Of all the welcomes Cadie had imagined, being swept up into an all-encompa.s.sing senatorial bear hug was the most unexpected. She felt herself lifted off her feet as Naomi squeezed her.
"Welcome back, darling," effused the senator, putting Cadie down and planting a resounding kiss on her shorter partner"s lips. "It"s good to have you back. I missed you."
Cadie cringed, painfully aware of Jo turning away from the scene and making a show of greeting Jenny and Paul.
"h.e.l.lo, Naomi," Cadie replied, fighting the urge to struggle out of the senator"s grip. What is with this? Yesterday she was screaming at me on the telephone and today she"s all over me. What gives?
"I was worried about you," Naomi continued, guiding Cadie to a seat in the c.o.c.kpit. "When Paul told us how Jo had disturbed a burglar at her house, I was concerned. Are you all right?" She looked the blonde up and down, her expression all concern and care as she sat down next to Cadie.
"Yes, Naomi, I"m fine," she replied. "And it wasn"t Jo who disturbed the burglar, it was Josh, the young man who was looking after Jo"s house for her." She decided to stick with the same story they"d come up with for Josh"s parents. "We got there at the same time as the police and they handled it."
"Well, that"s grand," Naomi said, patting Cadie"s thigh and casually leaving her hand there. "Look, I"m very sorry about my att.i.tude on the phone last night. But, as you can understand, I was scared out of my wits for you." She smiled winningly and looked Cadie in the eye. The blonde felt herself squirming inside.
"It"s okay," she mumbled. "Forget about it."
"In fact," the senator continued, "while I"m in the mood to apologize, I"m going to go and tell Jo the same thing, while you settle back in." Before Cadie could object, Naomi bustled off in search of the skipper.
"Look out, Jo," Cadie muttered to herself. "Here comes Hurricane Silverberg." She watched anxiously as Naomi accosted the tall skipper. She could see Jo"s face over the senator"s shoulder and at one point caught her eye, trying to smile in rea.s.surance. Jo"s expression clouded over as the senator shook her hand.
Jo watched the senator hurrying towards her with a large degree of trepidation. Like Cadie, she had been surprised by the friendliness of Naomi"s welcome, and had stuffed the unexpected pang of jealousy deep down. But now there was no avoiding the senator"s approach.
Welcome back to real life, Jo-Jo, she thought as Naomi closed in.
"Skipper, I want to thank you personally for looking after my partner so well," gushed the senator, placing one hand on Jo"s shoulder and pulling her away from Paul and Jenny. "I know you were in a difficult situation but she tells me you did everything possible to keep her safe and happy."
I certainly did. But I"ll bet you don"t want to hear that. "It was no trouble, honestly," she said aloud. "I"m the one who should be thanking her for tagging along when my personal life was intruding on her vacation."
"Not at all, not at all," Naomi said, grinning from ear to ear. "It was good of you to keep doing your job in the face of such problems. And just to show my grat.i.tude..." She reached forward and shook Jo"s hand, pressing a $100 bill into the taller woman"s palm.
Jo caught Cadie"s eye over the senator"s shoulder and tried to keep her expression light. But then Naomi leaned forward.
"You really went above and beyond the call of duty, Miss Madison," she said quietly, and this time Jo saw the glint of something entirely different in the senator"s brown eyes.
And if I do it again I"ll be at the bottom of the ocean wearing cement boots, is what she"s really telling me, thought Jo, keeping a tight rein on her temper. "Really," she said, trying to keep her voice calm. "There"s no need. And we don"t accept cash gratuities." She tried to hand the money back.
Again the senator leaned in, this time her manner infinitely more menacing. "Consider it payment for services rendered," she growled, her fingers now biting into Jo"s shoulder painfully. Suddenly she released her grip and smiled broadly again, before turning on her heel and heading back towards Cadie.
Jo grimly fought down the urge to throw something large and solid at the back of the senator"s retreating head. Instead she looked down at the bill in her hand. Well, (hut"s put me firmly back in my place, hasn"t it? Angrily she stuffed the money into her shorts pocket and turned back to Paul and Jenny who had watched the conversation.
"What the h.e.l.l was that all about, Skipper?" the tall man asked bemusedly. "She"s been as mad as a cut snake from the minute she found out Cadie was with you. Now suddenly everything"s sunshine and happiness."
Jo tried to brush it off. "Beats the h.e.l.l out of me, Paulie," she replied with a wan smile.
"She hung on to my cell phone after she had a go at you last night," Paul admitted. "Said it was some kind of personal emergency. I didn"t see it again for an hour." He saw the grim look on Jo"s face and hastily apologized. "Sorry, Skip, but I figured the customer is always right, y"know?"
Jo patted the tall man"s shoulder. "Forget it. You didn"t have any choice." A slimy thought snaked its way around Jo"s brain. "You got it with you now?"
He reached around and pulled the phone off his hip, handing it to her.
"Thanks." Jo flipped through the phone"s menu items, searching for the option that stored the calls made. "G.o.d d.a.m.n it," she muttered. "Whatever calls she made, she"s wiped the memory." She handed the phone back to Paul, who had a puzzled look on his face.
Jo smiled at him, shaking her head. "Nothing, Paulie. I"m just getting paranoid in my old age." She looked around the deck and tried to clear her head of any negative thoughts. "Let"s get her ready, eh? I want to motor back around to the beach."
"Okay, Jo-Jo."
Jo looked around, spotting Cadie still sitting in the c.o.c.kpit, the senator sticking to her like glue. The skipper caught herself grinding her teeth. So, the good senator is going to play the saint. No doubt she"ll use that winning smile any way she can. The beginnings of a vicious headache thumped at her temples. f.u.c.k this. Just gotta get on with it and take it all as it comes. With a sigh she walked back to the c.o.c.kpit, where most of the pa.s.sengers were gathering for lunch.
"Okay people, let"s make a move," Jo said as she jumped into the pit and reached for the engine cover. "I"m suggesting we motor back around to the beach. That should take about half an hour and then we can set up lunch on the sand. What do you think?"
She glanced around at the nodding heads, trying not to notice the senator"s hand gripping Cadie"s knee possessively. "Sounds like a wonderful idea, Jo," the senator said with a wide smile.
"Right then," Jo said and took a deep breath. "Let"s go."
The cabin door clicked behind her and Cadie had the bad feeling she was trapped like a fly in a spider"s web. She turned around to face her partner, who was looking decidedly green around the gills.
"Are you okay?" Cadie asked quietly, sitting down in the corner chair.
"No," Naomi grumbled, staggering a little against the rolling of the boat as she made her way to the bed. "This G.o.dd.a.m.n boat is a freaking bucket." She sat quickly and held her head in her hands.
"It"s just because we"re wallowing while we find an anchorage, Nay," Cadie muttered. "It"ll be steady soon."
"It had better," the senator growled. "This vacation has been a f.u.c.king torture test. Never again, I swear."
Cadie said nothing, preferring to see where this conversation was going. Naomi could have come below decks alone when she started feeling ill, but instead had insisted on Cadie"s company. That meant only one thing.
The rattling of the anchor chain sliding overboard could be heard forward. "So," Naomi said, sitting up as the boat finally ceased its rolling. "Did you enjoy your little adventure?" All semblance of good humor had deserted the senator"s face. What was left was not pleasant.
"Nay, why don"t you just say whatever is on your mind?" Cadie asked wearily. "Because I"m not really in the mood for playing these games."
The senator moved faster than Cadie could have believed possible. Within a blink of an eye, Naomi was almost on top of her, grabbing the blonde"s chin in a cruel grip. Cadie gasped and pressed back in the chair, trying to get away from her partner"s intense stare.
"Games, Cadie?" the senator spat, almost nose to nose with the smaller woman. Suddenly her gaze softened, as did her hand, the vice-like grip on Cadie"s chin turning into a slow caress. She leaned closer, her lips just brushing the blonde"s cheek. "I don"t think I"m the one playing games, my love," Naomi whispered.
Cadie stayed silent, the hairs on the back of her neck rising as Naomi"s fingers stroked along her jaw and into her hair.
"Did she get this close, Arcadia?"
The senator"s hot breath brushed Cadie"s earlobe. She swallowed hard and tried not to let her panic show.
"Your silence is telling me a lot, darling," Naomi continued as she dropped light kisses down the blonde"s neck. "My guess is you"ve had yourself quite a night."
Cadie stiffened as she felt Naomi"s hands roaming over her body, the stocky senator"s leg forcing itself between her thighs. "Don"t, Naomi," Cadie muttered.
"Oh come on now," the senator purred. "I know how much you love to be touched here." She kissed Cadie"s neck again. "n.o.body knows you like me, sweetheart."
This time a hand slid up the inside of Cadie"s thigh and the smaller woman tried to pull away from the contact.
"Ah ah ah, Arcadia," Naomi growled, slipping her hand higher and wrapping fingers around the top of Cadie"s leg. "Don"t fight me darling. All I want to do is make sure you know the kind of person you spent the night with."
"You know nothing about her, Naomi," Cadie said through gritted teeth, turning her head away from the senator"s baleful, close scrutiny.
"Oh but you see, I do," Naomi replied.
Cadie steeled herself and turned back to stare Naomi in the eye. "What happened to you?" she whispered, tears stinging her eyes. "I don"t know who you are anymore. What happened to the woman I fell in love with?" She felt the tear slide down her cheek, and for a moment she thought she saw something lost and fearful flicker across Naomi"s face as her eyes tracked the salty trail.
But then it was gone and the hard, cold stranger was back. A mean little smile touched Naomi"s thin lips and she leaned even closer, catching Cadie"s tear with the tip of her tongue, licking upwards until the blonde could stand it no longer and jerked her face away.
"I grew up, Arcadia," the senator murmured. "I learned that to get what you want you have to bite and scratch and claw. Good guys really do come last. And life is too short not to have some fun along the way."
"That is the saddest thing I"ve ever heard," Cadie said tearfully. "You used to care so much about people, Nay. Where did that go? Or have the drugs got that big a hold on you?"
She winced as Naomi"s grip on her leg tightened sharply and Cadie bit down on her bottom lip to stop herself crying out.
"If you have any sense at all," the senator growled. "You will never mention that word in connection with my name again." Cadie blinked wordlessly at her.
Naomi chuckled low in her throat and suddenly backed away, wandering back to the bed where she sat with her back against the cabin wall. "You have no idea what you"re flirting with, Arcadia. You weren"t the only one who was busy last night. I was making phone calls and pulling the strings of the people who run this backward little country." The sneer on the senator"s face sent a cold dagger of fear through the blonde.
"I know all I need to know about, Jo," Cadie said, grateful to be out of reach once again.
Again Naomi laughed. "You always did have a very naive view of the world, my love," she said. "Did you know, for example, that the good skipper has the blood of at least 15 people on her hands?"
Cadie felt the color drain from her face. She really does know... this isn"t one of her usual bluffs.
"What"s wrong, darling?" Naomi asked sarcastically. "Don"t tell me that in the course of her seduction she failed to mention that she was a professional a.s.sa.s.sin? Or did she only tell you about the drug dealer she worked for?" The senator raised her knee and rested her chin on her hand, watching Cadie with a tiny smile on her face.
"And how did you find out all this?" Cadie whispered, wondering just what was coming next.
"Like I said, darling. A US senator can talk to whomever she feels like when she has the right telephone numbers at hand. And I have the right numbers. The Australian Attorney General knows all about Miss Jossandra Madison."
"Then he should have also told you that she turned state"s evidence in return for having her record expunged," Cadie said quickly.
"That means nothing if she reoffends." The senator smiled.
Alarm bells began ringing in Cadie"s mind.
"You wouldn"t-" she began.
"Yes, Arcadia, I would. But only if you don"t do as I ask from now on." Again Naomi bared her teeth in the kind of smile most often seen on circling sharks.
Cadie felt a rising tide of nausea bubbling in the pit of her stomach. I don"t believe this. No matter what I do here, I"m screwed. Or Jo is. She looked across at Naomi, who sat patiently, knowing she had the upper hand. This is so unfair on Jo. She didn"t ask for me to waltz in here and turn her world upside down. She swallowed the lump in her throat. "What do you want from me?" she whispered.
"Stay away from Madison for a start," the senator yowled. "And then I want you to do what you agreed to do n long time ago. Be my wife. In every sense of the word. Obey me, support me," she paused, raking Cadie with a long, lingering look, "make love to me. Oh, and one more thing... work for me."
"Give up my business?" Cadie gasped.
"Oh yes," Naomi replied. "Don"t you see that everything started going wrong for us as soon as you went off on your own? You need to be with me all the time, Cadie. We need you to be with me all the time."
Cadie felt a pounding at her temples which, combined with the nausea, made her feel like she"d been dragged backwards through a bush. "And if I don"t agree to do what you ask?"
The senator stood and walked back over to Cadie, leaned down and rested her hands on the arms of the chair, her face close to her shorter partner"s. "Then I make a few phone calls, the authorities search this boat and they"ll find the drugs I"m sure your tall friend has...o...b..ard," Naomi replied.
Cadie looked up into hard, cold eyes. "I"ll warn her," she whispered.
The senator snorted with laughter. "No Cadie, you won"t," she said. "When I say stay away from her, I mean it. Besides no matter what you tell her, I can move faster. After all," she leaned closer and whispered in Cadie"s ear, "I know exactly where the drugs are." She drew up to her full height and looked back down at the blonde. "You don"t look well, Cadie. Perhaps you need to take a few minutes to recover." She paused, waiting for the blonde to meet her eyes and nod. "I, on the other hand, feel just grand. See you up on deck when you"re better."
And with that the senator turned on her heel and left the cabin, closing the door behind her.
Cadie slumped forward, head in hands. Shock and fear did their work on her emotions and the tears flowed freely. For several minutes she let them, preferring not to think. Eventually the tears dried up but her body wasn"t done reacting. A wave of nausea tugged at her throat and she dove for the head, just lifting the lid in time as her stomach rebelled.
What a waste of a great breakfast, she thought incongruously, leaning against the wall as the spasms eased. She let her legs give way and slowly slid down the wall till she was wedged in the corner of the tiny bathroom, resting her forehead on the arm draped across her knees.
For now I"ve got no choice but to do as she says. At least until we get back to the States and Naomi begins to forget about Jo and moves on to other things. Then I"ll think of something. Absentmindedly she chewed on a fingernail. Until then I"ve got to stay away from Jo. That thought provoked a deep pang of grief and the tears stung her eyes anew. d.a.m.n it. I can"t just let Naomi win this way. It"s so... sleazy. She squeezed her eyes shut, fighting a wave of panic.
You"re well and truly trapped, Cadie Jones. She banged the back of her head against the wall in frustration. And I can"t warn Jo. She"ll go in with-all guns blazing and that"s just what Naomi is waiting for. She shook her head to clear it some. I"ll have to keep thinking about that one.
Jo finned silently under the Seawolf"s hull, sensing the sudden drop in temperature as she swam out of the sun-warmed water into the boat"s shadow. It was mid-afternoon, several hours after they had motored back around the southern-most tip of Whitsunday Island and anch.o.r.ed off Whitehaven Beach once more.
The pa.s.sengers were dispersed in all directions. Therese and Sarah lounged topless on the small swimming pontoon anch.o.r.ed several hundred feet away. The senator, Cadie, and the two boys were on the beach with Jenny where they had set up a large shade cloth. Lunch had been eaten under its shelter. Larissa and Kelli were on deck, sunbathing.
Jo moved slowly down the length of the yacht"s hull, running her bare hands over the smooth surface, searching for any little flaws or barnacles. She"d talked Paul into the maintenance inspection on the pretext that the previous day"s storm had been the wildest for quite some time.
"But we didn"t hit anything, Skipper," he"d protested half-heartedly, recognizing the determined look in the tall woman"s eye.
"Don"t care," she"d muttered shortly. "Better safe than sorry, Paul, you know that."
So here she was, dressed in cutoff shorts, bikini top, weight belt, fins and mask. Jo inched her way along the hull, trying not to get tangled in the long breathing tube running from the air pump up on deck. The gentle, cool currents lifted the short hairs on her arms and swirled her long, black mane around her as she moved. Predictably, she wasn"t finding too much wrong with the Seawolf"s hull, but then she hadn"t expected to. She was more interested in finding some peace and quiet.
Just want to hear myself think for a bit. She stopped to pick off a stubborn barnacle with her knife tip. She reckoned on about 20 minutes peace before Paul tired of manning the air pump and hauled her back aboard.
The Seawolf floated in water deep enough to give about 10 feet of clearance under her keel. Jo stopped amidships and let the weight belt do its thing, drifting down to the sandy bottom where she let herself hang.
Visibility"s incredible today, she thought, turning full circle and gazing for hundreds of yards in each direction through the pristine water. The seabed sloped down from her left to right. The water color varied from the clear transparency of the shallows to the darker azures and indigos of the deeper water where the bay"s bottom dropped away to open ocean. Schools of tiny fish ducked and darted around Jo"s body as she hung motionless. She let her mind drift with them.
It"s been the strangest day so far. G.o.d, I hope the rest of the trip isn"t like this.
Cadie had emerged from her cabin half an hour after the senator. It hadn"t taken a genius to work out the conversation between the two women hadn"t been pleasant. Cadie was red-eyed and silent, not meeting Jo"s sympathetic gaze for even a second.
Jo was surprised how much that had hurt. Of course she had expected they would have to be incredibly circ.u.mspect once they returned to the Seawolf. She kicked back up to the hull of the boat and renewed her inspection.
But not even a look, Jo thought, as she sc.r.a.ped some weed from the boat"s keel. Something"s badly wrong. Grim possibilities bounced around the inside of her skull. If that b.i.t.c.h touches her I"ll... She blew bubbles for a few quiet seconds, settling her temper, but not her resolve. If she crosses that line, then paying customer or not, I"ll take Cadie out of here, I swear, and to h.e.l.l with the consequences.
Inspection completed, she drifted aimlessly for a while. She disturbed a sleepy stingray with a wave of her fin, sand billowing up as the disgruntled creature undulated away. Jo watched as he found a new patch of sea bottom, shaking himself until a layer of sand settled over him, providing a perfect disguise.
I wish I could do that. No, I wish we could do that. Just disappear.
There was a tug on the breathing tube and she glanced down at her watch.
Fifteen and a half minutes. Paul"s getting impatient in his old age. With a sigh she tucked her knife back in its sheath on her hip. Jo kicked back up to the hull, patted the keel one last time, and pushed up to the surface.