“The fact is that we know this side of the island really well, Sassy. And we need to set things up to our advantage.” I lean over, tuck a loose tendril behind her ear, and kiss her cheek.
“Getting all of us captured won’t help anyone.” Sam kisses her other cheek.
“We get things ready here, and then we go looking for them.” Zane places the gun box on the kitchen block counter.
I nod. But I can’t think of a worse idea than us going looking for an Olympic swimmer and a Viking mountain man. Swimming back to port might be a worse idea, but just barely. I smile at Sassy. “Come on. Let’s see what Ewok tricks Zane wants us to build.”
Her forehead furrows.
Zane laughs. “We still have a saw and an axe, and I’m feeling a little crafty. I always love the one where the two logs swung together and crushed the storm troopers. Oh, Little Bird, tell me you’ve seen Return of the Jedi?”
She shakes her head. “Well, as soon as I’m done with Marvel, I will have to move over to Star Wars.”
“First, we have some work to do,” Sam says.
Chapter 3
Backward Thrusters
Calvin
Istrip off the vest and grab the rope from the wall.
Easton glares at me in the dim light. The light from the pirates’ boat reflects over the water to the entrance of the cave. I can’t really see the glare, but his body language sitting on the WaveRunner is screaming it. I’m holding the line to the ring on the wall. If they come this way, we can either try to get around them or dive.
“What in the hell are you doing? Put the vest back on. I don’t want to pull you out of the water,” Easton whispers, which is ridiculous because there’s no way anyone could hear us over the roar of the pirates’ clunky engine. The damn thing is spitting and moaning. It’s a hunk of junk. But it’s big enough that they could pull the Rock Candy from the reef. And tow it. Maybe. They might burn out their own engine too. But then, they’ve got working radios and people on the other end of those radios.
“If they start shooting at us, I want to be able to dive underwater.”
“Right. Well, give it here. I’ll tie it to the WaveRunner.”
“You want to tie the reflective surface to the black WaveRunner that hopefully will get us out of here without being seen?”
“Fuck, leave it.”
“I was planning on it.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m tying it up.”
“You think you’re overdoing it a little?”
“You’re the one who normally takes the WaveRunner back and forth?”
“Yeah. Me swimmer, you engine guy.”
“Fuckhead.” I’m not going to let the pirates take him, but every time I think he might not be an ass... “What’s going to happen tomorrow? When the tender comes back? The boat is gone. They’ll come in here and see the vest. Which they all know you never grab. So they’ll assume the pirates found the WaveRunner. But if I tie the vest up with knots that there’s no way you know, then they’ll get the message we were both in the cave and on the WaveRunner.”
“You are scary fucking smart. But you think they’re going to understand it?”
“Zane.” I incline my head in the dark at him.
“Fine.”
Of course it is. There’s a lot of swearing and shouting out on the yacht. No doubt they’ve found the bar. I’m hoping they get out of here with the yacht before the morning light hits. The last thing I want is for them to find us in a cave. An hour ticks by and then another hour. Easton jumps off the WaveRunner to stretch his legs while I sit on it, ready to go. I’m more than thankful to Zane for keeping both the tender and the WaveRunner gassed up.
And I suppose even happy that he dropped the damn thing over the side of the yacht. It’s been really useful for the timewe’ve had it. I still don’t understand what the hell Zane was talking about when he said,“I did the math.”The yacht could have ended up with a giant hole in the middle of the port side. But then, what the hell would it matter? It would just be less for the damn pirates.
