Authors: Jennifer Horsman
Justin
met that bare hint of challenge in the man's tone and leveled a direct gaze.
"I
know ye said today was the last day of salvaging but well, me and some of the
men here were thinkin' of goin' out again on the morrow."
"In
search of what?" Justin asked, though knowing the answer.
The
men laughed nervously.
"Why
ye know the ship 'ad near five tankards of ale when she went down. Couldn't
drink none on Jacob's order during the doldrums. Can't see wastin' it now, can
ye?"
The
question did in fact hold a challenge, for during the two weeks of salvaging it
had become obvious that Justin had refused to bring up any of the tankards. The
last thing he wanted to see was this group drunk. But he obviously could not
stop the inevitable any longer.
"We'll
need the lifeboat by noon to move. You can have it till then," Justin
replied.
"Ah,
now, that's right generous of you, my man." John smiled. "Mayhap
we'll find one or two bottles as well, anything to help ease our bloody
misfortunes—"
"Not
a chance," Justin interrupted. "Any rum, brandy or the like will be
turned over to Diego. Kafir"—he turned to the Arab, a man he knew he could
trust—"will go with you to ensure the matter."
"Diego?"
John questioned and then before he thought better of it, he muttered under his
breath, "We all know what Diego needs and it's not the relief of a
bottle."
The
silence filled with a thick tension. Eric immediately grabbed both Hanna and
Elsie's arms and rose, bringing them quickly to their feet and motioning them
away from the fire. Cajun might have done the same to Christina but Justin
abruptly tossed his food to the side and slowly stood to his feet. "Have
you got something to say to me?" he asked with a deadly calm.
Cajun
immediately restrained Beau, who stood alert and ready on all fours.
John
rose slowly, too, but for a long moment said nothing. Then he glanced at the
others and found courage in numbers. "Yes," he began gravely.
"Since Cajun and Jacob can't say it, I will. If you haven't got the guts
to kill him—"
It
was as far as he got. Violence erupted from Justin and he moved with such frightening
speed no one could accurately say what happened. He kicked his foot in John's
face, followed this with a blow to his stomach, and suddenly John was flat on
his back, cruelly pinned by Justin's knee, the sharp point of a dagger at his
throat.
"Don't
you ever mention Diego's name to me again or I'll show you just how much 'guts'
I have for killing."
Christina
forgot to breathe.
Justin
stood slowly to his feet, releasing his victim. The men were deathly silent
and, with the exception of Jacob and Cajun, no one could meet his gaze.
"The same goes for each one of you," he warned before turning and
storming off into the darkness of the jungle. Cajun released Beau, who quickly
followed his master and then he came to Christina's side.
Above
the pounding of her heart, she could not reconcile the fact that this was
Justin, the same man who could fill her with life and laughter, whose caress
could be as gentle as the breeze.
No,
it could not be Justin...
Cajun
lifted her to her feet and wordlessly led her away from the men and the fire to
the tent. The last thing she heard was John's startled cry as he tried to sit
up. "Geez, he broke me rib..."
Christina
woke to the darkness of the cave. She looked up through a wide circular hole in
the cavern's roof, much like a skylight. She watched the silent twinkling of
bright stars listening to a haunting silence broken only by waterfalls. It was
the third night of Justin's absence. He had been gone since the night of the
fight.
He
had missed their move to what Jacob nicknamed "mud flats." Hanna had
not been exaggerating when she described the caverns. A fairly large fresh
water river fell over the side of a small mountain, falling into numerous
waterfalls that all dropped into a deep pond at the base. There were a half
dozen various-sized caves and caverns carved into the side of the mountain. So
it seemed the island provided a perfect habitat for them as well.
Their
own cave was difficult to consider from the vantage point of a person who knew
only civilization and its habitats. Resting on a plateau overlooking the pond,
the cave was the size of a large room, with a twenty-foot-high ceiling past the
narrow entrance. Their moss bed lay beneath a natural skylight, one that would
need a canvas cover with any rain.
Nothing
was the same without Justin. Jacob had forced Hanna, Elsie, and herself to
retire at twilight to escape the drunken outrageousness of the men. She had
lain awake half the night, listening to their boisterous merrymaking, audible
even above the loud sound of running water in the caves. And now here she was
awake well before dawn, something she intuitively knew owed to Justin's
absence. The absence of his warmth and closeness stole her sleep.
Shivering
in the early hour air, Christina rose and quietly slipped outside. The air was
slightly warmer outside but still dark and she had to rest a hand on the cavern
edge to prevent falling into the pond. She carefully made her way around the
wide ledge, stepping beneath a waterfall and then climbing down a ladder to the
moist soil surrounding the pond.
It
must have been earlier—or later, depending on one's perspective—than she
thought, for there was not yet any sign of the softening colors of twilight.
She knew exactly where to go to await dawn's light. In the last two days she
often found herself escaping to the water's edge, at a spot where the river met
the crystal blue water of the lagoon. As she made her way along the river's
edge, her gaze scanned the shadows of the beach in search of dark clumps that
would be the men sleeping in drunken stupors. The beach was vacant, though, and
she wondered if the men actually made it up the ladders to their own caves. She
almost smiled at the difficulties that trick surely presented.
The
murky ribbon of river connected the caverns with the lagoon. Coral reefs about
a mile off shore had created the crystal-clear body of water. The water was so
clear one could look into it like a magnifying glass and the day before Eric
had taken Elsie, Hanna, and herself out in the boat to view the magnificent sea
life in the water's depths, especially abundant around the reefs. But the place
she sought now, where the river ran into the lagoon, the water turned a murky
blue diminishing with distance from the mouth of the river. Something about the
sound of rushing water at that spot made it a favorite place to escape
troubling thoughts.
Comfortably
seated on the cushion of sand, Christina rested her gaze on the dark horizon,
determined to catch the first sliver of dawn's light. She tried not to think of
anything—not of the future or of Justin, for those subjects brought confusion
of uncertainty. Thinking brought little comfort.
"I'm
wondering," a voice suddenly came from behind to interrupt her peace,
"just what caused you to wake and wander about in the middle of the
night?"
Christina
started at the sound of Justin's voice and she rose with a gasp but his strong
hands grasped her arms to steady her movement.
"Justin,
you're back!"
"I
haven't been far really," he said in a whisper as he studied her surprise
with a smile. Something in the tone of his voice told her that this was the
other Justin, the one she loved. Wherever he had been and whatever he had done,
he managed to excise the demons in his heart. She saw this in an instant and
suddenly, unexpectedly, a wild rush of emotion filled her, making her at once
aware she had missed him, shocking her with just how much. She could almost
cry.
He
saw the emotion written so plainly on her face and he chuckled warmly.
"Could it be you've missed me as much? Does my absence send you wandering
aimlessly about in the middle of the night?"
She
nodded assent, and as though rewarding such honesty, his lips were on hers and
he was kissing her. The kiss was shattering. She was lifted on her tiptoes as
the kiss deepened. She felt his thumbs, just his thumbs, slowly caress the
sides of her breasts through the thin material of her shift, and as the kiss
deepened more, his hands slid down to cup her buttocks and then lift her over
his want of her. Desire burst through her in force and then nothing mattered,
neither doubts nor uncertainties.
He
broke the kiss and let her slide slowly to her feet again. "God," he
whispered, thinking he would lay with her, and now on the cool cushion of sand
before the sea. "It scares me how much I want—"
He
stopped mid-sentence as a scream sounded from the caves. They both froze like
animals, alerted. Justin turned, listening. It had been a woman's scream and if
his senses were right, the cry stopped as suddenly as it sounded.
"Elsie
or Hanna!" Christina abruptly cried.
"Wait
here," and Justin was off and running.
With
a pounding heart, breath coming in quick jumps, Christina watched Justin's
shadow disappear in the night. Hanna or Elsie was being hurt! Attacked! My God,
where was Jacob or Eric? Where was Cajun?
Christina
could not bear waiting through the suspense and suddenly she, too, started
running toward the cave.
With
torch in hand, Cajun ran into Jacob's cave but found nothing amiss. Jacob and
Hanna were sound asleep. He rushed into Eric's cave. Obviously awakened by the
scream, Eric was struggling into his breeches while Elsie sat up, looking
around dazedly.
Justin
met Cajun as he was rushing out from Eric's cave. Seeing the danger was not
from Eric and Elsie, "Jacob!" Jacob said in alarm.
"No—not
Jacob," Cajun informed him, already turning toward the only other
possibility.
It
took Justin a startled minute to comprehend what this meant and then, cursing
viciously, he took after Cajun to what they called the sick cave, where Marianna
and Diego were housed.
Flames
and shadows came alive in the sick room as Cajun's torch added to another.
First Cajun and Justin saw Diego, rendered blissfully unconscious from the
recently found spirits. Marianna lay in the shadows and for a moment all seemed
still, but then the shadows moved and a muffled grunt sounded.
Justin
was immediately there, lifting the large man off Marianna and with such force
that the man fell against the cave wall, nearly knocked senseless. "What
the hell are you doing?" he demanded at once.
The
man, known only as Bryce, shook his head as though to clear it, then pushed
back his long brown hair. His hand slowly reached up to wipe the whiskers
covering a wide-set mouth, and from the lethargy of his movements, his hooded
blue eyes, Justin saw at once that the man was quite drunk.
"Weren't
doin' nothin'," he finally replied in a slurred cockney accent marked with
belligerent tones. "Just 'avin a swipe at the lass." He grinned
stupidly, then tried to focus his gaze on Justin. "Not that 'tis any of
your bloody business."
"A
swipe? My God! She's unconscious!"
The
man's next grin brought Justin disastrously close to losing control. "All
the better," he replied. "Do not mind a'tall 'er bein' out like that.
Only way I ever knows with a wench."
Cajun
had knelt over Marianna's form. She had awakened with a scream and for the
first time since the shipwreck. But red bruises already surrounded her mouth
where the man had stifled her screams. The worn bodice was torn. Red marks and
scratches spoke of the man's cruelty.
He
quickly checked her pulse. His eyes narrowed. He placed a wet finger over her
mouth. He stared for a moment in disbelief, then finally looked at Justin.
"She's dead."
Christina
ran into the sick room just ahead of Jacob to see Justin at that very moment
turn from Cajun to Bryce. "You son of a bitch—" and Justin kicked his
booted foot with shocking force into the man's face. The man fell violently
against the wall and Christina screamed as the sickening sound of his skull
cracked loudly on the cavern wall. Bryce never knew what hit him. He toppled
into a lifeless clump on the dirt floor. A small pool of blood trickled from
his mouth.
Cajun
confirmed the second death of the night.
Christina
looked with shock at Justin, not able to comprehend the situation—except that
Justin had just killed a man.
"Geez...
What happened in here?" a stunned Jacob finally managed. Justin turned to
him and Jacob knew he was in trouble. He had witnessed Justin's rages before
and this looked like it was going to be a fine one.
"What
happened in here?" Justin repeated furiously. "I'll tell you what
happened. This drunken idiot thought Marianna easy prey for his sick
attentions. And now she's dead, Jacob! Dead!"
Christina
ran to Marianna's side. Jacob looked from Marianna to Cajun, who nodded
confirmation. "I'm sorry." His face became a mixed expression of pain
and guilt. "I'm really sorry—"
"Sorry?"
Justin shook his head with something akin to disgust. "What I want to know
is just what the hell were you thinking signing on a man like that?"