Fallen Hunter (Jesse McDermitt Series) (9 page)

I climbed back down the ladder to the cockpit, then helped her down the last few steps, lifting her easily off the ladder and setting her gently on the deck. I checked my phone and sure enough, no signal.

“Before we go ashore, I need to check something,” I said. “Come inside and we’ll get a cooler with some drinks, while I do that.”

In the salon, I got a small cooler and filled it with ice, several bottles of water and as an afterthought, the bottle of Beaujolais Julie had opened the night before and two wine glasses. Then I opened my laptop on the settee and powered it up.

“There’s no cell signal out here. You won’t get the internet,” she said.

“I have a satellite link,” I said. “I’m expecting an important message. If you’ll take that cooler to the dock, I’ll be right there.”

I had one email, but it wasn’t from Deuce. I opened it and saw that it was from the lawyer. He wrote that he was a probate attorney and needed my signature on some documents concerning Alex’s estate. No idea what that was about, but it was going to have to wait.

I closed the laptop, plugged the headphone jack into the boat’s stereo speaker system and picking up my fly rod case I headed out to where Tina waited on the dock. The sun was high now and it was warmer, already over eighty, as we walked to the small sandy beach. “I’d like to get some sun,” she said. “Do you mind?”

Do I mind watching a beautiful woman undress? Is she wearing a bathing suit under her clothes? These thoughts swirled through my mind, but all I could manage to say as she started unbuttoning her blouse was, “Um, no, go right ahead.”

She shrugged off her blouse, folding it and putting it in an oversized handbag. She was wearing a bathing suit, thankfully. Not much of one, though. She unbuttoned her shorts and wiggled out of them, completely unaware of what her actions were doing to me. Folding the shorts and putting them in the bag also, she arched her back, spreading her arms wide and looked up so that the sun shone full on her face. Maybe she was aware, I thought, as we walked along the sand.

“What’s in the case?” she asked.

“This?” I said, lifting the fly rod case. “It’s how we’re going to catch lunch.”

“Can you catch lobster with it?”

Laughing, I replied, “Lobster, she says. So, you want lobster, Miss La Mons?”

“You mean, you really can catch lobster with it?”

“Not with this,” I replied, with a chuckle. “But, if the lady wants lobster, lobster it is. Let’s carry this stuff over to the sandbar and I’ll run back to the boat and get my mask and fins.”

We walked along the sandy beach to the narrow sandbar that separates the fort from Bush Key. On the north side of the sandbar, we spread out a blanket and set the cooler in the sand next to it. There wasn’t a breath of wind on the water. The small bay on the north side of the sandbar was flat and reflected the puffy white clouds in the distance, like a polished mirror.

“Hard to believe such a beautiful place exists so close to Key West and I never even heard of it,” she said.

“Key West is close to a lot of small, uninhabited islands like this,” I said. “Several years ago, the state tried to sell a lot of the smaller ones, but not a lot of people were interested. That’s when I bought mine.”

“You own a whole island?” she asked incredulously.

“It’s really tiny,” I said. “A few acres at high tide. Make yourself at home and I’ll be right back.”

I ran back to the boat, hoping that I could make good on my promise. While they are plentiful and currently in season, I’d never dived this harbor and had no idea what I’d find. Climbing back aboard the
Revenge
, I opened the hatch to the salon, raised the settee bench seat top and grabbed my mask, fins, heavy gloves, and a weight belt I use for skin diving. The water was only twelve to fifteen feet, so I didn’t need anything more than that. I strapped a dive knife to the inside of the left calf, feeling lucky. I'd need it, if I caught a lobster.

I trotted back to the sandbar and Tina was lying on the small blanket, with a rolled up towel under her head. I stopped short and looked her over, more closely. Her skin was coppery brown. She apparently spent her days in the sun, before work. The tiny bikini she had on was lime green, making her skin look all the more dark. Her flat belly and narrow waist gave her an athletic quality. I’m usually attracted to taller women, but, none the less, I was drawn to her. She turned her head then and noticed me staring.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I said. Then grinned and added, “Just admiring the beauty.”

“Oh, come on, Jesse. Go get me a lobster!”

“You wish is my command,” I said, as I pulled off my tee-shirt and waded into the harbor. It wasn't ideal for skin diving, maybe seventy degrees. In waist deep water, I put on my mask, fins, belt, and gloves, then disappeared below the surface. I followed the bottom, heading straight out away from shore. It dropped off quickly and when I reached the turtle grass covered bottom, I turned to the left and followed the coral ledge. There were a lot of reef fish. Blennies, wrasses, even a couple of spot fin butterfly fish, swimming in a pair, as they usually do. Further ahead, I saw a large queen angelfish and right next to it, sticking out of an undercut part of the coral, was what I was looking for. Two long, spiny antenna poked out from under the ledge.

Normally, I can hold my breath for about a minute and a half. Two minutes with good preparation. I'd been down nearly a minute, when I found the lobster. Approaching his hiding place from the side, I quickly thrust my hand in and under it. It never had a chance, but tried desperately to grab my hand and push me off its belly. Once I had a firm grip around the base of its tail, I could tell it was a big one, probably five or six pounds. More than enough for the two of us. Pushing away from the reef with my left hand, I pulled the lobster out from its lair and headed back up along the ledge, angling to the left.

I surfaced pretty much where I had gone down and Tina was sitting up, with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. “I thought you were in trouble, you were under water a long time. Did you see anything?”

“Lots of pretty reef fish,” I said. Then, lifting the big lobster out of the water, I added, “And lunch.”

She jumped to her feet, her mouth falling open. “You actually caught one!”

“And he's big enough for both of us,” I said. Wading out of the water, I tossed my gear and the bug up onto the sand where it flipped its tail crazily for a minute, before resigning itself to its fate. Tina ran down the little beach and leaped into my arms, knocking us both backwards into the water. For such a tiny woman, she was surprisingly strong. We rolled in the shallow water, until she had me on my back, with her legs wrapped tightly around my waist.

That's when she kissed me. A very passionate first kiss, her lips devouring mine, her tongue exploring my teeth and inside my mouth. She sat up, straddling me. Her hair was wet and dripping, as I reached up and pulled her back down. Her breasts pressed firmly against my chest and I kissed her again. Slower, but just as passionately.

We broke apart from our embrace and she said, “I've been wanting to do that since you walked into Blue Heaven the first time.”

“We'd better get out of the water,” I said. “Might get all the little fish excited.” She laughed, then got up and we walked to the blanket, holding hands.

“Can you show me how you do that?” she asked.

“Sure,” I said and spun her around into my arms, wrapping my arms around her and kissing her again. She kissed me back, pressing her body tightly into mine.

Then she stepped back and slugged me in the chest, saying, “That's not what I meant.”

“Can you swim?” I asked, as we knelt down on the blanket and shared the towel to dry our faces.

“Yes,” she said. “I was on the swim team in college.”

“Really?” I said. “Where'd you go to college?”

“I'm a Cornhusker,” she said proudly. “Bachelor of Arts in Theater. Played on the tennis team, too.”

“Wow,” I said. “When I was looking at you lying here a few minutes ago, I thought you looked like an athlete.”

“Where'd you go to college?” she asked.

“USMC, School of Hard Knocks,” I replied, laughing. It felt good to laugh. “Seriously, though, I took a few classes in community college, but the Corps moved me around too much to finish anything.”

She looked at the recent scar on my chest, then the scars on my side and left thigh. She reached out and traced each one, sending shivers down my spine. “Is that where you got those?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I lied. Then changing the subject, I said, “If you want to learn to skin dive, that's easy. Scuba diving's a little harder, but for an athlete, it's a cake walk.”

“I'd like to learn. Can you teach me?”

“Sure,” I said. Then remembering why I was in Key West in the first place, I added, “I'll be busy during the week, but I might have next weekend free. I better get that lobster cleaned, before the crabs carry it off.” I got up from the blanket and picked up the lobster, who started slapping its tail again, but with less enthusiasm.

“There's wine in the cooler,” I said. “Why don't you pour us a glass, to get the salt taste out of our mouth? I'll be back in a sec.”

I walked over toward the sea grapes on Bush Key, until I found a suitable limestone rock and knelt down. Placing the lobster on the rock, I unsheathed my dive knife and quickly removed the tail. Spiny lobster have spindly little legs and no claws. There's very little edible meat in the body and the tail is really the only part that's worth the effort. I tossed the carcass into the sea grapes, where I'm sure a few lucky gulls and crabs would make short work of it.

When I got back to the blanket, Tina handed me a glass of wine, as I put the big lobster tail in the cooler. “Beaujolais,” she said. “My favorite, whenever I can get it. You don't like to talk about your time in the service, do you? My dad was the same way.”

“I was in Recon,” I said. “We went a lot of places and did a lot of things that aren't talked about in polite company.”

She thought about it for a while and said, “Okay, I won't bring it up anymore.”

We talked for an hour, then I suggested we head back to the boat, for lunch. She gathered up the blanket and towel as I grabbed the cooler and fly rod case and we walked back to the boat. I rinsed my dive gear and put it away, while she set things up in the salon. I have a small charcoal grill that mounts into one of the rod holders on the gunwale in the cockpit and took it out and set it up, lighting the charcoal.

Tina came out and I told her she could grab a shower if she wanted, while I grilled the lobster tail. I showed her the head, then went back out to split and butter the tail. A few minutes later, she came back out, dressed in a short white skirt and black tank top. I'd added two ears of corn to the coals and everything was about ready.

We enjoyed a great lunch and finished off the bottle of wine. The woman had a hearty appetite. We were sitting in the cockpit, watching a pair of sailboats on a broad reach, heading east about a mile south.

She got up and came over to me, sitting on my lap and resting her head on my shoulder. She kissed my neck then and whispered in my ear, “Are you going to show me your bedroom?”

I turned my face toward her and looked long into her dark smoky eyes. “No,” I said. “Not yet. It wouldn't be right. I want to, but it's too soon. I hope you understand.”

There wasn't a trace of hurt on her face, as she smiled and said, “Part of me hoped you'd pick me up and carry me in there. But, another part of me hoped you'd say just what you said. I'm not usually like this, especially with a man I just met. Key West isn't the best place in the world for dating decent guys. I'll be around when you are ready.”

“A large part of me wanted to pick you up and carry you in there,” I said. “You're not angry? We can be friends?”

“Friends with benefits,” she said and gave me a deep soulful kiss. “I'm not going anywhere, Jesse.”

Just then a claxon horn sounded over the exterior speakers, causing her to jump suddenly and land with a thud on the deck.

“What the hell was that?” she said.

Laughing, I reached down, took her hand and helped her to her feet, saying, “I've got mail. Why don't you grab a few beers from the galley and take them up to the bridge, we'll have to leave soon. I'll be right back.”

I went into the salon, opened the laptop and saw that an email from Deuce was there. I opened it and read:

Director says go. Make nice with Santiago. Try to

get him to like you. I know that'll be difficult. Pretend

to be someone he wants moving his product. Call

or email when you can.

I clicked the reply button and wrote one word,
Roger
and clicked send. I closed the laptop and unplugged the speaker jack, then went out to the cockpit.

“We have to go,” I said to Tina, up on the bridge. “Will you start the engines for me, while I cast off?”

She started both engines as I stepped up to the dock and untied first the bowline, then the stern. Shoving the
Revenge
out away from the dock, I stepped aboard and climbed up to the bridge. Tina was sitting in the second seat and I had her slide over behind the helm.