Riptide (36 page)

Loving his father, hell even worshipping him in some ways. His ability to sail a ship like he was walking on fucking water, for one. Daniel had had an uncanny knack for discovering the richest wrecks, the most newsworthy artifacts. On the other side of that coin was that Daniel Cutter had been a shit father, as well as braggart, a show-off, and a womanizer.

Nick had spent his life proving to himself, if not others, that he was
nothing
like his father. Not in deed, not in temperament.

Suppressing emotion had become second nature to him. Maintaining a stoic calm was an essential part of his survival. It had worked, and worked well. After his mother’s death, Nick had basically closed down. He’d been seven. Who he was, what he was, was ingrained. He let no one other than his brothers in.

Until Jonah.

Until the princess.

And look what it had gotten him. Fucked. Over.

Keeping a tight lid on his emotions wasn’t working so well for him now. The tightness in his chest was that lid about to blow.

And Jonah, Jesus.

Presenting a secret sibling was his father’s final sucker punch. The kind of low blow that proved everything Nick had always thought about the man who’d fathered him. Daniel had screwed his family even from the grave.

And the man—the jack-in-the-box brother for God’s sake—had the gall, the fucking unmitigated
audacity,
to wax poetic about
his
father.

His. Theirs. The same goddamned man. Yet so totally different in description that Nick didn’t recognize that it was the same person.

Jonah not telling him right away was a different kind of betrayal. How long had he known about the connection? How fucking long had he planned to do a stealth attack and catch Nick unaware? At least the two years since he’d hired on to captain Nick’s ship. At
least
that long.

He pressed his throbbing, slightly swollen fist to the cool glass and stared sightlessly out to the horizon as he joined the dots to try to make a whole out of the mess. He and Jonah were mere weeks apart in age. While Nick, Zane, and Logan were anxiously waiting their father’s return for whichever salvage he was on, Daniel had had a whole fucking other life somewhere. A whole happy family somewhere.

Nick hadn’t trusted his father, so while this was a shock, he wasn’t exactly surprised. But God damn it, he’d trusted Jonah as he did only a handful of people.

His brothers.
That
was the handful. And Jonah.

And now Jonah had stabbed him in the back without a goddamn blink.

And Bria—

Jesus. Nick flattened his fist, pressing his palm against the glass, ready to jump out of his skin with—frustration. Anger. The deep aching hole in his chest burned. Beyond the window clouds boiled angrily over the dark water. He didn’t even know where to begin with
her
betrayal.

She’d deceived him from day one as well. The princess had lied with every whispered word, with every breathy moan. She’d lied with her lips, she’d lied with those big brown doe eyes, she’d lied with her eager body. God damn it, he’d almost fallen in love with her. Thank God he could turn
that
off like a light switch.

The Bluetooth and his phone both beeped at the same time. Expecting—praying for Aries to call, he answered the phone without checking. “Tell me you’re about to land on my deck, Aries!”
Take the princess away so I never have to look at her beautiful, duplicitous face ever again
.

“Don’t cut me off,” Jonah said urgently. “I think I’ve joined the dots.”

Dots? All Nick felt were holes. “I have fuck-all to say to you,” he growled.

“It’s life and death, Nick. Two minutes of your time.”

Fuck. “I’ll meet you in my off—” Not with the princess there. “No. I’ll come to the bridge,” Nick told him tightly. “Two minutes is all the time you’re worth.”

He took the stairs and strode into Jonah’s office two minutes later without knocking. He was pleased to see that the man’s nose was swollen to twice its size, and that he had a painful-looking shiner. Most excellent, he thought with vicious satisfaction.

Unfortunately, Nick’s hand hurt just as badly as he suspected Jonah’s nose did. And the livid bruising only made Jonah’s blue eyes even more predominant. “What do you want?” Nick didn’t go farther into Jonah’s office than necessary. He gave him a dispassionate look. “Make it quick.”

“Close it behind you,” Jonah ordered. Nick raised a brow. “Jesus, Nick, this is sensitive information. I’m not just being an asshole, here.”

Nick shut the door behind him, but remained where he was.

Jonah raised the sheet of paper he held. “Before signing on a year ago in Vietnam, Halkias worked for Draven Visconti.”

Nick put his hand on the door handle. “Old news.” Br—The princess had claimed that her sister-in-law had told her the man had been fired. It didn’t surprise Nick that she’d lied about that, too.

Jonah cut him off mid-turn. “Alfonso was also hired on in Vietnam one year ago, same time, same place. His stepfather works for Visconti on Marrezo.”

Hired as chef’s helper, the Italian had been promoted to chef six months ago when his predecessor had unexpectedly died of a heart attack. He’d been a “loyal” crew member for two year.

Two years. That seemed to be the fucking cutoff for loyalty on his ship. Halkias, Alfonse, and Jonah had all been hired on then.

“Basim was in Rome two weeks before I hired him in Tarfaya,” Jonah continued levelly. “Isaac Vanderpool spent seven months in Italy last year.”

“All roads lead, literally, from Rome.” Nick slid his fingers in the front pockets of his jeans instead of clenching them into fists. “This means Visconti planned this more than two years ago.”

“At least.”

Nick shot him a cool look. “
You
were hired in Vietnam.”

“Coincidence,” Jonah assured him, blue eyes unflinching. Christ, in that moment he looked like Zane at his most earnest. “I had absolutely no knowledge of
any
of this. I just wanted an opportunity to get to know you.”

“Then you know me well enough to know you’re dead to me.” Before he opened the door, Nick said coldly, “Secure Basim and Isaac. Then we’re done—”

The door at Nick’s back was shoved hard, and he took a step forward as it swung open and struck his shoulder.

“Nick? Oh my God, is Nick here?” Bria’s voice filled the cabin, high and shaking. “I’ve been looking for him
everywhere
!” She was crying and the words were barely intelligible. “I have to speak to him right away! I lost my tem— I just d-did something
incredibly
stupid!”

Nick pulled the door wider, revealing himself. “I already know
that
. There’s not a damn thing you have to say that I want to hear,
Princess
.”

She turned on him, her face blotchy and her eyes waterlogged. A damn fine show, he thought bitterly. He wouldn’t have believed her if she’d looked creamy and beautiful as she cried. Tears ran down her cheeks, but she managed to look him dead in the eye despite the welling tears. “I just talked to Draven.”

She’d hastily pulled on a powder-blue T-shirt, but had it on backward and inside out. Her jeans were unbuttoned. Barefoot, she carried a bright red striped beach bag over her shoulder. Her hair looked as if it had been combed by an eggbeater. Tears streaked her face, and her nose was pink and swollen.

She was so beautiful Nick’s heart hurt.

“Nobody knows where he is,” he told her curtly. Now what was she up to?

“I’m his sister.” She dashed the back of her hand at the tears dripping under her chin. “I have his private number.”

This new sucker punch made Nick’s chest squeeze so bad he could barely breathe. “You tipped my hand? Jesus, you really are a piece of work, aren’t you?” He swore in Arabic. “Blood
is
thicker than water. Nothing we shared in the last week had any impact on you whatsoever.”

“No, I—”

“What did your darling brother instruct you to—” His phone rang. “God damn it.” Noting it was Aries, Nick sliced a hand across his throat to shut her up as she opened her mouth to speak again.

“Are you landing?” he demanded without greeting. Of course not. There was no sound of an approaching chopper, and God only knew, he couldn’t be that lucky. Not on this trip.

“I and my team are three hours out,” Aries informed him shortly, not sounding happy about it. “You have a more immediate problem, Cutter. Your princess made contact with Visconti. I gave strict orders no fucking calls in or out remember?”

Both his captain and the princess listened to his half of the conversation with tight expressions. Nick glanced away. He couldn’t look at either of them. “I don’t work for you, Aries,” he told him, his tone flat and grim. “You seem to forget that this was a ‘low-risk’
favor
.”

“Because all the calls from the
Scorpion
are being monitored.” Aries talked briskly as if Nick hadn’t interrupted. “Your girlfriend just claimed possession of the diamonds, Cutter. She says she’s holding them hostage until her brother turns himself in.”

“What?!”
She’d planned to take her ruse all the way to Cutter Cay? Which didn’t make sense since, as far as he knew, she didn’t even know where they were.

“You heard me,” Aries said irritably.

Nick turned to stare at her, but she was talking quietly with Jonah by the desk, her hands darting expressively with every shaking word. “It works as long as—”

“Not only did
we
intercept that call,” Aries cut in, “so did the Moroccans. Bad enough as it stands, but as we speak, Visconti is about to double-cross his partners and has a hit squad waiting in Tenerife for Najeeb Qassem and Kadar Gamali Tamiz to arrive for an impromptu meeting. Who in turn are planning to send a team to the meeting and do the same to him.”

“They kill each other.” Seemed like a fine plan to Nick. “A win–win. What’s the problem?”

“
Visconti
has a hit team, the
Moroccans
have a hit team. And instead of offing each other, they’re all headed
your
way to take possession of the diamonds. Winner takes all.”

“Winner
kills
all,” Nick said his voice feral. “Is that what you’re
not
saying,
buddy
?”

“ETA ninety-seven minutes.”

“And you and your firepower are three hours away.”

“Two hours and forty-three minutes eighteen seconds. Hold them off until we get there.”

Nick’s jaw tightened. “I have a Sig, a Beretta, and a Bersa, and enough ammo to last about thirty fucking seconds, Aries.” And nobody he trusted at his back. “How the hell am I supposed to do that? How many are there?” Not that it mattered.

“Twenty plus on each side. Don’t let anything happen to those diamonds.” Aries disconnected. Nick stared at the phone as if it were an alien life form. Ninety-seven minutes. What the fuck was he supposed to do? He wasn’t a super spy like Aries.

Hold them off? With fucking what? Card tricks?

“Talk to me,” Jonah demanded as Nick stood there with the phone in his hand. He stared through the window at Jonah’s back, watching the black clouds scud across the sky, as his mind raced with the ramifications. Beside him, the princess gave a shuddering sniff.

Nick blinked Jonah back into focus. “Thanks to their inside woman here, I have two factions closing in. Forty and change, well-armed, determined men, on their way to secure their diamonds. Aries is three hours out. The bad guys are due in just over an hour and a half. I guess I should be grateful that I have a heads up.”

As far as Nick was concerned, Max Aries was also on his shit list. And was now another person he didn’t trust. The son of a bitch had left him holding the bag, with zero fucking backup and no goddamn options.

No good deed went unpunished.

Jonah snarled, “Shit!”

“Oh, God, Nick.” The princess looked at him with tear-drenched big brown eyes and long spiky lashes. Her lip trembled. “I’m so, so sorry! I was so mad at him, I just wasn’t think—”

“Payback’s a bitch.” He looked dispassionately from the princess to his captain. “There’s a pretty damn good chance that we’ll
all
die in the next couple hours. I consider everyone on board an enemy. Next time I see so much as a glimpse of either of you, I’ll shoot to kill you myself.” If either of them knew him at all, they’d be wise to believe him.

*   *   *

Bria glared at a sober, silent Jonah, who had his back to her as he stared at the darkness outside the window. “We have to fix this.”

“Really?” His tone was flat. Defeated. “You gonna call that deadbeat brother of yours again and give him our exact coordinates?”

Her temper spiked. “Come on, Jonah! Give me a break here. I made a colossal mistake. I’m the first to admit I did something incredibly stupid. It was knee-jerk. I lost my temper and wanted to give my brother hell for what he’s done. It was stupid telling him I was keeping the diamonds. Really, really stupid. And God only knows, I regret it. But this isn’t about us, it’s about helping Nick.”

Hunching his broad shoulders Jonah ran a hand over his battered face, looking out the window. Bria saw his reflection there as he asked grimly, “Haven’t you helped him enough?”

She flinched, but strode across the room to stand beside him. “Can we discuss my thoughtless culpability and your well-meaning deception another time?” she demanded, grabbing his hard forearm to hold him there when he looked like he wanted to be somewhere else. He didn’t shift under her hand, but he didn’t push it away either.

“Let me ask you this? Did you hire on with Nick to cause him harm?”

His jaw tightened. “Of course not!”

“Did you have anything to do with smuggling the diamonds on board?”

“Hell no. I told him I didn’t.”

“Well
I
didn’t either. I knew nothing about them until he told me about them this afternoon! But, God, Jonah, he thinks we did, and right now that’s all that matters.” Bria wasn’t normally a crier. She’d thought she was done crying. But tears stung her eyes, and her heart ached for what she’d done. “Have you ever seen such a bleak look on his face?”