Chapter Fifteen
For a single, precious second after the thugs fled, a wave of pure relief washed over Kenny.
Sara was safe. His mind quickly catalogued the next steps: ascend, report, regroup.
Then he spotted her frozen in the water, her hand pressed to her mask, her eyes wide with a terror that he feared had nothing to do with the men who had just attacked them.
He followed her gaze and his blood ran cold.
It wasn’t just a shark. It was a tiger, and a big one—at least twelve feet of slate-gray muscle and prehistoric menace.
It moved with an unnerving, fluid grace, its blunt head swinging from side to side as it tested the water.
Kenny knew exactly what it was doing. It had scented his blood, a faint but irresistible invitation in the current.
Every ounce of his SEAL training, every instinct honed over twenty years of survival, screamed to life.
His mind became a steel trap of tactical assessment.
Threat: apex predator. Location: open water, twenty feet below the surface.
Asset to protect: Sara. Primary objective: get her out of the water. Now.
Moving to place his body between Sara and the shark, he grabbed her arm, his grip firm, trying to communicate urgency without inducing panic. He pointed emphatically toward the surface, his expression grim. Go. Now.
To his chagrin, she shook her head, her eyes locked on him, on the small, steady stream of blood still trickling from the gash on his bicep. She understood. The shark wasn’t interested in her. It was interested in him. And she wasn’t leaving him.
Blasted woman. Her courage was going to get them both killed. The shark stopped circling. It turned, its movements no longer curious but deliberate. It was closing the distance.
Kenny’s mind raced. Don’t act like prey. Don’t splash. Don’t flee. He drew his knife, not as a weapon to kill—that was a fool’s game—but as a tool of defense. A last resort. He pulled Sara behind him, positioning her back-to-back with him. They were a single, larger entity now. Harder to attack.
“Stay with me,” his words a useless rumble through his regulator. “Watch my six.”
He faced the shark, keeping his eyes locked on it, making himself as big as possible. The tiger shark swam closer, its dark, unblinking eye a void of predatory focus. It was ten feet away. Then eight. He could see the faint stripes on its flank, the raw power in the sweep of its tail.
His heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic drumbeat against the steady hiss of his regulator.
This was a different kind of fear. In combat, you could predict an enemy’s moves, exploit their tactics.
This was primal. Unpredictable. He was no longer a Senior Chief.
He was just a man in the water, facing something that had ruled this domain for millions of years.
The shark lunged. Not a full-on attack, but a test. A bump.
It came in fast, its massive head aimed at his side.
Kenny shoved off the reef floor, using the momentum to swing himself and Sara out of its direct path.
The shark’s rough, sandpaper-like skin scraped against his leg, a brutal, abrasive impact that sent a jolt through his entire body.
He regained his balance, turning to face it again.
He had to keep Sara safe. The shark circled back, now more agitated.
Kenny’s blood was a stronger scent in the water.
He needed to stop the bleeding. Pressing his free hand hard against the gash on his arm, he tried to staunch the flow, risking a glance back at Sara.
Her face was pale, but her eyes were clear and focused.
She wasn’t panicking. And then he heard it.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
Brilliant. Sara had used her knife to bang against the tanks.
The sharp, metallic sound vibrated through the water, loud and unnatural.
A classic diver’s trick to get attention, but in this context, a weapon of auditory warfare.
The effect on the shark was immediate. It flinched, its head jerking to the side as the alien sound hit.
Its smooth, circling pattern broke. The beast became hesitant, confused by the aggressive, rhythmic noise.
It was no longer dealing with silent, bleeding prey; it was facing a loud, unpredictable opponent.
This was their chance. Their only chance.
Grabbing hold of Sara, pulling her with him as he kicked powerfully toward the surface, he didn’t bother to look back.
There was no time to check if the shark was following.
There was only the light, the promise of air and safety, and the desperate, all-consuming need to get Sara on that boat.
They broke the surface in a chaotic explosion of foam and saltwater. Adrenaline pumping through his veins, he spied Billy at the rail and the Thornes scrambling, pointing. The world was a blur of motion and shouting. He shoved Sara toward the dive ladder, his arm hooked around her waist.
“Climb!” his voice a guttural command.
He stayed in the water, his body a shield, his eyes scanning the churning surface, knife still in hand.
He wouldn’t be safe until she was. Not till she scrambled up the ladder did he risk a look down.
A dark, massive shape was rising from the depths directly beneath him.
Time was running out. Swiftly, he launched himself out of the water, grabbing the lowest rung of the ladder just as a pair of jaws, lined with rows of serrated death, snapped shut on the very spot where his fins had been a split second before.
The power of the impact sent a shudder through the entire boat as the shark slammed into the hull, then twisted and disappeared back into the blue.
Kenny hauled himself over the rail, collapsing onto the deck, his chest heaving, his body humming with an overdose of adrenaline. He rolled over, his first and only thought for Sara. She was there, kneeling beside him, her hands hovering over him, her face a mask of terror and relief.
The world narrowed to her face, to her wide, tear-filled eyes.
The shark, the thugs, the treasure—it all vanished.
There was only this woman, who had faced down a man with a knife and a tiger shark at his back, and hadn’t left his side.
He reached up, his hand shaking, and cupped her cheek. “You are amazing.”
The way her heart beat pounded in her ears, she could barely think, never mind hear. “I thought I was going to lose you.”
“Back at you.” Swallowing hard, he reached up and pulled her toward him until she practically collapsed on top of him. “I have sacrificed a great deal in my lifetime to keep my team safe, but I have never been as scared of losing anyone as I was down there of losing you.”
“Thank you.”
“For what? You saved us.”
Her cheeks tugged at the corner of her lips. This man was so cute when he was being obtuse. “For caring.”
“Caring?” He pulled her impossibly closer. “Sara, I don’t just care, I love you.”
Loved her? Her mouth fell slightly opened and she quickly snapped it shut. Surely she’d misheard or maybe he meant love you the way he loved the Everretts or the Harpers.
“Don’t look so surprised. We might have started this for all the wrong reasons, but loving you is the most right thing I’ve ever done.”
There it was again. The L word. And it didn’t sound anything like the affection a man had for his friends. Forcing her lips to move, she finally managed to say, “You’re serious.”
He nodded.
“Not part of the game?”
“Not a game.”
Could it possibly be true? Could she be dreaming? Could she have lost her mind? Or maybe the shark had killed them both and this was heaven?
Taking her hand from his side, he placed it on his chest, over his heart. “I’m dead serious. Sara Alani, I love you, and I only ask that you give me a chance to convince you that I’m worth taking a chance on, not for show, but for real.”
Resisting the urge to pinch herself, she decided instead to go with the flow. If this was a dream, or heaven, what harm could it do to tell him what she felt. “I don’t need time.”
For a split second she saw the hope in his gaze fade.
“I already love you for real.”
A broad smile took over his face and before she could say another word, he pulled her all the way down against him and captured her mouth with his in a kiss that was already curling her toes.
She would have gladly stayed right here, kissing Kenny Yates until the cows came home, except the deep sound of a throat clearing reminded her that they had an audience.
Pushing herself to an upright position, she looked up at the group of people surrounding them, all smiling like the Cheshire cat.
Arms crossed, Billy’s grin was the widest. “If you two would like some privacy, we could all jump overboard and take our chances with the sharks.”
“Sorry.” Her cheeks warm with embarrassment, she pushed to her feet. “I, uh, guess we need to report the poachers to the police.”
“Already done.” The professor held up the camera that he’d taken from Kenny. “Seems the camera snapped a few shots of the idiots attacking you two. I don’t think they’ll be a problem anymore.”
“What about Vance?” Kenny asked, now standing beside her.
Billy sighed. “That might be a little more difficult, but I’m willing to wager the shop that once Vance finds out the police have picked up his hired goons, he and his ship with all his fancy equipment will hightail it out of here to prey on some other shipwreck.”
“I don’t like the idea of that character getting away with this.” Mrs. Thorne frowned at them.
“Well,” Billy smiled, “I’m sure he’ll get what’s coming to him. One way or another.”
“I hope sooner than later,” the professor added.
The way Billy kept smiling, she had a suspicion that he knew something he wasn’t sharing yet.
“Oh, and while I have your attention, Mom was at the shop when I called to update Nick. You’re all expected at dinner tonight. But I’d better warn you, she has mistletoe hanging everywhere. And I mean everywhere.”
Kenny slid his arm around her waist and pulled her up close against him. His gaze leveled with hers, he smiled down at her. “Not a problem. Not a problem at all.”