Undertow Read Online Free Page B

nickname, Robbie,” I volleyed back, heaping food onto my father's plate.
    “I sure do,” he purred.
    I turned to find him eyeing me tightly, not willing to say what was truly on his mind. He had spent the time I was away with my father. Surely he had heard things that led him to believe I was in the wrong for fleeing to the lower forty-eight and living my life as I saw fit. Robbie and I were going to need a little time alone so I could find out exactly what those things were.
    “Ice, huh?” the greenhorn repeated, thinking he'd just gained leverage of some kind over me. He would soon find out that he had nothing of the sort. While the others either put their heads down and ate or watched with curiosity, I wheeled around, spatula in hand, to confront the newbie.
    “The only ice you'll be talking about on this trip is the kind that you'll be beating off the side of the boat if the weather takes a nosedive, understand? My name is Aesa, pronounced Ice-ah. Not Ice. Not Aye. Not anything other than the name my mother gave me the day I was born.”
    “I was just pulling your leg—”
    “What's your name, kid?”
    “Brad.”
    “Great. Let me fill you in on a little something, Brad . I'm the go-to girl around here for meals and the medic when you're hurt, because it's not an 'if' but a 'when' you’ll need my help. If I were you, I would do my best to stay on my good side. Calling me Ice will be highly counterproductive in that endeavor, got it?”
    He stared at me blankly, as if he wasn't quite certain how to proceed. The others, however, roared with laughter. All but one. Prison Tats seemed unimpressed by my rant and certainly didn't find anything humorous about it. He was staring me down coldly, and it made my skin start to crawl.
    “Wow, Aesa. You really welcomed him to the boat,” Robbie added, quickly silencing the others in the room.
    I shrugged in response.
    “Like you guys are going to coddle him,” I retorted, knowing full well that after a long push without food or sleep, they would be all over him like ugly on a gorilla. I was just pointing out the obvious. Most greenhorns cracked under the pressure. Either the job was too grueling or the scorn they endured from the crew too great—he was soon going to find out one way or another. I just hoped whatever physical injuries he sustained in the process were manageable with my small medical kit and whatever else my father had on board to deal with an emergency.
    “I'm going upstairs,” I announced, turning away from the crew to take my father his meal and hopefully eat mine in peace. Robbie had picked at some wounds that I was not expecting to deal with so soon, and especially not from him. It was easy to forget that he'd known me so long and so well that he would be comfortable calling me out without thinking twice.
    I carried the plate up the stairs to the wheelhouse to find my father where he would spend the majority of the trip. The captain of a fishing vessel gets little rest, and, though his job was not physically taxing, it was a test of mental fortitude and endurance. It also required massive amounts of caffeine, nicotine, and various others things to help them through their sleepless nights, grinding through their gear (as the fishermen called it), for hours on end without stopping.
    “I brought you some food,” I said upon entering.
    “Thank you.”
    Silence fell heavy between us as he ate and drove. I was content to just acclimate to his presence again while I poked around at my meal, not needing to fill the near quiet with idle chatter. There was no way to even try making up for years of disdain and distance in one evening, so it seemed futile to try. Instead, I sat across the tiny room from him and stared out at the black night as it bled into the sea, painting her the villain in all her darkness. I questioned why I had agreed to come and face her when she had taken so much from me, but deep down I knew the answer. Regret was something I