Hell or High Water (Deep Six #1)(106)

He blinked the rain and salt spray from his eyes and saw his brave midshipman bending over him. “How many made the shore?” he yelled. The manic gale grabbed his words and flung them out to sea.

“Thirty-six!” Rosario screamed, pointing.

Bartolome looked in the direction of his finger and saw through the sheets of horizontal rain the small group of men gathered near the tree line. They were bedraggled, bleeding from various wounds sustained during the breakup of the ship and the swim across the cutting coral of the reef. Some of them were so broken they were being carried by the others. But there were thirty-six who had survived the mighty wreck of the Santa Cristina.

Thirty-six…

Which meant 188 had not. And those lives were lost because he had not been prepared to face Mother Ocean’s wrath so early in the season. Because he was arrogant and had not taken shelter sooner. He felt the weight of their deaths like a lodestone on his soul. He should not be alive. He was the captain. He was meant to go down with the ship. All the warmth of his momentary joy at being alive froze solid inside him.

Grabbing the front of Rosario’s shirt, he yanked the man down until they were face-to-face. “Why did you save me?” he bellowed as sand flew around them, stinging exposed skin. “You should have let me die with my ship! With my men!”

“Look, Captain!” Rosario shouted, pointing anew. When Bartolome followed the line of his finger past the frothing lagoon to where huge breakers exploded over the reef, he saw it. The Santa Cristina’s main mast. It jutted from the sea like a triumphant finger, pointing to the heavens as if beckoning to God. “You did it! She can be salvaged! All is not lost!”

And as Bartolome allowed his midshipman to pull him to his feet, satisfaction flickered to life inside the cold stone that was his heart. The great treasure of the Santa Cristina would rise again. For king and country!

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