“Oh good.” Doc nodded. “I’m starting to love this place. Thinking about moving here permanently.”
Cami rolled her eyes, in no mood for humor. But then she yelped when the rod was nearly jerked from her hands. “Guys!” she shouted. “I think I got one!”
“Huh.” Romeo scratched his goatee. “Guess I’ve been doing it all wrong. I was fishing when I should’ve been letting my lure bob in the surf.”
“Well, what are you waiting for?” This from Doc. “Reel it in.”
Cami grabbed the little handle on the reel and started cranking. But the action was harder than they made it look on TV, and she remembered that thing Doc said about the original owner of the rod and reel.“Whoever was using it hooked into something big.”Andthenshe remembered what Mia had said about great whites being in the area.
Suddenly, all she could picture was the shark fromJAWShooked onto the end of the line, seconds away from dragging her into the sea and biting her in half.
“Take it!” She yelled at no one in particular. “Somebody take it!”
Romeo looked momentarily startled by her outburst, but he was quick to shove the flare gun into Mia’s hands and grab the rod and reel from Cami. She breathed a sigh of relief as soon as she was no longer attached to what, in her mind,hadto be a mammoth shark, and waded quickly through the surf onto the safety of the beach.
“Aren’t you about as useful as a rubber beak on a woodpecker?” Doc observed after coming to stand next to her.
She scowled at him. “You know what? I’m starting to envy people who have never met you.”
He chuckled. “Oh, come on.” He nudged her. “You thought you hooked intoJAWS, right?”
She hated being so transparent. Transparent and ridiculous, becauseof courseshe hadn’t hooked a great white.
“Wrong.” She shook her head. “I’ve just never fished before. I didn’t want to be the reason we starved to death.”
He snorted. “You reckon that explanation would work on your home planet of Horseshitia?”
See?She fought a grin.Smart-alecky. Soooo smart-alecky.
She glanced over to see if, indeed, he was broody too. But she got distracted by the way the late afternoon sun glinted in his green eyes. And for some reason, she was suddenly reminded of the fun they’d had the night before, all the flirting and teasing and joking.
Despite wanting to kill him at various times that day, she could still admit...
It really is too bad I don’t mix business with pleasure.
Chapter 14
4:28 PM...
“Shit!” Robby paced the length of the boat after Carter motored them farther away from the little island. “Theysawus.”
“No, dude,” Kenny grumbled. “They probably sawyouand the sun glinting off the lenses of the field glasses.”
Kenny turned the wordprobablyintoprolly. But what really got Carter’s goat was the use of the phrasefield glasses.
Kenny used military lingo because he fancied himself a soldier even though the U.S. Army had rejected his application twice. The first time because Kenny had a juvenile felony conviction for selling meth. And the second time because Kenny had such bad credit that it affected his potential security clearance.
Truly, Kenny Smith was a piece of work. But he wasCarter’spiece of work, especially when it came to their current situation, and so Carter bit back the sarcastic comment sitting on the tip of his tongue.
“I told ya to put those fuckers away,” Kenny continued chewing Robby’s ass. “But once ya got a look at that black-haired dude, ya haven’t been able to keep your eyes off him.”
Carter rolled his eyes. Kenny thought the biggest insult was to question another guy’s sexuality. Truly, the man still lived like it was 1995.
“So what if they saw us?” Carter said to mollify Robby and shut Kenny up. “It’s not like we’re going to respond to the flare and go get them. At least not yet.”
After they’d determined the one bastard was armed, they’d decided their best bet was to wait until after dark, sail as close to the island as they dared so that the engine noise didn’t reach the shore, and then jump in and swim the rest of the way. They would sneak up on the unsuspecting group under cover of night and wait for Mia to separate herself on a walk or on the way to take a pee break. Once she was alone, Kenny would slit her throat. After that, the plan would remain the same. Cover up any blood evidence, swim her body out to the speedboat, and then weigh down her corpse and dispose of it on their way back to Key West.
If Carter was being honest, he liked this option better than any they’d come up with yet. As much as he’d convinced himself those flying with her were simply collateral damage—and hell, the U.S. government used that excuse plenty—he’d never really been able to wrap his mind around offing three innocents.
