Page 25

Chapter 25

Crosscurrent

Easton

The tray rattles around in a circle on the counter. I don’t throw things. Letting my temper out isn’t something I allow. Not since I lost a spot on team USA for the Beijing Olympics. I was sixteen and thought I was hot stuff. I was, but that year there were twenty other guys faster than me. They also didn’t have the same temper I did. I watched most of the Olympics from the wide screen TV at my father’s Fort Lauderdale mansion. While swimming laps. A few Christmases ago, Emily did the calculations. I don’t know if I believe her math, but she said I’ve spent five years of my life in the pool or gym. Honestly, it was only ten months ago I decided my body wasn’t going to be able to rebound enough to make it to the 2024 Paris games. I’m a man now. Not going to Paris was hard, but I didn’t throw anything. Fuck, what headspace would I be in if I hadn’t already given up the idea of Paris? No, this trip was supposed to be the beginning of my future. Taking the bigger step into my father’s company. Something I didn’t want to do unless Candy had a harness on. The thought of having to deal with her on a daily basis... Damn. Now she’s gone, but I certainly didn’t want it to happen that way.

My eyes flick over to Sam. I get it. He didn’t want to tell me about the diamond. I’m sure my dad was adamant about what he wanted done and who he was supposed to tell. Things click together in my brain. Part of me wants to tell him to fuck off—this is my family’s boat, and withholding information from me isn’t going to fly. But that’s the sixteen-year-old kid scratching at my skin.

“Sam.” I clear my throat. “Captain, do you really think I would put the lives of everyone on board in danger? Fuck it. Forget everyone. Do you think I would put my sister in danger? Until recently, she’s been the only damn person on the planet I really gave two shits about.” I take a step toward him. “You’ve met her. How many summers?”

“Five or more.” His tone is low.

“And?” I ask. I feel Firefly come up behind me. I don’t stop, though. Anything I have to say, I can say in front of Haley.

“Emily’s a really nice girl. Her boyfriend, though?”

“Fucking Brick’s a piece of shit. He’s just as bad as Candy. He was pissed when Emily made a will, giving her portion of the Rockwell estate to charity. She did it as a test. I might have suggested that he wouldn’t stay with her if he didn’t have access to her money. Unfortunately, I was wrong. He was upset but didn’t leave her.” He probably thought he could get her to change her mind.

“I’ve never gotten a good feeling from him.” Sam crosses his arms over his chest.

“He’s cut from the same cloth as Candy. The first time I met him, he asked me how much my watch cost. After three drinks, he asked if I knew how much I could sell my gold medals for.” I shake my head. That’s the thing when you come from a wealthy family—it’s always hard to know who your friends are and who wants a seat at the table with bottle service. I was sure Brick was using Emily, but when she gave her money away—something she’d planned to do since she was little—he didn’t vanish. “Tell me everything. Because I had nothing to do with any of this. I loved— love —my sister, and I would never want to harm her.” It’s been driving me crazy. When I close my eyes, I see her in the other raft. I’m a good open water swimmer. But they were right, trying to get to the other raft would have been foolish.

Sam nods. “Getting the Rock Candy from the shipyard was part of your father’s idea. An excuse to have the yacht in the South Pacific. At first, he said he had something to pick up, something he would feel better about having his yacht bring back?—”

“And bringing the Pink Phoenix back into the States without anyone knowing it... Fucking hell. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. No wonder he didn’t tell me or Emily. They were planning to fly back, but I’m guessing the crew was going to bring the Rock Candy back to?—”

“We were going to sail her all the way to South Africa, where they would have met back up with us for three weeks, and then again when we got to the Med, and then a skeleton crew was going to take her home to port in Fort Lauderdale.”

“Sorry, Pink Phoenix?” Zane asks.

“Yes, it’s a named stone. It went up for auction last year. Candy was all excited about it. She drove Emily crazy with it, sending her texts and articles about the sale. It was predicted to go for between 55 to 65 million.”

“Shit,” Zane grits out.

“That’s high, but not unheard of for that kind of stone.”

“That kind?” Zane tilts his head.

“The Pink Phoenix is a pink 51 carat diamond from a mine in Western Australia. A mine that’s no longer in operation. Pink diamonds have been skyrocketing ever since the mine closed.”

“Are you into the diamond market, Rockwell?”

“Only when the chief financial officer of my family’s company calls me and alerts me that the new girlfriend has expensive taste. I’d been thinking about turning my father down on helping run the family business. I was still training. The Pink Phoenix got me on a plane from the training facility in Colorado Springs. So yeah, I know a bit about diamonds.” I hadn’t beforehand. It was also when I decided that if I ever did trust a girl enough to marry her, I wouldn’t be putting a diamond on her hand. “My dad promised he wasn’t going to buy it. The auction came and went. It went to an anonymous buyer for 55 million dollars. The day of the auction, I even went into the Rockwell offices just kind of to make sure my dad wasn’t going to bid on it. But it sold, and when I joined them at dinner that night, I expected Candy to be sulking around the mansion. She was anything but upset. She was bouncing like a kid. I asked her about it. She said she had a new horse coming to the barn.” She did. I checked, but my gut said it was more than that. I should have listened to my gut.

“A large pink necklace?” Haley says.

“Yes, did she show it to you?” Part of me wants to be wrong. But so much of this is falling into place.

“Well, yes and no. She was trying to take jewelry with her when I woke them up the night of the wreck. I told her to drop it, and your dad backed me up. She dropped the jewelry bags. I didn’t get a good look at any of them. There might have been something pink. I was thinking about other things at the time.” Her blue eyes glisten.

“Yes, thank you for saving my life.” Without her opening my door, I might have died. Or I guess I would have spent a good long time with Sam.

“But she didn’t take any jewelry bag with her. She left one on the dresser. I think the others were on the floor.”

“My dad didn’t pick it up?”

“No.” Haley shakes her head.

My stomach goes cold.

“Are you okay?” Haley grips my arm.

“I’m not sure. Someone did this to us.” And now I can’t help but wonder if it was my own father.

“He was just trying to keep Candy safe. Every second counts.” Haley rubs my arms, and I can’t help but lean into it. Has she come to the same conclusion as me? That there’s a chance my dad had something to do with this?

“Right, but if you had a small bag you could fit in your pocket lying at your feet? Wouldn’t it be human nature to grab it? That’s a lot of money, 55 million. No offense to your family, but that’s crazy.” Zane circles around the table. “I get safety and all, Haley, but 55 million dollars, for one second to scoop down and pick something up?” Zane drops a napkin and snatches it from the ground. He has a point. I don’t care about money, but that’s a lot of money.

I stare at Zane, and his brow furrows. I shake it off—there’s no way my dad planned this out. “I get it, but that’s not how my dad operates. If he bought the Pink Phoenix, he did it because he thought it would make Candy happy. Against the advisement of his CFO, his daughter, I’m sure his best friend, and me. He loves making people happy. It’s the reason he started buying yachts in the first place. Susan, his ex-wife, loved boating. So he bought her one, then a bigger one, and a bigger one after that. Granted, he loved yachting, too. He used to laugh at me and say he’d rather be on the water than in it any day.” I hate this. “Someone on board did this, right?”

There’re nods from around the deck.

“It’s not Rocky,” I say.

Haley gasps. “Wait! What? I’m coming in late. Are you trying to say that Rocky set this whole thing up?” Haley’s got her hand on her hip, and her eyes are focusing on Sam.

Sam peers back at her. “Right, I think you were still in the galley when I said I searched the primary suite and there weren’t any jewelry bags in the room.”

“There have to be. Easton and I were the last ones up. Well, I guess technically Dante and I were the last ones out.”

Sam shakes his head. “I searched. There’s nothing there.”

“That can’t be. I took Rocky and Candy to the stairs. That’s when I met Emily and Brick in the hallway. I told them I would get Easton out, and they all left.” Haley takes my hand in hers and squeezes. “They went up.” She pinches her lips together. “But...”

“But?” Sam raises his eyebrows at her.

“My back was turned when I was working on getting Easton’s door open. And there is the back staircase.”

“It’s like a damn poltergeist made its way around the ship,” Sam growls.

“I’d still like to go and search.” There’s one thing my dad told me about the ship that no one knows. He had a little something built into his cabin.

“Have at it,” Sam says.

“I’d love to go treasure hunting, but I’ve got a crash patch to replace. You ready?” Calvin asks Zane and Sam.

“That leaves the two of us.” Haley pivots and gives me a hug.