14. A Better Chance with Poseidon
FOURTEEN
A BETTER CHANCE WITH POSEIDON
A strange smell entered Nadia’s dream. She woke up groggy, scrunching up her nose, to find the smell wasn’t in her dream at all. She sat up, and an ominous feeling overcame her, her instincts telling her something wasn’t right.
Quickly, she got out of bed, grabbed her robe, and wrapped it around her tightly before opening her door. The strange smell only became stronger as she did so. It smelled like …
Fuel?
She was now certain something was definitely wrong.
Adrenaline soaring through her, she hurriedly knocked on Leo’s then Amo’s doors, yelling, “Wake up!” loudly after she had tried to open their doors but found them locked.
She banged on the doors like their lives depended on it, her fist about to meet Amo’s door once more, only for it to miss when it was suddenly swung open.
“Jesus Christ!” A sleepy Amo finally appeared. “Is there a spider in your room or somet—”
“No! What?” Nadia was confused by the spider comment, but she didn’t have time to wonder where the fuck that had come from. “Something’s wrong. You smell that?” Her grave voice let him know the severity of her fears.
Amo simply sniffed the air once, and it was like the beast inside of him had awoken. Without a word, he went to Leo’s door.
“It’s locke—”
Using his arm to take the blow, he used his brute force to force it open before Nadia could even finish her word.
The sight of Amo frightened her. She had always seen him as a boy up until this moment, but now Nadia could see the soldier. It was like a beast had been locked away inside of him, waiting for its moment to break free.
Leo stood, shocked at the break-in. It was clear he had been throwing a shirt on, something that Amo hadn’t had the luxury of doing. But once he took in their appearances, Leo immediately understood the severity of the situation as well.
“Let me get my shoes.”
“No time,” Amo said, grabbing his arm and jerking him forward. None of them were going to be wearing shoes for whatever they were about to face.
Passing Nadia, Amo did the same—grabbing her arm firmly and giving a silent order that they were to stick together.
Quickly, they took the steps up, and once they were on the floor of the indoor living room, they heard a noise coming from outside on the deck, causing them to freeze in place. It was like the sound of a garage opening.
“What is that?” Nadia whispered with a hard swallow.
“I don’t know,” Amo answered with a worrying tone in his voice. For a second, it was like you could see the brave beast slip to reveal that he, too, was becoming afraid for them.
The soldier’s mind worked a mile per second, figuring out his next move, and then he suddenly decided. He brought Nadia’s and Leo’s hands together. “Wait here while I get Dante. I’ll be back with him in a second. If something happens, you two run for it, right off this boat and into the ocean.”
Nadia firmly nodded, as did Leo, all of them internally knowing they might have more of a fighting chance in the water than on the yacht.
What was once a bright oasis to them all weekend was now beginning to feel more and more like a death trap.
The eerie night making it feel like this might just be their burial site.
Certain they would listen to his order, Amo ran up the steps, and Nadia watched him until he disappeared.
It felt strange for her to take orders from Amo. She was much older; she should be the one to give orders and think about what they should do next, but something in her told her to trust the Caruso soldier. It came easy and felt safe to do so.
Nadia gave the hand in hers a squeeze that seemed more for herself than for him.
Glancing over at the teenager, she thought it had been alarming to see Amo the way he was in dire situations, but seeing Leo was something different altogether …
more frightening. There was no concern or worry on his beautiful, young face.
It was like she had seen acceptance for whatever was to come.
Her depths going to the gauze covering where his eye should be, she could see how desperately it needed to be changed.
It was stained with discharge and was starting to lift from where he must have slept on it after wearing it all day.
It was clear Leo no longer feared death.
His accident had rendered him dead inside already; therefore, there was nothing to fear.
It seemed almost a blessing in this moment as Nadia’s knees began to shake, but she knew better than to know it was actually a curse.
It made her soul hurt even more for him, even though they might only have moments left to live, but she wished he knew how precious those moments could be.
Leo squeezed her hand in return, and, unlike Nadia, he kept his grip tight, not letting it falter.
It was like her shaky legs had suddenly stopped as they found the strength to stand firm.
The boy gave her strength, sharing it between them selflessly, and that was when Nadia found peace, her gut telling her everything would be fine at the exact moment she heard running coming back down the steps from a returning Amo and Dante joining them.
The three men all gave a single look at each other, and Nadia found the comfort to know she was going to live then.
The overwhelming certainty that they were going to make it out alive was a strange and profound feeling, but her gut just told her it would be so.
And it was all because of the determined three before her.
Whatever they were about to be faced with was going to be no match for them.
Dante and Amo led the charge, while Leo still held her hand tightly as they followed their backs to go see what the noise had been.
They could hear muffled voices coming from below deck, and when they reached the railing quietly, they looked down into the ocean to see a tender was being deployed from its stowage.
“Hurry this thing up!” a voice hissed.
“I’m going as fast I can!” another one hissed.
“Well, I’d like to be fucking out of here when this thing blows!”
If it was even possible, Nadia’s heart pounded harder.
Dante and Amo gave each other another knowing look as Amo pointed to his chest then to the tender below. Dante nodded in return, pointing to his chest then to Leo and Nadia. When they nodded, it wasn’t a split-second later when their silent plan went into action, starting with Amo.
In one fast motion, Amo went over the railing, taking a dive into the ocean below and right beside the almost fully deployed tender.
“Now us,” Dante announced once their cover was officially blown. They had clearly wanted Amo to have the element of surprise by making him go first.
“What? Jump?” Nadia looked at him like he was fucking crazy. “Like when I did before I almost drowned?”
“Exactly,” Dante instructed. The voices of the ones already escaping told them that they had no time to do or get anything else. It was now or never.
Leo was already climbing to the other side of the railing.
A frustrated Dante pushed her to hurry. “You already did it wh—”
“Well, that was before I realized I couldn’t swim—AH!” Suddenly, Nadia was lifted into his arms then tossed overboard. All she had heard was, “You lived,” before she was surrounded by water.
Just as she was rising out of the water, two splashes erupted right beside her. It took her a second to catch her breath, coughing and blinking her eyes while she struggled to float.
It had been much different the first time she had jumped into the water. For one, it had been her choice to do so. Secondly, it was so dark now, and the ocean was a scary thing to be in at night.
Taking another wave straight to her face, she went under, thinking this was going to be it for her, when arms surrounded her, pulling her up to the surface once more.
“You’re fine,” a soothing voice told her, beginning to pull her through the water. “Just relax.”
Seeing it was Dante, she immediately did as she was told, knowing he had saved her from drowning before, so she trusted him enough to know this wasn’t going to be any different.
Dante swam them toward the tender while Nadia focused on trying to keep her head above the water. She couldn’t imagine the sheer strength he must’ve had for him to be able to do this, because Nadia was already exhausted just from trying to keep herself from taking on any more water.
They finally reached the tender, and she was grateful when Leo, who had already climbed on board, held out his hand for her to take.
Nadia took it like it was the lifeboat and was shocked he managed to pull her out of the water soaking wet.
She was not petite by any means, so she knew why Dante had to be the one to swim her to safety, as Leo was still quite young and hadn’t filled out yet.
Being brought onboard the small boat, she helped Leo bring up his father, as he was much heavier.
“We gotta get the fuck out of here,” Amo warned once they were all on. “Now!”
Nadia wiped the water from her eyes, coughing. She could see Amo’s back while he appeared to be facing the culprits with their bloody hands covering their faces. The soldier had obviously been busy.
Dante sprang into action, moving to the wheel to drive them away from the yacht. Even though this tender looked like a really nice speedboat to her, it was like going from Buckingham Palace to a shack with all six people onboard.
When Leo went to help Amo hold them in place, Nadia was able to finally see who was responsible.
Max … Lila?
She found herself more shocked by the latter, not believing the sweet woman could have done anything to hurt them.
Well, whatever they had or hadn’t done, she was about to find out as Dante cut the engine.
He had brought them quite a distance away from the yacht once he was certain enough they were out of harm’s way.
“Talk.”