Apocalyptic pirates 6, p.19
Apocalyptic Pirates 6, page 19
“Wow,” I managed finally.
“Wow,” Ally agreed, and she gave a little breathless laugh. “Wow. Let me tell you something now, Drew Peeltin, I have never been fucked like that before.”
“Never?” I smiled down at her.
Ally’s green eyes were glowing, and there was a pretty pink flush in her cheeks. She bit her lower lip as she smiled up at me and shook her head.
I pulled her close to me and breathed in the sweet scent of her strawberry shampoo.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” I murmured into her hair. “You’re gorgeous, and sexy, and smart, and amazing.”
“So are you,” she whispered back. “I’ve never met a man like you, Drew. You’re so special to me. I don’t just love you, but I like you, too. Do you know how rare that is?”
“I do,” I whispered. “And I like you. I like you just as much as I love you.”
I felt the curve of Ally’s cheek as she smiled against my chest.
We lay there together for a few more minutes, and then Ally regretfully sat up and reached for her bra.
“We’d better get dressed before the others come back on deck,” she said.
“I think they might have a clue about what we were doing,” I said with a sheepish smile.
“Oh, yes, I’m sure they do.” Ally smiled and shook her head. “And they’re going to give me hell for it, I’m sure.”
“I can ask them not to,” I offered.
“Oh, no, it’s just teasing.” Ally winked at me as she pulled her shirt back down over her head. “I complain, but that’s part of the game.”
“Alright,” I said. “So long as you’re all okay.”
“Drew.” Ally bent over me on her hands and knees and pushed a stray auburn wave away from her smiling face. “I am more than okay right now.”
I reached up and stole a quick kiss from her pink, pleased mouth. Then I hiked up my shorts and did a quick check of my hair to make sure I looked at least halfway presentable.
“You look very handsome,” Ally told me.
“Just checking that I don’t look too disreputable,” I said with a chuckle.
“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Ally smiled. “You’re a perfect gentleman.”
I hadn’t realized how late it was until we stepped out from the cockpit and saw that the sky was getting dark.
“Whoa,” Ally breathed, and she pulled my hand to come with her and stand by the yacht railing and look out at the sunset.
It was quite a sight. The sky was pink and orange, and there were a thousand pale lilac and peach clouds piled up on the horizon like fluffy pillows on the world’s biggest bed. There was an amazing depth and shadow to the clouds that made them look like solid objects carved out of marble, and the fading light shone down through them in defined rays like sword blades. The sun itself was a slowly sinking ball of red fire, and it melted into the horizon and bled color across the water.
As we stood and watched, the shades changed and became deeper and darker. The orange changed to a fiery russet like Ally’s hair, and the lilac clouds turned to lavender with hints of vivid royal purple here and there. The clouds became softer and faded away and left the sky washed in shades of tawny gold and glowing, vibrant amber.
“That’s quite something, isn’t it?” Ally said softly.
“Sure is,” I replied.
“Come on, you two lovebirds.” Shannon poked her head out of the hatch. “It’s dinnertime.”
“Come look at the sky,” Ally said. “Isn’t it breathtaking?”
“I can see it from here,” Shannon said. “It’s certainly a pretty sight. But come on, Letty’s dinner is also a pretty sight, and she’s been working on it for longer than the sunset.”
“Okay, okay, we’re coming,” I said with a laugh.
Ally and I followed Shannon down the hatch into the kitchen where Letty was serving up the evening meal.
“Mm,” I said appreciatively as I took my place at the table. “What have you got for us tonight, Letty?”
“Oh, are you hungry?” Dia said with an innocent smile. “I thought you guys were full already.”
“No, I think that’s just Ally,” Shannon said with a wicked grin. “Drew could probably manage a bit more, I think.”
“Are you finished?” Ally inquired with a dignified air even as her cheeks flushed pink.
“Oh, is that what Drew said to you earlier?” Letty deadpanned.
“At least three times,” Dia added with a giggle.
Ally covered her pink face with her hands.
“You know we’re just teasing you.” Shannon leaned over and patted Ally’s shoulder. “We’re all glad that you and Drew enjoyed yourselves so much.”
“And so loudly,” Dia said.
“And so many times,” Letty said.
“Oh, my god,” Ally muttered.
“Hey, come on,” I protested. “I’m sitting here, too.”
“You are,” Shannon agreed. “And to be honest, I’m surprised that Ally can sit down at all.”
“You’re just jealous because I came like four times,” Ally declared.
“Four?” Letty said with a grin. “Well, Drew, I hope you ain’t selling none of us short.”
“Uh, no,” I stuttered as she waggled her eyebrows at me suggestively. “I wouldn’t, uh, I mean I don’t… Oh, hell, Letty.”
“I’m just teasing you,” she giggled. “I think it’s fair to say that we’re all a very satisfied bunch here. Right, guys?”
“Oh, yes.” Shannon nodded her head with a gleam in her eyes. “I’m very satisfied.”
“Mmm, me, too,” Dia crooned.
I couldn’t hold back the satisfied smile that spread over my face.
“I’m pretty satisfied, too,” I admitted.
“Can we talk about something other than sex, though, please?” Ally asked with a sigh. “I don’t really want sex talk while I’m eating salad.”
“Fair point,” Shannon said.
“It’s not just salad tonight,” Letty said. “We’ve got spoonbread to go with a chickpea and black-eyed pea salad and devilled eggs.”
“Deviled eggs,” I exclaimed. “I haven’t had those in a long time.”
“Well, eat up,” the Southern woman instructed. “I figured we could do with a healthy dose of protein to help keep us going seeing as we just made it through a huge fight earlier.”
“Don’t forget Drew and Ally’s extracurricular activities,” Dia said with a giggle.
“Please don’t call it that,” Ally groaned.
“The devil’s tango?” Dia suggested.
“The beast with two backs?” Shannon queried.
“Oh, my god, what is wrong with you two?” Ally demanded, but even she had to chuckle.
The meal was delicious, as always. I’d forgotten how much I liked deviled eggs, and it was nice to have a familiar dish. Lately, Letty’s cooking had been more focused on salads and lean proteins rather than the hearty Southern meals that I’d grown accustomed to, and although I knew the reasoning behind it, it was still good to have a tasty reminder of the early days of our adventure.
“This reminds me of the meals you cooked for us when you first joined the crew,” I said as I took another mouthful of peas.
“Yeah.” Letty nodded. “I just felt like goin’ back to my roots a little bit tonight.”
“What a long time ago that was,” Shannon said with a reminiscent look in her eye. “But at the same time it feels like no time at all has passed.”
“I call that time ‘B.D.’,” Dia said. “‘Before Dia’.”
“Because I guess none of us had lives or existences before you came along?” Shannon raised an eyebrow.
“Exactly.” Dia grinned. “That was the before time.”
“And what a peaceful paradise it was,” Shannon said with a sigh, and then squealed when Dia leaned across the table and poked her with a spoon.
“It does seem like those times were simpler,” Ally admitted. “Back then we were just worrying about staying alive. We were raiding hospitals and houses and stealing people’s things. We weren’t worrying about the Navy or the Coast Guard or what the government might be plotting. It was a simpler time.”
“Those things were still happening though, babe,” Shannon pointed out. “Remember all those videos we saw about the Coast Guard stopping boats? And they were arresting people and trying to control which boats went where and with who. That wasn’t exactly simple.”
“That’s true,” Ally said with a sigh. “I guess I’d forgotten that part.”
“It’s the dangers of nostalgia,” Letty said with a shake of her head. “It makes it so easy to misremember past times as way better than they actually were.”
“But to be fair, we weren’t worrying about the Navy mobilizing back then,” Dia pointed out. “And we weren’t getting roped into top-secret missions by foreign governments.”
“See?” Ally gestured. “That’s what I’m talking about. If you’d told me back then that I’d be worried about the Navy getting involved in this situation because we’re currently on the Coast Guard’s shit list, then I would have laughed in your face.”
“Me, too,” Shannon said. “It does seem really crazy sometimes when I stop and think about it.”
“You should just stop thinking,” Dia advised. “That’s what I do.”
“That is very clear,” Letty said.
“But what does that mean for us?” Shannon persisted. “What if the Navy does get involved? What if they are mobilizing to try and continue the Coast Guard’s work with capturing the dragons and harvesting the eggs?”
“Well…” I paused. “In the short-term, I think our biggest issue will be staying out of the Navy’s way. I can’t imagine they’ll be pleased to see us. We know that the Coast Guard had files on each of us with our photos and descriptions, so it’s likely that they’ll have had that information passed around, and I think it’s safe to assume that the Navy will have access to that information, too.”
“So they’ll be out looking for us,” Shannon supplied.
“It feels safest to assume that,” I agreed. “We won’t lose anything by assuming that, whereas we could lose everything if we don’t assume it. We’re going to need to be extremely careful, especially now that we’re back in open water.”
“Did we do the right thing by leaving the estuary?” Letty worried. “Maybe we should have stayed where we were.”
“No, I think it was right that we left when we did,” I said in a determined voice. “It was the right call to make that detour, but it was also important that we try to get on track while the weather was in our favor. And it’s paid off, too. We’ve made really good progress so far with this good wind we’ve been having.”
“But what comes next?” Shannon pushed. “If the Navy is going to be looking for us, we’re going to need a plan to counter their movements.”
“But we don’t know for sure that they are looking for us,” Ally objected. “For that matter, we don’t even know that they are on the move. They could be anywhere, and we’ve not got any real ways of finding out their location or their movements right now.”
“What about that guy on the forum?” Letty reminded her.
“He was a crackpot,” Ally stated. “He didn’t offer up any proof that what he was saying was valid in any way. I think he was making it all up.”
“But he also might not have been,” Shannon said.
“Yeah, well, he also might have been!” Ally retorted. “That’s the problem here, we’re just going back and forth between possibilities because we don’t have enough information about the situation at hand.”
There was a short silence that followed her words.
I wanted to agree with both sides of the argument, but more than that, right then I wanted to take the unhappy looks off of the women’s faces.
“You’re right, Ally,” I said in a gentle voice. “We can’t know any of this for sure. So for now, let’s just finish eating and then spend a restful evening down here together. Who wants to play a game?”
“You sound just like Jigsaw,” Letty commented with a grim chuckle.
“Well, you know, maybe that guy was onto something,” I joked. “Nothing like a game to make people forget their worries.”
“Now you definitely sound like Jigsaw,” Dia grinned.
“Hey,” I protested, but I didn’t mind.
I didn’t care how many deranged serial killers they compared me to if it helped to lighten the mood.
And it seemed to work. We finished eating, and the conversation changed to a different subject. Ally, Shannon, Dia, and I all worked together to stack the dishwasher, tidy the kitchen, and wipe down the table before we joined Letty in the lounge area where she was already looking through the movies that we had downloaded onto the iPad any time that the internet connection was stable enough to do so.
“What about 27 Dresses?” she suggested as we all flopped down onto the chairs.
“Ugh, no,” Ally sighed. “Do we have anything less frothy?”
“What are you thinking, Schindler’s List?” Shannon deadpanned.
“Hah, no.” Ally rolled her eyes. “There’s got to be a middle ground between romcom and the Holocaust.”
“Back To The Future?” Letty suggested.
“Perfect.” Ally nodded.
“Drew, can I borrow your phone?” Shannon asked.
“Yeah, sure,” I said and handed it over.
“Ew, Shannon,” Dia said and wrinkled her nose. “If you’re going to watch porn, can’t you do it in the bedroom?”
“Dia!” Ally exclaimed in scandalized tones.
“I can watch porn wherever I like,” Shannon said grandly. “It’s a free country, and this is a feminist, sex-positive yacht.”
She took my phone and went to sit on the far end of the couch.
Ally and Letty huddled together around the iPad on Letty’s lap to watch the movie.
“Game?” Dia suggested to me. “I’m totally ready to kick your ass at that racing game.”
“You wish,” I scoffed. “It’s on.”
Dia and I sat on the floor with our backs resting against the couch near Ally and Letty’s legs. I rested my head briefly on Ally’s knee, as she looked down at me and stroked back my hair from my forehead with a soft smile.
“Ready?” I challenged Dia.
“You bet your ass I’m ready,” Dia replied with a combative gleam in her eye.
We had taken the gaming consoles from an island hotel that we’d raided about a month back, and it was a welcome form of entertainment for us in the evenings. It made a change from flicking through our meager amount of reading material or watching Netflix, and I liked having the opportunity to game again in a way that I hadn’t done since Sammy was very little.
Dia and I pitted our cars against each other, Ally and Letty watched as Marty McFly dealt with school bullies and potential incest, and then suddenly Shannon gave an exclamation of dismay.
“Guys,” she said.
“What?” I hit pause on the game and looked over at her.
“I thought I’d do some research online,” Shannon said. “See if I could find out any more information about the Navy and what they might be up to.”
“Go on,” I said with my heart sinking into my stomach. “What did you find?”
Letty and Ally abandoned the movie and huddled around to hear what Shannon had to say.
“Okay.” Shannon took a deep breath. “So first I looked on the forum and tried to track down Dragonagedirtbag, the guy who made those posts. I thought maybe I could find some other social media profiles or something like that, but I couldn’t turn up anything, so I went onto YouTube and tried searching for his name there.”
“Does he have a YouTube account?” Dia asked.
“No,” Shannon replied. “But I found the account of someone else who I guess must go on the forum, because they’d tagged Dragonagedirtbag in a video. It’s a pretty unique username, so I reckon it has to be the same guy.”
“Right,” I said. “What did the video say?”
“It was posted by a girl in Mexico,” Shannon said.
“How did you understand what she was saying?” Ally asked with a frown.
“She doesn’t speak in it,” Shannon explained. “She just has captions in Spanish and English.”
She turned the phone around so we could all see the video on the screen. It was paused on a slightly blurry shot of a fleet of ships.
Shannon hit play, and the video resumed. The person filming zoomed in on the fleet, and Dia sucked in her breath sharply as the camera focused and revealed what we’d all dreaded to be true.
“Shit,” Letty hissed.
“Those are naval ships,” Dia breathed.
“Yep.” Shannon gave a grim nod. “This was filmed in the Gulf of California a day ago. The fleet’s been there for days. And now they’re on the move.”
“Headed in which direction?” I asked, but I already knew what the answer was going to be.
“South,” Shannon said. “They’re headed right toward us.”
Chapter 12
“Fuck!” Ally almost shouted.
“Oh, shit,” Dia gritted out.
“Oh, my god,” Letty gasped. “This isn’t good. They must know where we are.”
“We don’t know that,” I began.
“Of course it means that!” Ally interrupted in a shrill voice. “They must know that we’re in this area of the world, and they’re coming to find us.”
“Even if they ain’t coming specifically to find us, that has to be on their list of priorities.” Letty’s eyes were huge with fear. “We know the Coast Guard has our files. We know they might have passed them on to the rest of the armed forces. Even if the Navy is officially only mobilizing to help the Coast Guard or to help ‘send aid to the meteorite belt’, which we know is total bullshit, they’re gonna be on the lookout for a yacht and a crew that matches our descriptions.”
“It must be because of the video,” Ally whimpered. “They’ve come to stop us before we expose them as crooked as well.”
“They don’t personally hate us,” Dia retorted. “It’s not a personal vendetta against all of us.”
