Page 53 of Under the Radar

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They ate breakfast the next morning on the balcony. In between bites of pancakes and eggs, they watched a manatee loll and lumber through the water. The sea animal acted the way Mo felt. She loved the lazy passage of time on this ship. Passengers trailed up and down the gangplank. Freeport would have to wait. She’d explore it another time. There was no way she was leaving the relative safety of the ship and risking Mac’s life by setting foot on dry land again.

His arms circled her and rested on her stomach. “You okay with staying onboard today?”

“Absolutely. I have no desire to repeat yesterday’s escape.” She relaxed her hands on top of his and squeezed.

“I’ve got something for you.” He reached in his shorts pocket, pulled out a small box, and flipped it open.

She glanced down at his hands and eyed the sparkling blue earrings. “Oh, Mac, they’re lovely. You’ve got nice taste.”

A small smile played at the corner of his lips. “We’ll see if you feel that way after I explain them to you.”

She tilted her head. “Why?”

“First of all, when I buy you jewelry, it will be a heck of a lot more stunning than these. But this pair has a specific purpose, and they’re meant to be understated, nondescript, and not draw a lot of attention.”

“I don’t understand. I think they’re charming.”

“Good. Then you won’t mind wearing them every day for a while. The left earring has a GPS chip in it, and the right has an audio feed. Don’t worry if you mix them up, as long as you wear both of them at the same time.” He turned his head and tapped his ear. “I have the earpiece to hear what’s going on in your audio feed. My phone is synced with these little beauties. The earrings enable me to know where you are at all times and hear not only your conversations but the background noise as well. They’re very sensitive.”

Mo moved out of his arms and took a step back. “You can hear everything?”

“They’re for your safety, Mo. You need to wear them.” He drew in a long breath. “We don’t want a repeat of what happened yesterday in Nassau.”

She toyed with the dangly earring in her right ear. “It’ll be odd having you listen to me when I use the bathroom or take a shower.”

“I don’t care what you’re doing in the bathroom, and I’ve seen you in the shower. You want the assurance that I’m around to help—if you need it. In a couple of days, we’ll be back in Baltimore away from the safety of this ship. The variables multiply by a thousand in an urban area.”

She placed a reassuring hand on his chest. “Yes, I get that, and I won’t take chances. It’ll be alright.”

“It’s not your behavior that I’m worried about, Mo, it’s the drug dealers that concern me. Not wearing these earrings increases your risk of being nabbed.”

“I trust you. You asked me in Nassau if I trusted you and I never answered. I trust you with my life. Give me the earrings.”

He handed her the box. “That drunk stooge in South Beach tagged you with the GPS before we went into the diner.”

“But you disabled the device.” End of story.

“I did. But I knew I had eyes on me from the moment we sat down in the diner. There was a guy across the street reading a newspaper, and a woman sitting in a car outside the restaurant watching us. At first, I thought it was paranoia related to the stress I’ve been under. I stood lookout while you were browsing shoes, and when the woman in the car did another drive-by, that’s when I acted, paid for the shoes, and we left.”

“We enjoyed the beach after that. Nobody bothered us there.”

“Remember when I carted you down to the ocean and we swam out a ways?”

“Yeah.”

“I woke you up because a swarm of off-road vehicles were roaming the beach in search of something or someone.”

Mo rubbed the back of her neck.

“You didn’t take your purse on the beach. You’d tossed it into the trunk. They knew we were on the beach—somewhere. Without the tag on your purse, they didn’t have a close enough location on us.”

“Alright. I’ll wear them.” She’d do anything to help him feel more relaxed after their narrow escape from Nassau.

“Wear them twenty-four hours a day, Mo, until you’re out of danger.”

“No way to turn them off, huh?”