“How’s it coming, Chief?” the captain asked.
Angie caught something in his tone, an edge that she didn’t like. Anger simmered there, and though his brown eyes were kind, she understood that if pushed, the captain might turn out to be a dangerous man.
“All’s well, Captain.”
Gabe gave Boggs a curious look. “Just the three of them?”
“Yes, sir.”
The captain nodded, then stood by quietly as the cranes whined and the cables retracted and the lifeboat rose. As the deckhands stepped forward to help guide the lifeboat onto the deck by hand, Captain Rio took up a position just beside Boggs, nearly out of Angie’s earshot.
He spoke softly, so that she barely heard.
“Angie’s liable to hurt you pretty badly if you keep pushing her, Hank,” the captain said, dark eyes stormy. “And I wouldn’t blame her.”
Boggs turned angrily toward the captain as though he might argue, but then he remembered his place, took a deep breath, and only glowered like a petulant child. When the captain looked over at Angie, his expression remained grim, but he nodded once, to let her know he understood, and the conflict was over. For now.
Tupper helped Miguel out of the lifeboat, the chief mate slinging a heavy canvas bag over one shoulder. Angie didn’t have to guess what was in that bag. She’d seen it before, and seen what came out of it. Guns.
Josh, the cook, stumbled out of the lifeboat on his own, glancing around as though expecting someone to be there to greet him. Angie stepped up to give Dwyer a hand. He smiled at her, let his fingers caress her wrist and arm, but didn’t kiss her or take her into his arms. Out here on deck, they were part of the Antoinette’s crew. What happened back in their quarters was another story. That was their time.
As the Rio brothers met on the deck, whispering to each other, backs to the others gathered there, motion from the accommodations block caught Angie’s attention. She glanced up to see a flash of white, then Tori emerged from the shadows of the stairs. In the moonlight, the woman looked pale, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her sweatshirt hid the curves of her body.
Angie studied her as she approached, assuming Tori had come down to meet Josh, but then she noticed the chill Tori gave off, and saw that she was purposely ignoring the cook. It seemed weird, given the intimacy Angie had witnessed between them earlier.
Tori went straight to Captain Rio and pulled him aside. Gabe bent to let her whisper to him, nodding. He gripped Tori’s upper arm in thanks or comfort, Angie couldn’t decide which, and the two of them gazed at each other for a moment.
What the hell? Angie thought. Is she making a play for him?
Gabe lowered his head, shoulders bunched, and sighed. Angie had spent enough time with the Rio brothers to recognize the danger of that pose, that sigh. It was a moment of hesitation the brothers shared, a moment while they tried to muster their calm, to contain their anger.
“Captain?” Dwyer asked worriedly. This might be his first journey aboard the Antoinette, but he knew that pose as well.
Miguel looked alarmed. The other crewmen had stepped back, waiting for orders. Josh glanced around, vaguely mystified.
Gabe Rio moved with a swift assurance that belied his size. In three strides he crossed the space that separated him from Josh, gathering up the front of the cook’s shirt, his right fist driving forward. Josh tried to twist away, to fall back from the blow, but the captain had an iron grip.
The first blow took Josh in the temple, staggering him. The second hammered his nose, blood squirting from both nostrils.
“Holy shit,” someone said. Angie wasn’t sure who.
The third time Gabe’s fist swung, he hit Josh so hard he couldn’t keep his grip on the cook’s shirt, and finally Josh fell backward, sprawling onto the deck, arms and legs splayed. He managed to get himself up on his elbows, but couldn’t rise any farther.
“Mr. Boggs, take this man to the rec room on level three, lock him in, and set a watch on both doors,” Captain Rio said.
“Yes, sir,” Boggs replied.
“The rest of you return to your duty or your quarters,” Gabe continued, before turning to his brother and Dwyer. “We need to talk.”
Angie watched all of this with astonishment, mouth slightly open. While the captain had been beating the shit out of Josh, Tori had stood by and watched, eyes dark with grim acceptance, perhaps even approval.
Now, as Angie walked away, she glanced over her shoulder. The captain had dismissed everyone except for Dwyer and Miguel, but Tori hadn’t left. She stood with the three men, talking low, hands gesturing. She looked worried. If it had just been her, Angie wouldn’t have been troubled, but all four of them wore anxious expressions.
If the Rio brothers were worried, Angie figured they were all pretty much screwed.
22
Tori had her arms crossed, tight to her body, afraid if she let go she might fall apart. Skin flushed, heart racing, she felt wired in a way she had only ever experienced once before — down in the bowels of Penn Station, picking herself up off the ground after the train exploded. Gooseflesh rose on her arms, not from the night wind, but from the anticipation of the unknown.
Staring at the three men on the deck with her — the tempestuous Rio brothers and the eager Tom Dwyer — she saw something she did not expect. Their eyes were just as wide as hers, their faces equally haunted.
“Why aren’t any of you talking?” she asked. “What are you going to do?”
The wind took the words, but not before she realized what she’d said. Not what are we going to do, but what were they going to do. For better or worse, she’d always relied on the judgment of men, and now she was doing it again. Joining the crew of the Antoinette had been the first major step she’d made in her entire life that had been of her own devising, and now it appeared to have been a mistake. Just as falling for Josh had been.
Miguel’s dark eyes flashed with anger. So damn handsome. Usually the air of danger that came off him was alluring, but tonight he only seemed lost, even childish.
“We’re thinking,” he said.
Gabe ignored them all. The dynamic between the Rio brothers sometimes seemed more like father and son, with Miguel the more impetuous and Gabe carrying the grim wisdom of command. The effect had never been more pronounced than at that moment.
“Captain?” Dwyer ventured. The trust he placed in the Rio brothers shone in his eyes. He was worried, but he would follow whatever course they set for him without question.
Once that would’ve been me, Tori thought. Blindly following. She had always given her faith too easily.
Gabe turned to Tori. He’d been mulling things over, but obviously he’d heard her question. She had no idea which way he’d go with this. Gabe Rio wasn’t a criminal by nature. He’d gotten on the wrong side of the law solely because he had wanted to look out for his brother. But he had to have known that tying his fate to Miguel’s could lead to ugly places.
The ship swayed beneath them, and the silence of the sea engulfed them. Though Gabe’s eyes were full of determination, to Tori he looked trapped, and she realized that was exactly how she felt. How they could be trapped in the middle of the sea, a hundred miles from anywhere, was hard to imagine. But it was the truth, nevertheless.
“We’re going to get the guns back,” Gabe said.
Miguel stuffed his hands in his pockets, looking like a sullen teenager. “What about the FBI?”