Page 22 of Stilettos & Secrets on the 7 Seas

“Agreed.” Gertie turned toward me. “At least you can save him.”

“If we can find him.”

“You will. You care about Marco too much to let him die.”

“It would be easier if Caiyan would help.”

“Did you ask him?”

“Yeah. He promised he wouldn’t let Marco die, but he’s on some secret mission. He can’t tell me the details.”

“Why the hell not? He’s all about empty promises and romantic gestures like stealing that ring from Berlin.” She tipped her head at the ruby ring on my finger. “Then he goes all ghostly or gaslights you. The guy has got to decide what he wants. This Jekyll and Hyde thing is making you crazy.”

“Agreed. Can we talk about something else?”

“You mean like the treasure chest?” She smiled wide and flipped the pancakes. “Hope you don’t mind. I looked at it earlier.”

“What did you find?”

“The chest is legit, as far as I can tell. You’d have to take it to an antique dealer and have it dated, but it feels real.”

She removed a tray from the oven and tonged crispy bacon onto a plate.

I snatched a slice and settled at the table with my coffee. The treasure chest sat in the center. I took a long drink of my coffee. I wanted to be wide awake before I opened it again. “Did you find anything else?”

“I found a photo of the coin. It’s a Spanish Reale from the 1715 fleet treasure, also called a piece of eight. It’s probably worth something in today’s market, but you should check with an antique coin trader to verify.”

I opened the chest and held the silver disc in my hand. It was heavier than a normal coin, about the size of a half-dollar, and showed signs of sea wear. “What do you know about Long John Silver?”

She moved back to the griddle and started another round of pancakes. “He was a pirate who sailed the seven seas looking for his long-lost love. She supposedly ran off with another pirate. He lived during the golden years of piracy and was on a ship called, get this, theSea Storm.”

“Gertie.” My head jerked her direction sloshing my coffee. “That’s the name written on the paper in the chest.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t find anything else about it. Silver got caught in the attack by Woodes Rogers, the famous English sea captain. Rogers chased the ships that escaped the blockade of the Nassau harbor under the notorious pirate Charles Vane.”

“Charles Vane?” The pirate whose ship Sasha boarded.

Gertie’s top-bun bobbed along with her head. “Silver killed Rogers in the scuffle and was arrested. Charles Vane fled and left Silver to take the heat.”

“How do you know all of this?”

“I googled him last night.”

“Rogers never became Governor of Nassau?”

“Not likely since he was dead.”

“How did Silver get caught?”

“Sorry. Google didn’t know. It was rumored that he found part of the lost treasure of the Spanish Fleet and left it to an unknown smuggler before he was…you know.” Her tongue slipped out of her mouth, and she pulled on an imaginary rope, tilting her head like it had a hangman’s noose.

A wave of nausea threatened to send my bacon back.

“Do you think Sasha is on a treasure hunt?”

“She’s definitely hunting something. And Marco is hunting her.” My heart squeezed. “Gertie, I feel terrible. I should have talked him out of staying. Talked him out of searching for Sasha.”

“How you gonna do that? Marco’s a big boy. Much too big for you to push around. Even if you knocked him out, how would you get him in your outhouse?”

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