

  She grinned and leaned over the table. “So, come on then, tell me what happened.”

  “I was a dumb kid, a stupid teenager. My dad was old navy. He was discharged not long after I was born, so I kicked around the docks all my life as he tried to find work. Felt like I was always on some boat going somewhere. My buddies and me were on this fucking cheesy cruise boat, going from A to B. We talked our way on. Stowed away. We’d missed the tramp ‘cause my mate was hooked on a girl. Anyway, we got drunk thought it would be smart to dip the purse and hijack a lifeboat.”

  Her mouth fell open, this was a better story than she could’ve imagined. “No way.”

  Sassi wasn’t really sure what the purse was, the purser maybe? They robbed something anyway.

  “Plan worked great, ‘cept we somehow forgot we only had oars and the coastguard had engines, two of ‘em… I got two years.”

  This time when her mouth opened wide it was in a grin and she couldn’t contain her laugh. “I love that story! Is it true?” He nodded. “You did two years in jail? Like real jail?”

  “Juvenile.”

  Okay, so the jail part of the story wasn’t so great for him, but wow, what cojones it had taken for a kid to do that. “How old were you?”

  “Fifteen,” he said. “I pled guilty, there was no denying it. I was charged with theft on the high seas, mayhem and piracy… So yes, technically, and only very technically, I am a pirate.”

  Dropping her flatware to her plate, she relaxed, her hands curling around the bench on either side of her thighs as she admired him. “That’s hot… what did your dad say?”

  He was still eating, but frowned. “How’d you go from ‘that’s hot’ to my dad?”

  “Boys are all about trying to get their father’s approval in their teens,” she said, picking up a fry, then pushing her half-empty plate away. When Swain pointed at it with his fork, she nodded and he switched his empty plate up for hers. “They usually do that by rebelling and pretending not to give a fuck what their father’s think.”

  The captain tucked into her leftovers. “You think so?”

  “I have a brother, remember? He and my dad were always butting heads back then, and as the only girl in the house, it was a nightmare.”

  “Your dad raised you?”

  “My grandmother did. She tried her best to raise me as a proper lady… didn’t work out so great,” she said. “We had a perfectly respectable life while she was around holding everything together. But she died when Stuart was sixteen, I’d just turned fourteen. I was stuck in a house with two grieving males, both of who insisted they weren’t upset about losing her, and who turned their grief into acting like I needed some sort of Secret Service detail.”

  “You were overprotected?”

  Her rebellious phase had started young and hadn’t gone away in a hurry. “They tried their damndest, but I always had an answer or an excuse. My dad said my desperate need for independence and freedom would kill him one day.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “Dead.” That was a surprising enough truth that the captain stopped mid-chew. “Just over a month ago. His was the heart I broke.”

  “What happened to your mom?”

  Her mom was the only light in her life, when she showed up. “She’s out there, somewhere,” she said, picking at the corner of the label on her bottle. “My mom’s a free spirit. My name’s the only thing she ever gave me. She and my grandmother despised each other with a real venom. Well, I guess my grandmother hated my mom, I’m not sure my mom has any kind of negative emotion in her. She and my dad made a go of things for a while, but she split when I was four, she drifted in and out after that. We lived with my grandmother and she did the raising.”

  “Did you get along with her? Your grandmother.”

  “Oh, I rebelled to the max, even back then,” Sassi said, recalling some of the crazy things she’d done as a little person, really believing that she was making a statement. “I missed my mom and blamed my grandmother for sending her away… It was years before I found out the truth of what happened.”

  “What truth?”

  “That my mom wanted an excuse to split… sticking around in one place wasn’t her style.”

  “She should’ve tried a life at sea.”

  Somehow she’d forgotten where she was and who she was t
alking to. His mention of the ocean reminded her of reality.

  Sassi’s eyes darted up, then down. She sat up, drawing in a breath. “Shit, I’m sorry, Captain, I don’t usually talk so much… I don’t usually drink.” But, the beer couldn’t be to blame for her loose tongue because she’d drank less than half the bottle.

  “Talk all you want, I like to sail with people I can trust,” he said. “We never know when our lives are going to be in each other’s hands.”

  She wasn’t making life and death decisions, and doubted she’d ever be in such a position of responsibility. “I’m the cook.”

  “So my life’s in your hands every day. I should have Fidget start tasting my food,” he said and the curl at the corner of his lips made her relax more.

  When there was silence filling the space between their stare, they found themselves in a moment they might never get again.

  Sassi had to take advantage of it. “I want to say thank you.”

  “Thank me? For what?”

  “You didn’t have to take me on, you could’ve let me walk away. You knew nothing about me and I know nothing about sailing…”

  Picking up his bottle by the base, his smile seemed more knowing when he turned his attention to the room. “Yeah, I figured that out pretty fast,” he said. “You and your agent should get closer together. She told me you’d served in the Navy.”

  Okay, so that was an outrageous lie and could’ve got her in serious trouble. Yet, she laughed. “Oh, God, did she? I did tell her to say whatever she had to, but my phone was disconnected before I could call her back and then… there was just no time… I’m sorry she lied… but it wasn’t her fault, you shouldn’t let it influence your decision to use her agency in the future… Karen is a good person and I’m sure she’s done good work for you in the past and—”

  “I’ve never used an agency before, and hers was just the first in the Yellow Pages…”

  “Oh,” she said, a little deflated. Sassi took another drink.

  “But, if you’re the kind of person she has on her books, I’ll be calling her again if I need crew in the future.”

  There was that eye contact again.

  The captain changed into a different person on shore, or maybe it was the night that did it, because he’d been relaxed on the boat—oh, sorry, ship—before they came out. But, he clung onto his ability to switch on the bad mood at any second because he’d gotten mad fast after Jockey cut out on them.

  “She’ll never lie to you again, I promise I’ll talk to her when we get back.”

  Why did it seem he was so fascinated with her? “You got a connection with the temp agent? She your ex too?”

  “No,” Sassi said, exhaling a laugh. “My brother’s.”

  “Ah,” he said. “And, where is your brother?”

  Instead of telling the truth, or even a lie, she went with a joke. “He can’t cook,” she said. “And, he gets sick on a pedal boat, so he’d have been no use to you.”

  His smile warmed a fraction though it didn’t really get wider. “And he hits people with chairs… and deals weed.”

  “I’m not giving you the best impression of my family, am I?”

  “Can’t be any worse than mine,” he said. “I never knew my mom. My dad was a strict drunk who I spent most of my life trying to get away from or fighting. Jockey was more of a father to me. I used to go hide under his billet. For a long time, wherever he was going, I was going too… I got him in trouble more times than I can count. I never really got the point of stowing away quietly when I could be working for a crust.”

  “Must have been a hard life,” she said.

  “I had everything I needed,” he said. “My dad tried his best to make sure I got an education. When I did go to school they were always the best. I tried to stick it for a while, but I was always happier on the water… and there’s a lot to learn out there.”

  Sassi had only spent a day on the water and she was getting that impression already. “I can’t wait to find out.”

  Scooping both hands around his bottle, he pushed all the plates to the edge of the table, and when the waitress came to clear them, he ordered more beer, though Sassi was still nursing her first. “You’ve really never been out on the water before?” She shook her head. “Did you feel sick today?” Again, she shook her head. “It’s good that you don’t get seasick.”

  “Yeah, ‘cause then how could I feed you?”

  “That and it dehydrates you, so you can get really sick.”

  That didn’t sound like fun. “I lost my balance a few times.”

  “Don’t worry about that, you’ll get your sea-legs in time. We’re not in hurricane season, the weather should be just fine. I’ll try to keep her as steady for you as I can.”

  “Hurricanes, oh God…”

  “It’s ten days, sailing through the Caribbean and down the South American coast, some of the most beautiful waters there are… you’ll be okay. Me and the crew will keep you safe… If you want to jump ship, now’s the time to—”

  “No,” she said. “No, I’m looking forward to this. What happens at the end of the ten days?”

  “We’ll spend about the same amount of time diving the wreck, surveying whatever’s left down there, and building an inventory, then we sail back the way we came.”

  Karen had said that Swain ran a salvage company. “Diving the wreck? You’re going to salvage something?”

  “We’ll pick up a few things to bring back for the client, just as proof we found the wreck. But we have to figure out what’s down there. We’ll take pictures, map the site, do all the recce work, then we come back and negotiate a price for salvage. The client wants his cargo back, but we want our cut. Until we know what’s down there, we won’t settle on a fee.”

  It was more complicated than she’d thought, but made sense. “And after you agree on a price?”

  “We sail back down and do the job.”

  “How long does that take?”

  “Depends what’s down there… and the weather, tides, currents, the exact location, lots of factors. They affect the price too, but we could be looking at a big payout. The client is eager to get the salvage underway.”

  “There’s so much to think about.”

  “There sure is,” he said. “Now you know about what I do, tell me how you got so good in the galley.”

  SEVEN

  Sassi didn’t notice the number of people in the bar increasing as the hours passed; she didn’t notice the music getting louder. She did learn more than she’d ever thought she’d need to know about running a salvage operation and diving wrecks in all kinds of different conditions.

  She also revealed more about her business and her trade than she’d ever discussed with anyone else. The captain hadn’t been pissed off that she was a pastry chef. In fact, he seemed impressed that she’d run her own business so successfully for so long.

  Captain Swain said it explained a lot, but that as long as she could cook regular chow, he had no problem with her making sweet treats for the crew.

  When he explained how meal times were often the highlight of the crew’s life, she felt better about her ability to treat them with things that they might not have expected to get.

  The captain’s arm swept over the table and he caught her hand in a gesture that seemed almost accidental. “I’ve got to hit the head, you okay here a minute?” She nodded. They had drunk a lot of beer. He’d had twice as much as she had, or more, but he didn’t seem drunk at all. “Anyone comes near, you scream for Aruba, and I’ll be here, okay?”

  Her lips twisted, he was referring to what she’d said to him in her cabin. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

  “You love saying that,” he muttered to himself and actually took her knuckles to his lips for a brief second as he stood to stride off to the bathroom.

  What a surprise! The captain could hold a conversation, more than that, he was interesting to talk to and a good listener. The man’s first impulse had been to scare her of
f when they met, but now, he was listening as she spoke. Learning about her. Sharing.

  “Cozy over here.”

  The accented masculine voice startled her. Pello, one of Dario’s men, sank onto the bench at her side. “Go away, Pello,” she said, sliding away.

  He advanced on her, pinning her in with one hand on the back of the bench and the other on the tabletop. Pushing closer, he moved down the bench toward her, forcing her to pin herself against the wall. “You’re Dario’s puta.”

  “I’m Dario’s nothing,” she said, forgetting for a minute to shrink, she shoved his shoulders. “And you tell him to keep his hounds off my ass. What the fuck are you doing following me?” And how had he managed it when she’d come by sea?

  “I’m looking for your dog of a brother,” Pello said, sneering at her with disgust all over his face. “I come here to this dirty hole looking for him and I find you.”

  There was nothing she could do to escape. He’d blocked her in, and was squashing her to the wall. She couldn’t scream, couldn’t get away, couldn’t—

  Pello’s disgust cleared to surprise when he was hauled away and thrown against the post at the end of the bench. Sassi was still sort of dazed by the sudden move too, but got with it when she saw that a furious Swain was the one who’d got hold of Pello.

  She pounced onto her feet on the seat and darted down to lunge over Pello, literally catching Swain’s fist before he could land a punch.

  “No!” she screamed. “Don’t hit him, Captain!”

  “Capitan,” Pello said, the weedy guy was probably in fear for his life, but if Swain hurt a man so close to Dario, he’d be put on a list no one wanted to be on. “What is it that you captain?”

  “Nothing,” she said, leaping off the bench to squeeze herself between the men. “He captain’s nothing, it’s just a nickname. He’s nothing. Please, Pello… you don’t want to do this.”

  The last time she’d felt fear this strong was when her father’s hand had grown limp in hers. It was the moment she’d known her daddy was gone. Her hands were shaking and she swallowed hard, but it made no difference to the lump in her throat.