Happily Ever After (27 page)

“Yeah, well...” Jack’s mood wasn’t in the least
danger of improving over that remark. “Thanks for pointing that out.”

“You made her a deal,” Kell continued, ignoring
his sarcasm, “and even if you didn’t, it’s not like you can just take her off
the ship in Mexico and point her in the right direction, and say go. I know
you, Jack, and you aren’t the kind of man who would let a woman fend for
herself. Even if you weren’t headed to the same damned place she was, you would
have delivered her there anyway— whether you liked her boyfriend or not.”

It was true, damn it.

Even if Jack didn’t care anything about
her—and he did—he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he
didn’t know she’d gotten to her destination safely. He felt responsible for her
now. He’d accepted her money, and he’d allowed her to leave the safety of her
home and surroundings, and he was responsible for her—at least until he
handed her over to someone who could look after her just as well.

And that thought left another sour taste in his
mouth.

Penn was a lazy, self-aggrandizing mooch. If he
cared for Sophie as much he cared for his life’s work, she’d be lucky not to
suffocate in her tent if it happened to fall down on her, because Penn wouldn’t
lift a finger to help her. He swore he’d kill the son of a bitch if he let
anything happen to Sophie.

“Any way you look at it, Jack, you’ve got another
week or so to spend with her, so you’d better find a way to deal with whatever
it is you’re dealing with.”

A week wasn’t nearly enough time.

His gut wrenched at the reminder.

No more than five more days and she’d be gone from
his life completely. The most he could hope for would be to catch a glimpse of
her with Penn now and again—while she remained on site. After that...
once she returned to Boston, as she would inevitably... what then?

The thought that he might never see her again made
him quite literally and physically ill.

“I say you tell her the truth.”

Leave it to Kell to call it as it were.

Jack hadn’t told Kell a damned thing about what he
was feeling, but he didn’t bother to deny it. Much as he hated to admit it,
sometimes Kell knew him better than Jack even knew himself. At times it annoyed
the devil out of him.

As it did now.

Kell seemed to be studying him. “You don’t still
believe she’s spying for Penn, do you?”

It would certainly make things easier if she were.
Because then he could tell her to take a long walk off a very short pier. He
didn’t answer, didn’t want to.

“We’re through here for today,” he told Kell, and
began to replace the tarp over their supplies. They would need to procure a few
more items once they reached port and then hire a guide, but otherwise
everything was pretty much in order. “Grab the other end of this and tie it
down, will ya.”

Kell shook his head. “Stubborn bastard. You’re
going to lose her.”

He never had
her to begin with.

Jack shot him a glance. “Someone put those
telegrams into the stove to be burned,” he reminded Kell. “They didn’t just
magically appear there. If you have a better explanation as to how they got
there I’d like to hear it.”

Kell shrugged, then shook his head, at an obvious
loss for explanations. Without another word, he began to batten down the tarp.
Jack secured his end, then lifted up his clipboard from the deck where he’d
tossed it, waiting on Kell to finish.

“Think Jose will take us out to the site again?”

Jose Salvatore was Maria’s father, their guide on
previous trips. Jack sure hoped he’d agree to take them out, but there was no
telling what Maria might or might not have told him. For all Jack knew he’d be
shot on sight, but the man was a damned good guide, so Jack intended to brace
himself for the worst, and ask.

When Kell was done, Jack tossed him the clipboard.
“When we get into port, you can go after the items left unchecked, and I’ll
face Salvatore.”

Kell broke into a smile. “Hell’s bells!” he
exclaimed, “I almost forgot about the fair Maria!” And his grin widened.

Jack threw up a hand. “Don’t start, Kell!”

“I’m not starting anything! You go face him,” he
said, and began to chuckle, as though Jack’s choice of words had struck him as
hilarious. “You and your deuced women!”

Sophie
wasn’t like the others.

Jack rolled his eyes and turned to leave Kell to
his merriment.

He wasn’t in the mood.

Sophie was
different.

He loved her.

He’d been young and stupid once, but it had never
really mattered. Now, finally, he’d met the one woman he truly wanted, and she
was out of his reach.

“Where is he!” he heard the object of his
distraction shout from the opposite end of the ship. “Where is Jack!”

She had come up from the mess hall and was upset
about something. It wasn’t difficult to read her mood, particularly when her
voice was raised several octaves above usual.

Good, he needed an outlet.

“He’s workin’ with Kell, Miss Vanderwahl. Over
there. But... I wouldn’t disturb him if I were you.”

“You aren’t me!” she answered flippantly. Jack
couldn’t suppress a smile at her very saucy response.

“Miss Vanderwahl!” Randall seemed determined to
protect her from Jack’s present mood. “I wouldn’t—”

“Let her go,” Jack heard someone say low.

Jack cast a glance over his shoulder at Kell,
warning him without words to keep his mouth shut.

Kell’s brows lifted, and he shrugged. “I didn’t say
a bloody thing,” he protested, but he didn’t have to. His expression said
enough. He was divided between his own sordid sense of amusement and a need to
protect Sophie.

She brought that out in a man: somehow made him
want to take care of her, though she seemed perfectly capable of taking care of
herself.

“Stay out of it,” Jack warned him.

“Jack!” she called out, coming nearer.

She was ready to nail him for something. Jack
could hear the attitude in the stomp of her feet as she marched across the
deck.

If anyone was going to protect her from his
present mood, it was going to be Jack, but Sophie Vanderwahl didn’t need
protection. No Vanderwahl he had ever met had backed down before
anyone—not even before truth. Sophie was as stubborn as her father was,
with a temper besides.

And Jack was ready for her.

Something like birds’ wings took off in his belly
as he braced himself to see her.

But he wasn’t ready: Nothing could have prepared
him for the sight of her.

class=Section29>

CHAPTER 25

He
stood speechless.

Christ,
he didn’t know whether to laugh or throw himself overboard to put himself out
of his misery.

She
came scrambling down the stairs, wearing the tightest pair of trousers he had
ever seen in his whole deuced life. That beautiful little bottom wiggled
deliciously as she descended, and he swallowed whatever sarcasm he’d had in
store for her.

With
hands on her hips, she spun to face him, her cheeks blooming with rosy color,
her amber eyes flashing with anger. She held out something in the palm of her
hand. “I found this in the cook’s cabin!”

Jack
couldn’t take his eyes off her breasts... her blouse... it wasn’t quite
buttoned all the way, leaving him a tantalizing view of luscious cleavage...
and not just for him...

He
turned and shot Kell another glare.

Kell
shook himself out of his stupor and seemed to understand at once. He nodded,
sputtering laughter. “I’m going!” he said, and he did so at once, but not
without casting Sophie one last glance. He shook his head as he passed.

Reduced
to a nearly primitive state, Jack actually growled at Kell, and knew it was
true in that instant that man hadn’t progressed as far as he liked to believe.

In
fact, it was only a thin thread of reason that kept him from tackling Sophie where
she stood and devouring her right on deck in front of his crew.

What in God’s name had possessed her to dress that
way!

He
didn’t see what she had proffered until she thrust it before his face once
more. Something bright red gleamed before his eyes, but his brain couldn’t
quite wrap around the object... not while her breasts were jutting out at him
beneath the threadbare shirt. If he looked hard—and he was, he couldn’t
help it—he could see hardened nipples nudging against the loose fabric.

His
brain went dizzy, and his mouth immediately dry.

“I
found this in Shorty’s cabin!” she said again, her eyes narrowed at him.

Along
with the clothes she was wearing, he presumed.

Jack
tried to clear the fog of lust from his brain. “What is it?” he asked stupidly.

“It’s
a ring, of course!”

Of course.

Jack
stared at it, blinking.

Sun
shone into the monster jewel. It sparkled fiercely before his eyes, nearly
blinding him. His gaze returned to her shirt. She waved the ring at him again,
recapturing his attention, and he had to pry his eyes free from the object of
his desire. He reached out to take it from her, shaking himself out of his
stupor. He shook his head and cleared his throat. “What would Shorty be doing
with that?”

She
jerked it away before he could seize it. “That’s what I’d like to know!” she
exploded once more, holding it up as proof of something, though Jack hadn’t the
slightest notion what.

His
brain wasn’t working. All the blood had rushed somewhere below deck.

“No
need to shout,” he told her. “I’m not deaf.” Or blind, either ... but he was
going to be if she didn’t stop flashing that deuced jewel at him!

“I’m
not shouting!” she shouted. “But if I were, I’d have every right to!” she
informed him baldly. “This ring belongs to Harlan!”

That
definitely caught his attention.

He
blinked at her, then at the ring, trying to understand what she was trying to
tell him. “Harlan?”

“Yes!
Harlan!”

Jack
tried to comprehend what it was she was telling him. “Are you sure?” She’d
found Harlan’s ring in Shorty’s cabin? He reached out, wanting a better look
now.

She
jerked it away. “Of course I’m sure!” she countered, waving the monstrosity at
him. “This is Harlan’s ring! I bought it for him!”

His
brows collided as he stared at the enormous ruby eye. He hadn’t seen a ruby
that big in his entire life.

“You
bought that for Harlan?”

Her
eyes sparkled nearly as brightly as the jewel. “Yes. As a going-away present!”
Her face turned brighter pink, but her gaze shifted away momentarily, and then
back—as though she were embarrassed by the evidence of her affection for
Harlan.

She
damned well ought to be. The money she had spent on that single piece of
jewelry might have fed the entire Yucatan peninsula!

“And
you found it in Shorty’s cabin?”

“Yes!”
she exclaimed, waving it again. “Perhaps you’d like to tell me how it got
there!”

How
the hell was Jack supposed to know that?

He
shook his head and tried to reach for the ring once more. This time she let him
have it. Watching her expression, he tested its weight in his hand. It was
solid silver, heavy. He turned the ring to check for an inscription and found
it had been polished clean.

He
eyed her speculatively. “And you’re absolutely sure this is Harlan’s ring?”

She
cocked her head in challenge. “Just how many rings like that do you think
exist?”

She
had a point. It was ugly as hell... and assuming the ruby was real, it wasn’t
very likely there was another just like it.

She’d
found the ring in Shorty’s cabin. That fact reared up at him like a rattler’s
warning. The telegrams had been hidden in the stove. It didn’t take a genius to
deduce the obvious: Shorty was somehow in cahoots with Penn, and by some stroke
of luck, they’d managed to leave the jackass behind. In doing so, they’d been
spared whatever Penn had planned.

And
Sophie was just plain trouble without the least bit of malice.

He
blinked at her, feeling lighter than he had in weeks.

She
was waiting for some sort of explanation from him and Jack suddenly wanted to
kiss her. He smiled at her, his mood vastly improved. He handed the ring back
to her.

“I
don’t see what’s so blessed funny!’’ she railed at him, her delicate fingers
seizing the ring from his hand.

Jack’s
grin widened.