Is that what their relationship had been reduced to Trust was a bitch. It could turn on you like a pit bull, tearing you apart until you were nothing but shreds of what you had once been.
24
Jake awoke the following morning stiff and annoyed. He’d nearly fallen off the couch three times during the night, and each time his angst grew by degrees. The ship hit rocky waters during the night, and every roll and bounce increased his anxiety. Nightmares dominated what little sleep he could summon. On more than one occasion he’d crept from the couch over to the bed, hoping that Eva was awake and would tell him to join her.
In all the years they’d been together, he’d never been banished to the couch. If this was some new trend, then Eva had another thought coming. He figured he’d give her a play for one night, but that was it. She knew how hard being on this ship was for him, the old terrors that it inspired. Was this her way of getting back at him, using his confession against him Is that what their relationship had been reduced to Trust was a bitch. It could turn on you like a pit bull, tearing you apart until you were nothing but shreds of what you had once been.
He pulled himself up into a sitting position, hearing his joints creak in refusal to bend to his will. The shower water was running, and he had a mind to go in there and have it out with her. But good sense intervened. Eva could be pretty physical when the mood hit her. And according to statistics, the majority of in-home accidents happened in the bathroom. The fact that they were on a ship didn’t ease his mind any.
The bathroom door opened. Eva stepped out, wrapped in a towel. She looked in his direction and kept walking.
“Don’t I even get a good morning How did you sleep last night” he grumbled.
She cut her eyes in his direction. “Good morning. How did you sleep last night” she singsonged along with her fake smile.
He stood, stretching his back as he rose. “Do you really care”
“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” She pulled open the closet and took out her clothes, tossing them on the bed.
“So this is how it’s gonna be, huh”
She whirled toward him, hands on hips. “How what’s gonna be Us Me and you” She craned her neck forward.
“Yeah. Us, Eva. Me and you.”
She let the towel fall, waited a beat to let his eyes feast on her curves.
Heat flushed his body. He started toward her. She held up her hand, halting him in his steps.
“Take a good look, Jake, because this is the last time you’ll be seeing me like this.”
Slowly she bent and picked up the towel. Then she draped it back around her body. “From now on, Jake Kelly, it’s strictly business between me and you.” She picked up her clothes from the bed and returned to the bathroom to get dressed, slamming the door behind her.
His jaw clenched so hard, his head began to pound. Had she lost her natural mind He was her husband, damnit! Not some stiff she picked up in a bar. Although that is how they met. But that was beside the point.
He stormed over to the bathroom and jerked on the doorknob only to find the door locked. He pounded on the door.
“Eva! Open the door. We need to talk.”
She snatched the door open, and he nearly tumbled inside. “There’s nothing to talk about,” she said with a haughty lift of her chin. She brushed by him.
“Eva … please. Don’t do this. There’s stuff … that you don’t understand.”
Eva drew in a breath and turned slowly around. “What is it that I don’t understand, Jake Tell me.”
He spat out a laugh with no humor in it. “So you can throw that back in my face too”
“What are you talking about”
“I’m talking about … what I told you about the beach and the water and my fears and guilt.” He swallowed. “And last night…”
Her hard stance eased as she recalled how the ship pitched and rocked during the night. The thought of putting him on the couch so he could suffer wasn’t part of her agenda. She wanted him to miss her and realize how he’d hurt her. She told him as much. “I wanted to teach you a lesson, but that wasn’t it. I wanted you to want me, to miss me.”
He sat down on the chair by the bed, but said nothing.
“I may be a bitch sometimes, but I wouldn’t do that to you.” She came around to kneel down in front of him. “You hurt me, Jake. Bad.”
He nodded. “You know I didn’t mean to. I wouldn’t do that.” He reached out and stroked her hair.
She rested her hand on his lap. “But it still hurt. What are we going to do”
It was a question he still wasn’t ready to answer. “We’ll work it out.”
She raised her head. “What does that mean”
He swallowed. “If this … baby is what you want … then we’ll work it out.”
She jumped up so fast, she nearly knocked him over. “If it’s what I want! I didn’t screw myself and make this baby. We did it together!”
He turned away from the truth and accusation flashing a warning in her eyes. He wanted to get the words out, to explain. But he’d broken his oath to himself once already by allowing her beyond the barricades of his past. He wouldn’t do that again.
Jake straightened his shoulders and stood, forcing her to look up at him. “I told you I was sorry for hurting you. I don’t have a thing to add to that. Now if you want it to be business only between us, then so be it. We get this job done, split the profits, and then…” He shrugged, seeming not to have a care in the world. “The rest is up to you.”
Eva stayed crouched on her knees, looking up at this man whom she’d adored, loved, and admired for so long. Who the hell was he
She pushed herself up to a standing position and walked right up to him, so close, her breasts pressed up against his chest.
“Fuck you, Jake Kelly,” she said in a deadly whisper. “Fuck you straight to hell.”
She grabbed her cell phone, put on her shoes, hooked up her headset, and was gone so fast, the heat of her words still hung in the air.
Jake stood in the center of the empty room. The emptiness of it as much a metaphor for his life as the reality of the environment.
“Fuck me, then,” he said, his focus returning. He had a job to do. He was going to do it, get them out of this mess, and … And what, live a life without Eva
He glanced toward the door. He would accept that if he had to.
Jake crossed the room to where Eva had tossed the sketch of the suitcase. He picked it up. He had to admit, it was damned good. The detailing was precise enough to be a snapshot.
He sat down and studied the sketch, then took it to the portable scanner and scanned it into the computer. Once he had the picture loaded into the computer, he enhanced the details and used a virtual simulation program to make it three-dimensional. He keyed in several equations to get an estimate of weight. According to what the computer spewed out, the suitcase weighed approximately sixty-five pounds.
He sat back, ran his hand across his chin while he stared at the screen. Sixty-five pounds. He quickly keyed in another set of variables.
Slowly he nodded his head as the numeric possibilities spread across the screen.
Based on the information he’d keyed in, the weight of the suitcase was consistent with the two million in cash—large bills, of course—and forty mil in diamonds. Either that or Suarez had a shitload of dirty laundry.
Still, they couldn’t take the risk of simply lifting the suitcase without knowing for sure that the stash was actually in there. The reality was, Suarez could have split up the goods: half in the suitcase and the other half in the ship safe. Jake didn’t even want to entertain the thought that maybe Suarez didn’t have the goods with him at all, but that one of his boys had it.
No. Suarez was too cautious. He’d never turn over that much loot to some bodyguard. He’d want to keep it close to him.
They’d just have to get into the suitcase to know for sure.
Jake peered closer at the computer screen, studying the locks, particularly the one in the middle with the combination. It would take him a few hours, but he was pretty sure he could figure out the combination. He hoped so, anyway. The image of Eva pantomiming her lifting the card key from the housekeeper and getting into the suite sat on his shoulder, mocking him. He swatted the image away.
Sure, she was an excellent pickpocket. No one could match her on that score. But he was an expert on locks and alarms. One slip did not a slouch make. He’d figure out this combination, and then they were in there. Simple. Right
* * *
Eva went to one of the restaurants on the upper deck. She was starving. She joined the buffet line and began loading her plate. Food was a comfort, and she needed all the comforting she could stomach at the moment.
She still couldn’t believe that Jake had acted so cold. She scooped a large spoonful of eggs onto her plate followed by a heaping dollop of grits. Being a single parent had never crossed her mind. Being a parent period was something that had for years been a nonissue. She inspected the bacon but then decided on sausages. She inched down the line of hungry travelers.
But lately she’d been feeling different. She wanted something more substantial than the next job. She wanted her life to mean something. Maybe there was some truth to the whole biological clock thing.
She approached the refreshment section of the buffet line. Instinctively she reached for coffee and then stopped midway. She had a baby to think about now, and so she filled her mug with orange juice instead. A baby. Damn. She smiled to herself, thinking of the life growing inside her. What kind of mother would she be Better than her own was her immediate thought. Never would she treat her child the way she was treated. She’d spoil it and love it unconditionally, make him or her feel special every single day.
She took her food and found an empty table near the rear of the restaurant and began to dig in. Her stomach sighed in delight.
She should have told Jake that she’d stopped taking her birth control two months earlier. Why hadn’t she She lifted a forkful of eggs to her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. Because she knew what he would say.
Still, there was that part of her that was willing to take the risk, a part of her that hoped that Jake would be as excited as she was.
But he wasn’t.
Her stomach suddenly heaved in protest. A cold sweat broke out across her forehead, and her mind felt like mush. The room moved in and out of focus. She was going to be sick.
“Eva! I knew that was you.”
Eva lifted her eyes. She was definitely going to be sick.