Chapter 20
FRANKIE
Frankie clung to Stone, and he crushed her to his chest while the cage dropped. Sparks hissed through the mesh, the cage scraping and bumping as it rocketed down the shaft. Flashes of fire streaked by.
The red light indicating the cage was in motion was dead, along with the button panel.
They had no control.
They fell too fast.
She strangled Stone in her grip. The roar of the descent drowned every other sound.
We’re gonna die, we’re gonna die, we’re gonna fucking die.
The cable snapped tight. The cage jerked to a brutal stop.
The wind punched out of her as they crashed to the cage floor in a tangle of limbs. Frankie hit hard on her side. Pain shot up her spine, and a shriek tore from her throat as white-hot agony ripped across her ankle.
“Frankie!” Stone scrambled toward her, trying to roll her over, but there wasn’t enough room. “Fuck! Are you okay?”
“No,” she rasped. “I’m fucking sick of nearly dying today.”
Smoke poured into the cage. She sucked in the caustic air and coughed.
He let out a breath, half laugh, half relief. “Nearly dying’s better than the alternative.”
“Are you always such a positive bastard?”
“Nope. You’re rubbing off on me.”
Wincing, she tried to push up. “Pretty sure my ankle just doubled in size.”
“Shit. Okay, hang on.” He stood, and bending over, he slid an arm beneath her and pulled her upright. “Let’s get out of here.”
Holding her to his side, he kicked open the buckled cage gate, and they hobbled out.
Frankie froze, jaw slack as she took in the sheer bedlam around them. It was like the set of an apocalypse movie. . . only real, and way fucking worse. Every piece of equipment was broken, twisted, or burning. Some were all three. It was all so wrong.
“Frankie! Which way?”
She turned in a slow circle, disoriented. Nothing looked familiar.
Finally, the hazard-striped entrance she’d been searching for came into view. The buckled opening was pouring out smoke.
“That way.” She pointed toward the smoke-filled corridor. “Exit door’s at the end.”
“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.”
“No other way.” A coughing fit doubled her over, and she pressed her arm against her mouth.
The floor shuddered beneath them. Stone locked his arm around her waist, half carrying her as they stumbled toward the exit. Somewhere above, metal screamed a deep, grinding howl that made her blood run cold.
The corridor tilted.
“Oh fuck.” Her stomach lurched. “The floor’s dropping.”
“Move!” Stone dragged her forward as pain sliced up her leg.
The entire structure convulsed. Behind them, pipes exploded with cannon-like booms. Bolts pinged off steel walls like deadly shrapnel.
The lights flickered once, then died. Pure darkness swallowed them whole.
“Ah, for fuck’s sake!” Stone’s voice echoed off the walls. “We have to get out of here.”
“Yeah, no shit. What do we do?”
“Keep going.” Stone released her waist and seized her hand, crushing it in his grip. “Use the wall.”
“I hope the damn floor doesn’t drop out from under us.” Her heart pounded as she tested each step on the swaying metal.
They crept forward in the pitch black, hands locked together, fingertips trailing the wall. The corridor amplified every sound into a nightmare symphony of groaning steel, hissing steam, and bolts rocketing from the walls like bullets.
A massive explosion thundered through the rig, deep and violent. Like Blackwater Deep was tearing itself apart from the inside out.
Frankie’s scream ripped from her throat. “What the hell was that?”
“Fucked if I know.” Stone yanked her forward, nearly lifting her off her feet.
A faint glow finally outlined a door ahead.
“There!” She pointed. Hope surged through her veins.
Please let us get out!
Stone lunged forward, dragging her with him. “Thank Christ.”
He slammed his shoulder into the door, and they burst onto an open platform. Dense smoke engulfed them, burning her lungs. Wind howled in off the ocean, tearing through the toxic haze and whipping it into ghostly spirals that danced around them like demons.
Above them, the sky churned like black poison. Daybreak’s weak light barely pierced the horizon as black storm clouds pressed down like a suffocating blanket.
Smoke writhed around them, smothering everything. Deep in the rig’s belly, another explosion rocked the platform. The deck bucked beneath them, just about sending them ass over.
Stone scanned the sky.
“Where the hell is our chopper?” He jammed his fingers against his radio. “Cross! Patch! McGuire, do you read? Over!”
His dark gaze drilled into her, and ice flooded her veins.
Where are they? Oh God, please let them be okay.
“McGuire!” The raw edge in his voice highlighted his anguish. “Answer me, damn it!”
His jaw clenched as he lowered the radio, eyes haunted with a dread that terrified her.
The rig released a sound like she’d never heard before. The death cry of ten thousand tons of steel. Lights sparked across towers and walkways, then blinked out. One by one, massive towers peeled away like dead skin, crashing into the violent sea below.
This was the rig’s violent death throes.
“We have to get off here.” Stone’s arm locked around her waist as he half-carried her to the platform’s edge.
Smoke parted for a breath, and thirty feet below, the ocean churned, black, and violent, and unforgiving. Waves slammed into the steel legs. The wind tore at their clothes, their skin, and their balance.
It was like nature was furious at Blackwater Deep for giving up.
Frankie shoved her hair out of her face.
“Okay!” she yelled over the roar. “Now we jump!”
Stone nodded. “Copy that. On three—”
A man surged out of the smoke, blood pouring down one side of his face. His torn clothes were streaked with soot.
Nick O’Halloran.
He charged straight for them.
Before she could make sense of it, he hit Stone like a wrecking ball. They collided with a sickening crunch and crashed to the deck.
“No!” Frankie staggered back, heart slamming against her ribs.
Their fight exploded in front of her. Fast and feral. Stone hammered his fists into Nick’s ribs. Nick roared and slammed a brutal punch into Stone’s jaw. They kicked, grappled, and rolled across the rusted deck in a blur of limbs and punches.
Every hit landed with bone-cracking force. Their breaths came in wild, guttural bursts.
Blood sprayed across the metal floor.
“Shit. No.”
Was that Stone’s blood? Or Nick’s?
Stone punched Nick’s temple, snapping his head sideways. Nick barely faltered as he lunged again, driving an elbow into Stone’s ribs. Stone choked on air and struck back, punching Nick in the throat.
Frankie coughed as smoke and ash whipped around her in choking swirls.
The men slammed into each other again and again.
Frankie had seen men fight before, but this was different.
This wasn’t just a fight.
This was savage.
Nick roared and drove Stone’s head into the deck with a sickening crack.
“No!” Frankie lunged forward, aiming a kick at Nick’s side. Pain tore through her ankle and she collapsed hard, landing on her hands and knees.
Do something. Move, goddammit.
Scanning through smoke and shadows, she searched the wreckage for a weapon. A pipe. A wrench. Anything.
Stone elbowed Nick in the jaw, then slammed a knee into his gut. They rolled again, and blood smeared the deck beneath them.
One of them is going to die.
Frankie forced herself up, teeth clenched, ankle screaming. She felt useless. Stone’s fighting for his life, and I’m fucking hopeless.
Where’s his gun?
Shit! When I slipped on the crane, Stone dropped the gun to save me.
The rig let out a deep, shuddering groan, followed by a deafening crack that split the air. A massive steel beam tore loose overhead, shearing through the metal brackets holding it in place, and slammed down across the deck like a giant metal anaconda.
Frankie staggered back as the beam exploded into a million pieces of jagged shrapnel.
The men didn’t seem to notice. They rolled closer to her, and she balled her fist and punched Nick’s back.
It was like hitting a wall. He didn’t even flinch.
“Get back!” Stone barked.
Her heart pounded. She wanted to kick Nick in the spine, but her ankle locked her in place.
The floor beneath them shuddered again, a low, sickening creak echoing through the rig. The entire structure seemed to be on the brink of collapse.
“Frankie! Jump! Now!” Stone shouted, voice tight with panic.
“No!” Her voice cracked. “Not without you!”
Nick reared up, flipped Stone over, pinned him down, and hammered punches into his face.
Stone caught one mid-swing, and with a roar, he punched Nick’s chin. He lunged upward with a guttural cry and cracked his forehead into Nick’s nose. Blood sprayed, and Nick reeled back.
Stone rolled him over, pinning him down, and wedged an arm tight across his throat.
Nick bucked and twisted, managing to throw him off. He surged up, now on top of Stone, and clamped his hands around Stone’s throat.
Stone clawed at his wrists, his face turning red.
Nick’s tendons bulged as he squeezed harder.
“No!” Frankie screamed. Rage exploded through her as she grabbed a buckled pipe from the wreckage, limped forward, and swung with everything she had.
The pipe cracked into Nick’s back with a sickening thud.
Howling, he locked his bloodshot eyes on her.
She raised the pipe again, ready to smash his face with it.
He spun fast, lashing out with a low kick. His boot slammed into her injured ankle.
Pain exploded up her leg. She screamed, staggered sideways, and fell over the edge.
Whistling wind tore the scream from her throat as she flipped over to face the water.
Below her, flames blazed across the ocean surface like a giant lava pit.