He began the walk back to the Mermaid’s Darling. He yearned for a cigarette, but he’d forgotten they were in his pocket when he went into the water – they were soaked.

Jesse had looked to Ahab as a father figure on occasion. All three of those Dempsey boys had – Mackenzie, Davey and Jesse.

Then Mackenzie had got lost trying to navigate the short end of the stick, Davey had become arrogant as he grew into his charm and his brains, and Jesse . . . well, the cracks had shown in Jesse the moment he’d become hooked on the ice. His father had been a bastard, and Jesse had grown up into the same angry man, but the ice addiction made it so much worse.

If Ivy wouldn’t help him, then he’d have to find another way to get to Forest.

Because only one thing mattered now: Forest was going to tell Ahab what happened. One way or another, Ahab would make him talk.

CHAPTER 34

FOREST

Watching from the side of the house, fully dressed, barely able to breathe in the humid late-night heat, Forest first watched Ahab sink to his knees and then Ivy waltz back into the house.

He hadn’t heard every word. Only parts of it. But he’d pieced it together.

Blackbeard . . .

Blackbeard wants something from me.

A thrill of fear ran through him.

What did the real Forest Dempsey know that was of use to Blackbeard?

With Ivy returning, he raced back inside, through the door to his room and beneath the covers.

Zeus flopped onto him, putting his leg over Forest as though he’d never left the bed. When he heard Ivy crack the door open and check up on him, he feigned a gentle snore.

He listened to the creak of her footsteps and, once she was gone, he was out of the bed again, grabbing a torch and shoes, and out the door, easily slipping down the stairs to the beach – really, what was the point of the patrol car when there were two ways to get to the house?

But rather than heading to Huck, as he’d been planning tonight, he now knew he had to get up to Homeward – Mackerel was the one he needed. It was the only way he could keep this going.

Walking along the sand, startling a group of gulls into flight, he could barely breathe, such was the panic within him. Blackbeard wanted something from Forest but, worse still, so did Ahab. All the research he’d done had made it clear that Ahab Stark was the biggest danger to his scheme – he was perceptive, confident, and if he had any mental cracks to exploit, Forest hadn’t been able to expose them.

Stop. Calm down.