Chapter 11
Trey barely slept that night. At multiple points, he considered barging across the hall and pounding on the door until Jenn let him in. But he knew she’d hate that. He’d hate that. And so, minute by minute, he waited.
He didn’t realize he’d fallen asleep until he woke up to the sound of a knock on his cabin door. He scrambled out sleep, the illumination of the numbers on the alarm clock the only light in the room. He searched for the door blindly, finally finding the handle and pulling it open. He blinked in the sudden glare of the light from the hallway.
Ricardo stood there, his face conveying his obvious displeasure at having to initiate this interaction with Trey.
“Mr. Trey, I was told to give you this. From Miss Jenn.” He handed Trey an envelope without another word, then walked rapidly away.
Trey held the envelope in one hand, blinking groggily down at it. He stepped back into the room and closed the door. What is this about?
He clicked on the cabin light and sat down on the bunk. His eyes sought out the alarm clock more intentionally now, and he froze. Is that really the time? Shit! He’d slept far longer than he’d ever intended to. The ship had likely already docked, and Jenn debarked. He was facing another full day of this excruciating waiting and ruminating.
He looked back down at the envelope and his brow furrowed. It wasn’t Jenn’s handwriting on the front. Trey slid his finger beneath the flap and tore through the adhesive.
As he scanned the contents, his eyes went wide, his face went white, and his breathing came in quickening spurts through his nose.
Trey darted to the safe and fumbled with the buttons, punching in the code he’d set upon getting settled. The lock clicked, he yanked the door open, and snatched out the black velvet bag, dumping its contents into the hand still holding the letter and envelope.
It was a bracelet, a 1920’s art deco piece, Trey had learned through his lazy attempt at research. The many sections featured intricate gold inlay designs accenting the gaudy rhinestone set into the center of each piece. At its middle, one large section featured a low pyramid shape, each of the four faces adorned with four different gems, each a different color.
The vintage feel of it, the fact that you could easily envision a 1920s flapper flailing it about on her wrist as she danced the Charleston, were the reasons he’d bought it for Jenn. She had an appreciation for all things vintage, but nurtured a special love for the fashions of the ‘20’s, ‘30’s, and ‘40’s. It didn’t matter if it were flapper gowns or post-war pencil skirts, she adored them all.
Trey’s gaze flitted back and forth between the letter and the bracelet, disbelief in his wide, frantic eyes.
How is this happening? WHY is this happening? He drew the bracelet up to his eyes, looking for something, anything he’d missed that would make it worth the demand on the letter in his other hand. Something that would make it worth Jenn.
***
Jenn was not enjoying herself. She regretted wholeheartedly her decision to accompany Casey and his work friend April on their exotic foray into the uncharted jungles of Mexico in pursuit of the rumor of a waterfall that was supposedly “breathtaking.”
The mud of the jungle trail stole the ballet flat (the closest thing to what she’d consider a sensible shoe she’d brought) from her foot yet again. So far, there was no waterfall, and she still had her breath, but her shoes might end up being another thing, altogether.
“Hey, not to be a stick in the mud—,” She nearly fell flat on her face, tripping over an actual stick in the mud. “—But are we close to this waterfall? I wasn’t really prepared for this much of a slog through the trees and everything.” She took a moment to look backward through the trees to the jungle floor on the valley below. She could see the village they’d hopped the taxi to, and far beyond that, glimmering at the edge of the horizon, what she assumed was the ocean.
“We’re almost there,” Casey called back from where he led their little expedition, the sweat soaking the neck of his yellow tank top in a perfect “v” around his neck in back. He reached up to grab a tree limb and used it to pull himself up a particularly steep and rocky portion of the trail. Jenn found herself mesmerized by the shiny ripple on his forearm made by his tendons and ligaments.
She shook her head, staring at her shoes, taking a deep breath in through her mouth and letting it out. I gotta get fucking laid. Damn you, Trey!
Thinking about Trey forced her to glance back at the ocean. She knew she couldn’t, but she imagined that she could see the ship, where Trey was doing god-knows-what with god-knows-who. She viciously kicked some stubborn mud from her flat.
“Almost there. Right. This better be worth it,” she muttered.
She’d intended the words to be just for herself, but, to her surprise, April turned around and grinned like a Cheshire Cat. “Oh, it will be, I guarantee!” She winked at Jenn in a way that left Jenn slightly confused and, truth be told, a little creeped out.
The hell does that mean?
Jenn stopped walking, her shoes squelching in the mud. “Hey, I think we should head back.” She looked down at her mud-spattered shorts and the sheer white button-up top, under which you could clearly see her bikini top. “I’m not really dressed for…” she gestured to the forest generally. “…Whatever this is.”
She saw April give Casey a stricken look, and that was it. She had no idea what was passing between those two, but the alarm bells were full-on ringing now. She turned and started back the way they’d come, making her slippery way down the trail.
“Wait! Jenn, don’t go. I just realized I left something in the taxi! You two go on ahead!” With that, April crashed through the brush to Jenn’s left, leaped back onto the trail, and disappeared at top speed through the trees down the mountain.
Jenn stared after her in stunned silence. Finally, after several moments of jungle silence, she turned to look at Casey, who had come back down the trail and was now standing within arm’s reach of Jenn, watching where April had disappeared.
“What… the hell… was that?” she asked.
“She isn’t especially subtle, April,” Casey offered quietly. “She thinks we’re on a date.”
Jenn snorted. “Why would she think that? She was literally here with us up until the moment she ran away screaming like a lunatic.”
“Probably because I told her this was a date.”
Jenn whirled on Casey. “Excuse me?”
Casey didn’t move, his expression impassive behind his sunglasses. “You weren’t going to come with me, otherwise. So, I told her you were nervous about coming on a date with me, assured her that I had nothing but noble intentions toward you, and paid her for her time in coming far enough with us that I could get you alone.”
A chill ran up Jenn’s spine, and a cold bead of sweat dropped from her back into the hem of her shorts. She backed away from Casey, her hands outstretched and a single warning finger held up between them. “You son of a bitch. You stay away from me!” Her eyes darted between Casey and the trail she was frantically trying to retreat down.
“Relax. It’s not like that. That’s not what I’m after.” Casey took a step toward her, putting a hand out to steady her.
“Really? A guy who went to great lengths to get a girl alone doesn’t want the one thing that all guys want?” Jenn huffed. “That’d be a first.”
“I’m not—,” Casey stopped, as if stunned. “I’m a good guy.”
Jenn couldn’t help it. She knew that, under the circumstances, it was probably the worst thing she could have done, but she laughed.
“Casey!” She spread her arms wide to take in the world immediately around them. “You lured a woman to a remote location under false pretenses by manipulating another woman into helping you do so.” She couldn’t help the anger that crept into her voice now. “You’re not a good guy!” She turned and cupped her hands around her mouth, shouting in the direction that April had disappeared. “HELP!!”
Casey leaped forward, seizing Jenn around the middle and clamping a hand over her mouth. She fought, kicking with her flats and throwing elbows into as many soft spots on Casey’s body as she could reach.
Casey grunted and tense beneath her blows but didn’t release her. He dropped the hand around her mouth, scrambling to trap both her flailing arms, but leaving her mouth free.
“April, help!” she shouted again, taking advantage of her release.
“Shut up!” Casey finally succeeded, using both arms, in securing her hands at her sides, but as he was trying to pin them both with a single arm, he slipped, sending them both tumbling into the mud and rolling and sliding down several feet of the muddy trail.
They came to a rest at the base of a tree, Casey more or less pinning Jenn to the ground with nothing but his sheer bulk.
“Look, I don’t want to hurt you! I don’t want anything from you; it’s Trey who has what I want. I only need you to get what I want, okay? All you need to do is wait until Trey comes running to your rescue. He’s probably on his way now!” Casey was breathing hard, but Jenn couldn’t tell whether it was from exertion, frustration, or the fact that his crotch was pressed against her thighs and had a full handful of her left boob. Whatever his intentions, it was difficult to deny the growing firmness in his pants against her thigh.
Jenn’s survival instinct kicked in hard, and she went completely still and quiet beneath him. She’d fought against him, lost, and was now completely at his mercy. It was time to focus on simply staying alive.
“Casey, please. Let me go. I won’t tell anyone what happened, I won’t say anything.”
To his credit, which gave Jenn just a glimmer of hope to counter the fear that now flooded her system, Casey adjusted so that it was his chest and arms, not his pelvis and his rapidly swelling cock that held Jenn pinned against the ground. Jenn felt him swallow and take a deep breath. “Look, I wasn’t lying: I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to—,” he adjusted again, pushing his crotch even further from her. “I’m not gonna….” He trailed off.
Jenn lay perfectly still beneath him, waiting to see what he would do. Whatever her turbulent relationship with God, she was praying now. She wasn’t sure who to, and she didn’t know what words she was supposed to be saying, but she prayed like she’d never prayed before.
Casey pushed himself up to stand, leaning over to place his hands on his knees and turning to hide the erection that threatened to completely tent his gym shorts. Jenn, for all the precariousness of her situation, couldn’t help but notice, once more, that his cock was massive beneath the shimmery material of his shorts. The thought of it this time, however, didn’t run a shiver of want through her. It put a chill in her gut that refused to go away. His recent protests and current disposition notwithstanding, Jenn knew she wasn’t out of the woods yet. She decided her best chance was leaning into the better nature he so desperately claimed was there, beneath the surface.
“So, what IS it you want from Trey?” She asked quietly, trying to divert the attention away from what had just passed between them.
Casey wouldn’t look her in the eye, which she saw as a good sign. As an experienced businesswoman, she knew when her opponent didn’t have the heart to close the deal and how to work with that. She stayed on the ground, making herself present comfortably. So far, he’d only gotten physical and come after her when she’d struggled to get away and get help. Maybe if she projected an image of calm and complacency, he would match it. She pulled her knees up, looped her wrists loosely around them, and leaned her head back against the tree she’d fallen into, wincing internally as her bruised ribs stretched.
Casey dropped to a crouch, still fighting (and failing) to hide his erection. From there, he at least tried to hide its girth down the inside of his leg.
“It’s… a bracelet.”
Jenn blinked. “That thing?”
Casey met her eyes.
“You know about it?”
Jenn nodded, her brow furrowed. “Yeah, I found it in his room. How do YOU know about it?”
Casey shifted on the balls of his feet, and Jenn saw him try to covertly adjust his penis with a hand as it shrunk. It’s working: if he’s not aroused, I’m good. Keep him talking.
Casey laughed humorlessly. “It’s a long story.”
Jenn glanced around the forest meaningfully. “I’m not going anywhere; are you?”
Casey laughed again, uncomfortably this time. “No, I guess not.”
He slowly stood, and Jenn was hyper aware of the fact that he watched his shorts to see if his erection had deflated enough to allow him to move normally. Lucky for him, it had. Instead of sticking out like the center pole of a circus tent, it swung more like an elephant’s trunk, no longer erect, but also not even close to completely flaccid. Jenn’s eyes widened again, and she looked down. Lord, let this man keep his cock to himself!
“It’s kind of a family thing. My great-great uncle made it back in the 60’s. He was a jeweler and silversmith in Georgia. The bracelet was a commissioned piece. It’s more or less just sentimental.”
Jenn raised an eyebrow. “You kidnapped a woman and are holding her ransom for sentimental reasons? I call bullshit.”
Casey made one final adjustment of his shorts and found a seat on the ground not far from Jenn. Close enough that he could reach out and stop her if she tried to flee, she assumed.
“Don’t forget: I’ve seen it. It was cute, but not the most expensive piece I’ve ever seen. Common gemstones, decorative gold inlay… pretty, but not worth a fortune.”
Casey squirmed. He was clearly holding back. Jenn could smell it.
“Look, I have a right to know what my life is being traded for.”
“I’m not trading your life,” Casey grumbled.
“Is that what you told Trey?”
Casey wouldn’t meet her eyes again.
“That’s what I thought,” she said. Thinking back to her confrontation with Trey, she sighed. “I have bad news for you.”
Casey looked up, his expression alarmed.
“I seriously doubt that Trey is going to come after me, let alone trade his whore’s bauble for me.”
Casey raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about? He’s super into you.”
Jenn shook her head. “Nope. I thought so, too. But turns out, he’s been seeing another woman on board this entire time.” She had a sudden realization. “Maybe even before the cruise.” She swore, punching the mud. “I’m pretty sure he bought the bracelet for her.” She laughed without any trace of humor. “In fact, he probably thinks you did him a favor. After what happened last night, I kind of doubt he’s even coming after me.”
***
“I’m going after her!”
Trey flitted around the cabin like an injured hummingbird, opening drawers and closing closet doors as if he expected something useful to have materialized since the last time he’d looked.
Chloe and Desire sat on the edge of the bed, trying and failing to keep out of the way in the tiny interior cabin.
“Trey, you can’t go after her alone: look at you! You basically have to hop on that ankle.” Chloe’s voice was gentle, pleading.
“What she means to say,” Desire spoke up, glancing at their partner. “Is that this is way more than we signed up for, you’re in no shape to be pursuing a kidnapper, and it’s time to involve the authorities.”
Chloe glanced at Desire. “That’s not what I said, and please don’t put words in my mouth. You know I don’t like it when you do that.”
Desire sighed sharply. “I’m sorry. I’m just not comfortable with this. I was on board with the original plan. This is something else entirely.” They pointed toward the hull of the ship and what lay beyond it. “That’s Mexico out there. You fuck up out there, it’s not exactly a slap on the wrist you’re in for. They don’t mess around.”
“And this is based on what?” Chloe asked, turning to face her partner. “ Narcos ?”
Desire blushed slightly but continued. “All right, but you know that was based on a true story, right?”
“It wasn’t even based in Mexico! And not every person living south of the United States is in a cartel. You know who you sound like, right?” Chloe glared at Desire, then turned her attention back to Trey.
“That’s not what I was saying,” Desire countered, clearly hurt. “It’s just… not what we agreed to. At all.”
It was Trey’s turn to interrupt. “I know it isn’t, and I’m not asking you to help. But I’m doing this, one way or another. I won’t risk anything happening to Jenn.”
Chloe was nodding. “Of course. And honestly, it’s not that big a deal; whoever it is, they were pretty clear: hand over the bracelet and Jenn goes free.” She gestured at the black velvet bag on the vanity outside the bathroom. “It wasn’t even a huge part of the plan. Just turn it over, get Jenn back, and we’ll take things from there. I still think we can make this work.”
Trey smiled halfheartedly. “Right now, I just need to focus on Jenn.”
Both of the other occupants in the cabin nodded their silent agreement.
***
“So, what happens next?” Jenn asked dejectedly. “We keep pushing on through this sludge until we get to this waterfall I kept hearing so much about?”
Casey chuckled. “No. There’s no way Trey would ever find us there. It’s a legend among the crew because there’s inevitably passengers who try to get there who end up missing the departure. Every damn time.” He laughed again. “No, I just said that so April would come with us.”
“Yeah, she seems nice. I’m gonna kill her,” Jenn said flatly.
Casey laughed out loud, an altogether not unpleasant sound. “Her heart’s in the right place, but you’re right: she isn’t very bright.” Casey managed to stand upright, this time without his third leg making anything but a subtle appearance behind his shorts. “We should head for the meeting spot.”
“Which is?” Jenn accepted his offered hand to help her up.
“An abandoned sugar processing plant.”
“Of course it is.” Jenn grimaced. “God! How do you guys find places like this?”
Casey had the decency to look offended. “‘You guys?’ It’s not like there’s a social club.” He frowned. “And I told you, I’m actually a really good guy!”
Jenn couldn’t help it again. She snorted. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, I guess.”
“I am! And it was actually really hard, by the way. It’s not like you can just google ‘abandoned buildings.’”
“But I’ll bet you tried!” Jenn laughed.
“Maybe.” Casey grinned slightly.
They slid and walked down the trail for some way in silence.
“So, I don’t get it: if you knew Trey had the bracelet, why didn’t you just offer to buy it from him?” Jenn was still confused about a great many things that were happening.
“Well, I didn’t know his name, or anything. All I knew was that he bought it and had told the shop owner that he was going to give it to a special lady friend of his on their upcoming cruise. Apparently, the shop owner was curious about cruising, because he remembered asking about which cruise line and the port of departure and a whole bunch of other stuff I didn’t care about.”
“So, you just hired yourself out on a cruise on the off-chance that you might run into the guy who intended to give your great-great-uncle’s artisanal bracelet to his girlfriend? And your plan was to kidnap the girlfriend and ransom the bracelet from him? Did I leave anything out?”
Behind her, Casey didn’t reply.
“How did you know it was me?”
“What?”
Jenn’s foot slipped, and she reached out to catch herself on a branch at the same time a strong pair of hands caught her beneath the armpits.
“Thanks,” she said, shrugging out of his grip and resuming her controlled fall down the mountainside. “You approached me in the library before Trey and I ever met up. What made you believe I was the girlfriend?”
There was silence behind her. Jenn turned to look, wondering if Casey had stopped for some reason.
“I didn’t.” It was almost a whisper.
Jenn hesitated. Ah. This complicates things.
“So, you…” Jenn hesitated, still unsure whether she should pull at this particular thread.
“Thought you were hot?” Casey offered.
“Mmhmm,” Jenn hummed.
“Maybe,” Casey admitted. “I mean, you ate with that blouse and skirt.”
“That was a good outfit,” Jenn agreed. She filed this information away for use with all the rest. “Okay, but you still haven’t answered my question. Why not offer to just buy the bracelet from him? Do you know how much it cost?”
There was an uncomfortable hum from behind her. She turned to look at him, but Casey staunchly avoided her gaze this time, staring down at his shoes.
“You don’t have it, do you?”
Casey squirmed.
“How much did it cost?”
Casey shrank into himself and muttered, “A thousand.”
Jenn stared at him. “A thousand dollars? I’m being kidnapped and ransomed for no more than a thousand dollars?” She slapped his chest. He drew back even further. “Do you know how embarrassing that is? How am I ever going to show my face at the office again when word gets out that I was ransomed for the price of an executive team lunch?! Christ, Casey!”
Jenn pulled her phone from her pocket. “What’s your handle? Tell you what: I’ll pay you double that, right now, and we’ll just completely forget this embarrassing thing ever even happened, all right?”
Casey grabbed her phone, holding it up and out of her reach. “No. It’s not about the money. Not exactly.”
“Then what the hell is it about, Casey? Because right now, it looks like I’m caught in the middle of some family history drama with a shot-nosed kid who can’t afford a pair of collector’s kicks and a two-timing asshole who couldn’t be bothered to buy a quality piece of jewelry! Stop me when I get to the part I get wrong!”
Casey remained silent, the phone still held just out of reach.
“Fine. Then give me the phone, and I’ll text the money and an explanation to Trey.” Jenn held out her hand expectantly. “With any luck, we can all be back on the ship by departure and drunk by sundown with this whole stupid thing behind us.” She waved her fingers in request for the phone.
Casey hesitated for a moment, then lowered the phone slightly. “Do you think he’ll agree to it?”
Jenn snatched the phone from his hand. “He will if he knows what’s fucking good for him.”
She unlocked the phone, then immediately groaned. “Son of a bitch!” she yelled, fighting the urge to throw the phone into the jungle. She took several deep breaths through her nose. “No service. You?”
Casey looked down at his own phone, which he’d produced from his chest bag. “None.”
“Shit. So, what you’re saying is that we have no choice but to see this half-baked, ridiculous thing through to its epically awful conclusion?”
“It really is looking that way,” Casey said with a grimace. “I— I’m really sorry about this. My whole family has just been looking for that bracelet now for three generations, and I kind of… lost my mind for a bit when I found it, lost it, and couldn’t just buy it back.”
“So your mind went immediately to kidnapping?!” Jenn sat down in the mud on a particularly steep section, choosing the predictable mud soak over the unanticipated fall. “You’re STILL not the good guy here, you know that, right?”
She turned to stare at Casey. His lips were pursed, and his sunglasses pointed at the ground. She had a momentary lapse in her anger. He really did present like a kid who had just gotten a thorough tongue-lashing and was now sitting in his shame.
“Okay, don’t.”
He looked up, surprised. “What?”
“Don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?”
Jenn pointed at him, up and down. “That. The whole ashamed kid thing. It’s not working for you. How old are you, again?”
“Twenty-five.”
“Fuck me.” Jenn paused in her chaotic descent. “I’m gonna give you some advice, Casey. You make mistakes; you own them. You don’t bemoan them you don’t make people pity you. You take accountability, you learn what went wrong, and then you don’t make the same mistake again.”
Casey nodded. “Makes sense.”
“Of course it makes sense. You think I got to be a woman with an executive suite in her company’s main office by saying things that don’t make sense?” She laughed, the first true laugh that day. It felt good. “You know what doesn’t make sense? Kidnapping a woman over a family heirloom! That doesn’t make sense!” She whacked Casey on the arm, playful this time. “Now get me off this damn mountain, Casey.”