Chapter 44
One Month Later
Braden’s arm had healed, but the pain throbbed through him again now and then.
He had taken a medical leave from the Timberbrook County Sheriff’s Office, and considering Trent was incarcerated, that meant they were two men down.
On this beautiful August day, Braden sat outside on the deck of the Cedar Trails cabin he’d rented for this special occasion.
He would be picking Lauren and Elise up from the airport later this evening.
The specialist had released his niece from treatment.
She was in remission. Every time he thought about it, his heart almost burst with a mix of joy and relief.
Thank you, Lord.
He struggled to believe Elise was on the other side of this scare, and now the way had been paved for her to receive treatment without Octavia Dane pulling strings or manipulating clinicians, or Braden for that matter.
The woman herself stepped out onto the deck as if she’d read his thoughts, holding a glass of iced tea for him.
Cressida followed her and shut the door, then took a seat next to him.
Octavia sat on the other side of her. He couldn’t be happier that Cressida had found a way to reach across the abyss that had separated her from her mother.
But he’d prefer to spend time getting to know Cressida without Octavia hovering.
They sat in silence, taking in the smells and the sounds, and for him it was about being in this moment.
Octavia had privately briefed him regarding everything she could share, and some of it she shared even though she shouldn’t.
Trent Riker was a former CIA agent who had been tasked in the past with recovering the K-482 Voron that sank in 1980 in the Pacific Ocean, too close to the US for comfort—and some believed it was Russia’s attempt to start a war between the US and China.
But the Soviet nuclear submarine sank to a depth too deep for recovery until technological advancements made salvage attempts possible.
Then in 1995, the CIA’s deep-sea vessel, SSV Aegis, had only partially recovered the submarine, unfortunately leaving behind one nuclear missile, which contained fissile material capable of being weaponized.
A decade later, the CIA launched a second covert mission led by CIA officer Trent Riker on board the USS Vanguard to retrieve the remaining missile.
Once the missile was secured on the vessel, Trent departed the Vanguard, believing the mission complete.
But the ship never arrived at its destination.
He was relieved of his position—unfairly, he believed—and determined to discover what happened to the missing vessel considered lost at sea.
He quietly took up residence in Hidden Bay, biding his time, waiting for answers.
In 2010, Diggins had set out to find the Vanguard—his son, Caleb, had been on that doomed mission—wanting to learn the truth about what happened.
But the ocean took from him again when the Endeavor Spirit was hijacked, and he and his crew were taken by a group of militant Russians determined to prevent them from the recovery.
He alone escaped and settled in Hidden Bay, near the mother of his child and the woman he thought he’d lost forever. She hadn’t known he was alive or so close until recently.
With Evelyn Monroe’s arrival, Trent Riker suspected someone knew the location of the Vanguard.
He suspected that someone had survived the Endeavor Spirit’s tragedy.
And with the possibility of the location of the Vanguard within Trent’s reach, he began partnering with rogue players, offering to recover the rest and sell to the highest bidder.
He used his team—which included Malloy—all while working as a local county sheriff’s deputy.
He’d recruited Madeline and Collins in his search for the location and redirected the investigation to point at Octavia’s second set of eyes—Derek Harlan.
Riker had also murdered Harlan—distracting Braden long enough to abduct Cressida right from under him. Things could have ended so differently.
As for Alaric Dane—the lost pages that he’d torn from his journal, he’d mailed ahead of his travel, fearing he would be targeted.
Octavia hadn’t discovered the pages he’d sent in the mail until much later, but Alaric had detailed that he’d long known the location of the downed Vanguard since Octavia had also known the location, and Alaric secretly kept up with her dealings.
His rush to DC from Washington state was to inform her of an impending scheme by rogue players to raise the volatile contents of the lost salvage ship and that the US needed to finish what they’d started, then declassify the information.
Cressida clinked her glass against Braden’s, drawing him to the moment where he had intended to be.
“You look like you’re a thousand miles away.”
“I don’t mean to be,” he said.
“It’s all right. It’ll take time for all of us to process everything that’s happened.”
“I can’t wait to see Diggins and Evelyn’s ceremony at Driftwood Manor tomorrow to renew their wedding vows,” Cressida said.
“I’m still in shock that Diggins is the husband Evelyn thought was dead, or at least who she told us had died.
After I finished reading her diary, I understand why she wanted me to keep it and finish it.
She talked about him a lot, only his name was Nickolas Jonas Daggerty.
After his ‘death,’ Evelyn went back to her maiden name, Monroe—but she kept ‘Mrs.’ out of respect for him.
People assumed she was a widow, and she let them.
It was safer that way. If I had read it, finished it that night, I would have known and understood so much more.
I get that he needed to remain ‘dead’ for multiple reasons.
First, her father tried to kill him, and if he knew he had survived, Diggins would always be looking over his shoulder.
And then, with the role he played in the Specter’s Bounty and the crew, someone would try to kill him if they knew.
With the threats hovering so close, Evelyn and Diggins both kept their distance and for far too long. ”
“Obviously Malloy suspected Diggins knew, but he was waiting for the moment when he would give up the truth,” Octavia said. “And that was to your father. If Diggins hadn’t . . .”
Braden kept his mouth shut. Octavia was spinning a tale now, which she must in her position.
She couldn’t afford for anyone to know that she was the source of the leaked classified information.
Diggins had shared he hadn’t known the location of the Vanguard, and Braden believed him because Octavia was the one person in all of this who was in a position to know those long-buried secrets.
Somehow Alaric had been able to discover that information from his ex-wife, perhaps in classified documents she’d inappropriately kept in her closet before they separated, who knew?
But that was the connection. Alaric had sent Evelyn the locket to give her the location of her son and provide closure while attempting to reach Octavia to declassify the information.
“You can’t think like that, Mom,” Cressida said.
“I could blame myself for working on that article. You shut it down, and Dad must have understood something or seen a connection. He told Evelyn he was going to investigate things ‘for his daughter.’ He pursued this truth, I think for me—so I could finish that article despite you shutting me down. I could blame myself. There’s plenty of blame to go around. So let’s please not even go there.”
Octavia’s smile was forced. “Right. You’re right.” She blew out a sigh and forced an even bigger smile. “In the meantime, Braden, I couldn’t be more thrilled for you that Elise is in remission. Is there anything else I can do to help?”
You’ve done enough. “No, thanks.”
“I can have someone pick them up and deliver them, or go with you to the airport,” Octavia said.
“I’m good.” He wanted to see them in private. “But I’m sure Lauren will want to thank you personally. She knows the work you did behind the scenes to make this dream come true. I couldn’t be more grateful.”
She smiled and stirred her tea with the straw. “You’re off the hook forever, Braden. No hidden strings.”
Cressida flicked her eyes at her mother, then to Braden, and her cheeks turned slightly pink.
“I’ve already shared the news with Cressida, but you’ll be the next person to know that I’m retiring.”
He could only stare. Retiring for someone like Octavia didn’t reduce her level of control all that much. “Congratulations. What will you do with your time?”
Please don’t say what I think you’re going to say.
“I’ve invited Cressida to travel with me. We’ll see the world. Take some time.”
And his heart sank, which was selfish of him. Cressida needed that opportunity to reconnect with her mother.
“Good for you.”
At the look Cressida gave him, he wanted to take the words back. Octavia’s cell phone rang, and she excused herself.
He couldn’t help the brooding mood that hung over him.
“Let’s go for a walk on the beach if you feel up to it.” Cressida held out her hand.
“I’m not an invalid. My arm is fine.” He took her hand, and they walked down the trail, then took the steps onto the beach where tourists flocked this time of year.
He held hands with Cressida as they strolled, listening to the soothing ocean sounds, weaving around driftwood logs and stepping over larger rocks.
With all the many questions, interrogations, briefings, and Octavia hovering, he hadn’t been given a lot of time alone to see where this thing he felt for Cressida might go.
She’d kissed him on the Kraken, sure, but that had been in response to the fact she thought he might have died.
She suddenly stopped, and he turned to face her. The wind coming from the north blew her bright-red curls away from her face, and she shoved her sunglasses over her head and squinted at him, her nose crinkled.
“What are you going to do now, Braden? Are you going to stay here at the county sheriff’s office?”
“I don’t know. I was here for one reason and . . .” That was you. “I kind of like it here, though. It’s beautiful. What about you?” he asked.
“I’m going to focus on finishing Dad’s book. I have all the notes and a publisher waiting. That’s going to take me a while. Months, probably.” She bent over to look closely at a small crab that scrambled away.
“Are you going to work on it while you travel with your mother?”
Cressida stood to face him again and sucked in a breath through clenched teeth as she glanced out at the ocean. “It’ll take my mother months to untangle herself from her job, and I’m not entirely sure she’ll follow through.”
Cressida stepped closer. Braden’s heart rate kicked up. What are you doing?
“What I’m saying, Braden, is I want to find a place to work near you. I liked you from the start. I want to find out if I more than like you.” She lifted her shoulders. “I thought we had something going there, and I want to see where it takes us. Are you on the same page?”
“Come here.” He pulled her against him, and they almost tumbled back over driftwood. He kissed her eagerly and passionately and let her know the answer to her question. She wrapped her arms around him, letting him know the answer to his silent question—Do you more than like me?
Like you?
I think I love you.
A Year Later
Braden and Cressida stood out on the cliff’s edge overlooking Hidden Bay along with Hawk and Remi, Cole and Jo, Evelyn and Diggins, and the entire Cedar Trails Lodge gang, waiting for the moment when they might see the Coast Guard tow the Specter’s Bounty to Hidden Bay for a restoration project via the newly established Evelyn Monroe Foundation.
Cressida held on to Braden, her fiancé, next to her new friends.
Jo and Cole had gotten married three months ago, and Remi and Hawk were expecting their first baby.
Braden continued his work as a detective at the Timberbrook County Sheriff’s Office.
Lauren and Elise had moved to Olympia—just a couple of hours away—so Braden could see them often, but also, in Olympia, they would be closer to adequate medical facilities.
Cressida had just finished the final edits on Dad’s book.
She had many options for working remotely as a journalist, but maybe, just maybe, she would write a romantic suspense novel set on the Washington coast. Braden had been brainstorming with her in the evenings, and they’d concocted an action-adventure story about a lost ship.
She squeezed him closer.
I love you so much.
Remi squealed next to her. “I see it. I see the Specter’s Bounty. This is surreal. I don’t know how I feel about it.”
“Better it’s restored if possible than having it eventually sink.
It lasted a lot longer out there than it should have,” Sheryl said.
The museum curator had come to watch as well.
“You’d wanted an end to the mystery, and you got it,” she said.
“The era of the ghost ship in Hidden Bay is officially over.”
Two Days Later
A storm pummeled the windows of Cressida’s apartment in Forestview and had kept her awake most of the night. A text disturbed her at six-thirty in the morning. Really? She groaned but might as well get up. Cressida glanced at the words from Braden.
The Specter’s Bounty is once again lost at sea.
Cressida smiled.