The Reef

you hadn’t.”
    She wiped the weak tears from her cheek. “For money? You’ve betrayed Matthew for money?”
    “I have a great fondness for money.” Dismissing her, he turned back, popped an olive into his mouth. “Andspeaking of my great fondness, I will require another bonus.”
    “LaRue, I’m growing tired of your added demands.” VanDyke held up a finger. In answer, the steward stepped forward, flipped open his sharply creased white jacket and took out a highly polished .32. “I might redeem myself in Tate’s eyes by having you shot in several painful places and thrown overboard. I believe you’d draw sharks nicely.”
    Lips pursed, LaRue contemplated his choice of peppers. “If you kill me, your hopes for Angelique’s Curse die with me.”
    VanDyke clenched his fist until he calmed again. Another quick signal had the .32 disappearing under the tailored coat. “I also grow tired of you dangling the amulet.”
    “Two hundred and fifty thousand American dollars,” LaRue began, and shut his eyes briefly to savor the hot, sweet flavor of the pepper. “And the amulet is yours.”
    “Bastard,” Tate whispered. “I hope he does kill you.”
    “Business is business,” LaRue said with a shrug. “I see that she has yet to tell you of our luck, mon ami. We have Angelique’s Curse. For a quarter of a million, I’ll see that it is safely in your hands by tomorrow, nightfall.”

C HAPTER 26
    A NGELIQUE ’ S C URSE GLITTERED in Matthew’s hands. He stood on the bridge of the Mermaid, his fingers wrapped tight around the chain. The hot white sun poured over the ruby, flashed the diamonds, sparkled the gold. Here was the treasure of a lifetime, fortune and fame in metal and stone.
    Here was misery.
    Everyone he’d loved had been hurt by it. Holding it, he could see the lifeless body of his father, crumpled on the deck of a boat. The face, so like his own, bleached white in death.
    He could see Buck in the jaws of a shark, blood swirling in the water.
    He could see Tate, tears in her eyes, offering him the amulet, offering him the choice of salvation or destruction.
    But he couldn’t see her now. He couldn’t know where she’d been taken or what had been done to her. All he knew was that he would do anything, give anything to get her back.
    The cursed necklace weighed like lead in his hands and mocked him with beauty.
    Eyes blazing, he turned as Buck came onto the bridge.
    “Still no sign of LaRue.” Spotting the amulet, Buck took a jerky step back.
    Matthew swore and laid the necklace on the chart table. “Then we move without him. We can’t wait.”
    “Move where? What the hell are we going to do? I’m with Ray and Marla on this, Matthew. We gotta call in the cops.”
    “Did the cops do us any good last time?”
    “This ain’t piracy, boy, it’s kidnapping.”
    “It was murder once, too,” Matthew said coldly. “He got her, Buck.” He leaned against the chart table, warring against the old helplessness. “In front of dozens of people he walked right off with her.”
    “He’d trade her for that.” Wetting his lips, Buck forced himself to look at the necklace. “Like a ransom.”
    Hadn’t he been waiting, praying by the radio, for VanDyke to make contact? Matthew thought. “I can’t afford to count on that. Can’t afford to wait any longer.”
    He grabbed binoculars, shoved them at Buck. “Due west.”
    Stepping up, Buck lifted the binoculars, skimmed the sea. He focused in on the yacht, hardly more than a glimmer of sleek white. “A mile off,” he murmured. “Could be him.”
    “It’s him.”
    “He’d be waiting for you. Expecting you to come after her.”
    “I wouldn’t want to disappoint him, would I?”
    “He’ll kill you.” Resigned now, Buck set the glasses aside. “You could give him that fucking thing wrapped in a bow and he’d still kill you. Just like he did James.”
    “I’m not giving it to him,” Matthew returned. “And he’s not killing anyone.” Impatient, he seized the binoculars, searched the sea for a sign of LaRue. Time was up.
    “I need you, Buck.” He set the glasses down again. “I need you to dive.”
     
    Terror and pain were no longer important. Tate watched LaRue eat heartily as he betrayed his partners. She nolonger thought of escape as she lunged to her feet and flew at him.
    The attack was so unexpected, her prey so complacent, that she was able to knock him out of his chair. Her nails scraped viciously down his cheek,