Page 141 of Hard Luck (Blackstone House)

“It’s a mystery to me,” Barbie said as she checked out a cut on his hairline. Apparently, he’d received a bump on the head at some point. Jon blamed Clint, and Clint blamed Witt.

Cole glanced at the girls again, as if he couldn’t quite believe they were real. Or maybe he was just checking out Barbie’s ass? Honestly, I wouldn’t have blamed him. She had the body of a cheerleader, and she knew it.

Was I jealous? No. I trusted both of them.

We were a team.

Speaking of teams, Priest was somewhere between the Bahamas and San Gallicano on a borrowed superyacht—the hardship—heading in our direction in case we needed any additional assistance. We didn’t. We had everything under control. I’d found my satellite phone undamaged in my nightstand drawer and used it to call Demelza, and although I couldn’t see her, I just knew she was rolling her eyes.

“Several million dollars’ worth of gold, you say?”

“The dead guy said there was a literal ton of it, so even based on a conservative estimate, we’re talking fifty million plus.”

“And it’s just lying there?”

“I understand a hurricane shifted the wreck a couple of years ago. Until then, it was hidden below the sand. Threeidiots set out on what, by rights, should have been a wild goose chase and turned to attempted murder when they found a fortune.”

On my brief foray into the water, I’d seen theSpanish Dancer’s bow sticking up from the seabed, camouflaged among the rocks that had probably led to the ship’s sinking. While Tulsa and Dice watched the prisoners, I’d free-dived with Cole to take a better look. The visible part of the ship included a hatch on what looked to be the forecastle, which the boys had pried open to access the lower decks. Before I ran out of air, I’d glimpsed jumbled piles in the gloom.

We knew now that Bart Huntley had been the diver who found the remains of theSpanish Dancer. Dr. Blaylock had identified his handwriting in the old journal. Huntley had bequeathed all of his notes to his old friend, and Clint had been helping to catalogue them when he’d found the cryptic note. He’d mentioned theSpanish Dancerto Jon, who’d come across stories of the ship in his studies, and then Witt got involved. Jon said Clint had resisted the idea until the divorce turned acrimonious, and then he’d decided to “stick it to the old man.” Jon’s words, not mine.

“Even idiots get lucky sometimes,” Demelza said.

“And unlucky. Don’t forget the drugs.”

“I won’t forget the drugs. This is going to earn us beaucoup brownie points with the San Gallician government.”

“Does everything have to be a trade with you?” I asked.

“That’s how the world works, my dear. That’s how the world works.”

Demelza performed her magic, and when we arrived back in the harbour on Emerald Shores, complete with the recoveredTide Pod, half a dozen cops were waiting there to greet us and take Clint and Jon off our hands. Dr. Blaylock was fretting over how to explain developments to his ex-wife, but that wasn’t my problem. I’d kept him alive. My involvement ended there. An ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital for a checkup, and everything else could wait until tomorrow.

CHAPTER 50

JEZEBEL

“Your house is so pretty,” Barbie exclaimed when we arrived at Cole’s home after the week from hell. It felt like forever since we’d left. “Look at the view.”

Dice ignored the view and sank into a chair in the living room. “I need a drink.”

Tulsa draped an arm across my shoulders. “So you found the holy grail?” Leave it to her to tackle the elephant in the room. “A man who tolerates your job as well as being hot, hot, hot?”

We’d done the introductions on the boat, out of earshot of Dr. Blaylock and the prisoners, and Cole had graciously offered everyone room and board for the night. He might regret it in the morning.

“You realise he’s right here in the room with us?”

She totally ignored that. “The two of you are so cute together.”

“I am not cute.”

“When Echo found you on the beach at the drug island, we were all rooting for you.”

Oh, fuck. “How much did you see?”

Tulsa leaned in close. “Well, we know Cole is circumcised, but man, he looks like a fun ride.”

“You’re a bunch of perverts.”

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