Page 66 of Velvet and Valor
He grabs his crotch and my stomach twists in disgust.
“What are you talking about? And, I’d sooner be eaten by sharks,” I say.
He shrugs. “Don’t play stupid with me, there is nowhere to run now June. Where are the goods?”
The goods? I’m terrified to think about what Ricky will do to me before he realizes that I have no idea what he is talking about.
Ricky spins around, quick as a cat. He hooks his shoulders into the cash webbing.
I lean down to grab my stiletto and throw it with everything I can muster. It hits Ricky square in the eyebrow, and I watch as blood begins to leak from the gash the heel tore into it.
I make a break for it, rushing toward the staircase. Maybe I can find a cabin to lock myself in and keep myself safe from him?—
Ricky opens the throttle wide open. The powerful engines churn the ocean into a mountain of foam behind us. The front of the boat lifts entirely out of the water at a severe angle.
I tumble head over heels backward, slamming hard into the safety railing. Ricky punches the throttle and shoots us out over the waves. I struggle to hang on as we bounce violently over the crest of the waves.
“You fucking bitch,” he shouts. “You fucking whore, you’re dead.”
I wonder idly if pissing him off was really in my best interest, considering Ricky now doesn’t look so interested in getting information out of me. I try to pull myself into a seat. If I can secure my own crash webbing, I won’t be thrown into the ocean.
He throws the boat hard to starboard. One second, I’m clinging to the seats. The next, I spiral through the sky, nothing to hold on to but empty air.
I see the slope of a wave heaving up toward me like a moving blue wall. It slaps me like a giant hand. Water inundates my mouth and nose. I come up sputtering on the other side, desperately clawing to stay afloat. What’s with this life jacket? It’s not helping me float at all.
Ricky stares at me intensely, riding the waves like he was born to it. He’s watching me drown. This is what gets him off.
“Tell me what I want to know, June.”
The lifejacket feels like it’s lined with lead. It probably is. No wonder Ricky spent so much time choosing his jacket. He wanted to make sure I wore the lethal one.
I fumble around, trying to find the release. Hard, thin wire cuts into my fingertips. He must have made damn sure the jacket’s not coming off. Oh god, I can’t keep my head up for much longer. If I go down that's it.
“My uncle will be disappointed that I didn’t get the information he wanted, but your death? That will give him something to celebrate.”
“Please, I have information,” I scream as a big wave lifts me up a dozen feet in the air. “I have–”
I tumble down the back of the wave, engulfed by water. I twist and writhe around inside the wave, my hands bleeding as I pull at the wire. At last, I feel the vest give. I squirm out of the vest and swim hard to the surface.
The wave carried me a long way from Ricky. He spots me, bobbing to the surface, and steers the boat in my direction. At first, I think he’s just trying to get a closer look to see me drown. Then I realize, the prow of the ship cuts through the water on a collision course with my head.
What would Axel do? He’d probably dive under the boat and carve his way in with a knife or something. I can barely swim in a pool. Axel would say this is some wrath of Poseidon shit.
Death shoots toward me with unerring accuracy. Ricky leans over the controls, no longer harnessed in place. I guess he doesn't need seat belts if he’s not trying to murder his passengers with crazy driving.
I can’t believe I’m going to die like this. I wonder if they’ll make a movie about this whole affair? Who would they get to play me? Margot Robbie would be awesome, not that we look the least bit alike.
It’s not fair, I never did anything to Poseidon. It’s not like I burned one of his temples like Odysseus, or anything?—
It comes out of nowhere, a moving wall of water moving at odds with the rest of the current. A rogue wave, rearing up to over thirty feet in height. It slaps into the side of the sea sprite, engulfing it in a splash of white foam. The sea sprite disappears for a moment, but then reappears, bobbing up and down a dozen feet from me with the engine sputtering out.
I don’t see Ricky anywhere. Desperately, I swim for the yacht, grabbing hold of a ladder meant especially to retrieve swimmers.
The ocean calms itself as I clamber up to the bridge. Blinking the stinging salt out of my eyes, I survey the controls. I’m notcaptain Nemo, but I think I can make this work, especially after watching Ricky pilot the boat.
Not today, Poseidon. Not today.
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