In Deep Waters (7 page)

Vance rubbed his goatee. "Part of her might be covered with sediment, but we should be able to tell if it's the
Izzy.
They found the
Central America,
so there's hope for other wood-hulled ships lost in deep waters."

Eugene entered the lounge and handed her another roll of sonar scans. "Here's more data, Kayla."

Eugene pulled out a chair and sat across from her. A sweet young man with puppy-dog eyes and a crooked smile, he was a computer wiz who was writing a software program to ease the recording of sonar search data and information. "We heard you know where the
Isabella
went down."

Kayla stiffened. Answering might not be in her best interest. Ben's, either. Tension filled the silence. "I, uh..."

Vance frowned. "If you know something..."

"The boss hates not knowing everything." Gray's concern and warning was clear. "If you're keeping it secret--"

"I've discussed this with Ben." She struggled with the correct words to say and ignored the shiver Gray's words sent down her spine. She didn't like secrets, either. But in this case, she'd had no choice. Kayla knew she wasn't wanted here. She'd withheld the truth to avoid a power struggle. She didn't want to make it worse. "He knows I've done a lot of research on the
Isabella."

"So if you know where the
Izzy
sank, why haven't we found her?" Eugene asked.

"It's a little complicated." To say the least.

Stevie appeared with a plate of cookies. "Chocolate chip. Fresh from the oven."

Death by chocolate sounded great right now. She grabbed one and took a bite. The warm cookie melted in her mouth. "Delicious."

Stevie walked away with a big grin on his face.

Vance looked Kayla in the eye. The intensity made her shiver again. "You either know where the
Izzy
is or you don't."

Another bite. Thank goodness Stevie had left the plate. Cookies worked better than her breathing exercises. And she couldn't talk with her mouth full. Vance stared her down. She swallowed the cookie. Enough was enough. She disliked Ben pulling his he-man, dangerous pirate act on her, but Kayla wasn't going to allow anyone else to do it. "I know."

"Trying to rally support for a mutiny, Kayla?" Ben moved toward the table. The lounge seemed much smaller with him in the room. He towered over them as if he owned the place. Which he did, she realized.

He pulled up a chair and straddled it. "So what questions are you answering?"

She wiped her mouth. "Questions about the
Isabella."

"Kayla has thoroughly researched the
Izzy,"
Eugene said.

"She's not the only one." Ben's tone set her nerves on edge. Was he this way with everybody or just her? "Pirates and lost treasure are hot topics these days."

A warning bell rang in Kayla's head. "This is a scientific expedition." Everyone at the table nodded, but
she wasn't convinced. "Of course, if we find any of the treasure, that's icing on the cake."

"Hell, that
is
the cake." Vance laughed. "Let's hope those pirates on the
Izzy
pillaged and plundered every ship in the Pacific."

Even Vance, a trained marine archeologist, had caught treasure fever. History showed how gold could drive even the sanest of men insane. "Luis Serrano might not have seized every ship in the Pacific, but he did his fair share of damage before the
Isabella
sunk."

"Who?" Gray asked.

"The pirate captain of the
Izzy
who stole all the treasure we're looking for," Ben answered.

"Luis Serrano de Martin," Kay la said at the same time.

Visions of gold danced in Gray's eyes. "Was he a bad dude?"

"He was a man obsessed," Kayla said.

Ben nodded. "By treasure."

"And love." Kayla's gaze collided with Ben's. His dark eyes hypnotized her and seemed to read her every thought. It was disconcerting, yet exciting. She wanted to keep their relationship professional, yet the way her blood coursed through her veins was anything but work-related. She forced herself to get back to business. "Luis raided ships sailing the Manila-Acapulco routes in order to marry Ana Delgado."

"She was supposedly one hot babe."

Kayla didn't like hearing Ben speak that way about another woman--even one who had been dead for a couple of centuries. A paddle wheel churned up her stomach. "How do you--"

"Research." He smiled a little too smugly for her
liking. "I did a little of my own before we set out to find the
Izzy."

"Got any pictures, boss?" Gray asked.

"They didn't have any cameras back then," Eugene said.

Kayla was on a ship with men, but with the exception of Ben, she hadn't felt like the odd woman out until now. She wanted to play, too. "Too bad there weren't cameras, because I read Luis Serrano was a tasty piece of eye candy."

Ben raised a brow. ''Eye candy?"

He looked wicked and sexy. Too male for her own good. Kayla shrugged. "Hot babe?"

"Facts are facts," Ben said.

And this conversation needed to get back on track. She slipped into her lecturer persona. All she needed was an overhead projector and a pointer. "The facts about Luis are interesting. He was the fifth son of a duke and left Spain in disgrace after being wrongly blamed for losing his galleon and several others during a storm and pirate attack. He joined up with a privateer and turned to pirating."

Ben nodded. "He wanted revenge against Spain for stripping him of everything from his name to his ship."

He had done his homework, and Kayla was impressed. She might question some of his decisions, but she liked his thoroughness. And a few other things, a little voice whispered.

"Where does the hot babe come in?" Vance asked.

Kayla tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Luis was sailing in the Pacific when he met and fell in love with Ana Delgado."

"You make it sound so romantic," Ben said.

Kayla straightened in her chair. "It was."

He snickered. "He seized her ship and held her captive."

If Luis were half the man Ben was, Kayla wouldn't have minded. She could imagine worse things. A heat built low in her belly. "Luis kept her safe until he returned Ana to her father in California. If he'd treated her badly, she wouldn't have fallen in love with him."

Ben laughed. "One of these days, I'd like to pay a visit to your little world. I'm sure it's very interesting there."

Kayla ignored him. "She fell in love with Luis, and he with her. But Ana was engaged to a Spanish nobleman. She begged her father to allow her to marry Luis instead. He wouldn't agree because Luis didn't have enough fortune or any means other than pirating to support his daughter. Luis decided to head back to sea to bring back a fortune worthy of Ana. She begged him not to go because she would make her father change his mind, but Luis didn't believe her and set sail."

"He was only doing what he had to do," Ben said.

His gaze locked on hers once again, and Kayla's breath caught in her throat. She imagined Luis Serrano looking exactly like Ben Mendoza. "Luis should have stayed, because a week later Ana convinced her father to let her marry him. But he was already gone, and all she could do was wait for his return."

"So the guy was a little impatient and he didn't want to wait around."

"It was more than that." Kayla wished she knew what the pirate had been thinking when he stayed at sea for so long. "Luis amassed a fortune in treasure. Gold, silver, porcelain and precious stones. He seized ship after ship. No amount of treasure was enough. He was out of control. Obsessed.

"Months passed and his crew convinced him to sail back to California. But the seasons had changed and they hit a storm."

"Luis went down with the ship," Ben said.

"But two crew members survived." Kay la had found notes in her father's research about them. "They said people from the sea helped them until a ship picked them up."

"Sea people?" Ben asked.

"Mermaids."

He rolled his eyes. "You sure it wasn't little green men?"

"No, they were too busy doing flybys over Roswell."

Ben laughed. She liked the sound. No, she didn't. Kayla clenched her fist under the table. No doubt he was laughing at her again.

He picked up a pen from the table and twirled it with his fingers. "Luis should have given one of those mermaids a shiny bauble or peso so he could have lived."

"Maybe he did." Kayla wanted to know what happened, but she hadn't found any information about the fate of Ana Delgado. "Maybe Luis showed up on Ana's doorstep and they lived happily ever after. I like that ending better than having her spend her entire life alone mourning Luis's death."

"He deserved to be mourned." Hurt flashed in Ben's eyes. "He died trying to win her love."

"He already had her love." Kayla tilted her chin. "Luis should have trusted Ana and their love. He should have listened to her and stayed. Warmed up to the father and showed him how much he loved his daughter."

"I would have stayed," Eugene said.

Vance and Gray agreed. Funny, until Eugene spoke,
Kayla had forgotten the other three men were there. Her focus had been totally on Ben.

"She never gave him reason to trust her," Ben said.

"He needed a reason?" Kayla had never been in love, but she knew how she wanted matters of the heart to work. "She gave him her promise, her word, her love. Just one of those things should have been enough."

Ben shrugged.

"What would you have done in Luis's place?" Kayla asked.

"Not fall in love in the first place." Ben made it sound as if love could be flicked on and off with a switch. No wonder he was divorced. "He should have ransomed Ana to her father or fiance, got his money and sailed away."

Ben sounded like such a guy. Disappointment shot through Kayla. "That's horrible."

"It's real life." His eyes narrowed. "You never mix business with pleasure."

She never believed it would happen. At least not in her lifetime. Kayla laughed.

"What?" Ben asked.

"We finally agree on something."

Ben didn't care whether they agreed on anything or not.

Two days later, he stormed down the passageway. In the short time she'd been aboard, Kayla Waterton hadn't simply won over his crew. She'd turned the
Xmarks Explorer
into a ship of fools. She'd taken a group of lewd yet entertaining men and turned them into panting and primping poodles with little bows tied on their ears.

Fights for showers before dinnertime. A run on razor blades. The toxic mixture of aftershave lotions and co
lognes in the air. A battle to see who got to sit with her at meals. The sudden interest in folklore and fairy tales, two of Kayla's favorite subjects. Not to mention the emphasis on proper etiquette.

Maybe they'd been at sea too long. How else could he explain grown men acting like a litter of love-starved puppies lapping up whatever attention Kayla gave them?

He had to do something. Fast.

A pack of distracted puppies was useless to him.

"Hey, boss." Monk rushed by, nearly knocking Ben over. "Do you have an iron?"

The insanity continued. "This isn't a cruise ship. We don't dress for dinner."

"I don't care about dinner, but Kayla..." He blew out a puff of air. "She's one classy lady. Highly educated. Refined tastes. Definitely the nonwrinkle type. Hence my need for an iron."

Hence?
Next thing, Monk would be spouting Shakespearean sonnets. Now, that would be scary.

"Classy, educated." Ben raised a brow. "Doesn't sound like your type."

A first-rate ocean geologist with a Ph.D., Monk was also the crew's resident ladies' man who lived by a "love 'em and leave 'em before they got your last name" motto. With surfer-dude blond hair and clear blue eyes, he got away with it thanks to his Southern drawl, farm-boy charm and movie-star good looks. "Come on, boss. You saw her wet. Talk about hot."