Chapter 5 #2
She caught up to Stone on the fourth level. Together, they crept along a grated walkway that overlooked the dive platform.
They crouched side by side and peered over the railing.
Five men in tactical gear clustered around a massive metal capsule, suspended from the main crane by thick steel cables that gleamed dully in temporary lights as they lowered it into the water.
Stone leaned closer. “What are they doing?”
She blinked, surprised he was asking her. “They’re lowering that thing down the Northern leg.”
“Why? What’s down there?”
She squinted, scanning the setup. “Just the support structure. At least, that’s all that used to be down there.”
Stone’s expression darkened. “They’re using the rig legs.”
“For what?” Frankie demanded.
He hesitated just long enough to confirm her suspicion that he wasn’t telling her everything.
She eased closer to him, voice rising. “What the hell’s going on?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me,” she snapped. “Tell me, or I swear—”
“Calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down. Men lost their jobs over this bullshit. I lost my job.” She jabbed a finger into her chest. “I’m gonna find out what’s going on, with or without your help.”
Rage simmered hot under her skin.
Stone ran a hand over his face. “Look. I don’t know everything. That’s—”
She turned away, fed up.
He grabbed her arm and yanked her back.
“Frankie, I’m telling the truth. I’ve been tracking electronic signatures in this area.” He looked like admitting that much was killing him. “I’ve been trying to—”
“Hey! Up there!” A shout echoed from below.
Flashlight beams swung toward their position.
“Shit!” Stone hissed. “Run!”
Gunfire erupted behind them as they sprinted across the catwalk.
Frankie screamed as sparks ricocheted off the railing. Her ankle twisted and pain shot up her leg. She clenched her jaw and pushed through, desperate to keep up with his long strides.
Stone reached the maintenance hatch and turned, waving her forward. “Come on! Come on!”
She ducked through the hatch just as bullets slammed into the thick steel behind her. The impacts rang like an alarm bell.
“Climb! Go!” Stone grabbed her hips and boosted her onto the ladder.
Pain flared through her ankle, but she forced it down, scrambling upward with Stone right behind her. The roar of the engine outside cut off, leaving a silence that felt just as loud. Now, every creak of the ladder could give them away.
Her thoughts spun, wild and panicked.
What the hell were those men doing?
How do we get out of this?
Am I going to die here?
“Frankie,” Stone hissed. “We need one of those secret passages of yours.”
His voice snapped her back into focus, and she pictured the rig’s layout, mentally tracing a route from their current level to the Southern leg where she’d stashed Kevin. “Okay. I’ve got it.”
“Good. Lead the way. I’ve got your back.”
He’s got my back.
His comment burned through the chaos in her mind.
She climbed out at level three and led him through a maze of narrow corridors and grease-streaked service tunnels. Gunfire and shouted commands echoed through the rig like a storm closing in.
“This way!” She veered left toward an emergency exit.
They burst out onto an open platform. The first light of dawn had the horizon tinged in orange and casting harsh shadows across the steel floor.
“What now?” Stone asked, scanning the empty deck.
“We jump,” she said.
“Jump?” He blinked. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding?”
“Nope. Kevin’s right below us.”
“Who the fuck is Kevin?”
“My kayak.”
Stone stared at her, then he nodded like that made perfect sense. He adjusted the rifle across his chest and moved to the edge. “This is gonna hurt.”
She smacked his chest with the back of her hand. “Ya big baby.”
She took four quick steps back, sprinted forward, and jumped.
The wind howled past her as she tucked into a tight ball, shielding her throbbing ankle. Steel blurred around her as the rig’s superstructure whipped by. She glanced down the leg toward where she’d tied up Kevin.
But Kevin wasn’t alone.
A small jon boat bobbed beside the landing dock, rocking gently in the chop.
So that’s how Stone found me.
Then the water hit like a freight train.
Cold. Brutal. Unforgiving.
She plunged deep, and the shock slammed through her body like a hundred fists. Pressure crushed her chest and squealed in her ears. It was like hitting concrete wrapped in ice.
Jesus. We used to do this for fun.
Back when the rig was calm, the sun was hot, and the ocean felt like a playground. Back when she had a job, a future . . . and a reason to laugh.
A roar of bubbles surged toward her, and she twisted just in time to avoid Stone crashing into her like a human torpedo.
She didn’t stick around to check if he was okay.
The light above shimmered, distorted, and unreachable, and kicking hard, she clawed through the water, dragging herself upward. Her lungs screamed as she finally broke the surface with a gasp, spluttering and wiping her wet hair from her face.
Stone surfaced a few feet away and scanned his surroundings.
“Come on!” he barked, already swimming toward the dock.
She followed, ignoring the sharp, tearing pain in her ankle. Every kick felt like fire, but she didn’t stop.
They reached the floating platform and hauled themselves up with water streaming from their clothes and pooling on the steel.
A sharp crack split the air and a bullet sparked off the dock, missing Frankie’s head by inches.
She yelped.
“Fuck!” Stone roared as bullets pinged around them in wicked ricochets.
One zipped past her ear, close enough to make her duck.
“Get in the boat!” he shouted, sprinting toward the jon boat tied off the side.
“I need Kevin!” she cried, spinning toward the support leg. “My kayak has to be—”
“Frankie!” Stone grabbed her arm as another round sparked off the metal by her foot. “There’s no time!”
She twisted in his grip, reaching for the rope, desperate to untie Kevin.
Stone lifted her off the deck like she weighed nothing and tossed her into his boat. “Sit. Down.”
Gunfire shredded the air behind him as he leaped aboard after her, one hand freeing the mooring line, the other slamming the throttle forward.
The engine roared, and the boat lurched, surging forward across the shallow waves. Frankie twisted around, watching the rig shrink behind them. On the upper deck, five men stood silhouetted against a blood-orange sunrise, still firing at their fleeing boat.
Her gaze flicked to the buoy in the distance and her boat was still tied just where she’d left it. She clenched her jaw. It could stay there for now. She didn’t know if she could trust Stone yet, and she’d come back for her boat once she’d shaken him off her tail.
Curling into herself, her soaked clothes clung like a second skin. She clenched her fists and sucked in short, angry breaths.
If those bastards hadn’t chased them up the ladder, they would have been in their boats within seconds, and she and Stone would still be under fire. They’d gotten lucky.
They were halfway back to the bayou shoreline when Stone finally spoke. “I’ll buy you another kayak.”
“You can’t replace Kevin.” She didn’t look at him.
He chuckled as if she were being dramatic.
She glared at him with her eyes as sharp as her knife blade.
His laughter died, and he turned his gaze forward again.
As the shoreline drew closer, shadows crept across the tangled bayou, and cypress trees rose from the mist. The scenery was so hauntingly beautiful that it made her wish she’d taken up painting instead of sculpture.
Her mind drifted back to the rig.
Back to Kevin.
Her kayak was the only gift her father had ever given her that meant something. She never wore the cheap jewelry he claimed made her look “pretty,” never used the pink handbag he found at the secondhand store, or the blue one.
But Kevin was her freedom. A lifeline to the waterways that felt more like home than the weathered stilt house her dad had built with his own hands.
Kevin was hers. She’d spent hours carving her name deep into the kayak’s tough plastic, ignoring her dad’s amused chuckles and shaking head.
Ice flooded her veins. “Oh fuck.”
Stone snapped his gaze to her. “What?”
“My name is carved into my kayak.”
He made a sound, half growl, half groan, like he was about to explode.
“Everyone in the rig community knows who I am.” She held his gaze.
Dread flared in his eyes. “Son of a bitch!”
Those bastards didn’t have to chase them.
They wouldn’t need to.
A cold ache twisted in her gut. She’d just handed them directions straight to her doorstep.