Page 24 of Taming Her Bears

“You didn’t start something without me?”

“Of course not. Are you jealous?”

“Grumpy. There’s a difference.”

“You’ll feel better after you’ve eaten.”

To make me feel better, she reached across my shoulders and played with the hair at the back of my neck. “I like that you keep your hair a little long. It suits you.”

“I don’t like haircuts,” I growled, but my grumpy mood was going away.

It had left completely by the time Roy was ready with his report. My stomach was full, and Natalia’s hand was still at the back of my neck, stroking my hair. Roy set a print-out on the table. “The yacht is registered to Siberian Hands Inc., an import/export company. It took a little digging, but it’s an umbrella company for a group of realtors called B&D—Baranov and Denisovich. It was purchased two years ago from a Chinese multi-millionaire, Lu Chang, according to documents. It has docked into only one American port, San Francisco. Its navigational charts are not available.”

“That’s our man,” said Josh positively. He began strolling energetically up and down the room. “We’ve got him. We’re going to nail him.”

“Permission to speak freely,” interjected Pete.

Josh stopped in mid-stroll. “Speak.”

“Shouldn’t we call the Canadian guard? Let them make the arrest? They aren’t going to ignore the evidence.”

Josh crossed his arms over his chest and glowered, his day-old beard growing thicker. He thundered at the commander beneath fearsome brows. “Do you know what will happen if Denisovich is jailed by Canadian authorities? It will get tied up in courts for five years, and Denisovich will never be handed over to the U.S. Our women will never receive the justice they deserve.”

“His men will be turned over for the murders.”

“Which we can’t tie to Denisovich’s hands. Neither Amy nor Natalia were touched by Denisovich. They never even talked to Denisovich. They can’t swear they saw him do anything.”

“We’ll find fingerprints.”

Josh resumed pacing. “What if he wore gloves? Did you notice how many footprints were in the hangar? It was like trying to sort out prints in a market stall. The boat will be the same. Too many people coming and going. It will take forever to sort them all out. In the meantime, Denisovich’s slippery lawyers will be finding ways to get him extradited to Russia. And they will succeed!”

Pete wrung his hands together. He knew what Josh was proposing and as second officer, he felt it was his duty to persuade the captain into using every legal avenue available. “We can’t forcibly bring that yacht back into U.S. territory. Canada will never allow it.”

Josh wasn’t paying much attention to the commander’s protests. He looked out at the black night that even rubbed away the moon’s existence under the misting sky. “Canada can have the co-conspirators involved in the buying and selling of slaves. Let those filthy rich degenerates squabble it out with their lawyers and try to keep their names out of the papers. I don’t care about them. I want Denisovich and the men who kidnapped our girls and murdered Coast Guard personnel, and I will have them. Iwillhave them, Pete. Do you have a problem with this?”

“No, sir,” he answered, standing stiffly.

“Relax,” said Lee, who never thought much about rank and who now gave Pete a familiar hug around the neck. “He’s a member of the gang. He had his christening tonight.”

“In subservience,” I growled at Lee, even as Roy was crushing the commander into a bear hug. I nodded at Pete, though. “You put your big-boy pants on tonight. Leave them on. They look good on you.”

Josh brought out the good stuff—a bottle of Jameson—and poured us each a good, stiff drink. “I want all of you to go to bed and get some rest. The ship will set course with the first daylight. We’ll be sailing into Canadian waters, using stealth mode. If we encounter the Canadian guard, we will tell them we are on a secret mission to Seattle. The admiralty will verify it. Pete, you are an honorable commander. If you wish to leave the mission, you can return to Ketchikan by helicopter in the morning. I won’t request that you come with us.”

“With all due respect, sir,” said Pete, appearing far more gregarious than usual, “I’m a member of the gang now.”

We all saluted. “Then we are all agreed,” continued Josh. “What we don’t want is for the yacht to learn we are giving chase, which is why we wait for daylight. They are not in a hurry. They will appear to be just one more luxury craft taking a sight-seeing tour. If they don’t see us, we can close in.”

We prepared to retire for the night, each person taking care of the tools that fit his skill sets. Pete went back to the pilot’s cabin and checked the controls for the evening, lingering over the sensitive instruments long minutes before turning them over to the second lieutenant’s safekeeping. Josh gathered his maps and rolled them together, stashing them with a bundle in one corner of the ready room. Roy put the computer to sleep, Lee carried our mugs to the galley, and I picked up the camera and binoculars, wrapping them tenderly before sliding them into their cases. They were my special babies, the best high-powered, high-resolution hand-held instruments on the market. I’m not a standard guy. I don’t like standard equipment. These babies had just paid back in gold.

Josh approached me on one side and Natalia on the other. Natalia snuggled up under my arm. “I told the captain we should all share this night together. I think we need it.”

“Do you agree, Captain?” I asked, examining his face to see if any extra hairs were popping out. He looked relaxed, almost happy. He had his target. It would take more than the Canadians and the Russian Embassy to keep him away from it.

“I agree.” Waving to our other two shapeshifting buddies, we entered the captain’s suite together.

Lee

It’s not easy controlling your instincts when you’re a bear. I learned that in my first month of Coast Guard training. When I hit that icy water, my first instinct was to shapeshift. I don’t know how many times McCarthy cut me short. “Lee, all your survivors just swam away from you as fast as they could and two died of a heart attack.” He made up his own simulations for the bobbing dummies.

---