“Like my father did?” Kerry asked quietly.
Dar paused and looked at her thoughtfully. “You could say that,” she agreed slowly. “It catches up to you.” Her eyes dropped.
“Like it did to me.”
Kerry moved closer and her voice rose with her indignation.
“You’re not seriously comparing yourself to either Wharton or my father, are you?”
“No, not exactly.”
“Good.” Kerry bumped against her. “Then what are you talking about?”
Dar circled Kerry’s neck with her arms and rested her forehead against her partner’s. “I’m not really sure. Ask me again later,” she said.
The boat swayed and they both swayed with it. Kerry took hold of Dar’s waist and leaned in to kiss her. “Time to get going,” she said. “I’ll be glad when this is over.”
Dar rubbed noses with her. “Me, too,” she admitted. “Because when it is, I’m gonna kick everyone off this damn boat and put a do not disturb sign on the railing.”
“Right there with you,” Kerry said.
Dar tucked the plastic sheet into her back pocket and zipped it, then put her arm around Kerry’s shoulders and steered her toward the bedroom door. “Know what I was just thinking? The old man was a bastard. Maybe it’s poetic justice the kid took everything.”
Kerry sighed. “That thought had occurred to me. Though I’m not sure that the wife should be punished for the sins of the husband.”
They opened the door and walked out into the boat’s living area. “I’m going to go start up the engines,” Dar told Charlie, who was keeping a dour eye on the still-glowering Bob. She grabbed her rain slicker off the counter and slipped into it, fastening the catches. “Might as well get moving.”
“I’ll go on up there with you.” Charlie got up carefully, getting his balance over his artificial leg.
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‘ Thanks a lot, guys,’ Kerry telepathically sent to them, as they hastened to leave her with the furious Bob. “I’m going to heat up the soup, Dar. We missed dinner.”
Soup. Dar’s stomach suddenly rumbled loudly. “Great idea.”
She gave her partner an appreciative look. “Thanks.”
“Mm.” Kerry let her eyes rest on Bob, then met Dar’s. One pale eyebrow quirked.
Dar returned a mildly sheepish look and a shrug. “Call me when it’s ready. I’ll come get you,” she said. “I mean, get it.”
‘I liked the first one better,’ Kerry mouthed, before she turned and made her way into the galley.
Up on the bridge, Dar navigated carefully through the storm, edging closer and closer to the meeting point. It was so dark she could barely see past the bow, and she was relying only on her radar and her depth finder to keep her out of trouble. The rain lashed hard against them, moving almost sideways in its intensity.
Charlie was huddled in the seat next to her, also staring out into the darkness. “Nasty,” Dar murmured.
“Yeah,” the ex-sailor replied softly. “Listen, Dar—I’m sorry about that mix up before.”
Dar glanced at him. “It’s all right. It’s too much stress for all of us right now. I know you’re worried about Bud. So am I.” She watched the radar, then pointed at the screen. “Looks like our friend abandoned us. One less complication.”
Charlie nodded. “Saw that,” he said. “I feel a damn sight better about the whole thing now that you found that paperwork,” he added. “Ain’t that I didn’t trust you to do the right thing, Dar, but—”
“But it’s a hell of a lot easier when you’ve got something to bargain with,” Dar finished for him. “I wasn’t feeling any too comfortable, either. There’s just so much bullshit I can dish out before I run out of cards.” She made a slight adjustment to their course. “I’ll be glad to give him that damn paper, get Bud, and get the hell out of this God damned storm.”
“Doesn’t bother you that the bad guys win?” Charlie asked, watching her face.
“Bad guy’s a relative term in this viper’s nest,” Dar muttered, turning as she heard someone coming up the ladder. “Ah.” A smile crossed her face as she recognized the sturdy form in its rain slicker. Kerry, a Thermos jug hanging around her neck by a lanyard, was using both hands to pull herself up the ladder. “Told you I’d come and get you!” Dar called out.
Kerry steadied her balance and made her way across the pitching bridge. “Let’s just say there’s only so much petulant whininess I can take in one sitting, okay?” She thumped down into the third seat, on the other side of Dar. “Stupid little wuss bag. I Terrors of the High Seas 295
almost put him through a porthole.” Her voice sounded exasperated. “We almost there?”
Dar nodded. “Almost.”
A crack of thunder made them jump and the entire sky lit with lightning, brushing the heaving waves with silver incandescence for a brief instant.
“Wow.” Kerry exhaled. “This is getting pretty bad. What if he doesn’t show?”
No one answered or looked at one another.
“He’d better,” Dar finally said. “If he doesn’t, we’ll go find him.”
Lightning flashed again and Kerry started, grabbing Dar’s arm.
“Dar!” She pointed off the bow. “There’s something out there!” she shouted. “Someone! I saw a person!”
“What?” Dar barked, incredulous. Immediately, she cut the throttles and slowed the big boat into a wallowing idle. “Where?”
Charlie half stood and peered. “Can’t be, Kerry. Not in these waters.”
Kerry strained her eyes. “There was,” she said with utter certainty. “I swear it.”
Dar checked the time, then looked at Kerry’s face. “Get the spotlight,” she said. “I’ll circle.”
Kerry jumped up and started for the ladder, then froze as a light from the darkness of the waves seemed to ignite, pinning them with its brilliance. “Oh!”
Dar felt the world going out of balance. “What the hell? Now what?”
“Dar.” Charlie’s face had a strange expression. “That there’s a Navy underwater lamp.”
Naval light? A suddenly realized possibility made Dar’s heart jump. As she idled the engines, she heard the faint echo of a much smaller craft nearby. “Kerry, stay up here.” She held on to the railing as she edged around her partner. “I think we’re okay.”
Kerry held onto the rail for dear life as she watched Dar scamper down the ladder to the lower deck. “I hope she’s right.”
Her only answer was thunder rolling ominously overhead.
So close to the water, Dar could see the outline against the waves. It was a low riding boat with a single occupant. The light swept across her and blinded her for a moment, then went out. She opened her eyes and blinked. “Dad!”
“Hey there, Dardar,” Andrew Robert’s voice boomed back.
“Toss me one of them lines.”
With a feeling of relief so profound it almost made her dizzy, Dar lifted one of their dock lines and tossed it over, aiming accurately at the shadowy figure. She felt it go taut. “Keep it steady, Ker!” she yelled up to her partner. “It’s Dad!”
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“Yes!” Kerry hopped up and down a few times. “Something goes right at last!”
Dar smiled as she caught the words. She leaned over the railing and watched as her father lashed the black rubber boat to the rope.
“Want me to let the ladder down?”
“Yes, ma’am, I would like that,” Andrew shouted back, tying off a second line to his waist, then making a neat dive over the side of the craft into the water.
Dar scrambled across the deck and got to the back ladder, hanging on as the boat pitched wildly in the worsening seas. She unlatched the diving hatch and booted it open, then unhooked the diving ladder and let it down into the sea.