Vortex (Cutter Cay) (14 page)

She gathered the hangers, and started hanging the items up. “Physical, psychological, and every way there was.” It was a relief to share at least that much, knowing she didn’t have to report dates and times in triplicate.

He sat forward, elbows on his knees. “If you ever want to talk about it—?”

“Thanks, Wes.” She busily folded T-shirts. “It’s a nonissue now, and I’m working through some things. I’ll be good.”

“Logan would never let anyone hurt you, you know.”

“Wes—” Daniela opened a drawer, and carefully placed the folded shirts inside. “Logan doesn’t even know me. I’m not his problem, and I’ll be out of his hair soon enough.” She straightened and went back to get the pile of flimsy underwear. The man was gay, but he’d outfitted her for a porn movie. She gave him a stern glance. “And stop playing matchmaker. That
is
what you’re doing, isn’t it?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it. The man’s a loner. We don’t call him Wolf for nothing.”

Daniela huffed out a rude laugh. “Overkill with a ship called
Sea Wolf
and a dog that
looks
like a wolf. Maybe he’s trying to make a point?”

“They mate for life, you know.”

Daniela punched him in the shoulder. It was like hitting a brick wall. “Stop.”

“Just saying, if you’re in trouble, Logan is a master at untangling knotty situations.”

“I get it. He’s a saint. I’ll keep all his sterling qualities in mind. What are some of his bad qualities? Those would be more helpful.”

Eyes twinkling, he scooted back to lean against the wood-paneled wall. Dog put his chin on Wes’s thigh. “He thinks he’s patient.”

Ah
. “You did say he was stubborn.”

“He usually
is
right. He’s sensible and to the point.”

“And hardheaded,” Daniela interpreted as she bunched up colorful bikini panties and stuck them in the drawer. What Logan was was immaterial to her.

Wes grinned. “He loves his family to distraction. He’ll do anything for his brothers, Zane and Nick. Absolutely anything.”

Wes had bought three more bras. Delicate confections of pastel lace and sheer fabric that made them almost more revealing than concealing. She tucked them in with her new underwear. “What a man.”

“There’s only one thing he hates—”

Daniela straightened, turning to shoot him an amused glance. “Anyone who doesn’t toe the line?”

“Liars.”
Wes sobered. “No joke. He’s pretty much inflexible about people lying to him. He’d rather hear the unpalatable, unvarnished truth than people’s lies. He’s axed multibillion—that’s
billion
—dollar deals because the investor shaved the truth a little.”

A chill skittered up her back. “Wow, must be nice to be so perfect.”

“He’s not by a long shot. He hates failing. So not finding the
Nuestra Señora de Garza
treasure really fried his cookies. When’s your birthday?”

“I’m sorry, this is relevant how? We went from listing all of Cutter’s sterling attributes, to his pet peeve, to my birthday?”

“Logan is a Taurus.”

“A bull? That figures. My birthday is November second.”

“This should be interesting.”

“Do Scorpios and Tauruses get along?” Not according to her friend Zazoo, who insisted on telling her what her moons and stars were doing all the time. And just look how accurate
those
cheerful horoscopes had been.

“
Absolutely
. His brother Nick is a Scorpio. Get on like bacon and eggs.”

Daniela shook her head at his BS. “High in fat and bad for the heart. Got it.” A bell chimed. “What’s that? Lunch or a fire drill?” Either way, saved by the bell.

“Means Logan and Jed are out of the water. Let’s go hear all about their find.”

She stuck her key card into the front pocket of her shorts. “Maybe they didn’t find anything at all.”

Wes smiled. “Nah. Can’t you feel the excitement on board? They found something. Let’s go!”

She hesitated. “I’m not that hungry, I think I’ll stay and put away m—”

He opened the door. “Cluck-cluck-cluck.”

“Of what?
Cutter?!
Oh, please!”

*   *   *

His dive team could barely contain themselves. Logan thought about the countless salvages they’d done together, and he had rarely seen them this excited. The minute he and Jed had surfaced, he’d pulled off his mask, his gaze going to the table where everyone gathered. Most of the guys were there, but Annie was nowhere to be seen.

“My God, how long would we have searched the original area before we called it a day?” Jed asked, grinning from ear to ear as he shrugged off his tanks.

“Well?” Galt and Horner hung over the short railing near the ladder, as eager to be the first to hear the good news as two enthusiastic puppies.

Logan had been about ready to throw in the towel. And that was something he rarely did. So no matter the who or the why, he had his uninvited guest to thank for what might very well be the salvage of the decade, giving him a one-up on the current contest he had going with his brothers. “Couple more weeks at most,” he told Jed as he, too, removed his equipment, taking his time. They had baskets of goodies to show the others. All in good time.

“You’re killing us!” Cooper joined the other men at the top of the ladder, followed by Vanek. Missing was Wesley Roan. And Annie. And his damn dog, who’d switched allegiance as soon as he’d seen a pretty face.

“Lunch on the table?” Logan asked, stripping off his suit.

“Not yet,” Galt said impatiently. “I can call Hip—”

Logan and Jed each grabbed a mesh basket and, one-handed, scaled the ladder up to the deck. “Good,” Logan cut him off as he gained the deck ahead of Jed. The others backed up to give him room. “Because this’ll take up all the real estate.” He dumped his basket upside down on the table, as did Jed.

“Oh, man, is that pretty or what?” Cooper said reverently, staring at the pile of doubloons, several gold bars, and a mess of gold chains piled haphazardly on the table. It wasn’t the value of what he and Jed had brought to the surface right now. It was the implication that there was plenty more where that came from.

“What’d we miss?” Wes slipped between Cooper and Horner, put out his arm, and eased Annie in front of him so she could see what was going on.

She looked pretty in a bright green T-shirt, her long legs displayed to perfection in well-fitting white shorts. But it was her shining eyes, turned up to meet his, that took Logan’s breath. “The bowl was real.” She sounded breathless, and almost as surprised as he was.

Suspecting this was the first time he was seeing the real Annie Ross, Logan felt a weirdly unfamiliar clutch to his chest. “Apparently,” he told her mildly. “Hold out your hand.”

The others shifted so he could get closer to her as she obeyed. He brought out the hand he was holding behind his back. “The treasure of
Nuestra Señora de Graza
.” Trying not to fall into the amber pools of her eyes, he dropped a raw emerald the size of his fist into her waiting palm.

Seven

It had been a crazy day.
La Daniela
was already giving up a fortune, and they’d barely started. They worked in teams, hauling up baskets full of treasure. Logan spent his off-diving time filling plastic tubs and lugging them down to storage. Salt water was added to preserve their finds until they got everything back to the Counting House on Cutter Cay. There, resident bean counter Brian and his team would sort and catalogue to their hearts’ content.

The
Sea Witch
showed up in the late afternoon, adhering to the one-mile-away rule. Her captain must have a homing device or a Vulcan tractor beam to always find a Cutter ship so quickly. It had barely been a day, and she was waiting in the wings like a bird of prey, ready to sneak in and swipe part of the treasure.

Logan indicated the small, sleek black shape hovering on the horizon to Jed and Cooper as the blower spurted out a muddy jet stream of sand and water over the bow.

Jed wanted to take the launch and go over right away. For years he’d been trying to get Logan to agree to a face-to-face with the redhead who was apparently the captain. “I’m telling you, talk to her, and she’ll be on her merry way.”

Listening to Jed gripe with ten percent of his brain, Logan cupped the back of his head as he watched the blower. He had a lot on his plate. He always did. Not only did he run his ship, but he ran the entire Cutter Cay Salvage business. On a daily basis he dealt with investors, public relations people, the press, their fleet of accountants, government regulators and departments governing discovered sites, and all the archaeologists who catalogued and cleaned the salvage of a dozen Cutter Salvage ships.

They donated some artifacts to museums, sold some to others, and while the nitty-gritty of micromanaging was left up to their department heads, it was Logan who held every string for their vast and far-reaching empire. Zane had his charm and now Teal, Nick had his secret life and his princess.

Logan had Cutter Salvage.

The irony was, none of them gave a rat’s ass about the money. He wondered if the newly acquired brother, Jonah did.

“There’s absolutely no use talking to you when you aren’t listening to a word I’m saying,” Jed pointed out, his volume decreasing as the blower shut off.

“Mano a mano,” Logan repeated. “Sea Bitch. Merry way. If she wanted to jump your bones she would’ve done it the last time you threatened to tear her limb from limb,” he told his friend dryly. “I guess your shtick just isn’t good enough.”

“
You’re
the big boss.
You
should go.”

“Ah, but you see,
I
don’t give a shit.” Logan dropped his hands and reached for a bottle of ice-cold water. “She only steals the lowest growing fruit, she doesn’t take much, and she doesn’t stay long.” He chugged and shrugged at the same time. “She’s a pest, but no threat to us.”

“Aren’t you even mildly curious as to
why
she dogs our every move?”

“Nope.” She had her reasons, they were apparently important to her. She didn’t steal enough to be a flyspeck in their lives.

“She’s stunning, right?” Cooper asked, leaning his forearms on the table. He’d seen her ship dozens of times, but had never seen the woman on board.

“You’ve seen her,” Jed said as he adjusted the binocs for a better view. “Mile-long screaming red hair, Jessica Rabbit body…”

“No, I haven’t—”

“Not that Jed has the hots for her or anything.” Logan’s smile went unnoticed since the other two had their eyes glued to the
Sea Witch
in the distance. “Go over and ask her on a date.”

“I’d plan something sexy and romantic if I had a mermaid on board and within easy reach,” Jed told him, handing the binoculars to Cooper.

Logan stopped the water bottle halfway to his mouth. “Two issues with that. One, she’s under my protection. Two, I don’t know if you noticed, but she came wrapped in electrified barbed wire with a flashing neon sign stating
KEEP OUT
.”

“Seriously? I don’t see any of that. Maybe that’s just in place to keep you out, maybe I sho—”

Logan set the water bottle down with enough force that some of it sloshed out onto the table top. “One back-off wasn’t enough for you, Jones?”

“See, now that’s just unreasonable. If you don’t want to play, doesn’t mean you have the right to shut the toy box lid.”

“Not only
shut
it, preferably with your fingers in the way, but
lock
it and
nail
it shut.” Logan shoved his chair away from the table, got up and stalked inside, then stopped dead in the middle of the great room and shook his head. “What the hell?” There was only one explanation for his behavior.

He’d lost his damn mind.

*   *   *

With his hands stacked beneath his head, Logan lay naked on his wide bed staring out at the stars twinkling in the black sky beyond the open sliders. The doors to his small balcony stood open, letting in the faint briny scent of the ocean and the tung oil Dell used on the brightwork.

No lights were on in the cabin, but moonlight cast a milky wash across the polished wood floor, and made the white sheets around him glow in the darkness.

The
Sea Witch
was still anchored a mile away. The redhead hadn’t made any moves to pilfer his treasure. Yet. She would soon enough.

A soft warm breeze tickled the hair on his body, sliding erotically like silk across his skin. Annie had avoided him all day. Not that hard on a ship the size of a small hotel. So be it. Tomorrow was another day.

He’d made a complete ass of himself this afternoon, and knew Jed well enough that it would be a while before he lived it down. A damn good thing that he could laugh at himself, Logan thought, staring out over the blackness beyond the open window where the long sheer drapes lifted and fell as if moved by the breath of some giant beast.

What
was
it about Annie he found so damned compelling? She wasn’t the most beautiful woman he’d ever been attracted to. Nor the most witty. The sum of her parts was pretty damn ordinary. But taken all together … Something indiscernible about her made his heart race, made everything around him seem sharper. Better. He shook his head. He really
had
lost it.

The sound of the ocean, the gentle slap of wavelets against the hull, were his lullaby. No matter what happened in his life, the sea was always there. Lover and friend. Confidant in the cold, lonely hours before dawn when his ship slept and a new day had yet to unfold.

Yeah. The whole bowl thing had paid off. And paid off big. The story about the cousins almost rang true … Almost. He
knew
Annie was still lying to him. With nowhere to go, she might open up and tell him what was really going on. The fact that he was willing to give her that chance floored him, and he prodded the notion like a tongue to an aching tooth.