Sorry for the long delay in updating, I've been crazy busy with work and having to move...throw in a spell of writers block in there as well. I rewrote Nina's backstory but I also deleted Chapter 5: Savages (which was her backstory). I was never pleased with that chapter and it was overwhelming to try to rewrite it all again so I decided it would be best to just incorporate her backstory in future chapters. Anyway, wanted to give a sincere thank you to all those who reviewed last chapter ~ K-YERS, MIZZMOX, GIRLINSHIPWRECK, INFINITEANDMORTAL, MAD HATTER-J & SCALETHORNWOLF ~ your reviews keep me going!
There was a scent of garlic, onions, and roasted tomatoes intertwined with the pungent odour of fish in the galley where Alicia found herself seated at a table. Her jade eyes scanned the kitchen again; the interiors looked as if they had not been updated since the late 70s. In the corner of the dining hall was a modern flat-screen television mounted on the wall playing a looped video of someone skiing down a massive slope. The sound of a 1960s tune played over a small radio located somewhere in the galley. Alicia shifted her weight in her seat and observed her captor swaying to the music as he cooked.
Connor Stindle-Lesmeister stirred the tomato sauce he had been cooking since that morning. He murmured along with the current song playing—I Will by Dean Martin, "…Don't wonder if you want to come back, just come running home to me and let me feel that thrill…Cause I'm the one who told you I would love you dear forever and I will…"
As the song broke into a short trumpet solo, he stuck a finger into the sauce and popped it into his mouth; he withdrew it with a satisfied smirk, "You want to know the secret to good gravy? Fish sauce."
Alicia turned her head the moment she met eyes with Connor. Her eyes scanned the room one more time as a means to distract herself. After examination, she fluttered her eyes closed and respired slowly to calm her nerves.
Connor began to plate the meal as he placed wahoo fillets down onto two plates and ladled the sauce over them. He then sprinkled some fresh parsley over the dish to add a bit of contrasting colour. He admired his meal he had prepared and hoped Alicia would appreciate it as much as he did.
He walked over to the table and placed the dish in front of Alicia, he then placed the other dish directly across from her. The table had already been informally set for two. Connor twisted around enough to grab the bottle of Cabernet Franc off the counter; he pulled the cork and filled Alicia's glass up before filling up his own. He then sat down across from her. He hummed to the vintage jazz piece playing—Honeysuckle Roseby Fats Waller—as he placed the napkin into his lap. He then picked up his knife and fork so he could begin eating and flashed an awkward smile at Alicia, "Eat, please."
He cut off a piece of fish and placed it dexterously into his mouth, as he chewed he began to nod his head in gratification. He pointed his fork at the fillet on his plate, "Wahoo, or as the Hawaiians call it, Ono. It's a highly regarded fish by many connoisseurs."
He took another bite, and chewed on it slowly like a cow gnawing on cud as he watched Alicia. He washed down his food with a gulp of wine, still eyeing her, before he spoke, "Working on this beast of burden in the sun, wind, salt air... crews used to say my cooking was the only thing that got them through the day." He said as a means to coax her into eating.
Alicia kept a stoic expression, her eyes drifted down to her plate. She could feel her stomach churning, for it had been days since she had a decent meal, but a part of her wanted to reject the food simply for who had cooked it. The circumstances made her wary. She brought her eyes up once more before speaking, "Where's Travis? Can I see him?"
Connor cleared his throat, a faint frown played at his brows, "I made this meal especially for you, Alicia. Now eat, please."
"My family? They've been taken to land?"
Connor exhaled deeply before he spoke, "We think you could be happy here. We can't bring just anybody. We have to be selective. But, Jack, he just—he had this sense about you—"
Hearing Jack's name caused Alicia's eyes to flutter, "What happened to Jack? What'd you do with him?"
Connor swirled a piece of the wahoo in the pool of rustic sauce, "There's too much talking and not enough eating." He reprimanded before shoving the bite into his mouth.
Alicia wondered if he was holding off on answering her questions until she ate. Her stomach lurched again and she began to lick her lips, unable to resist any longer. She slowly picked up her knife and fork and cut a piece off the fillet. She delicately placed it into her mouth and her eyes closed as the bite seemed to melt in her mouth. As she chewed, her head bobbed with satisfaction. It actually was really good. She flicked her eyes open and proceeded to cut off another piece; a ravenous appetite taking over. After taking a few bites, she paused to reach for the wine to wash a bite down with.
Connor watched her every move and began to smile to himself. As he resumed eating, the music cut off suddenly and the lights flickered off. He dropped his fork onto his plate with a grimace; he closed his eyes and respired heavily as to control his temper. "Generator goes out at bad times."
He gathered his plate and scooted out of the booth. As he put his nearly empty plate on the counter, he turned back to his captive, "Stay put." He then left the galley and locked the door behind him.
Alicia watched him leave, realising this was her opportunity to attempt an escape (or at least figure out where she was). She took a few more bites of her lunch and then got to her feet. She walked over to the galley doors and attempted to open both of them but they refused to budge. She darted across the room to a small hallway and tried to open each door with no avail. Finally, she spotted a ladder style staircase that led to a large metal door. She climbed the ladder, clasped the latch and swung the heavy door open.
Stepping out onto deck, she looked around and ascended another ladder that took her to the bow of a large disassembled cargo ship located on a dry dock. She ran her fingers through her hair, contemplating how she would get out of the situation. As she continued to stare in awe at her surroundings a woman's voice came from behind her.
"You shouldn't be here."
It startled Alicia, making her jump in place. She wondered why the voice enticed a sense of familiarity. She pivoted around and blinked at the sight.
"A-Alex?" She stuttered, shocked to see the young woman they had rescued from the island. Guilt quickly pained her chest.
Alex Huang said nothing more as she gave Alicia a cold, hard stare. After an awkward minute she turned and began to walk away.
"Wait!" Alicia called out as she struggled to catch up. She followed Alex back through the metal door, down the stairs, and into the galley.
"I wouldn't do that again if I were you," Alex said over her shoulder when she heard Alicia's footsteps behind her. She pivoted around, "Connor doesn't let new people run free. You have to earn your keep."
Alicia blinked, brushing the windblown hair away from her face, still flabbergasted to see Alex again, "I don't understand—how? How'd you get here?"
"Does it matter?" Alex snapped, fighting tears, "I'm here no thanks to you."
Alicia's voice broke as she mustered a sincere apology, "I am so, so sorry—"
"So sorry that you left me and Jake out there—alone—to die? To not even give us a chance?"
"That wasn't… that wasn't me." Alicia mumbled. It was not hard to understand why Alex was blaming her for everything.
Alex frowned at Alicia's response, "Gotta keep your hands clean, right? Ever heard of being guilty by association?"
"I stood up for you!" Alicia retorted, "I tried everything I could but Victor…" Her voice trailed off as the culpability over the entire situation came crashing down on her once again. She opened her mouth to rebuttal but swallowed her words, deciding to switch the subject entirely, "Can you tell me why I'm here?"
"Same reason I'm here," Alex answered bitterly, "you've got something to offer."
"What the hell does that mean?"
Alex glared intently at Alicia before she answered, "It means you get to live."
Alicia found herself dumbfounded unsure she wanted to know the implications behind that statement. What did that mean for the fate of her family? She questioned herself before her jade eyes focused on the young Asian woman, "Where is Travis? Is he still alive? I need to see him."
She stopped speaking for a moment to study Alex's face. "Can you take me to him?"
"That's a lot to ask from me considering I'd rather see you rot. "
"That's a little harsh." Alicia grumbled, not liking this volatile attitude. "Can you help me or not?"
"Why should I?"
"Because," Alicia started, not wanting to get in the same discussion about leaving her and Jake behind in the raft, 'because you're helping me now, aren't you? "
Alex pursed her lips with detest, not wanting to admit Alicia had been somewhat correct in her assumption. She took a step back toward the gangway.
"If you want to do what's good for you," Alex spoke with a hostile tone as she left the room, "stay here."
On board the Abigail, in Daniel Salazar's bedroom, Reed Stindle-Lesmeister sat strapped to a chair. His wrist had been bounded to the arms of the seat. His breath was quick and shallow, sweat beaded his entire face. His dark eyes tried hard not to look down at the crowbar impaled through his abdomen. He moved his eyes over to Nina and licked his lips, "How you feeling smutbag? Body pretty bruised after that beating I gave you earlier?"
"Don't answer that," Salazar quickly stated, taking a cluster of orangey red coloured soaked bandages from Nina, "Why don't you start soaking the others?"
Nina, who was kneeling in front of the bed, continued her task of soaking bandages in a watery paste she had made using cayenne pepper powder and vodka. She used vodka instead of water because she knew it would sting as it came in contact with Reed's wound. In actuality the vodka would clean the wound and the cayenne pepper would coagulate the blood.
Reed grimaced, struggling against his binds, trying hard not to whinge as Salazar pressed the bandages around the entry site, "Don't touch me! I'll clean up when I get home."
"Who says you're going home?" Salazar spoke with an indifferent tone.
Reed let out a small pant; it was obvious he was trying hard to keep his composure.
Nina was unable to avoid meeting eyes with Reed; she felt a strange sensation rip through her. She quickly lowered her eyes, trying hard to concentrate on soaking the bandages. Her right cheek and inner right eye socket was bruised along with a busted bottom lip.
An amused grin curved his lips as he watched Nina for a few moments. He finally averted his gaze over to Chris and let out a nervous chuckle, honing in on his new target, "Your girl sure knows how to take care of a man's needs."
"Shut up," Chris glowered, his eyes full of rage.
Reed held onto a sinister smirk, "Why don't you make me? Better yet, why don't you get your girlfriend here to do it..."
"You don't need to talk to the boy," Salazar reprimanded, taking some more of the cayenne soaked bandages from Nina.
"You worried about what's going to happen to your dad?" Reed asked, ignoring Salazar, trying to distract himself from the pain, "I guess it all depends if you like your dad. Do you like your dad? He a good guy?"
"Wait outside, Chris," Salazar commanded, "Nina, go with him."
"I'm fine," Chris answered darkly through clenched teeth.
Nina shook her head, "I'm staying right here."
"Cause my dad, he was an asshole." Reed continued, intentionally provoking Chris, "You ever see what happens when you clip a man's Achilles?" He paused, fixing his stare onto Chris.
"Whew," Reed breathed slowly, "the whole thing just sucks right back up into the knee. Makes a sound like a firecracker when it lets go. That's what happened to my old man…" Reed looked over at Salazar, "…last time he laid his hands on me."
Salazar wadded the bloody bandages in his hands, "You must be proud."
"Me? No. My brother did that one. Elder looking out for the younger. See, that's what you need to understand." Reed let out a heavy and breathy laugh, "When I don't come back with this boat as planned, Connor will come looking for me. And when he sees what you've done—oh! He might be a little bent. He has a dozen men, five boats, three—"
Salazar pressed the bandages against Reed. The boy struggled against his binds, wincing loudly through clenched teeth.
Nina felt an ominous smirk playing at her lips; she almost enjoyed watching him suffer.
"Sorry," Salazar said flatly.
"Oh, you will be!" Reed started to laugh again to ease his agony.
Salazar acted as nonchalant as possible as he began to gather the bandages off the floor.
Nina gradually got to her feet and poured the liquid remaining in the small bowl over Reed's wound. Before he had time to react, she turned the vodka bottle upside down to douse Reed's sweater in the alcohol.
Reed let out a gasp.
Salazar stopped collecting the bandages and peered up at Nina with a look of surprise.
"What?" Nina shrugged with a straight face.
"You bitch!" Reed finally managed to find his words, "You think you had it bad earlier? Oh, you just wait…"
"Do you ever shut up?" Salazar asked in a monotonous voice.
Reed tried his best to stifle a cough due to the amount of pain created with movement. The vodka soaked sweater clung to his body, the liquid seeping into the entry wound. He glared up at Nina, "As soon as my brother cuts me loose—I'm going to finish what I started and then…" He moved his dark eyes to Salazar, "I'll move onto that daughter of yours, make you watch while I do it."
Salazar appeared unmoved by Reed's threat. He took the bowl from Nina and placed the bloody bandages in it before he spoke, "In my time, I've known men who inspire fear. Do you know what they have in common?"
Reed blinked, waiting for the answer.
"They never say how frightening they are." Salazar said darkly watching Reed's face start to flush. He slowly turned and started to walk out of the room, calling for the teenagers to follow. "Chris. Nina."
Chris hesitantly left the room. Nina glowered at Reed for longer than she needed to and then promptly exited.
Once outside the room, Chris trailed behind Salazar, "You just gonna let him talk to you like that?"
Salazar shrugged, "He's scared. That's what they do. That's what we all do."
"He doesn't seem scared." Chris continued.
Salazar turned to face Chris, "He is. And I got what information we needed. You saw that."
"You're just gonna leave him there?" Chris asked.
"Where is he gonna go?"
"I can stay," Chris insisted with a look of determination.
Salazar looked past Chris for a moment to watch Nina. He noticed the girl was pacing back and forth outside the bedroom door. He slowly nodded his head, adverting his attention back onto the teenage boy, "Stand outside the door and watch him, but do not engage. Same goes for Nina. Especially Nina."
"I understand. I'll watch her."
"No wandering off."
"Okay." Chris responded, feeling important. He pivoted and went back to stand outside the bedroom with Nina.
Ofelia Salazar rounded the corner, coming down from the stairs,
"Perdón ?" Her eyes immediately fell to the bowl holding the wad of deep red coloured bandages. She felt a wave of nausea come over her at the thought of what her father might have done.
Salazar kept his composure, "He required attention."
"What does that mean?"
"Medical attention." Salazar defended himself in a passive manner.
"Okay," Ofelia let out a small sigh, "I had to ask."
Salazar stepped around his daughter, "I need to dispose of this. Excuse me."
"Wait," Ofelia reached for her father's wrist, "Let me clean these. They're gonna get infected." She turned her father's wrist to see where the binds had cut into his skin.
"I'll take care of it."
After a short moment of silence, Ofelia lowered her voice, "They should both be upstairs."
"They want to be useful, stay busy. So…" He stopped himself short, his eyes glazed over for a second.
Ofelia furrowed her brow, "Qué pasó?"
"...so his mind doesn't go places it shouldn't." Salazar finished faintly before walking away.
Ofelia frowned, picking up on the fact he had said 'his' instead of 'their'. She turned around to observe the two teenagers before she went off to go to her own room.
Daniel Salazar made his way up to the control room, quickly catching site of Madison attending to Victor, "How is he?"
"Got a ways to go." She looked up and over from Victor who was sleeping on a bench.
"It is as I suspected. Connor is their leader. Our prisoner is his brother. This provides leverage. So we're looking now for a cluster of five boats." He said as he walked over to the control panel. He pointed his fingers near the coastline on the radar screen, "Here. These five near the coast. Could be their fishing boats. They tend to travel together."
Madison contemplated this for a moment before she grabbed the wheel, "Okay, so that's where we go."
"Mm-hmm."
Madison scrunched up her face as she turned the boat north, realising it was a lot harder to steer the boat than she thought. The urge to rescue her daughter and Travis fuelled her.
Luis made his way into the room having felt the boat shift, "Qué es esto? Why are we heading north?" He approached Madison and Salazar, "Turn it back."
"I'm sorry, I can't do that." Madison said rather matter-of-factly; keeping her eyes ahead.
"Señora, I made arrangements. Do you understand? We're gonna miss our window to crossing—"
"We're not crossing anywhere without my family." Madison cut him off, continuing to look forward.
Luis scoffed and went over to sit on the bench adjacent to Victor, he lowered his voice as he spoke, "Are you gonna make me be the one to tell her?"
"There's no telling her anything." Victor said with a short smile.
Luis shook his head, glaring at the back of Madison's head, "Your people are gone. There's no getting them back."
"I need half a day." Madison turned around, narrowing her eyes at Strand, "I could have left you in the water. Should I have?"
Luis sat shaking his head, irritated.
"We can do both. We can go get your family and then we can continue south." Strand said loosing his breath as he spoke.
Luis snapped, speaking in Spanish, "Victor, he is waiting for us, we have to go.
Strand responded in Spanish, "He…of all people would understand my obligation."
"They charge by the head. You said two people. I have money for two people." Luis continued to rant in his native tongue.
"Relax." Strand waved his hand to silence his friend.
"Okay, do you have money for eight more? Because I don't."
"Everything is a negotiation." Strand looked up at Luis, "I'll get us across."
"You'll get us killed." Luis said darkly, "Hey, lady. You expect to sneak up on Connor and his people on a 40-meter yacht?"
"We don't have to sneak. They're expecting the boat."
"And what do you think is gonna happen when we get there?" Luis sounded extremely doubtful.
"We board, we use force if we have to, and we get our people back."
Luis listened to Madison and snorted, holding his hands up in disbelief, "Are you listening to this?"
"Anyone who's not up for it can stay behind with the kids."
Luis laughed at Madison and left the room shaking his head at the absurdity.
Salazar waited a moment before he whispered, "No one is gonna stay on the boat. If we're going to attack, we need everybody. Nick, Christopher—"
"No." Madison cut him off.
"You have to stop treating them like children."
"But they are."
"Not anymore." Salazar sighed, trying to reason with Madison.
"They stay behind." Madison did not want to argue on the subject anymore.
Victor Strand started to sit up with a groan.
"Thank you." Madison turned to look over her shoulder at the former captain.
"Don't thank me. You bought yourself half a day. Consider us even."
On board the MV Aeger, Alicia stood in the wheelhouse with her arms crossed over her chest, tapping her foot out of nervousness. She chewed on her bottom lip, watching Connor at the control panel.
Connor pointed at the radar screen as he spoke, "The smaller the boat, the smaller the signature. We don't bother with those."
"Why not?" Alicia asked her captor curiously.
"We want these midsized vessels." Connor tapped his finger on the screen, "Long range, lots of supplies."
He turned to fully face her for a moment before stepping over to a small built in desk, "Seeing as Jack is no longer qualified, your job will be to track them down."
With his back turned toward her, Alicia shifted her eyes around the room and noticed a set of keys hanging on the wall next to the built in desk.
Connor pivoted with a clipboard in hand, "Assign each one a number. Log the time, speed, and position here." He tapped the clipboard with his finger.
Alicia sighed, brightening her jade eyes, "And then?"
"I give the green light and then you make contact."
She shook her head, saying rather unsurely, "I'll do something else."
"Everyone pulls their weight, Alicia." Connor gave her a stern expression.
She shrugged, not interested in the proposed task, "I wouldn't know what to say."
"You reeled Jack in."
"I wasn't trying to reel him in. I just wanted someone to talk to."
"Mm," Connor nodded his head and gave a short closed mouth smile. He went back over to the radar screen, and gestured his head so she would come over to the control panel.
She bit the inside of her lip and tapped her toe once more before she pushed herself forward to stand next to him. She studied the screen for a moment and looked over at him, "How do you choose?"
He turned his amber coloured eyes back onto the screen, "This is the world now, Alicia." He moved his finger between two blinking boats on the monitor, "This one lives, that one dies."
Alicia kept her eyes on him, feeling completely apprehensive about the whole situation.
Connor looked up and over at his prisoner, "You got to pick one."
