Gentlemen Prefer Nerds (17 page)

“You don’t understand,” she ground out, fists clenched like a spoiled child. “I want it back now.”

“Credit cards are plastic. Overnight in salt water won’t hurt them.”

“My wallet’s in there, with a photo of my—” she’d been going to say “my cat,” but possibly not everyone would think a cat photo was indispensable, “—daughter.”

“You have a daughter?” he said, taken aback.

“No! Yes! No, she’s…dead. Her name was Jinx.”

“Jinx? That’s an unusual name. How old was she?”

Who cared how old she was? What was he, a reporter? “She was five.” Her mind in a frenzy, Maddie concocted a story. “She died in a house fire. Set by my bastard ex-husband.”

“I thought your husband died of leprosy.” Roland frowned. “I thought you loved him.”

“Uh, that was my second husband.” She was getting confused because all she could think of was the diamond. “I divorced my first husband which made him angry, hence the fire. All the family photos were destroyed except one of Jinx which I carry in my wallet.” She let out a sob that was only too real, although it had nothing to do with any fake child, dead or alive. “It’s all I have left of her. It’ll be ruined by tomorrow.”

“I’d jump in after it but I have an inner ear condition,” Roland said uncomfortably. “I mustn’t get fluid inside the cochlea. It could lead to tinnitus.”

Some playboy. Fabian would have leaped in without being asked, inner ear condition or no. But Fabian wasn’t here and there was no one else to help her. Modesty Blaise would have handled this herself, no problem.

Maddie could, too.

She sat up and began unstrapping her high heels. Her dress was ruined but she might as well save the shoes.

“What are you doing?” Roland asked, alarmed.

“Rescuing my purse.” Before she could change her mind, Maddie crawled to the edge of the pontoon, plugged her nose and jumped over the side.

For tropical water it was shockingly cold. She went under, then churned her way to the surface, treading furiously, to gasp in a lungful of air. She could barely swim but that didn’t matter. She just needed to go down. Then up. Drawing in a big breath, she did a duck dive, her legs thrashing the air as she pulled herself down. Frantically she pawed over the thick sediment. Too soon, she ran out of air and had to return to the surface, her skirt floating around her waist.

“Are you insane?” Roland called. “Come out of there.”

She didn’t bother replying, just dove again. Something alive and slippery brushed her neck. She screamed and salt water flooded her throat. Batting at the phantom fish—she hoped it was a fish—she surfaced, gasping and choking.

“I’ll go get a net.” Roland jogged toward his boat, his footsteps thudding on the pontoon.

Maddie went down again. This time her hand contacted a submerged tire filled with cement and covered in barnacles. An anchor of some sort. She clung on and felt around in the soft oozing mud, encountering bits of shells and a glass bottle. Pressure built in her chest. If she could hang on just a little longer…stretch a little farther…

Just as her lungs were about to burst, her fingers touched something hard and metallic. The chain on her purse. Groping further, her fingers closed around the beaded bag. Clutching it, Maddie turned to swim for the surface.

Something was holding her down. What the—?

Her dress had snagged on the anchor, tangling on a protruding bolt. Damn! She’d recovered the purse and now she was going to drown? Furiously, she pulled at the fabric, trying to tear it away. It ripped a bit but not enough. The pressure in her chest tightened. Oxygen starvation made spots dance in front of her eyes. Her frantic thrashing churned the sediments into a murky cloud around her.

Mustn’t…give…up.

The compulsion to open her mouth and breathe in a lungful of water was overwhelming. Blackness started to overtake her…

Water seeped into the slack corners of her mouth.

The cold sting of salt jolted her to life. With one last rush of adrenaline, she yanked at her dress with both hands and simultaneously pushed off with her feet. Half her skirt tore away. She was free. Rising. She surged out of the water, gulping air. Alive!

Alive! Dog paddle was her strongest stroke so she thrashed through the water to the pontoon and clung, gasping, to a loop of rope. She lifted her purse, streaming with seawater and covered in mud. As she blinked the water from her eyes, her joy and relief turned to despair. The clasp had come undone; the bag was open. Before she had a chance to investigate, Roland’s running footsteps signaled his return.

“Brittany? Oh, good. You’re all right.” He dangled a long-handled fishing net over the water, taking care not to drip on his polished leather shoes. “Here you go.”

Did he really expect her to flop into that flimsy net like a trout? Maddie ignored him and flung a leg over the edge of the pontoon. She hauled herself, dripping, out of the water and lay on the dock like a beached whale. So much for the glamazon.

“I found my purse,” she grunted.

“Wonderful.” Roland helped her to her feet. He started to embrace her then changed his mind, taking in her sodden and torn dress with dismay. “Perhaps you’d like to go back to your hotel after all.”

“Well…” she stalled, surreptitiously feeling the fabric of her purse. Her fingers probed something cylindrical. The vial had wedged inside, caught on the hinge. And…oh, joy! A heart-shaped lump was tucked into the corner. “I’ll be fine. You can lend me a robe.”

“Well…okay. Yes, that’s a good idea.” Roland seemed to perk up again at the prospect of getting her out of her clothes. “Let’s go before you catch cold.”

High heels dangling from her fingers, Maddie squelched barefoot at Roland’s side, her ruined dress rustling soggily. She had the synthetic diamond back and she’d survived her unscheduled swim. Ordeal by sailboat loomed ahead. She was going to be undressed, out of her element and at the mercy of a ruthless jewel thief. And she was going to have to do all that on the water.

Fabian rummaged through a storage locker beneath the settee around the main cabin’s dining table, using the extra few minutes to snoop for the sake of snooping—and to get an idea of what Roland’s plans were. The lockers were packed to the brim with tins of meat and vegetables. Either he was planning a long sea voyage or he expected the apocalypse any day.

Footsteps sounded on the pontoon, coming closer.

“What a beautiful boat,” Maddie said loudly.

Smart of her to warn him of their arrival. Fabian quickly slid the locker lid back in place and arranged the cushions.

Crouching low, he peered through a porthole. Good lord, had she been swimming? Her hair was bedraggled and her dress soaked.

Maddie gripped the stanchions, testing their strength. Or testing her own resolve.
Remember, you’re supposed to be an experienced sailor
. When she hesitated too long, Roland planted a hand on her butt to guide her ascent. Good old Roland never missed an opportunity.

The hatch to the main cabin slid open. Time to get out of sight. From his explorations earlier Fabian knew the forward cabin was tiny with no place to hide. Quickly and quietly he made his way down the companionway to the stern of the boat and the captain’s cabin.

A built-in king-size bed covered by a sea-green duvet took up most of the room. Built-in bookshelves and bulkhead lockers lined one side of the cabin with a combined head and shower in one corner. A small sliding hatch with a porthole opened to the cockpit. Footsteps sounded along the companionway. Fabian ducked into a hanging locker and pulled the door closed.

“The shower’s in there.” Roland slid back a door. “You’ll find towels and a robe. Come out when you’re ready. I’ll have drinks waiting on deck.”

“Lovely.”

Fabian crouched in the dark atop a pile of odiferous clothing. Roland was moving around in the galley, clinking glasses and clattering ice into a bucket. Pop went the cork on a bottle of champagne. Noiselessly Fabian pushed open the locker door and peered out. The door to the head must have swollen from time spent at sea in salt air and had come open a crack. Maddie was pulling her sodden dress over her head. Fabian started to retreat. Watching a woman change without her knowledge wasn’t a gentlemanly thing to do. Then the dress came off and he found himself unable to look away as she removed her bra and panties. He wasn’t a schoolboy perving at his first nude female, yet the glimpse of Maddie’s curving breast and the dimple above the swell of her backside held him spellbound.

In contrast, the part of her face he could see in the mirror was woeful. Mascara streaked her cheeks and her lipstick had rubbed off, leaving her full lips pale. She wiped away the black beneath her eyes with wrinkled fingertips and knuckled away the drip from her nose. Fabian did retreat then. A woman would rather be seen naked than at less than her best.

Hearing Roland go up the gangway onto the deck sent Fabian back to his smelly locker in case the other man could see him through the porthole in the hatch. Sounds from above suggested Roland was moving fore and aft busily. Fabian sat with his knees up around his ears and listened to the shower running and the soft slap of water against the hull. For Maddie’s sake he was glad they were safely moored to the pontoon. She had enough to worry about from the shark in the cockpit without also worrying about the ones at sea.

The shower stopped. Then the hair dryer began. Fabian unfolded himself from the confined space once again. Through the crack in the door he could see Maddie had applied fresh lipstick and mascara, undoubtedly having found the basket of assorted makeup left behind by her predecessors. She wore Roland’s black silk robe and was blow-drying her bra and panties.

Fabian was about to get her attention when Roland called down from above, “Brittany, are you almost ready?”

“Coming.” With trembling fingers, Maddie adjusted the robe’s neckline so that the sapphire winked between her breasts. With a smile of false bravado at her reflection, she whispered, “Hey, sailor. Wanna buy a girl a drink?”

“It appears to me as if you’ve fallen into the drink,” Fabian murmured, just outside.

Maddie froze.

He pushed open the door and held her gaze in the mirror, a finger to his lips.

“Have you been here all this time?” she demanded in an outraged whisper. “While I was naked and getting changed?”

“It’s all right. We’re married, remember?” He whispered, too, but worried about Roland hearing them, he slipped inside the cramped head.

“Yes, but I left you.”

“I thought I’d died and you were grieving.” Fabian took Maddie’s icy trembling hands in his and held them. She was terrified.

“That was my second husband. You were my first and we divorced. Just before you died in a house fire.” Maddie tried to tug her hands away. “I told Roland all about it.”

Fabian didn’t let go, allowing his warmth to flow into her through his palms. “You’re very fickle, aren’t you? Married one day, divorced the next, burying me the day after. I think you might have informed me if you were planning on dissolving our marriage. It’s the sort of thing a husband ought to know.”

“Our daughter died in the fire. I was distraught. Anyway, it was all your fault.”

“I wasn’t aware we had a child. And a daughter too. How sad. What was her name?”

“Jinx.” Maddie sniffed. “She was only five years old.”

“Jinx?” Fabian made a face. “I’m rather partial to the name Molly, myself.”

“Not very upper-crust, is it?” Grudgingly, Maddie added, “We’ll name the next one Molly.”

“What if we have a boy?” Fabian asked as if it were the most important decision in the world.

“Well, I’ve always liked the name Sean—” Maddie broke off. “Do you realize how ridiculous this conversation is?”

“Perhaps.” Fabian lifted her hands. They rested quietly on his palms. “But you’ve stopped trembling.”

With a wondering glance at their hands she started to smile.

Clanking, flapping noises sounded overhead. Footsteps traversed the deck, fore and aft.

Maddie looked up. “What’s he’s doing up there?”

“Rearranging the deck chairs, perhaps.”

“Don’t joke. You just got me calmed down.”

“You’re right, we don’t have time to waste. Do you still have the diamond?”

“Yes, but I need something to bend back the prongs on the setting so I can remove the stone. Have you got the lockpick?”

Fabian reached into his inside pocket for the case and removed a pick. “Will this do?”

“Perfect.” Maddie tucked it into her beaded satin evening bag. “Where were you when I was diving into the harbor to retrieve my purse? I could have drowned. Or been eaten by a manta ray.”

“It’s been no picnic for me either. I’ve been enclosed for the past twenty minutes in a cramped locker with Roland’s dirty laundry.”

“Brittany?” Roland called again. “Are you coming? I’ve got a surprise for you.”

“In a moment,” she sang out, then turned to Fabian. “I can’t wait until we hand him over to the police. He’ll be locked away for a long, long time.”

Fabian shot her a sideways glance. “Ye-es.” The longer she believed that, the better.

“Won’t he?” Maddie pressed. “I mean, we’re going to catch him red-handed. The British authorities will want their pound of flesh but once they’re done with him, he’ll be given back to the Australian police.”

“Don’t worry about that now. Your immediate goal is to entice him to show you the Rose.”

Maddie grimaced. “That’s the part that bothers me—enticing Roland.”

Fabian arranged the collar on her robe, opening it so that her breasts, softly curving above the black lace bra, were revealed to advantage. Luscious, and she didn’t even know it. It killed him to send her to that lecherous thief. “Let him look but not touch. Slip him the sedative before he can get his hands on you.”
Roland’s hands on her
… Fabian pulled the collar closed over her breasts. “Now, off you go.”

“Fabian…” Her eyes were huge.

God help him. He started to lower his mouth to hers.

Somewhere in the depths of the ship, an engine started.

Maddie jerked back. “I hope that’s a generator.”

“The ship’s electrical system is connected to mains power on the dock.”

She began to speak again but he shushed her, head cocked, listening. Creaking noises joined the clanking of the ship’s stays. Maddie rushed to the porthole. The boat was moving away from the pontoon.

Fabian swore. “You’d better get up there. He’s putting out to sea.”

Maddie ran through the main cabin and up the companionway, her purse flapping and banging against her hip. The steady
chug, chug
of the engine was almost reassuring. It meant they weren’t under sail. Maybe Roland was simply motoring over to the fuel dock to fill up.

She poked her head out of the hatch. Roland stood behind the wheel, navigating the narrow waterways between the moored sailboats. But the fuel dock wasn’t his destination. He was heading for the channel through the breakwater that led to the open ocean.

“Where are we going?” Maddie demanded.

“I changed my mind about taking the boat out.” Roland had taken off his jacket, unbuttoned his dress shirt at the neck and rolled up his sleeves. He gestured to the full moon, fat and golden, against the indigo sky. “It’s a glorious night to be on the water.”

A spurt of rising panic turned her blood cold. Maddie fought back the tremors in her voice. “I thought we were having a quiet drink in the marina.”

“After the awards ceremony is over, the waterfront will be a zoo…drunken partygoers crawling all over the boats. There’s a quiet cove on the other side of the island where we can get away from it all.” Roland smiled at her, slow and knowing. “It’s very romantic.”

“But…” Maddie glanced down at the satin dressing gown and her bare feet. “I’m not dressed for sailing.”

“All you have to do is sit on the deck and look beautiful.” Roland turned the wheel slightly to starboard. “Could you move so I can see the depth sounder? We don’t want to get caught up on the rocks.”

She stepped to one side. The depth sounder emitted a steady beeping, the needle tracing a jagged image in green across a dark screen. He’d raised the jib and winched it in tautly. A brisk breeze fluttered the telltale high on the sleek white sail. Inside the harbor, the water was flat and calm. Outside the breakwater, iridescent foam cascaded down small breaking waves.

Maddie shivered and hugged herself. She’d vowed never to go on a sailboat again. Now here she was, heading out to sea. At night. Everything was worse at night. Visibility was diminished, there were fewer people to help in case of emergency, the danger of hypothermia and drowning were greater…

She thought feverishly. She could claim she was seasick—God knows, she felt like throwing up—and ask Roland to turn around. But that would blow her whole story about being an avid sailor wanting to buy his boat. If he ever suspected she was really after the Rose, he might become dangerous. Al was right about that. Twenty million dollars was a lot of motivation to dump a body at sea.

Two bodies. Fabian was down below.

“There’s an ice bucket and champagne in the galley,” Roland said. “Glasses in the slots against the bulkhead. Could you bring them up?”

“Okay.” This might give her an opportunity to slip him the sedative. And she could look for a weapon in the galley in case she needed to defend herself. In case? Make that definitely. If she played her cards right, she had a chance to get the diamond away from Roland. Getting safely back to shore would be the tricky part.

Maddie went below and got the ice bucket and glasses, then glanced around. A chef’s knife? Too gory. Cast-iron frying pan? Hard to hide beneath her dressing gown. It would have to be the champagne bottle. A whack over the head with that and he’d be out like a light.

She carried the ice bucket and glasses back out on deck just as the boat was motoring past the rocky breakwater. For a wild moment she contemplated jumping overboard. The waves surged and foamed against the granite. Her stomach flip-flopped sickeningly at the thought of being dashed to death. Scratch that plan. Besides, she wasn’t leaving the boat without the Rose.

She set the bucket down in the cockpit and poured out two glasses. The vial of sedatives was in the pocket of the robe but it was impossible to slip one into his drink with him watching her every move. She handed Roland a flute and took a swift gulp herself for courage.

“To a beautiful woman and a beautiful night.” Roland raised his glass to her.

How could she ever have thought him attractive? Not only was he a criminal, he spouted clichés. Maddie clinked glasses, her fingers white-knuckling the stem.

A muffled
thunk
came from the cabin below.

Roland tilted his head to listen. “What was that?”

Fabian. “I, uh, banged my foot on the side of the bench.” Maddie did it again to illustrate and got a barely audible thud. “Or maybe not. Maybe something shifted down below. It’s probably nothing.”

“Everything’s tightly secured,” Roland said, frowning.

“I left the hair dryer on the counter. It must have fallen off,” Maddie suggested. “I’ll go put it back.”

“Don’t worry about it. Take the wheel for me. I’m going to raise the mainsail.”

Roland tucked his glass into a holder on the steering column and kept one hand on the stainless steel wheel until Maddie could take his place. They’d entered the channel between Hamilton Island and a small island that Maddie knew from the chart in the harbormaster’s office boasted a golf course and little else. A stiff breeze had kicked up, blowing flecks of foam off the wave crests.

“Keep heading into the wind until I get the main up, then take her nor’-northeast.” Roland picked his way over winches and coiled lines, through the shrouds to the foredeck.

Now that she was alone, she could put the sedative in his drink. Keeping one hand on the wheel and an eye on Roland, Maddie got out the vial and shook out a tablet. She held it over his glass…then closed her fist again before it could drop. Who would sail the boat if Roland was sedated? Fabian seemed like a man who could do anything but she didn’t actually know if he could sail. While she’d sailed as a child that was a long time ago, and she’d never been on the open ocean or in unfamiliar waters. Reluctantly, she put the tablet back in the vial and returned it to her pocket.