Page 29 of Shadow of Death

“Yousureyou want to eat and drink with me?” I asked.

“If you were looking to kill me, you would’ve done it already.” He nodded toward the cookies. “They’re good, and there won’t be any left by tomorrow.”

I grabbed one.

“My missus always sends me off with them. Become a bit of a tradition, and now I won’t sail without them.”

“The missus” sure could bake. She could give Evangeline a run for her money.

“I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one with some secrets around here,” I said, a couple of bites in and the whiskey giving a boost to my tongue.

“No denying that.” He picked up his pack of cards, shuffling them so adeptly I wasn’t sure if he was secretly a card sharp. “You play?”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Friendly game of gin.”

“I’m in.”

He was about to deal when he put his hand on the cookie plate and said, “Hold your drink for a second.”

I did, and a second later the boat rocked enough that the plate of cookies would’ve taken a nosedive. As a sailor, he probably knew the signs before a large swell came. But how? He wasn’t even facing the window.

“It’ll stop soon,” he said, laying out more cards.

Just as he said, the boat seemed to settle down.

“How did you know that was going to happen?”

“We’ve all got our secrets,” he said, giving me a smile.

I wasn’t going to ask, but damned if I didn’t want to know.

“Go ahead, you can ask,” he said.

Could I? Would he look for answers in return? Appeasing my curiosity wasn’t worth the potential cost, not when I had to make it to Scotland and we had days to go.

“No. I don’t want to pry,” I said.

“My great-grandmother was a siren of the sea.”

A year ago, my knee-jerk reaction would’ve been that he was insane. Now? I completely believed him.

“I don’t know that much, but don’t they typically lure sailors in and then kill them?”

“Yes, but you never met my great-great-grandpa. He was something to behold.”

Meeting him? It wasn’t that shocking. “You speak as if you knew him.”

“I did. He only died a couple of years ago. He wasn’t immortal like a siren, but he lived a hell of a long time.”

“So that’s how you…” I shouldn’t be bringing this back to me. Nothing good would come from that, other than our getting tossed off the boat.

“How I knew you were different? Yep. Same with your man, Kicks. Although I think you’re the more ferocious of the two. Can’t quite put my finger on why, but just got that sense, and I never ignore it.”

“I don’t mean any harm.”

“Nah, I don’t think you do, or you wouldn’t be on this boat.”

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