To Ocean's End (3 page)

I knew this wasn’t O’Toole’s doing. He
was
an autistic prankster, but he never voluntarily touched anyone, not even with objects. He just jumped out of random places, trying to scare people. Kid stuff.

I checked the nearest of several hatches leading below deck and found it locked, as it should be. “Sauna, go check Scully’s keys. Make sure he has ‘em.”

“You got it, Captain.” Sauna pulled up his pants a bit, then ran off.

I continued working my way towards the bow, looking for an unlocked hatch to no avail. I ran the thirty yards back to my starting point and checked in the other direction. By the time I reached the fourth and final hatch, I knew I didn’t have to check. One of Tethys’s men was staring out over the stern, just standing in the open. Sauna rounded the wheelhouse, panting. He started saying what I already knew about Sam’s keys, but I quieted him with a hand. I pointed at the stern. He turned and gasped, then reached for the invisible sword on his hip.

“Ya regreso, Captain.”

“No need.” I fought the urge to laugh at his movements, which were basically a pirouette. He’d turned turned for the weapon crate, then turned around again before he could take a step. His arms had even raised a little to keep his balance. I walked towards the intruder, both curious and angry. We were still thirty yards away when I realized we had a woman on board. Oh, boy. Where the heck did she come from, and why was she here? She couldn’t have picked a worse time to grace a bunch of sailors with her presence.

I walked more toe-heel than heel-toe so my boots soundlessly trod the deck. Sauna was unconsciously doing the same. Once we were within five feet of her, we stopped in unison. The lady was short and lithe in her baggy, ripped up shirt and gaucho pants. She had brown and black sneakers that looked like they were supposed to be white under all that filth.

“Hello there, lady.”

Her long black hair whipped around like an Asian fan as she spun her body. She put her fists up and backed into the railing.

“What on earth are you doing on my ship?”

“Trust me, I don’t want to be here.” Her voice wavered, and then I noticed her tanned face was red from crying.

Well, isn’t that the interesting answer? I sized up her taut frame. “Then why are you here? Don’t you know sailors think it’s bad luck to have a woman on board? And right now my crew and I are feeling extra superstitious.”

“Go to hell!” The lady lunged and pushed me onto my rear, then socked Sauna in the gut. Too shocked to react, I watched her hair and rags flap around in the wind as she headed for the bow. No, wait, the wheelhouse! I got to me feet, rubbed the dull pain out of my rear, then together Sauna and I ran after her. She was a fast thinker but not a fast runner. We made it up the stairs leading to the wheelhouse right as she slammed the door shut behind her. I slammed against the door as she locked it, then Sauna slammed against me. My face made a lovely smear of oil and dead skin cells on the glass.

The lady laughed at us, then stood before the wheel. “This is my ship now. Enjoy the ride!” She undid my autopilot wood and swung the frigate due west.

Well, well. Ballsy one, isn’t she? If I had a heart, even I could fall in love with a broad like that. She
was
pretty enough to bang, despite her terrible getup and disheveled hair.

“Captain, what do we do? This is strong glass.”

“Oh, just let her enjoy herself a minute. I have the key to the wheelhouse, remember? Go eat. I’ll take care of this.”

Sauna gently punched himself in the forehead, then headed down the stairs. I looked inside the wheelhouse. The lady was thoughtful enough to flip me off as she popped a triumphant smile. I smiled back as I fished out my keys, then held them in front of me and jingled them. Her smile vanished. Her eyes darted around the wheelhouse.

No, lady. My chair is bolted to the floor. Don’t even try it. She tried anyway, made her face a little redder, then grabbed my auto pilot wood. She looked at them, then threw them on the floor. She kept glancing at me while she searched the drawers for, I guess, something to keep the door wedged closed. She went through all ten drawers and snarled after finding nothing useful. When she swiped all my nautical charts on the floor, I shoved the correct key into the knob. I had those damn things in a particular order. Now I’d have to reorganize them again.

The lady threw herself against the door as I turned the knob. I paused. “Really? Do you ever think anything through?”

“I’ll kick your ass if you get in.”

Nope, she doesn’t. “Fair enough.” I threw my weight against the door right as she locked it again, causing me to make a second smear on the glass. I smiled, hoping it came off as a look of death to her. She grabbed the doorknob with both hands and braced herself against the door, her shoulders level with the knob. I twisted the key a second time and turned the knob as she fumbled for the lock. But I had her. I heaved the door open and sent her reeling into my bolted down chair. She clung to it, and then lunged at me. I blocked one fist, then caught her other wrist. She proceeded to swing at me with her free hand but I caught that one right after she made my left ear ring. I clamped both her wrists in one hand and felt up a breast with the other. I couldn’t help it. It’d been over a month since the last time a pair of breasts were this close to me. She smelled like sex and sweat.

The touch of a hand on her personal space sent the lady into a frenzy. She yanked both wrists out of my grasp and kicked me in the groin. I dropped, clutching my crotch, and she pounded on me as I lay on the floor. Her punches stung enough to know I’d be sporting a bunch of bruises later. I rolled onto my back and hoped she’d go for more than my face. To my great luck, she punched me in the cheek with one hand, then right where my gun was with the other. She let out a cry of pain, then clamped her hand and sucked on her knuckles. After the initial sting subsided she pulled open my coat and barely stopped herself in time from touching my gun. She let go as if my coat burned her hand and backed into the far side of the wheelhouse, her dark eyes quite wide open.

“You... why? Why do you?” She pointed to where my gun was concealed and sank to the floor.

With one hand still over my crotch, I sat up and dragged myself over to the door, closed and leaned against it. Where the heck did she learn to be such a ruthless fighter? “I’m the captain of this ship. I’ll be the one asking questions. Start explaining yourself.”

Chapter 3

Amphitrite

The woman stared at my trench coat, clutching her knuckles as she caught her breath. I waited for her to say something intelligent but she began to take on the demeanor of a rodent caught in a trap and going into shock. “What are you doing on my ship, lady?”

The words snapped her out of her increasingly catatonic state. Her dark eyes regained their fiery glare. “I already told you I don’t want to be here!”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“Getting away from Tethys. Got a problem with that?”

Well that explained why there’d been a grappling hook so far away from the fighting. I’d noticed it when running from Tethys but hadn’t given it any thought until just now. “Definitely not. I hope he drowns one day.”

The lady, whatever her name was, gave me one of those smiles that conveyed she was in accord, that she might even have started liking me a little. “Good.” I didn’t care if she liked me. She needed to be deposited in Port Chesapeake so she could find a real chauffeur.

“So what were you doing on
his
ship?”

She unconsciously covered her chest and curled into a ball, her chin pinned to her sternum. “It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m never going back.” Her voice had gotten all tight when she spoke, which clued me in on the fact that her stay hadn’t been a pleasant one.

“That doesn’t answer my second question.”

Her sharp gaze melted into a red, watery-eyed one. “He’s a pig and I’m a thing with a hole. Use your imagination.” She tightened her body into a more compact ball, her jaw muscles flexing hard as she fought back tears.

For half a second I felt bad for having grabbed her breast, but remembered my hand over my crotch, pain still aplenty. Sure, feeling her up didn’t make me much better than Tethys. But still, I’d never forced myself on a woman. I never would. That’s one thing men should never do. If I ever came across Tethys again, I’d personally drown him without his dick attached.

It was only half surprising that someone like Tethys would resort to rape to get some action. Despite my subpar, scruffy appearance, brothels were full of women eager to brag about having slept with a captain of a steam frigate. We were a rare breed of macho man. I passed a hand over the stubble of my beard as I looked over my strewn charts. Heck, even crew members were brag-worthy, but slightly less. Steam frigate crews had to be tough and strong. So many pirates and black market mercenaries. That and we were the only people keeping international trade alive, even Tethys. I guess people could call us heroes, if they were into that kind of fantastical sappy crap.

My dick didn’t feel particularly attached as I stood and limped over to the wheel. I gingerly stepped on a few charts. I’d pick them up once I could use both hands. My ship was still heading due west, towards New York City. What could she possibly want in New York? The Big Apple was now the Big Core.

I swung my ship back south. I wasn’t anybody’s chauffeur, not even hers. Besides, Tethys was enough trouble for one day. He’d come back for me eventually. He always did. He was stupid like that.

I wedged my auto pilot wood back on either side of the joystick and began cleaning up my nautical charts. Two of them were ripped but I resisted the urge to strangle the lady. It wouldn’t make the rips go away anyway. The top half of my fifty charts had fanned out like a deck of cards on the floor. I collected and realigned them facedown on the counter, then began sorting the other half, which was splayed out like someone had thrown a handful of confetti. The task took intense concentration in order to not rip any more sheets, and to recall the order of their placement.

I flinched when the lady asked me my name. I’d forgotten she was there, despite the ache in my crotch. “Doesn’t matter. We’re not friends and you’re not staying on my ship, lady.”

“My name is Jessie. Stop calling me ‘lady.’” She stood, pushed her hair out of her face and stared at me with her fists just above her hips.

At least she had the intellect to not lay another fist on me. I really didn’t want to put her in a headlock. “Whatever. It’s Dyne. You can call me that or Captain.”

“Dyne? Is that a nickname?” Her fists lowered but she remained plastered to the wall.

“Yes and no. No one but me knows my real name anymore.” Why did I let that bit of trivia slip? This lady was nothing to me. I went back to straightening my nautical charts now that I’d removed all of them from the floor. The fog bank outside was half gone with sunlight brightening up a lousy day that’d included two instances of foiling my attempt to eat a cheeseburger in peace.

“Jessie is just a nickname for me. My real name is Amphitrite.”

I accidentally ripped the three charts in my hand as I whipped around. I couldn’t have heard her right. My heart began to pound and my palms got sweaty.

Jessie--or Amphitrite--dropped her tough girl act as I stared at her. She clasped an elbow. “My dad said it comes from Greek mythology. He named me that because of my temper. I picked up the name Jessie so Tethys and his crew would stop calling me ‘Mammy’. They were too stupid to get my real name right.”

“So why Jessie?” I tried to sound casual. She didn’t seem to catch the tension in my voice.

“It’s the name of my favorite American singer. Ever heard of Red Fern?”

Okay, I needed to treat her with utmost care and respect from now on, and make sure she stayed on my ship. She was a double-edged sword to me, almost not worth keeping around. “Were you born in the Mediterranean?”

Jessie furrowed her brows. “Cyprus. Why does it matter?”

I turned back to my charts in hopes of not making her feel any more uncomfortable. If she was the real deal, then I and my entire crew had to be careful. That bitch who’d cursed me would be expecting a visit from me sometime soon, and those trips
never
ended well. And with Jessie’s accompaniment, it was even more dangerous, yet held greater odds for me. I was desperate enough to believe there was still hope for me and ending my curse. So many people coveted immortality before the Purge. Maybe if this world were more of a utopia, it wouldn’t be so bad. This world was still trying to find its feet again.

I reached for the handle to pretend to be steering the ship, then let go when I made a clang against the auto pilot wood. So much for looking nonchalant. “Where were you hoping to run off to when you escaped Tethys’s ship?”

“A friend who can get my back home.”

“Where’s home?”

“Cyprus, duh.”

“Of course.” I clasped the accelerator for comfort. I didn’t want to be stuck as some nobody in his forties anymore. I wouldn’t die, unless I figured out how to lift my curse, something I was losing hope would ever happen. A visit to a certain cave was in order sometime in the near future. Hoo boy, my crew would like that trip as much as getting a gun for a birthday present. “I’ll see about getting you home. No joke,” I added when she raised her fists and gave me a suspicious glare.

“Tethys promised me the same thing,” Jessie said sourly. “It took me a month of getting to know him, then getting raped the first time to figure out that he’d lied to me. Why should I trust or believe you?”

“I’m not Tethys.” I thought of apologizing for grabbing her breast but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. “That, and I’ll throw in a pair of your very own steel-toe boots before our next stop. Sound good?” That was about the last thing I wanted her to wear, but it was better than knee spikes.

A trace of a smile crossed her lips before she resumed her hard gaze. “Words are nothing. I’ll believe you when I’ve got them on my feet.”

“Fair enough. Now let’s get below deck and eat.” I crossed to the door and held it open for her--not out of courtesy. Not a chance. I didn’t want another scuffle over which way my ship was headed. My groin had only just stopped hurting.

Jessie looked at the wheel, then at me and backed up a step.

“I’m on a shipment schedule, lady. I’ve already lost a week thanks to Tethys.”

“Amphitrite or Jessie. Pick one.”

“Amphitrite. Whatever.” I meant to say her nickname, but her given name slipped out. My stomach did a little butterfly flutter inside, persuading me a little more that the next few months were going to be interesting. “Now move.”

Jessie gave the wheel a baleful look, then straightened up and slipped out of the wheelhouse without giving her back to me. I locked the door behind us and checked to make sure none of the windows were open. Everything was satisfactory. I caught up with Jessie at the bottom of the stairs and led her down to the galley, anticipating the drama that was about to unfold.