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Dane nodded and sat down on the deck. He leaned against the gunwale, closed his eyes, and tried to relax. The sun was warm, and he hoped it would help keep his back from totally locking up. The sound of the gulls overhead, along with the waves bumping the boat, were soothing, but the saltwater drying on his skin created an itch that could only be showered off.
“Hey, sleeping beauty, wake up. No falling asleep on the job,” Jace joked.
Dane cracked open one eye. Jace offered him a bottle of water. He was about to say “no” when Jace shook it at him. Dane took it, and then Jace opened his other hand that held two Advil. Dane nodded his thanks and took the ibuprofen. He opened the water and downed the pills. He gave Jace a nod of thanks. Jace always had pain relievers on hand. He’d blown out his knee somehow. Dane never asked for details from Jace or any of the others. The details would come when they wanted to share.
He’d been pissed off when he’d been assigned to this team. Just another dead-end post, one step closer to forcing him out of the Coast Guard, or so he’d thought. But gradually he came to realize Cain was offering him and the others a chance at being on a real team again. A chance of doing good work. And itwasa good team.
Over the last three months, they’d been attached at the hip. They’d trained together, ate together, hung out together. They were close and getting closer every day. He hadn’t realized how much he needed that comradery until it started happening. He hadn’t felt that bond with his last MSRT. There had always been an undercurrent, as if he didn’t belong there. He’d only been a fill-in. One of the regular guys had gotten hurt and mustered out.
“Drugs,” Cass stated out of the blue.
Dane glanced up at her. “You seem surprised.”
“Nah. Just…depressed. The war on drugs just never ends, does it?”
“No, I guess not.” She was not wrong about it being depressing. Dane was about to close his eyes again, but Jace came over and squatted down.
“You know what kind this is?” Jace pulled a picture up on his phone. It was a block of off-white powder wrapped in plastic. There was a skull and crossbones inside a circle that had wavy lines off it.
“Is that supposed to be a skull in the sun?” Dane asked.
“That’s what it looks like,” Cass agreed.
Jace frowned. “That’s not exactly good marketing, using a skull.”
“Addicts don’t care. How much marketing do you think drug dealers need to do?” Cass demanded. She snorted and went over to sit in one of the jump-seats.
Jace turned back to Dane. “So, did you recognize the boat because you’d been out in it?”
He shook his head. “It wasn’t that kind of team, at least not for me. Maybe I was looking for it subconsciously, or maybe just because I was staring at it last night. Dunno, I just recognized it.” He didn’t want to go into detail about Owens and his old team in front of the yeoman, but it hit him that he was going to have to explain because, if it was Owens down there on the anchor chain, then all kinds of questions would be asked. Most of which he did not want to answer.
CHAPTERFOUR
“Forget the bagel,” Rutledge said as he leaned over the half-wall of her cubicle.
“Oh, for shit’s sake,” Mac snarled. “I just got it. I need five minutes to eat it. When I left this morning, my muffin disappeared. Casper has had me chasing my tail for the last two hours, talking to supposed CIs who might know something. A load of bullshit if you ask me.” She frowned. “I haven’t had breakfast yet, and it’s almost lunchtime. I need to eat something.”
“Trust me, you don’t want to eat. They pulled a dead Guardsman out of the water. One Senior Chief Petty Officer Craig Owens. He was probably in there for twelve hours, at least. He ain’t going to be pretty to look at. But hey, it’s up to you.” Rutledge smirked before he turned and strode to the elevator.
Mac’s gut rolled just thinking about it. She stood, grabbed her bag, put it over her head so it hung across her body, grabbed her coffee, and started toward the IT department, but then stopped and went back for the bagel. She needed something in her belly, or she’d be hungry and grumpy for the rest of the day.
She hurried down the aisle of cubicles and made a right at the end. Coming to the next row, she stuck her head over the top of the first one. “Manu, you gonna be around later? I have some email questions I want to ask you.”
The kid looked up from his computer and grinned. “You bet. I have to fix a couple of laptops, but I should be here.”
Manu was the resident computer genius at CGIS at the ripe old age of twenty-five. The kid knew everything as far as Mac was concerned. He was also a huge geek. Tall, reed-thin, with brown hair and big brown eyes. Everyone treated him like their kid brother. He was just a nice guy. She hoped life wouldn’t kick that out of him.
She walked over to join Rutledge at the elevator. He glanced at her. “You checking up on what Cross said?”
“Maybe. Manu would know. The kid’s brilliant,” she said in a quiet voice.
“Then what’s he doing here?” Rutledge’s voice barely rose above a whisper.
She shrugged. “Apparently, he had a failed tech startup. Something to do with AI. It didn’t go so well, so he came home.” The elevator doors opened. “Where are we going?”
“About two miles out.”
So much for the bagel. Her stomach knotted up. The move to Hawai’i had been a huge change and a godsend in her life, but she still hadn’t gotten used to being on the water. She’d never been one for boats, and growing up in Minneapolis, she didn’t have to worry about being seasick. Might be the land of ten thousand lakes, but she avoided water easily enough.
