Phantom Prospect - Alex Archer [16]
Hunter smirked. “And that wouldn’t have stopped the crazy one here from jumping right in, would it?”
Annja chewed her lip. Hunter nodded. “Yeah, I knew it. He was trying to talk you into going in there with him, wasn’t he?”
Annja backed away. “I should leave you guys alone to work this out. Maybe I’ll just head downstairs and get some rest.”
Hunter shook his head and stared at Cole. “Are you really insane? You were trying to get her to go in there with you? What was she—bait? That’s a new low for you, Cole. Seriously, man. You’ve lost your freaking mind.”
Cole sighed. “We come from two different perspectives on this, Hunter.”
“Yeah, you want to put your head in the mouth of every lion you come across while I know that lions aren’t made to have human heads in them. Which one of us is right, huh?”
Hunter stalked out of the wheelhouse. Annja watched him stomp down to the back of the boat. Cole took a breath and sighed. “I’m sorry you had to hear all that, Annja.”
“Forget it. You guys aren’t the first siblings I’ve known who didn’t have the perfect relationship. At least it’s apparent that you guys love each other.”
“I guess.”
Annja put a hand on his shoulder. “Think of it this way. If he didn’t care, he would have encouraged you to jump right in.”
“Yeah.”
Annja shoved him out of the wheelhouse. “Go. Talk to him and try to get some common ground back. You’ve both got objectives here. Maybe you can make some sense out of them.”
“Thanks.”
Annja watched him go. Behind her, she heard a flicking sound. She turned and saw Captain Jax eyeing her while she cleaned her fingernails with a switchblade. “That was smooth,” the captain said.
Annja looked at the long blond hair tied back in a ponytail with a length of hemp. Captain Jax was about Annja’s age, but the crow’s-feet around her eyes belied a lot more years on the ocean than the rest of her appearance suggested.
“How long have you been a captain?” Annja asked.
“Why? You have issues with my skippering so far?”
Annja shook her head. “No. It’s just that most of the captains I’ve ever known have been men. Kinda strange to see a woman in charge. Nice change of pace. That’s all.”
Captain Jax finished cleaning one hand and adroitly flipped the knife around to work the other hand. “Yeah, well, it hasn’t been an easy slog for me to climb the ladder. I did time on tramp steamers and shitty freighters, working the south Atlantic between Africa and South America.”
“What happened?”
“I got tired of turning a blind eye to the crap I used to witness.”
“Like?”
Captain Jax stop cleaning her nails. “You ever seen eight-year-old kids forced to shovel coal into ship boilers for ten hours a day?”
“No.”
“You ever seen teenage girls being sold into sexual slavery?”
Annja frowned. “Heard of it.”
Captain Jax smirked. “Different when it’s right in front of your face, lemme tell you.”
“So you stopped working that route?”
“I came north after the skipper of the ship and I had a disagreement about a particular shipment of kids into the Brazilian brothels.”
“What happened?”
Captain Jax shrugged. “I cut his throat while he slept. And I shoved his bloated carcass overboard where the sharks tore him to bits.”
Annja almost smiled at the candor with which Captain Jax spoke. “You don’t seem particularly upset.”
“I’m not upset at all.” Captain Jax pointed the knife at her. “You, however, don’t seem the least bit fazed by what I just said.”
Annja shrugged. “Let’s just say it sounds like we’ve both left a few bodies in our wakes.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. It is.”
Captain Jax eyed her for a moment without moving. Annja returned the stare. A heavy silence cloaked the wheelhouse and, in the distance, Annja could hear the breeze coming off the ocean. But nothing moved in the space between her and the captain.
Finally, Jax seemed satisfied. “Just so long as you understand that this is my boat. I have the authority here.”
“I thought this was Hunter’s boat,” Annja said.
“I’m the captain.”
“No one’s trying to steal the job from you.”
Jax nodded. “Good.”
Annja started to leave.