Chapter Twenty-Seven
T y pulled out of the small channel and a bright spotlight hit us so unexpectedly, I gasped.
My hand went to my forehead to block the blinding light, and Ty swore a second before my eyesight adjusted.
Dante stood on the deck of the huge yacht.
“Hold on,” Ty clipped.
It was all the warning I got.
Cutting the wheel hard as he threw the throttle forward, Ty spun the long speedboat like a race car, and we shot around the yacht.
Yelling erupted on the yacht, then wind whipped past my head.
“Fuck!” Grabbing my arm, Ty dragged me in front of him. “Hold the wheel straight and stay down.” Turning, he swung the rifle hanging from a strap over his shoulder to his front and began firing.
Three shots rang out, and my hands jerked.
The boat jumped, and Ty cursed, grabbing my hand. “Steady, steady.” He fired off two more shots. “Hold it steady!”
I gripped the steering wheel as bullets plinked into the boat.
Ty fired two more times, then pulled the trigger a third time but no shot rang out.
“ Motherfucker .” Yanking the strap off his head, he threw the rifle overboard, then took the wheel. “Stay down!” Cutting left, he grabbed the gun from his back waistband and fired round after round behind us.
Flying across the water, the boat tipped hard and fast, then slammed into a wave.
Water sprayed over us, and Ty pulled the trigger three more times, then cut right.
The boat went airborne, my body left the deck, then we slammed back down on the surface of the water.
My tailbone smarted, and my teeth hit.
Still miraculously tucked between his legs, I gripped the edge of the captain’s chair.
He grabbed my hand and put it on his leg. “Hold on!”
He cut left again, then back to the right, fired two more times, then threw the gun overboard.
The boat alternately flew over the waves and slammed down into the wakes. My body took a beating being thrown up and down. Sea spray covered my skin. My heart pounded, my arm throbbed, and anger and fear mixed into a treacherous swell more dangerous than the open waters Ty was racing us over.
As the spotlight stayed on our backs and the night closed in around us, I didn’t know how we were going to live through this, but I did know one thing. I didn’t want to be in this situation with anyone else. Ty wasn’t my savior. He was a warrior.
And as soon as I thought it, I understood how very true it was. Everything he’d done to get us off the island, every kill, every move, every glance, it was all calculated and it was all for my safety. If you could fall in love with the principles of a man whose moral compass was slightly off kilter, I fell in love with Ty.
Glancing behind us, Ty grabbed my shoulder. “Up, up, up.” Holding my arm tight, he guided me to the seat next to his. “Sit, head down,” he clipped, glancing behind us again and swearing as he cut inland.
Suddenly the coastline appeared with a sea of twinkling lights.
Relief shot through my frayed nerves and hope soared… until he spoke.
“Can you swim?”
Alarm spreading, I looked at the man who was more handsome while driving a getaway boat than any other man I’d ever laid eyes on.
His biceps flexed, his thick thighs holding his body steady, his huge hands deftly handing the boat, his short hair whipping in the wind, he looked over his shoulder with fierce determination.
Wishing I could find my voice, I tapped his arm.
He glanced back at me.
I fumbled through signing. We’re too far out from shore.
“I’m coming in closer, baby.” He glanced at the yacht a fair distance behind us again. “But I’m gonna get them off your tail. Here’s the plan.”
My tail? I was already shaking my head.
“We’ve got less than a minute,” he warned. “So listen up.”
I started to tremble in the humid night air.
“I’m going in to the main marina, and I’m gonna drop you off. Then you’re gonna run like hell while I get them off your tail. Memorize this number.” He rattled off a number. “Say it back to me.”
I didn’t. I couldn’t.
He repeated the number. “That’s André Luna’s number. Call him. Borrow a phone, steal one, I don’t care, call him and tell him where you are. Then hide .”
My head was shaking an adamant no. I didn’t want to leave his side.
“I’ll come for you,” he promised, as if reading my mind. “But not until I get Dante off your six. Understand?” He repeated the number again. “Say it back to me.”
Panicked, I blinked.
“Say it back to me!” he barked.
I fumbled through signing the number.
He nodded then glanced toward the mainland before looking back at the huge yacht that was gaining on us. “It’s gonna be close,” he warned. “They’re closing in. If I can’t get you right up to the dock, you’re gonna jump and swim in.”
I vigorously shook my head. It was dark and there was God knew what in the water, and I didn’t want to jump over the side of a boat, but more and more, I didn’t want to be separated from him. Yes, he was my safety net, and he’d stood between me and bullets flying at us, and I didn’t want to leave him, but he was neglecting one crucial fact. Dante wouldn’t kill me, not yet, not until he got whatever he wanted from my father, but he would kill Ty. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill him, and if I wasn’t with Ty, I didn’t know what would happen to him, and I couldn’t leave him. Not now.
I started to sign that, but Ty grabbed one of my hands. “Stop. We have to do it this way. You’ll be fine.”
I pulled out of his grasp and quickly signed. What about you?
His glance at me was quick and sharp and held a thousand unspoken words. “I’ll be fine.” He pulled back on the throttle and cut right, easing toward the opposite side of a dock jutting out from the marina. “Get ready, baby, because this is gonna be quick. I don’t want them to see you getting off. Where’s your gun?”
I glanced around the deck and saw it under my feet. Quickly grabbing it, I sat back up and looked at him. Was it waterproof?
“Come here,” he demanded.
Holding on to my seat with one hand, I stepped toward him.
No warning, he yanked my dress up, took the gun, tucked it in the front of the boxers and pulled my dress back down. “Be strong.” He kissed my forehead.
It happened so fast, my breath caught and my heart faltered. My hand went to the bulge in the front of my dress, and I looked up at him.
That’s why I didn’t see it, not until it was too late.
But I heard it.
A red boat sped around the marina and came at us from the opposite side of the dock full throttle.
“ Motherfucking shit , JUMP!”
I froze.
Ty didn’t.
Grasping me by the waist, lifting me up, he threw me overboard.
Instinct kicked in, and I grabbed my nose with one hand and held the gun to me with the other as I dropped into the shockingly cold ocean.
The water black as pitch, icy and deep, made sheer terror take hold, and I thrashed to get to the surface. Letting go of my nose, letting go of the gun, my heart threatening to stop, I flailed all my limbs in a desperate attempt to break the surface.
Something slimy slithered against my leg, and my head broke the surface as a scream caught in my throat. The roar of boat engines and the smell and taste of gas choking me worse than the vile smelling water, I brushed my hair back and scanned for both the speedboat and a way out of this hell.
My gaze landed on the yellow speedboat, and hell as I knew it compounded.
Before Ty could clear the marina, the red boat slammed into him.
The thud and crack of fiberglass colliding and breaking rushed across the surface of the water and split the night’s ignorant peace as the yellow boat crashed into the marina. Ty’s body slammed into the opposite side of the boat, his head snapped back and the whole boat tipped. Thrown against the dock, Ty bounced off like a rag doll.
Then he fell face-first into the water.
I opened my mouth to scream but nothing came out.