Donovans 01 - Amber Beach

nervous. Her stomach kicked.
    “I don’t like this,” she said abruptly.
    She snapped the gear lever forward and shoved up on the throttle. Obediently the SeaSport leaped forward, but it veered off at an unexpected angle because the wheel was still cocked from her previous efforts to get a response.
    “Watch it!” Jake yelled.
    He leaped forward, grabbed the wheel with one hand and Honor with the other, and spun the bow away from the Coast Guard Zodiac. Startled cries and angry shouts came from the smaller boat.
    Swiftly Jake shut down the throttle, put the boat into neutral, and looked toward the Zodiac.
    “Everything okay?” he called.
    What came back wasn’t Coast Guard-approved language.
    “Sorry,” Jake said loudly. “Honor was trying out the controls. We’re ready for you to come aboard now.”
    This time Conroy was the first one over the stern. He came aboard alone and fast.
    “Another stunt like that and I’ll impound the boat,” he said furiously to Jake.
    Honor stepped around Jake and faced Conroy. She was still shaken by the near accident. Like most Donovans, she responded to that kind of adrenaline surge with pure, flaming anger.
    “No one is born knowing how to run a boat,” she said icily. “We were inspected yesterday and we acted like good little citizens. If you want to inspect us from now on, you’ll have to take my inexperience into account. I didn’t know that would happen. Hell, I still don’t know what happened.”
    “What happened was that you damn near rammed us!”
    “Yes, but I don’t know why!”
    Conroy looked from Honor’s pale, tight-lipped face to Jake, who nodded.
    “She’s as rank an amateur as ever took the helm,” Jake said simply. “She didn’t like the feeling of being adrift, so she shoved it in gear and hit the throttle.”
    “Without checking the wheel position first?” Conroy asked, his voice rising.
    “Yeah.”
    “Shit.” But there was understanding rather than anger in his voice. He turned back to Honor. “Ma’am, I’ve got a small thing to check on your registration papers. Do us all a favor. Let Jake handle the controls until I’m done and we’re at least a hundred yards apart.”
    “What ‘small thing’ are you checking?” she demanded.
    Conroy hesitated.
    She threw up her hands. “Oh, never mind. Just do it. I want salmon for dinner.”
    Jake waited until Conroy was inside the cabin before he turned to Honor. “Salmon? I thought I was fired.”
    “I get a little impatient when I’m stressed. I didn’t mean it.”
    “I did. I’m calling your bluff.”
    “What bluff?”
    “You no more want to learn how to fish or run this boat than I want to paddle a canoe to the moon. So what are you really after, Ms. Donovan?”
    Honor looked at Jake’s hard face and laser-clear eyes and knew he wasn’t going to budge. Even worse, her instincts were screaming at her that if finding Kyle depended on her ability to drive herself around the San Juans in the Tomorrow , her brother was well and truly lost.
    She had a choice. She could do as Archer wanted and design “gemmy little knickknacks” while waiting for the Donovan males to straighten things out or she could openly enlist a not-quite-stranger to help her. A man her instincts trusted.
    A man she wanted.
    “I—” she began, only to stop when Conroy emerged from the cabin.
    “Everything in order?” Jake asked him without interest.
    “Fine. Sorry to bother you,” Conroy said, not meaning it.
    “See you tomorrow,” Jake said dryly.
    Conroy shrugged. “Likely.”
    “Does that mean you’ll be around if I send up a flare?”
    The captain’s expression changed from irritation to interest. “Send it. I’ll come running.”
    “But whose side will you be on?” Honor asked ically.
    “The good guys, who else?” Conroy retorted.
    Jake waited until Conroy was in the Zodiac and speeding off before he turned to Honor.
    “Well?” he demanded. “What are you after? The amber?”
    “Kyle. Just Kyle. Beginning, middle, and end.”
    With an effort, Jake didn’t show his anger. So close and yet so far.
    She still didn’t trust him enough to let him all the way inside the Donovan family walls.
    “All right,” he said evenly. “I’ll lose our escort at twilight and pick your brother up. Which island is he on?”
    Honor stared at Jake as if he was crazy. “How would I know? He didn’t exactly leave a trail of bread crumbs!”
    “Shit. You’re not going to do this the easy