Maritime Caper
Coastal Fury book 12
Matt Lincoln
Contents
Prologue
1. Ethan
2. Ethan
3. Ethan
4. Ethan
5. Tessa
6. Ethan
7. Ethan
8. Ethan
9. Holm
10. Ethan
11. Ethan
12. Ethan
13. Ethan
14. Ethan
15. Ethan
16. Ethan
17. Ethan
18. Tessa
19. Ethan
20. Ethan
21. Ethan
22. Ethan
23. Holm
24. Ethan
25. Tessa
26. Ethan
27. Ethan
28. Ethan
29. Ethan
30. Ethan
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Prologue
I stared at the clock on the back wall of the bar as I listened to the sounds of the surrounding crowd. It was a good night for the bar. It had been a good series of nights, actually, and we’d made more in the past couple of weeks than we usually did in a month.
And yet, somehow, I wasn’t feeling it.
“Why the long face?” one of my bar girls, Rhoda, asked as she passed me with a tray full of drinks to deliver to a group of retirees in the corner.
“No long face,” I said dryly. “Just tired is all.”
“They’ll be back in,” she grinned, winking at me as if she knew exactly what I was thinking. “They’re never able to stay away for long.”
I sighed. Apparently, it was obvious what I was thinking, no matter how much I hated to admit it to myself. As busy as the bar had been lately, and as great as it was serving all of my regular customers, old and new, something had been missing for the past few weeks. Or rather, someone.
My gaggle of fans that Mike, the former owner of the bar, had introduced to me what I realized was a while ago now hadn’t been around in weeks. Mike had gotten me to start telling the group of young naval cadets stories from my career in law enforcement after I retired from the Navy SEALS myself, and they’d taken to my tall tales mightily.
The last time the kids were in, I’d told them the story of how my partner and I had been sent down to the Florida Keys to rescue another missing agent after he’d been abducted by an international drug syndicate. They’d seemed more than interested in that story, and one of those old retirees sitting in the corner had even listened in.
I waved to the man, and he waved and grinned back at me, beckoning me over to his booth.
“Hey, son,” he said when I arrived, always smiling when he saw me. “I’ve been telling my friends here all about your stories! Half of ‘em can’t even believe it. Heck, I don’t know if I do myself!”
“Thanks, Mark,” I said with a laugh. “And we really do appreciate all the business you’ve been bringing into the bar lately.”
“My pleasure,” he chuckled. “Now I haven’t seen your little friends around here since that first night. Do they not come in all that much?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I said with a shrug, trying to play it off as if I hadn’t noticed the kids’ absence. “They’re busy with camp. And I’m sure there are more hip bars around where they could spend their free time.”
This was true enough. My bar wasn’t exactly a hot spot for the younger crowd and tourists, and that was by design. I liked keeping it more of a local place, keeping my life nice and quiet. Still, I had to admit that I was wondering where Jeff, Ty, and the rest of their crew had been lately.
I glanced out the front doors as if I expected to see the motley crew of military trainees making their way inside, begging to hear what happened next in my long and hectic career with the Military Border Liaison Investigative Services, or MBLIS for short. But no one was there.
I shook my head to clear it and turned back to Mark and his buddies.
“Do any of you guys need a refill?” I asked them, and a couple of them passed me their empty glasses.
I grabbed them and made my way back to the bar to get the refills, passing Rhoda again on my way.
I turned my back to the doors as I deposited the used glasses into a pile of dirty dishes and filled new ones for Mark and his friends from the retirement home. Then I returned to the table with fresh drinks in hand.
“Thank you very much!” Mark said as he took his from me, holding the glass up as if to toast me. “I don’t know what I’d do if I hadn’t found this place. I was going crazy holed up in there, I’m telling you.”
“Hey, it’s not so bad,” one of the other old men said defensively. “We have a pool. And bridge!”
“Bridge,” Mark scoffed, shaking his head at me. “Can you believe these guys?”
“I don’t know,” I chuckled, shaking my head right back at him. “You guys let me know if you need anything else, okay?”
“Sure thing,” Mark said as I started to walk away. “Hey, look, here they are!”
I spun around at the old man’s excitement to see none other than Jeff, Ty, Mac, and Charlie pushing through the front doors to my bar and laughing amongst themselves.
I’d be lying if I said that my spirits didn’t lift at the sight of them. But I didn’t tell them that, of course.
“Hey guys,” Mark called to them, waving them over. “Long time no see.”
The kids all meandered over to the booth where Mark and his friends sat, characteristic wide grins on their youthful faces.
“Yeah, well, we’ve been stuck on the base the past couple of weeks,” Jeff explained with a shrug. “This is the first time we’ve been able to get out in ages.”
“Well, we’re glad to see you,” I chuckled, secretly relieved that the kids hadn’t been choosing some other bar over me. “Why don’t you guys take a seat, and I’ll grab you some drinks?”
Everyone who worked at the bar knew their orders by now, considering how often they came in and how long they stayed when they did.
“Hey, it’s pretty busy in here,” Ty said as he slid into the long booth
