“Let’s go, Hal,” Calvin says, but he’s glaring at Easton like he wants to smash him for bringing me.
Dante asks the captive something in rapid French. “He’s been on board for two years. They took him from his village. He learned French from a visiting nun. And he made the mistake of speaking it to one of the other pirates. They threatened to kill his family if he didn’t go with them. He says we should kill the rest of them. Oh, and the captain isn’t on the bridge. He’s drunk in his cabin. They’re expecting a big payday tomorrow when they deliver us.”
“Deliver us where?” Sam asks.
Dante relays the question. “He doesn’t know, only they said they would let him go after they get paid, but they’ve said that before.”
“Big, lots time,” the captive says.
“Let’s get this captain while he’s drunk.” Calvin moves from the hatch to the cockpit.
“Belay that, Green.” Sam’s pointing to the horizon. “I think we’ve found who’s giving the payday.”
“Holy shit,” Zane says. “That’s got to be 120 meters.”
“And a good 100 million more expensive than the Rock Candy,” Sam adds. “A Lürssen by the looks of the upper decks.” It’s one of the most expensive luxury yachts, and it’s coming right at us.
“In pirate-infested waters?” I ask in my best alto voice. But I know the answer. It’s who paid the pirates to capture us. “It could be your dad.” I turn to Easton.
“My dad has a code word. He would have given it to anyone who was trying to help us. And he wouldn’t have hired this lot. No. If he knew we were here, he would have hired English-speaking mercenaries with high-tech equipment,” Easton says, crossing his arms over his chest. “We could make a run for it.”
Dante shakes his head. “That, my friends, looks like an organized crime yacht if I’ve ever fucking seen one. And I’ve seen plenty—when I was working for the Russian mob.”
Chapter 43
Rocket
Sam
Fucking hell. I’m staring at a Lürssen, maybe a 120-meter Project Thunder. It was one of the ones that Rocky wanted, but I talked him out of it. They’re too big, like a jacked-up pickup truck with undermount lights. You buy a Lürssen because your dick’s too small and you’ve got a point to prove. Rocky never brought more than ten people to the Mermaid’s Tale. The Rock Candy is a better yacht—so long as you don’t have someone intentionally trying to break it.
There hasn’t been anyone in these waters for the last year, and there’s a good reason. They’re too dangerous. So it’s too much to think the Project Thunder racing toward us is here for anything but nefarious reasons. Even though a small part of me hopes that maybe Rocky put a reward out for his son and the Lürssen is here to help us. But Easton’s right: a private SEAL Team Six operation is more Rocky’s style.
Right now, I just want Haley safe... and I can’t help thinking that this is definitely an out of the fire and into the frying pan situation. Unlike the pirate ship, it’s got every damn light in thevessel burning. They’re more than announcing their presence—the only thing more blatant would be them playing musical horns like an over-powered cruise ship.
The presumed pirate captain bursts out of the galley. He takes two steps and stumbles. He’s yelling, and it’s not English or French.
It’s our new friend who takes a gun out of his waistband and shoots the captain in the chest. The man drops to the deck, dead.
“Shit, you had a gun the whole time?” Easton says.
He shrugs and tries to hand it to Easton.
“Keep it, my friend,” says Easton.
“Rodel.” The guy taps his chest and wiggles his eyebrows.
“Don’t be a bloody fool, Easton.” Zane takes the gun. “No offense,” he says to the man.
“No.” He shrugs back.
Dante points at the approaching ship. “We need to worry about that, not his feelings.” He launches into French, and the guy replies. “Rodel says there are another three crew members on board, but they’re all sleeping. They left another six at their port, thinking this was going to be an easy job. Then there’s the three back on the island, looking for Easton and Hal... They left with twelve. Normally, they are eighteen to twenty.”
“Three on the island?” I turn to Easton and Haley.
“We stole their tender. They could take ours, though,” Haley says.
“Except I disconnected the battery wires and turned off the battery switch. Given enough time, they should be able to figure it out,” Calvin says.
