Caribbean Rescue (Coastal Fury Book 16), Matt Lincoln [best book recommendations .txt] 📗

To be honest, I’d never put all that much thought into what would come after the search finally came to an end.

“What can you do?” she asked. “I mean, would you consider it your property if you found it? Or would it belong to the government of whichever country’s waters you found it in?”

“Well, that would depend on where it is,” I replied as I took a sip of my own drink. “Laws differ from place to place, and there are a lot of factors that go into deciding ownership in these kinds of situations.”

“Well, shouldn’t your lineage count for something?” Olivia asked with a sly smile. “I mean, it did belong to your ancestor, right? So, logically, if we were to follow the rules of inheritance, it should belong to you.”

“As appealing as that sounds,” I grinned, “I don’t know if it actually works that way. It would be considered a historical artifact. Plus, Grendel had stolen it. If he passed it down to one of his own descendants, then that could muddy things up.”

“Dang, you’re right,” she giggled. “Wow. If someone had told me last week that I’d be standing on a beach in Turks and Caicos discussing long-lost pirate ships with an incredibly attractive federal agent from some agency no one’s ever heard of, I would have called them crazy.”

My heart rate kicked up a notch at the phrase incredibly attractive, and I couldn’t keep the goofy grin off my face. I wouldn’t have thought I’d be standing on a moonlit beach next to a gorgeous woman just a few days ago, either.

Before I could say anything to that effect, though, an angry shout broke through the quiet evening air.

“I’m going to kill you!” I heard someone roar.

I turned to see what was happening. Just a few yards away, a tall, muscular man with tanned skin and curly hair was beating another man viciously into the ground.

“Hey! Stop!” I yelled as I flew into action. Even if it had nothing to do with our case, I couldn’t just stand by and watch someone beat someone else to death.

“You and every last one of your little group are going to pay!” the assailant roared as he continued his assault. The man beneath him was flailing around helplessly, his face slick with blood.

“Stop!” I growled again as I grabbed the man around the shoulders to pull him off the victim.

“Get off of me!” the man yelled.

The other man wasted no time in getting up and scurrying away, leaving a trail of blood droplets behind him as he fled.

“You imbecile!” the man screamed as she shoved me away. “He got away because of you! Don’t you know what he did? Who the hell do you think you are?”

“I’m a federal agent,” I answered.

The man’s face went blank for a moment. Then, to my surprise, it twisted into an expression of pure rage.

“You!” he sneered venomously. “You’re the reason my brother is dead!”

“What?” Olivia snapped as she caught up to us, her voice laced with confusion.

“Kenny!” the man yelled at her. “Kenneth Johnson! He was my brother, and he was shot dead on this beach because of you two!”

I honestly wasn’t sure how to react to his outburst. We hadn’t killed him, but arguing with a grieving family member wasn’t going to do me any good.

“You should have never come here!” he yelled.

He was glaring at us with so much hatred it almost gave me chills. I guessed this was the end of our date night.

15

Ethan

“We’re not the reason your brother was killed,” I replied calmly. The guy might very well be armed, and the last thing we needed was another shootout on a crowded beach.

“Like hell, you’re not,” he snapped back angrily. “The only reason those thugs came after him was because you were sniffing around asking questions. If you hadn’t--”

“If you’re that mad at them,” Olivia interrupted him, “then help us find them. We’ll make sure they pay for what they did to your brother.”

“Ha,” the man grunted humorlessly. “You really expect me to trust you?”

“You don’t have any other choice,” I replied. “You really think you’re going to get anywhere doing what you were just doing? Going after them on your own and beating them to death one by one? You’ll get yourself killed doing that, and then there will be no one left to make sure your brother gets justice.”

We were still standing just outside the bar, and around us, curious onlookers were hovering around, listening in on our conversation. I wished they would just leave, honestly. We had no idea how violent this man might become, and they were putting themselves in danger by rubbernecking around.

The man’s jaw was clenched, and his nostrils flared as he took ragged, uneven breaths. For a second, I was worried he was going to yell at us again and refuse our offer.

“Okay,” he grumbled. “Let’s talk. But not here. Too many people around.”

He turned and stalked off without another word. I didn’t really like the idea of blindly following this aggressive stranger to somewhere with fewer people around, but if he really was Kenneth’s brother and really did know about who had attacked us, then we couldn’t just let this opportunity pass us by.

I turned to look at Olivia. She glanced back at me. Her face twisted into a suspicious frown, but after a few seconds, she shrugged and began to follow the man. I followed right beside her.

He led us to a crowded bar just off the beach. No one paid us any mind as we stepped through the thick crowd and toward a table at the back of the place.

“I thought you said there were too many people on the beach,” Olivia noted as we squeezed into the small booth.

“Too many people out in the open,” he clarified. “In here, it doesn’t matter how many people are around. It’s too noisy for anyone to overhear what we say.”

I didn’t really agree with that logic, but I