Chapter 2: Beck
"Don't do this, you'll never win," I taunted her as she tried to get away from me. "You're weak. You've always been weak." I watched the woman who had been my best friend since childhood jump up on the rail of my boat.
"How bad do you want it," she asked in a shrill voice as she held the last beer up above her head. "Bad enough to go for a swim?"
"You dump my beer in the ocean, I'll kill you," I said with a smile as I lunged towards her. She lost her balance and fell in the water.
"You shit head," I yelled as she resurfaced. "I told you I'd kill you!" I jumped in after her and pushed her back under the water.
Today was a good day. It was the last of a three-day boating trip up the coast that we had spent fishing and drinking, just like we used to before we got caught up in all the shit of the world. And just like we used to, we ran out of beer and ended up fighting over the last one.
"Okay, okay! You win," she said through sputtering coughs as her head bobbed in and out of the water. "But you're buying me a shot when we get back."
"What for?" I reached out and swiped the beer from her hand before she could swim back to the boat with it.
"For putting up with your redneck antics," she said as she pulled herself out of the water and back into the boat. Jess was a pretty girl, but not girly by any means. When it was dry her hair was sun bleached blond and straight as a board, yet it somehow perfectly framed her oval face with a thin set of bangs that fell to her thin, high-arched eyebrows and swept to the side. With eyes the color of emeralds, she could bring anyone, man or woman, to their knees if she wanted to. She had worked me over with those eyes a few times, unfairly winning arguments just because I couldn't resist her pout. Her nose was a dainty little princess-like thing, slightly turned up at the tip, and her lips were thin and usually set with stubborn determination.
I watched as her lean, tanned body maneuvered, dripping water all over the side of my boat. She was wearing cutoff jeans and a t-shirt that showed her slim belly, and was damn near see-through now that it was soaked with sea water. I might have been interested in more than just friendship with her if I didn't know where her interests lie in that particular area.
"And people wonder why I don't like men. You're all brutes!" She shot me her dazzling smile and kicked water at me as I made a show of popping the top off my victory beer and taking a big swig.
"You're just mad 'cause you couldn't handle a man like me," I shot a smile back at her, which I've been told is equally dazzling, and swam back to the boat, careful not to let my open beer go under the water.
She took the beer as I set it on the ledge of the boat and began to chug it while I pulled myself up out of the water. When I took it back she said "Don't fool yourself, silly man. I can handle anything any man can dish out. It just isn't enough to satisfy my hunger." She winked at me and swung her legs around to stand in the boat. "Now let's get back to the store and get everything in order before tomorrow's shipment comes in. And then you can buy me that shot."
I followed suit and took my victory beer up to the helm while Jess took her shirt off and laid it out on one of the cushioned seats on the bow. Then she laid out on her stomach to sun her back and probably take a nap while I sailed us back to the docks. While I steered us in the direction of home I muttered under my breath "Whatever woman ends up with you better be strong, 'cause you are a damn handful."
As I sailed and sipped my beer I let my mind wander. The sun was setting. It would be dark before we got back to the docks. The air was cooling and the sky looked like it could be a famous watercolor painting that hung in some prestigious art gallery inland. I took a deep breath of the salty sea air and steeled myself for what awaited us tomorrow.
Jess and I had been there for each other through everything. Our moms would take us to church together every Sunday when we were little. I always thought they had some fantasy about us getting married one day. Jess was there for me when my dad went out to sea and never came back. She was the only person, other than my mother, who had ever seen me cry. That was the day she snuck me my first taste of whiskey from her dad's liquor cabinet and held me while I cried myself to sleep.
Then, of course, I was there for her when she discovered she liked girls, and I pretended to be her boyfriend so her folks wouldn't suspect. I was so proud of her the day she finally got the balls to tell 'em she was gay. Her mom kicked her out on the spot and I took her home to live with me.
Naturally, my mother wouldn't have a lesbian living in her household either, so we took our seventeen-year-old asses, scraped together all our money, and got an apartment together. Shit, most people probably still thought we were dating with the way we acted together. But we'd always just been best friends. I hoped we always would be. There was nothing I wouldn't do for that woman, or she for me.
Then when we started our business together we were so proud of ourselves. But we were young and naive. We didn't know the shitstorm we were getting ourselves into. We knew we had to get out before we got ourselves killed, but we didn't know how yet.
The sun was completely gone and the moon had set the water aglow. The night sky was beautiful at sea. Like a black ocean filled with diamonds. I looked down at Jess, still passed out on the cushion, still topless. I went down to the cabin to grab her a blanket. The temperature was steadily dropping, and we were too far North to be sleeping on the ocean naked. As I covered her with the blanket I looked at her pretty face. I was an only child back when I still had my family, but Jess had always been like a sister to me. And now she was the only family I had.
"I'll protect you, Jess," I whispered. "I'll figure out a way to get us out of this."
Soon after that I steered the boat into our dock. I pretty much had my choice of any dock in the area, but this one was closest to our store. Occasionally we would have a fisherman wander all the way out there and use one of the other docks, but very rarely. We made it a point to offer poor customer service way out of town so that people wouldn't bother us while we're conducting our real business.
The store was our cover. We kept a decent stock of snacks for passersby and our gas pumps were always available for road trippers and that occasional fisherman to fill his boat, but for the most part it was quiet out there. Peaceful. We liked it. As far as we knew there wasn't another establishment for twenty miles in either direction on the highway, which was perfect for the business we were running.
After tying down the boat, I went to Jess. "Wake up, sleepyhead."
All I got from her was a grunt and a moan.
"Fine, I'll carry you. Again." I lifted her in my arms and carried her down to the cabin. There was a small kitchenette that had seen more fish frying than it deserved. Then there were our bunks. Hers on the left, mine on the right. We'd spent many sleepless nights there, talking, dreaming, strategizing. We wanted to have stories to tell our grandchildren. The kind of stories that they would listen to, all starry-eyed, and ask if they were true.
"So much for that shot," I said with a smirk as I laid her in her bunk. "'Night Jess," I gave her a kiss on the head and headed back up to the deck.
I stood there for a moment and looked over my boat. She was a good boat. A 1961 Motor Yacht that I had bought two years ago with the last of my savings. She was broken down when I got her, but Jess and I fixed her up good, and then she shone like a beauty. She had a steel frame that was delicately accented with rich cherry wood. I'd had to replace sections of the steel where it was too thin to trust on the waters, and I'd spent countless hours sanding and refurbishing the deck, but the interior had been well preserved. It was spacious enough to hold both Jess and I, and our various loads of cargo, yet cozy enough that we loved to spend our days aboard.
She didn't have a name, mainly because if anyone saw us on the water I didn't want to have a name for them to remember, but she was my pride and joy. The only positive thing I could take away from the work we've done. One day, we would sail away in her and never return to this place.
I thought about joining Jess in the cabin, but I wasn't tired yet. Time for another beer, I thought. I hopped off the boat and onto the dock. It was a rickety old thing, probably needed to be replaced, but a new dock would draw unwanted attention from boaters. As I walked up to the store something felt different. The hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stood on end. I felt like I was being watched. I looked around at the trees lining the highway, but I didn't see anything. I looked at the store, everything looked the way I had left it. It was probably nothing, but, in my line of work, you never take a feeling like that lightly. Quietly I walked to the door. It was still locked. No one had broken in. But the feeling of unease in my gut was keeping me on high alert. I dug the key out of my pocket and slowly unlocked the padlock and removed the chain, trying my best to keep quiet. I opened the door just enough to slip inside and quickly shuffled around the desk to get the gun I had hidden there. Staying low against the wall, I began to search the store. I did a once over on the main store but didn't see anything, so I checked the bathroom.
"Ah, hell," I whispered under my breath when I saw the shattered window. It was dark, but I could faintly make out a rock and some sort of material sitting on the floor. Then I checked my carving room. I quietly opened the door to reveal my boxes lining the shelves. No one there, either. I kept following the wall with my gun ready, checking every aisle, ready to take on an attacker.
As I came to the last aisle I was relieved to find it empty, aside from a pile of clothes in the corner. There was no one here. "Some asshole broke into my store to destroy my apparel display?" Just then I heard a soft whimper that quickly turned into a cry. The pile of clothes began to move. I raised my gun, ready to shoot, when a small, frail looking form grunted and sat up with a small bundle. The bundle was crying. A woman's shaky voice began talk quietly, sweetly to the bundle while she lifted her shirt and held it close. Nursing? I thought. There's a mom and baby nursing in my store?
"What the hell?"
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