Sweet Seas

ONE Dario Correa tightened his grip on her upper arm. “You’re hurting me,” Sassi Robins winced, trying to twist her arm free. But he was too strong. Coming to this abandoned dockside warehouse for the meet was supposed to resolve her issue with the thug. Instead, she seemed only to have inflamed his want for reprisal. There was a fire in him, a determination that she’d underestimated. Tugging her closer, Dario leaned in to loom over the top of her. “I’ll give you four weeks, Sexy Sassi. Four weeks to come up with the money your papi owed me or you belong to me.” Gritting her teeth, she didn’t break eye contact because she wouldn’t give the asshole the satisfaction of seeing her uncomfortable or in pain. “Not a chance!” Grabbing her other arm, he hauled her to him and forced his mouth onto hers. Sassi spat him away. He let out a hiss of frustration. “You’ve always thought you were better than me, better than everyone. But, look at you now, here, begging for mercy,” he sneered, taking a vast amount of pleasure in her predicament. She hadn’t begged, but resented the fact that it may come to that. “You’re so sure you can come up with thirty grand? I’ll give you a chance to scurry around and do it, if you’re so sure you can. You get me my money or you give yourself to me.” He disgusted her. “Thirty grand or s*x? Really, Dario? Are you that hard up?” His lip curled with perverse pleasure. “I don’t want a night. I’ll own you forever. You’ll say ‘I do’ and raise the next generation of Correas and you’ll love every second.” Not a chance. Sassi hadn’t wanted Dario to touch her in high school and she didn’t want him touching her now. It didn’t matter that most other women would think he was attractive and his money didn’t hurt how attractive he was, to others anyway. Nothing could move her to wanting him. But her father’s debt was giving Dario a chance to do what he’d failed to do at school over a decade ago. Damn her father for dying and leaving her to deal with his gambling debts. She damned her brother too, for leaving town before Dario caught up with them again. With her brother, Stuart, at her side, Sassi had been dumb enough to think that she could face the trouble. Stuart had been hiding them for a month and the whole time she’d argued the case for reasoning with Dario. Eventually, she’d taken matters into her own hands and arranged this meeting. Except as soon as she’d told Stuart, he’d scarpered. Sassi was alone. She had to fix this alone. “I’ll get you your money. I’ll bring it here in six weeks,” she said, every extra day she could buy was vital. “And, yeah, I’m confident. There’s no way I’ll let you lay your hands on me.” Leaning back, he leered at her body. “I’ll cut my fiancée some slack, I’ll give you the six weeks. You be here at midnight, six weeks from today, with my money or I’ll track you down. I’ll track down your brother, and every other person you ever loved, and I’ll make all of ‘em suffer for a long time before I put them out of their misery… and I’ll still make you marry me.” Thrusting her away, he scanned her body again and his mouth slanted like he anticipated getting what he wanted. The idea of being with Dario made her sick, and his demand seemed petty and vindictive. But he was a man who could do a lot of damage. He knew people, and delighted in torturing others. Sassi wouldn’t let that happen to anyone she cared about. Nodding at his men, they cleared out and Dario disappeared in their wake. As soon as the door on the warehouse slammed, she sighed. Shit. What was she going to do? Thirty grand was no small order. The only asset anyone in her family ever had was her grandmother’s house. Sassi had believed it was paid for when her dad inherited it fifteen years ago. But it wasn’t. No, that was wrong, it had been paid off before her grandmother died. Since then, without telling anyone, her father had taken out two mortgages on the property so he could indulge his love of gambling. The mortgages might not have been a problem, if her dad had bothered to pay them. But the house had been foreclosed on while her dad was dying in the hospital. Sassi had been kicked out and lost most of her possessions in the process. Her father’s medical bills were still outstanding and her brother had been evicted from his apartment for failure to pay rent. The locks would be changed before the end of the week. Not that it mattered, they couldn’t stay there while they were hiding out from Dario anyway. But whatever was left of their possessions were still in there and Sassi had nowhere to move them to. Losing the apartment wasn’t all Stuart’s fault. He’d been trying to cover bills and expenses and there just wasn’t enough money to go around, which was probably another reason he’d chosen to disappear. Her brother had no apartment and, as far as he was concerned, a sister with a doomed plan. Being on her own, Sassi was gaining a better appreciation of her brother’s pessimism. She had no job, no home, and no family support. Yet, she was supposed to find thirty thousand dollars and get Dario off their backs? Her cellphone rang. That would be disconnected soon too, she hadn’t paid the bill for weeks. Not having a phone was the least of her troubles, but she’d embrace it while she still could. That’s what she thought until she saw Karen’s name flashing on the screen. Karen was her brother’s ex-girlfriend. Sassi didn’t want to be the one to explain that Stuart had vanished and they had no way to contact him. But she couldn’t ignore the woman who was the closest thing she had to an ally. So Sassi answered the call. “Karen?” “Listen, this might be insane,” Karen said, nerves rattling her. Intrigued, Sassi was also suspicious. “What?” There was no immediate response. The last thing that Sassi needed was Karen hesitating for so long that the phone got disconnected while she was on it. But she did eventually speak. “I just got a call from a guy desperate for a cook.” Karen worked at a temp agency connecting employers to employees. Trusted with several of her own accounts, she’d offered to give the siblings dibs on jobs that would help them raise cash fast. Sassi would guess that Karen had tried to call Stuart first, but she wouldn’t have gotten through. Stuart was ducking calls, or maybe his phone had already been disconnected. “I’m a pastry chef,” Sassi said. She’d started her career as a baker during weekends and summers in high school. After graduation, she’d gone on to get official qualifications and started her own small business doing orders for coffee houses, bars, and restaurants, as well as taking on contracts making cakes for weddings and other events. Or she had. While her dad had been dying in hospital, she’d given up most of her clients. It would take time to build up her clientele again; time she didn’t have. Not that she’d ever made close to thirty grand in six weeks before even if she had a full schedule. “But you can scramble eggs and make meatballs or something, right?” Karen’s voice brought her back to the present. Sassi wasn’t that great at haute cuisine, but she could do comfort food. “Yeah, but restaurants don’t want—” “This isn’t a restaurant,” Karen said. “It’s only a four-week job. I know the mess you’re in and… he said he’d pay fifteen hundred a week and pay a one-off ten-grand stipend to anyone who could be ready to cast off before dawn without complaint or delay.” “Cast off?” “It’s on a boat, a salvage vessel, and… I don’t know how serious he was, but he said there was a bonus at the end of the job… he said it could be up to a hundred grand.” Gasping, Sassi felt hope for the first time. The figures were so good that even without the bonus, they’d get her over halfway to her goal. Even just a fraction of that hundred-grand promise could save her from a future of s****l servitude. Grabbing a pen from her long strap hobo bag, Sassi tucked the phone on her shoulder under her ear and prepared to write on her hand. “Give me the details and don’t send anyone else. Tell him I’ll do it, say whatever it takes to get me the gig.” “I can text you—” “No,” she said. Karen was one of the few people who knew the situation, so Sassi could be honest with her. “I don’t know how long this phone will last. Tell me now. And will you clear out Stuart’s apartment as soon as you can? Store everything at your place, I’ll make it right when I get my bonus.” Karen had a key. She and Stuart had been together for years, though her brother had always been wishy-washy about making the final commitment. In her opinion, Karen was a keeper and her brother was a dumbass. “Where… Where is Stu?” Karen asked without disguising her trepidation. So Sassi had been right in her assumption that her stupid brother hadn’t been decent enough to tell the woman who loved him where he was going. Somehow, she took no comfort in that triumph. “He split,” Sassi said, believing that someone should tell Karen the truth, especially given that her pseudo-sister-in-law might just have saved her hide. “He’ll come back when this is all straightened out. I know he will.” Truth was, she didn’t know anything for sure, but Karen was a good catch and she had a kind heart. Stuart would be a fool to let her go for good. They’d only broken up last week when Dario had turned up the heat and started threatening to hurt those they cared about. Sassi and her brother had agreed that they should endanger as few people as possible. Anyone they cared about could be hurt to punish them, and Karen would be top of that list since Sassi had no romantic interest for Dario to target. Karen’s groan was one of disapproval. “You shouldn’t be dealing with this alone, Sassi, honey. Oh, it’s so typical of him to run off like a coward.” Her resentment toward the man who’d just recently broken her heart was understandable. Instead of offering excuses for his behavior, Sassi gave her brother an out. “This job could be our way out and Stuart can’t even boil water, so he’s no cook. This is on me,” Sassi said. “Give me the details.” Karen gave in and told Sassi what she needed to know. Writing the specifics on her hand, she began to make plans. She’d pick up her kit from Stuart’s and while she was there, she’d whip up something delicious to tempt her new boss and colleagues. It never failed. She wasn’t hearty to look at, but any doubts they had would be erased by some cheesecake muffins or homemade bear claws. She’d cook up a storm and pack some ingredients and tools, as well as a few jars of her homemade jelly. Sassi didn’t know what supplies she’d have to work with. Though Karen had said the ship would be stocked, Sassi guessed that was for meals. If she wanted to maximize her bonus, she’d have to pamper and spoil the boss’s stomach and she only knew one way she could do that: dessert. If there was one thing that didn’t bother a baker, it was getting up early. So when Sassi was told to be on the docks at five AM sharp, she didn’t blink. The sun wouldn’t rise for another two hours, but Karen had mentioned nautical twilight or some term like that. Sassi knew nothing about boats or about sailing, but she assumed that didn’t really matter; she’d been hired for her cooking skills. Because she was worried about meeting the tough standard expected of the meals, Sassi had gone overboard bringing her own supplies. That meant she was traipsing along the dock pulling two suitcases, wearing a huge backpack on her back, and a small one on her front, as well as wearing her usual oversized hobo bag. She’d never looked more like a hobo in her life, and figured she should’ve grabbed a shopping cart and collected some cans on her way to complete the look.