Page 21 of Wayward (Wrecked #4)

Below Deck

Calvin

A sliver of light comes from the room with Haley and the guys. Easton’s about to push open the door when I grab his wrist. With my other hand, I put a finger to my lips and raise my eyebrows. We don’t know if anyone else is in there.

He nods at me and checks. “Clear.” He pushes into the room.

“Let’s go,” I say.

Sam and Haley are sitting on the floor near a blanket with pillows under it that looks like someone could be sleeping under them.

“Where?” Dante asks from next to the window.

“The dock. Now.” I hold the door open and usher the three of them out into the hall with Easton and Zane. I remove the wad of paper Sam stuck in the lock and pull the door tightly shut. I hold the paper up to Sam before I put it in my pocket. “Let Holloway think we can walk through walls.”

Sam smiles.

“This way.” Zane beckons to Haley.

“Keep looking for cameras, and turn your face away if you see any,” Dante says.

I’m watching every limp Sam makes as we wind our way through the mansion. The damn thing has more flights of stairs than the nosebleed seats at Wrigley Field.

“I’m good. Keep going.” Sam lifts his chin at me.

We have to duck into what’s clearly a guest bedroom to avoid a trio of security who are moaning about the arrival of Ed’s men.

Haley’s got her hair wrapped up again, and we’re walking single file in the best formation we can. But we’re not going to fool anyone up close.

Zane holds open a door. From Esmeralda’s sketch, this should be the exit to the dock. Dante called it. There’s a line of cameras outside the door. No way they won’t know we’re on the way to the dock.

“Hustle but don’t run,” I say in a low voice.

There’s a good hundred yards of landscape and beach before we hit the main dock with the boat shed on it.

This dock isn’t falling apart but rather oiled teak.

It’s long, but we make good time. Zane stops at the corner of the building before anyone can see us through the door. I move in front of him.

I use the hand signals we practiced back on the island when we were prepping for the pirates.

The others are lined up behind us, Haley and Sam in the rear. I turn the handle and open the door, but the boat shed is empty.

Fan-fucking-tastic . We need to get out of here before Ed’s men arrive.

We’re extraordinarily lucky the boat shed doesn’t have any security guards or anyone in it.

But it does have three fine-looking boats.

Two of them are high up on lifts, and the last one is hanging as if it’s about to kiss the water.

“Esmeralda said the keys were in a lockbox. But more importantly, we need to find the controls for the slings and hope the tides are right to put in. Then there’s getting around the guards on the Rosewood .

That’s something we can figure out next. ”

“I’ve got the box and the keys to the Riva Aquariva Super.

” Zane waves the keys at me. It’s a high-speed boat.

Something out of a James Bond movie. You see assholes zipping around in them in Monaco, showing off for supermodels in bikinis.

Cutting off yachts and crashing into sea walls because they’ve had one too many espresso martinis.

“No,” Sam and I say together. “Sunseeker.” It’s big enough that we could last for a while and take it far out to sea. They’re dependable, and I know them.

“Fine, I’ll get the Sunseeker keys,” Zane says, pivoting back to the box on the wall.

I head over to the Sunseeker. A crack sounds on the boat next to it.

It’s the one not on the lift. Fuck . I turn in time to see the engineer of the Rosewood .

Turner, his engineers, had called him, the one I told about the battery leak.

Turner and I lock eyes, and I have a few seconds to get to him before he radios for help.

But he throws his hands up in the air. “Don’t take the Sunseeker. It’s got a leaky fuel line. I’ve been trying to get it fixed, but I’m on the Rosewood forever and the guys here are lazy as fuck . . . Take this one.”

I blink because I’m not sure what just came out of his mouth.

“Are you dumb? I know you’re not dumb. You saved my damn engine room and lived on an island for a year.

I’m coming dockside. Don’t go knocking me in the drink.

” He jumps off the Axopar 37, nimbler than I expect him to be.

The boat he’s just come off isn’t as fast as the Riva, and it’s smaller than the Sunseeker, but it’s big enough and will get us across to another island.

It also doesn’t scream look at me, I stole a boat .

And that’s something we’re going to need.

“What were you working on?” I nod to the boat he just got off. Because this could be a trap where he knows we won’t make it anywhere but will end up sitting ducks for Ed’s men to pick us off.

“Just routine stuff. I want to get to the fuel line on the Sunseeker, but with Ed’s guys coming in tonight, I want to go back to the Rosewood .

” His face twists in a way that says fucking assholes .

“You get on board. Controls to lower her the rest of the way are over there. I owed you. Now we’re even. ”

It’s like we’re all frozen, and it takes us a minute to spring into action. Sam and Easton climb on board first.

“Grab that rope over there. I need you to tie me up. Oh, and you’ll want to go south. There’s a gun station to the north. And if you get caught, tell them you overpowered me. I’m just a little old guy.” Turner winks at Haley.

Haley hands him the rope, and he hands it back to her. “Well, if I have to be tied up, I’d like a pretty girl to do the tying.”

“Give me the rope, Haley.” I hold out my hand.

“I’ve got it. I practiced enough knots on the island.” She ties a really solid clove hitch and bowline. I watch them out of the corner of my eye. The controls for the lift are easy, and I lower the boat into the water.

By the time I’m back to the starboard side of the boat, everyone else is on board.

“Wait,” Turner says.

I snap around, my hand on the gunwale, about to jump aboard. Sam’s at the wheel, ready to turn over the engines.

“You can’t let anyone know you’re here. Not until you’re out of the country. Z has agents throughout the area. You won’t make it if you let anyone know,” Turner says.

I stare at him. Because it’s going to be a hell of a lot harder to get out of here without Easton making some phone calls, even with the cash we have. “The police? A consultant?”

The whizz of the outboard motors lowering screeches through the boathouse.

“He doesn’t have them all in his pocket. But it only takes one call to have the rest of the elder Z’s men called in with their guns blaring. Honestly, I don’t want to be here tonight when they come in. Go.”

I nod.

Fuck, I thought we’d just walk into the police station. I jump over the gunwale onto the boat with everyone else. “Thank you.” Sam fires up the motors the second my feet hit the deck.

“You can thank me by not getting fucking caught. There’s a dock to the south of the large city on the next island over. Treasure Resort. We have slips there. They would take the Green Summit without expecting a docking fee. Slips twenty to twenty-two,” he yells over the engines.

I nod and push the boat off from the dock. Zane’s got Dante working with him to get the bumpers pulled in.

“Did he say the fucking Green Summit ?” Easton yells over the engines.

“Easton?” Haley puts her arm around his waist.

“Everyone down below before we pull out,” Sam orders. “The Rosewood will be able to see us.”

“I’ve got it, Sam. You should rest your leg.” I stand next to him as everyone else moves below.

“I’m fine. And I look most like the engineer.” He cocks his head to where the guy is tied up in a deck chair. No one’s going to believe we did that. I’m surprised Haley didn’t get him a beverage and ask what he wanted for dinner.

“His name is Turner, if someone calls on the radio. Channel an inner Midwestern rage and you should be fine.” I swipe a black stocking cap from the console and toss it at him.

He pulls it low over the bridge of his forehead.

I tap his shoulder and head partway down the stairs.

Just a few steps though, enough that I can pop up if he calls for me.

But enough to hear what’s going on down below too.

Sam looks down the stairs at me as he pulls out. They’ve backed in all the boats, which makes for an easy departure for the owners. The roof of the boathouse vanishes and is replaced with inky black sky and stars. He turns the boat hard.

“Hang on,” I call to everyone below.

When we’re out a few minutes, the breakers have us jostling, and I grab both handrails on either side to keep from tumbling down.

Sam glances down. “I’m swinging port of the Rosewood now.”

The radio squawks. I can barely hear it over the waves. I climb up a step to hear better.

“ Green Summit , Rosewood , over.”

I look up at Sam. He doesn’t take his hands off the wheel.

“Turner, Rosewood , come in, over,” Rosewood repeats.

“ Green Summit , over,” Sam says.

“Are you almost done? Over.”

“I need to open her up. Clearing the fuel out of the lines. Over.” Sam glances down at me.

Fuck, that was a fantastic thing to say.

“Good idea. Get your ass back over here before Ed’s men arrive. Over.”

“Heard.” Sam has a faint Midwestern lilt. Maybe he should try his hand at acting. “You believe him? Turner, about the dock?” Sam calls down to me.

“Yeah, I do. This is one of his kids, and he’ll want it back in one piece. But he’s decent enough to pay back his debt to me . . . Or it could be a trap.”

“That’s what I was thinking too. I’m going to really open her up. It’ll be at least ten minutes before we’re out of visual range of the Rosewood. Go hang on.”

“Thanks.”

Below, Dante’s pulling things out of the cabinets while Zane lies on the back berth, staring out the window toward the bay. Easton and Haley are sitting at a small table at the bottom of the stairs. A table that converts to a berth.

Dante tosses a tin of crackers on the table. “Bingo, charts.” A book of charts thuds next to the tin. I’m at the charts as fast as I can be when Easton thumps his hand on the table.

“We are getting out of here. And when we do―I’m coming back and fucking killing Thayer Zambrano myself.” Easton’s eyes glow in the dim light.