Читать книгу Dangerous Waters - Laurey Bright, Laurey Bright - Страница 7

The woman knew he was watching her—Rogan Broderick was sure of it.

Rogan, perched on a stool with his forearm resting along the beer-stained counter, a whiskey glass in his hand, had seen her the moment she entered.

Dark-lashed ocean-green eyes clashed briefly with his as she looked about with the air of a cat entering a strange place and inspecting it for possibly hostile elements. Two plain gold clasps secured a sleek fall of shining brown hair, revealing a classically feminine face. An intriguing hint of strength about the jawline belied the tender, kissable curves of a luscious mouth.

Her shoulders were bare but for the narrow straps of a light, simple-seeming dress the same deep, mysterious green as her eyes. The thin fabric hung in symmetrically draped folds over nicely rounded breasts, skimmed her waist and hips, and moved tantalizingly about her thighs. A perfect beauty—and a city girl, he’d guess. She didn’t seem to belong in the public bar of an old hotel on New Zealand’s Northland coast.

A fish out of water. Or a mermaid.

No, not a mermaid. She had legs—the kind of legs other women would have killed for. Long, creamy and smooth, their fabulous shape emphasized by high-heeled sandals almost the exact color of the dress.

Giving her a friendly grin, he saw a slight widening of her eyes before the aloof green gaze roamed past him. She tucked her hand into her escort’s arm as if for protection as they made for a corner table being abandoned by another couple.

He could hardly blame her, Rogan conceded, rubbing a knuckle over the three-day growth on his cheeks. Other men might look interesting and even glamorous unshaven, but he just looked unkempt and probably sinister. His thick, near-black hair was rust-colored on the haphazardly curling ends, overlong after weeks without seeing a barber, and the sea and sun of the Arabian Gulf had made it harsh and difficult to comb into submission.

He raised his glass to gulp a good shot of whiskey, not taking his eyes off the woman as her companion negotiated a passage through knots of tough, tanned fishermen, sunburned visiting yachties, and weathered locals in checked shirts and creased boots.

Sometimes holiday-makers from luxury yachts liked to hobnob with the regulars and soak up local color rather than patronize the classier lounge bar in the newer part of the building. These two didn’t look like hobnobbers.

The man was slim, probably ten years older than Rogan’s thirty-one, with neatly combed midbrown hair and smooth untanned cheeks. He wore precision-pressed sand-colored slacks, and a black blazer over a toothpaste-white, roll-collared shirt.

Rogan’s T-shirt, long since faded from red to an uneven pink, was rumpled, and his jeans, softened with wear and washing, conformed comfortably to his body. When he’d heard about the old man he had packed his kit in a hurry and barely made the first available flight. Clothes had been the last thing on his mind.

After collecting a room key he’d deferred the long hot shower he planned, in favor of a bracing drink. One whiskey, he’d promised himself, then he’d go upstairs and make himself respectable. Or at least as respectable as he was ever likely to look.

Instead he found himself ordering another drink to give him an excuse to ogle a woman, his blood stirring when she leaned forward to speak over the noise of the bar to the man opposite her, revealing the upper slopes of her breasts, the velvet shadow between them. When a waiter approached the table she looked up and smiled. Rogan shifted on his bar stool. That smile would have brought a stone statue to life.

He made the second drink last until after she and her companion had been served with white wine. Her right hand closed around the stem of the glass while her left one rested on the table. Both were bare of rings.

Didn’t mean a thing—she could be in a relationship. Rogan turned his attention to the man, who did sport a gleam of gold on the middle finger of a hand that obviously had scant acquaintance with manual labour. He looked like an accountant or a lawyer. Reminded of his brother and why he was here, Rogan tossed off the remains of his drink, not wanting to think about the reason he’d flown home. Easier to occupy his mind fantasizing about a pretty woman.

He placed the glass on the counter and the barman inquired, “Same again?”

“No. Thanks.” His gaze returning to the woman, Rogan got off the stool and hoisted the bulging pack at his feet up to his shoulder.

The movement must have caught her eye. She looked up and a faint rose color entered her cheeks. She blinked the deep-sea eyes and turned away to stare into her wine, a curve of burnished hair falling across her cheek. Her escort looked up too, his glance taking in Rogan’s disreputable appearance before returning to his companion. He said something and the woman shook her head, then lifted the glass to her lips.

The man looked at Rogan again, warning him off with an ice-blue stare. Rogan slanted him a resigned grin and raised a hand in a half salute as he ambled to the door.

Granger was on time as always. Rogan, showered and shaved and in fresh jeans and a gray T-shirt, found him in the lobby, beside a large Christmas tree decorated with tinsel, colored gewgaws and, in defiance of the New Zealand summer, cotton-wool snowflakes.

The two men gripped hands and Rogan reached out to slap his brother’s shoulder, noting signs of strain about eyes the same vivid aquamarine as his own. “You’re looking pretty flash,” he said, nodding at the suit and discreet silk tie.

Granger allowed himself a tight smile, his eyes glinting. “I don’t suppose you even own a suit. I brought along a spare you can borrow. You’ll be a pall-bearer, won’t you?”

“Uh-huh.” It was the least he could for the old man. “You haven’t put him in a suit, have you?” At a guess, their father had never worn one in his life.

Granger shook his head. “He’d have died all over again.”

Rogan’s laughter cracked in the middle. He clamped his teeth shut and there was a small, awkward silence. Then he said, “Let’s eat.”

Camille Hartley saw two tall, dark-haired men, strikingly good-looking and bearing an unmistakable family resemblance, enter the dining room. It was a moment before she recognized the casually dressed one as the man who had stared at her earlier in the bar.

The piratical beard shadow was gone, revealing clear-cut bone structure and a stubborn jaw, and he’d ruthlessly combed back the unruly mane of his hair, its obstinate waves dampened and glossy under the artificial lights. She had a momentary picture of him standing in the shower, water sleeking his hair and cascading over his sun-browned body. A very good body—his clothes did little to hide the broad shoulders and chest, narrow hips, powerful legs. He looked superbly fit and strong—a man who did something physical for a living.

As if he’d felt her stare, his head turned. She saw an oddly bleak look in the blinding green-blue eyes, and then it vanished, replaced by a gleam of interest, a hint of bold inquiry.

She wrenched her gaze away, directing her attention to what James Drummond was saying. James, from their first meeting yesterday, had shown a rare respect for her mind, and a real though circumspect desire to get to know her more than superficially. Already they had established a tentative rapport. Yet still she was disconcertingly conscious of the other man, needing to breathe carefully, her heart beating faster and sending the blood to warm her cheeks.

Irritated, she inwardly shook herself. She wasn’t in the habit of mentally undressing strange men, and had outgrown blushing years ago.

He was hardly the first male to stare at her, although few were so frank about it. Aware that the gods had been generous to her, she had learned to be chary of men who were less interested in her personality than in flaunting her as some sort of trophy. She’d guess that the unsettling stranger, with his unabashed gaze and knowing grin, was the love-’em-and-leave-’em type, a genus she kept well clear of.

“Try concentrating,” his brother advised as Rogan’s eyes strayed again from the menu in his hands to the woman whose luminous gaze was now fixed on the man opposite her.

Granger half turned to see who he was looking at. “Not that I blame you,” he admitted, “but I’m hungry and we’ve got things to talk about. I’m having the pepper steak.” He closed his own menu.

“Wild pork,” Rogan decided. “And a beer.”

Granger ordered a bottle of red wine, and Rogan sipped his beer while they waited. “Thanks for booking me a room,” he said. “I could have slept on board the Sea-Rogue.”

“I thought you’d appreciate a real bed. Besides, I wasn’t sure the boat would be available. I only collected the key from the police station just before I came here. Have you been down to the wharf?”

“I arrived less than half an hour ago,” Rogan told him with a shake of his head. “Did you get all your business done?” Granger had said he had things to do but would be at the hotel in time for dinner.

“That’s one of the things we should talk about,” Granger said. “I checked out Dad’s will.”

Trust Granger to think of the legalities. Well, someone had to. “He made a will?” That didn’t sound like Barney.

“Years ago. I persuaded him to get it fixed up with one of my colleagues. The police needed to sight it before they would hand over the boat.” Granger paused. “You and I own half of the Sea-Rogue and everything in it.”

“Half each?”

“Half for us two together. He left the rest to Taff.”

“That’s fair enough,” Rogan conceded. Taff “Taffrail” McIndoe had been Barney’s first mate and sailing partner for more than twenty years.

“But if Taff predeceased him,” Granger continued, “his share was to go to his legitimate descendants.”

“Taff isn’t married, and anyway he hasn’t predeceased—”

“He died two months ago. I only found out after the police called about Dad.”

Rogan’s beer glass hit the table with a thud. “Taff died?” It was almost as big a shock as his father’s sudden demise. “How?”

“Liver disease. They were somewhere way out in the Pacific, and by the time Dad finally got him to a hospital at Rarotonga it was too late to do anything.”

While Rogan digested that, Granger added, “You know how he used to put the booze away. It’s a wonder either of them survived as long as they did.”

“Dad never drank at sea.”

“He made up for it on land. According to the pathologist there was enough alcohol in his body to sink a ship.”

“They cut him up?” Rogan’s voice went hoarse.

Granger eyed him levelly. “They have to do an autopsy in a case of sudden death. Besides, he’d been in a fight.”

“You didn’t tell me that!”

“You’d only have stewed about it all the way home. There could be manslaughter charges at least.”

Rogan’s hand closed tightly about his beer. “Against who?”

“Whom.” Granger shrugged. “The police are investigating but they don’t have any witnesses. He was found in an alleyway near here and he’d probably died in the early hours of Sunday. But the cause of death was a heart attack, not the beating he’d taken.”

He’d taken a beating? “There must have been more than one of them.” Barney Broderick had been a big man, toughened by a life at sea.

“Dad wasn’t getting any younger,” Granger reminded him, “and he’d have been reeling drunk.”

“He never said anything about having a dicky heart…did he?”

“You know he wouldn’t admit to being less than a hundred percent healthy.” Barney had indiscriminately labeled all doctors quacks and used their services only in the direst need. “He might not even have known.”

Rogan hoped that was so. And that Barney hadn’t known he was dying when some thug—or thugs—left him alone and injured in a dark alley. His hand clenched harder on the beer glass. He’d like to beat the hell out of them in retaliation.

“It was probably pretty quick,” Granger assured him. “The way he’d have liked to go. Without any fuss.”

“Yeah.” Rogan tossed off the remains of his drink, trying to drown an illogical remorse. It wasn’t his fault, or Granger’s, that the old man had lived and died far from his family. They didn’t really owe him much at all, except the genes he’d bequeathed to them both, probably more or less by accident—of which Rogan seemed to have inherited the lion’s share.

He signaled the waiter for another beer. “Does Taff have any descendants?” he asked.

“Possibly dozens—” Granger gave him a rare grin “—scattered all around the Pacific, and none of them legitimate.”

The waiter brought the beer and a fresh glass. Pouring the frothing stuff, Rogan looked up quizzically. “You don’t think the old man fathered a few more children too?”

“I hope not. There’s no mention in the will of any secret siblings.”

Their food arrived and Rogan picked up his knife and fork. Real New Zealand wild pork and gravy with roasted vegetables. His mouth watered. He’d let his brother deal with the legal issues. Granger, after years specializing in corporate law with an international legal firm, had just launched his own practice in Auckland.

The thought of spending his days in an office, no matter how plush, made Rogan’s blood run cold, but apparently Granger enjoyed it.

While Granger refilled his own glass Rogan stole another look at the woman he’d mentally nicknamed Ocean-eyes, and watched as she raised her fork to her mouth and opened perfect lips to slip the morsel in. The faintest ripple disturbed the smooth line of her throat, making him wonder how it would feel if he had his hand there, against the fine skin. Maybe with his thumb in the little groove at the base…

She reached for her wine and drank some, leaving a delicate sheen on her upper lip when she put down the glass and smiled at her companion.

Rogan had a dire urge to kiss the wine from her lips and taste it on the soft, warm mouth. A hot bolt of desire invaded his body, accompanied by a sharp envy of the man on the receiving end of that smile.

Too long without the company of women, he told himself, turning his attention to the pork and sawing at it with unwarranted vigor. The meat was tender and succulent, and he was determined to enjoy it to the exclusion of that other, inconvenient and less easily satisfied appetite.

He knew when Ocean-eyes left the dining room, but didn’t look up. By that time Granger was talking about the funeral arrangements, and out of respect Rogan tried to blot everything else from his mind.

“He wanted his ashes scattered at sea,” Granger said, “from the Sea-Rogue.”

Rogan would have wondered at anything else. “What time is the service?”

“Eleven. Some of his old drinking mates have volunteered to help carry the coffin.”

Rogan grinned. “Do you think they can stay sober until the wake? We are having a wake, aren’t we?”

“It seems to be expected. The proprietor here’s offered me a special rate for the private bar.”

He probably wanted to shield his more refined clientele from a gathering of Barney Broderick’s mates. Most of Barney’s life had been spent on the ocean, but Mokohina was nominally his home port. From a sheltered deep-water cove and small shingly beach the old town straggled up the hills behind the bay. Formerly a mixture of settler cottages and modest villas, solid homes built by retired farmers, and a scattering of classic holiday “baches”—knocked-up boxes with few pretensions to architectural style—the port had been discovered in the last ten years by the owners of expensive oceangoing yachts, and land-based refugees from city life.

Semi-mansions had appeared on the higher slopes. New shops and food outlets aimed at the burgeoning tourist trade joined the modest stores that had served the district for decades. Two motels and a few bed-and-breakfasts catered to the summer influx, and trendy café bars had opened along the waterfront. But the permanent residents and regulars like Barney Broderick remained loyal to the old Imperial, a two-story colonial relic, recently enlarged and refurbished, boasting a creaking veranda on the top floor and kauri wood paneling in the interior.

The new owners had wisely left virtually untouched the well-used public bar. Its scarred, varnished timbers reeking of generations of hard-drinking sailors and fishermen, it was within staggering distance of the old wharves and the Sea-Rogue’s preferred berth when she was in port.

Granger picked up the wine bottle and offered it. Rogan shook his head. After whiskey and beer he didn’t fancy adding wine to the mix. He watched his brother empty the bottle into his glass, then quaff the lot. Granger seldom, if ever, drank to excess, and the wine didn’t seem to have much effect, even when they left the restaurant.

In the lobby they paused by the elaborately carved, polished newel at the foot of the broad stairs. It was too early to go to bed, and the air seemed thick and over-warm.

“Think I’ll go for a walk,” Rogan said.

“Good idea.”

Outside, without discussion they strolled across the road and turned along the curve of the waterfront. Rogan ducked his head under a wide-spreading pohutukawa and skirted a dinghy leaning bow-up against the tree.

The strip of sand gave way to a retaining wall where the water slapped rhythmically at hard gray stones. Several dozen boats lifted and dipped on the restless waves in the bay. A high moon picked out the glimmer of metal here and there, and cast white hulls and masts into relief, while dark ones disappeared in the blackness.

Both men knew where they were headed.

The cheap cafés and fast-food bars, the shops selling local handcrafts, gaudy sarongs and souvenir T-shirts, were replaced by boating and fishing suppliers.

Rounding a curve, they reached a part of the shoreline where the streetlamps were fewer and the vessels tied at the weathered wharves were sturdy, battered working boats instead of glossy, greyhound pleasure craft. Past a warehouse, a marine engine repair shop and a malodorous fish-processing plant, they reached the mooring where the naked masts of the Sea-Rogue loomed against the stars.

Rogan scarcely hesitated before leaping lightly onto the deck below, followed by Granger. The ketch shifted against the wharf, the worn tires hanging from the boat’s side to buffer the hull making soft bumping noises. Rogan went to the stern and ran his fingers along the old-style teak taffrail, paused as he found what he’d been searching for, and traced over the letters carved into the timber.

“Still there?” Granger came to stand beside him.

“Yep.” Rogan had been eleven, Granger twelve, when they’d marked their initials with a pocketknife. They’d expected a blast from their father as soon as he discovered the defacement, but he’d just laughed and clapped them on the back with his big, rough hands.

A loose halyard flapped against the metal mizzen, and Rogan looked up, glancing at the furled sails. He remembered the thrill of the first time he’d been allowed to help hoist them, the wind cracking them free and blowing cool and strong on his face, while the ketch’s bow forged blue-green water into a foamy V, throwing up a fine white spray that showered him with its salty blessing.

He’d fallen in love with the sea there and then. A love that had never left him. The only thing better than sailing was being underwater—a living, breathing part of the ocean itself. Between diving contracts he sometimes chartered a yacht with a buddy, exploring recreational dive sites. Or spent time on a tiny Pacific island where he and other professional divers supported a local dive school, giving financial and practical help.

“Want to go below?” Granger asked.

“Sure.” Tomorrow they’d see their father’s body in the funeral parlor before they carried his coffin to the seamen’s chapel whose doors Barney Broderick had seldom darkened in life. But his beloved Sea-Rogue was where Barney’s spirit lived. This was their real goodbye.

Granger dropped into the cockpit where the mizzen was stepped, a few feet forward of the wheel. He took a key ring from his pocket and opened up the deckhouse to descend the short, steep companionway to the dark interior.

Rogan followed him down. “Have you been aboard since the old man…?”

“No.” Granger flicked a switch but nothing happened. Evidently Barney hadn’t hooked the boat up to shore power. “Hang on a minute.” He fumbled about the galley area behind the companionway.

A small flame flared, and within seconds he’d lit a kerosene lamp hanging from a gimbal. The light flickered, brightened, and steadied. Varnish gleamed on the mahogany interior; a slit-eyed mask from the Philippines leered from one of the few spaces on the bulkheads.

“Guess it hasn’t changed much,” Granger said.

The palm-leaf matting on the floor looked new, but otherwise was identical to what Rogan remembered from years back. So was everything else.

Seats that could serve as narrow berths formed an L at the table, their once-floral coverings faded and thin. A bank of instruments occupied the navigation desk near the companionway. Recessed shelves fitted with fiddle rails to safeguard the contents in rough weather held old volumes that Barney had treasured, along with some paperbacks, nautical knickknacks, and shells and carvings from islands around the Pacific.

In the galley a cutlery drawer sat half open, and a cupboard door hung ajar. Granger said, “The police searched the boat for ID and a contact address.”

He unhooked the lamp and headed toward the stern, pausing at an open door to one side of the short passageway. Taff’s cabin, with colorful pictures torn from National Geographic magazines pinned over the bunk, a battered peaked cap hanging on a hook, a rolled sleeping bag at the end of the mattress, looked as though he’d just stepped out on deck.

Granger moved on to what Barney had liked to call the master’s stateroom in the stern, crammed with more books and a built-in desk. The attached wooden chair had a curved back, the varnish worn pale in the middle, its seat softened by a thin, indented cushion. Rogan had the absurd idea that if he put a hand on it he’d find it still warm.

A marine chart of the Pacific lay open on the desk, with a small pile of tide tables and almanacs. Items of clean clothing were heaped on the relatively roomy berth fitted at the stern, and books occupied the shelves above.

As Rogan followed him inside, Granger turned, lifting the lamp high. The framed picture of their mother still hung over the doorway, where Barney could see it every night before going to sleep.

Rogan swallowed, then blundered back to the saloon.

Granger said evenly, “I guess that’s it.” He rehung the lamp, and turned the flame down until it disappeared.

In the blackness Rogan groped for the companionway. Back on deck he breathed in the pungency of salt water and fish, and a whiff of diesel. “He didn’t deserve to die like that,” he said hoarsely. Like some bit of discarded flotsam, callously abandoned to the cold and dark.

“Nobody does,” Granger agreed.

Rogan closed his fists, overwhelmed by a hot-eyed, skull-thumping rage. Whoever was responsible for causing his father’s secretly damaged heart to finally stop beating—when he found them he’d bloody well tear them apart, limb from limb.