Page 50 of Wayward
Fuck, that was a fantastic thing to say.
“Good idea. Get your ass back over here before Ed’s men arrive. Over.”
“Heard.” Sam has a faint Midwestern lilt. Maybe he should try his hand at acting. “You believe him? Turner, about the dock?” Sam calls down to me.
“Yeah, I do. This is one of his kids, and he’ll want it back in one piece. But he’s decent enough to pay back his debt to me . . . Or it could be a trap.”
“That’s what I was thinking too. I’m going to really open her up. It’ll be at least ten minutes before we’re out of visual range of the Rosewood. Go hang on.”
“Thanks.”
Below, Dante’s pulling things out of the cabinets while Zane lies on the back berth, staring out the window toward the bay. Easton and Haley are sitting at a small table at the bottom of the stairs. A table that converts to a berth.
Dante tosses a tin of crackers on the table. “Bingo, charts.” A book of charts thuds next to the tin. I’m at the charts as fast as I can be when Easton thumps his hand on the table.
“We are getting out of here. And when we do?I’m coming back and fucking killing Thayer Zambrano myself.” Easton’s eyes glow in the dim light.
Chapter 22
On the Water
Sam
Iyank the stocking cap down over my ears and point the boat to the south, out of the bay. Fuck me. We need to get away. There’s a drop in my stomach?I hate not knowing where I’m going. Squaring my shoulders, I push the throttle and really open her up. The twin Mercury outboard motors respond by lifting the bow up on the water. The damn 400’s are smooth. Overkill, but that’s standard for the Zambrano family.
Motors purring, we’re making good time, but good time to where? Do I trust the engineer? It could be a trap. But the bit I heard of what Turner said to Calvin? I’m going with my gut. And my gut says the guy wants his boat back. Either way, we need to get gone.
The full moon is a blessing and a curse. The Rosewood’s off my port bow. She’s big but getting smaller by the second. And the mansion sprawls up the hill off my starboard aft. But what concerns me more is whether there are any guards who might already know it’s not Turner taking the boat out for a test drive. A course is what I need?I flick on the chartplotter, changing itfrom the depth fishfinder to the GPS positioning and charts, and settle on the satellite view. A quick search along the moonlight dappling the hillside and I match the picture with the terrain. On the GPS, there’s a blurred-out section on the top of the hill, and that’s got to be the guard tower Turner told us about. It’s off the starboard aft as well, as it shrinks on the horizon over my wake. But we’re still in range. I’ve got it in my periphery, casually scanning it for any sign of movement. We’ve made it this far, and being sprayed with bullets isn’t on my list of things to do tonight.
My heart slams in my chest as I push the motors as hard as I can. The mantra of getting away from everything to do with the Zambranos rings through my head. Even with more distance from the guard platform behind us, I’m not comfortable. I switch from the GPS back to sea charts and plot a course to the resort, Treasure.
There’s a bang below deck, followed by a lot of loud jumbled words. I can’t make out what they’re saying. Easton’s, Dante’s, and Calvin’s voices collide in the wind.
I lean over and shout down into the forward cabin, “Keep it down!”
Zane’s head pops up. “Sorry, Cap. Apparently, this boat’s named after some mountain at Emily’s school. Easton’s losing his shit.” Zane’s head is only a few inches above the deck. “I’ll get them to quiet down. I was about to come up to ask you, what’s that light on the horizon? I’ve been watching it get bigger. Looks like a boat from the berth, but it’s hard to get a bearing on it.”
I glance over at Zane and then back to the horizon. Sure enough, there’s a dot of light coming straight at us from the big island. It’s on the course I’ve plotted to the resort. “If I were a gambling man, I’d say it’s the twenty of Ed’s men Esmeralda was talking about.”
There’s more shouting below.
Zane nods. “I’ll get them to be quiet.”
“Better yet. See if there’s anything we can defend ourselves with,” I say.
“Right, Cap.” Zane disappears below.
There’s a pit in my stomach?for the dot speeding toward us and for Zane reverting to calling me Cap. But the boat approaching quickly has to be dealt with first.
“Find anything?” I ask after a few minutes.
Dante comes up this time. “A fire extinguisher, a dive knife, and twenty cans of kidney beans.”
Calvin fills the rest of the stairs. “There’s the boat hook on the port side.”
“Dive knife and boat hook sound good,” I say.
“I still have a fairly good pitching arm,” Dante responds. “A can of beans to the side of the head can knock a guy out. Don’t ask me how I know.”
