Chapter 30

Suddenly Single—What a Trip!

Trixie! Guess what? Ned and I were so fed up with our friends that we ditched them and accidentally met up at the bar. We hit it off and didn't look back. We booked the chapel on board and got right back on the matrimonial bandwagon. We've decided we don't care if we're broke from here on out. The only thing we really want and need is each other. Who knew that a cruise full of ups and downs would circle back to us finding our way back to one another?

Cheers to second chances,

Shelby and Ned

Dear Shelby and Ned,

Congratulations! Your story is a beautiful reminder that sometimes the most unexpected detours lead us right back where we belong—in the arms of our true love. Here's to your rekindled romance, proving that the best things in life truly are free. May your future together be rich in joy, love, and shared adventures, no matter what the balance in your bank account may be. Cheers to second chances and to writing your own love story, one lucky bar visit at a time!

XOXO Trixie

"Not on my dead watch,"Hank shouts so loud my fingers slip, but just before I can sink right off the side of the ship, I'm hoisted up a notch and my hands clamp back onto the railing. My leg hikes over the lip as I flip right back to where I belong, onto the Emerald Queen.

A dark laugh strums from Elsie. "Giving me a challenge, are you?"

I scramble to my feet and try to circle around her, but she pulls me back by the hair.

A scream shrills from me before she slaps her palm over my mouth, but not before a couple of footfalls thump this way. She locks an arm around my neck as if she were about to snap it.

"Trixie?" Ransom shouts.

"Where are you?" Wes calls out. "What's happening?"

A muffled cry emits from me and it's enough to cause Elsie to drag me back toward the railing just as Ransom jumps out of the shadows with his gun pointed at us.

"Hello, Detective," Elsie says through heaving breaths. Wes shows up on his heels and she sputters a laugh. "And Captain? So glad you could join us." She walks us back until she butts up against the railing. "What are you going to do? Shoot me?" She laughs again. "You'll have to get your precious little angel first."

Ransom begins to lower his weapon and Hank tosses up his glowing arms.

"For goodness' sake," Hank growls. "What good is a weapon if you're not going to use it? Kill the witch, now!"

"What?" Elsie looks around and upward with a look of confusion. "Who said that?" Her hand slips from my mouth and I take a gulping breath.

"That was Hank," I call out. "His ghost." I look up at Elsie as she shakes her head. "It's true," I say. "Ransom, she can hear Hank because she's touching me. If anyone touches my flesh, they can hear the dead, too."

"Would you shut up," Elsie shouts at me. "The only dead things around here are the two of us. I'm going to hell and I'm taking you with me."

"The heck you are," Hank shouts as he descends upon us. Elsie hoists the two of us halfway over the railing, and just like that both Ransom and Wes pounce over us, landing us back onto the deck in a tangle of bodies.

"Good work." Hank's disembodied voice sounds as if the good Lord Himself just spoke into a megaphone. "And now it's time for me to head back to paradise, back to the pirates bay in the sky—back to Roger, where I'm sure I'll find him waiting for me. Thank you, Trixie. As for you, Elsie, I hope you think long and hard about how foolish it is what you've done. Two lives lost, and now a third—your own as you rot away in prison."

"What the heck is happening?" she calls out as she looks to the sky. "I'm sorry, Hank," she calls out. "I'm sorry about Roger, too." She breaks out in a full-blown sob just as Quinn and the rest of the security detail show up.

Wes picks up Elsie and she's quickly handcuffed and carted off.

"Goodbye, Trixie," Hank shouts out as he drifts into the sky and begins to dissipate among the stars. I lunge forward and snatch up Ransom's hand. "Yes, goodbye to you, too, Detective," he rumbles. "You should listen to Trixie more often, believe her. Women are often, if not always, right. Don't wait a lifetime to learn that lesson."

I watch as Ransom's eyes widen at the sky and his lips purse to a tight knot as he contemplates it.

He nods my way. "I heard it all," he says. "Every last word."

He wraps his arms around me and pulls me close to the rail.

"You're not going to throw me overboard, are you?" I tease half-heartedly. "Because the last person who tried was dragged away in handcuffs."

We turn in the direction she was hauled off in, and the revelry of the party hardly breaks its stride. It's clear the rest of the Jolly Roger Crew is in the dark about what just happened.

"No, I would never dream of throwing you overboard," Ransom says, holding me so close I can feel his heart beating against my chest as if it were trying to break its way in. "But I would dream of doing this." He lands a kiss on my lips that starts off slow, then picks up to something far more heated. He pulls back slowly and his gaze hooks to mine. "I'm sorry I ever doubted you." He takes a deep breath. "Do you forgive me?"

"No," I say and his eyes widen a notch. "Because there's nothing to forgive. What's happened to me is strange. It's beyond strange. It's supernatural. And as sane people, we're not hardwired to think about the supernatural being real—at least not while we're still living and breathing on the planet. I completely understand why you would be hesitant to wrap your mind around it. Believe me, I'm still hesitating, and I've been immersed in this quirky quagmire since January."

His eyes close a moment. "I wish I could fix this for you. I wish I had known about it from the start so I could have at least been there for you. Although, I'm not sure I would have taken the news any better all those months ago." He brushes the hair from my eyes. "But I'm here for you now—and from here on out and that's never going to change."

"That sounds like a plan I can live with," I say with a laugh.

"So he knows?" someone calls out and we turn to see Bess coming this way with Nettie and Wes by her side.

"Of course, he knows," Nettie says in response. "She's only told him at least three different times. I find that to be the right ratio as far as getting men to truly absorb what you're saying."

Wes nods over to him. "Are you okay with this?"

"I have no choice," he says. "If Trixie is a part of this, so am I." He sinks his eyes to mine. "I want in on all of you."

"Ooh." Nettie slaps her hands together and rubs them. "Now we're getting to the good part."

"It's all the good part," I say as I look up at him and dot his lips with a kiss.

"And it only gets better from here on out," he says.

"All right, buddy." Wes slaps him on the back. "How about we head to the bar and celebrate your inauguration into the inner sanctum? I hear Blackbeard's Brew is pretty good."

"Wes." I smack him on the arm with a laugh. "Don't you even think about it."

We head to the bar and Wes treats us all to a bottle of the ship's finest champagne.

We toast to justice, to the truth, and to keeping secrets buried down deep—just like Davy Jones' locker.

Hank and Roger have been vindicated.

And strangely enough, so have I.