The Reef

life. I owe you for that. Now I’ve got to take it from here.”
    “It’s a great deal to shoulder alone, Mr. Lassiter.”
    “That’s the breaks, isn’t it?” Matthew said with cool dispassion. “For better or worse, mostly worse, I’m all he’s got.”
     
    That was his personal bottom line, Matthew thought as he headed down to Buck’s floor. He was the only familyBuck had left. And Lassiters, whatever their failings, paid their debts.
    Oh, maybe they skipped out on a bar bill now and again when times were lean. And he’d been known to fleece a tourist or two by inflating the price and history of a clay pipe or broken jug. If some idiot paid through the nose for some chipped wine jar just because a stranger claimed it was from Jean Lafitte’s personal stash, they deserved what they got.
    But there were matters of honor that couldn’t be shaken. Whatever it took, Buck was his responsibility.
    The treasure was gone, he thought, giving himself a moment in the corridor before going in to Buck. The Sea Devil was history. All he had left were clothes, his wet suit, flippers, mask, and his tanks.
    He’d hustled the sales. Hustling was something that came easily, he thought with a thin smile. The money in his pocket would get them to Chicago.
    After that . . . Well, after that, they’d see.
    He pushed open Buck’s door, relieved to find his uncle alone.
    “Wondered if you’d show.” Buck scowled and fought back the bitter tears that stung his eyes. “Least you could do is be around when they go poking and prodding and wheeling me all over hell and back in this place.”
    “Nice room.” Matthew glanced toward the curtain that separated Buck from the patient in the next bed.
    “It’s crap. I’m not staying here.”
    “Not for long. We’re taking a trip to Chicago.”
    “What the hell is there in Chicago for me?”
    “A doctor who’s going to fix you up with a new leg.”
    “New leg my ass.” The leg was gone, and only the nagging pain was left to remind him he’d once stood like a man. “Piece of plastic with hinges.”
    “We could always strap a peg on you instead.” Matthew pulled a folding chair to the bedside and sat. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d really slept. If he could get through the next couple of hours, he promised himself he’d zero out for another eight. “I thought the Beaumonts might be around.”
    “Ray was in.” Buck frowned, tugged on his sheet. “Sent him away. Don’t need his damn long face in here. Where’s that damn nurse?” Buck fumbled for his call button. “Always around when you don’t want ’em. Sticking needles in you. I want my pills,” he barked the minute the nurse stepped in. “I’m in pain here.”
    “After your meal, Mr. Lassiter,” she said patiently. “Your dinner will be here in a few moments.”
    “I don’t want any of that goddamn slop.”
    The more she tried to placate him, the louder he shouted, until she stalked off with blood in her eye.
    “Nice way to make friends, Buck,” Matthew commented. “You know, if I were you, I’d be a little more careful with a woman who could come back at me with a six-inch needle.”
    “You’re not me, are you? You got two legs.”
    “Yeah.” Guilt ate a ragged hole in his gut. “I got two legs.”
    “Lot of good the treasure’s gonna do me now,” Buck muttered. “Finally got all the money a man could ever want, and it can’t make me whole again. What am I gonna do? Buy some big fucking boat and spin around it in a wheelchair? Angelique’s Curse is what it is. Goddamn witch gives with one hand and takes the best away with the other.”
    “We didn’t find the amulet.”
    “It’s down there. It’s down there all right.” Buck’s eyes began to glimmer with bitterness and hate. “It didn’t even have the goodness to kill me. Better if it had. Nothing but a cripple. A rich cripple.”
    “You can be a cripple if you want,” Matthew said wearily. “That part’s up to you. But you’re not going to be rich. VanDyke’s taken care of that.”
    “What the hell are you talking about?” The color fury had pumped into Buck’s cheeks drained away like water. “What about VanDyke?”
    Do it now, Matthew ordered himself. All at once. “He jumped our claim. And he’s taken it all.”
    “It’s our wreck. Me and Ray, we even registered it.”
    “Funny thing about that. The only paperwork anybodycan find is VanDyke’s. All he had to do was bribe a couple of