Phantom Prospect. Alex Archer

“Heard of it.”

      Captain Jax smirked. “Different when it’s right in front of your face, lemme tell you.”

      “So you stopped working that route?”

      “I came north after the skipper of the ship and I had a disagreement about a particular shipment of kids into the Brazilian brothels.”

      “What happened?”

      Captain Jax shrugged. “I cut his throat while he slept. And I shoved his bloated carcass overboard where the sharks tore him to bits.”

      Annja almost smiled at the candor with which Captain Jax spoke. “You don’t seem particularly upset.”

      “I’m not upset at all.” Captain Jax pointed the knife at her. “You, however, don’t seem the least bit fazed by what I just said.”

      Annja shrugged. “Let’s just say it sounds like we’ve both left a few bodies in our wakes.”

      “Is that so?”

      “Yes. It is.”

      Captain Jax eyed her for a moment without moving. Annja returned the stare. A heavy silence cloaked the wheelhouse and, in the distance, Annja could hear the breeze coming off the ocean. But nothing moved in the space between her and the captain.

      Finally, Jax seemed satisfied. “Just so long as you understand that this is my boat. I have the authority here.”

      “I thought this was Hunter’s boat,” Annja said.

      “I’m the captain.”

      “No one’s trying to steal the job from you.”

      Jax nodded. “Good.”

      Annja started to leave. She took a step before she heard Captain Jax’s voice. “Annja.”

      She turned. She saw the whiz of movement through the air. Annja shifted as the blade flew past her and sank into the wood paneling next to her head. The switchblade was deeply embedded.

      Annja glanced back at Captain Jax. “You finished now?”

      Jax smiled. “Good reflexes.”

      “They’re better than you know.” Annja pulled the knife out of the wood and checked the edge. It was razor sharp. She turned the blade over and then in the next instant sent it flying right back at Jax. Jax recovered quickly and dodged the blade as it shot into the clock next to her head.

      “Not bad,” she said.

      Annja smirked. “Just remember—you aren’t the only warrior on this boat. Not anymore.”

      7

      Outside the wheelhouse, Annja ran into Hunter. He looked her over. “Everything okay back there?”

      Annja smiled. “Just a couple of dogs having a pissing contest. Nothing to get excited about.”

      “If it’s happening on my boat, I want to know about it,” Hunter said. “I’ve already lost one crew member and I don’t want any more going missing. If Jax is giving you shit, you need to tell me. She’s pretty territorial.”

      Annja shook her head. “Don’t expect me to come running to you like some lost sheep. I don’t operate that way. If Jax has a problem with me, then we’ll work it out between us. One way or another.”

      “As long as there’s not another body to worry about,” Hunter said.

      Annja frowned. “What do you mean?”

      Hunter held up his hands. “I know something of what Jax came from. She’s got a history all her own. You, I don’t know about. Only what Cole told me. And that wasn’t very much. Except that he’s very fond of you.”

      A stiff breeze blew across the bow of the ship. “We’re really not a couple, if that’s what you’re hinting at.”

      Hunter shrugged. “None of my business if you were. But he still had no right to ask you to do what he did.”

      “I don’t take it personally. It seems to be in Cole’s nature to run toward danger.” Annja looked at the swirling surf. “It seems to be mine, too.”

      “Yeah? What’s that mean? You go looking for trouble?” Hunter wore an amused expression on his face.

      Annja sighed. “Trouble usually has a way of finding me on its own without any help from me. As a result, I get into a lot of bad places. Crazy stuff, sometimes.”

      “Like a boat looking for sunken treasure being stalked by a giant man-eating shark?”

      “That’s actually a new one,” Annja said. “But it takes all kinds.” She looked toward the stern. “You and Cole talk yet?”

      “No.”

      “You should. The boat’s too small for any bad blood to ferment. It’ll end up costing us all in terms of our safety.”

      Hunter sighed. “It’s always been like this.”

      “Why?”

      “Natural competition? I don’t know. Sometimes it’s just the way brothers have to be.”

      “That’s ridiculous,” Annja said. “Families don’t come with instructions that read ‘must always be at odds with one another.’”

      Hunter leaned against the railing. “Fact is, I need him and he knows it. I blew my inheritance on treasure hunting. It’s only been with Cole’s help I’ve actually made something of myself. That tends to grate on my ego a fair amount.”

      “I imagine it would.”

      Hunter sighed. “I’ll find him. We’ll get this squared away.”

      Annja patted his arm. “Glad to hear it. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to have a quick nap. Wake me if the shark comes back.”

      “You’ll know,” Hunter said. “The whole boat will be in a panic.”

      “Does that concern you?”

      “Of course it does. I’ve got a major hunt going on here. The last thing I need is people freaking out over a fish.”

      “Even one that eats them?”

      “They need to keep their heads in the game. Forget about the shark. It was probably a freak occurrence. Probably long gone by now.”

      “Didn’t seem so a few minutes ago when it showed up on the scope.”

      “We don’t know if that was the shark. Could have been something else. Maybe a whale.”

      Annja raised an eyebrow. “We would have seen a spout when it breached the surface of the water.”

      Hunter started to say something and then thought better of it. Instead, he pointed at the stern. “I’m going to go find Cole now.”

      “See you later.”

      Annja let him pass and watched him work his way down the steps to the deck. He and Cole might be brothers but there were a lot of differences between them.

      Annja took a deep breath of salt air and felt herself yawn. A nap would do her some good. She made her way down to the crew compartments. The corridor led her back to her room and she pushed the door in, falling into the bed with a muffled sigh. The pillow cradled her head and, within a few seconds, she felt herself falling into a deep sleep.

      As she slept, her body seemed to relax, her muscles almost melting into the bed. Annja realized that she was truly exhausted and needed the nap badly.

      Until something made her start and come awake.

      A noise.

      She kept her eyes closed. Her stomach knotted up and she risked cracking an eyelid. She could just make out a shadowy form rummaging through