Whirlpool (Cutter Cay Book 6) Read online

  "You don't have to hide them from me."

  "You thought I was going to strike you."

  "I wasn't going to make love if you were angry at me."

  "I wasn't." Eyes tender, he brushed her cheek. "I'll never hurt you, Persephone. Ever. You can take that to the bank."

  No, I'll hurt myself for loving you. "Good, then issue resolved," she said with a smile that hurt her heart. "Back to your life of demolition."

  "My life of demolition and my "attitude" made me “difficult to place", is how they put it."

  She knew better than to offer sympathy, but her heart pinched for him. "Were you close to anyone in foster care?"

  "I stayed in one home for almost a year in my early teens. Their son, Derry and I were the same age and we became fast friends. We ran wild, I was sent packing after he was caught shoplifting and thrown into juvie, but we stayed in touch over the years. Old Derry was a con man of the first order. I was just too stupid to see it then. When I went to the States to make my fortune, Derry joined me after he got out. I was glad to see him. Considered him my brother. That boy-o had a sharp mind. He always had a wad of cash in his pocket and a ruddy smile on his face. I was working round the clock. Happy to have my best mate with me. I never asked where he got money or why he always looked smug."

  Peri had a feeling she knew what was coming. "Did he cheat you?"

  "We went into business together- investing in the stock market. We made good money."

  "It wasn't 'good money'." With a smile, Peri nudged him in the ribs. "It was a million dollars and you were seventeen."

  "Luck. Hard work. Determination to make my stamp."

  "You did that and more. Is that why you got a divorce? You were a workaholic?"

  "You know about that, do you?"

  "I looked you up after we ran into each other again at the party," she admitted. "She was beautiful, in a cold, frosty way. You were sexy and enigmatic. Some fancy do in Monte Carlo, you looked amazing together." Finn tall and dark and serious, and the elegant blond smiling at the camera. His wife had a sneaky look – the smile in her red glossy lips hadn’t made it to her eyes. "You were quite the catch."

  "Money will do that," he said dryly. "I had Derry as my business partner and Erica on my arm. I was cock-a-hoop. It never occurred to me to have Derry's background checked when he showed up out of the blue. I'd discovered shortly after he arrived that he'd been arrested in Ireland for a bank scam. I warned him I wouldn't tolerate crooked business dealings. And he swore he was straight." His voice deepened. A muscle in his jaw twitched.

  "Fast forward ten years, and I knew Derry was skimming money out of our company. Small amounts at first, and then he got bold and I couldn't ignore it anymore. He didn't have to steal it. I would’ve given it freely. I put the money back in, gave him another warning. He was contrite. Swore he'd never do it again."

  I don't give second chances. "But he did?"

  "Hell yeah. He went to the bank where we had our accounts, set out doctored deposit slips, and rerouted people's money into an offshore account just as he'd done back home." Finn lifted an arm behind his head. The action caused the tightly coiled muscles in his core to pull taut against his tanned skin. Peri couldn’t resist, she began tracing her fingernail across the corded muscle.

  "At the time my marriage was going downhill fast. I was never home. I was having Erica followed because I suspected she was having an affair. She was. With Derry. Lucky me, I got a two for one. I was one of many who prosecuted him for the bank fraud. He was put away for fifteen years. Erica didn't do as well in the divorce settlement as she'd hoped. Derry and Erica were the last two to successfully scam me.”

  His slate gray eyes showed his bitterness. “Though many have tried. I've not tolerated liars and cheats since. It isn’t the money, it’s the bloody principle of the thing. Moral integrity is everything. If the Cutters are trying to scam me, I'll prosecute to the full extent of the law."

  And there you have it. No second chances. Peri got it. Loud and clear.

  Mid-afternoon, after a quick call to his P.A to see if there was anything that urgently needed his attention, Finn cancelled everything on his crowded agenda and turned his phone off again.

  He never turned off his phone. Only a few trusted business associates had his private number, and everything else went through his staff. But with his business interests Worldwide, he typically fielded calls at all hours of the day and night. If he got at least four hours sleep a night, he was good to go.

  "Come on," she lightly slapped his stomach as she sat up. "Let's do something."

  Sifting his fingers through her hair, tangled down her back, he smiled. “The last couple of hours of calisthenics didn’t do it? Clearly, I need one of those awful energy drinks.”

  “You don’t need an energy boost at all. Different kind of exercise.”

  “There’s a fully equipped gym down the hall or a track for running if you’re feeling that energetic.”

  “I want to dive.” She patted his belly, then lingered, trailing her fingertips over his abs. ‘There are four wrecks down there, and two of them have given up a tablet. Maybe we can find more. Rise and shine, buddy. With one from Napolitano, and yours from Nuestra Señora del Marco, aren't you even a little bit curious to see if the Santa Ana and El Crucifijo carried their own tablets? Wouldn’t it be awesome if we found more?”

  Yeah, it would. “Dr. Vadini might not be able to take much more much excitement.” Finn sat up. “He and your Dr. Núñez, are in the salon working with the tablets we have. Let's leave them to it. Logan’s diving now. Let’s see if he’d like another pair of hands.”

  "Theo's not my anything." She slanted him a look under her lashes. “I can say, with great authority, that your pair are deft and dexterous.”

  He was rapidly learning her nonlinear thoughts. “Pair of hands?”

  Her eyes lit up devilishly. “Those, too.”

  Seventy-two minutes later, after showering, making love again- several times, a second shower and getting dressed, they went down to the dive platform.

  "I shouldn't be taking another day off, you know," Ariel said as they emerged into the sunshine. "I do have a job."

  She wore a purple t-shirt over her bikini, and her long, bare legs went on for miles. She'd scooped up her hair, and pinned it haphazardly on top of her head, leaving the vulnerable nape of her neck exposed and begging to be kissed. Jesus. He had it bad. Finn couldn't figure out how it was possible to want her again, when muscles he didn't know he had, ached from their marathon love-making session.

  When he was with her he was insatiable. "You can take inventory on Logan's ship while we're there," he said, somehow managing to keep his hands off her. If he didn't, they'd be back in his cabin, horizontal again. Since he wore just his black swim trunks, he shifted to rearrange his erection.

  "I will-" Her eyes lit up. "Oh, yeah! Now we’re talking.”

  Instead of the runabout, Finn had ordered a crew member to bring out two jet skis.

  Finn grinned as she peeled out of her t-shirt to expose the white bikini he'd tried to remove the minute she'd put it on. She was all sleek muscles and golden skin. He loved the look of her in the sunlight. Even though she was lightly tanned, the cinnamon dusting of freckles all over her body looked as if he could sweep them up in his hands.

  Four members of his dive team were just emerging from the water. “Give me a minute,” he told her, glad to have something to distract him even for just a few minutes. “Want to go over there and get us a couple of suits? We can use Logan’s tanks.”

  While she went to the nearby rack to find a drysuit, he caught up with what his team had found in the last few hours. Coins, a few small pieces, but nothing to write home about.

  “All set?” Finn helped her stash their stuff in the jet ski, then showed her the controls before they set off.

  The water had a bit of a chop, and the spray felt good on his warm skin. Hell, he felt damn good with her beside him. Her h
air had unraveled and was whipping in the wind. She threw back her head and laughed at the wind, and Finn almost ran into her jet ski because his brain settled into his groin looking at her. No. His brain went directly to his heart and set it tripping.

  They made good time to the Sea Wolf.

  Several men were already suited up, and getting their tanks as they arrived. Logan and two other guys Finn recognized had clearly just returned from their dive.

  Bobbing on the water, several dozen buoys, in various colors, marked datum points, and the locations of found artifacts.

  Logan was peeling down the top of his drysuit as they pulled up to his platform, his dog stood beside him, hackles raised. The salt and pepper wolf/Alsatian was fiercely protective of his master and had the run of his ship. He gave a low warning growl that deepened as they got closer. One hand on the large dog’s head, quieted him. Logan shaded his eyes as Finn and Peri tied off the skis to the stern. “Problem?”

  “No.” Finn held out his hand to help Ariel board. “We thought we could lend another pair of hands. See if we can help you find another tablet.”

  Logan shrugged. “You’re more than welcome to go down with Galt and Earl here. But keep in mind, just because two have been found doesn’t mean there are others.”

  “Nothing ventured nothing gained.” Finn visually pinned Jed Jones in place as the diver slicked back his wet blond hair with both hands and watched Ariel like any red-blooded male would as she pulled on her drysuit. Bastard was preening for her, and he’d just seen them arrive. Tofuckinggether.

  Finn nudged her hand out of the way and finished pulling up her zipper, lingering as he got to her breasts. Mine.

  “The sidescan sonar and swath bathymetry have been completed, and we’ve already run the lines and set up a couple of grids. More as we go. I've reached my no- decompression limit for the morning, so I can't join you. Stay as long as you like. The viz is about seventy-five feet, so you’ll have a good idea of the scope of the wreck. The pieces stayed relatively close together as you’ll see. Check out Nick's grid, he'll be down later. Just an FYI," his eyes twinkled, but he didn't smile. "The face mask’s mics are set to channel 2. If you want your convo private, switch to 4 right here." He showed Finn how to adjust the channel on the outside of the mask. "Have fun and stay out of trouble. Come on, Buoy.”

  Dog and man disappeared inside. Jones and the other diver settled into chairs, and what looked like an unfinished card game.

  “Ready to rock and roll?” Earl asked, dropping down to sit on the edge of the platform, legs dangling as he adjusted a strap on his tank. He’d been on Logan’s dive crew for years, Finn had met him several times. Nice guy, mid-fifties, didn’t talk much.

  He’d met the second guy, Steve Galt as well. Steve was a giant, towering over Finn’s six four. He held out a ham-sized hand for Finn to shake, and grinned with big white teeth at Ariel, who eyed him warily as he said, “Let’s go find us another tablet.”

  Due to the angle of the mid-afternoon sun, the water was the pale aqua of translucent jade, with visibility of about seventy-five feet. Perfect diving conditions. The integrated dive masks they all wore had 2nd stage regulators, and low-pressure hoses, which eliminated fogging and reduced CO and CO2 buildup. Adjustable head straps, attached to the face shield, made fit secure and comfortable. The built-in mics facilitated communication underwater.

  Peri loved to dive, and sharing the experience with Finn made it that much sweeter. She loved the anticipation that had her blood racing pleasantly. Loved the sense of weightlessness and the rush of the water around her body, as much as she loved the endless aqua underwater and the thrill of new discoveries.

  “This is what it must be like in space, huh?” she spoke into her mask mic as she followed Logan’s divers, Finn beside her.

  “Similar, but not really,” his voice was pleasant in her ear and had the power to make her heart beat a little faster. She wondered if they should just switch to channel 4 now and avoid embarrassment. Cocking a brow, she held up four fingers to Finn.

  He smiled as he shook his head. “Gravity comes into play under water. In space, there’s zero gravity. But our astronauts train in deep water simulators to get used to weightlessness.”

  “I’ll be ready for my flight to Mars, then,” she told him, then jackknifed down to join the others. The idea of going into space, of being a pioneer, was appealing. Especially since space might be her final frontier if the Cutters decided to press charges. Charges in every country where she’d helped herself to their goodies. Might as well enjoy her freedom while it lasted.

  “We do have some grids on the northeast sector behind the wreck- the debris fields over there are more contained,” Steve The Giant's voice sounded like gravel in a cement mixer through the helmet mic. “But, since this field is so large, we used these chains, and the buoys on the datum points on the wreck, to form a triangle.”

  “I’ve never seen this done,” Finn told him, eyeing the multiple links from the wreck to the surface. “I’ve only been on salvages where the grids were used. So, the artifacts are located by noting the compass bearing on the azimuth circle and measuring the datum point to the artifact?”

  “You’ve done your homework.” Steve grinned behind his mask. “More expedient doing it this way on a wreck of this size. Although we’ll be laying more grids as well over the next few weeks. See that big grid down there on your right?" He pointed. "That area has proven artifact-rich. Nick's working that area personally, Logan's area is over there. He's diving with the Decrepit team with Zane and Jonah on the Santa Ana this afternoon. You do know that if you look up the word 'competitive' it shows a picture of the four Cutters, right? They've taken it to an art form." His laugh boomed through Peri's comm. "Man, it's a real pleasure to watch. Come on, we're over there-” He pointed to the remnants of the stern.

  “No need to stick with us,” Finn told the men. “We’ll be happy looking around on our own.”

  “Sure?”

  “Yeah. Forty minutes?”

  They agreed and swam off. Finn set his dive watch, then held out his hand to her. “Let’s take a look at this old girl.”

  Gliding through the water with him beside her, Peri had never felt more at peace. It was to be short lived she knew. But for right now, everything was right with her world.

  The carrack, El Crucifijo, lay on her side, broken in two. They swam up and down her seventy-five-foot length, accompanied by a curious tarpon, trailing them like an inquisitive puppy.

  In her mind’s eye, she envisioned the four-masted ship, square sails puffed by the wind skimming across the water. The two high castles, bow and stern, hampered their sailing speed, but that was the design of the day for ships used for exploration and trade. It must've been quite a sight to see the four ships skimming over the water together.

  They swam under a length of chain with several numbered markers on it. Went down low over the wreck, which had once sported a square sail rig mounted onto horizontal wooden spars perpendicular to the keel. Broken off like a twig, the main mast lay intact on the sandy bottom, fifty feet from the wreck.

  “This would’ve been the aftcastle.” Holding onto a chain, Peri pointed to a large pile of shattered wood, spread over a twenty-foot radius on the rocky sand. “They steered the ship from here. I wonder if they found the wheel?”

  “How the hell do you know what that was?” Finn eyed the ragged pile of chunks of wood; broken planks, decking and the flotsam and jetsam of a shipwreck. “It’s completely unrecognizable.”

  Not to her it wasn’t, but then this was her life, not Finn’s. His head was in space, not underwater. While she barely knew Andromeda from- “What’s the name of a star starting with the letter Z?”

  “ Zubenelakrab? Zaniah? Are you doing a crossword puzzle in your head?”

  “I know shipwrecks, you know stars.” She paused to throw him a sassy glance through her mask. “I presume those are stars and not gibberish words you just made up?”

/>   A small outcropping of rough rocks held algae and tufts of dark green seaweed, which swayed with their movement as they passed. Peri put her hand on a rocky formation covered with tractor bank mussels, letting a fearless sea cucumber crawl across her palm. “I can identify what’s what because of the location, and those small cannons nearby. The aftcastle would’ve had a platform used to mount attacks on anyone trying to board.”

  She used her hands to draw a picture in the water, dislodging the sea cucumber, and scattering a few tiny brown fish nearby. Particulates swirled around her.

  Tempted to stay and explore, she resumed swimming, eyes scanning the seabed. Looking for anything, everything of interest. Artifacts, pinpointed by numbered markers connected to the chains, protruded from the sand- a small cannon, more pieces of wood, but she didn’t linger to see what else was in the area.

  “She was really used as a long-range cargo ship, more than the warship the carracks would become later.” The built-in headset was awesome, even though her voice sounded as if it was coming through an echo chamber. Still, better than not sharing this moment in real time with Finn. Hand gestures only went so far.

  “Our four ships were fast and small. Still at least forty-fifty people must’ve died on each of them when they sank. There’s no record of anyone making it to shore.”

  Finn lifted a chain so she could pass under it. “You really love this, don’t you?”

  “Diving? Ships? History? Yeah. I live for this stuff. I wonder if they knew what they came south for?” Peri swam down to run her hand along the length of a brass cannon, looked up, caught Finn’s salacious grin, and shook her head. “One track mind, Gallaher. Do you think the captains of Napolitano and Nuestra Señora del Marco knew they carried the tablets? Or were they just ordered to come here, without knowing what it was they’d been sent to collect?”