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“Which was?” She wasn’t letting it go.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. I wasn’t used to explaining myself. “I heard something, and I needed to deal with it.” At her expression, I continued. “It was someone’s name I knew from a long time ago. I had to know if they were connected to this shitstorm.”
“Were they?”
“No.” I glanced at her and saw she was seriously angry with me. “What are you really upset about, Nicole? That I left you alone for a few minutes? You said you could handle yourself, remember. Or are you still mad that I interrupted Rafael while he gawked at you?”
She looked ready to punch me. “What I’m upset about, Paul, is that you guys assured me that you’d watch my back. You told me to use a safe word if I was in trouble, I said that safe word, and you didn’t show up for another ten minutes.”
“What?” I hadn’t heard her use the safe word.
“We were all unreachable for eleven minutes,” Keith said, and I glanced at his face in the mirror. “Seems pretty convenient that Bruno showed up right when our coms went offline.”
“He must have had a scrambler.” That was why my comms had crackled in my ear. I should’ve caught it. My mind was a mess, and I realized my skills were less than they should have been. I pushed the fog away and changed the subject. “What did Rafael say?”
“We have company,” Keith cut in before she could answer. He quickly pulled his wig back on and grabbed his pair of thick glasses. It was doubly difficult to do our job since most of the Blackstone team’s faces had been leaked to the Cartel families.
My hand fell heavily on Nicole’s bare thigh to catch her attention. “Keith is going to speed up, and when he turns the next corner, he’ll slow as much as he can, then we’re going to jump out.” At her shocked expression, I raised my brow and shrugged. “Then we’re going to walk along the water back to the cottage.” She didn’t answer, but she didn’t protest either.
“Ready?” Keith called. “One, two,” I waited for Keith to swing around the corner and slow, “three, go!” I swung her over my lap, kicked the door open, and we rolled out together. I held her tightly to me until we stopped then hauled her up until we had our backs flush to a concrete wall. “Just wait,” I warned as tires squealed and a black car zoomed past where we huddled in the shadows. They had followed the bait. “Come on.”
I helped her over the low wall and down the bank to the sand where she took off her heels and hiked up her dress. I held a finger to my lips and motioned her to follow. We waded waist deep into the water so our footprints couldn’t be tracked. She didn’t speak as we made our way along the rocky sea floor. She fell behind a few times, and I waited for her to catch up. It was a long, exhausting walk, as we were both fully dressed, but we didn’t dare shed an article of clothing that could give away our location.
I put my hand in the air when I heard a boat engine. She had already stopped dead in her tracks.
“Do you hear that?” Her whisper was shaky, a dead giveaway that she was cold and scared.
“Get down.” I dropped until my chin hit the water, and she did the same.
“Do you think they’re Bruno’s men?” she whispered as the boat slowed and they started to use a big spotlight to scan the water’s edge.
“Can you hold your breath?”
“Yes.”
“Good. When I say, go below the water, and I’ll tap you when you can come back up.” I hoped she could do this. I waited for the light to get closer, and when it was a few feet away, we both took a deep breath and submerged.
The moonlight was filtered from the salty sea, so everything was black. I felt Nicole touch my hand, and I threaded my fingers through hers. I needed her to stay calm. Their strong light slowly moved over us, and for a moment I thought we would be seen. Perhaps they saw the ripples and wondered what had caused them.
She squeezed my hand, and I saw she had to go back up. We resurfaced, only to come face to face with the side of the boat. She dove back down, and I did the same, but I lost track of where she went. The ocean floor dipped, and I dropped lower as the boat engine roared to life again, and I could barely make out anything in the foam it created as it moved away. I kicked hard and shot up to take in a deep gulp of air as I spun in search of Nicole.
“Nicole,” I called quietly, but I couldn’t spot her. “Nicole!” I said a little louder as dread started to come over me. “Nicole?” I studied the top of the water for any signs that she could be submerged. I found myself getting upset, and that was very unlike me. I was good at not getting attached or letting my emotions get the best of me.
Suddenly, she popped up, coughing and sputtering. I swam toward her, grabbed her by the waist, and swam her back toward shore until I could stand.
“Hey,” I tried to soothe her, “you’re okay. Take a deep breath.” She coughed some more then rolled to face me with a terrified expression. Her chin quivered so hard I could hear her teeth rattle. My heart squeezed to the point of pain. “I got you.” I pushed her hair back and studied her face to make sure she was really all right.
“That was way too close.” I wasn’t sure if she meant the men or too close to death. Tears mixed with the beads of water on her face, and I wasn’t sure what to do to help her, so I went with what my body said to do. I moved my hand to her head and slowly lowered my face to hers. I stopped inches from her lips and waited for her to tell me it was what she wanted, too. Her eyes moved to mine then to my lips, and that was enough for me. I pulled her to me, our lips connected, and we both threw our terror of almost dying into the kiss. Her legs wrapped around my waist, and I pulled her closer to me. My body came alive, and for a brief moment, I felt a rush I hadn’t felt in years.
She moaned when I shifted her on my waist and she felt how turned on I had become. It was the worst timing, and the worst place to let my guard down, but we were caught up in the heat of the moment.
Only the sound of the boat engine returning made me tear away from her.
“Paul,” she cried against my lips.
“It’s coming back. We need to go.” I helped her stand, took her hand, and we dashed up the sand and hid until the boat was gone. Then we trudged the last fifteen minutes to the cottage.
“What the hell happened to you two?” Mark looked at us, covered in sand and dripping wet.