19. Vani
19
VANI
P hoenix and Saint having the drone is giving me a sense of control I hadn’t had before. We can at least check out the boat, where it is visually on the lake, the size of it, see how many men are on deck. It won’t help if there are more below deck, but it’s something. We can also check the tender is safe and not surrounded by men before we head to it.
The road speeds by under the thick wheels of my bike. Saint is tucked in close behind me. He feels so different than Zane. Whereas Zane felt like a safety harness behind me, Saint feels electric and scary, and I’m not sure if it’s the situation we’re heading into, or if it’s just him. His natural energy. Saint is a chaos gremlin, but life is never boring with him around.
The day has dawned bright and glorious, and it makes me hope God is on our side. If the weather had been terrible like yesterday, it would have been difficult—if not impossible—for Phoenix and Zoo to swim to the boat. Zane has taken the lead, and he has the coordinates, Saint and I are in the middle, and Zoo and Phoenix bring up the rear.
I’m glad we have them with us. I trust my men, but we have no idea how many of Jarl’s thugs are on that boat, and Phoenix is one bad ass. He was injured, while serving in the military, and was badly burned. Rumor is he crawled out of the wreckage of his vehicle, literally on fire, stood, and carried on shooting at the enemy. Hence his name, Phoenix, like the bird.
As for Zoo, he’s just an animal all round. I doubt if that guy cares if he lives or dies, the way he behaves.
We must be getting near because Zane slows and keeps turning to look at the small roads peeling off from the main artery to the right. When he finally finds what he’s looking for, he lifts his left hand and wags two fingers at the road, telling us to follow him down there.
We drive for around half a mile, and Zane brings his bike to a stop. We all pull up behind him and take off our helmets. I shake my hair loose, happy to have some air circulating around my scalp, and climb off my bike. I need to stretch my legs. We’ve done a ton of hours on the bikes already today, and after last night with Zane, my body feels like it could do with some self-care.
Phoenix takes the backpack from Saint and starts to mess around with the drone. It’s small, and I hope that means it won’t easily be seen. The college has some larger ones, too, but I guess the smaller ones are harder to spot, particularly if they stay high in the sky.
Saint and Phoenix work together, setting up the drone, the remote, and the video monitoring on Saint’s phone.
I leave them to it and lean back against a tree trunk, closing my eyes and taking a moment to just breathe. Overhead, the branches and leaves rustle in the breeze. It’s all been so much. Going home, having to tell my dad about Mom and Jarl. Zane telling me he loved me.
In fact, the entire past year has been a lot. I’ve lived more in this past year, experienced more, than I have in the entirety of my life to this point. I’ve felt grief of a level I never thought possible. Pain so bad it feels as if it’s tearing your soul out of your body. I’ve cried, bent double, until I’ve made myself sick.
I’ve also pushed my boundaries and done things that at one point I’d never have dared. I’ve made new friends. Started college. And fallen in love, and lust, with three crazy men. Men who make my body tremble in a way no one else ever has or can. I know that no matter what else life throws at me, these guys have ruined me forever for anyone else.
“We’re ready,” Saint announces.
I push myself up from the tree I’ve been leaning against and walk over to them.
Zane signs something, and Saint nods. “He says we should check out the tender first, and then take the drone out over the lake, high up, and try to recon the yacht.”
“Agreed,” Phoenix says. “Okay, let’s put this baby to the test.”
He sets the drone going, and it looks so easy, but I know it’s not. I had a turn with a drone once that someone had purely for leisure, and controlling it is damn hard.
I lean close to Saint to watch the footage on his phone screen. He smells so luscious, I bite down the urge to lick his neck. I’ve got to remember that even though the bikers have begrudgingly accepted me being with both men, they aren’t going to be happy with overt displays of affection between us. I need them on my side so they don’t go running their mouths to my dad until I’m ready to tell him myself.
The screen is showing us what the drone’s camera sees, and at first, it’s just grass and gravel rushing by, and then, as Phoenix controls it, the drone lifts, higher and higher, until it’s brushing the treetops.
Once it’s high in the air, Phoenix sends it out toward the lake. In the distance, through the trees, the surface glints in the sunlight. The drone flies past the jetty, with a small boat docked beside it, and Phoenix brings it back around. He lowers the drone and does a scan of the area all around the fancy inflatable. There doesn’t seem to be anyone around.
Zane taps Saint’s arm and points to the screen and signs something.
“Yeah, true,” Saint says with a nod, and then turns to the rest of us. “The way the tender is designed, with the large screen in front of the controls, means it will be easy for you two to hide.”
Phoenix scratches his rough beard. “Yeah, and there, where it’s lower at the side, we can easily slip into the water. You can’t stop the tender. It will look suspicious, so slow it down a little so we can fall back into the water.”
“Fall back?” Zoo raises his brows. “Hey, we weren’t all trained at the US Naval War College, bud. I’ll sit on the edge and go in that way.”
“So long as we’re far enough away from the yacht that you don’t make an almighty splash they’ll see,” Phoenix grumbles.
He’s still manning the drone as he speaks, and now it’s setting out across the water. He takes it higher, until we can see for quite a way, with an eagle-eye view from the drone’s camera.
Soon, we spy the yacht.
“Pretty damn big for a yacht on a lake,” Phoenix says.
I squint at the screen. I’d been expecting something bigger, imagining it to be those huge, oceangoing yachts you see the super-rich on. It’s still impressive, even more so because it’s sitting there serenely in the middle of the lake.
The drone does a sweep, high up in the sky, but we can easily make out what look to be four figures on the sundeck.
“We ought to hunker down for a bit and do a few sweeps,” Saint says. “At least give it some time to see if more people come and go on deck.”
“Agreed,” Zoo says.
I glance at Zane. Not for the first time, I think how it must be to inhabit his world. He can’t speak easily like the rest of us, so he only makes his feelings known when it really matters. Does he feel left out of the cut and thrust of regular conversation? He must. I go to his side and take his hand, pulling him to sit next to me on the ground.
As Phoenix and Saint watch the drone footage, I lean my head on Zane’s shoulder. It’s a nice moment of calm before the coming storm. After a few beats, I’m aware of the weight of someone’s gaze. I tilt my head to find Zoo staring at us. He looks away as soon as our gazes connect, and my cheeks burn.
This is going to be so hard to explain to my father. I want him to accept me for who I am now, and that means accepting these men, too. I tell myself my dad loves me more than anything, and he won’t kill the Vipers because he’ll know I love them, and if he does anything to hurt them, he’d lose me for good. That doesn’t stop me feeling anxious about it, though.
Time drifts, and I let myself put the thoughts of that conversation out of my mind. Zoo offers me a cold water bottle from his bag, and I take it gratefully. He passes a couple around, and I share mine with Zane. I’m almost drifting off, since I only got a couple of hours sleep last night, when a voice jars me.
“Okay, I think I’ve seen enough,” Saint says. “There’s been a couple of men come onto the deck and leave, and we’ve been watching for over twenty minutes, I think our best guess has to be between four and eight men?”
“I think so,” Phoenix agrees. “The yacht isn’t that big. It can’t have a ton of bedrooms. We’ve got to make a decision, and I say we go, if that’s what you guys want.”
Saint nods and tucks his phone away. “Abso-fucking-lutely. Let’s go get my brother.”
My heart skips a beat, and I clench my fists. I’m excited to see Lex but scared something might have happened to him. The idea of finding him and all not being okay fills me with dread. I can’t lose him. Not so soon after losing my mother and finding out about Reagan. Any more loss is more than I can handle. I think I’d crack completely.
Zane squeezes my hand, and I glance at him. It will be okay, he mouths clearly.
I smile and squeeze back and put on a brave face.
We climb back onto our bikes and, within ten minutes, are at the tender. They could possibly have some cameras somewhere, but I can’t see any, and there’s not much here except for some trees. I try to calm myself and take a few deep breaths.
Saint and Phoenix hand out weapons, and I marvel at the way these two have started to work so well together. I’m not given anything, and I scowl at Phoenix.
“What gives? I’m not going in there unarmed. Give me a gun.” He didn’t say anything about me not having one back at the base.
He shakes his head. “We have rules in our world, and if you are given a gun, you will be treated the same as any of the men. Without one, as a woman, they aren’t going to shoot you.”
I narrow my eyes. “They might do worse than that to me if I’m unarmed and unable to defend myself if this goes to shit. I need a weapon.”
I look to Saint, who says nothing. In exasperation, I turn to Zane, and he nods at Phoenix who doesn’t respond, but his jaw tenses. Zane smacks the back of his hand against his palm, to get Phoenix’s attention, points to the guns and to me. It’s pretty clear what he means. Give her one .
Eventually, after a long beat, Phoenix relents and passes me a handgun. I tuck it into the side of my waistband and cover it with my leather jacket.
Phoenix takes a gun and messes around inside the rucksack. He takes out a bag with some food in it and tips the contents out onto the ground, and then wraps the weapon in the bag and sticks it firmly into his waistband.
“You want to cover your piece with plastic or something,” he says to Zoo. “Otherwise, it will get wet through. It should still work, but it’s best to keep it as dry as possible.”
Zoo rummages around and sighs as he pulls out a black bag with two tie handles. “A dog poop bag. Really?”
Saint laughs. “It’s empty. What are you bitching for?”
Zoo shoots him a pretend pissed glance, but his lips are twitching. This easy camaraderie between Saint and the guys from Dad’s club is the last thing I expected, Zane, too, if the puzzled glances he’s throwing between them are anything to go by.
Finally, we’re all ready, and we board the boat. Zane hops onto the tender first, as if he owns it, and goes straight to the controls. He takes some keys and spins them around his finger with a grin.
The screen in front of the controls is high and curves over into a cross between a sunshield and a rain protector. It’s made with tinted glass. That is brilliant for us, as it means we can hide Phoenix and Zoo when we approach.
“If we three make sure to stand the entire time,” I say, “Phoenix and Zoo can lie down at the edge of the boat by the side, and if we slow as we approach, they can slip into the water, hopefully unseen.”
Saint goes to take the controls, but Zane pushes him out of the way and signs something. I glance at Saint for a translation.
“He used to pilot the family boat back in Greece.” Saint rolls his eyes.
Wow, Greece . I’d love to go there one day and spend my time on a boat on the ocean for a week or two. I wonder if Zane would take me one day.
Zoo and Phoenix get down and lie as far under the shading of the screen as they can, taking care to press themselves against the side of the boat. The boat rumbles to life, waves slapping the sides, and we’re off, speeding through the water, toward the yacht.
Toward Lex.