Dancing Tides (252 page)

BOOK: Dancing Tides

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O
r
his
g
ood lu
c
k.
Ke
e
g
a
n h
a
d
a
g
r
e
e
d to m
ar
r
y
h
i
m ov
e
r
Ch
r
istm
a
s b
rea
k.

W
hile
he
wa
it
e
d
f
or
c
l
a
ss to st
ar
t, Co
r
d n
er
vous
l
y
d
r
umm
e
d his
f
in
g
e
r
s on the
w
ood
a
nd d
ec
id
e
d to op
e
n his t
e
x
tbook.
H
e
h
a
d to look t
w
i
c
e
a
t the
si
g
n
a
tu
r
e
line
on
the
inside
fr
ont
c
ov
e
r th
a
t list
e
d
a
ll the
stud
e
nts
w
ho h
a
d o
w
n
e
d the
bo
o
k ov
e
r
the
y
e
ar
s.
T
h
e
r
e
s
craw
l
e
d on t
h
e
s
ec
ond line
wa
s the
n
a
me
S
c
ott
P
hillips.

F
or
some
r
ea
son, Co
r
d
fe
lt
c
omp
e
ll
e
d to thumb th
r
ou
g
h the
book.

T
h
er
e
it
wa
s,
p
rac
ti
c
a
l
l
y
i
n the
middl
e
, s
a
nd
w
i
c
h
e
d
b
e
t
wee
n
p
a
g
e
s 260
a
nd
261, a
pi
ec
e of
p
a
p
er
,
f
old
e
d in t
w
o,
a
nd us
e
d like
a
bookm
ar
k
a
t the
b
e
g
inning
o
f
Ch
a
p
t
e
r
Te
n,
B
iom
e
mb
ra
n
e
St
r
u
c
tu
re.

Co
r
d slipp
e
d it out, un
f
o
l
d
e
d the
not
e
.

I
told
y
ou it
wasn
’
t
y
our ti
m
e
to go, that
y
ou still had a lif
e
ti
m
e
of things
t
o do.
A
nd that
’
s the
fun part.
M
a
k
e
sure
y
ou
n
e
v
e
r
ta
k
e
life
for grant
e
d again.

G
row old, Cord, li
v
e
life
eve
ry
d
a
y
li
k
e
a p
r
ec
ious
gift b
ec
ause
y
ou n
e
ve
r
k
now from
one day
to the
n
ex
t what the
dan
c
ing tid
e
s will bring
t
o shor
e
.

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Go to the next page for a preview of

Lighthouse Reef

Prologue

Twenty-five years earlier

Pelican Pointe, California

T
he waves crashed up against the rocks. The wind whipped in gusts while a slice of moonlight trailed along the sand, glistening like silver. On the deserted stretch of beach, three young men huddled in front of a campfire they’d built up trying to stay warm in the chilly, damp night air. Two were brothers—the other an older tag-along already of legal age they’d talked into buying beer and cigarettes in the neighboring town of San Sebastian—where you could purchase liquor if you were twenty-one.

But San Sebastian was farther inland and it didn’t offer the Coast Highway to tour up and down cruising for chicks, especially in the summertime, or during spring break when babes wearing string bikinis were as common as surfboards. Oddly, that was usually the best time of year to pick up hitchhikers, too.

Not four hours earlier, the trio had set off an alarm on Main Street when they’d broken a window to get inside Ferguson’s Hardware store. Their plan had been to rob old man Ferguson, take whatever cash they could find. Who knew Ferguson had gone and installed an alarm system? Probably something the son had come up with to impress his old man, a step toward progress, signaling a change in ownership one day in the not too distant future. Something to show the town he deserved the cushy job he’d fallen into as daddy’s right-hand man.

After all, nepotism ran strong in this
shitwater of a town, didn’t it? Fathers turned the reins over to their sons to inherit the business, whatever the business happened to be. It was a practical matter, a legacy that had held its own ritual for years and would continue to do so for future generations.

Future generations?
What a joke that was. Like anyone with a brain would stay in Pelican Pointe their whole life and hope to have a future here.

Flames rose higher on the fire as they took turns tossing more driftwood onto the pyre hoping to make it more like a bonfire.

“Why do you want to do that?” the younger one asked. “We’re just attracting attention to ourselves.”

“Shut up,” the older brother barked. “Didn’t we just gather up all this wood? It’s freezing out her
e in the mist. Besides, I call the shots. Don’t forget that,” he warned as he chucked another log into the blaze, making the tips of the flames shoot up higher, as if trying to reach all the way to the top of the bluffs where the lighthouse sat high atop its craggy perch.

Up to now, the discarded beer cans that littered their feet were the only true indication the three had been drinking. But as they got drunker—they also got more surly—and louder. Nasty tempers began to clash as they always did between these same companions and flare like rockets on the Fourth of July.

The youngest, barely sixteen, spared a glance in the direction of the young teen girl they’d tied up earlier and placed close to the fire. Her eyes told him she looked scared to death. Not an hour earlier, his brother had stuck a gag in her mouth to shut her up and keep her from screaming. “What should we do about her?”

The older brother didn’t take long to think about it. “Let’s take the bitch up to the lighthouse.
Whaddya say we go up there and have ourselves some fun. We’ll put it to her good and hard. No one will hear a thing.”

“He’s right. The longer we stay down here on the beach, the more we risk somebody could
come along and spot us,” the tag-along agreed without much hesitation. “But shit. How do we get the bitch up there? You feel like toting her all that way?”

“Hell no.
We’ll stick her in the back of my pickup while we make our way through town. That way it just looks like it’s the three of us same as it usually does.”

“Then let’s do it.”

“I’m in. How do we choose which one of us goes first though? Should be the oldest that gets first dibs, dontcha think? Since that’s me—”

“No. No different than the way we always do things. I go first, then my little brother. You last.”

“Why does it always have to be your way?”

“Because it’s my damn truck that’s why.
Now shut the fuck up and help me get this bitch loaded up. Anymore crap from you—?”

“Okay. Okay. No need to get your panties in a wad. How much do you think she weighs?”

“How the hell should I know! The three of us should be able to handle her though.” With that the oldest brother went over and pulled the terrified girl to her feet. He brought out the knife he carried and stuck it to her throat. He looked into the blonde’s brilliant-blue eyes and wondered what it would be like to watch the life go out of them. He’d been thinking about it a lot lately, reading about it, too. Tonight he had his chance to see what it was like for himself. He just had to bring the others around to his way of thinking.

“Grab her feet,” he ordered the tag-along. To his brother, he yelled over the sound of the wind and surf, “Open up the tailgate.”

“What about the fire?”

“We’ll come back. For what I have in mind, this won’t take that long at all.”