“Y-yes?” Mia asked hesitantly when the woman stopped in front of her.
“My name is Captain Rachel Mallory.” The captain extended her hand, and Mia automatically shook it. “I thought you’d like to know we have your cousin in custody and secured in a room we’ve set up as a temporary brig.”
“Okay.” Mia nodded. “Thank you letting me know.”
“How did you find us so quickly?” Doc asked the captain. “When our mayday didn’t go through, we reckoned we’d be stranded on that little sandbar for days, or at least until the morning.”
“Your partner…uh…Mr. Anderson, is it? He must have friends in high places. Because every Coast Guard ship from here to Miami is out hunting for you guys. And we were given strict orders to work through the night. My ship was tasked with patrolling this section of the search grid, and one of my deckhands saw your fire burning.”
“Lucky,” Doc said.
“Thorough,” the captain countered before once again focusing on Mia. “Like I said, we have your cousin in custody, but we don’t have his accomplice, whoever was piloting the speedboat. We could’ve given chase, but I deemed it was more important that we get back to Key West so Mr. Delgado can receive the medical treatment he needs.”
“Yes.” Mia nodded vehemently. “Thank you. I completely agree and appreciate you taking the time to tell me.”
The captain smiled faintly. “I wish this was simply a courtesy visit, but the crewman I have guarding your cousin tells me he’s asking to speak with you.”
The thought of seeing Carter again after what he’d tried to do to her and the rest of them, after what his cohort had managed to do to Romeo, made her gorge rise.
“Pardon my French, ma’am,” Doc said. “But you can tell your crewman to tell that bastard to go fuck himself. He doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as decent folks.”
“It’s okay,” Mia reassured Doc, loving him for his concern. “Honestly, I want to see him. I have questions.”
Questions like,whyhad he done what he’d done? She’d told Cami she assumed it was about the money, but she couldn’t be sure until she heard it from the horse’s mouth. Questions like,whohad been driving the getaway boat? Because an unthinkable possibility had popped into her head, and it’d been eating at her almost as much as the guilt.
“You might not like the answers,” Doc cautioned.
“I likely won’t,” she agreed. “But I have to know all the same.”
She’d spent most of her adult life running away from the truth about her family, about her past, about herself. It was time she asked the hard questions head-on and stopped being afraid of the answers.
“I’ll come with you.”
“No.” She placed a hand on Doc’s arm, the one thatwasn’twrapped in shiny white bandages and secured in a brand-spanking new sling. “He’s more likely to talk if it’s just me. Besides, I’ll feel better knowing you’re here looking after Romeo.”
Doc didn’t attempt to hide his worry for her. Even so, he nodded and promised, “I won’t leave his side.”
After giving his arm a grateful squeeze, she asked, “Can I see him? Just a quick peek? I won’t even go into the room. I’ll just—”
Doc didn’t let her finish before opening the door to the exam room. He stepped aside so she had an unencumbered view of the narrow bed.
Romeo was under a sheet. Even though he was pale, he wasn’tdeathlypale, which was a relief. The sheet fluttered with his deep, steady breaths, and she could see the big vein in his neck pulsing rhythmically.
She closed her eyes and thought about what her granny Susan would say at a time like this.That makes me feel better than a hallelujah.
Funny, she’d only ever known her grandmother as a Chicagoan. And it wasn’t until she’d gotten older that she realized all her grandmother’s favorite sayings were a product of her having been born and raised in Nowhere, Alabama.
With her heart feeling tons lighter, Mia turned and nodded to the captain that she was ready. The uniformed officer acted as her escort and Mia was happy for the guidance because she quickly became lost in the ship’s rabbit’s warren of hallways.
Eventually they turned a corner near the back of the vessel—Mia knew they were near the stern because the engine noise was louder than it’d been in the hallway outside the medical bay—and she saw a crew member standing at attention beside a metal door.
The man too young to buy cigarettes much less be in the Coast Guard. But she could tell he took his jobveryseriously by the way he snapped the captain a fast, stiff salute.
“Seaman Jones will stay at his post outside this door,” Captain Mallory said to Mia. “Don’t hesitate to yell if you need him.”
Mia nodded her thanks. After the captain disappeared around the corner, and after Mia had offered Seaman Jones a wobbly smile, she grabbed the door handle. Then the ship listed sideways.
No, she realized,that’s not the ship. That’s me.
