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A couple hours into the trip, the adrenaline wore off. Battered, bruised, shot, and worn out from two ridiculously long swims in the ocean in one night, Cole nearly tipped face forward into the boat's controls as exhaustion hit with a vengeance. He brought the boat to a stop and fumbled around till he found the anchor, letting it drop right where they were. They could figure out the details later.
He grimaced at the filthy cot in the cabin and staggered out onto the deck, looking for Dani, who'd been suspiciously quiet for the past hour or so. His bruises had to hurt worse than Cole's, and his leg had to be throbbing just as bad, but Cole found him sleeping with utter abandon, sprawled bonelessly in a nest made of ropes and money packets, safe from the sun under a corner of the raised tarp spread out to protect the piled boxes of money.
Right now, that nest looked as inviting as a kingsize bed in a five-star hotel. Cole crawled in next to Dani, shoving him over to make room. Dani grumbled but went, waking up just enough to say "Cole?" and falling back asleep before Cole could reassure him. Cole smiled and tucked himself in closer, breathing in Dani's sleepwarm scent as he drifted off.
A passing shower woke them up a few hours later, both of them disoriented by the sudden dimness and the mix of sounds the rain made against the tarp, the wood of the boat, and the ocean.
Dani's eyes fell on the money they were lying on and his face lit up. "We made it!" he whooped, ducking out from under the tarp and tipping his head back to drink in the rain, laughing in sheer delight. He stayed there for a minute, then lowered his head and shook it hard, scattering drops everywhere. "What a team!"
Cole grinned at him, thrumming with excitement. "Yeah, we're a great team," he agreed, stepping over to where Dani stood and tipping his own head back to the sky. The fresh rain tasted amazing after a night of salt water, sweat, and blood, and he couldn't help it -- he started laughing, too.
"You look like an idiot," Dani said cheerfully, tipping his own face up again.
"Takes one to know one," Cole shot back. God, clean water, there was nothing better. He frowned. "Dani. Hey, Dani."
"What?" Dani's eyes were closed now, and he was fumbling at his shirt. He squinted an eye open to look at Cole. "I'm all salty, the water feels good."
"Yeah, I know," Cole agreed, already stripping his own vest off. "That's not what I meant. Think there's anything on this boat we can catch the water in?"
"Oh, we don't need to. My brother would have put enough stores in for us for a week, he never took chances like that. There'll be food, too."
Cole blinked, then nodded. That fit with what he knew of Carl Servigo, come to think of it; he wouldn't have been willing to risk dying of thirst at sea if he had to make a run for it. Even if he wasn't planning on bringing Dani with him -- the bastard -- they could split the water; it'd last them a few days, long enough to find a place to restock.
"Where would he have stashed it?"
Dani looked around, pointing at the boxes nearest the cabin. "There, probably. And some in the cabin. It won't be the best food in the world, but it'll get us through."
Cole went to check, and sure enough, the boxes stacked nearest the cabin were full of supplies.
"And gasoline here!" Dani called from the bow. He pointed into the hatch he'd found when Cole walked over. "Enough so we won't have to put into port right away. See? My brother, he was a good planner. Didn't like leaving things to chance."
Cole nodded. "Yeah, I can see that. C'mon, let's go up," he said, gesturing at the roof of the cabin. "More comfortable to sit."
They kicked their boots off and climbed up, spreading themselves out to let the rain finish washing the last traces of salt off. Cole grimaced at his stiff jeans and caught Dani doing the same, but neither of them dared strip them off until the bullet wounds had more of a chance to heal, or they could find a doctor, or at least a medic.
"Hey, Dani."
"Hmm?"
"So how come you never learned how to read?
Dani sat up and glared. "Oh, c'mon, we're back to the reading now? So I can't read! Big deal!"
"No, man, not to make a big deal of it, just -- did you try to learn and couldn't? You have dyslexia or something?" Cole propped himself up on one elbow to look at Dani.
Dani sighed. "No, I don't have dyslexia, I just can't read. Never learned how -- Carl always said he could read well enough for both of us." His eyes gleamed wickedly. "I can count, though, and fight, and fuck, and those are the things that matter most."
Cole chuckled. "Yeah, well, I've seen you doing all of that -- you're better at the fighting and the counting."
"Hey!" Dani aimed a kick at him, but Cole just rolled out of the way, laughing.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," he said, hands held up in front of him as he lay on his back. "But seriously, if it's just that you never had time or whatever, maybe I could teach you a little."
"You?"
Cole shrugged. "Why not me? We got nothing else to do, right? You know how to handle a boat?"
"Nah, that was going to be Carl's job."
He didn't even sound wistful about his brother anymore, and Cole winced a little, wishing he'd never told Dani what he suspected, even though he was believing it more by the second. Wouldn't teach Dani to read, wouldn't teach Dani to handle the boat -- yeah, there was a guy who wanted his little brother on a nice, tight, controllable leash, where he'd never be a threat. Damn straight he came back to kill Dani to keep all the money for himself. Fucking bastard.
He managed to keep all of that out of his voice, though. "Yeah, well, it's not going to be my job the whole way. I figure, I teach you to read the controls and what they do, we can go in shifts, okay?"
Dani relaxed. "You really think you can teach me?"
"Hey, I showed you how to find the ignition switch, right?"
Dani grinned and held up his index finger. "With an 'I'! Okay, partner, I trust you. You teach me how to read. And don't worry -- I'm a quick learner."
Cole grinned back. "Okay. When the rain stops, we'll go in, and I'll start showing you."
Dani was right, he was a quick learner, at least when it came to the boat controls. He was completely intent on everything Cole said, crowding in closer and closer until he was practically draped along Cole's side so he didn't miss a thing. It was distracting but sort of nice, so Cole didn't say anything about it -- and anyway, Dani was probably making sure he could see exactly what Cole was pointing at, since he couldn't read the labels.
Cole finished off the first lesson by switching places with Dani, stepping back to leave Dani in control as he talked him through his paces. Dani passed with flying colors, beaming as Cole slapped him on the back in congratulations.
"That's it, that's great! You'll be able to do this solo real soon," Cole said, flinging himself back on the cot and looking up at Dani, absurdly pleased.
"I still can't read the words, though," Dani said, frowning a little.
"Nah, that'll take time. We'll do a little every day on that -- trust me, no one learns how to read overnight."
"You really think I can?"
"Dani, man, I know you can." Cole shifted, then stilled as something caught his eye. "Hah! Here, I bet this'll help." He reached up and pulled a yellowing notebook out of a cubby in the wall, opening it up and flipping through it.
"I'm supposed to read that?" Dani asked doubtfully.
"No, you're supposed to practice in it," Cole said, holding it so Dani could see that half the pages were empty. "Looks like an old log book, must've gotten left behind. See if there's a pen or something anywhere."
They rummaged around for a minute, unearthing some maps, a book on Morse Code, and an ancient copy of National Geographic, at which Dani's eyes lit up. Cole shook his head and handed it over, and kept looking. "Hah, pencil," he said a minute later, waving it in Dani's face. "C'mon, put that down -- put it down, Dani, we've got work to do. Let's go up top again, the light's better up there."
Dani sulked but put the magazine down. "Sometimes it has pictures of naked women," he said, following Cole up to the roof of the cabin.
"You are unbelievable," Cole said, rolling his eyes. "Look, forget about that, okay? C'mere, let me show you this." Cole looked around, shrugged, and laid down on his stomach, figuring that would be the most comfortable position in the end. He opened the journal to a blank page and carefully wrote IGNITION. "See that?"
Dani dropped down next to him, plastering himself along Cole's side once again and resting his head on Cole's shoulder, warmer than the sun beating down on them both. "Yeah, I see it. What is it?"
"That's the word you already know a little. See what it starts with?"
Dani peered at it, then broke into a sunny smile. "I for ignition!"
"Right! Okay, so you know the first letter. The second one is 'g', for the 'guh' sound."
Dani frowned in concentration, reaching out to touch the G. "Okay, I got it. I think. Ih-guh."
"Right, 'ih-guh'," Cole said, touching the letters. "I, G." Maybe it was backward to start him with words instead of the alphabet, but hell, at least Dani'd be able to push the right button even on a different boat. They could backtrack to the alphabet once Dani had a word or two under his belt.
Dani nudged him happily. "Okay, I got those two. What's the next one?"
Cole's stomach twisted a little at that happiness, deep warmth and anger combined, that Dani could be enjoying this so much after being denied it for so long. He deliberately leaned back into Dani a little, letting the anger melt away into the warmth. "Next up is 'n', for the 'nuh' sound."
The lessons formed the pattern of their days while they healed up. The boat wasn't exactly the speediest thing on the water, and Cole didn't push it, letting it go at its own pace, while they both relaxed in the steady rocking of the waves, the warm sun, and the cool breeze. Carl Servigo may have been a bastard, but he really was good at planning escapes; they had days before they'd need to stop for more fuel and supplies. Cole kept them near enough to the shoreline that they could make it to safety in an emergency, but didn't worry about it beyond that.
Mornings they spent in the cabin, trading off the controls and napping on the cot when they weren't swapping stories. Dani was a hell of a storyteller, and had a million of them -- smuggling diamonds, robbing banks, sweeping endless women off their feet. Cole shook his head and traded him carefully edited stories of his days in Special Forces, and the buddies he'd had.
In the afternoons, if the day were calm enough, Cole rigged a strap to keep the wheel steady and they stretched out on top of the cabin while Dani practiced writing the words he'd learned that morning, letting the sun bake their bruises out while they worked.
Dani stripped down to his jeans late every afternoon, as soon as the sun was low enough not to burn him, and slowly lost the pasty look he'd picked up in prison, turning a deep gold in the slanting light. Cole found himself looking more than he should, sitting up to "stretch" while his eyes traced the slowly fading shapes of welts and bruises from the beatings Dani'd taken at O'Malley's hands, fiercely glad that the bastard was dead. But it wasn't just the damage he saw; he couldn't resist taking in the clean lines of Dani's back as he extended his arms to the notebook; the strong line of his neck; the curves of his ass and thighs in tight jeans.
Even when Dani wasn't distracted by focusing on his new words, Cole would watch the flex of muscles as he heaved supplies out from behind the boxes of money, the sureness of his hands on the wheel when he was at the controls, the line of his throat as he drank. He had to force himself not to watch every time Dani took a piss over the side of the boat.
Dani either didn't notice or didn't care; when they slept on the deck he crowded close to Cole, seeming to need the human contact, and the nights they slept in the cabin to avoid weather, they shared the cot. Cole, a little guiltily, gave him what he wanted, sleeping just inches away from him, and pretended to himself that he wasn't getting more out of it than Dani was -- and that he wasn't shifting closer every night. Eventually, though, he couldn't resist any longer, and slung a casual arm over Dani as they drifted off; Dani patted his arm and muttered something incomprehensible, and was out like a light. The casual touch against his bare arm blazed and Cole closed his eyes, calling himself six kinds of idiot. But he flattened his hand lightly against Dani's stomach, spreading his fingers to touch as much as he could, and fell asleep imagining it was touching skin instead of shirt, low heat curling through his belly.
They woke up tangled together, Cole's hand tucked inside the back of Dani's jeans against warm, damp skin. Dani's reaction was a sleep-sweet smile and a raspy "Morning, partner," that woke Cole up in all the wrong ways. Cole hastily pulled free, muttered something about needing to take a leak, and fled for the bow, any delusion about being in control of himself and the situation shattered.
He hadn't expected this, none of it, not after Dani's reaction in the forest to Cole's careful testing. It would have made things so much easier if he could have seduced the boat's name out of Dani, but it had been pretty clear that that was never going to happen. Dani should be holding him at arm's length -- that, he could deal with, no problem. Laugh it off, let it go, and Dani would never be any the wiser.
Instead, now that the damned lunatic had grown on him to the point that a chaste touch through Dani's shirt was enough to make his stomach flutter, Dani was acting like he'd be all for it. What the fuck. It's still not going to happen, moron, he told himself. Dani's not interested. He's just used to having a brother around.
God, what a depressing thought. Which meant it was probably true. Cole shook his head and unzipped, absently aiming for the curl of the waves against the boat. Carl had kept Dani almost completely dependent in all sorts of ways; it made sense he'd been careful to be Dani's main source of warmth and comfort. And now Dani needed a replacement. Cole sighed and told himself to be happy with what he had while he had it; eventually they'd stay someplace long enough for Dani to find himself a hooker, and things would get back to normal.
He shook himself off and tucked himself back into his jeans, then squared his shoulders and went back into the cabin. Dani was eating breakfast, all sunny good cheer as he handed Cole's share over. "I checked the course, we're good."
Cole forced himself to relax, and grinned cheerfully at him. "Yeah? Good. I think we're nearly there."
Dani nodded. "Maybe sometime today, even."
God, I hope so, Cole thought fervently. He couldn't take another night like that, not without some time to get his balance back.
Seven hours later, they pulled into Boa Vista Harbor and quietly bribed the dockmaster to let them tie up.
"In and out, right? We help out the nuns, we buy supplies, and we leave again," he said, heaving a bag filled with money into a Jeep.
"In and out," Dani agreed, swinging himself into the passenger seat. "No problem."
Cole eyed him narrowly, but Dani only smiled. "I'm serious, Dani -- Loomis may be dead, but that doesn't mean all his guys are. We can't stick around."
"I said no problem, didn't I? So no problem! C'mon, let's go, we shouldn't keep the nuns waiting."
Cole sighed, and put the Jeep in gear.
"I'll be damned, there really is a little girl," Cole said, blinking.
"And nuns, I told you!" Dani said, and sure enough, there was a nun in the doorway. "What, you didn't believe me?" He slanted a sly look at Cole, then turned toward the little girl running straight for them, beaming. "Hey!" he called, and laughed as she jumped for him, hugging him tight.
Cole stood back, bemused and more than a little charmed, trying hard not to let that show.
"Okay, okay," Dani soothed, petting her. "It's okay. Have you been good for the nuns, little one?"
She nodded, leaning back in his arms to look at him earnestly. "Very good, Señor Dani. Have you come to take me away now?"
"Ah, no," Dani said apologetically. "You don't want to come with me. It's no life for a little girl. My friends are rough men, like him, see?" He nodded his head toward Cole, who tried to glare at him and look nonthreatening to the girl at the same time.
"C'mon, man," Cole protested.
She giggled.
Someone touched Cole on the arm, and he jumped. "Shi--ah, Sister. Hello. What can I do for you?" He ignored the girl, giggling even harder now, and tried his most charming smile on the nun looking sternly at him.
"I was about to ask you the same question, Señor," she said, folding her hands into her sleeves.
"Ah, right. I'm with him," Cole said, pointing to Dani. "We're here about the little girl."
"You've come to take her?" the nun asked, frowning as she looked him up and down.
"No," Dani explained, walking over to them, still carrying the girl. "That would be a bad idea. But we wanted to make sure she was taken care of. We have a donation. For her schooling, you know?"
The nun smiled, sternness vanishing. "Ah, a donation! Of course, and bless you both. Come in, come in."
The office she led them to was small and dark, presided over by an elderly nun whose face was so lined that Cole figured she had to be pushing a hundred. Dani handed over stacks of money, enough to keep the convent running for a decade or more; both of them politely refused to sign any paperwork about it, and the nuns just glanced at each other before the older one marked it down as an anonymous gift.
Dani waved off the nuns' thanks, actually blushing a little, and crouched down to talk quietly to the girl for a moment. She nodded, hugging him tight around the neck. He hugged her back, then stood. "You be a good girl, okay? You study hard, and don't give the nuns any trouble."
"I promise, Señor Dani," she said gravely, looking up at him.
Dani tousled her hair, then looked at Cole, jerking his head toward the door. "C'mon, time to go."
Cole heaved a sigh of relief as they left, ridiculously glad to get that over with. Word of the donation appeared to have spread as fast as any small-town gossip, though, because every nun they passed beamed at them both, until Cole was starting to feel freaked out by it.
"This is creepy," Dani muttered to him, smiling and nodding to yet another nun. "Where did they all comefrom?"
"I don't know, but hopefully there aren't any more of them, and we can get the hell -- heck -- out of here," Cole muttered back. "You and your ideas!"
"My ideas! I wanted to FedEx it, remember? You're the one who insisted we come in person! Yes, hello, sister, very nice to see you," Dani finished politely, smiling at what had to be the 30th nun they'd seen. Unless it was the same one, circling around and around. By this point, Cole would have believed it.
Finally they made it around the corner, and they both broke and ran for the Jeep.
Dani pulled a pack out of the back of it and slung it over one shoulder. "Listen, I'll meet you back at the boat, okay?"
"What do you mean, you'll meet me back at the boat? Dani, what are you up to? What's in the bag?"
"What do you think is in the bag?" Dani asked, rolling his eyes.
"Dani --"
"Look, it's mine, too! I can spend it if I want."
"Are you gonna blow that on hookers? 'Cause man, they ain't worth that."
"No, I am not -- you have a filthy mind, you know that?"
"Well, what, then? C'mon, I don't want to stick around here any longer than I have to."
"I just owe someone some money, that's all. And I want to pick something up."
Cole frowned, not completely trusting the gleam in Dani's eyes. "Who do you owe?"
"No one you know."
Cole eyed the pack and shook his head. There had to be a quarter million in there, maybe more. "I don't know, Dani."
Dani looked pleadingly at him. "C'mon, Cole. It's not that much! And if I pay it back, no one will come hunting me, right?"
"Look, Dani, the donation was one thing, the nuns'll sweep that right under the rug, but it's not safe for us to be flashing cash around here. Loomis may be gone, but a lot of people could have heard we had a line on this money. Who is this guy?"
"I can't tell you."
"Dani -- "
"I can't tell you, okay! But I swear, it's fine. This isn't going to get us into trouble. I just need to take the Jeep and take a little ride, and I'll be back."
"Oh, now you're taking the Jeep, too? How am I supposed to get back to the boat?"
"You're a resourceful guy, you'll figure something out." Dani was grinning, and tossed the pack in the passenger seat as he swung himself into the driver's seat. "It'll be fine. Trust me!"
This didn't feel right, but hell, Dani didn't answer to him, not really. And it wasn't like he was taking off with all the money; the rest was still safely aboard the boat. "Okay, fine, go pay your guy. How long's it going to take?"
Dani beamed. "A day, maybe two. It depends on where they are."
"Two days! Dani..."
Dani started the engine. "Three at the outside!" he called cheerfully as the Jeep started moving.
"Three!"
"When I get back, we'll go someplace nice, with lots of women." He winked and drove off.
"Lots of women," Cole repeated quietly, lips twisting in a wry smile. "And there we go."
It took him most of the day to make it back to the dock where the boat was moored, cursing Dani the entire way. He'd half expected to see the son of a bitch sitting on the cabin's roof, with a beer in one hand and a hooker in the other, and didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed when there was no one there at all.
Cole spent the first day quietly buying up weapons and ammunition to stock the boat in case the wrong people twigged to their presence, and telling himself he didn't miss the sound of Dani's voice mocking his choices and arguing for the weapons he preferred. The second day was provisions -- as much water as he could fit, lots of nonperishables, stuff that would keep them going for another week or two at sea if they had to run.
By the third day he was getting restless and trying not to show it. He bought some fishing gear and got an oldtimer to show him what to do, figuring at least they could have fish in a pinch.
By the fourth day, he was torn between feeling like an idiot for staying, and worrying over what could have happened to Dani. Several hours of fruitless pacing along the dock finally convinced him that the next logical step was to try to find Dani, to either rescue him if he was in trouble, or kill him if he wasn't. If Dani wasn't back by noon tomorrow, Cole was heading after him.
Dani appeared just after ten on the morning of the fifth day, bright-eyed and bursting with good cheer. "Hey! Cole!"
Cole stared at him. Dani was washed, shaved, and dressed in decent clothes, and looked edible. "Man, I am going to KILL YOU!" Cole roared, leaping off the boat straight for Dani's throat.
"Hey, hey, watch the shirt!" Dani protested, fending him off. "What's wrong?"
"Three days, tops, you said," Cole gritted out. "I thought Loomis's men had caught you, you asshole."
Dani beamed at him. "You were worried about me! Aw, you didn't have to worry, I was fine. I told you, I had some errands to run."
"Errands, right," Cole said, still shaking off the adrenaline. "You said you owed someone money and needed to pick something up."
"Right! So I paid the money back, and did some shopping. You like the shirt?"
"Yeah, it's beautiful, it brings out your eyes." The hell of it was, it really did. "C'mon, Dani, what the fuck is going on?
"You want to know what's going on?"
"Yes, I want to know what's going on, that's what I said."
Dani looked happy as a pig in shit, and warning bells were going off inside Cole.
"All right, I'll show you. I wanted it to be a surprise, see."
"Dani. So help me, if you don't tell me what's going on, I am shooting you in the head."
"There's no need to be nasty about it," Dani said primly, then relented and pointed down a few slips away. "See that boat there?"
It was a small cabin cruiser, nothing to write home about.
"Yeah, I see it. What about it?"
"It's ours."
"What?"
"I bought it!" Dani was glowing, bursting with pride. "It's all legal and everything -- well, mostly legal, there are papers you need to sign, but the guy who sold it to me is really good at forging papers so they look genuine. We can dock at any port with those. C'mon, I'll show you!" He tugged Cole into motion, curving a hand into his arm as they made their way down the wharf. "It's terrific, you're going to love it."
Distracted by the warmth of Dani's hand on his bare arm, Cole didn't notice the name till they were almost on top of the boat. "Beatriz?" he asked, with a nod to the fresh paint. "Who's Beatriz?"
Dani shrugged a little. "The little girl," he said defensively. "It's a good name."
Cole looked at him and smiled. "Yeah, man. It's a good name. Beatriz. I like it."
Dani grinned at him. "Yeah," he agreed. "Yeah. C'mon, I'll show you what it's like, I think you're going to like this."
It was a good boat, not too flashy, but nice, and Cole nodded approvingly as Dani showed him around the deck and cabin.
"There's more downstairs," Dani said, leading the way down the ladder. "Look, see? I figure we can store the money in that cabin, keep it safer from the weather and people wandering by."
Cole nodded. "Yeah, that's good, that's a real good idea, Dani."
"And here's the other cabin," Dani said, pushing a door open. There was one big bed in the middle. Cole froze.
"Who's this for?"
"Us," Dani said simply.
"Thought you wanted to go somewhere with lots of women," Cole said.
"Well. It doesn't have to be women," Dani said, and tackled him, laughing. They tumbled into the room, landing half on the bed.
Cole grabbed for him, trying to keep from sliding all the way to the floor. "You and me, huh?"
"The best kind of team," Dani agreed.
"Little sudden, isn't it?"
Dani rolled his eyes and let go of Cole long enough to scramble onto the bed, reaching out to pull Cole with him. "Sudden! Man, have you not been paying attention?" He stopped to take his boots off, then leaned back against the headboard and held up one hand to tick off points. "First, I have never seen you even look at a woman. Second, you never talk about women. Third, you look at me, all the time -- did you think I didn't notice? I'm not blind, you know!"
Cole just blinked at him.
Dani grinned, bright and wicked. "And fourth, I have been throwing myself at you for this entire trip. I couldn't figure out how to make it more obvious, other than this. So." The grin faded a little, as Dani's eyebrows drew together in a worried frown. "So what do you think?"
"What do I think?"
"Yes, what do you think, that's what I'm asking you."
"I think we've wasted one hell of a lot of time, that's what I think," Cole said, and sprang.
"So this is what you went to pick up?" Cole asked later, running his hand through Dani's hair as Dani dozed with his head on Cole's stomach.
"Oh, that, no, I nearly forgot!" Dani said, rolling off the bed and opening a drawer. He pulled out a box and handed it to Cole. "This is for you."
"You brought me a present?"
Dani nodded, clearly pleased with himself. "Open it!"
"Okay, okay," Cole said, smiling. He opened it and froze, wide-eyed. "Dani --"
"It's like the one we lost," Dani said.
"The one you lost," Cole corrected absently, still staring into the box. It held a pearl-handled 9-millimeter, nearly identical to the one that had vanished in the river.
"Fine, fine, the one I lost. I apologized, didn't I?'
"You did, and Dani, you didn't need to do this."
"Do you not like it?" Dani asked, worry creeping into his eyes. "I thought you'd like it."
Cole put the box down carefully and stood up, reaching out to clasp his hands around the back of Dani's neck. "Oh, I like it," he said. He shifted in closer, feeling Dani's hands loop behind his back. "Let me show you how much."