Riptide (33 page)

Turning on the taps to fill the small sink, she stripped off her clothes. She only wished she could wash away the ache slowly building up in her chest as easily as the dirt.

*   *   *

Nick left Max Aries a phone message to call back ASAP. He ordered the counterterrorist operative to have his people meet them in Tenerife the second the Lear landed. The rock slide on Marrezo, coupled with Halkias’s attempt on her life, made discounting Bria’s risk impossible to ignore.

Even if she was just collateral damage, posing a potential risk to the Moroccans’ plans by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he was damned if he’d put her in the line of fire. He couldn’t leave her on Marrezo. He couldn’t take her back on board his ship. He couldn’t let her travel solo across the globe back to her life in the U.S. Not until he’d transported the diamonds to Cutter Cay, and Aries and his team had gotten their man or men.

T-FLAC had access to safe houses, and people trained to protect. Nick demanded both for Bria.

He didn’t know
who
the fuck the target was. But taking Bria completely out of the equation would ease his mind while he found out.

“Hey! Is there a blanket out there?” Bria shouted from the head.

Nick glanced up, waving away the flight attendant who’d stepped through the door from the cockpit at Bria’s call. He grabbed a cashmere throw from a pile on a nearby seat, and carried it down the aisle.

Her face was clean, and stunningly beautiful despite the scratches and small bruises marring her smooth olive skin. She was wearing just her red bra and panties. He handed her the lightweight blanket. “Every man’s fantasy. Your clothes disintegrated.”

“Hold these.” She dumped her wet clothing in his extended hand. Wrapping the blanket under her arms she stepped out of the bathroom. “If the flight crew was behind a door
I’d
locked, I wouldn’t be wearing anything at all.”

He chewed off his smile before she saw that her crankiness charmed him. Sympathetic to what she must be feeling, Nick brushed the back of his fist across her strong jaw. “I could barricade the door.”

She moved her head out of reach. “I think that’s some kind of National Transportation Safety violation.” Her voice was even, but her color was high.

“It’s a violation having you
like
this and not
having
you like this.” He held up the clothes. “What shall I do with these?”

Walking back to their seats, she took her wet shirt and jeans from him, spreading them out over two leather seats that were in direct sunshine through the small porthole-like windows. Adjusting the overhead air vents, she said, “Hopefully, by the time we get there these will be dry. If not, at least I’ll arrive clean. I’m pretty tired of not having any clothes. I desperately need to go shopping before I go anywhere else.”

“That can be arranged.”

“With no money or credit cards?”

“Still can be arranged. Don’t worry about it.”

“I’ll worry about it—
slightly
.” Her smile slipped. “Oh, boy! I have to call the palace and Antonio, as soon as possible. They’ll both be worried sick.”

“They’ll be notified.”

“Notified?”

She flopped down in her seat and chewed her lip as she looked up at him. For a moment she squeezed her eyes shut, clearly trying to get a grip on her emotions. “Okay.” The light tone was gone. “This is absolute bullshit. You know things, and I have a right to know them too, Nick. You have to tell me everything. I know something serious is going on, but I have no idea what. And since someone has tried to kill me twice, I deserve a straight answer.”

His expression closed, so she flashed him her boobs. “I know how to thaw the deep freeze.” She waited until he smiled, then rearranged the blanket so it looked like she was wearing a strapless sundress. Jesus. What the hell was he going to do when they parted?

“I need to know what I’m up against.”

Nick touched her sore cheek and gave a quick nod, coming to grips with something inside himself that he didn’t have time to analyze. If it needed analyzing at all. “I’m going to clean up as well. Then I’ll tell you what I can. See if they have something for us to eat, will you? I’ll be right out.”

Nick washed off the dirt and grime, but opted to shake the dust out of his clothes rather than sit around in a fucking blanket. He stepped out of the bathroom, drawn to Bria’s profile as she stared out of the little window at the clouds.

She didn’t look at him as she said, “Molly is making something for us. Coffee okay?”

He presumed Molly was the flight attendant. Typical Bria learning the woman’s name. “Yeah, thanks.” Nick settled in the seat opposite her instead of across the aisle. “A few weeks ago, a friend who works for a covert counterterrorist group asked me to do him a favor. An unknown group has been moving conflict diamonds out of Africa and filtering them into the North and South American markets undetected.”

Bria’s gaze snapped to his.

The marks—bruises, cuts—made him feel feral. When he found the party or parties responsible for those marks, they’d wish it was T-FLAC who beat the shit out of them. He took a breath. Counted his heartbeats. Took another calming breath.

“When it was discovered that they’ve been using noncommercial vessels—like the
Scorpion
—to move the diamonds undetected, they asked— Thanks Molly.” Nick waited until the woman had set up their light meals, and waited until she went back to the cockpit and shut the door before continuing.

“They’re very close to closing in on the principals, the man or men at the top. They just needed a little more time, and since they knew the route and method the diamonds were taking, they asked if I’d let the diamonds come on board the
Scorpion
.”

She ignored the food, concentrating on his words.

“I followed two men from Rabat to Tarfaya, where we had a meeting in the medina. And the same café where you showed up to ask Asim Nabi El Malamah to take you to the
Scorpion
.”

Bria raised a brow. “How do you know I asked for a ride to your ship?”

“
I
was El Malamah. I believe that they saw you there, then someone on board alerted them to the fact that you’d shown up in their business, on board the ship transporting their diamonds.”

“I talked to that man. He wasn’t you. Different accent, Different gestures—” Her eyes narrowed as he gave her a steady look. “It was you!” She leaned over and smacked his arm hard. “You rude bastard!” Then swatted him again for good measure. “You are one ballsy guy, Nick Cutter.”

“As El Malamah, I boarded the
Scorpion
in Tarfaya and hid the uncut diamonds in our bins in the hold where we store our salvage. Then El Malamah disappeared, because dollars to doughnuts, the Moroccans planned to kill him before he got any funny ideas about millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds in a location that only he knew.”

Snugging the blanket around her shoulders, she drew her feet up on the chair and wrapped her arms around her legs. She rested her chin on one knee. “But how will they know which bins to find them in when you get—where?”

“Cutter Cay. Jonah and I marked the three bins. I called them and gave them the bin numbers and locations. I didn’t get paid until their men on board confirmed that the diamonds were indeed on board, and hidden in plain sight.”

“What men on board? Halkias and the brownie guy?”

“Fakhir was hired on new in Tarfaya, Halkias has been with us a year, and Jonah and I thought he was loyal. But money talks, and clearly he was paid to eliminate what the Moroccans considered a threat.”

“Halkias was Dafne’s bodyguard a few years ago. She fired him for stealing, so I guess dishonesty was a pattern of behavior.”

“Wait. You’re telling me this
now
?”

She gave him a cross look. “We’ve been a little busy.”

Good point. Nick filed away the info to add to the puzzle.

“We suspect—”

“Who we?”

“Jonah and myself. That Fakhir was caught trying to help himself to some of the diamonds in the hold, and was killed for his trouble.”

“How many bad guys are on board?”

“We start with a skeleton crew, then hire on five or six new people when we’re at our closest port of call for the salvage. In this case, we hired on six guys in Tarfaya, knowing that at least a couple, if not all, of them, would be working for the Moroccans.”

“Well, we know there were at least three bad guys on board. Someone had to kill two of them.”

“Possibly more. And we don’t know why someone followed us to Marrezo. If that was some kind of warning, an intent to kill, or a message—I have no idea how to read it. Whatever that was about, I couldn’t leave you there unprotected, no matter what I promised the good guys.”

“The Palazzo is crawling with security guards and infra whatever beams,” Bria pointed out, rubbing her hand up and down her blanket-covered legs. “I would’ve been safe there.”

“You’ll be safer with a trained T-FLAC operative, believe me. I won’t be able to focus on what’s going down on my ship if I need eyes in the back of my head to protect you from a determined assassin.”

“They aren’t after me.”

Nick wasn’t willing to bet her life on that. “I believe that ninety-nine percent. The other one percent wants you somewhere where I don’t have to worry about you. That’s why I don’t want you anywhere near the
Scorpion
until this is over.”

“Fair enough. Believe me, I have no desire to be anywhere near some spooky phantom killer. You can’t even know for sure if it was just the new hires, right? Halkias had worked for you for a year.”

“Right.” Nick exhaled. “When we get to Tenerife, one of the black ops guys will be waiting. He’ll make sure someone is with you every second until they know for sure who’s in charge and apprehend him or them. Hopefully the ship won’t have to sail all the way to Cutter Cay before that happens. Once the Moroccans and the principals above them are all in the net, Max Aries and his team will come and retrieve the diamonds, and my part in this will be over.”

“And I can go back to Sacramento and my new job?”

Nick hesitated. “Yeah.”

*   *   *

All things would’ve been right in Nick Cutter’s world, except whoever Aries had arranged to guard Bria wasn’t there when the Lear jet landed at Tenerife North airport five hours later.

He stuck his phone into his back pocket. “I’m not fucking leaving you here standing on the tarmac hoping someone shows up. They’ll have to transport themselves out to the
Scorpion
.”

“I think I’ll be safer here, Nick. Seriously. Nobody is going to make an attempt to do anything to me in a crowd of tourists. I’ll stay with a lot of people and wait. I’m sure your friend will send someone soon.”

“And if he doesn’t get those messages for hours? Or days? What the hell will you do?”

“Take care of myself, which is what Marv trained me to do. Go. I know you’re worried about Jonah and your friends. I’ll be fine.”

Yeah fine. Her banged-up, scratched, bruised face was pale, and she rubbed her upper arms as though she were cold. Her shirt and jeans were still damp, but it was a tropical ninety degrees.

Fuckfuckfuck!

“I can’t do that, Princess, I fucking can’t.” He pulled out his phone and left his friend a rude and terse message to get his ass in gear right fucking now, and go pick Bria up on board the
Scorpion
. “Let’s go.”

The flight in his waiting chopper took an hour and a half on the return trip. Jonah had pulled anchor as instructed. The
Scorpion
was on its way back to the Caribbean and Cutter Cay. Aries better get his shit together and the matter resolved. Nick hadn’t been shitting him. The man had two days and counting to resolve the situation, or Nick would put the entire crew ashore and jettison a fortune in uncut diamonds.

Nick circled the
Scorpion
once in a low sweep before heading in.

“She looks as graceful as a white bird skimming across the water. Magical,” Bria observed, sounding subdued. She must be exhausted. Hell, Nick admitted,
he
was pretty worn out with all the high drama as well. A shower and a decent night’s rest should iron out the majority of their kinks.

Still, the sight of his ship revitalized him.

As many times as he’d flown to and from the
Scorpion,
his pride and joy, the ship he’d helped design and spent six months outfitting still looked beautiful as she skimmed across the deep blue ocean, leaving a delicate trail of froth in her wake.

Nick felt an intense sense of pride as he lightly touched down on the landing pad on the aft deck.

He turned to Bria as he unsnapped his belt. “Promise me you won’t do anything foolish? Let me repeat my earlier warning, stick to me like Krazy Glue, and if not me, Jonah.”

She gave him a serious look. “No problem.”

Jonah waited for them inside the sunroom. “Nothing,” he told Nick, who hadn’t asked, with a smile. “Hello, Princess, this is a pleasant surprise.”

Jonah glanced back at Nick. “I sent the dive team off in the motor launch headed for Tenerife as instructed. They were ecstatic to fly home early from there. I entrusted Olav with the sword and medical kit, to save you another flight.”

“Good.” Fewer people to worry about, and priceless artifacts secure. Nobody was going to waltz off with the gold coins or silver bars. They were just too numerous and bulky, especially given the conglomerate-encrusted state the hundred-pound silver bars were in.

When he linked his fingers with Bria’s, she moved in closer, her shoulder brushing his arm. His friend appeared to wink at him. “Did you just wink at me, Santiago?”

Jonah laughed, rubbing his eye. “Nothing so high school. Have something in my eye. If I was to wink at anyone, it would be this gorgeous woman.”

“Save your strength,” Nick told him dryly, appreciating Jonah’s lack of curiosity as to their appearance. For now. “The fewer people we have on board, the better I like it. I want to send some of the crew off in the tender next.”