Jeff Abbott - Black Joint Point

‘No. It offers choices. You can choose to let us go. Piracy is a federal offense.’

‘Piracy?’ Danny giggled, a short, sharp laugh. ‘Tell me, do you think of us as pirates? Because I love it, Claudia. You’ve made my day.’

‘Let us go, right now, and-’

The door opened again.

‘She behaving?’ Gar’s voice, low. ‘Or you just copping a feel?’

‘Save your crudity for your friend,’ Danny said.

‘I want to have a private chat with her,’ Gar said.

‘Private about what?’

‘Don’t get your dick in a knot, man. I’m not gonna hurt her. Go on.’

Claudia stayed very still.

‘You don’t tell me what to do,’ Danny said. ‘You work for me.’

‘You want to know where these goods are, right? I can get her to tell without hurting a hair on her head. If she knows. Just give me a minute. You need to go help with Ben talking to Stoney.’

The bedsprings creaked as Danny stood up. ‘I’ll be back later, Claudia. You’ll be fine,’ he said. And then she heard the door shut.

A thick fingertip cruised along her scalp, parting her hair. The fingernail, hard and uneven, gouged into the tender nape of her neck.

‘You fought us,’ Gar cooed. ‘A little fishy like you. That pisses me off.’

‘Sorry.’

Gar daubed his finger at the blood drop on her neck, smearing it along her flesh like finger paint. Slow. Gentle. Suddenly he tangled his fist in her hair, slamming her head hard against the bed’s headboard. Her teeth knocked together, her jaw, already bruised, throbbed. She winced but didn’t cry out.

‘You don’t mess with us, okay, fishy? You don’t fight us. You don’t talk unless you’re talked to. Understand?’

‘Yes,’ Claudia said.

The end of the bed creaked under his weight. He took hold of her bare foot – she’d lost her sandals during the fight – and put a pincer grip on her little toe. ‘I don’t like your answers, I break it. Where’d you learn to fight?’

‘A defense class at the community center,’ Claudia lied. She suspected the correct answer – the Corpus Christi Police Academy – might land her over the railing with a bullet in her head.

Gar squeezed her toe. She held her breath. ‘Where’s your purse?’

Oh, God. Her police department ID. She didn’t have her gun in her purse – she was on vacation and hadn’t felt the need to carry today while fishing – but her badge and ID were in the purse, in a separate wallet from her driver’s license, credit cards and cash.

‘I don’t know. Around. I don’t think I’ve got five bucks in my wallet.’

She heard him stand and walk around the stateroom. She couldn’t remember where she had put her purse. When Ben had given her a tour of the boat, she’d set it down along the way. They were in the larger master stateroom. Outside it was a short hall leading to a small guest stateroom with bunk beds and a head, then the small stairs leading to the main salon. At the forward end of the Jupiter, more steps leading down to the small galley, then a stateroom, also with bunk beds, a head, and a separate shower. She figured the purse was either in this stateroom or in the salon where they kept Ben.

Drawers opened and closed; she heard an unzipping that filled her mouth with sour-tasting fear until she realized it was the zipper on her purse. Keys jingled – the keys ringed to her wallet.

Did he see the ID? He’d kill her if he knew she was a cop, she had no doubt.

A wallet snapped open. ‘Claudia Marisol Salazar of 55 Mimosa Street, apartment 23, Port Leo, Texas,’ Gar said. He’d found her driver’s license. She waited for him to spot and open her police ID wallet, say, Oh shit, and close his fingers around her throat.

Instead Gar pressed his thick, wide hand into the small of her back. ‘So this nice fancy boat, it stays at Stoney’s house?’

‘Yes.’

‘Anyone else there besides Stoney? Staff for the rich man?’

‘I think there’s a housekeeper who comes when asked. No one living there but Stoney and Ben.’

He grabbed her little toe again, gave it a hard twist. ‘Lying’s gonna cost you.’

‘I’m not lying,’ she said. ‘Look, piracy is a federal offense. Adding homicide to it isn’t going to help you.’

He snapped the bone of her little toe and she screamed into the pillow.

‘Did I fucking ask for a lecture from you?’

‘I’m sorry,’ she managed to say, the pain sharp as a blade.

He released the broken toe, tickled and kissed the bottom of her foot, took hold of the fourth toe. ‘I tell my buddy maybe I like you real good, maybe I want to spend a little quality time with you, he’ll stop laughing so much. He’ll go green with envy. He gets real jealous if I take an interest in a pretty girl like you. He’ll break every bone in your body, starting with the rest of your toes and then the fingers and working up to ribs, collarbone, major organs. And no one out here to hear you scream. So don’t lecture me.’

Claudia bit the pillow. The stateroom door opened again.

Danny said, ‘I told you to leave her alone.’ Sounding a little uncertain, trying to be in command.

‘I didn’t do nothing,’ Gar said.

‘Her nose is bleeding. I won’t tolerate you hurting her.’

‘I got something for you to tolerate. She’s his puss, man. She’s no better than he is. Price of the choices you make.’

‘Did he hurt you, Claudia?’ Danny asked.

Claudia hesitated for a moment before choosing her answer. ‘I tried to kick him and he dissuaded me.’

‘You’re not to hurt her,’ Danny said, ‘unless she tries to escape. And by escape, I don’t mean she mouths off at you or you feel like dishing out fists. You understand?’

‘I don’t see no captain’s hat on your head,’ Gar said. His weight pressed against her ribs, his erection poking into her thigh.

‘Be a good girl,’ Gar whispered in her ear, ‘and I’ll keep myself on a leash. Be bad, and I’ll play with you. For hours on end.’ Gar made a wet kiss against her ear. Then he left the room and shut the door.

Silence. Danny must have walked out with him.

Claudia lay in blindfolded darkness, shivering. They’re not gonna let us go. They’re not. Even if Stoney pays this ransom. They knew this is Stoney’s boat. Knew he was supposed to be out on the water today. Didn’t know he canceled. How?

A journal. A jewel. Treasure hunters. Crazy, but she could not worry about that now. The only thing that mattered was getting help or getting the hell out of here.

So how are you going to get you and Ben out of this?

The kidnappers had the guns but they quarreled among themselves, improvising since Stoney wasn’t here, no backup plan in place. So they were being stupid and she would be smart.

Claudia twisted around on the mattress and managed, by dragging her head down the bedding, to nudge the chamois-cloth blindfold a hairbreadth off her eyes. Again. Again. She could see below the blindfold’s edge. The stateroom was dark. Thin light filtered in from the oblong portholes above the bed, cut into rods of black and white by half-opened shutters. On the walls were reproductions of old sailing maps and a framed set of antique coins. Next to the closet hung another yellowed print – a portrait of a man with flowing black locks, wearing a rakish hat and a blue nautical jacket, in an arrogant stance. The print was vaguely familiar, something she’d seen in a tourist bar in Port Leo, but she couldn’t place it. She looked at the picture as a focus point, took calm, steadying breaths.

First get loose.

She rolled across the bed. Her hands were bound in front of her and by lying on the bed’s very edge and inching forward, she was able to reach and slide open a side table drawer. No gun, no pocketknife, nothing inside but a weathered paperback and a self-winding watch. The bookshelf, a small one, didn’t even hold a heavy bookend. A closet stood on the opposite wall but she remembered it only held clothes and hangers. She rolled up to kneel and look out the rectangular portholes above the bed; the stateroom was directly beneath the salon, where she and Ben had fished in luxury, and below the portholes was a small swim platform.