Chapter 8
*EMERSON*
“For real?” Calder asked. “You’re going to with this a-hole to Alaska?”
I shrugged. “Yeah.”
“To Alaska?” Calder questioned. “Where it snows?”
“Yeah, my boat is destroyed, my grant is gone, and in a few days I won’t have an apartment. What do I have to lose besides spending a winter in a cabin with a hot SEAL?”
My cheeks instantly heated. Okay, so I should have left out the part about the hot SEAL. My excitement just got the better of me. It was that, or I really was seconds away from a serious mental breakdown.
I was staying positive.
“I’ll even pinky promise,” I said, holding out the pinky of my right hand to Knox.
Knox looped his with mine instantly.
Hours later I wrapped my arms around my middle as we barreled over the water. The engine on the small skiff Calder found us barely whispered as we cut through the dark ocean water. It wasn’t until that moment that regret set in.
Or maybe more realization.
I was on a boat in the middle of the ocean. With a former SEAL who carried a gun. We were racing our way to a bigger boat further out in the ocean—a boat with a terrible man on it.
How did I get myself into these situations?
Somehow I ended up between a rock and a hard place. Well, a die on this boat or move to Alaska place. And I couldn’t even blame anyone but myself.
Knox crouched at the helm, his left hand steady on the throttle, his other resting near the console as if we were out for a whale-watching tour.
Nothing about him suggested we were on our way to a late-night covert operation that might get us both killed.
Although my odds were on me meeting the fishes before him.
He pointed ahead of us, and I squinted to see what he wanted to show me. The yacht loomed ahead of us, its lights low as if everyone on board was sleeping. Weren’t evil villains supposed to be hosting all-night parties with women and booze? I cringed at the mental images.
Knox slowed us, and I tensed, leaning forward to get a better view of the yacht.
It was big. Like a floating palace.
Of debauchery.
My stomach flipped.
“You still okay?” Knox asked me in a whisper.
I barely heard him over the waves against the side of our boat. I nodded, even though I’d rather jump in the water and take my chances with the sharks. “Totally.”
My heart jerked as our boat slowed again. I swear, it wanted to punch its way out of my ribs.
We drifted alongside the yacht, and I held my breath so if anyone heard us, it wouldn’t be my fault. A strong breeze slapped speckles of seawater against my face. The gentle slap of water against the side of our boat sounded impossibly loud.
In silent movements, Knox hooked us to a ladder off the yacht and climbed the first rung with ease, like he’d practiced it a hundred times. Considering he was a former SEAL, he probably had.
I followed, my hands shaking. My foot slipped and Knox reached down to grab me, but I jerked my shoulder away from his hand. This was fine. I had everything under control.
At the top, Knox pulled me over the edge of the boat. I took a small breath and readied myself for the next steps. That’s how I’d get through this. Just one small step at a time. Like an astronaut on the moon, except I was trying to steal a computer chip from a megalomaniac named Rex.
Knox and Calder said there’d be enough evidence on Rex’s computer to put him away forever. It made the sacrifice worthwhile.
Hopefully.
Either way, I wasn’t going to let Knox rush in and save the day on his own. I didn’t work that way. If we had action, I wanted to be included. As long as no one started shooting. I’d asked for a gun, but from the way Calder laughed and Knox’s eyes widened, that was never going to happen.
“What’s up?” I whispered to Knox when we hadn’t moved from the edge of the boat.
He gave me a slight grin. “Just making sure you don’t want to stay in the boat. I’d be back in a few minutes.”
My eyes narrowed. “No,” I lied.
I actually wanted to go back to the boat and be somewhere safe, but again… I wasn’t letting the former SEAL have all the fun out here.
He shook his head, and I glanced around him, trying my best to give off an unaffected appearance.
The deck was empty.
Way too empty.
We slipped inside the hatch without meeting a single person.
Weren’t these yachts supposed to have full crews?
An interior light glowed faintly from recessed lighting that looked expensive.
In fact, everything smelled like money—leather, polished dark woods, something else that I couldn’t name because I wasn’t rich.
Knox held his hand up, peeked around a corner, and then gestured forward to what had to be an office. How much money did Rex have that he had “office on a yacht money”? I guess once you had yacht money, it was all just extra.
If we saw a golden toilet, I’d lose my shit. Maybe burn the place down.
After we were off the boat, of course.
“That’s where the computer is going to be,” Knox said as we edged our way closer.
I rolled my eyes, but he was facing away and didn’t see. “Obviously.”
His face said he didn’t love my tone when he glanced back at me with one eyebrow raised. “Stay here.”
He entered the office, leaving me outside, hovering near the door. Knox moved silently, and I held my breath as I watched him free the laptop from the desk. It only took seconds, but they stretched on for what felt like hours.
My heart jumped as I heard it.
Footsteps.
I waved at Knox.
Voices.
My pulse spiked, and my eyes widened, hoping he’d get the message.
The SEAL was opening desk drawers as if he was searching for another laptop or stacks of money. Whatever rich people kept in desk drawers.
“Knox,” I whispered and gave him another frantic hand wave.
He looked up just as the door on the other side of the room slammed open.
Rex walked through, his eyes wide and his pupils round as if he wasn’t human. The gun in his hand flicked between Knox and me. Then it paused, focused on my chest, and Rex smiled, the most evil, sadistic smile I’d ever witnessed. As if he really wasn’t human, but a demon straight from hell.
“Nice to see you again, Emerson,” Rex said, his words slurring.
Then everything exploded into chaos.
Knox raced toward me, shoving me out the doorway as Rex’s gun fired. The shot blasted into the wall, spraying plaster everywhere. He thrust the laptop against my chest. “Run!”
Before I could move, Knox barreled into Rex, who had sprinted toward us. The two crashed into the desk.
I could do nothing to help, but my gaze searched the room for something. Did Rex drop his gun? I grabbed the white plaster bust on a side table near me and swung it.
It connected with Rex’s shoulder. He yelled, but didn’t fall.
“Emerson, go!” Knox shouted.
But I couldn’t leave him there. Rex scrambled backward, smashing into the side of the desk. A warning alarm shrieked to life, red lights flashing in our room. Sparks erupted from where Rex had just pulled the alarm.
“Oh, shit,” I breathed. That wasn’t good.
Knox’s eyes flickered as Rex raised his hand with the alarm control panel still in his grip. He’d pulled it right from the spot.
“You think you can take me down?” Rex laughed, the sound bashing into the surrounding walls, unhinged.
Knox grabbed my hand. “Let’s go.”
I turned with him, and together we ran.
The boat groaned as we sprinted back toward the deck and our getaway boat. Another shot rang out in the night. Rex found his gun. A second has wood splintering from the wall next to Knox’s head.
For just a moment, I turned back and saw red flames were already climbing up the wall behind Rex.
Knox tugged on my hand. “We’re gonna jump.”
“What? No.” But he already had his arms wrapped around my middle, tucking me and the laptop against his chest as he stepped off the yacht.
Our little boat rocked violently as we crashed into it. Knox took the brunt of the fall, but rolled me off him quickly. In another second he unhooked us from the ladder and threw the throttle forward. The engine roared to life just as a loud blast shook the yacht.
The explosion echoed on the ocean water.
Light ripped across the waves, orange and white, before the blast slammed into us. It knocked me down, so I sat with the laptop held tightly. Knox didn’t move, even as small chunks of the yacht rained into the sea and our boat.
“What the hell was that?” I asked as the remaining parts of the yacht caught fire, lighting up the night sky.
Fires clawed skyward, thick black smoke rolling out over the water.
It was a hundred times worse that the fire on my research boat.
A chunk of the yacht’s front broke off and sank into the water quietly.
The crackle of flames and the drone of our boat were the only noises breaking up the quiet of the night. Rex’s boat was gone.
Rex was gone.
I highly doubted he survived his boat exploding or the impending sinking.
I watched his vessel burn as ours tore across the water, the engine screaming, and the wind in my eyes and hair as we raced back to shore.
As the first light from the dock came into view, the emotions hit me full force.
We were alive.
I survived.
“The manatees,” I hollered as we drew closer.
Knox eased off the throttle. “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice rough.
I nod. “Yeah. I think.”
He laughed once with a shake of his head. “You think.”
The boat came to an almost stop as we entered the opening to the marina. He came to my spot on the boat, helped me up, and then cupped my face. His hands were warm against my chilled skin.
“Let’s never do that again. I don’t like you being in danger.”
My eyes grew wide as I agreed with only a nod.
We stared at one another.
Until…
He kissed me.
Hard. Full of certainty. He kissed me in a way I’d never been kissed before. Like he owned me. And maybe from that minute he did.
A second fireball lit up the sky behind us, the boom coming a second later, but I was too engrossed in Knox’s lips against mine to care.
The world right then was just the two of us and our boat. Nothing else mattered.