Chapter 27 #3
She gave him a thumbs up to let him know she was okay.
“I’m going for Lace,” Vince said, already having donned his harness.
Of course he was.
Nobody argued.
Vince picked up and attached the Quick-Strop he’d use to secure Lace to the winch they’d employ to pull them both up. “The rest of you can draw straws to see who picks up the captain.” Vince growled. “My vote is to leave him as fish bait.”
“Not really an option,” Jett told him. “But we’ll rock, paper-scissors, and whoever loses will make things as uncomfortable for him as possible.
” Jett narrowed her eyes and rubbed her hands together; an evil look on her face.
“Those sling buckles can be a bitch if you position them in the wrong place you know.”
While Jett and Vince’s siblings brain-stormed ways to make the captain’s rescue as unpleasant as they could, Obi-Wan kept the helo at a height of fifteen feet, and was holding steady.
“She’s all yours, Vince,” he said, giving the go-ahead.
Vince, in full diving gear, jumped clear of the helo for a moment of free flight, hitting the water before going under to a depth of what he surmised was approximately ten feet.
He quickly kicked his way to the surface.
Vince spotted Lace, no more than a dozen feet away, paddling toward him.
He quickly swam her way.
“Fancy meeting you here,” she greeted with an enormous smile.
Vince could see the underlying fatigue on her face, despite her upbeat greeting.
He spit out his regulator.
“Hey, Lace. I figured you might need a lift,” he responded, emotion choking his voice, thinking of what easily could have been the outcome here. “You didn’t think I’d come for you?” he questioned, keeping things as light as he could.
“Oh, I knew you’d come,” she giggled. “It’s just that I pictured you motoring in on a boat like James Bond, not jumping from Belle like Superman.”
He just bet that she’d run that first scenario in her mind.
“James Bond and Superman, I’m not,” he told her. “But Belle was certainly our best and quickest option.”
Vince couldn’t help himself. He got right in front of Lace and kissed her hard on her blue lips before he began fastening the Quick-Strop around her.
She sighed happily and seemed…fine. Which completely blew his mind. Most anyone else, having been in the vast ocean with nothing in sight for over an hour, would have totally freaked by now. He’d seen it happen to the most stalwart of men.
But not his Lace.
“Have you met my friends?” she giggled.
“You don’t mean the captain,” Vince snarled.
“Of course not. I mean my turtle buddies.” The pair were still hanging around her.
“Shall I start calling you Doctor Doolittle?” he quipped.
Yeah. It was time for some levity.
She looked at the two leatherbacks and tipped her head as if listening. “They say I’m nicer than him,” she snickered.
Vince could do this: continue distracting her with ridiculous humor until she was completely safe.
“Have I mentioned that I like your neckwear?” he teased.
Vince was feeling so much better now that he could look Lace in the eye and see that she wasn’t hurt or traumatized, but he still wasn’t going to be able to fully relax until they had her in the helo.
“Oh, this old thing?” Lace responded, flipping nonexistent hair over her shoulder and affecting a haughty look. “Just a little something I cobbled together.”
Vince couldn’t help the next question that came out of his mouth.
“Tell me. Did the prick take your life ring away from you?”
He’d wanted to wait until Lace was completely safe before asking, but his filters weren’t quite working.
“Nope,” she answered with the best shrug anyone could execute while bobbing about in the turbulent ocean. “I gave it to him. I had the skills to make my own out of my jeans.”
Vince grunted.
There had certainly been no surety in that plan, but that was Lace all over; thinking of someone else before herself, even if the guy had tried to kill her.
“And speaking of jeans.” Lace wrinkled her nose. “I’m afraid everyone’s going to get a good look at almost everything I own from the neck down once I’m airborne. My waterlogged, white cotton panties aren’t going to hide my ass or my hoo-ha very well.”
Vince had just finished buckling himself to Lace for a tandem lift, and found himself laughing.
Laughing.
If anyone had told him a few minutes ago that he’d be in this situation, amused, he would have called them crazy.
But now, relief had made him nearly giddy.
Still, he needed to puzzle out what he could do to preserve Lace’s modesty.
In the larger scale of things, the problem was a tiny blip on his radar, but Vince could tell it mattered to Lace.
He tapped the waterproof comm in his ear and gave orders. “We’re just about ready for lift-off,” he said, “but everyone besides Jett needs to avert their eyes. My woman has no pants on.”
“Roger that,” he got, all around, but he could hear the amusement in their voices.
“Just to let you know,” Julian guffawed, “we’re recording this whole thing for possible blackmail, later.”
Asshole. Not true.
But Vince appreciated the joke, and loved every one of his brothers with all his heart.
“Don’t worry,” Jett told Vince with steel in her voice. “I’ll have a towel ready and waiting, and if anybody peeks, they’ll have to deal with me.”
That was enough assurance for Vince.
He made the universal sign for hoist-away, which was an arm straight in the air with a closed fist, and the winch began to do its work.
He felt almost lighter than air as they were hauled skyward.
“Have I told you today that I love you?” he asked as they dangled six feet above the water.
Lace had yet to say the words back to him. But he was ever hopeful.
“You might have mumbled it to me this morning when I got up,” Lace hummed. “But I don’t mind hearing it again.”
Vince held her tightly. “I love you, Lace.” His voice turned to a growl. “And I never want you out on the Water Wrestler again.”
“Don’t worry, Vince. I…” She blinked tear-filled eyes up at him. “I love you, too.”
He hugged her tighter.
“Thank you for that,” Vince choked out. “I needed to hear it.”
“That’s good, because you might just be hearing it from me for the rest of your life,” she said damply into the many layers that covered his chest. “I know I should have said it sooner,” she whined, “but I was afraid. I didn’t want to tie you to me, in case things went…
wrong with my recovery. But this, today, showed me that nothing is certain in life, so I found some courage. ”
“Thank god.” He pulled back and kissed her as they neared the helo.
She came up for a breath with a stunning smile. “I’ve also been rethinking my job. I might be sailing a desk after this. For you, and for Inez. I’m over being this far out to sea. Although the turtles are something I’m glad I got to witness,” she shared.
“Yeah. Weirdest thing, ever,” Vince puzzled. He’d certainly be doing some research on that phenomenon, later.
He and Lace simply held each other as they were dragged aboard, and once Lace was wrapped securely in a towel, Vince was finally encouraged to let her go as Jett checked her out for any injuries.
Luckily, a little dehydration and some mild hypothermia were all Lace had suffered.
They’d gotten so lucky.
Obi-Wan flew them a little farther south, where they eventually hovered over the captain.
Trask was the one ready to jump in, a disgusted look on his face.
“Damn. I hate losing.”