Chapter 34 #2
A blast of a boat horn jolted us from our happy bubble. We got up and watched a cabin cruiser approaching us. It wasn’t a coast guard, but a large, gray boat.
“Do you know who it is?” I asked.
“Yes. Liam McKee. He runs a deep-sea fishing rental.”
“He is your competition. Do you owe him money, too?” I said, pushing his arm with my shoulder.
“No.” Hunter laughed. “He is a good man. But he shouldn’t be here. He usually goes back to Ireland until October.”
The boat dropped its speed and slowly came closer, the newly created waves making the Nauti Guy bob more with excitement. It turned, showing large lettering on its side, making me snort. Feck Orfe.
“Does anyone out here give their boats normal names?” I said, laughing.
“What fun would there be in that?” Hunter raised his hand and waved.
When the Feck Orfe came closer, a tall man in his late fifties (though, with fishermen, it was hard to tell their age) wearing sunglasses came out to the helm, and was followed by a shorter person wearing an orange life jacket.
I shielded the sun with my arm to take a better look, and my heart soared when my eyes landed on Bambi. My vision blurred. Unable to form any word, I slapped my hand over my mouth to smother a sob of relief. Bambi was alive. Someone saved her.
“Bambi.” I gripped Hunter’s forearm. “That’s Bambi.”
“The woman with Liam?”
“Yes.” Warmth radiated all over my skin, and the morning sun had nothing to do with it.
Their boat was now several yards away from us.
Bambi’s face broke into a huge smile, matching mine.
I could imagine what thoughts went through her mind when she saw us.
Hunter and I wore dirty and torn clothes.
Hunter’s sleeve had bloodstains from grappling with Tom.
His right cheek had a hint of a bruise. I smoothed my short hair on the sides as if that would help my appearance.
“How’s it going, Holden?” Liam McKee called out.
“What are you doing here, McKee?” Hunter shouted.
“I’m just helping my new lady look for her friend,” Liam said, inclining his head to Bambi, listening to her.
“I found you, babe,” Bambi said loudly. That nickname had made me cringe so often when she used it, but now it was the best one anyone had called me by.
The boats came close, and she climbed over the gunwale and jumped from the Feck Orfe to the Nauti Guy like a teenager. I moved around Hunter and hugged her petite frame before she could protest. Without hesitation, she threw her arms around me.
“Oh my God,” I choked out through my sob. “I’m so happy to see you. I thought you were dead.”
Easing my iron grip on her, she stepped back and looked over me. I wiped my nose with my forearm and grinned. Bambi appeared healthier than before. Her hair was as short as mine, and she wore small sailboat-dangling earrings instead of her golden hoops.
“You look great.” I squeezed her bony, but warm hands. “And these earrings suit you.”
When she smiled, her face wrinkled with a million lines. I missed those lines. “Liam gave these to me.”
“They’re lovely.”
She glanced over my shoulder at Hunter. “I wouldn’t mind getting a hug from him.” She winked at me, and I snorted a laugh. “Who is he?”
“That’s Hunter. My boyfriend.”
Aww, that felt so good to say it out loud.
Bambi looked me up and down with puzzlement, and her smile faltered. “Babe, you look like shit. What happened to you?”
“It’s a long story.”
Liam climbed on board too and Hunter and I briefly told them what happened to us, starting from the awful storm, the time Hunter and I shared on the island, and about Tom and his crew’s attack.
Bambi told us about how the Coast Guard found her two days after the storm, holding on to the unidentified life ring about twenty kilometers from Muri.
The life ring that I threw to her. She spent a week at Rarotonga Hospital.
By mistake, she told them that she and I were heading to Mangaia when she went overboard, so they conducted a rescue search around that area.
After the search was called off, Bambi returned to Australia only to come back here because she realized her oversight.
By that time, the Coast Guard didn’t want anything to do with her, so she charmed Liam into helping her.
Bambi apologized for the error she made and also for putting us into a pickle by stealing and selling my navigation system and satellite phone, but more importantly, she wanted to apologize for failing as a captain when she started drinking.
She had been sober since that horrible storm. I forgave her.
A little after ten, Hunter radioed to Avarua, requesting permission to enter the harbor and arrange for a dock.
Before docking, we went over drawers and found some of Hunter’s identification documents and money he had stashed away for a rainy day.
Liam and Bambi gave us a ride to the local police station.
Avarua welcomed us with the wharf sidebars, shops, and open-air markets where folks bargained for handmade jewelry, art, and souvenirs.
Some people wore a flamboyant head ei made out of flowers, and all of it against the vivid rainforest background.
At the station, still wearing bloodstained and torn clothes, we reported Tom’s attack.
We learned that Tom, Garry, and Jack were wanted for racketeering and burglarizing a dozen boats and marinas in Samoa, Tonga, and the Cook Islands.
The night Tom stole the Nauti Guy and someone else’s boat, he and his crew left a security guard and a dispatched police officer in critical condition during the robbery.
Hunter provided the island’s location and warned that the men were armed.
I notified the police about the black rock snakes in case Garry was still there.
We also mentioned the discovery of the Treasure of Lima.
There wasn’t any reason to hide it because when police arrived, they would see the loot on the beach.
It must have been a slow day because the chief of police asked us to wait while they gathered a team with a K9 crew to Teaku to make the arrest. This morning, when we were on our way to Avarua, I had suspected I would be back on Teaku soon, I was just not thinking it would happen on the same day.
While Hunter finished filling in the paperwork, I borrowed an iPhone from a detective and video called Tina on WhatsApp.
When her excitement, punctuated by cursing, subsided, I gave her a short version of what had happened to me, and I promised I would provide more details soon.
She complained that involving local authorities and Interpol in a missing person case in international waters was more complicated than filing taxes.
I felt guilty for making Tina lose her mind with worry, so to make her feel better, I flipped the phone camera to Hunter and she instantly asked if he had a single brother.
Later, Bambi brought us a lunch of fish sandwich and fries, and a change of clothing, and took us to the hospital.
“You should go with Bambi to Liam’s place and wait for me there,” Hunter said, lacing up his shoes he had taken from the Nauti Guy.
“We agreed that we don’t get separated.” I dried my hair with a towel after showering.
“Aren’t you a bit sick and tired of me by now?” he asked, his finger tugging on the new elastic bandages around his hand.
“Never.” I threw the towel on the bench.
In the afternoon, two boats with armed officers and three German shepherds raced to Teaku. We followed them on the Nauti Guy. They instructed Hunter and me to remain on board until we were granted clearance to go to the island.
When we arrived, the dinghy was beached on the sand, and the island appeared to be deserted, minus Garry.
The first thing I noticed as we entered the bay was the red scuba diving logo on Garry’s shirt against black rocks.
He was there, probably afraid to make a move in the snake trap.
It didn’t take much time for the dogs to find Tom and Jack, hiding in the shed.
They gave up without a fight, and police escorted them off the island.
When everyone had left, Hunter and I stayed in Teaku bay because we couldn’t just leave the loot on the beach for anyone to grab.
Feck Orfe with Liam and Bambi bobbled near us.
They came to help keep an eye on the Treasure of Lima.
Under the night sky, the Nauti Guy swayed in the water, lullabying us.
Hunter held me close, his hand on the curve of my waist, my head tucked against his shoulder.
I wanted to live my new dream of exploring the still-vast ocean.
Only this time, I wouldn’t venture out unprepared.
And I wouldn’t be alone—Hunter would be by my side.
Someone once said that love could be found in unexpected places.
Sometimes we went out searching for what we thought we wanted and ended up with what we were supposed to have.
Only in my case, I got caught in a crazy storm and nearly died before plunging onto an island and straight into Hunter’s life.
And now we were bound for life by blood, sweat, saltwater, and a touch of bat poop.
What the future held for us was a puzzle, but together, Hunter and I would overcome challenges as deep as the ocean and perplexing as endless caves.