CHAPTER FOUR
The thirty-five-foot cabin cruiser sliced through the blue-green waters of the Florida Straits as smooth as a hot knife through key lime pie. Jimmy caressed The Salty Lizard’s new leather wheel and juiced the throttle. With her new engine and updated features, the old girl was acting like a boat half her age and Jimmy was inclined to indulge her.
The ocean spray kissed his face, the salty essence mingling with the taste of lime that lingered on his lips from the Coronas he’d knocked back earlier in the day. The late afternoon sun baked him from the inside out, while the rapacious wind tried its damnedest to pull his hair out of his head. He didn’t care. He had a bikini-clad babe clinched to his elbow and a sweet piece of fiberglass under his feet.
Life didn’t get much better than that.
Shame it was all an illusion.
The Duchess sat behind him, carving a hole into the back of his skull with an imaginary spoon.
He’d woken up this morning a free man. Now he was knee-deep in bullshit and sinking fast. He’d somehow gotten roped in to escorting a pair of trouble-seeking teens home after tangling with a wannabe ninja and foiling the plans of a notorious Colombian drug lord, and pissing off Bautista’s right-hand man while he was at it. If that wasn’t enough, he was stuck babysitting a snooty, hardheaded woman who was determined to give him indigestion.
“Who’s she?” April said, glancing over her shoulder at the Duchess. “Is she your girlfriend?”
Jimmy snorted. “God, no. She’s the daughter of an old friend.”
April’s head tilted as she studied her. “She’s pretty.”
“You think so?” He looked over his shoulder at the Duchess.
Her hand was on top of her head, trying to keep the wind from whipping her hair into her face. Ruddy splotches covered her pale cheeks, and her lips were pressed together as if she’d taken a sip of a sour apple martini and found it heavy on the Apple Pucker schnapps. Despite all of that, she was still a knockout.
A supermodel on a bad day was still a supermodel.
“Well, she’s a pain in the ass,” Jimmy said.
“Why?”
“She just is. Does your daddy know what you were up to today?”
April had tied her hair up in a ponytail before they’d set off, but the wind had loosened some of the strands. She pulled a wispy blonde lock out of her mouth as she became interested in something on the deck.
“That’s what I thought. How’d you end up in Miami?”
April shrugged and her breasts threatened to dislodge her suit. Jimmy turned his head away, planting his eyes on the water.
“Greenlee and I had the day off from school. We were looking for something to do this morning, so we went over to the Schooner Wharf Bar. Did you know happy hour starts at eight a.m.?”
“I’m aware of that. Aren’t you a little young to be hanging out in a bar?”
“It’s not like we go there to drink or anything. Greenlee is into older men, so we sip Cokes and flirt. That’s where we met Elliot, the guy from the pool. He said he was heading back to Miami and invited us to come along.”
“You do that often? Go off with strange men to God-knows-where?”
“No.”
“Do you have any idea what could happen to a pretty little thing like you? If I hadn’t been there today, your luck would have run out real quick.”
Surprise had flickered across her face midway through his lecture. Now, her expression softened and she gave him a smile that would have lit the desert. “You think I’m pretty?” She stepped closer, pressing her breasts against his arm.
“Did you hear what I said? Why would you go off with a bozo like that? What were you thinking? You’re smarter than that, April.”
She ducked under his arm, sliding between his body and the wheel. Her voice softened seductively, as she said, “When we get back to the island, how about we lose the others and go back to your place so I can show you how thankful I am for the save?”
Jimmy stepped back to put some space between them and straightened his shoulders. “How old are you, darlin’?”
“Old enough.” She bit her bottom lip. “I turned eighteen in July. Got these as a birthday present from my stepmom.” She stuck out her chest, showing off her rack.
Jimmy almost looked down, but he caught himself just in time. He went still as she wrapped her arms around his waist and plastered her nubile body against his. Ripe, luscious, and technically legal. What red-blooded American male wouldn’t be tempted?
“What do you say, Jimmy?”
He faced the invitation like a man about to leap off a bridge to his death. He knew he shouldn’t do it, but he also knew the sweet oblivion he would find the moment he hit the water.
He punched out a breath. She might be eighteen, but she was a little girl in a bombshell’s body, swimming in the deep end with sharks. “Why the hell would you want an old geezer like me?”
“Because you’re hot and you think I’m pretty.”
“You’re a beautiful girl. But save yourself for some guy who cares about you.” He couldn’t believe he was actually giving sex advice to a teenage girl. He braced himself for the lightning strike, but it didn’t come.
She looked confused. “You’re not interested?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Oh.” She stepped back and crossed her arms.
“Why are you in such a doggone hurry to grow up, darlin’?”
She frowned at his chest, and the little seductress was gone.
“They have a word for men like you,” the Duchess said from the back of the boat. She stood up and staggered forward, catching herself on the mate’s chair, which she slid into a moment later.
“Princes?” he offered.
“Predators. She’s half your age. While I’m around, could you at least pretend to have some morals?”
The cruiser bumped over the cross-waves of a passing boat. The Duchess white-knuckled the dashboard rail as her stiff ass hopped and slid around on the seat.
Jimmy couldn’t help his slow grin. “Are you jealous?”
“Concerned. Why are you bothering with a man like him?” she said to April. “Surely, there are boys at your school whom you fancy.”
April ducked under his arm and braced herself on the frame of the companionway. She smiled shyly at the ground. “There is this one guy. He’s in my advanced calculus class.”
“Advanced calculus? Impressive. Tell me more about him.”
April shook her head. “Forget it.”
“No, please. I want to hear. I’m Sophie, by the way. Sophie Davies-Stone.” She held out her hand. “What’s your name?”
“April Linus.” The girl accepted the handshake. “I love your accent. I’m from Key West. Where are you from?”
“England. My family’s estate is about thirty minutes south of London.”
“Cool. I spent a week in London for my twelfth birthday. My mom and I used to travel a lot.”
“Used to. You don’t anymore?”
The girl’s sunny smile faded. “She died.”
“I’m sorry.” The Duchess frowned and the little quotation mark appeared above the bridge of her nose again.
“It’s okay.” April shook her head as if shaking off the sad memory and smiled again. “Are you on vacation?”
“Not really. I came to Miami to meet my father, but there was a misunderstanding. Actually, according to my mum, Key West is the closest thing he has to a hometown. I hadn’t planned on visiting but…” She glanced at Jimmy, “My plans changed.”
“What’s your father’s name? My family knows a lot of people on the island.”
“Mitch Thompson.”
April repeated the name as if trying to place it and then her eyes widened. “Hamburger Man?” She looked at Jimmy for confirmation.
He chuckled. He’d forgotten about that incident, but to April and the kids who hung out at The Pelican Cove Diner the story had become an urban legend of sorts. “Yep. That’s him.”
April’s mouth formed a perfect O.
The Duchess seemed to gird herself for the worst. She pressed her lips together until they turned white and then said with distaste, “Hamburger man?”
Jimmy explained. “One afternoon a while back your old man had about ten too many at Louie’s Backyard. He climbed up onto the roof of the old diner across from the high school and started ranting about being a superhero.”
Nodding, April laughed. “Able to leap super-sized fries in a single bound!”
“That’s right.” Jimmy chuckled too.
“Oh, dear God.” A blush sprouted on the Duchess’ high cheekbones on top of the color she’d gotten today.
“He kept shouting about how he could fly,” April said between giggles, “so we all thought he was going to jump.”
“The police couldn’t talk him down, so they just left him up there. Figured one story wasn’t too far to fall so he’d probably be all right.” Jimmy finished with a shrug.
The horrified expression on the Duchess’ face was priceless. “You mean to say, they just left him up there?”
April nodded. “We went back inside to our tables, but we kept waiting for him to fly past the window.”
“What happened to him? Was he injured?”
April rubbed the Duchess’ arm. “Don’t worry. It all turned out okay. He passed out on top of the word ‘Cove’ on the diner sign and then climbed down off the roof sometime during the night.”
The Duchess looked at Jimmy. “How long ago did this happen?”
He squinted into the horizon, trying to recall. “Oh, I don’t know—”
“Six years ago,” April said with absolute certainty. “I was in middle school. Seventh grade.”
The Duchess sat back in her chair, staring blankly at the horizon. She looked a little nauseous again.
April went on, oblivious to her distress. “Hamburger Man has become a legend on the island. Parents tell their children, if they don’t eat all their dinner, Hamburger Man will get them.”
“April, why don’t you give me and the Duchess a little time to talk. Your friend Gretchen looks lonely up in front all by herself.”
“Greenlee, you mean.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said. How about it?”
“Sure.” She squeezed the Duchess’s arm. “I really hope you find your father.”
“Thanks.”
The sun had begun its twilight descent, its last hurrah before marking the end of another day in paradise. Streaks of orange threaded the thin clouds hovering above the horizon, promising to deliver something extraordinary.
The Duchess stared into the setting sun, her expression pensive.
“Nickel for your thoughts?”
The little quotation mark above the bridge of her nose was back as she tilted her head to look up at him. “Why not a penny?”
“Inflation.”
The corners of her mouth quirked but didn’t quite form a smile. Instead, her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed. “You didn’t tell me my father was a buffoon.”
“Mad Dog just had a little too much to drink that day is all.”
“He’s a drunk, then. I’m not sure which is worse.”
Jimmy shrugged. “There’s no harm in letting loose once in a while.”
“Mad Dog,” she said, turning sideways in the seat to face him. She still gripped the dashboard rail like a pit bull on a steak. “Tell me more about that. How did he come by the name? Or should I be afraid to ask?”
“It was his call sign in the SEALs. The dude was fearless and unrelenting in the face of danger. Kinda like a rabid dog.” When the skeptical expression didn’t leave her face, Jimmy said, “He once walked down the center of a bridge toward an enemy-infested patch of woods armed with nothing but a MAAWS rocket launcher and a grin.”
“Why was he grinning?”
“His team had been pinned down for hours. They were out of ammo with little hope of getting out of there alive when one of his men stumbled on the weapon hidden beneath some brush. Looked like the enemy had meant to take out the bridge, but somebody fuc—goofed up.”
“Were you there?”
“Nah, it was before my time.”
Her eyes narrowed. “He sounds a bit certifiable, doesn’t he?”
“Oh, he’s crazy as a bedbug, but in the best possible way. He’s a computer genius and a wiz with all things mechanical. He never took any unnecessary risks with the men in his charge, but he would have laid down his life for any one of us.”
“You respect him.”
“Of course I do. I owe him for saving my ass, especially when—” Realizing the direction the conversation was going, he stopped.
“When what?”
The answer caught him between the ribs like a serrated bowie knife. He swallowed past the tightness in his throat. “Let’s just say he kept me from doing something stupider than I’d already done.”
The chaotic images from that night came at him hard and fast.
Mad Dog’s raspy baritone talking him off the proverbial cliff. “Put the gun down, Panama. Breathe, damn it. Just breathe and look at me.”
Horrified by what he had done, he’d turned the weapon on himself. There was so much blood. The metallic tang in the air filled his nose as if it was infused with the ocean breeze.
“Jimmy?” The sweet timbre of the Duchess’ voice called him back from that dark place.
He shook the graphic images from his mind and inhaled deeply. The air was warm, but he shivered from the cold sweat that had blossomed on his skin. He loosened his death grip on the steering wheel.
The Duchess was staring at him warily. “Where did you go just now?”
He avoided her searching gaze.
“Does it have anything to do with those ghosts Florez was talking about earlier? Does something haunt your dreams?”
If anyone around here had brass cojones, it was the Duchess. She’d crossed a line and Jimmy was done with her. “Why don’t you just make both of our lives easier? Give me the medallion and go home. Why make this harder than it needs to be?”
“What makes you so certain I have the medallion with me?”
“White cotton becomes transparent when it’s damp, darlin’.” He looked down at her breasts and grinned shamelessly.
The medallion wasn’t the only thing he’d noticed. Beneath the outline of her lace bra, her nipples pointed up at him as if they were calling him out.
She gasped and pulled the clinging fabric away from her skin. “You’re depraved.”
He shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a man. Men look.”
“Andrew wouldn’t have looked. Andrew would have averted his gaze and offered me a towel or something to cover myself. But then he’s a gentleman, isn’t he?”
“Sounds like a tool,” Jimmy muttered.
“What was that?”
“Sounds cool. Who’s Andrew? Your boyfriend?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“Ex-boyfriend, then.”
“Shut up.” She turned away and leaned back in the chair, holding onto the edge of the seat. She crossed her long legs and her skirt rose higher, showing off a tantalizing amount of smooth, toned thigh. He averted his gaze to salvage what was left of his sanity.
“I’m not going anywhere until I meet my father,” she said.
Jimmy’s blood pressure spiked. “Why are you so hell-bent on meeting a man who, according to you, has ignored you for the last quarter of a century?”
He had to hand it to her. She didn’t rattle easily. She raised her chin a notch and said, “It may not be what he wants, but it’s what I want.”
“Well, hell. I’d rather be sitting on my dock with a Corona in one hand and my fishing rod in the other watching the sunset, but we can’t always have what we want, can we?”
“How do you expect me to board an airplane without my passport? My handbag and the rest of my belongings are back at the hotel.”
“I know a guy who can get your things to you by tomorrow.”
“You know a guy? Brilliant. Do you think I want some dodgy friend of yours riffling through my knickers? No, thank you. I’ll fetch my things back on my own. As soon as we arrive in Key West, I’m going to phone the Miami police and tell them exactly what’s happened. I’m the victim here.”
Jimmy gripped the steering wheel tighter. “You want to be a sitting duck for your daddy’s enemies? Because that’s what’s gonna happen. The police will haul your ass back to Miami for questioning and Florez will be waiting for you.”
“My mum warned me my father has a propensity to associate with disreputable characters, but I hadn’t realized the extent of it. Who does Florez work for and what does he want from my father?”
“Hector Bautista. A big, bad Colombian drug lord who likes to masquerade as an innocent businessman.”
“And my father stole something from him?”
“According to Florez, he did.”
“That’s just terrific, my father is not only insane but he’s a criminal to boot.”
“I don’t know about that. Is stealing something from another criminal actually a crime?” He chuckled at her disapproving glower. “What? Your daddy might have his faults, but he’s a good man at heart, and somebody you should be proud of no matter what your momma might have said about him.”
“She said he was a handsome, irresponsible rogue who loved chasing after his dreams better than he liked facing reality.”
“There are two sides to every story, darlin’.”
“I know that, but I also know he’s never made an effort to see me. All I’ve ever had of him were his letters.”
The sun dipped below the horizon, leaving behind an array of reds and oranges. Most people watched just until the sun disappeared and then went on their way, but Jimmy always stayed behind to admire the afterglow, when the sky would ignite with all sorts of glorious colors.
“It’s stunning,” the Duchess said, and he realized she was enjoying the afterglow too.
“Why are you looking for a man you so clearly despise?”
Her head snapped around. She looked at him. “I don’t despise my father.”
“But you’re appalled by him. You think there’s no way a classy lady like yourself could’ve come from the loins of a loud-mouthed, half-cracked American stooge.”
“I’m finished speaking to you.”
“Why?”
“Because you take too much pleasure in pricking me.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Honestly, darlin’, you’re not my type.”
“I said pricking! As in poking—”
The chuckles he was holding back exploded into hearty laughter.
“That’s not what I meant. Ugh! Never mind.”
She was cute when she was flustered.
She put her hand up. “Just stop talking.”
Jimmy’s chuckles died away, and they traveled in silence for a while. As the night air grew colder, the girls moved to the stern bench seat and wrapped themselves in blankets. The Duchess accepted his offer of a jacket and ventured into the tiny cabin to retrieve it.
The murky darkness affected his mood.
They’d reach Key West in a couple of hours. He had until then to figure out how he was gonna get the Duchess to hand over the medallion. He didn’t want to take it by force, but he would if it came to that. As for putting her sweet little backside on the next plane out of the states, he had to figure that one out too. He might have told her he’d let her go her own way once they reached the island, but he couldn’t do that. He owed it to Mitch to see this mission through to the end. Jimmy didn’t make promises, but he believed in repaying debts. Mad Dog had been there when Jimmy needed somebody to pull him back from the brink. Now he was in a desperate situation and Jimmy was going to square things up no matter how much aggravation it caused him.
The woman needed to face facts. The family reunion wasn’t going to happen this time. Wherever Mad Dog was, he no doubt had dug himself in deeper than a tick. He wasn’t coming up for air anytime soon—not with a pissed off drug lord breathing down his neck and Florez looming large.
The Duchess reemerged from the companionway. She shoved a dry shirt at him before returning to the mate’s chair.
“Thanks,” Jimmy said, surprised by her thoughtfulness. It was getting a tad nippy out. He slipped the gray rash guard tee over his head and grinned at her.
She didn’t return his smile.
His black and gold Saints hoodie swamped her narrow frame. Seeing her in his clothes did something funny to his insides. He didn’t want to examine the warm-and-fuzzies too closely, so he focused on the water and brooded about how her scent was going to seep into the threads of his favorite jacket and ruin it forever.