Page 34 of Wayward (Wrecked #4)

Sea Dog

Calvin

“ E smeralda?” I shout at the woman in the driveway. Her head snaps up, but it’s the sound from inside the car that’s more shocking. There’s a loud woofing, and it’s crazy to think, but I know that bark. It’s different from any other bark.

Sam takes off running to the car. He knows it too. I’m not going to risk the damn bolt cutters sliding down my pants or stabbing me in the waist, so I powerwalk to the car. Penny’s jumping up and down on Sam. When she sees me, she switches to jumping between us.

Esmeralda pulls a cat carrier out of the back seat. “I have your demon too.” She thrusts Pepper’s carrier into my arms. There’s a small lock on it. “Here’s the key.” She drops a luggage key into my hand.

“I thought we were . . .” I stop myself from mentioning our arrangement. There’s no need to out her if we’re wrong about the microphones in our ankle monitors.

She pats the top of the cage. “This demon clawed up the side of Z’s leg.

It’s amazing that he didn’t have her killed.

I told the elder Z I loved them and if he hurt the animals, I’d walk.

” She puts her hands on her hips. “Honestly, I thought he was going to drown me. Instead, I’ve been transferred to this hellhole.

” She waves at the chateau behind her. “But better yet, you get to take care of them now.”

Penny’s jumping at Pepper’s crate, and Pepper is doing a good job hissing back at her.

I hold the cage up and stare into it. “I’ve got you now.” I wish I had a hoodie on. It would calm her right down to snuggle into my chest.

“What room are you in?” Esmeralda straps a backpack on, while a driver unloads several trunks and three large suitcases.

Sam tells her while crouching, scratching Penny’s ears, and I set Pepper’s box on the other side of my feet.

“Good, I want to be in another wing. And don’t let the demon pee on the Oriental carpets.” She marches to the front door. A door I’ve yet to see open.

I grab a suitcase and Pepper and follow behind. Sam’s tugging two suitcases while the driver wrestles with the trunks behind us. Penny zooms between Sam and me.

“Put it there.” She points to the bottom of the grand staircase. “Now where is Hunky Holloway?” She wanders down the hallway to a sitting room where Holloway and Collins watch sports on a tiny television.

“This way, Penny.” Sam calls her back from following the chef. Her fluffy ears flap back and forth at us.

“She looks good. Someone has given her a haircut.” I head up the backstairs with Pepper, and Penny with her coiffed curls races in front of Sam like she knows where she’s going. Her nose is to the ground. She heads right to our room and paws at the door handle—opening it.

“What?” Haley cries. She is on the floor, rolling around with the golden-doodle by the time we get in. “Where did you . . . Is that Pepper?” She points to the crate.

“It is.” I put it down, but I don’t open it up. Esmeralda has a point. Pepper’s not a house cat. She’s a treehouse cat.

“Hey, Pepper.” Haley crawls over to her on the floor and lies down, her nose inches away from the crate.

I toss her the key from my pocket. “The house manager from Thailand brought them. Apparently, Pepper attacked the elder Zambrano.”

“Well, I knew I always liked that cat,” Easton says, coming out of the bathroom.

“Hope she clawed his eye out.” Sam’s playing with Penny.

I pull the bolt clippers out of my pants and tuck them under the bed.

“What are those?” Haley’s got a good view of it from the Oriental rug.

“It was our idea of freedom,” I say. But how can we do it now?

Penny and Pepper are family too. They kept us alive as much as we kept them alive.

Heck, we’d probably still be yelling down to Sam on the Rock Candy if it wasn’t for Penny.

Easton would be singing out of the small opening in the rock for the rest of eternity.

I glance from Haley to Sam and to Easton.

It’s easy to read that they’re all thinking the same thing. We can’t run away from them again.

“We’ll figure something out,” Haley says. She stands and picks up Pepper. “I’m going to take her out in the bathroom. We need to get her some supplies. Penny too.” Penny jumps up onto the bed.

“I should tell her to get down, but I can’t.” Sam sits on the side of the bed and rubs her ears.

The house library doesn’t exactly have the newest Lee Child book.

But I’m working my way through a set of Agatha Christie’s leatherbound mysteries.

It’s been four days since Penny and Pepper showed up with Esmeralda.

The food has gotten a lot better. And Holloway is a heck of a lot scarcer.

I’m not sure if he’s hiding from the chef or with her.

I don’t care. It will make things a lot easier if Z doesn’t hold up his side of the bargain and let us go in three days.

Zane comes out of the shower and sits on the bed. His feet are inches away from the bolt cutters on the floor. The bolt cutters that have been driving me crazy. I glance from him back to my book.

“So, what are you doing? Reading, right? Sorry,” Zane says.

I’ve always thought of myself as the doer of the group. But we’re all doers, even Easton. And it’s interesting to see them all squirming. We need to get out of here. It’s a prison. A really nice prison, but when you’re a get-shit-done kind of person?

Zane stands and re-sits. “I’ve been thinking. What if we take them north?” There are most likely no microphones here. But we’re all in the habit of talking in code after the Rosewood and we haven’t dropped it. The “them” is Penny and Pepper. North—I’m guessing—is his mum’s flat in Birmingham.

“What do you think will happen if we’re followed?” I ask.

“Right, that’s no good. I don’t want to invite shit into their lives.”

“Nope.” I turn the page, though I haven’t read what was on the last one. I want to be left alone.

“Why did Collins put your zip tie in his pocket?” Zane cocks his head at me.

I blink. I guess using a code is out the window. “I had almost cut through it.”

“Right, that makes sense. But why didn’t Collins tell Holloway or the other twat?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t know he had put it in his pocket.”

“I’ve been playing it over and over,” Zane says.

My head bobs because there’s a whole ton of shit that I’ve been playing over and over for a while now.

“I’ll let you keep reading.” The bedroom door bounces closed behind him.

But fuck, now I’m looking out the window.

Zane’s more of a Hercule Poirot than I am.

It sends my head spiraling. How did we get here .

. . more like why? Who benefits from Easton, Rocky, and Emily being dead?

Is this about the diamond or them? The more time that goes on and the more Ed wants us dead, the more I think it’s not about the diamond.

The diamond is expensive, but the Rock Candy was worth more.

And if Rocky and Emily are living their merry fucking lives, it’s just Easton.

Like a damn witch, Easton comes into the room. “You want lunch? Zane said to leave you alone.”

“I could eat.” I put down my book and follow Easton to the dining room. Zane’s hidden behind the newspaper. “Yeah, I want lunch.” I pull down the paper and flip him off.

“You were reading.” Zane picks up the paper and straightens it. “And you were a bit pissy.”

I glare at him. But he’s not wrong. I’ve been shit for company lately.

“What the hell?” Easton takes the crumpled paper from Zane.

“Hey, I was reading that.” Zane reaches for it back, but Easton angles his body like a point guard.

“I’ll give it to you in a second. The Futures of Markets Forum is taking place in London. It starts soon.”

“And?” I reach for the pitcher of water.

“And my Dad goes most years. He’s virtual sometimes, but he likes London. I was supposed to go with him this year.” Easton hands the paper back to Zane.

Dante hands me a platter of roast beef. “You want some?”

“No, I’m good.”

“Haley, do you want some roast beef?” He wiggles his eyebrows at her.

“No.” I say for her and take the platter. The last thing I want to watch while I eat lunch is Dante’s face while Haley goes searching for her napkin under the table.

Haley’s blinking at me. I know she’s holding back the are-you-okay question.

“Yes, I’m pissy. I’ve been thinking . . .” I turn to Easton. “How much is Rockwell Tire worth?”

Easton opens his mouth.

I cut him off. “It doesn’t matter. Is it publicly traded?”

“No.” He takes a rabid bite of his sandwich and chews with vigor. I’ve pissed him off.

“Sorry, what I’m getting at is if you, your sister, Rocky, and Candy are dead, who gets the company?”

Easton puts his sandwich on his plate. “I own the tire company. It’s worth around nine hundred million last time it was evaluated. Dad had it switched over to me. He knew I wasn’t happy about him marrying Candy.”

Zane stands and paces near the window. “What the hell, Rockwell? Why didn’t you tell us that before?”

“We were on an island. And I could ask you the same thing, but I’m not going to because it’s in the past.”

“Fair enough. Right, okay, so if someone wanted to kill you to get the tire company, that would explain why they aren’t going after Rocky.” Zane bounces on his heels.

Haley puts her hand on Easton’s arm. “Who gets it if you’re dead?”

Easton laughs. “That’s the thing I wasn’t big on. My lawyer wanted me to update my will after the transfer happened. Fuck. But with the training and then making the decision to retire . . . I never did. Everything I have was to be transferred back to my parents. Rocky and?—”

“Your stepmom, Susan.” Haley covers her mouth.

“Fucking Susan,” I growl.

Easton combs his hand over his face. “I . . . I’ve thought about this before. I’ve thought of every angle. But it’s hard to think that she could do this.”

“People do more for a lot less money,” Sam says.

Easton nods.

“They hadn’t been divorced long? Before Candy?” I ask.

“No. And Susan stayed on at Rockwell-Harding. She’d been dad’s assistant with Rockwell Tire. She was part of our family before my mom died.”

Haley has her arm around Easton. “If she did this, I don’t think she was part of your family. We can find the proof.”

“Money laundering for Ed and taking Rockwell Tire out from under your family?” Zane says. “No, that’s not family. That’s greed.”

“Did she go with Emily and your dad? That summer after freshman year, when you think Rocky met Ed for the first time.” I raise my eyebrows at him.

“Yes, I mean, I wasn’t there. But she went everywhere with Dad.”

“Kind of hard to give up the jet-set lifestyle,” Dante adds. “That’s reason enough.”

Easton winces.

“Whoa, whoa . . . I think we’re jumping a few steps. We don’t know if Susan did it or not. We don’t have proof.” Sam puts his drink down and glares at Dante.

“Sam, it’s okay. She might have raised me, but her idea of raising me was picking us up from boarding school for the summer and driving me to swim camp,” Easton says. “It’s a theory, and it’s not a bad one. And I’m fucking sorry if I’m the one who caused all of this.”

“You didn’t cause anything,” Haley says. “Because you didn’t update your will? What your stepmom did or whoever, that’s not your fault, Easton. None of us will ever blame you.” She wraps her arms around his waist and plants a kiss on his neck. Easton’s eyes lock with mine.

“We’re family. What we went through together can’t be broken.” I nod at him.

“Hear, hear.” Dante raises his glass.

But the hurt on Easton’s face is there. There’s something more. He knows something else, and he’s not saying it.