Page 48 of Wayward
Asliver of light comes from the room with Haley and the guys. Easton’s about to push open the door when I grab his wrist. With my other hand, I put a finger to my lips and raise my eyebrows. We don’t know if anyone else is in there.
He nods at me and checks. “Clear.” He pushes into the room.
“Let’s go,” I say.
Sam and Haley are sitting on the floor near a blanket with pillows under it that looks like someone could be sleeping under them.
“Where?” Dante asks from next to the window.
“The dock. Now.” I hold the door open and usher the three of them out into the hall with Easton and Zane. I remove the wad of paper Sam stuck in the lock and pull the door tightly shut. I hold the paper up to Sam before I put it in my pocket. “Let Holloway think we can walk through walls.”
Sam smiles.
“This way.” Zane beckons to Haley.
“Keep looking for cameras, and turn your face away if you see any,” Dante says.
I’m watching every limp Sam makes as we wind our way through the mansion. The damn thing has more flights of stairs than the nosebleed seats at Wrigley Field.
“I’m good. Keep going.” Sam lifts his chin at me.
We have to duck into what’s clearly a guest bedroom to avoid a trio of security who are moaning about the arrival of Ed’s men.
Haley’s got her hair wrapped up again, and we’re walking single file in the best formation we can. But we’re not going to fool anyone up close.
Zane holds open a door. From Esmeralda’s sketch, this should be the exit to the dock. Dante called it. There’s a line of cameras outside the door. No way they won’t know we’re on the way to the dock.
“Hustle but don’t run,” I say in a low voice. There’s a good hundred yards of landscape and beach before we hit the main dock with the boat shed on it. This dock isn’t falling apart but rather oiled teak. It’s long, but we make good time. Zane stops at the corner of the building before anyone can see us through the door. I move in front of him.
I use the hand signals we practiced back on the island when we were prepping for the pirates.
The others are lined up behind us, Haley and Sam in the rear. I turn the handle and open the door, but the boat shed is empty.
Fan-fucking-tastic. We need to get out of here before Ed’s men arrive. We’re extraordinarily lucky the boat shed doesn’t have any security guards or anyone in it. But it does have three fine-looking boats. Two of them are high up on lifts, and the last one is hanging as if it’s about to kiss the water. “Esmeralda said the keys were in a lockbox. But more importantly, we need to find the controls for the slings and hope the tides are right toput in. Then there’s getting around the guards on theRosewood. That’s something we can figure out next.”
“I’ve got the box and the keys to the Riva Aquariva Super.” Zane waves the keys at me. It’s a high-speed boat. Something out of a James Bond movie. You see assholes zipping around in them in Monaco, showing off for supermodels in bikinis. Cutting off yachts and crashing into sea walls because they’ve had one too many espresso martinis.
“No,” Sam and I say together. “Sunseeker.” It’s big enough that we could last for a while and take it far out to sea. They’re dependable, and I know them.
“Fine, I’ll get the Sunseeker keys,” Zane says, pivoting back to the box on the wall.
I head over to the Sunseeker. A crack sounds on the boat next to it. It’s the one not on the lift.Fuck. I turn in time to see the engineer of theRosewood. Turner, his engineers, had called him, the one I told about the battery leak. Turner and I lock eyes, and I have a few seconds to get to him before he radios for help.
But he throws his hands up in the air. “Don’t take the Sunseeker. It’s got a leaky fuel line. I’ve been trying to get it fixed, but I’m on theRosewoodforever and the guys here are lazy as fuck . . . Take this one.”
I blink because I’m not sure what just came out of his mouth.
“Are you dumb? I know you’re not dumb. You saved my damn engine room and lived on an island for a year. I’m coming dockside. Don’t go knocking me in the drink.” He jumps off the Axopar 37, nimbler than I expect him to be. The boat he’s just come off isn’t as fast as the Riva, and it’s smaller than the Sunseeker, but it’s big enough and will get us across to another island. It also doesn’t screamlook at me, I stole a boat. And that’s something we’re going to need.
“What were you working on?” I nod to the boat he just got off. Because this could be a trap where he knows we won’t makeit anywhere but will end up sitting ducks for Ed’s men to pick us off.
“Just routine stuff. I want to get to the fuel line on the Sunseeker, but with Ed’s guys coming in tonight, I want to go back to theRosewood.” His face twists in a way that saysfucking assholes. “You get on board. Controls to lower her the rest of the way are over there. I owed you. Now we’re even.”
It’s like we’re all frozen, and it takes us a minute to spring into action. Sam and Easton climb on board first.
“Grab that rope over there. I need you to tie me up. Oh, and you’ll want to go south. There’s a gun station to the north. And if you get caught, tell them you overpowered me. I’m just a little old guy.” Turner winks at Haley.
Haley hands him the rope, and he hands it back to her. “Well, if I have to be tied up, I’d like a pretty girl to do the tying.”
