Melissa Good - Terrors of the High Seas

Andrew issued a moderately cordial greeting. “’Lo.”

Alalau gave him a brief nod. “Sir.” He turned his attention back to Kerry. “Might I ask, Ms. Stuart, if you and your friend Ms.

Roberts could find a moment to chat with me later on today?

Perhaps over lunch?”

Uh oh . Kerry didn’t think they were in trouble. She figured criminals weren’t invited to lunch, even in the Virgin Islands but given all that had happened so far, one never knew. “Um…sure,”

she agreed cautiously. “I’m sure that would be no problem at all.”

“Excellent.” The captain smiled and bobbed his head at her.

“Please, enjoy your breakfast. Unfortunately, the power will most likely be out for the rest of the day, but we are working on restoring it.” “Thanks.” Kerry watched him walk off. “Hm.”

“Nice feller,” Andrew drawled.

“Very nice.” Kerry sighed, dumping a last few items into their basket and snagging a Thermos of juice. “C’mon. Let’s go wake Dar up and tell her the social agenda’s changed.”

They left the increasingly crowded lobby behind them.

THE CELL PHONE buzzed near her head and Dar jerked out of a deep sleep, reaching for it blindly in the darkened room. “Buh.”

She captured the instrument and opened it, her head pounding as her body tried to wake itself. “Yeah?”

“Dar!”

Alastair’s voice was so normal, it almost hurt. “Morning, Alastair.”

“Are you okay?”

Dar opened an eye and rolled it around, taking in her surroundings. “Yeah, I’m fine. It was just a damn storm.”

“Storm? What the hell are you talking about? I got a call last night saying you got held up or something,” Alastair said, his voice audibly upset. “What the hell is going on out there, Dar?”

Where do I start ? Dar cleared her throat. “Hang on and let my brain boot,” she told him. “I was sleeping.”

A momentary silence preceded his exclamation of surprise. “At ten a.m.? Good heavens. Let me get my diary.”

Terrors of the High Seas 343

“I am supposed to be on vacation,” Dar said in a peeved tone.

“In case that slipped your mind.” She rubbed her eyes and tried to shake some sense into herself. “First off, I didn’t get held up.”

“Well, that’s sounds like a good thing.”

“My hotel room got broken into.”

“That’s terrible!”

“But they didn’t take anything, so the inn just moved us to a bigger room.”

“Well, that’s not so bad,” Alastair said. “Jesus, Dar, you had me worried. I’ve got a lot of company resources sitting out there in the islands at the moment.” He cleared his throat. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded… Well, hell’s bells, I don’t know what it sounded like.”

Should I tell him about the rest ? “We ran into a couple of snags out here, matter of fact.” Dar admitted. “There was some trouble out on the water.”

“Uh oh,” her boss said. “Maybe that’s what he was talking about. Your man Mark sounded half nuts.”

“Mark? What the hell is he calling you for? Does he think he’s my mother all of a sudden?” Dar snapped.

“No, she called me last time,” Alastair answered benignly.

“Apparently Mark picked up something on a police record, and wasn’t happy about it.”

“So he called you??”

”Well,” Alastair cleared his throat, “he’s a direct report to Kerry. Who is a direct report to you. And you’re a direct report to me. Who else would he have gone to?”

Bah. Mother hens . Dar scowled as she gazed up at the ceiling.

“Well, we ran into a couple of my father’s old buddies and had to help them out of a jam. That, and the storm is currently making my life miserable,” she said. “Everything okay there?”

“Here?” Alastair’s voice dripped with surprised innocence.

“Oh, sure. Right as rain, Dar. No problems here.”

Uh huh. Can’t wait to see my inbox. Dar stared at her phone, then sighed. “Great. Guess I’ll talk to you next week when I get back in the office then, huh?”

“Sure, sure. You two having a good time otherwise?” Alastair asked. “Getting some rest and relaxation?”

“Well,” Dar’s ears picked up the sound of footsteps approaching, “right now I’m flat on my back, and you woke me at ten. What does that tell you?”

“Good to hear, Dar. Good to hear. You take it easy, and try to keep out of trouble for the rest of your trip, hmm?”

“I’ll try,” Dar said. “Talk to you later.” She folded the phone and set it aside as the door opened, admitting Kerry and the unmistakable bulk of her father. She felt mildly embarrassed at 344 Melissa Good being caught in bed. “Ah…hi.”

“Morning, sleepyhead,” Kerry teased as she closed the door, then set down the basket. “I figured you might be up by now.”

“Only by the grace of Alastair,” Dar admitted. “Mark told him we were having problems.”

Kerry stopped and stared at her. “What?”

“Yeah. Hundred bazillion dollar corporation being run by two nanny worrywarts.” Dar laid her arm across her eyes, wincing at the dull headache. “Hi, Dad.”

“Hey there, Dardar.” Andrew crouched down by the bed and patted her arm. “You doin’ all right?”

“Mmpfh,” Dar grunted. “Any chance of getting some fresh air in here?”

Kerry walked to the windows and opened the blinds. A portion of the wooden covering had been apparently been removed by the groundskeepers earlier that morning, and light flooded in. She unlatched the windows and pulled them open, rewarded when a gust of air puffed back her hair. “How’s that?”

“Better.” Dar still had her eyes closed. “What’s going on outside?”

“No power, grumpy tourists, muggy weather, and the police want to have lunch with us.”

Dar’s eyes popped open and she hitched herself up onto her elbows. “Us?”

“Us,” Kerry confirmed.

“Bck.” Dar laid down and pulled the covers up over her head.

“Yeah,” Kerry agreed ruefully. “That about covers it.”

Chapter

Twenty-eight

THE BOAT ROCKED gently under Kerry as she jumped on board the Dixie . Dar was still on the dock, examining the mild damage the hull had taken, and Kerry dropped into one of the chairs on the stern to wait for her. The sun was out and the air was clearing of its moisture, the light breeze idly lifting strands of her hair. She leaned back and looked around the marina, wincing at the small boats tossed up onto the seawall and the debris floating in the water.

The marina itself had taken little damage; its concrete docks had weathered the storm quite nicely, and provided protection to most of the boats sheltered inside it. Many of the boat owners were there checking out their crafts, and around the shore, crews were removing downed limbs and other debris.

Kerry felt oddly itchy. She’d realized on the walk down to the boat that she wanted, more than anything, to be gone from the island and away from the chaos their vacation had become.

“Um, hello?”

Kerry looked up, to find Bob’s unwelcome form standing on the dock. “Oh. Hello, there.”

Bob stuck his hands in his pockets. “I…um…” He cleared his throat. “Can we talk?”

“Do we have to?” Kerry refused to budge from her deck chair, forcing him to crane his neck to address her. “I think you said pretty much everything you needed to last night.”

He edged around closer to her. “Listen, I was just way out of my league, you know?”

“We weren’t?” Kerry rolled her head around to look at him.

“Getting involved with you almost got us and our friends killed.”