12. Indiana
The inky blackness of night was just about complete out here on the ocean. It was one of my favorite things to stare at, the night sky. Though it wasn’t very nice tonight. The Milky Way and the moon were struggling to give any light through the low hanging clouds.
It was going to make our dive down to our cage full of items we’d stolen from Chui’s wreck harder, but there was no way Dad and I would wait another day before we got those goodies onto Rhino.
We had learned the hard way to act on our instincts, and when both of us were on the same page, we absolutely couldn’t ignore that.
Working like a pair of choreographed dancers, we pulled on our scuba gear and tested our air tanks.
“You ready, Dad?” I checked his tank valve was fully open.
“Yep, I can’t wait to get my eyes on all that gear.”
“Me neither.” As I turned my back to him so he could check my tank valve was fully open, I tested my breather.
This was going to be a simple dive to connect our winch hook onto the cage again so we could haul that loot back up. I had offered to do this dive alone, but for some reason, Dad had insisted on diving with me. I sensed an edginess about him that he rarely displayed.
Maybe he was trying to make up for telling Kane Fucking Devlin about Siren’s Lure. Or maybe he was nervous about me diving in the dark waters below with all those sharks drifting around.
I gave Dad the thumbs up, and we both made giant strides off the back of Rhino’s dive deck. The black ocean pressed in on me, and unlike the sunlit waters we’d dived in today, this water was suffocating. It wasn’t like me to feel like that in the ocean, and I brushed my fingers over the dive knife attached to my thigh.
Swimming side by side, Dad and I plunged into the abyss, with our powerful flashlights slicing through the murky depths. We were trespassers in this shark breeding ground, and the silent predators seemed intent on letting us know by gliding just beyond the reach of our beams.
A massive gray nurse shark cruised beneath us, so close that Dad and I slowed our descent, waiting for it to get well out of our way. As I counted the twenty-one companion fish feeding off the shark’s back, Dad tapped my shoulder and gave me a thumbs up.
I gave him the okay signal, and we continued our descent.
My heart pounded in my ears, adding an urgent pulse to the silence around us, and I could almost feel the sharks’ unseen eyes tracking us. I had no idea why anxiety was getting a grip on me. Maybe it was because we had looted Chui’s yacht. I had heard Whisper say to Ryder that everything Chui touched was tainted with someone’s blood.
As long as it wasn’t Dad’s or my blood, I didn’t care.
The cage appeared in our light beams like a large metal carcass, and a twinge of satisfaction raced through me. Dad and I deserved this win. We hadn’t had any luck in a long time, and it was time for the tide to turn our way.
This time, nobody knew about our little cache of goodies. Not the bad guys, not the law. Even Kingsley, who had been on the ocean surface when we raided Chui’s yacht, was oblivious to what we took.
Arriving at the cage, Dad and I knelt on the sand and shone our flashlights onto a trove of Chui’s riches caged in the metal like fish caught in a net. Yes! It’s all here. Nobody had beaten us to the haul. It was a fucking miracle.
Now we just had to get the cage onto Rhino and get the fuck out of there.
Dad and I high-fived each other, and even through his mask, his eyes lit up with elation. It wasn’t very often I saw Dad so happy, and my heart swelled. He deserved this win.
We both did.
Working in unison, we moved methodically, disturbing only the silt that rose in swirling clouds from our fins. We connected the four chains attached to each corner of the cage to the cable that we’d lowered down from Rhino, and our job was completed in minutes.
Dad signaled that it was time to surface, and I gave a thumbs-up.
Following the cable, we ascended at a rate equal to our bubbles. The surface didn’t twinkle above us, and it was like swimming in outer space. If we lost our flashlights, it would be as black as hell down here and easy to get disorientated.
At eighteen feet below the surface, we both clung to the cable to wait out our decompression time and used our flashlights to search the blackness around us.
I ran through the items we’d salvaged, working out which ones we would keep and which we would sell.
An image of Mom drifted into my mind. She’d met Dad in a library, of all places. Mom was studying history, and Dad was trying to investigate the history behind a ship that he’d heard had sunk off Queensland shores in the early eighteen hundreds. Mom had helped Dad find the information, and Dad convinced Mom to come with him in search of the wreck.
According to Mom, their connection had been love at first sight. Dad had been lucky that Mom loved being on Rhino, and loved the crazy industry we were in because salvaging items from the bottom of the ocean was hard work.
Except for the loot we were about to bring up. That was going to be the quickest money Dad and I had ever made.
Mom’s unsolved murder clawed at my mind, and my thoughts drifted to Kingsley. Maybe I could ask him to look into Mom’s cold case.
Jesus. What am I thinking? Cops don’t care about old cases.
I’d learned that lesson over and over. They just cared about the headlining bullshit on their plates right now.
In this area, Chui had given everyone a fucking ton of crimes to solve.
None of the detectives on Mom’s case cared about the murder of my thirty-four-year-old mother. Especially when it happened twenty-two years ago. To them, the case was long buried.
Not to me, though. I would never give up searching for the assholes who killed Mom in front of Dad and me. Their faces were permanently etched into my mind, and everywhere I went, I searched the crowds for those bastards. They would show up one day. I felt it in my blood, and when they did, they were going to wish they had never touched my family.
Dad waved his hand in front of my face, lurching me back from my mental abyss, and he pointed upward.
Releasing my hold on the chain, I swam with Dad to the surface. Pressure released from my ears as we broke through to salty air.
The beam from my flashlight flickered across Rhino’s hull and reflected on a red light in a hole in the back.
“The GPS,” I said.
“What?” Dad said as he shoved his tank up onto the dive deck.
I unhooked the GPS anchor and pulled the homing device from the recess. “I forgot I shoved this in here when Whisper and Jeff came to arrest me.”
Dad grinned. “Clever girl.”
We pushed our fins and dive gear onto the deck, and Dad groaned as he hauled himself up the ladder first. My impressions of Dad seemed to alternate between him being as tough as a bull shark and as frail as a conch shell. Tonight was the latter. Then again, we’d had a long day.
Leaving his gear there, Dad walked away, maybe heading for a hard-earned drink, and I aimed for the crane. I gave the cable latch a tug to ensure it was fastened correctly, and with my foot braced on the crane base, I pulled the rip cord. The mechanical winch clanged to life, and as I set it to the slowest possible speed, my mind shifted to when Tyler had helped me. Just about everything about him had been a surprise.
His piercing blue gaze that seemed to truly look at me. His meticulously organized manner which clashed so starkly with my chaotic world. His sexy ass. And his incredible abs that he hid behind his impossibly white T-shirt.
He was off my boat, yet somehow, he lingered, like the afterimage of a camera flash. Something else connected with my thoughts of him that I couldn’t pinpoint. A pang of . . . what? Longing? Company? A desire to get naked with the brooding cop?
“There it is!” My father’s sharp call jolted me back to the present.
“Woohoo,” I called, shaking my head clear of Tyler’s images.
My arms trembled as I manned the winch, adjusting the arm of the boom to bring the cage onto the rear deck. The damn machine groaned as if protesting at the weight of the haul, which was nothing compared to the weight of Chui’s boat.
The cage broke free of the surface with water cascading out the four sides.
“Take it easy!” Dad hollered.
I scowled at him. I had manned this crane more times than I could count. I knew exactly what I was doing.
Dad was just worried about the bottles of alcohol he’d looted.
How would he be if we found those priceless bottles of Penfolds on Siren’s Lure?
The plate! I’d forgotten all about that, too. Hopefully, it was still wrapped up in my wetsuit near the dinghy.
“That’s it. Keep her steady.” Dad raised his hands like he was guiding the cage with some kind of magic.
I lowered the precious load on the deck. As Dad released the chains from the crane winch, I turned off the engine.
“It’s fucking payday,” Dad hollered like a thief after a successful bank robbery.
He stepped inside and reached into the nearest crate. He pulled out a bottle that had lost its label, yet the amber glass was embossed with a crown emblem that Dad obviously recognized. He kissed the bottle. “I’m gonna enjoy this.”
I clapped his shoulder. “You deserve it, Dad.”
He curled his arm around my neck and kissed my temple. “We both do, kiddo.”
“Thanks, Dad. Before you crack that open, can you please secure this stuff while I get us out of here? This area gives me the creeps.”
He glared at me. “You’re not serious, are ya?”
“About the creeps or getting out of here?”
“Me securing this stuff. I’m buggered.” He ran his hands through his hair.
“I am, too, Dad. But you heard the cops. Someone is watching this area, so we need to get out of here.”
“Since when do you listen to the cops?”
“Shut up, Dad. Get this stuff sorted. I’m getting us out of here.” As I marched, dripping wet, to the bridge, my thoughts drifted to Kingsley again. Officer Fancy Pants had no right to exist in my mind, yet he was there. His sexy voice. That weird dimple in his chin. His laugh that seemed to tickle my insides.
Damn him.
I triggered Rhino’s engines and pressed the buttons to pull up the four anchors. Ahead of the bow, the ocean was as black as ink. Normally, I didn’t need to see where we were going because I could use the stars, but it was like the world had been swallowed by a giant sea monster. Tonight, I would have to rely on my instruments.
My mind pitched from whether the Penfolds bottles survived the sinking of the Siren’s Lure, to whether or not Kane Fucking Devlin beat us to the fortune, to how much money we could get for the items we looted from Chui’s yacht, and finally, it settled back on Kingsley.
What was it about him that captured my interest?
He was great to look at, but I’d been around my share of men like that.
Maybe it was his confidence. Most men didn’t know how to handle me, and that was the way I liked it. Kingsley, however, stood on his own ground.
Stop it, Indiana. He’s gone, and there is no fucking chance he’ll pop up again.
Fatigue seeped into my bones, and the adrenaline high from the day was waning, leaving me raw and spent. I was struggling to keep my eyes open, but I had to keep going.
Dad strolled onto the bridge.
“Huh, I thought you’d be passed out by now,” I said.
He plonked a mug down on the counter. “Made you tea.”
Frowning, I darted my gaze between the steaming cup and Dad. He never made me tea. Mostly because he was usually passed out or asleep.
“Thanks,” I said with the confusion it deserved.
“You were right to trust Kingsley,” he said.
I did a double-take.
“Don’t give me that look.” He waggled his head. “I mean about getting away from that place.”
“I didn’t do it because of him, Dad. I did it for us. I’m sick of having our loot snatched off us.”
A frown corrugated his forehead. “And I’m sorry about what happened with Kane Devlin.”
I studied my father. He never apologized for anything.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“Who are you, and what did you do with my real father?” I chuckled.
He huffed. “I shouldn’t have told him about Siren’s Lure.”
“Do you think he found our wreck?”
Dad’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t know. I hope not.”
My gaze hardened on an overdue notice pinned to the wall. “I hope not, too. I’ve checked the weather for tomorrow, and I think it will be okay to go back there and?—”
“You think it will be okay? Or you know it will be?” He gave me the side eye.
“I’ll tell you come sunup tomorrow.” I checked the GPS, making sure we were heading the right way.
He groaned. “I’m not letting you dive if it’s a risk.”
“I know.” I leveled my gaze at him. “Hey, when we drop anchor, we can go through the stuff we just scored.”
He shook his head. “I’m getting some shut-eye.”
I squinted at him, and I was on the verge of asking him if he was okay again when he shuffled away.
What had gotten into him? Normally, he would be excited to go through what we found. And he would never say anything nice about a cop.
It took longer than I anticipated to reach Kangaroo Island, and twice I contemplated stopping and dropping anchor, but I pushed myself through. I didn’t want to waste time traveling tomorrow when I could be diving instead.
It was past three o’clock in the morning, when I finally turned off the engines and dropped all four anchors. The clouds had shifted overhead, and moonlight made the waves crashing over Pineapple Reef look like they glowed from the inside. The view was so spectacular, I was tempted to grab a beer and enjoy the scenery for a while.
My body said otherwise.
I strolled toward the hut and was surprised to hear Dad snoring.
Why didn’t he go to his cabin? Silly bugger.
Dad was on his back, and the cushion he’d been using for a pillow had slipped onto the floor. I lifted his head and replaced the cushion, and when he moaned, I kissed his forehead. “Goodnight, Dad.”
A bottle was on the coffee table. I picked it up and tried to read the label, but months of submersion beneath the ocean made it impossible. I sniffed the contents, and it even smelled expensive. Maybe it was brandy.
I recapped the bottle and added it to the collection Dad had put in the cupboard below the sink. Normally, there would be just one or two bottles of cheap whiskey in there. Thanks to our lucky find, I had to shove a couple of the fancy bottles aside to put this one away.
A few lights dotted the distant ocean, and I paused at the railing, trying to work out if it was the shoreline or boats. After a few beats, I decided it was both. None of the boats were close enough to cause me concern, and other than a giant cruise ship a long way in the opposite direction, none of the boats appeared to be moving.
If anyone wanted to raid Rhino in the middle of the night, there was nothing I could do anyway.
Swinging my gaze back to the hut, I frowned. Was that why Dad slept in there?
I chuckled. That alcohol was probably the most precious thing he owned.
I climbed down the ladder and quickly showered. When I crawled into bed, images of Tyler cooking for me drifted across my mind. As my cabin creaked and groaned with Rhino’s never-ending movements, I couldn’t shake the confusing tangle of emotions Tyler stirred in me.
My stupid heart was a traitor to my head.
Damn him.
I jolted awake. As I peered into the blackness around me, Rhino’s hull creaked, and waves slapped into her side.
Son of a bitch.I groaned. The amount Rhino was swaying wasn’t good. I pulled open my curtain and scowled at the black cloud hovering in the distance. No. No. No!
I pulled on my denim shorts, a navy-blue T-shirt, and my boots. Grabbing my sunglasses, I headed up to the main deck. The black cloud was blocking out the dawn glow, and I could only just make out the waves crashing over Pineapple Reef which were much bigger than they were last time I was here.
“Goddammit.”
I wouldn’t be able to dive.
Clenching my fists, I stomped to the hut.
Dad was still on his back, snoring, and the pillow had once again slipped out from under his head.
I turned on the kettle and went to grab Dad’s stained mug from the dish drainer, but it wasn’t there. It was hanging on the hook below the upper cupboards. Huh, Tyler must have cleaned up and put them away. Frowning, I plucked that mug and mine down.
A tiny smile teased my lips. Annoyed with myself, I spooned the instant coffee and sugar into our mugs.
“You’re thinking about that cop, aren’t you?”
Flinching, I turned to Dad. “No.”
The word cop was like a bitter pill, reminding me that those bastards gave up on finding justice for Mom.
“I’m gonna miss his coffee.”
“What?” I bulged my eyes at Dad. “You tried some?”
“He made me.” Groaning like an old boat, Dad swung his legs over the lounge.
“Traitor,” I joked.
I tried to discard the image of Tyler hugging his coffee machine like it was his prized possession. How could I be drawn to Tyler when every fiber of my being rejected what he stood for?
“Indy,” Dad started.
“Dad, if you’re gonna talk about him, don’t.” I gestured to the black cloud on the horizon. “We have more important things to worry about.”
The kettle finished boiling and I filled our mugs. I plonked his coffee mug on the table. “Here.”
“Boy, he really has you riled.”
I scowled at him. “I’m angry at the weather. Have you even noticed?”
“I noticed.” He slurped his coffee like he did every morning, and for some reason, the sound scraped right through me today. “No diving today.”
Heaving a sigh, I said, “We might as well go through the stuff we salvaged yesterday and see what we can sell.”
Dad groaned.
“What?” I glared at him.
“You know it’s okay to take a day off, right?”
I eyeballed him. “Tell that to the debt collectors.”
His shoulders sagged.
“We need to sell some of that stuff, Dad, or . . .” I had no idea what the ‘or’ was. Would they take Rhino? I had borrowed against Rhino to pay for an overhaul of my diesel engine that I hoped would make it last another two years or so. The cost of fuel had skyrocketed, and it seemed that every spare cent went to parts for this damn rust bucket.
I hadn’t been able to meet the last five payments on the loan. I wouldn’t be able to keep the loan shark hounds away for much longer.
Dad didn’t know any of that. And I didn’t want him to know.
The silly bastard would blame himself for our situation.
But it wasn’t his fault. I owned Rhino, not him. It was up to me to keep us afloat.
I drank the last of my coffee. “Come on, let’s check out what we scored.”
As Dad grumbled, I marched to the secret room where Dad had stored all the items from our salvage cage. Except the alcohol.
I’d tried to help Dad overcome his alcoholism many times over the years, but he would never last more than a month before severe guilt over Mom’s death would have me worried that he would end his life. I gave up trying to ‘save’ him years ago. Dad was happier when he had booze in him. And he deserved to be happy.
The sun was still struggling to emerge from the clouds, and an ugly gray hue darkened the sky and ocean around us. The damn weather was mirroring my own gloom.
This was not the morning I had planned.
At least I had something to take my thoughts away from the bullshit swirling through my mind.
I lifted the trap door on the deck that was designed to look like a regular section of the floorboards and stepped onto the metal stairs that led down into the hidden room.
Before I was born, Dad had sacrificed two below-deck cabins to build our secret space. The design had a narrow set of stairs that hugged the left-hand side wall, and when we opened both trap doors, we could lower items into the space using the crane.
Halfway down, I flicked on the dim wall lights located on the front and back walls and descended into the cramped space, greeted by the pungent smells from the ocean-ravaged trinkets and rust. The yellow wall light barely illuminated the space, and I hated that it cast a shadow on the corner cabinet which housed our most precious items.
I doubted Dad would join me down here. This secret room was part of the reason Mom was murdered. Dad would forever blame himself for what those ruthless bastards did.
I understood Dad’s reasons for taking that blame, but at the same time, he could never have known what those two fuckers would do.
My mind cascaded to the bastard who looked like a Viking in my favorite kids’ book that Mom had read to me all the time. He had been like a machine, old and calculating. I could still feel his rough hands around my waist as I’d kicked and screamed and fought against the gaffer tape tying my wrists together before he’d wordlessly thrown me overboard.
Shuddering, I mentally slapped that memory from my mind. Now was not the time for that bullshit.
There was never a time for it. If I allowed my mind to go there, the ‘what if’s’ could suck me down like the Bermuda Triangle.
Dad had placed the items that I’d taken from Chui’s bridge on a shelf on the back wall. He must have moved some items away to make them fit. The secret compartment already housed various items that we’d salvaged from wrecks over the years that we either couldn’t sell or didn’t want to sell.
In the corner, concealed within a tiny silver box that Mom had found on an ancient wreck, we had some antique coins that would fetch a decent amount of money. But those gold coins were more priceless to us than what any cutthroat collector would pay.
I picked up the woman’s dive watch I’d found and pressed the side button, but it didn’t turn on. Although I would love to keep the watch, we needed the money more.
I was surprised to hear Dad shuffling down the stairs. Whenever he was forced to come down here, like last night, he always looked so sick afterward. Like Mom’s ghost had shared the secret space.
I placed my hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to help.”
Lowering his eyes, he nodded and shuffled to the shelving.
Together, we sorted through the items, examining each one under the dim glow of the lights. As much as I knew it was difficult for him to be here, it was nice to have him working with me.
The Nikon D5 DSLR camera was secured inside Nauticam housing and was a fantastic find. I had dreamed of buying a similar camera once, but it was way beyond my budget.
“Check this out, Dad. We could get five grand for this.”
The expression on Dad’s face nearly ripped my heart out.
“Dad.”
He held up the gold locket Mom had found on the morning she was murdered. “Remember this?”
I nodded as a knot wedged in my throat. Mom had been so excited when she’d found that locket amongst the coral bed that had formed around the ancient wreck we’d discovered.
He swallowed so loudly I heard it and sucked in a shaky breath. “We could sell?—”
“No.” I clenched my jaw. “We’ll work things out, Dad. I promise.”
He clamped his lips as if fighting a wave of emotions and gently placed the locket into the antique silver box. He gave my arm a squeeze. “I need some fresh air.”
“Okay, Dad,” I said, although I was pretty sure his fresh air would also include a shot or six of whiskey.
As Dad climbed the stairs, I shifted the camera to another shelf, where I planned to add everything on my ‘to be sold’ list.
“Indiana!” Dad’s voice boomed down from above. “Get out of there. We’ve got company coming our way.”