Chapter Seventeen #2
The sight that greeted him when he arrived at the top of the hill was one he’d never forget.
Marit was standing on top of a few boards that were extremely out of place in the pristine forest around them.
There were piles of dirt in the clearing.
She was shaking from head to foot . . . but she was alive and seemingly well.
Zach didn’t hesitate. Didn’t look around for any dangers that might be lurking, his only goal to get to Marit. The second his arms closed around her, his entire being seemed to sag in relief.
They both went to their knees, as if neither could stand a second longer. Zach was holding her too tightly, but he couldn’t help it. He’d never been so scared in his entire life.
“Holy shit, that’s one hell of a hole,” Linc said almost nonchalantly from behind Zach.
“Well? Get me the hell out of here!” Pearson demanded belligerently.
Ignoring him, Linc walked over to his brother and squatted down, putting his hand on Marit’s back. “Are you okay, Marit?”
She nodded against Zach but didn’t lift her head.
“Hurt anywhere?”
She nodded. Then shook her head. Then shrugged.
“Okay. Take your time. Get your bearings. We aren’t going anywhere.”
Zach closed his eyes and held Marit even tighter, if that was possible.
She was still shaking against him, and he felt a little shaky himself.
He’d found her. She was okay. She was alive.
That was all that mattered in this moment.
Explanations about what had happened could wait.
All he needed was to hold her, to feel for himself that she was in one piece.
How long they stayed there on the ground, he had no idea. But eventually, Marit lifted her head. Zach didn’t let go of her, just loosened his grip enough for her to be able to meet his gaze.
“Hi.”
He couldn’t help it. Zach chuckled. “Hi,” he echoed.
He watched as she took a deep breath. Then another. As she gathered her control and centered herself.
“I’m okay. He didn’t hurt me. Well, that’s not exactly true, but he didn’t hurt me enough to keep me from turning the tables on him and giving him a dose of what he’d planned for me.”
“The hole?” Linc asked.
Zach was glad his brother was there, for many reasons, but at the moment, mostly because all he wanted was to jump into that damn hole and kill Lucas fucking Pearson.
Now that he was holding Marit, and knew she was alive and well, his anger toward the man who’d dared to touch her, who’d fucking kidnapped her, was overwhelming.
The only thing keeping him from doing exactly what he wanted to do was the woman in his arms. He didn’t want to let go of her long enough to deal with Pearson.
Marit nodded. “He chased me right into the hole when we got here. Then he went back to the shore to get these boards—apparently his plan was to cover the hole so I couldn’t get out and let me die here.
But I climbed out while he was gone.” She chuckled slightly.
“My slight stature actually worked in my favor for once, and I got away.
“He wasn’t going to just leave though. I knew that.
So I led him around the island for a while as he tracked me, then came back up here.
Antagonized him until he screwed up, ending up in the very hole he’d dug as my grave.
” She glanced toward the hole. “Since he’s so much heavier than me, the dirt didn’t hold up.
He couldn’t climb out. But I was too afraid to leave in case he figured a way out at some point .
. . and then you guys arrived. What time is it, anyway? ”
“Afternoon,” Linc said distractedly.
“Wow, really? It’s been that long since he took me?” Marit asked.
“It’s been a lifetime,” Zach told her quietly.
She turned her attention back to him as Linc wandered over to the edge of the hole.
“You came,” she whispered.
“Of course I did,” Zach said simply. “I knew the second Eliot called to see if you were coming to work today that something was wrong, and I immediately thought about Pearson. When his boat was missing from the dock, something all the lobstermen agreed was strange, since he was usually one of the last to head out each day, we called every resource we could to look for his boat . . . and you.”
“How in the world did you find me? Wait—where are we?”
“We’re miles from Rockville, and it’s a pretty strange story as to how we found you. You know our neighbor? Victor Rogers?”
Marit frowned. “Of course. He can’t stand you guys, and the feeling’s mutual.”
“Well, he has a boat and a ton of knowledge from years of being on the water in this area, and he didn’t hesitate to come looking for you. This was actually one of the last couple of islands he thought to check before we were going to head back to Rockville and regroup.”
“You fucking asshole! Don’t just stand there! Get me out of here! I’ve got rope on my boat. Go get it and throw it down to me.”
“Not happening, Pearson,” Linc said. “I think I’ll wait for the cops and the Coast Guard to get here first.”
“What? No! Fuck you!”
“Come on, let’s get you out of here,” Zach told Marit.
He stood, and his knees screamed in protest. Not just because of the position he’d been in on the ground, but because of the hours he’d spent standing on the boat deck as they’d searched for her, and the climb up the hill.
“I’ll stay here with pecker head to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere,” Linc said.
“Appreciate it,” Zach told his brother.
“Wait, we need to call for help, don’t we? Like the police? Lucas has the key to his boat in his pocket. And he did something to his radio so it doesn’t work, and he disabled his GPS system.”
“Rogers is waiting at the shore. He’s called everyone.”
“Everyone?” Marit asked.
“I think you’re going to be very surprised by how many people were looking for you,” Zach told her, as they slowly headed down the steep hill.
When they reached the shore, amazingly, the sun had come back out. It was almost eerie, but very appropriate all the same.
“You found her! You okay, girl?” Rogers called out from his boat.
Marit smiled at him. “I am. Thank you so much for knowing where to look.”
“I’m old, not dumb,” he told her.
“No, you aren’t. And I owe you. Huge.”
The older man harrumphed. And Zach was forced to come to terms with the fact that the neighbor he loved to hate had once again done the Young family a huge favor.
The first was when he’d noticed Evelyn Young and Britt being kidnapped by Camden, their former employee, and was smart enough to call Chad.
And now this.
It might be extremely painful, as Rogers was prickly as hell and truly an asshole—one who was still after his mother’s land—but Zach vowed to be friendlier toward him from here on out.
It was the least he could do after he’d literally saved not only Marit’s life, but Zach’s as well. Because without Marit . . .
He didn’t finish the thought. There was no need. She was here. Alive. And in his arms once more.
“Look!” Marit exclaimed, pointing toward the tip of the island, causing Zach to glance in that direction.
Boats. At least a dozen. And they were coming toward them at an extremely high rate of speed.
They were lobster boats. Each and every one of them.
They’d obviously come to the island as fast as they could, as soon as Rogers had given them coordinates.
And they’d beaten both the Coast Guard and the police boats, to boot.
Marit looked up at Zach in awe. “It’s the Wave Rider. And the Shell Seeker, Northern Tide, Maine Event . . . and even the Crustacean Queen!”
“It is,” Zach agreed. “They’ve all been looking for you since they found out you were missing this morning.”
The incredulous look she gave him both broke his heart and filled him with joy. But mostly the latter. She was finally realizing that not everyone felt about her the way Pearson did.
“I can’t believe they were looking for me and not fishing,” she said, her voice full of wonder.
Zach hugged her from behind, bending to rest his chin on her shoulder. “They were all appalled that Pearson did what he did. They respect you, Marit. They know how hard you work and have no issues with you lobstering right alongside them.”
She craned her neck to look at him without pulling out of his embrace. “I had no idea. I thought everyone just tolerated me. Were maybe even waiting for me to fail.”
“They don’t. They weren’t,” Zach said simply.
“I’m going to cry,” she whispered.
“Don’t,” Zach teased. “Tough-ass lobsterwomen like you don’t cry.”
She chuckled. “Yeah,” she agreed.
“For the record? I’m so proud of you. I want to hear the entire story about what happened, because I have no doubt Pearson expected a meek and terrified girl that he’d enjoy bullying a little more before leaving you to die.
But instead, he got a strong-as-hell woman who refused to go down without a fight. ”
“Turns out I worked for Lucas’s dad once upon a time in Portland. Reported him for a lot of illegal stuff he was doing. Lucas didn’t like that. It’s why he was harassing me. Well, part of the reason.”
“I know. I figured it out while we were looking for you.”
“How?”
“Listening to the lobstermen talk on the radio.”
“Oh. Zach?” Marit said, turning in his grip and hugging him tight. “I love you.”
The lobster boats were circling the shore now, their crews calling out to Marit, saying how happy they were that she was all right and asking what was happening, wondering where Pearson was.
Zach ignored them for the time being. He stared down at the woman who had stormed into his life and taken his heart simply by being who she was. “I love you too. Thank you for being so strong. For not giving up.”
The next sound they heard was a siren, as both the Coast Guard and the Rockville police arrived at the same time. A boat from the fire department was on their heels, as well. All three had their lights going, and the siren from the police boat echoed loudly on the water as it neared.
“Things are going to get crazy for a while, aren’t they?” Marit asked.
“Yeah. You’ll have to tell the police and Coast Guard what happened, the EMTs from the fire department are going to want to check you over, make sure you’re okay.
I need to contact my mom and Britt, and someone probably needs to call Harper and let her know that her dad’s fine.
And I have no doubt when we get back to the dock, there will be a ton of locals who’ll want to see for themselves that you’re okay, and some who’re just simply curious as to what the hubbub is all about. ”
“Then we can go home, right?” Marit asked.
Home. He loved that she saw his tiny studio apartment as home. They wouldn’t always live there. Someday he’d give her a bigger house. Maybe overlooking the water she spent so much time on.
“After you get checked out by a doctor, yeah, sweetheart. Then we can go home.”
She wrinkled her nose at the thought of having to see a doctor but didn’t protest, which told Zach a lot about how she was feeling. She was putting on a brave front, but she’d had a hell of a day.
“Maybe after we stop by Ruckus Donuts to stock up though? I’m hungry,” Marit said with a small smile.
Zach chuckled. “Anything you want. And I’ll see if I can’t find someone with something you can eat in the meantime.”
“The lunch you made for me might still be on the Wave Rider. That’s where Lucas ambushed me,” she told him.
Thinking of Pearson attacking her made Zach angry all over again, but he tamped the feeling down. His job was to take care of Marit right now. He’d let the authorities and his brother take care of Pearson.
“It was there when I left to look for you. I’ll make sure you get it sooner rather than later.”
Marit hugged him once more, then went up onto her tiptoes. “I love you, Zach Young.”
He bent down and touched his lips to hers. “I love you back.”
Then the shore was suddenly filled with people. All wanting to know if she was all right and where that asshole Pearson had gone.
Chad was there, as well, looking extremely concerned. He put a hand on Zach’s shoulder. “You guys all right?”
“We are now,” Zach told his brother, glad to see him among all the others.
“Marit Phillips?” a deep voice asked from beyond the crowd.
Craning to see over the lobstermen, Zach saw a young man in a Coast Guard uniform approaching from the water. The law enforcement boats had arrived, and everyone was coming ashore.
“Yes, that’s me,” she said, after taking a deep breath.
“We’re going to need to know what happened here.”
“Of course. But first you might want to go and relieve Lincoln Young. He’s at the top of that hill”—she turned and pointed behind them—“guarding Lucas Pearson, to make sure he doesn’t get away after kidnapping and attempting to kill me.”
Her words were enough to cause a frenzy of action on the shore, as men hurried into the trees and started up the steep hill, with Chad in the lead.
It was going to be a long afternoon, but Marit was strong enough to handle all the questions that would be aimed in her direction. And Zach would be right there at her side. From here on out, there was no place he’d rather be.