TWO
8 days after Buenos Aires
Onboard Blackstar
Holy shit. Holy shit, holy freaking shit! Persephone Case's excitement had nothing to do with being onboard the luxurious gigayacht hosting the party, or the illustrious, deep-pocketed, influential guests attending the event––bigwigs, museum people, buyers, the usual groupies who gathered around a major salvage like this. No, her excitement had everything to do with the reason for this swanky celebration.
The anticipation for the spoils of the "Cutter Salvage" had been hyped in the press as the biggest antiquities haul in history. Expected to far surpass the wealth and prestige of the Atocha wreck off the coast of Florida––a salvage that had been going strong for more than thirty years, to the tune of over four hundred million dollars.
Now all people could talk about were the Nuestra Señora del Marco, Santa Ana and El Crucifijo.
But, four ships lay at the bottom of the freaking ocean. They didn't mention Napolitano.
Had any of these people contacted her during the last five years while she was salvaging Napolitano? To offer investment money? To interview her? To get her take on what she'd already salvaged? Not a one. No one knew her name, but everyone and their uncle knew the damned Cutters.
Peri didn't want fame and fortune- or no more than the average salvager- what she wanted was recognition. She wanted to finally be seen. This was the closest she'd ever come to achieving that goal.
Dizzy with exhilaration, she hadn't felt this much of a rush since she'd stolen that first artifact - a pretty little gilded silver flask - from right under Zane Cutter’s nose seven years ago.
That had been the beginning of her life of piracy against the brothers. She'd started off subtly. Targeting a Cutter’s dive location, waiting for him to return to his ship for the night, then diving in, and helping herself to a few choice pieces before they could be brought to the surface.
They couldn't miss her sleek black boat, Sea Witch, as she lay at anchor well within the legal limit of one mile. Each damned brother had ignored her antics as if she were a pesky fly they couldn't be bothered to swat. Their blatant indifference had resulted in Peri's thefts becoming dangerously bolder. She'd think, do you see me now? as she stood on the deck of her ship, giving them a good long look at her.
She'd dreamed of this confrontation for seven long years. The anticipation, and constant disappointment, had been exhausting. She'd miss the adrenaline rush, but she wouldn't miss the constant battle with herself as to the right and wrong of what she'd been doing.
Given this opportunity to meet them all at the same time, in her own backyard as it were, she was fine knowing her pirating days were over for good. Bearding the lions in their own den was even more of a thrill than stealing from them. It would be impossible for them to ignore her now.
This was the last step of her rehabilitation.
"Dios, have you ever seen such a ship?" Dr. Thiago Núñez whispered as they entered the crowded salon of Blackstar for the dive’s inaugural party.
The elegantly appointed room was crowded with well-dressed guests who'd apparently had no issue making the two-hour trip from the mainland to attend a party. Wide windows and open French doors framed lights that glittered on the calm water surrounding a yacht the size of a small island, casting a pale purple wash over rippling navy-blue water. Spring in the Southern hemisphere brought dusk late, and at nine at night the violet and apricot sky wrapped around the ship like a diaphanous silken scarf in a showy display of color.
"Incredible." Understatement. "I need a big glass of wine and about a dozen of those shrimp canapes. I'm starving." Discreetly, Peri removed Theo's hand from her ass. On the rare occasions they appeared in public together, he "forgot" that they'd broken up more than a year ago, and became possessive and handsy. They were the same height when she was barefoot, and if he wore lifts in his shoes. Since he was self-conscious about his five-foot-six height, she’d worn flats when they dated. Tonight, she wore five-inch sandals and towered over him.
Distinguished, with classic Latin features, and dark hair, prematurely graying at the temples, Theo looked like the professor of Antiquities that he was. But it had been his intensity and love of relics that had attracted her, and that shared interest had kept her distracted when the gloss of their relationship had worn off.
No matter how attractive he was, she didn't want seconds. He made a better associate than a lover. The only reason he was the Minister of Antiquities was because when Peri had discovered the four ships off the coast of Patagonia five years earlier and had to register the find with the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Theo had been a mid-level employee with an archeological background. Because of the anticipated dollar, and cultural, value of what Peri had discovered, they'd given Theo a title and his own department to oversee the salvaging of the four ships.
He'd given her an advisory position because she'd asked for it as part of the deal of cutting him in on a small percentage over and above what the Government would get. Peri had considered it an excellent bargain.
"If I didn't tell you before, mi amore, you look delicious tonight." He was eye level with her cleavage.
"Theo-" Peri said warningly as she scanned the room for familiar faces. Cutter faces.
He gave her a soulful look. "When we're together in a social setting like this it is impossible to remember that we are no longer lovers."
"I'll keep reminding you," Peri told him dryly, deftly removing that wandering hand again. "I work with you, Theo. And soon everyone here will know it. It would look very bad for the Ministry if we behaved unprofessionally."
His smile was wistful. "It is not that we are no longer lovers, though, is it?" he said softly, black eyes searching her features. "You were never comfortable with displays of affection unless we were in the bedroom, mi amore. And even then … a man needs to know the woman he's with feels the same heat."
She'd had no such qualms with Leo. Theo wouldn't have recognized that woman, not in his wildest dreams. She didn't recognize that woman. Peri had never had sex with a man she'd just met, never had a one-night stand. In fact, she'd had more sex that weekend with Leo, than she'd had in her entire life. The weekend in Buenos Aires seemed like a dream now. It was the first time in her life she'd felt totally. . . free. No shackles to the past, no second thoughts, nothing but two anonymous people having glorious sex, then walking away.
"We make better friends." She took the glass of wine he handed her, plucked from the tray of a passing waiter, her gaze falling on the small, black, swirl tattoo on the web of his right thumb. A whirlpool, he'd told her at the beginning of their relationship. She'd never bothered to ask the significance of it and didn't care now.
"Even so, you have always been guarded with your emotions. A man looking at you sees fire when there is really ice."
That stung. "You didn't complain when we were together."
"I thought I could melt you."
You couldn't, but somehow a stranger I'd just met, could. "I'm sorry, Theo." He was a nice man. He'd treated her well. But he'd never turned her on. Not the way Leo had. "I told you right from the beginning that I was lousy at relationships."
He flashed her his flirty, seductive, very Latin smile. Theo could be extremely charming when he wanted to be. "But to tempt a red-blooded man with such a dress. . ."
Peri had chosen her dress with care. Not to be sexy, but to boost her confidence. The strapless, floaty dress, in shades of red and orange, looking like a column of flame, bared her shoulders, and brushed her toes. This evening she flew her vibrant hair, loose down her back, like a red flag to a bull.
I'm here! Ignore me now, you bastards.
How long would it take for them to recognize her? She’d bet less than a minute. She'd mentally rehearsed this momentous meeting- Hell, no amount of rehearsal could possibly prepare her for what was about to happen. Braced and ready, or as ready as she could be in such an unpredictable setting, Peri casually did another scan of the salon.
Him? No.
Maybe that guy over there? Damn, she wasn’t sure.
The brothers might not recognize her face, but her hair was a dead giveaway. They’d know who she was right away. There were a couple of other women here with various shades of red hair, but none so bright, or as long as hers. It was pretty freaking distinctive. Even so, would they identify her without Sea Witch anchored nearby, to make the connection?
In the years since she'd been stealing from them, she'd never been this close. Peri had gone through several phases of pissed-off-ness in the six months since she'd learned from Theo that the Cutters, too, had staked claims up and down the coast of Patagonia. Her damned claim. All of that pissed-off-ness had led her to this night.
Reckless, she knew. But she was sick of the cat and mouse game she’d been playing for so many years. During that time, she’d thought she was the cat. It wasn’t until she saw their names on claims she'd discovered that she realized who had been playing whom.
Damn it. She'd staked her claim for salvage, bought property nearby, and worked her ass off for five freaking years on her wreck, Napolitano. Then, out of the damn blue, they showed up to scoop up the other three wrecks! What the hell were the odds of that happening? But then again, these were the Cutters. Low-down, thieving bastards who had manipulated her family out of fortunes time and again for years.
Still, it was damn hard to justify her annoyance when she'd been pilfering from them as well. And it wasn't as if they could possibly know that the Koúkos Corporation, the one that had claimed Napolitano, was also Persephone Case.
The minute they saw her, they'd realize their lives were about to get a lot more interesting. And if Peri had her way, this dive was going to serve their cockiness and bravado back to them, on a silver platter, carved and ready to eat.
She could describe each man's ship to the last rivet, but she wasn’t sure she could pick any of the brothers out of a lineup. She'd watched them through her binocs, she'd seen their pictures in various international news outlets. But had never been close enough to touch.
Being a fly on the wall to see their response first hand was going to be freaking epic. Like walking a tightrope over rocky, shark-infested waters, but fun nevertheless.
Peri had always known that, like a house of cards, the whole mess would come tumbling down at some point. Even though the house she’d built with cards of deception was an architectural masterpiece, if she did say so herself. Better to control the fallout than be taken unaware.
The weekend she had spent with Leo had been incredible. Magical. But that Sunday morning eight days ago, as she’d anticipated joining him in the shower, she knew she didn’t want to maintain one more lie. She was already juggling several layers of deception. The Cutters didn't know the identity of the owner of Sea Witch. Yet. They sure as hell didn't know that the pirate on board Sea Witch was related to their nemesis, Rydell Case. Her brother.
Tightrope. Sharks. Rocks.