HIGH TIDE (23 page)

“Briana had a gun?”

“Joy!” Naoki whined.

“Joy?”

“My girlfriend.” An aggravated hand flitted in the air.

Totally baffled, Nick nodded at Keo who was lumbering back across the deck. “Get the launch ready.”

One look at Nick’s face and Keo stopped in mid stride. He wiped the bottom of his huge aloha shirt against his face and turned back.

“Now, start again, Naoki. What does your girlfriend have to do with Briana?”

A squeal of tires was heard through the phone, and then Nick saw the spiral of dust as a green Volkswagen van braked halfway up the curb next to Naoki. Even from here Nick could hear the screech as the door swung open. A waif-like blonde emerged, crossing her arms with barely controlled patience.

“You
r girlfriend?” he asked into the phone.

“No!” Naoki shouted, but reached for the blonde’s outstretched hands as she nearly collapsed into him.

“That’s him,” Naoki stuttered to her. “That’s Nick out there on that boat. He-he’s on this phone.” He held the phone away from his face as if to authenticate it.

“Oh, thank God that number worked.” The young woman
cried. “I didn’t know what to do.  I really wanted to call the police.”

“You didn’t, did you?”

“No.”

“
Okay
,” Nick’s deep voice cut into the melee. It was arresting enough to cause Naoki to slap the cell phone back against his ear.

“Listen to me,” Nick began
. “Give me a twenty-second lowdown, and then tell me what direction they went.”

Naoki stared out across the water
.

“Briana wanted to come here. She was worried about
you
.”

The harsh ring of judgment
carried through before he hurried on. “We were about to get out of the car when she saw the gun. It was Joy. She told me that if I called the cops I’d be seeing Briana’s body wash up on shore.”

Jolting, Nick still battled the knowledge that Briana was here to find him
—or in her mind—to save him.

“They dragged Briana off to a motor boat, and that met up with a
bigger vessel that was waiting a few hundred yards off shore.” Naoki paused and lifted his hand to point at a shadow on the horizon. “That one. It all happened so fast, and now it’s so far away.”

Nick motioned to Keo and then tipped his head at the profile of a ship far off the starboard side. Keo gave a curt nod and hoisted up the launch before ambling into the cabin.

If anything happened to Briana—
No. 
He could not allow that thought to form. “And this Joy, she just let you go—let you just walk away?”

Even from this distance he could see
Naoki toy with his glasses. Dejected, Naoki muttered. “She said something about ‘
old time’s sake
.’”

Glaring at that ominous
contour in the distance, Nick had a pretty good idea of its destination. There was a zeal in the eyes of their captor last night. It was the biting hunger of greed. Nick was certain they would return to the site of their unfinished business, and if they happened to be caught, Briana was their trump card.

Aware of the silence on the other end, Nick looked towards shore to see the couple standing side by side staring back at him. If they were waiting for a thumbs-up, it wasn’t coming. They
sought him out as if he was a miracle worker.
Hell, he was just a man
. A man terrified over the safety of his woman.

It was a struggle to achieve the confidence in his tone that they expected. “One hour,” he instructed. “Stay here. If Briana or myself have not contacted you within an hour—then you go to the police.”

“But—”

Nick’s upheld hand curtailed Naoki’s outburst. In the distance he saw their mutual nod of compliance.

Without a backward glance, Nick turned and vaulted into the cabin, swinging his arm in an arc, prompting Keo to kick up the speed.

Desperat
e, Nick gripped the console. They had to reach that vessel.

They
had
to reach it.
 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Gripping a pair of binoculars, Nick leaned against the balustrade and cursed a horizon dotted by tourist crafts and hulking freighters
—all obstacles in his quest to view their target.

Briana
.

T
ortured by images now seared in his mind, he saw her reclined against the pillows, one arm tossed carelessly above her head. A spill of golden hair fanned around her like a sunburst. She smiled and reached for him, offering him a home in that tender refuge.

Glare from the sun cast brilliant spokes across the rippled surface, each flash causing a momentary spell of blindness. He squinted against the assault and shifted the lenses to another patch of sea. Sp
eckles of light marred his vision to the point he was sure it was an illusion, but he swore he detected the ship not far off their port side.

In the subtle purr beneath his feet he felt the
Inquiry
swing its wide berth, and realized that Keo made the same observation from his perch on the bridge.

Uttering a mantra of, “Come on, come on,
come on
,” Nick urged the cutter to move faster.

How did I discount these pirates? How did I let Briana go this morning?

Part of him wanted to berate Briana for being so reckless.  Granted, there was no way he would have been able to rein her in today—
or any other day for that fact.
She was industrious, determined,
sexy as hell
, and she had worked her way into his heart. She had delved deep into his soul and not been seared by his scorn. She had survived the resentment.
She had conquered it.

He couldn’t lose her
.

“Keo! Can we catch them?”

***   

Secured on deck by a rope fastening her to the rail, Briana sat rigid atop a vinyl-padded bench and eyed the f
izzing trail of their wake. She had made great strides with Nick last night in battling her fears, but now the angry spray was a familiar adversary. It pursued her, lying in wait, ready to stake its claim.

So engrossed was she with the water, she barely acknowledged the activities of the crew as they geared up in their black diving suits. Joy approached, her lithe figure sheathed in black Neoprene. A snorkel and a mask dangled around her neck.

“That’s right. You don’t like the water, do you?”

Briana glared at the woman
. Ignoring the bait, she returned her attention to the sea, trying to look beyond the shadowed depths, towards the horizon. For a moment she allowed herself refuge from anxiety by reminiscing about last night. In Nick’s embrace she harbored no fears.

Here, I feel doomed.

“You fascinate me. You come across as this powerful businesswoman, yet you’re afraid of something as innocent and beautiful as the ocean. Want to tell me why?”

“Not particularly,” Briana mumbled, keeping a wary eye on the actions of Joy’s cohorts before she volleyed, “Want to tell me why you sent me that envelope?”

“Well,” Joy drawled and tossed her lustrous mane.

For a woman who had epitomized the
portrayal of a recluse for Naoki and his family, Joy seemed to thrill in the limelight of her role as captor.

Interrupting Joy’s fervor, however, was the sud
den emergence of the Mexican Briana recognized from last night. Sinewy arms lugged an oxygen tank, but he paused in mid-task to frown at her. Beneath damp bangs loomed a fresh, jagged abrasion.

My handiwork.

Just the sight of him set her to trembling, but she clamped her hands onto the rim of the bench and sat ramrod straight. With the aid of the sun, she was better able to analyze his features. His cruel countenance actually seemed a product of nature. Black eyebrows rode low over narrow eyes to give him a perpetual scowl. He was thin, but it was a wiry weave of muscles—a combination she didn’t care to underestimate.

“There isn’t any time to fraternize, Harare,” he called to Joy.
 

The motors were cut, and with that cessation of sound, the hungry protest of a spiraling seagull
rang from above.

The Mexican jutted his chin in Briana’s direction, but directed his command at Joy. “Have her ready
. We’re about to lower the explosives.”

His leer grew when he detected the flicker of
panic in Briana’s eyes. Tapping the scratch on his skull, his lips thinned. “Thought you were pretty smart last night, didn’t you? Thought you got the upper hand? Guess you thought wrong.”

He stepped forward and brushed a finger that smelled of rubber to her cheek. “I’m banking on that boyfriend of yours
showing up to rescue you so that I can,
ummm
—kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. You heard and learned too much last night.”

Briana jerked away from his touch. Her eyes flashed a challenge. “I learned enough to be curious
—not enough to be killed. And if my
boyfriend
does show up, what of the Police, the Coast Guard—when he brings them, are you going to kill everyone?”

A garish smile ripped the stark plane of his face. “I
’m pretty certain he will come alone, but if he doesn’t—” the man shrugged, “—with all the explosives we have packed downstairs, we’ll be able to destroy a small army.” Cocking his head he made a tsking sound, “Oh, you environmental freaks won’t like that, will you?”

“
I’m pretty sure it’s more than just us
environmental freaks
that would like to ensure that you don’t blow up the island. Whatever it is that you’re after, isn’t there a better way?”

“No.
” He waggled his finger. “No, there isn’t. Truth is—what we’re looking for is too big to slip past inquisitive eyes, so we have to ensure all those eyes are blinded. Temporarily, or permanently—so we are going to need a proportional distraction.”

“A Spanish Galleon,” Briana recited coldly, satisfied when the Mexican’s face registered shock. “You’re willing to kill others, most likely yourself too, all for a pipedream? For old folklore?” She wrinkled her nose in disdain. “Are you a fool?”

Shrewd eyes narrowed, calculating her. “I
knew
you were watching us. I guess I underestimated you. That was my mistake. But you, Miss Holt, have just sealed your fate.”

“
Harare
!”

Joy’s head snapped at his commanding tone.

“Untie her and get her ready. Keep that gun at her head. If she moves, kill her.”

As if it gave him a sense of power, the man snaked his arm around Joy’s waist and hauled her to his hip to partake in a kiss that looked more like a mauling. When he was through, his head rose and his triumphant sneer narrowed on Briana.

Joy took a moment to compose herself, and mechanically swiped her hair back into place. Before the transformation to cool efficiency was complete, Briana detected a look of revulsion in the woman’s eyes.

“What power does he hold over you?” Briana whispered after he left.

That solemn green glance considered Briana for a moment, and then Joy jolted the safety on her automatic weapon, leveling it on Briana’s neck. “No one has control of me. Not even, Chavez.”

The nip of steel against her throat made Briana gag, but she persisted. “Then why the envelope? Why did you want me to know what you were going after?”

A long silence was filled by the steady splash of water against the hull as Briana believed that her question would go unanswered.

Joy reached for the ropes that bound Briana to the rail and tugged forcefully, enough to really hurt.

“Chavez is changing.”

As soon as the lanky Mexican disappeared below deck, Joy’s touch gentled somewhat. “When we first learned of the trek of the
Oro Francisco,
and the fact that it never made it to Guam from its origin port of Acapulco in 1675—we were all excited about the historical ramifications. There had been rumors, even from the mouth of Captain Cook himself, that when he discovered Hawaii he saw European influence on the islands. Spanish influence, to be more exact.”

A keen gaze swept the ocean. “If that galleon sank off the coast of Hawaii, and its crew survived to cohabit with the natives, it changes the scope of the island’s history.
That
is what fascinated me,
that
is what drew me into this project.”

The bite of the rope slackened, but Joy pressed the muzzle of the gun against Briana’s collarbone just to remind her who was in charge.

“When we originally acquired the map,” Joy continued, “we tried legal measures to secure a permit to dive the site, but we were rebuked by the government and sent away. That was when Chavez changed.” Her smile was strained. “Well, that, and the rumor that the
Oro Francisco’s
cargo was overloaded with currency for trade.”