“No, ma’am, there surely is not,” Andy agreed. “But seems they’ve taken a right dislike to folks who ain’t just like them.” He hesitated uncharacteristically.

Dar spoke up finally. “You mean he’s funding hate groups?”

she asked. “I know there’s a couple up there that think people like Kerry and me…” her eyes went to Charlie, “and Bud and Charlie should be euthanized,” she added bluntly. “Is that what you mean, Dad?”

Andrew released a breath. “Your momma does think that, Dar,” he acknowledged quietly. “And Ah do believe she’s right.”

“Son of a bitch,” Charlie whispered.

They all looked at the sheet resting in Andrew’s big hand. The rain drove harder against the console Plexiglas, making a sound like rapid gunfire.

The situation had changed, Kerry realized. Andrew’s arrival and the information he brought threw a whole new facet into the mix, and now there was a question of what they should do, and she wasn’t sure who exactly was going to make that decision. Dar had once told her there could only be one captain of the boat.

“Well,” Dar broke the silence after a long period, “regardless, we have to get Bud out of there.” She focused on the problem at hand. “There’s always going to be assholes out there who want to take over the world. We have to deal with the critical issue first, and that issue’s a friend in trouble.”

It was a quietly strange moment, and Kerry felt the oddness.

Dar had, she realized, simply moved forward and taken on the leadership of the situation, making the decision and accepting its consequences in a completely natural way. Both Andrew and Charlie were watching her intently, and Kerry held her breath as she waited to see what their reactions would be.

“So, we’re going to continue with our plan the way it is,” Dar went on. “If something develops that lets us come back around and nail Wharton or DeSalliers, or both of them, great. But we get Bud out first.” Her voice was quiet and steady.

Andrew nodded in acceptance. “Right. Ah figured Ah could get up there on that boat and see if Ah could rock it while you had them there people distracted.”

Dar thought about it. “I’m sure they have him below decks,”

she said. “I’m going to try and force them to bring him up before I start dealing, but I don’t know how far I can push.” She edged the Terrors of the High Seas 299

throttles forward a bit. “It would make me feel a lot better to know you were there. Just in case.”

A tiny smile appeared on her father’s face. “Ah jest bet it would,” he drawled. “Though it seems like you done got most of your bases covered already.” His eyes watched his daughter with silent pride.

Dar accepted the compliment with a slight nod. “We tried. But I like having a card up my sleeve. Makes the game a lot easier.”

“You can say that again.” Kerry held on as the boat cut through what appeared to her to be twenty-foot waves. “Now let’s just hope they show.” She felt the muscles in Dar’s neck relax under her hands and felt her own follow suit, glad that her partner was comfortable in taking the lead and that the two ex-sailors were willing to accept that.

It had been a tough moment for Dar, she knew. Her lover was a natural born leader, but just as naturally, she loved and worshipped her father who was also, Kerry knew, a natural born leader. Dar could have deferred to Andrew, and yet she’d chosen to trust her instincts, and do otherwise. Time would have to prove whether or not those instincts were true.

THEY FOUND THEIR spot in the ocean. The wind had risen, driving the waves against the boat, but Dar had anchored them into it, and the bow rose and fell with steady regularity instead of rocking side to side. Andrew had tethered his boat to the back of the Dixie, and now they were simply waiting.

“Kerry was worried about trusting DeSalliers to carry us over there. I think she’s right,” Dar commented to her father. “Better if you drop us off.” They were standing side by side in the stern, protected from most of the wind by the craft’s cabin.

“Hell, yes,” Andrew agreed. “Ah’ll park that thing ’tween us, then go off. Won’t even realize it.”

Dar eyed him curiously. “It’s a pretty high bow,” she said.

“You planning on roping up it?”

Andrew gave her a mildly smug look and fished in one of the belt packs he was wearing over his black neoprene dive suit.

“Nope.” He held out something that had a cup-like surface of what seemed to be soft rubber, and a sturdy hard rubber handle of some kind. “Put that there up on that fiberglass and twist this piece.

Makes you a handle.”

Dar took it and fit her hand in it, then activated the suction.

“Hmph,” she murmured. “Pretty cool.”

“Dar!” Kerry called down from the bridge. “Radar just picked up something.”

Dar handed her father back his toy. “About damned time.” She 300 Melissa Good felt tension grip her guts, and she wanted the confrontation to be long over and done with.

“Heck of a vacation there, Dardar,” her father commented wryly. “Maybe next time ya’ll should go find you some little farm somewhere and just do you a picnic or something.”

Dar shook her head. “I should have guessed. Even when we spent a couple days up at the lake, Kerry’s horse got bee stung, she fell off, we almost capsized, and we managed to out ourselves on a family hay wagon ride.”

Andrew ruffled her hair. “You always did get into the damndest things. You remember that time we done went up to that ranch and you rode up on that bull?”

Dar covered her eyes. “Don’t mention that to Kerry, please?”

“Mention what to me?” Kerry materialized at her elbow, peering out through the rain. When it appeared that neither of the Roberts was going to answer, she asked, “Any sign of them yet?

Charlie’s going to stay up at the controls. It’s tough for him to get up and down the ladder.” And it gave him something very useful to do, Kerry reasoned, since no one was willing to trust Bob with the boat.

“Couldn’t hardly see nothing yet in this spit,” Andy said. “You two ready?”

Kerry patted her rain slicker. “About as ready as I’m going to get. Dar?”

Dar had her hood down, and the wind was whipping her dark hair relentlessly. “I’m ready.” She lifted her chin. “Lights.”

They looked in the direction she indicated, and sure enough, a moving speck could be seen very faintly through the storm. Kerry flexed her hands nervously, her heart rate picking up speed now that things were happening. She wasn’t stupid enough to ignore the fact that she was scared; any reasonable person would be in her place.

She trusted Dar, and she certainly trusted Andy. However, she didn’t trust DeSalliers, and part of her worried that logic didn’t have a lot to do with his planned actions. She worried about Bud, trapped in the man’s hands, and she worried about what they would find over on the other boat.

The cabin door opened and Bob stuck his head out. “I think he’s on the radio,”he said, just as Charlie called down from the bridge with the same news.

Dar squared her shoulders and walked over to the door. Bob backed out of her way as she went for the radio console inside, Kerry and Andy at her back.

DeSalliers’ voice cut through the static. “Roberts? One more chance at answering, then I slit this piece of shit’s throat.”

Andy’s eyes narrowed. “Ah already do not like this man.”


Terrors of the High Seas 301

Dar picked up the mic. “I’m here,” she answered shortly.

“About time you showed up.”

“You have what I asked for?”

“I have what you need,” Dar replied. “So let’s get this over with.”

DeSalliers laughed. “You don’t like not being in control, do you, Roberts? Well, that’s too bad. You just sit there. I’ll tell you when I’m ready.”

The transmission was terminated and Dar dropped the mic on the console as though it were a dead rat. “I’ve encountered more appealing things than that six days dead on the roadside up to Marathon,” she commented. “What an asshole.”

“Yeah, well, he’s going to get what he wants, isn’t he?” Bob asked bitterly. “To hell with the rest of us.” He stomped over to the chair and flung himself down in it. “Fuck you all.”

Andrew folded his arms over his broad chest. “This here situation’s just chock full of jackasses, ain’t it?”

“Yeah, isn’t it?” Bob shot back at him.

“You know something?” Kerry addressed Bob before either Dar or Andrew could answer. “I’m really starting to regret risking my life for you, and I hate that. So cut it out and grow up before I have to do something about it.”

Bob subsided into a sullen silence, his eyes fixed firmly on the floor.

Kerry expelled a breath in disgust and gave herself a tiny shake. She pushed her hood back, revealing damp and tangled blonde hair that she ran her hands through in agitation. “Jesus.”

Dar put an arm around her and pulled her close. She hit the intercom. “Hold steady here, Charlie. Let’s wait to see what this bastard has in mind.”

“Ain’t no good, whatever,” Charlie replied glumly. “Sons of bitches.”

“Mah gosh, listen to this here language,” Andrew drawled. “Ah ought to spank the lot of you.”

The comment eased some of the tension and drew a smile from both Dar and Kerry. “I hate waiting,” Dar admitted. “And he’s right. I hate not being in control.” She released Kerry and turned, choosing a path and pacing it across the living area.

Kerry leaned against the radio console and watched her, resigning herself to the knowledge that all they could really do is wait.