Mastered by His Touch-Complete Box Set (25 page)

I sat there and cried. I don't remember crying before, unless I was faking it for a job. This was real.

When my father died, I didn't cry. When the social worker told me that my mother had died, I didn't cry.

But for these two beautiful people I cried.

No greater wrong had ever been committed.

I didn't want to go on. I wanted to die right there with them.

Maybe I will. Maybe I'll just sink my little dinghy and drown. I deserve it.

Then I heard something. Crawling out from the companionway was little Kiri.

She's alive!

"Kiri!" I shouted.

She looked at me with intense fear. She was looking around like she was trying to find her parents. Did she see them get shot?

At least the bodies are gone. I wouldn't want her to see that.

I have to rescue her, I said to myself. I have to save this little girl.

"Kiri, over here!" I shouted.

She looked at me blankly. Normally she was very expressive, but she was apparently in a state of shock or something. Don't blame the poor little thing.

I rowed harder, fighting the waves, until I was alongside the big boat.

I reached out to grab the rail of the bow, but it almost pulled me under. The yacht sank a few feet more.

Kiri climbed to the tip of the bow, the only part that was above water now.

She was only about three feet from me. I stood up to try and grab her, but quickly realized I can't stand on this damned thing without tipping it over.

If she could just reach out to me...

"Give me your hand, Kiri!" I said.

But she just sat there and stared.

What the fuck? Why isn't she grabbing my hand? Doesn't she know the boat is going down?

"Give me your hand!"

The dinghy was drifting backward. I rowed madly to stay close to her, then I reached out again.

The big boat took a huge turn downward. A wave came up and smashed the little girl in the face, but she held on.

"Kiri, grab my hand!"

Dammit, she isn't going to grab my hand! She's just going to stare at me and die!

"Kiri, you've got to take my hand  now!"

I looked deeply into her eyes, my hand only a foot from her now. Finally, she reached out and took my hand. I yanked and pulled her over onto the dinghy.

With a large cracking noise and a final plop, the large yacht sank beneath the waves.

"It's okay, Kiri," I said as I hugged her. "It's going to be all right. You're safe now. I won't let anything happen to you, I promise."

Chapter 7

I awoke with a start, gasping.

"It's okay," said the woman with red hair. "You're all right."

I sat up fast, hitting my head on a beam.

"Oh, you poor dear," said the woman, "that's the last thing you needed. We're on a sailboat so the ceilings are low in here. Be careful."

"Where am I?" I said, as I nursed my head. The words didn't come out right, though. I didn't recognize the sound of my own voice.

The woman handed me a glass of water. I drank it down in two seconds flat. Best water I ever tasted.

She filled the glass again. Another guzzle.

I felt a wave of nausea hit me. My stomach had been empty for days, so the sudden onslaught of water sent it reeling.

"That's enough for the moment," she said. "You'll just throw up if you have too much at once. Just lay back and I'll give you some more in a few minutes."

I kept trying to speak, but realized it was useless. I lay back on the bed in the small stateroom and closed my eyes.

I'm not sure how much time had passed, but there she was again with another glass of water. This time, I got up without hitting my head and drank it down.

"Thank you," I said. Ah, there's my voice. "Kiri. The girl who was with me. Where's the girl?"

"She's okay," she said. "She's in shock but she's alive. You're both going to be all right. We're going to call the authorities to send a medical transport out to get you, but we're having some trouble with the radio."

"No! Please, no. Don't do that. We'll be fine."

I didn't mean to be so emphatic. That wasn't good. That's going to alarm her. But the last thing we need is the French authorities. I'm probably wanted for the murder of the Huangs by now. I'd even be willing to bet that Sebastian framed me for it.

"Where am I?" I said. "Who are you?"

"My name is Martine. You're on my husband's sailboat. We found you and the girl on a tiny boat and we took you aboard. What happened to you?"

I tried to think of a story quickly, but my usually sharp brain was dull from dehydration.

"Our boat sank," I said. "My parents went down."

I tried to cry, which I could usually do on command, but I had no fluid in my tear ducts. The woman looked at me with a squint.

"Oh, that's terrible," she said. "I'll tell my husband to let the authorities know."

"No!" I said. "You can't."

Her look went from worried to distrustful.

"Why not?" she said.

Think, Caden, think!

"Because it was the authorities that killed them," I said. "My parents were up to no good. I'm trying to escape with my sister Kiri. We need to get back to America. To my aunt in Kansas."

Martine just looked at me with the same squint.

"Well, you're a long way from Kansas. But we are headed for Tahiti. We're going to enter port there for a while, and you both need to go to hospital."

"No!" I said. "You can't let us fall into the hands of the police there. They'll kill us."

"They'll kill an eighteen year-old boy and a five-year old girl? Really? Why would they do that?"

Shit, I'm better than this. This story sucks.

"Look, I can't go into details," I said, as a coughing fit hit me.

Martine put her hand on my back as I coughed. She handed me another glass of water and I drank it down.

I put my head back and fell asleep again.

Chapter 8

It had been two days since Mr. and Mrs. Decoud rescued Kiri and me. I was able to convince them not to call the authorities to send a helicopter. They agreed we would dock and go to the hospital in Pape'ete.

It's not that I didn't want Kiri to get medical treatment. I wanted her to see a doctor, yes. But as soon as I set foot on Tahitian soil, I'm at risk of going to a French prison. I've heard nightmare stories about French prisons and I refuse to get locked up in one!

I sat there leaning on the rail of the sailboat they called the
Nostromo
. I took the locket out of my pocket. I opened it and looked at the sepia-toned woman in the photograph. I read the numbers carved into it.

All this death and misery for what? For this?

I thought about throwing the damned thing into the ocean. But I snapped the locket shut and put it back in my pocket.

Kiri was unresponsive. Every time I tried talking to her, she just stared. All the expressiveness had gone out of her face. Her big eyes had no life behind them.

As I watched the setting sun, I blamed myself. I had finally found a tiny sliver of meaning in my life. But I had allowed Sebastian to destroy it with his obsession.

Fucking Sebastian. I always knew he was capable of murder but I thought I would get away from him before he committed one.

Fuck.

What do I do now?

As I stared at the setting sun, Jacques Decoud came up on deck to check the riggings. He gave me an evil glance, then went about his work.

Once I had gotten some of my senses back, I embellished my story with my usual devotion to detail.

But Jacques Decoud was having none of it. I couldn't charm him.

I saw something in his eyes that I recognized. It was the same thing I saw in my own eyes. A vast intelligence. A superb reading of human behavior. And a criminal past.

The old cliché
It takes one to know one
rang true when Jacques Decoud and I met eyes.

Not like Sebastian, though. Sebastian was 100% dead behind his eyes. Valentina too. They belong together.

But Jacques Decoud was like me. Crafty, clever, and intelligent. But with a real human being hidden inside somewhere. In another lifetime, we could have been friends.

But we were not friends on this boat.

I had to figure out a way to get us away from the Decouds and off to the United States. I had two fake passports in a safe deposit box in Pape'ete along with enough cash to live on for a while, but I'm bound to be arrested if I walk into that bank. I'll have to charm one of my girls into going in for me. Shouldn't be too hard.

As for Kiri, I had to protect her. Somehow I had to make things right for her. Her parents were killed because of my stupidity.

Probably the best thing would be to get her to Teva, who would reunite her with Narith and Dara. From there, I would hope there are relatives somewhere who would adopt them. Somehow I'll get some money to them for the kids.

I felt terrible for all three of them, but Kiri was the only one who was on the boat when her parents were killed. I have no idea what she saw. Maybe she was hidden and didn't see anything.

But I have a feeling she saw it all, which is why she's in shock. Poor little thing.

As I seethed there on the deck of the Decouds' sailboat, fantasies of strangling Sebastian filling my head, I vowed to myself that I would make it up to all of them, all three kids.

Mrs. Decoud seemed to be a very kind person, but I could tell her husband must have told her not to trust me. She wanted to, but couldn't.

I don't blame her. I was way off my game. The brilliant boy who can lie his way out of anything was finally kicked down a notch.

Where is Sebastian? Is he looking for me? I doubt it. He and Valentina are probably in South America by now.

I'm going to find them and kill them. I'll do whatever it takes.

I'm not sure where that thought came from but it filled me with a vile thirst for revenge.

Part of me wished I never got in that Bentley on that hot summer night in Tampa five years ago. While Sebastian and Valentina were responsible for making me rich, they killed the very people who had shown me the most love I had ever known.

And I will kill them for it,
I said to myself.

Then my logical mathematical mind kicked in. It would be a waste of my resources and time to find Sebastian and Valentina to kill them. The probabilities and odds stated that it would be better to use my skills to make a lot of money to provide for Kiri and her siblings, forgetting about Sebastian and Valentina.

But I could never forget.

"Whatever happened, it's destroying you," said Martine Decoud.

She was looking at me from the open hatch that led down into the kitchen.

I didn't say anything. I just glanced at her, then returned my gaze to the darkening horizon.

"That little girl saw something awful," she said.

"Kiri," I said.

"Yes, Kiri. She's the most beautiful little thing. She's been through something unspeakable. And I know you know what it is."

"I told you. Our parents died. The boat sank. It was traumatic. She needs help."

"Oh, she's going to get help. Don't you worry about that."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean I know someone who can help her. At probably the best place on Earth for her to go. Once we clear things up with the Tahitian authorities and figure out where she belongs, we're going to get her the help she needs."

"Really, Martine, I'm very grateful. But you don't need to do that for us."

"Don't think for one moment that we're doing it for you. We're doing it for her. Because whatever it was that shocked that little girl so much, it was your fault. And if I find out you ever hurt a hair on her head, I will personally kill you with my own bare hands. You got that?"

I looked over at her. Yeah, I believed her. Don't blame her, though. She's right. It
is
my fault. I could have saved Kiri's parents. I could have stopped the job before it got to murder.

After Martine Decoud went below decks, I saw Jacques Decoud glaring at me as he adjusted a sail.

He didn't say anything. He didn't need to. Without words, his eyes repeated his wife's message.