Vortex (Cutter Cay) (24 page)

She turned to face Logan. “I was forcibly restrained in the bathroom by his bodyguards. They’d take me home afterward. I stayed at the gallery later and later after work, avoided our social calendar by threatening to go public. It all came to a head when I went down to get my phone and discovered the drugs in the shipping crate. Everything sped up after that. I called the FBI, they referred me to Special Agent Steve Price at the DEA, and he helped me get away.” Her words tumbled one over the other in her haste to get everything said and out in the open. “I had to leave everything behind. And as well as I covered my tracks, Victor’s men still found me.”

“And lost you,” he pointed out, voice flat.

“And lost me, yes. And now, found me again.” She shuddered, cold to her marrow. “The harder I try to knit up my life, the more I feel like he’s behind me, unraveling and unpicking like hell. I was once an asset, now I’m a loose end he can’t afford. He’s going to kill me, Logan.” He opened his mouth, and she shook her head. “Yes, he is, and he’ll go to any length to do so.”

Thirteen

The wind danced like a skipping stone across the water, whisking the waves into peaks frothy as whipped cream. The early morning air, with the windchill factor, was crisp. Scudding clouds smudged the pale blue sky, and a crimson streak across the horizon heralded an approaching summer storm.

Sea Witch
perched on the horizon like a small dark bird of prey. She hadn’t started diving yet, but she would, and soon, as they brought more and more artifacts and coins to the surface. She was just one more complication to take into account when the shit hit the fan.

Logan didn’t know the redheaded captain, nor did he give a flying fuck what happened to her when she was out of sight. But he felt a sense of misplaced responsibility for her when she was anchored off his bow. She was a nuisance, but he didn’t want her blood on his hands if this thing turned deadly.

A situation he had to address, and add to his checklist, before the day was over.

He’d convinced Daniela not to leave. Not until he knew exactly who all the players were, and what to do about them. He’d taken steps to protect her right here on board. For now, normalcy was the name of the game.

Dog, who’d twirled in circles while wagging his tail the instant they’d emerged from Logan’s cabin earlier, as if giving his approval on their mated status, now slept with contented dog snores beneath Daniela’s chair.

Wrapped in the soft black throw from his cabin, she rested her chin on her knees. Fear remained etched around her eyes, which were dark, and shadowed by concern. “If you’d just listen to reason—”

“Hipolito doesn’t need your help right now. He’s cleaning up last night’s mess. Let him do his job uninterrupted.”

Daniela wanted to go and help Chef in the galley. Logan didn’t want her out of his sight. Not now. Not ever. Perhaps it wasn’t realistic, but then what she’d been through had been a hellish nightmare and he wanted to make sure that bastard Stamps never got a chance to breathe the same air as her again. They were seated on the aft deck while Galt and Cooper suited up for a reconnaissance dive before breakfast. Business as usual. Or as close to as usual as made sense.

She slipped her hand from beneath the throw, reaching for her steaming coffee mug and taking a cautious sip. Logan noticed how her lashes were spiked from her morning shower, and her eyes, in this light, were more cocoa than aged whiskey. She swallowed and met his gaze over the rim of her cup. “I hope you pressed charges.”

Against her cousins. “Yes.” But the senator? For what he’d done? Prison wasn’t bad enough. And no term could be long enough. Logan, who was usually too busy moving forward to bother with paybacks for people who crossed him, wanted time to formulate a punishment fitting and cruel enough for Victor Stamps, after what he’d done to her.

She put the mug down so she could hold back dark strands as the wind whipped her hair around her head. She looked so beautiful. Logan’s chest ached with pride. Courage and determination were as much a part of her as her broken nose, her brow, or her soft mouth.

While she’d slept with tears on her cheeks, or, he suspected, had fallen unconscious
resisting
sleep, he’d contacted Wes and Jed in Arequipa and ordered them to bring back more security. He considered, and rejected, abandoning the salvage.

A
brand
for fuck sake. A goddamn
brand.
He couldn’t wrap his brain around it. A one-inch-across oval, with the initials VS inside, marred one smooth, creamy ass cheek.

He wanted to rip the senator’s fucking nuts up through his nostrils, roast them slowly over a blowtorch, and then make him eat them.

Stamps knew where Daniela was. If he’d managed to track her here, he would track her anywhere. She knew too much for him to let her go.

“While we were dealing with the Apazas, another group of men—and I have to assume they were sent by Stamps—boarded the ship. We think they came from one of the boats that was lurking at the one-mile limit. Our best guess is that they used individual underwater propulsion devices to get from there to here undetected. When our guys chased them off, they went straight for the dive platform and vanished. Probably had their gear tied up there for a fast exit. Anyway, the whole thing was short, over almost before it had begun. One of my security people shot and killed one of them—Jed took the body to the authorities for ID. Two of my guys were shot as well.”

“Oh, God, Logan. Are they—are they dead?”

“They didn’t even need medical attention,” he assured her. “There were various injuries that everyone is now claiming were no big deal.” But then they were professionals. To the security men, getting shot at was part of the paycheck.

“Men! Did anyone actually go and see a real doctor?”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

She gave him an incredulous look. “
All
of this is my fault! If not for me—”

“If not for you I wouldn’t have had the best sex of my life an hour ago.”

“I’m serious.”

He smiled. “So am I. Look, we figure that last night was reconnaissance to see what they were dealing with. Now they think they know. My security guys tell me there were ten or twelve of them. They didn’t expect to encounter armed men on board the
Sea Wolf
.”

He drank his coffee while she mulled that over. But Logan sensed that if Daniela had been seen, it would’ve been a snatch and grab. He wasn’t letting her out of his sight for a nanosecond. He didn’t realize how long he’d been silent until she nudged him with her foot under the table.

“Why don’t you tell me what’s going on in your head instead of glowering at my coffee mug?” Daniela suggested sweetly.

Because I don’t want you to discover that I’m a brutal son of a bitch just like your sick-fuck ex.
He’d never been violent before he’d met her. But shit changed when a man—
shit changed.
“Just working through some logistical problems.”

“I can solve those logistical problems for you. Let me go somewhere else so you and your people are safe. I’ll call Special Agent Price. He’ll send someone to get me. We can try protective custody again…”

“The operative word there is ‘try.’ He tried, and failed,” Logan reminded her, with barely leashed fury. He cradled his now cold mug, and considered her for several hard beats of his heart as he weighed his options. Places
he
could stash Daniela where no one would find her.

Even with his ship crawling with armed security men, in the middle of the damn ocean, he still had a prickle on the back of his neck, a heavy feeling of impending trouble in his gut that he just couldn’t shake.

“It’s counterproductive talking to yourself when I’m right here. Just say what you’re thinking out loud, and we can discuss my future like rational humans.”

“I don’t feel very rational right now.”

“No, I can see by that scary black look on your face that you don’t. If you keep gritting your teeth like that you’ll wear them down to unattractive nubs. Right now, right
this
second, the two of us are sitting here enjoying the sun coming up, and the breeze in our hair, and a cup of coffee. And I for one am still all hot and bothered and tingly after this morning. So let’s discuss what’s making your brain hurt, and then get on with our day.”

“Pollyanna.” He felt a smile crack.

“Don’t buy trouble. I know it’s hot on my heels, and I’m so sorry I’ve brought it to your door. But can we please live
in
this moment? Just
for
this moment? Let’s discuss what has you worrying, and try to come up with a workable plan, then implement it, and enjoy all this. Can we do that? Please?” She plucked blowing strands of hair from her mouth.

“Stamps found you in the middle of the Pacific, despite you having no connection to myself or the
Sea Wolf
. If I send you to my home on Cutter Cay … Stamps could find you there just as well as he found you here.” And who would protect her? He considered sending a veritable army with her, plus Zane. Plus Nick …

“I’m a sitting duck on an island. Eventually, I’d have to leave.”

“Yeah.” He’d already realized that, as tempting as it might be to know she’d always be there waiting—God, had he lost his mind? “You’re right.” Logan wouldn’t allow this to continue, with them—
her
looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life. He had to put an end to it once and for all.

There wasn’t anyone he trusted more than himself to keep her safe. On
Sea Wolf
they had a three-sixty view. No one could approach the ship without being seen. Not again. They hadn’t known what the fuck they were dealing with yesterday. Today, everyone was on the same page.

“The solution to that is simple. I don’t
want
to stay on board,” Daniela told him, her expression mutinous. “I have cabin fever,
and
I’m seasick. Lima has a zillion people. I assure you, I can disappear there.”

He knew she wasn’t seasick, and his ship was too damned big to give anyone cabin fever, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to disappear in Lima where
he
couldn’t retrieve or protect her.

“No,” he told her unsympathetically, as the ship’s helicopter hovered overhead, frothing up the water before landing with a loud, wind-driven thud, on the upper deck.

Reinforcements had arrived.

He softened his voice. “Look, I know you’re scared, and I know you don’t want to bring him here. But it’s already a done deal. Frankly, whether you’re here, or we manage to stash you away, he’ll send his people back. I’m not letting you out of sight until this is over. Which means, I’d go with you. And since I can’t be in two places at once, that would leave my ship unprotected. So you stay here. With me.” His ship had a full complement of crew, his armed dive team, and professional security guys; it wasn’t exactly unprotected. But the buck stopped with him. If the bad guys boarded, he had to be there to protect what was his.

She rested her forearms on the table and gave him a heated look, eyes shadowed, mouth firm with determination. “It’s not in your control for it to be over, Logan. You can’t
will
Victor to leave me alone.”

“When Price calls us back, we’ll see where we stand. In the meantime, don’t fight me on this.” As soon as they’d woken about an hour ago, Logan had insisted on calling the DEA agent in Washington, DC. He was very interested to hear what Price had to say about this situation. Logan figured he’d be relatively polite until this was concluded, then he’d pay Special Agent Steven Price a visit to ask him some pertinent questions. Like why the fuck he couldn’t protect one lone woman with enough proof to put the senator away for a long, long time.

But first things first.

“You’re putting everyone on board in danger! People who don’t
know
me, or give a damn about me. Why can’t you get it through your thick head that I don’t want people to
die
because I happened to show up? None of you owe me the time of day. Don’t you see that? He’s ruthless and vicious and he—” her voice rose. “Damn it. He’s scary powerful, and he
knows
people!”

“Good. So do I.” Logan assured her. “And I’m going to introduce my people to his people, if and when they show up again.”

She threw her hands up in the air. “And what am I supposed to do? Sit out here like a tethered goat?”

That, of course, was a big fucking issue, but he said lightly, “You’re a very
pretty
goat.”

“If Jed would just take me to Lima, I could disappear…”

“No, Daniela. That’s not going to happen. First off, nobody but me is taking you
anywhere.
If Stamps wants you, he’ll have to come to me. And to get to you, he’ll have to go
through
me,
and
my security people
and
my crew. And you and that Glock—”

“Hey.” He cut himself off to greet Jed and Wes as they came outside. “Thanks for doing the garbage run. Everything work out?”

“Yeah.” Jed flopped down next to Daniela and reached over to pour himself a mug of steaming coffee. He held up the thermal carafe, and Daniela picked up Logan’s mug and her own, holding them out for Jed to pour. The breeze swirled steam and the scent of freshly roasted beans. A smell Logan usually appreciated but his gut was too twisted up right now to enjoy simple pleasures.

His antennae were vibrating with anticipation of the unpleasant kind, no matter how much he tried to shake the feeling. It was going to be a gorgeous day, warm and with calm seas. They’d dive, and they’d have to decide whether to start salvaging what they found, or leave it where it had lain for four hundred years, until this clusterfuck was resolved.