Page 48 of Buck (Diver Downeast #2)

Buck’s reaction when he’d seen the first crate come over the side between the sub and the Small Dream ? He should have fucking known. There was no way Bobbie’s siblings would allow the authorities to find their drugs.

He growled.

“I’ll watch the surface and see how many are thrown in,” Spencer told him and Tabitha, also having seen the first box, jettisoned. “You guys can try to keep track of where the damned things land.”

“I’ll hit record on my front, working cameras,” Tabitha informed them.

And Buck would be sure to keep his eyes glued. The pricks weren’t getting away with this.

Wasn’t it too bad for Drew and Jeff that a submarine happened to be on their tail? And even with the current taking the cases and spreading them out over a generous swath of the ocean floor, Buck and company would eventually locate them all.

That became a sure thing when Tabitha reminded them that once they surfaced, they could borrow some neat equipment from the Coasties.

They’d be able to tag each crate with one of the cutter’s transponder units, then their divers, using the USBL, or Ultra Short Baseline system, would be able to pinpoint the landing spot for each of the five units utilizing a simple transceiver.

Yeah. Normally, the dive team from the Coast Guard would be the ones retrieving what was tagged. This time, Buck was determined to be on that crew. Not that he didn’t trust his one-time service associates, but part of him needed to see this entire operation through for Bobbie’s sake.

“Are they finished?” Buck eventually asked Spencer after five crates had floated off and eventually sunk to the bottom where they were currently out of sight.

“It looks like it. And even though they damned things are drifting all over the place, it shouldn’t be tough to eventually find and tag them.”

“Also,” Tabitha put in, “Bobbie’s idiot brothers have those boxes marked with the bright orange lettering of their beer company. That’ll be biting them in the ass because it will actually let us see their booty better in the murk,” Tabbi grinned.

“Okay. We’ve got this, then. Time to confront those assholes,” Spencer told her with satisfaction in his tone.

Tabitha quickly moved them upward, but before they broke the surface?—

“What the hell was that?”

Buck’s blood ran cold. Had it been a gunshot?

“Fuck,” Spencer confirmed his suspicions. “That was a weapon discharging.”

The sub flooded with light as they broke the waves.

“Why would anyone be shooting a gun?” Buck growled. This couldn’t be good.

Before he could puzzle it out and assure himself it was just the Coast Guard sending out a warning signal, Buck glanced out one of the viewing portals and hissed.

Two bodies were struggling in the water amidst a growing pool of blood.

“Shit!” Buck yelped. “Two people overboard. Injuries sustained.”

He grabbed his mask from his pile of gear, and that’s all he had time for as he was already heading to the sub’s tower for quick egress, because if he wasn’t mistaken, one of those combatants was Bobbie.

“Clear,” Tabitha yelled up to him after what seemed an interminable amount of time, giving the approval for him to open the hatch.

Without a second’s hesitation, Buck’s head was out of the submarine.

He scrambled up the rest of the ladder, donned his mask, and dove in.

He swam as fast as he could to where he’d last seen the pair, a dark spot forming in the water, but…

Buck needed to head below to see what was happening.

Unable to hold his breath like Spencer, Buck sure as shit could hold it long enough to go under and help Bobbie.

A splash sounded from behind him as he swam, and he knew Spencer was right on his ass.

Shouts were coming from the Small Dream , and risking a quick look over his shoulder, he saw several people in uniforms subduing Jeff.

Which meant he’d be dealing with Drew.

Buck swallowed down his anger.

It would take all he had in him not to kill the fucking guy. And that gunshot… He just hoped it wasn’t Bobbie who’d been hit before the pair went over the rail of her boat. If it had been, then he needed to quickly neutralize the threat Drew posed, so he could get her medical intervention, ASAP.

Buck’s mind flew fast, then quieted as he centered himself on the mission at hand, diving under at the spot in question, telling himself not to panic.

The Coast Guard would have a medic on their cutter, even though they weren’t fully equipped with an infirmary as their larger ships were.

Which meant all his concentration should be on getting Bobbie up and safely away from her brother.

There. Ten feet to his left. Bobbie and Drew were grappling with a gun.

The damned thing would have limited range underwater, but it would still fire, and God help anyone who was in close proximity to the business end of that barrel when it went off. He needed to approach, smartly.

Buck, as he propelled himself closer, still couldn’t tell who was spewing blood since it raised in a cloud between the pair, but it looked like it was coming from someone’s lower extremity, which was a blessing. If the bullet hadn’t hit a femoral artery, that meant there’d be no dying today.

Except maybe Drew, once Buck got his hands on the despicable man.

Assessing swiftly before entering the fray, Buck noted that this was a visceral battle being undertaken by both combatants. Drew had power on his side, but Bobbie had pure, raw rage.

He approached from Bobbie’s rear.

Of course, that meant Drew saw Buck immediately.

Panic set into his eyes, and he began struggling for possession of the firearm like a madman, knowing he had nothing and everything to lose at this juncture.

That’s right, asshole. Be afraid .

Buck had never been prouder of Bobbie; focused and not letting Drew get the upper hand.

Before he launched himself forward to intervene, he felt a tag on his foot. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Spencer moving up beside him.

Good.

Back-up was always a boon.

Using the rapid hand signals they’d perfected as youngsters while underwater, Buck indicated that he’d take care of Drew, and Spence was to get Bobbie clear.

Spencer nodded.

They both pitched themselves forward.

The tussle was finished so fast, it was almost anticlimactic. With one small exception.

Before Bobbie knew who was encircling her from behind, she extracted a wrench from her waistband, and had been about to clobber Spencer. Luckily, she’d recognized him at the last second, before she clocked him on the head.

Buck’s fist knocked the asshole Drew out in one blow, which was too bad. His adrenaline had cried out for more.

Spence finally grabbed Bobbie, who quickly waved him off, after which Spence dogged Bobbie to the surface. But Buck saw she was making the ascent on her on and that was good.

Still, it was her blood, oozing from her leg.

If Buck could punch Drew all over again, he would, but instead he towed the man’s limp body, upward.

It was tempting just to drop the asshole and let him drown, but that would be the easy way out.

The prick needed to face justice, then spend the rest of his wasted life stewing about his sins in jail.

One thing was certain. It wasn’t going to be Buck giving rescue breaths to the asshole once they dumped him on Bobbie’s boat.

Buck wasn’t getting his mouth anywhere near the man.

As a matter of fact, he perversely hoped that Drew had swallowed and breathed in half the ocean while he was unconscious, just to make the ejection of seawater from the man’s lungs as painful and prolonged as possible.

Buck shook his head. He wasn’t normally the bloodthirsty type, but it seemed like all his caveman instincts were rising heavily within him with Bobbie’s wellbeing in question.

He broke the surface just behind Spencer, and saw that hands were already dragging Bobbie up onto her deck. Uniforms were everywhere, and although he didn’t note that anyone was familiar, just seeing Coast Guard white made him breathe easier.

He swam Drew’s comatose body over to the side of the hull, treading water with his limp burden.

“He’ll need to be revived,” Buck told the Coasties who reached down and hauled Drew up. Buck needed no help getting aboard, and when he found himself on deck, on his feet, he rushed to hover above a coughing Bobbie almost before he was aware he’d moved.

He crouched, placed a gentle hand on her head, and brushed the hair back off her bleached-out face. “Are you okay?”

He glanced down at her leg where a medic was already taking a look.

“She got lucky,” the medic answered first. “It’s just a graze, and the ocean water did its job cleaning up the slice. I’ll still give her a shot of antibiotics, but a quick couple of stitches, and she’ll be fine.”

Buck turned back to Bobbie, who’d been silent this whole time, blinking up at him.

“What were you thinking?” he growled, trying to get a handle on his racing heart now that everything had resolved. He didn’t mean to be an asshole, but…

Bobbie coughed again, but instead of snapping back at him as he probably deserved, her eyes softened.

“I had a weapon,” she said, referencing the wrench she’d had in her waistband.

“Even though I didn’t get to use it on Drew, I was armed.

So you can stop being all snarly. I know you were really worried, but I had no choice.

Drew pulled his gun, and was aiming it at the authorities who were going to board. I couldn’t let him shoot them.”

Buck heaved out an emotional breath. “So you grappled with him, and you were the one who got winged. Then you…what? Took him over the rail?”

Bobbie grinned. “I knew you were down there, and I also knew you’d get to me. Which you did. So, see? My brain was functioning just fine the whole time.”

Buck groaned. “You took years off my life, woman. When I saw all that blood…” Buck had to tamp down his sudden urge to vomit as the reality hit him. “You could have died.”

“But I didn’t,” she told him with more strength finding its way into her voice. “Because there was something I knew I had to do. Which gave me superpowers. I wasn’t about to tap out on life before I accomplished one important task.”

“Yeah? What’s that?” Buck asked. His mind was drawing a blank on what could have been so critical to her, other than staying alive.

Bobbie raised one hand to Buck’s dripping face, and palmed his cheek. “This probably isn’t exactly the right time, with a huge audience and all, but I’m not holding back any longer. I love you Buck. I always have, and I always will.”

When he went to speak, she laid her fingers across his mouth.

“I’m an idiot for not saying it before this, but if you’ll forgive me, I promise I’ll say it to you every day for the rest of our lives.”

Buck’s heart went from the depths of despair, to soaring euphoria.

His smile, he knew, took over his whole face, and the joy that suffused him was almost too much for him to handle.

He felt a few happy tears mix in with the seawater that still dribbled down his face, but he didn’t care if anybody saw.

Bobbie loved him.

Amidst a smattering of applause, he bent down and kissed her cold lips reverently, then laughed.

“What?” she asked, puzzled, but clearly amused at his rapid change in demeanor.

“I certainly got the better end of the bargain, here,” he grinned. “I get to taste your lips, while over there, some poor joe is having to give your brother the kiss of life.” He faked a gag.

“Which is why we’re all watching you two, instead of them,” Spencer chuckled, pulling Tabitha close to his side.

“Speaking of watching…” a newcomer said from behind them.

Bobbie struggled to sit, and Buck helped her, keeping his arm around her shoulders because…he didn’t want to let go.

“Hey. Hi, Steve,” Bobbie grinned as the man came front and center. “Glad you could join the party. This is, uh, my…”

“Fiancé,” Buck supplied without hesitation.

Bobbie’s eyes grew wide and she made a choking sound. “Oh, really? Since when?”

“Since you told me you loved me. Don’t think I haven’t been carrying a ring around in my pocket since the first day we reconnected.”

“You have?”

She didn’t give him any indication of how she felt about that as he nodded.

If she rejected him now, he still wasn’t going to give up. He’d ask her every day for the next fifty years, to be his wife.

“I have,” he confirmed.

“Fine.” Bobbie huffed and rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to the Coastie. “Buck, this is First Officer Steve Randolph. Steve, this is Buck Sothard, just late of the Coast Guard himself, and…I guess…my fiancé.”

Satisfaction unlike any he’d ever known filled Buck’s chest as he beamed at Bobbie’s confirmation. He reluctantly removed his arm to stand and shake the Coast Guardsman’s hand.

“Nice to meet you, Steve,” Buck said sincerely.

“Pleased to meet you too, Buck. And congratulations?” Steve outright laughed. “I can’t wait to tell my wife that I’m not the most awkward dude on earth when it comes to proposals.”

“Ahh. I sense a story there,” Spencer put in, clapping Buck on the back as he sidled up to the small group.

“You do,” Steve snickered. “And I promise I’ll tell you all about it over chow later, once we’ve determined how to retrieve those boxes that went over the side.”