BEAST: A Bad Boy Marine Romance (25 page)

T
HE BED RATTLED
AND THE vibrations on the floor awoke me from sleep. My first thought was it was an angry wave, until I realized it was Annie who was shaking. Her little boy popped up in bed, his hair disheveled, and let out a whimper. She ran to the bathroom and slammed the door.

I didn’t know what the fuck to do. I sat on the bed next to Gabriel.

“Hey buddy, you want to check out the boat?”

I had nothing to offer him—totally ill-equipped to entertain a toddler. No toy trains or cars. No crayons or stickers. I didn’t want to touch him, scare him. I hadn’t a clue what kind of life he’d grown accustomed to, who took care of him while Annie worked. Fuck—I still didn’t know who his dad was, and for that matter, if I’d killed him.

I could hear Annie gagging and retching.

Gabriel looked around the room, his eyes fixed on the tiny porthole.

“Boat?” he said.

“Yes—we’re on a boat. Do you want to see it?”

He nodded and put his arms around my neck. His affection startled me, so trusting, so warm. I carried him to the deck where Kyle was manning the ship.

“Hey, little man.” Kyle came from a big family with a bunch of nieces and nephews. “You want to help me steer?”

A smile broke out on Gabriel’s face. Kyle offered his hand to Gabriel, and the little boy happily took it, and stepped up to the control panels.

Kyle turned to me, “I got this. Anyway, we need to talk about what we’re going to do with them.”

Vic interjected. “She’s right, you know. We can’t drop her off at the embassy, with her son. He’s a Dutch National. They could prevent him from leaving the country.”

“I know. What are our options?”

Kyle spoke, his hands helping Gabriel steer the wheel. “We can sail her back to San Diego.”

“No way. We don’t have the supplies, it will take at least two weeks, and I’ve never sailed through the Panama Canal. She’s detoxing. This isn’t even our boat.”

Vic stretched out on the deck. “We don’t have a choice, Walsh. Unless you marry her and take them on a Navy cruiser. The consulate might try to locate Gabriel’s family, might investigate our mission at the brothel. I already radioed Dave. I didn’t give him the details about Annie, but I asked him if there was any way we could take the boat to San Diego. He said yes—as long as we took him.”

Great, just fucking great. Not exactly the way I wanted to spend the few weeks of leave I get a year. But they were right. I didn’t have a choice. I’d see this mission through to the end. And I trusted Dave, we’d used his weapons for the rescue anyway. “Fine. Let’s go tell Annie. Kyle, radio Dave and confirm everything. Make sure he gets enough supplies for us, Annie, and the boy. Toys and stuff, too.”

Kyle grabbed the radio. “Roger that. Go take care of Annie.”

Vic headed back to the room with me, carrying his medical bag. “How’s she doing?”

“She woke up and puked.”

We entered the room; Annie was sitting on the bed, her hair wet, her skin bluish.

Vic gave her more meds, and she calmed down for a bit. He then went to the kitchen to make us all breakfast.

I led Annie into the living area. I warmed some chicken broth in a mug and handed her a banana, which was about the extent of my cooking skills. “You need to eat. Here.”

She took a sip of the broth and relaxed into the chair. “I thought I was dreaming. I can’t believe I’m really free. When we moved islands, I thought my one chance was gone forever. How did you find me?”

I studied the girl sitting in front of me. She already looked different to me than she had when I’d last seen her in the brothel. She seemed lighter, like a weight had been lifted from her soul. But her skin was pale and her hair was lifeless. She still had a long way to go before she fully returned to the land of the living. “I went back to the brothel in Aruba—it was burnt to the ground. We searched the island for you and Kyle got a tip that you girls were moved to Curaçao, so we came here. You’d told me the last thing you remembered at the resort was being in the elevator with that dancer. He was playing at a bar and I followed him. I thought I saw you in the window, so I took a chance and here we are.”

Sweat dripped from her forehead. “That’s amazing. You’re amazing. How can I ever thank you? My dad, he has money. . .”

I raised my hand up. “Stop. I’m not interested in money. Your father has offered a reward, a huge one at that, but I don’t want it. In fact, the only way you can thank me is never mentioning our involvement in your rescue.”

She winced. “Oh, okay. I get it. You don’t want to be associated with me. I understand.”

“That’s not it. We all need to be anonymous to do our jobs in the Teams. And this was off-record. We didn’t get permission from our command. We could get disciplined and ruin our careers.”

Her eyes closed and her jaw shook. “So I have to lie about how I was rescued?”

“I’m not asking you to lie. But you need to leave our names out of it. Our names and pictures can’t be plastered over the media or we’ll get kicked out of the Teams. We can’t exactly go undercover if the world knows our identities.”

She took a small bite of the banana. “I get it. I’m sorry I got you involved in this.”

I touched her shoulder. “Hey. Don’t say that. I’m not sorry. I’m not sorry about any of it. How I met you, that you told me your name, or how I found you. I’m only sorry I didn’t torture the motherfuckers who took you.” I paused … I had to ask about Gabriel. “Your son—his dad?”

“Renzo, the dancer.” Her eyes seemed distant and dare I say, sad. “You didn’t have to kill him.”

“Are you fucking serious? I actually would’ve let him go, but he reached for his weapon. Cocky motherfucker was laughing. My only goal was to save you and your son. Especially now, knowing he was the boy’s father, he could’ve tried to kill us all since we were taking his son away. He kidnapped you. How can you even say that?”

I couldn’t read her. Her mouth was turned downward in a frown yet she was nodding her head. “Renzo wasn’t that bad compared to the others. He took care of me.”

This poor fucking girl was identifying with her captor. I’d studied that shit. “Annie, he was a fucking pimp. He sold you.”

“I know. But sometimes he was nice to me, like when I was pregnant. And he was good to Gabriel.” Her eyes shifted. “Sorry, it’s just hard for me.”

Jesus, this girl needed some serious psychotherapy. I knew she’d be messed up, but she seemed to care more about Renzo’s well-being than her own. Or her son’s.

“We’re going to sail you to San Diego. It will take a couple of weeks.”

She beamed at me. “Oh, Patrick. Thank you. You truly are a hero.”

I hated being called a hero. This was my job. Any Team guy would’ve done the same. “You’re welcome. I need you to focus on getting better. Somehow I don’t think this journey will help with the detox.”

“I can do it. I’m not scared of anything. Now that I know we’re going home.”

She wouldn’t be saying that tomorrow, when the withdrawal kicked in. But I would be here for her, every step of the way.

“Where’s Gabriel?”

“On the deck with Kyle.”

“Can I see him?”

“Of course. You don’t have to ask me permission to do anything. You’re safe here.”

Pushing herself off the chair, she walked over to me and kissed me on the cheek. “I know I’m safe. You’re here.”

She climbed down the ladder to the deck and stood there in the breeze, breathing in the Caribbean air. Gabriel ran up to her and she scooped him in her arms, pointing at the ocean. He kissed his mama. I could see she loved him, that she didn’t see him as the son of her captor, just as her adorable little boy.

I wanted to ask her a thousand questions, about her life before she was taken, about the horror she had endured, but I was in too deep already.

W
E MET
DAVE ON THE dock, just after sunset, avoiding customs and immigration. We didn’t want anyone questioning us. Dave loaded food, water, supplies, and toys for Gabriel. I instructed Annie to keep Gabriel below until we headed back out to sea.

Dave took helm of the ship, and we set out on our journey to San Diego. Before I could open my mouth to debrief him, he gave me a wink. “You found her? That missing American? Annie?”

“Yes. In a brothel in Aruba. How the hell did you know?”

“I’ve been looking for her myself. Hoping to claim the reward. But I never got anywhere. You aren’t the first treasure hunters to come searching for her pile of gold. A few years ago, some other former Team guys showed up here, sniffing around.”

Other guys? “You mean the con man? The one who bilked her dad out of money?”

“No. Not that fraud. These other men. Team guys—not active like you. Older. Retired. They were here for a full month, rented one of my yachts. But they came up empty handed also.”

So her parents had hired private security contractors to find her? That didn’t make any sense. I found her and wasn’t even looking. And even when I lost her, I’d found her again within a week. Something didn’t add up.

“Dave, we didn’t come here for the reward money. I found Annie myself. I hired her in a brothel when our ship docked. And we can’t take the money or be in the papers because of the rescue. You’d actually help us out if you took credit.”

Dave stared at me dead-on. “You’re fucking with me.”

“No, I’m dead serious. Collect the reward. I don’t want to get kicked out of the Teams. It’s my life—all I have. My career is just beginning. Take it—it’s yours.”

He shook my hand. “You have my word, kid. I’ll make sure you stay out of the papers, and I’ll reimburse you for this entire trip. If you ever need anything, money or anything, please, what’s mine is yours.”

“I appreciate that, man.” I heard a thump down below. “I need to check on Annie.”

I went down the stairs. “Pat! Pat!” Annie was pacing around the cabin.

Fuck. She was withdrawing, hard. Her skin was almost yellowish and she was pulling out her hair. I opened the door. “Kyle, can you show Gabriel his new toys?”

“Sure thing.” Kyle rummaged through the bags Dave brought. He held up a toy ship. “Little man, you want to play with this boat?”

Gabriel trotted over to Vic, who took him to the other cabin. From now on, I had to do a better job of shielding Gabriel from his mother’s detox.

I sat on Annie’s bed. “What? What’s wrong?”

Her hands trembled, her teeth clattered. “I need a fucking fix. Can you get me some smack? Maybe we can sail back and find a dealer. Just a little? I can’t do this. I can detox at home! My dad will send me to one of those Hollywood country club kinds of rehabs.”

Calm, Pat. Stay calm. “No way am I going to score you dope. And if you haven’t noticed, we’re in the middle of the ocean. You can do this, Annie. You need to do this for Gabriel.”

Vic opened the door to our cabin and tried to hand her more meds, but she pushed them out of his hand and they scattered on the floor.

Vic bent over to grab them but I stopped him. “Annie, pick them up,” I said calmly but firmly.

“You can’t fucking tell me what to do,” she hissed. Her pupils were dilated and she had beads of sweat on her forehead.

Vic was about to speak, but I signaled to him that I would handle it.

I still didn’t raise my voice. “I said pick them up, Annie.”

She cackled. “I don’t have to listen to you. You don’t fucking own me. You’re no hero—so fucking pathetic you have to pay for a blowjob from a whore. You’re no better than my pimp. At least he kept me high. At least he could stomach fucking me. I know you want me. What the fuck is your problem? Can’t get it up?”

My muscles quivered. I wasn’t going to engage with her. She was detoxing. I had to remind myself this was normal.

“I’m not going to ask you again. Pick them up or I’ll flush them down the toilet. You need them. They will make you feel better.”

She spat in my face then crawled on the floor and got the pills. This wasn’t Annie, this was Star. Like a fucking Jekyll and Hyde.

V
ic handed
her water and she downed the pills. Then she went into the bathroom, slammed the door, and started the shower.

Vic spoke in a quiet voice. “This is normal, man. My cousin went through this. He fucking jumped off a balcony trying to score.”

I gave a heavy nod. Her son had been born into hell. He needed his mom to be strong. I accepted this project with no reservations.

M
Y BODY FLUNG OUT
OF the bed like I was possessed. My flesh burned; I clawed at my skin, biting my arms, trying to gnaw away the agony.

Pat shot up from his makeshift bed on the floor.

“I can’t fucking do this, Pat.” My nails raked at the skin on my forearms. I rubbed a palm on my thigh. “I can’t. I can’t. It’s too hard. You can take me back, I don’t fucking care. I need it. It hurts.”

I crumpled to my knees, grating against the rough wood floor, breathing through my breathless sobs. Pat crouched beside me and laid a hand against my back, which was clammy with sweat. I shrieked at his touch and cringed backwards.

“Don’t fucking touch me!” The sound of my scream echoed off the walls of the room. “Don’t touch me. I don’t want anyone to touch me.”

Pat didn’t give up that easily.

I shivered. He wrapped me in a blanket and held me. I resisted at first, and then fell into his arms, searching for relief. Strong, warm, secure. Could he just hold me forever? This patient, kind man. The way he looked at me, the way he took care of my son and me. Why was he helping me, what would I owe him? How could he not want something in return?

Dizzy and lightheaded, I almost left my body. His lips pressed on my forehead and he rocked me until I fell asleep.