told you I’d be up on deck. Why would you be looking for me in my room?”
She tossed a quick look around. “Oh, is this your room?” Then she almost winced as she heard the disingenuous tone in her words. “I was wondering…if you had anything for motion sickness.”
“Motion sickness.”
“I’m already feeling a little nauseous.”
“Funny. We haven’t pulled anchor yet.”
Great. Where was a tidal wave when she needed a good distraction? “I meant I will be nauseous. Soon. When we take off.”
He settled his weight more comfortably and crossed his arms. “You’re planning on getting sick?”
“No, of course not.” It took a great deal of effort to keep her smile in place. “I just mean that normally I do. So I thought if I took something now, before I really needed it, when I did need it I wouldn’t need it so much.”
With a vague sense of horror she realized the foolish drivel was coming from her. There seemed to be no end to the mortifying depths to which she would sink around him.
He hadn’t moved, was still watching her with the expression one might wear contemplating a strange breed of animal in a zoo. “So if you tend to get seasick, why would you charter a ship?”
It was on the tip of her tongue to deny any such weakness. She was an excellent sailor, had been going out on the gulf since she could walk. But she kicked pride aside to salvage what she could of the situation. “It’s just the first hour or so out, then I’m always fine. And I meant to pick something up before I left home, but completely forgot about it. If you don’t have anything…”
Silence stretched, taut with tension. Then finally he straightened. “I can probably find something.”
Relief filled her. “Great.” She could barely contain her eagerness to get out of his room. He disappeared into the head, and she took the opportunity to scurry across the narrow hall into her own quarters. Jones reappeared a moment later, holding two tablets and a paper cup filled with water. She took both from him, and said, “Thanks. I think I’ll take these now and lie down for a while.”
It seemed to take an interminable amount of time before he quit staring at her and backed out of the doorway. “That would probably be best.”
Swinging the door shut after him, Ana gulped the water down. It didn’t help. Her throat still felt strangled. Dumping the pills in the now-empty cup, she crumpled it in her hand. As far as her espionage skills went, she was scoring in the negative range so far. If she didn’t get better at subterfuge than this, she wasn’t going to be of much use to Sam.
She got the hairpin she’d come for and sat on the edge of her bed, waiting until she felt the ship begin to move. Although her nerves still hadn’t recovered from her last encounter with Jones, she forced herself to cross the corridor again and ease his door open. Losing no time, she dropped to her knees before the desk and began to twist the pin into a decent pick.
Inserting it into the lock on the rolltop, she probed carefully. Although she had no experience at unlocking desk drawers per se, she had grown quite adept at picking the lock on the strong box in which Sam or James had hidden her car keys whenever they’d attempted to ground her. She could have just had extra sets of keys made, but she’d thought the idea had lacked finesse.
Her skills were rusty, so it took several minutes before she heard a tiny click, and she triumphantly removed the pin, easing the top upward. Excitement filled her when she saw the neat piles of papers and notebooks lining the cubbyholes. She’d hit pay dirt. Reaching for the first book, she withdrew it and began flipping through it. Something in here had to yield a clue about the trip Sam had taken with Jones. Whatever it was, she was determined to find it.
With the engine humming in the background, the sun on his back and the wind hitting him full in the face, Jones felt a measure of peace. The life he’d left behind five years ago could emerge, raw and vivid in his dreams, but the open sea always helped banish old ghosts. Of course, today the tranquility was marred by the presence of the woman below deck.
His mouth turned down. Damned if he knew why he’d taken her money. Well, hell yes, he knew…because he’d been unable to afford to turn it down. But no amount of money could compensate for some kinds of trouble, and he couldn’t rid himself of the nagging suspicion that the word described Ann Smith. With a capital T.
“School of dolphin up ahead, Cap’n. Pretty miss like to see?”
Gazing in the direction of Pappy’s outstretched finger, he followed the man’s island dialect with little difficulty. “She’s down below, sick. Let’s leave her there.”
“Ladies like dolphins,” Pappy persisted. His wizened face was the color of walnut, burnished by his heritage and decades in the sun. “Pretty miss no different.”
“She’s more different than you think,” Jones muttered.
Although the other man couldn’t have heard his words from this distance, it was a sure thing he’d caught the tone. His voice split into a wide grin. “Cap’n show pretty miss nice things and mebbe she be nice to Cap’n.” He cackled at the dark look Jones threw him. “I ask her. I bet she want to see.”
Shrugging, Jones watched the other man disappear below. The woman wouldn’t be coming above, he’d put money on that. He’d never met anyone yet who was only seasick the first hour of a voyage. She’d be confined to bed for at least half the day.
Which suited him just fine. The blonde was a distraction, one he didn’t need. Even after she’d left the tavern last night, he’d been unable to stop thinking about her. Smoke hung thick in the place, so there had been no reason for her light, fresh scent to have lingered long after she’d left. And even less excuse for his mind to return to her, time and again that night, until he’d finally made an excuse to Lexie and gone home, alone.
He hadn’t been drunk, not quite, so he couldn’t blame his lack of concentration on liquor. No, it had been the woman who even now was probably retching below who was responsible for his sudden restlessness. That and a certainty that this was going to be the longest four days of his life.
“What you do with pretty miss, Cap’n? Toss her overboard?”
Although the idea had merit, he shook his head at Pappy’s question. “I told you, she’s in her stateroom.”
The man swung his head in silent negation. “Not there. And not getting sick in head, either. Not in galley. You leave shore without lady?”
He stared at the man, impatient. “Of course not. C’mere. Take the wheel.” When the man sprang to obey, he turned and went below. There wasn’t much space below deck. The woman had to be somewhere. He just hoped if she’d gotten sick she’d made it to the head.
It took a few moments below deck to discern that Pappy had been right. Ann Smith was nowhere in sight. A wave rocked the ship wildly, and he mentally cursed his crew member’s handling of the ship. Steadying himself with a hand against the wall, he opened the last remaining door.
And found the troublesome blonde in the last place he’d expected, the last place she should have been. In his cabin again, this time sprawled across his bed with her face buried in his pillow.
