Page 5 of Endless Depths

“What rule did I even break?” Lawrence grumbles.

“We don’t badmouth Gabi,” Cole says. “We love Gabi.”

“I didn’t badmouth her, I said he should fu?—”

“BAIT STATION!”

“Okay, okay.” Lawrence laughs, lifting both middle fingers toward the wheelhouse windows.

“You need to come up with a better punishment, Cole,” Javi says. “Sentencing my roommate to chopping bait punishes me too because I have to smell him.”

“Just hose him off before you go inside,” I say, shunting the last crab down the chute.

“One-zero-four,” I yell to the two-way speaker, using myhands to signal the number of crab in case he can’t hear me clearly.

“One hundred and four?” Cole’s voice crackles over the PA with excitement.

I’m not celebrating yet. If the rest of the traps are this full, maybe, but I won’t be happy until we’re back in Seattle.

“It’s okay to smile, Morgan,” Cole says.

“How can he even see if you’re smiling?” Alejo asks.

“Lucky guess, I bet,” Lawrence yells over the waves. “Morgan is even bitchier than usual.”

“I’d smile more if you talked less, Lawless.”

Wes barks a laugh that only twenty years of briny air and chain-smoking will give you. Javi forced us all to quit last year, but nicotine withdrawal made Wes so irritable, Javi relented.

“Go ahead. Set the trap back,” Cole says.

“Oh, bait boy!” Javi calls. “Your services are required.”

“Bait boy? Maybe I should put that in my dating profile.” Lawrence squeezes halfway inside the crab trap, and hangs a fresh cod we caught and a bag of frozen fish inside.

“Careful, Lawless,” I warn. “Javi might lock you in and send you for a dive.”

Lawrence eases out of the trap. “No way. He likes me too much.”

Javi ties the trap shut. “Do I?”

Once they’re all clear, Wes sends the empty crab pot back into the ocean. Javi tosses the rope and buoy over as the pot plummets, and Alejo follows with the rest of the line, but he’s too early and lassos Javi with the rope.

My heart stalls. “Watch out!” I run toward him before he takes a one-way ride to the bottom of the ocean.

Lawrence reaches Javi first, grabs the rope, and frees him just in time.

Cole was right about working short-handed. Alejo just isn’t there yet. We all messed up when we were new, but without seasoned deckhands watching out, mistakes can kill.

“Is he okay?” Cole asks.

“Yeah,” I shout at the intercom.

The boat crashes over a wave. Javi loses his balance and falls onto his knees.

“Javi! I’m so sorry,” Alejo says, fair features blanched.

Javi takes Lawrence’s hand and stands. “It’s all good.”