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“For a cost, though. You don’t have yachts like this because you give things away. What would we be talking about?”
“Nothing.” I held up my hand to ward off any protest. “The pro bono isn’t so all altruistic. For one, you’re important to Coop, which makes you important to me. And two, I’ve actually already approached Zaki about courting you and Nik to work with us. You’d be under no commitment of course, so please don’t feel the help obligates you or that you need to make any decisions soon. But who you were before the tornado is just as important to us as who you are now. In fact, I think the combination will be an extremely powerful one.”
I could sense Thea was getting uncomfortable with the focus on her. I wasn’t surprised when she snagged another round of bacon and changed the subject. “You know, Coop makes sense now.”
I chuckled. It wasn’t an anomaly for Coop to rub someone wrong at first. “How’s that?”
“He blamed me for delaying this trip and didn’t make his irritability with me a secret. Now I know why he was so eager. He couldn’t wait to get back to you.”
I didn’t correct her about the get back part, just smiled down at my buttered toast. Then I remembered it was well past my normal breakfast time. Back on Marakata there would’ve been toast waiting for me and a steak for El Hambre. I knew I’d forgotten something. I held back from calling the island. What was one steak in the grand scheme of things? And it wasn’t like El Hambre would waste away without his breakfast snack. Nor would Zaki’s empire crumble if I took a little time just to enjoy the ocean breeze and a nice breakfast with a new friend.
The phone started ringing. Gray. So much for abstaining from work. “Sorry, I better take this.”
Thankfully my rudeness was diluted as Leo, all lean muscles and rumpled bedhead, ambled toward the table like a young cub waking up from a nap. I greeted him, grabbing up the fruit smoothie Cait had made for me. Then I excused myself and headed up to the sundeck.
“Okay, what have you found out?” I asked.
“A couple of things. First the Austin twins. You were right. There’ve been several large donations, like account-draining donations, to a handful of charities that are under the Ardent umbrella. The two which the twins have contributed significantly to are the self-help series you told me about and a mountain refuge for human trafficking victims called the Sanctuary. I didn’t see any other connections between the twins and Clayton Kenyon, though.”
“Well, not publicly. But he was connected with Ardent somehow, and I wouldn’t be at all shocked if he had his thumb in the Sanctuary. It’s gotta be a cover for something.” It always intrigued me the way some people publicly condemned the very thing which they privately engaged in. Happened a lot with protest-too-much types like Kenyon. But the Austin twins came as a bit of a surprise, and I wondered if they, or maybe it was only Ophelia, even knew the real workings of these supposedly good, wholesome endeavors.
“Very possible. You want me to get Scott’s opinion on any of this? Or should we still keep this quiet?”
“Let’s wait to bring in Hayes. He won’t be interested until it’s more actionable anyway.” He valued intel over hunches, which was why it had taken him so much longer to bring up the activity in South America or to name Coop. Right now we had nothing conclusive. Just some loose connections that I still hadn’t even been able to solidly link to the so-called production company. Besides, Hayes’ questioning my focus to Zaki still rubbed me wrong.
Gray added, “It’s just, Hayes was with the Bureau around the same time as Kenyon.”
So was Thea. And Thea had been the one who’d actually had enough on him to bring him down. What if she had more? An ace up her sleeve still?
Now I really wanted Thea to regain her memories. Her knowledge of Kenyon, and possibly any associates, was more current than anything Hayes could provide anyway.
I shot off a text through OZ to our medical team requesting an indigenous tribal doctor and some Schedule I psychedelics be put on a plane to Marakata as soon as possible. No one ever questioned Zaki, but it probably should’ve been concerning that an order for a shaman and toad venom didn’t even warrant a repeat back for accuracy.
As I headed down to get ready for the dive, I got a call from Vivi. I’d been expecting an update on Captain Tom’s daughter, so I answered with, “How’s Natalie?”
“Natalie is perfectly fine,” Vivi said. “As are Tom’s wife and son. He’s not been home. No plane tickets were ever made in his name out of the islands. No charges to his cards or transactions in his bank accounts. No calls made from his cell phone or internet activity of any sort.”
Fear crept up the back of my neck. “Where the hell is he?”
Coop
I’d never gotten nervous before an op before. I really didn’t want to start now. This dive needed to go easy-peasy, so the Ozma Emerald could be brought up without a hitch and its namesake and I could spend the night rolling around naked in celebration.
Kai helped me load the last set of tanks as Nik kissed Thea goodbye. They both hopped into the tender as I glanced around. I was a little miffed that the only one waiting for a goodbye kiss from me was Titan.
Even if the sex hadn’t been off-the-charts amazing last night, I still would’ve expected Zee to be on hand to see us off on such a big job. Of course, she didn’t realize the risks I was taking, nor did I want her to. Truth was, I needed to see her, even if it was just one last time. My nerves were getting the best of me.
“Could be worse, I guess,” I muttered before crouching and giving Titan’s snout a smooch. The scamp took complete advantage and went for the full French version. “Okay, big mistake… Way too much tongue, fella!”
As I swabbed my face with my forearm, my eyes widened. Zee was here and wearing a full-body wetsuit. She strode toward me with determination and confidence as the sleek, black neoprene clung to her curves like a second skin. Saddle me up and call me Seabiscuit, because I suddenly understood people with dominatrix and latex fantasies. My brain snapped back into action when instead of a fringed whip, she grabbed up a rebreather and backup tanks.
“Whoa! What are you doing, Presh?”
“What does it look like, Sharky?” She oh-so casually pulled her wetsuit zipper down as if her breasts could use a little air. “Playing tennis, obviously.”
God, I wanted to plant my face right in that sweet canyon of cleavage. Boobs or not… I was not going to let Zee distract me. “No, no, absolutely not. You’re staying on the boat.”
Hands on the luscious curves of her hips, she squared off with me in the yacht’s toy garage. “You say you won’t live in a cage, but you seem to want to keep me in one.”
