Free Swept Away 2 by J. Haymore Page B

twelve-volt batteries, there’s no power on the Temptation . No lights. No Internet. No radio and no computers, once their batteries die. No autopilot or GPS. No engine, because the engine starter requires battery power. We’ve got nothing to get us to Hawaii now but the wind and the sails.
    “How did this happen?” I murmur. I was sound asleep last night, wrapped around Ethan. But Nalani and Kyle were supposed to be on watch. How could they not notice Mick taking the batteries and the tender?
    Because they were engaged in a passionate argument, that’s why. Because they’d lost all awareness of anything but each other.
    Kyle’s shout from the companionway gives us the news we already know. He leans inside, his eyes wild. “Holy shit! Everything’s dead up there.”
    “How’s the boat steering itself without autopilot?” I asked.
    “He lashed the wheel in place,” Kyle says, coming fully inside. He leans on the galley counter. “I checked the compass, and we’re on the same heading we were when I last checked it last night. He probably wanted us to keep going along thinking nothing was wrong so he could make his fucking getaway, or whatever.”
    “Jesus.” Ethan shakes his head.
    “Why?” Nalani moans, pushing her fingers into her thick black hair. “Why would he do this to us?”
    I wonder the same thing. I want to moan like Nalani, but there’s only numbness. My feet are glued to the floor of the cabin, my muscles too heavy to move, as if roots have grown from me into the floor of the Temptation , and even taking one step would require too much effort.
    “We can still sail this boat,” Ethan says quietly. “We’re just over two hundred nautical miles from Oahu.”
    “There’s no GPS,” says Kyle.
    “We continue on this heading,” Ethan responds in a reasonable tone. “We’re aimed directly at Oahu.”
    “There’s a storm coming tonight,” Nalani points out. “It’s going to throw us off course.”
    “But you have your sextant, right?” Ethan asks her. “You know how to navigate the old-fashioned way?”
    Nalani gives a slight nod. “Yeah,” she says gruffly, “if I remember. And if the weather clears.”
    “The storm is supposed to pass through tonight, and it’s supposed to be clear tomorrow night, so you can confirm our position then.” Ethan’s voice is firm as he makes eye contact with each one of us. “We’re going to sail this boat to Hawaii. Without an engine and without electronics. It’s only a couple more days. We will do this.”

Justine
    October 5, 2006
    Sometimes a person has to take extraordinary measures if she wants to keep her extraordinary life on track.
    Ginny was turning Ethan against me. I checked Ethan’s cell phone history, and her number popped up seven times over the past month. When I questioned Ethan, he said she was calling for relationship advice. She had a new boyfriend—Zach something-or-other, another psychology grad student—but he was clearly just a decoy.
    Ginny wanted to steal Ethan away from me. I was on to her plot. First, she was going to turn him against me by revealing my past psychological history, which Daddy and I have taken great, great pains to bury from him and the world.
    She found my records somewhere and intended to expose them to Ethan. I could tell when we met for drinks over the summer that she knew. She had a wary look in her eyes, as if she was afraid I might try to drown her like I tried to drown Susanna. She knew , Diary. She was going to ruin my life with the knowledge, then she was going to steal Ethan and take him for her own.
    I hacked her e-mails, and then I tapped her phone. Her e-mails are little-miss-perfect clean, as I suspected they would be. There were a couple to Ethan, but she was never blatant. She was sweet, compassionate, helpful, friendly. Luring him in. He’s a man, so he couldn’t see it. But I did. Loud and clear.
    There was a single incriminating phone call. She didn’t name names, of