A/N: Thanks so much for all your patience and not yelling at me for not getting this up last week. My beta had a death in the family and understandably needed to be with them.
I also wanted to thank you all for the reviews from last chapter. I'm glad you all seem to be enjoying the story because I'm having fun writing it. Now, I'm off to watch reruns of QI (a British panel show that everyone should watch).
"Let me look at you," my mother said as we met in the parking lot of the Blue Whale Seafood Oyster Bar, one of the most expensive restaurants in Miami. When she'd called two days ago, I had suggested some lesser expensive places, but she had insisted on eating here. Thinking about what a meal here was going to cost me had me wincing because there was no way in hell she and Phil would be buying my meal. Phil was a tightass when it came to spending money on others.
"You're looking a little thick around the middle," she commented after giving me a thorough look over, and I rolled my eyes.
"I'm well within my weight range for someone of my height and stature," I replied, trying to keep my voice calm.
"Hmph. Well, it wouldn't hurt you to lose a few pounds. Perhaps, you should just have a salad for dinner."
"Perhaps, I should just leave," was my reply, and she glared at me.
"We drove all the way over here from our hotel to meet you, and now you want to ditch us?" she asked, completely outraged.
"I didn't want to eat here, remember? I offered several choices that were closer to your hotel, but you insisted on dining here. Since you're here, why don't you and Phil go have a lovely dinner, and I'll talk to you later."
"God, you're such a drama queen," Mother said, and I shook my head. I should have known this was going to happen.
"Goodbye, Mother. I would say it was nice seeing you again, but it wasn't," I told her as I turned around and walked toward my truck, that clearly stood out in the parking lot full of Mercedes' and BMW's.
I could hear my mother calling my name, but I ignored her, starting the truck and then driving off.
Since I was starving, I stopped by Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen and got myself a bucket of spicy chicken with a side of jambalaya, mashed potatoes, and coleslaw. It was a ton of food, but it would keep me fed for the next few days that I now had off. Although, I was thinking about going in to work anyway just for something to do.
Once I got home, I ate my chicken in my fancy dress while watching a crime show. I was in the middle of chewing when there was a knock on my door, and I let out an annoyed breath as I put my food down to check and see who was on the other side.
Peering through the peephole, I saw Rose and Emmett, so I unlocked the door to let them in, thinking that I wouldn't have any leftovers to eat later in the week.
"Hey, Little B," Emmett said, walking into the living room before giving me a fist bump.
"Hey, Em," I said before turning to Rose with a raised eyebrow.
"I had a feeling dinner with your mom wasn't going to go well, so I came bearing gifts," she said holding up a plastic grocery bag and pulling out a six-pack of my favorite hard cider.
"You are an amazing best friend," I told her as I took the alcohol from her and put it in the fridge to chill along with the six pack of beer she'd brought.
"Can I have a drumstick?" Emmett hollered from the living room, and I snickered.
"Emmett, you just ate a whole pizza! How can you still be hungry?" Rose asked.
"I'm a growing boy, Rosie!"
I couldn't hold back my laugh.
"Yeah, help yourself, but don't eat it all. That's my dinner for tonight and tomorrow," I called out, and he shouted out a thank you.
"He's a bottomless pit," Rose grumbled, but she was smiling as she said it.
"So, I take it you two are officially together?" I asked her, and a giant smile accompanied by a blush was my answer.
"Hell yeah, we are!" Emmett boomed as he came into the kitchen with a drumstick in his hand. "I knew she would fall for me. I'm hard to resist."
"And incredibly modest as well, I see," I teased, and he shot me a dimpled grin.
It was nice having them over, and we spent the evening, drinking and laughing while watching cheesy comedies. They totally helped me get out of the funk I'd been in thanks to dear old mom.
A little after ten, Rose and Emmett got up to leave, and I thanked them for coming over.
"It was fun," Emmett said before giving me a giant bear hug, and I hugged him back.
"Enjoy the next two days off," Rose said. "I don't want to see you in the office."
I opened my mouth to protest, but she just shook her head.
"I mean it, Bells. Go to the beach, the zoo, or the aquarium. Whatever. You can just bum around the house if you want, but take some time to just relax."
"I don't need to relax," I argued.
"Yes, you do. We spent three and a half weeks on a ship, working, and now you've had to deal with your bitch of a mother. Trust me, sweetie, you need to relax. I'll see you on Friday. Hell, take Friday off, too."
I shook my head and I told her I'd be there on Friday. I actually enjoyed my work, for the most part, and I didn't want to miss too much.
I spent the next two days doing my best to relax, and I did follow some of Rose's suggestions. I went to the beach, the library, and the aquarium, and I had a nice time, but I was ready to be back at work.
It was as I was on my way home from the aquarium that my phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Isabella," Mother said. "I wanted to let you know that Phil and I are leaving this afternoon."
"Have a safe trip home," I told her, hoping that was the end of the conversation, but of course, it wasn't.
She spent the next fifteen minutes, berating me and telling me how immature I was and how I needed to grow up.
"Really, Bella. You're almost thirty. It's time to stop acting like a child."
"I'll be thirty-one in September," I replied before wishing her well on her trip home and hanging up the phone.
Sometimes, family was a pain in the ass. At least my mother was. If dad were still around, things would have been different. Maybe not my mother's attitude toward me, but I'd at least have a family member with whom I enjoyed spending time.
"How are you, Bella?" Edward asked over Skype on Thursday night. He was thirteen hours ahead of me, so while it was nine o'clock at night in Miami, it was eleven in the morning in the Philippines. He'd texted me the previous day, asking if I wanted to Skype, and I'd agreed. I'd told myself that I'd only agreed to do it because he was probably missing being in the states and it'd be nice to see a friendly face, but the truth was that I missed him.
I talked more to Edward via text than I'd probably talked to James in person the whole time we'd been dating. It was crazy how badly I was crushing on Edward. It felt sudden and strange, but when I'd talked to Rose about it, she said it was probably because Edward and I had a connection.
"Meh," was my response as my eyes drank him in.
He looked good. Healthy and happy, and he had a nice tan going on.
"What's wrong?"
"It's nothing. I don't want to bore you with it," I told him, and he frowned at me.
"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know. Talk to me, Bella."
So, I did. I told him all about my mother and her visit and how it had been a complete disaster.
"I'm sorry, Bella. I didn't realize things were that bad between the two of you. You know, if you need a mom to talk to, mine would gladly be there for you."
"I know she would. Esme and I have been talking a lot more as of late. I think it's because of you," I told him.
"Could be. She might be using you to check up on me," he said with a snicker.
"You should talk to her," I said before apologizing and telling him it wasn't my place to tell him what to do with regards to his parents.
"I know. I've gotten better about calling and emailing them since I reconnected with you," he said softly, and I felt myself falling for him a little bit harder.
"So, how's the salvaging going?" I asked, changing the subject.
"It goes. Long days out here. They're salvaging a sunken Chinese cargo ship from the sixties. I guess the Chinese government wants it back."
"Man, I haven't been on a regular salvaging dive in a couple of years. I kind of miss it," I said, and he let out a snort.
"I've had to go down with some of the crew a few times to help out."
"Still don't care for diving?"
"I'm better at it than I used to be mainly because I've had to go down and fix my own boats plenty of times, but it's not my favorite thing to do. For a while after I was shot, I wouldn't even go out on a boat much less dive in the water. I eventually got over my fear of both."
We sat and talked for another hour until I couldn't hold back my yawns, despite trying to hide them.
"Get some sleep, Bella. We'll talk again soon."
"Goodnight, Edward. Well, good morning, I guess."
He let out a small chuckle before bidding me goodnight, and I rolled my eyes at myself when I sat there wondering how long it would be until I heard from him again. I was acting like a swoony, love-sick teenager.
I went to bed thirty minutes later and slept better than I had all week. It could have been because I was so stressed from dealing with my mother, but I think a lot of it was due to talking to Edward.
By nine the next morning, I was well into my workday at the office, catching up on emails, phone calls, and memos that had come in over the past two days while I'd been out. It was slightly tedious, but I'd accepted an interview with an anthropology student at the University of Florida and agreed to look over some old pottery that had been found by some amateur divers.
I had just gotten up to grab myself another cup of coffee when my computer beeped, letting me know that I had an incoming Skype call.
I accepted the call and was greeted by Jasper and Alice.
"Hey! How are you guys?" I asked, leaning forward in my chair to get a better look at them. They both looked deliriously happy.
"Fan-fucking-tastic!" Jasper said, a huge grin on his face as Alice sat next to him, nodding her head enthusiastically.
"Yeah? Well, do tell!"
Jasper grabbed some papers from nearby and held them up to the camera. They were written in French, but the only French I knew were words like bon appetite, so that didn't help me at all.
"What are they?"
"It's a four-page letter written by the first mate of the Sirène, Francois Chenart, to his wife, Isabelle. It was dated August 14, 1730. It's the last known communication from the Sirène before she went down," Jasper told me. "Bella, this letter was written two months before the ship was reported missing. Chernart states in his letter that they had been blown way off course and had run aground in a small port town in Cape Verde."
"Cape Verde? Isn't that off the coast of Africa?" I asked, and Jasper nodded his head.
"Yes! This whole time we've been thinking that the Sirène was near the British Virgin Islands or the Dominican Republic, but this letter says otherwise! We've been completely looking in the wrong place!"
"Okay, I get that, but how do we know where they went after Cape Verde? They could have easily gone east toward the Virgin Islands or Barbados. I mean, wasn't that their original destination? Who's to say that they didn't get that far? Besides, I thought they'd already made their deliveries in the British Islands and were on their way home when the storm hit."
I was playing devil's advocate and I hated to rain on Jasper's parade, but these were questions that needed to be asked.
"It's 2100 nautical miles between Cape Verde and Barbados. That's about a sixteen day trip if they were going five knots," I explained. "It was doable. A pain in the ass, for sure, but doable."
"I don't think they did. According to the letter, they were low on supplies and the people of Cape Verde weren't exactly welcoming them with open arms. Cidade Velha was attacked by the French seventeen years earlier, so the people weren't too welcoming of Chenart or the crew of the ship. Without supplies, they wouldn't have lasted sixteen days at sea."
Nodding, I told Jasper he had a good point.
"But Jasper, that's over 2100 miles we'd have to search. That would take us years. Is there any way to narrow that down?"
"August through October are when the most storms are present around Cape Verde. I'm meeting with a meteorologist who focuses on historical climatology tomorrow. He thinks he can help me determine what the weather was like when the crew landed in Cape Verde. If the storms were bad, chances are good the ship didn't make it too far off the coast."
"Jas?" I asked before he could continue because something was bugging me as I listened to him talking.
"Yeah?"
"Where did this letter come from? How come we haven't heard about it before? I mean, if the French government knew about this letter wouldn't they have given it to us to help with the search since they're the ones who want us to find it?"
"I don't think the government knew about it, but they do now," he told me. "The letter has been in a private collection for years. We were at the library here doing research and this older gentleman overheard Alice and I and told us that he had something that might interest us. And don't worry, I had Rose do a background check on him before we met with him."
I felt a bit better knowing that, but I wasn't sure how much this letter could be trusted, and it seemed a bit too coincidental that it suddenly showed up out of the blue.
"We've made the French government aware of the letter, and they're authenticating it as we speak," he assured me once more, and I nodded my head.
"Okay, so I guess we have a new starting point," I said, and Jasper gave me a huge grin and a thumbs up before they signed off.
Jasper found a clue as to where the Sirène might have sunk, I texted Edward before leaving my office and heading down the hall to see if Dr. Tanner was in.
Her door was closed with a note saying she was out of the office until later that afternoon, so I decided to make my way upstairs to the second floor of our office where Rose worked. As I passed by the breakroom, I saw Jessica Stanley and Mike Newton arguing rather loudly over something, and I rushed by, not wanting to get caught up in their drama, and boy, did they have drama. They used to be married, but it had ended after Mike cheated on Jessica with Lauren Mallory who also worked for Poseidon. Why they were still all employed here was beyond me, or why one of them hadn't left yet still left me confused. I sure as hell wouldn't want to work with my ex and the woman he cheated on me with.
Escaping them successfully, I raced up the stairs only to come face-to-face with Jacob Black. I barely acknowledged his greeting as I rushed by him.
"You busy?" I asked Rose as I walked into her office, and she waved her hand in a so-so motion.
"What's up?" she asked, never looking away from the four monitors that covered her desk.
As I sat across from her desk, I told her Jasper had Skyped me and that he had a new idea as to the location of the Sirène.
"He'll let me know more once he talks to a few more people. What are you up to?"
"Marcus Caius," she said, and my heart raced at hearing his name.
"I told you that I'd look into him, but I got so busy with our trip that I lost track of time and didn't get around to it."
"Have you found him?"
"Not yet, but I will. The last transaction I've found for him took place eight years ago in Barbados. He was arrested for public intoxication and starting a fight. You'd think that a man who was wanted for murder and attempted murder would stay off the grid and away from legal troubles, but old habits die hard, I guess."
I nodded my head.
"Anyway, he's gone underground since then, or so it seems. I've got feelers out and I've called in a few favors. If the man is alive, or even if he is dead, I will find him. He needs to be convicted for his crimes."
Again, I nodded my head but didn't say a word.
"I figure that if Caius is still alive, he's probably been keeping tabs on anyone searching for the Sirène, and since Jasper has been poking around, Caius might just pop up."
I paled at her words because the last thing I wanted was for Jasper to get hurt because of some fucking psycho who wanted the Treasured Heart for himself.
"Nothing can happen to Jasper!" I practically growled. "This stupid shipwreck isn't worth anymore lives."
"I know, sweetie," she said in a soothing voice. "I promise you that the second Caius crosses my radar, I will alert the authorities. I've also got an alert out for anyone attempting to sell or trade any brooches that resemble the Treasured Heart."
My head snapped up and I looked at her. I have no idea why the hell it had never occurred to me that someone may have already found the brooch and was trying to sell it
"Jesus! That never even occurred to me, and it very well should have," I mumbled, but Rose shook her head.
"I didn't think of it initially. It wasn't until I was putting out feelers for Caius that I thought about it. I've joined all kinds of legal and not so legal forums that are for treasure hunters and private collectors. There are bored, rich people out there, willing to sell their souls or their grandmothers for some rare treasure."
"Yeah, there are," I said in agreement because I'd come across a few some years ago on a dive. The only reason they'd wanted to go out diving was so they could sell their finds to the highest bidder. It wasn't about preserving the find or handing it over to the proper authorities. It had been about the payday.
"Bells, I promise you, I've got my eye out for this guy."
"I know you do. Thanks, Rose."
After grabbing a snack from the vending machine, I made my way back downstairs to my office, but I couldn't concentrate.
Bringing up Google, I typed in Marcus Caius's name, but I didn't get anything except an old newspaper article dated twenty years ago that didn't say much.
Snorting in disgust, I closed the page and sent an email to the young student who wanted an interview to see if she was available to do it in an hour or so. She got back to me right away, and we made an appointment to meet at a Starbucks down the street from my office at two o'clock.
I spent the next hour, trying to work before giving up and leaving for Starbucks thirty minutes before I was to meet with Jane Alec.
"Dr. Swan?" a woman asked me forty-five minutes later, and I looked up to see a very pale, young woman standing next to my table.
"Yes. Jane Alec?"
She nodded and took a seat across from mine.
The interview started off easily enough. She asked basic questions wanting to get a feel for what I did, but then the interview took a different turn.
"Is it true that your father was murdered while hunting for treasure?" she asked eagerly.
"Excuse me?" I asked, startled by the line of questioning. My father's death wasn't widely known.
"Is it true?" she asked again, and I shook my head.
"Yes, my father was murdered," I confirmed. "But that's all I'm going to say about it. If you any more questions regarding the work I do, I'll be glad to answer them. However, if you continue with this paparazzi style of questioning, you can consider this interview over."
"Sorry," she mumbled, looking contrite, but I wasn't sure I was buying it. There was something about her that seemed familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
She asked me a few more questions about shipwrecks I'd helped salvage and excavate, and then she thanked me before standing up and leaving.
I made sure to add a note in my phone to have Rose look into the young woman because something about her made me uneasy, or maybe I was just becoming paranoid. It wouldn't be the first time. After dad was killed and I was sent to live with Mother, I would wake up in the middle of the night, terrified that someone was watching me. No one was, or at least I hoped no one was, but it had left me feeling terrified and uneasy.
Standing up from the table, I grabbed my cup of tea and tossed it in the bin before making my way to my car.
Twenty minutes later, I was at home, exchanging a text with Edward.
So how was your day? He texted.
Could have been better. Could have been worse. You?
Same. I've been up for about an hour, and I've already had to dive and patch a hole in the ship. We've got to head inland soon or else we'll be under water.
Jesus! I wrote back. Get that fixed and soon. Please be safe.
I will, he promised before telling me he'd talk to me later. I certainly hoped so because I'd become addicted to our talks, and I missed seeing him.
a/n: Look at that. Stuff is happening or will be. As always, let me know what you thought! See you next Sunday. Oh, for future reference, if there is a delay in the story, I'll put it up on my twitter, bookwormeg, or my fb page www. facebook. com. / tardis19fanfic.
