“It requires you to pull anchor and bust ass my way.”
“You meantowardthe Coast Guard cutter?” Tony asked incredulously.
“Sort of,” Tony said, then proceeded to lay out his scheme.
Tony walked over to the little side bar on shaky legs and poured himself a stiff drink with trembling hands. Straight scotch. No soda. He needed some pure, high-octane liquid courage if he was going to help Rory implement this last-ditch effort.
* * *
11:31 p.m.…
“This might seem like a crazy question,” Alex said. “Especially considering we’re standing here on the deck of a Coast Guard cutter with three teenage girls bunked in the cabin below us and two mysterious dead men zipped into body bags and getting stiff in the hold, but how large is it?”
Maddy turned away from her view of Garden Key and the golden glow of the lighthouse that blinked its warning over the surrounding ocean. After Bran and Mason gave the Coast Guard the lowdown on what had happened, told them of the two men who’d escaped and the unknownsomeonewho’d hired them to do the mysteriousjob,the captain of the cutter decided the best way to insure the safety of everyone was to load up and head back to Key West.
Maddy wasn’t complaining.Hell no.She wanted nothing more than to see those three sweet girls back home with their families. But therewasa part of her that wished the Coast Guard could’ve held back, oh, say, half an hour longer. She and Bran had just run hand in hand onto the beach, ready to switch places with Mason and Alex, when the cutter arrived and dropped anchor.
So where does that leave us now?she wondered.Is our one-night stand over?Would Bran expect her to hold up her end of the bargain and go back to treating him the same as she’d treated him before, like a friend, like a…pen pal?
But we didn’t even get to do the deed!she railed silently, ignoring any inner arguments about what exactly constitutedsexual relations. For one thing, she wasn’t Bill Clinton. And for another, she’d assumed when she made the deal with Bran to scratch their itch that he’d understood she meant full-on penetration. Him inside her. Sex. Sex. Andmoresex until they expired from either starvation or dehydration, or both.
Oh, like you’d be satisfied even then?her conscience insisted.You aresofoolin’ yourself, sister.
“Earth to Maddy.” Alex snapped her fingers in front of Maddy’s unblinking eyes. “In case you missed it, that was the conversational baton I just passed you.”
“Sorry.” She shook her head. The Coast Guard cutter had picked up speed, and the wind played with Alex’s curly hair until it was standing out about a mile from her head. “What was the question again?”
“I’m cursed!” Alex threw her hands in the air.
“Huh?”
“Never mind.” Alex waved her off. “I was asking how large it is. The cloud hanging over my head. I’m afraid to look.”
Maddy leaned against the rail, absently noting theshhh-shhhsound of the waves washing against the hull. The wind was cooler out on the ocean than it had been on the island. It helped to blow some of the haze from her head. “Okay, I’ll bite.Whyis there a cloud hangin’ over your head?”
“Because I have the worst taste in men,” Alex declared with a jerk of her chin. “Or at least I have no clue how to judge them. It’s like I have an internal compass that points straight at Mr. Wrong. Except I don’tknowhe’s Mr. Wrong until I go and make a fool of myself in front of him.”
Ah. Man trouble. I can relate.“I’m assumin’ we’re talkin’ about Mason?” When Alex blinked at her, Maddy said, “I see the way you look at him.”
Alex narrowed her eyes. “And how do I look at him?”
Maddy bit the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning. “Like he’s a big, juicy piece of man meat and you’re sharpenin’ your knife and fork.”
Alex groaned. “That obvious, huh?”
“Only to anyone with eyes,” Maddy assured her.
“Great.”
“So…um…what happened? If you don’t mind me askin’?” She was happy to talk about, tothinkabout, something besides her and Bran and what was left undone between them.
Alex shrugged. “I sort of…er…well, I kind of asked Mason to be my lover.”
Maddy blinked for a couple of seconds, then burst out laughing. “Apparently tonight is ladies’ choice.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” When Alex scrunched up her nose, all her freckles melded together.
“I propositioned Bran too,” she admitted.
