All we wanted was a week of peace and quiet. Dar sighed as she adjusted the throttles. Instead, they’d found nothing but trouble and more stress than she’d bargained for. Just wasn’t damned fair.

DAR LOOKED UP as she heard Kerry climb the ladder, her motions slower and more hesitant than usual. “Kerry!” She grabbed for the throttles, slowing the boat as she watched her lover balancing an armful as she attempted to get up onto the upper deck.

“You’re gonna kill yourself!”

“Shh. I’m fine.” Kerry managed to get her footing. “Relax and keep your eyes on the road, honey.”

Dar increased her speed, but couldn’t resist keeping one eye on Kerry as she made her way over and settled next to her. “What’s that?”

“Well,” Kerry set down a big covered plate, “we don’t have time for me to make what I wanted, so I compromised.” She uncovered the plate, revealing two neatly made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and some cookies.

“Mm.” True to form, Dar went right for the cookies, her eyes widening when she felt them. “They’re warm!”

“Well, yeah.” Kerry slid an arm around her. “I just made them.

Thank goodness for Pillsbury.” She put a Thermos on the console.

“I figure we’ll just have time to have lunch before we pull back into dock.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

Kerry leaned back, the wind blowing her pale hair off her face.

“Of course I didn’t. But we’ve gotten so little time to relax on this so-called vacation, I thought I’d better get in some lunch before we have to run off and save the world again.”

“Mmph.” Dar regarded the horizon with a grumpy expression.

“I was just thinking about what a crock this vacation turned out to be.” “Well,” the blonde reached over and gave her partner a scratch on the back, “at least we’re together.”

Dar made a low, grumbling noise.

“Honey, we’re trouble magnets.”

“Mm.” Dar made a face.

Kerry’s eyes twinkled a little. “We attracted each other, didn’t we?”

“You saying we’re both trouble?”

“Consider the last couple of days. What do you think?” Kerry asked wryly.

She had a point. Dar leaned back a bit, relaxing her tense grip 252 Melissa Good on the throttles.

“PB and J?” Kerry nudged her and indicated the plate. “Get ’em before they blow away.”

Dar agreeably selected half a sandwich and bit into it. “Wonder what the hell’s going on?” she mumbled. “Bud just being a jerk, or…”“With our luck on this trip?” Kerry laughed wryly. “Or.

Definitely or. Maybe he tangled with that nasty shark we paid off this morning. They sure didn’t seem friendly, and that thug seemed like the type to hold a grudge for no real reason.”

Possible. Dar nodded as she chewed. “Might be. Or maybe he’s checking on Rufus and the damn battery on his cell died.”

They looked at each other and Kerry sighed. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”

Dar shrugged and took a cookie. It was a nicely browned, chocolate chip cookie, Dar’s favorite, despite Kerry’s experimentation with many other exotic types. “Guess we’ll just have to find out the hard way.”

Her phone buzzed, making them both start. Dar frowned, put the cookie down, and picked up the phone. The caller ID showed a private number, making Dar’s eyebrows hike up. She opened the phone. “Hello?”

“Hello, Roberts.” DeSalliers’ voice sounded cold and smug, not a good combination at any time.

“What the hell do yo—”

“Shut up!” the man bellowed. “You just shut up and listen to me, you bitch, if you want to see your little fag friend again.”

Dar felt Kerry move closer, as she heard the words even over the rumble of the engines. A sick feeling washed over her and her nostrils twitched, but she carefully bit her tongue and withheld a retort. Her heart rate sped up, making a faint thunder in her ears as she waited.

Kerry slid an arm around Dar’s waist and pressed her ear against the other edge of the phone.

“Roberts?”

“You said to shut up and listen.” Dar heard the icy clip in her own tone, though her voice had dropped to almost its lowest register.

“All right,” DeSalliers replied with a verbal smirk. “This is very simple. I kept it very simple so you’d understand it.”

Dar’s eyes narrowed but she remained silent. Beside her, Kerry made a noise halfway between a spit and a growl.

“You will give me what you found. When you do that, I will give you your friend,” the man said. “If you call the police, I will kill this piece of trash. If you mess with me, I will kill this piece of trash. If you do anything that makes me think you’re crossing me, I Terrors of the High Seas 253

will not only kill him, I will drag him over the reef to kill him. Do you understand me?”

“No,” Dar said. “That would require a graduate degree in animal psychology, which I don’t possess. Where do you want to make the trade?”

“Just for that, bitch, he gets two smacks with a pipe,”

DeSalliers told her. “I’ll let you know where to bring my property.”

The line went dead. Dar licked her lips and put the phone down on the console, gazing at it in honest consternation. Kerry slowly let out a breath, her head still resting against Dar’s shoulder.

The sound of the boat’s engine filled the air for several very long moments as neither spoke.

“Oh boy.” Kerry finally exhaled. “We are so—”

“Fucked.” Dar completed the thought succinctly. “Oh yeah. Big time.” She slowly released a breath and concentrated on driving the boat for a moment. Her stomach was clenched in knots, and she struggled to catch hold of the thoughts whirling in her mind.

“You…” Kerry cleared her throat. “You think he was serious?”

Dar replayed the conversation in her head. DeSalliers’ voice had been very different than she remembered from their previous encounter. It had held an edge that was making Dar very nervous.

“He might be, yeah,” she answered softly. “I think we may have pushed too hard by stirring up Wharton.”

Kerry exhaled. “Dar.”

“Yeah, I know. I feel like shit,” Dar said in a small voice. “I didn’t think this through at all.”

Kerry rested her head against Dar’s shoulder as the island’s marina grew ahead of them. “My God, what are we going to do?”

she asked. “Dar, we don’t have anything to give him!” Dar didn’t answer. “He won’t believe us if we tell him that,” Kerry went on, her tone rising. “Jesus!”

“Okay,” Dar said. “Freaking out is not going to help.”

“I’m not freaking out,” Kerry objected. “I’m just…” She paused. “Okay, maybe I am freaking out. But I think it’s justified.”

The buoy approached and Dar steered past it, aiming for their slip. Her hands trembled on the throttles, but she focused on what she was doing. The last thing she needed to do was take out the dock and have that to worry about on top of everything.

Kerry seemed to realize that, and she kept quiet while Dar maneuvered the boat into its place. “I’ll go tie us up,” she muttered softly, using that as an excuse to burn off the churning of nervous energy in her belly. She climbed down the ladder, a thousand screaming thoughts fighting to gain the upper hand in her mind.

Horrified pity for Bud was uppermost. Despite the fact that she’d started out not liking him, seeing him talking to Charlie at the hospital had softened her attitude. The thought that they’d put him 254 Melissa Good in mortal danger mortified her. How could they have been so damned irresponsible? Couldn’t they see how strung out DeSalliers was getting? How desperate? What made them think he’d just go running away if they challenged him? Damn.

With a sigh, she climbed onto the dock and secured their lines, glancing up to the flying bridge as she did so. Dar was still seated at the console, her head buried in her hands. Her heart lurching, Kerry finished her task and jumped back on board, scaling the ladder and approaching the still figure. “Dar?” She put her hands on her partner’s shoulders. Dar had been right. Freaking out wouldn’t help. “Hey.” Slamming themselves or each other wouldn’t either.

Dar lifted her head and rested her chin against her clasped hands. “Yeah?”

“We’ll figure out what to do.” Kerry leaned against her back.

“C’mon. Let’s go meet Charlie, and then we’ll all come back here and just talk this out.”

Dar straightened and let her head rest against Kerry’s chest.

“How could I have been that stupid, that wrong?” she asked in a soft, plaintive voice. “What’s wrong with me?”

Kerry put her arms around Dar’s neck, and kissed the top of her head. “There’s nothing wrong with you,” she said. “We’re just way out of our league, Dar.”

Dar blinked a few times. “Are we?”

“Well, I can’t speak for you, but they never taught megalomaniacal fruitcake avoidance in my IT classes at Michigan,”

Kerry said, taking a deep breath. “Sorry I freaked out.”

The dark head tipped back and pale blue eyes searched her face. “Don’t be. You were right; it’s justified,” Dar said. “I put someone’s life in danger with my own arrogant stupidity.”

“Hey.” Kerry slid around the console and sat down next to Dar.

“Someone I know once told me when you make mistake, know it, then move on and get it fixed.” She took Dar’s hand. “We made a mistake. Let’s just go figure out how to fix it.”

Dar stared at the console morosely. “What if we can’t?”

“Dar, if anyone can, it’s you,” Kerry murmured. “We’ll find a way, somehow.” She rubbed Dar’s shoulder, worried at the pained, lost expression on her lover’s face. “C’mon.”