Page 37

Chapter 37

Math

Calvin

“Chiefie.” It comes out as a command.

She lifts her mouth from my cock, and I’m wondering why in the world I’m complaining about what she’s doing. “Calvin.” She licks around the tip of my dick with those blue eyes focused on me. I’ve got to admit, I’m wondering how Sam is taking all this. “Is your foot okay? Do you want me to stop?”

“My foot is fine. But you’ve got to be hungry and dehydrated from last night.”

Sam slides off the bed, and I expect her to follow. But then he’s back from the coffee bar in the dressing area of the suite, a bottle of water in his hand. “Hydration is important.” He cracks the seal and hands it to her. She downs a few sips. “I’ll see you when you get up.” Sam smirks at me and then kisses Haley on the cheek before he heads out of the room.

She smiles, waves, and when the door clicks shut, she leans back over me. I’m not going to complain. And if there’s one thing that can shut my brain the fuck up about the problems in the engine room, it’s Haley’s mouth, pussy—fuck, it’s anything Haley.

My hips press up, and she swallows my cock down to the back of her throat, and fuck me. “Haley,” I growl a warning, but it’s too late. I’m shooting off. My hand roughly holds the back of her head. I’m half pulling on her hair, half holding her down. And when I settle, she looks up at me with mischief in her eyes. Fuck. “I love you, Chiefie.”

My heart explodes when she winks back at me. Damn, Dante has it right. She is Sassy. I don’t even care that she hasn’t said it back yet. How can she not without putting pressure on everyone else? And that’s not how Haley works. If there were a patron saint of empathy—which I’m sure there is, but I have no idea what their name is—for me, it would be Haley. It’s amazing she hasn’t been crushed under the weight she’s carrying. It’s even more amazing that her father sounds like a piece of shit stuffed into a business suit.

I lay my head back on the pillow. I have to get up. I have... well, everything to fix. But last night, I decided that getting a local radio up and running would be the best thing. Sam said he saw pirates, and I believe him. I think we did during the first few nights on the island too. Which means they’re around. And I’d rather know when they’re around.

The engine is going to have to wait. Not only do I have to deal with the sabotage but the damn saltwater in the generator too. And the VHF radio is something I can do up on the bridge. Let my foot rest for a little while.

There’s a knock on the door, and Zane’s there. With a tray.

And I’m staring. “Is that an egg?”

“Yeah. So, don’t get mad.”

I have a feeling I’m going to get really mad.

“Right, so I was up early. Dante and Easton too. We were looking at the WaveRunners at the top of the boat.”

My gut is clenching. But Haley puts her hand on my shoulder, and I try and relax a little.

“Okay, so I’ll start with nothing else being broken. Kind of. Nothing important, that is.”

“Zane?” I growl.

“Right. Easton took the second shift. Sam was out. I don’t think I could have woken him if I tried. But then I couldn’t fall asleep, so I went up with Easton to the top deck, and then Dante came up right before sunrise.”

I grunt. “The Three Stooges?—”

“Maybe fast forward, Zane.” Haley slides out of bed, looking for her clothes.

“The front WaveRunner was up top, and the crane wasn’t attached to anything. Since they launched the transport during the evacuations?—”

“Fucking stupid,” Zane and I say together.

“When I stood on the edge of the antenna platform, I could reach the sling for the crane. It was high tide and?—”

He was damn right to be wary about telling me. I can already see where this is going. The WaveRunner could have crashed into the side of the boat. “Fucking hell, you dropped it off the side?”

“Yeah, but it’s fine.”

“What did Sam do?”

“He made the same face you did, ate the egg, then went to the wheelhouse and slammed the door.” Zane’s not standing close to the bed.

“That is the stupidest thing you’ve ever done. You could have ruined everything. I don’t even know who you are anymore. Even my fucking stupid engineers Mitch and Waldo wouldn’t have done something so asinine.”

Zane’s eyebrows go up in surprise. “Mitch wasn’t stupid. Same goes for Waldo.”

“What? What does that even matter now?”

“It could mean a lot.” Haley has found her shorts and is running her fingers through her hair. “We’re looking for who could have done the sabotage. If Zane says that both Waldo and Mitch were hiding their intelligence from you, that could mean it was one of them.”

“They both barely passed the test I gave them,” I say.

“Failing a test is easy,” Zane says. “Waldo had a lot of experience on tugboats. He was a deckhand. Said he’d even been a bosun once or twice off the Maine coast. But he wanted to try his hand at engineering.”

“Fuck, it could be one of them. Part of me was hoping it was just Emily’s boyfriend, Brick. But when would he have found the time? And when would he have even known what tanks to put those damn stickers on?” I’m staring at the tray. And then I realize I’ve gotten side-tracked. “Wait. How did you drop the damn WaveRunner over the side of the boat?” I have to take a breath. I’m starting to feel sorrier for my dad and all the stupid things Jared and I did on the farm in the name of saving time. “How did it end with eggs?”

“Sure...” Zane’s bouncing on his toes, and if it was anyone else telling me this, I would have already exploded. It ticks in the back of my head. That’s why Dante and Easton sent Zane down to tell me. “After I righted the WR and checked it over, making sure the lines were good and no gas was... right, I took it for a little spin. I zipped along the cliff away from our beach camp. The opposite direction of the cliff doesn’t go that far. In fact, there’s a cave. But that’s not where I found the eggs. The beach on the opposite side is exposed. And there were chickens. I followed one, but I couldn’t catch it. I did, however, find a nest with some eggs. And I came back. Chickens! How amazing is that? I’m thinking it must be kind of near where you found the Pomelo trees. I didn’t see any signs of anyone around. But I didn’t stay for too long. I wanted to get back.” Zane’s back to smiling.

My foot is throbbing now. And my brain hasn’t caught up with everything he said. “Back up. You said you almost didn’t damage anything. What did you damage?”

Zane’s bouncing back and forth on his heels. “The sling. We got the WaveRunner in the sling, then forced it over the edge. I put on a harness. Easton belayed me, and I cut the sling while pushing the WaveRunner off. I suppose that was stupid. But now we have eggs and a machine that doesn’t use as much gas as the tender.”

“And how are we going to get it back on the yacht at low tide when the surrounding reef is practically cutting through the water? The fact that the Rock Candy found this space in the reef to settle is lucky.”

“The cave isn’t that far. It’s got a shelf. We tie it up in the cave and swim back and forth. Or we drag it up onto the tiny beach on the other side of the reef. Or keep it back at the treehouse beach.”

I purse my lips because they’re answers. They might not be the answers I like, but they’re not bad. Okay, they’re fine.

“Look at that, Little Bird. He’s speechless. Dante has an egg for you, Haley, and wanted to wait to make sure you were ready for your egg. Want me to tell him you’re up?”

“That’s okay. I’ll go chat with him in a minute.”

Zane puts his arm around Haley’s shoulders. “Thanks for calming him down.” He wiggles his eyebrows at her.

“I’m glad you didn’t get hurt,” Haley says.

“Me too. He took it much better than I thought.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about, Zane.” Her tone drops, and she glares at him. Now it’s me who is happy that he’s getting a scolding. Disappointing Haley is probably better than me taking it out on him, anyway.

I push the pillow back to the headboard and move the tray onto my lap. The last time I ate breakfast in bed, I was twelve and had strep throat. My grandparents and I were in deep quarantine. I read and listened to music for four solid days. It was awesome, but that’s not going to happen here. I need to get to the wheelhouse to work on the radio.

Haley sits on the edge of the bed. “You want anything else?” she asks.

I hold up a bite of the egg for her. It’s remarkably good. I thought what I would miss most was pizza and beer. And last night was fun, although maybe no more beer for a while. But there’s nothing better than a fresh egg.

“That’s yours,” she insists.

“One bite.” I hold the fork out, and she takes it, her lips closing over the tines.

“Mmm. It’s really good.” She leans in and kisses my cheek. “Do you need anything?”

“I’m not staying in bed. I’ve got shit to do. I should have been up already.” I wipe up the rest of the egg with the pizza crust that Dante has sliced open and grilled with something. “I’m getting up.”

The door swings open, and Easton steps in. He’s got the medical kit under his arm. “No, you’re not. At least, not until I take a look at your stitches.” He hands me a little cup with some pills in it.

“What’s this?”

“Just a couple of normal pain killers.”

“I don’t need that. We should save them.”

“The yacht has enough for a couple of years. We don’t need to skimp on them anymore.”

I frown at the cup but then toss it back and chase it with the rest of Haley’s bottle of water.

“You need me?” Haley asks Easton.

“Unless he’s going to take the WaveRunner incident out on me? No.”

Haley gives me a quick kiss and is out the door.

Easton drops the medical kit on the bed next to my legs, and my foot bounces. A zip of pain shoots up my leg. I glare at him.

“That’s what I thought. How bad does it hurt?” He unwraps my foot and pokes at the bottom of it.

“Not bad until you started jostling me around and poking at me.”

“I’m on your side. It’s just I had a feeling you’re the sort of guy who acts all tough and doesn’t let the wound heal before trying to do too much.”

“What more do you want from me? I’m lying in bed.”

“Exactly. And that’s where you should stay.”

“I can’t. You know that.”

“We’ve been stuck for a long time. A couple more days isn’t going to hurt us. We’ve got more food. Medicine. Seriously, Green. What we don’t need is you getting your foot dirty and getting it infected. Stitches, I can do. Amputations? Not so much. I mean, I suppose if I had to...”

I’m glaring at him. He’s got my heel in his hand.

“I’m still shocked. I think these are the best stitches I’ve ever done.”

My forehead furrows. I have no idea why he’s trying to give himself a gold medal for stitches. Seriously. “Thanks.”

He laughs. “I’m just glad I didn’t fuck it up. I was drunker than you last night.”

“I doubt it.”

Easton cleans the bottom of my foot and wraps it back up in gauze. He’s found a giant sock and pushes my foot inside it. “I’m a quiet drunk. Right until I pass out. Which I was ten seconds away from when the Captain—Sam—called out the tide. You want to get up and use the bathroom?”

“Yeah, that would be good.” I swing my legs around and stand, and holy mother fucker.