Spence’s brows shot up at my bluntness. “It’ll only take a few minutes, and it’s good for business. Free advertising, dude. Suck it up.”
“We don’t need that kind of publicity,” I said, avoiding his gaze as I returned my focus to the nonexistent spot on the deck. “Besides, I’ve already told the story. It’s all in the Coast Guard reports. Cancel the interview. I’m not talking to them.”
Spence followed me down the dock, circling around the piling to block me at the stern. “It’s the front page of the Herald. And you’re the hero. Just tell the story and be the fucking hero.”
My heart pounded. “Spence, you’ve got to trust me. It’s complicated. I don’t want my name in the press right now.”
He looked at me like I’d lost my goddamn mind, then swung his gaze to Reef, eyes narrowing. “You know what’s going on, don’t you?”
Reef’s poker face was better than mine, but Spence knew us both too well. His patience was thinning. “Damn it! What the hell is up with you two?”
I met Reef’s eyes. His shoulders lifted in a helpless shrug, his wide eyes begging me to spill.
Spence was the one we usually leaned on for advice, especially in the past year since Mom died and Dad checked out. We were in over our heads. We needed him.
“You can’t tell anyone else if I tell you this. I mean anyone.”
“It’s fucked up I even have to answer that,” Spence snapped. “Of course you can count on me. Now tell me what the fuck is going on.”
“It’s just… critical,” I said, pacing the stern. “This is our secret.”
“I got it, Kai. Spit it out.”
I drew a breath and said it straight. “According to the intended recipients, the square grouper I found should have contained twice as much coke as what was reported. And they think I took it. Or, thought. I managed to convince them I don’t have it. But they expect us to help find it. They said they’d use the Glocks if we went to the cops.”
Spence blinked at me, like I’d just spoken a foreign language. “Who exactly is they?”
“I didn’t get a card. I did get a good look at their nine millimeters, though. They were convincing.”
His eyes widened, color draining from his face. “Armed men showed up to shake you down?”
“More like broke into his house, waited in the dark, then tied them up at gunpoint,” Reef said flatly.
I cringed at the blunt reminder. The memory of Jasmine’s wide, terrified eyes slammed into me fresh. If it had just been me, maybe I could have stomached it. But knowing she’d been dragged into the nightmare because of me? That guilt cut deeper than any threat those men had made.
Spence’s hands flew into the air. “What the fuck? When?”
“A few days ago,” I said as evenly as I could. Three to be exact. And exactly the number of days they said they’d give me to find their drugs.
“Afew days?” Spence’s voice echoed across the dock. “Why are you just telling me now?”
“The guys with the guns were pretty explicit about being discreet,” I said, holding his stare. “They said they’d come after us if we told anyone.”
“You were there?” Spence turned on Reef.
“No, no. Kai had a date… Jasmine. She was pretty shook up when I showed up the next morning,” Reef said. “Otherwise they probably wouldn’t have told me either.”
“Who the hell is Jasmine?” Spence asked, trying to make sense of it all.
“New bartender at the Whistle,” I said quietly. Even hearing her name worsened the guilt of dragging her into this.
Spence nodded, rubbing his forehead like this was giving him a headache. “Any word from them since?”
“No, but they said they’d give me three days. Today is the third day so…”
Spence paced like a caged animal. “We need to call Waylan.”
“Did you miss the part where I said they threatened to shoot us if we went to the cops?”
