Page 18

There were a lot of little islands dotted off the coast and she thought they might slowly make their way around them, spend the odd day on shore before setting off somewhere else. It was safer to keep on the move most of the time just in case anyone was looking for her.

Not that she thought they would be.

Well, not out there at least.

Climbing out of bed, she didn't bother to put on any shoes as she padded quietly through the living room, careful not to make a sound and disturb Jake.

Something was going on with him, he’d seemed … different, last night.

Not necessarily in a bad way. After knowing Jake for so long, growing up together, she knew him better than most people did.

Maybe even better than Jax and his stepbrothers.

She knew him in a different way, and she knew he had a lot of unresolved feelings leftover from his childhood and no outlet for them.

Both his parents were gone, so it wasn't like he could yell at them for dying and leaving him, and the rest of his family he’d gone no contact with after his dad’s death.

He and Jax had stayed with the Charleston kids’ grandparents, and she knew it had hurt Jake further that his biological family hadn't had a problem with allowing people they didn't know to take over raising their relatives. Even though staying with his stepbrothers was what he’d wanted, it still hurt when family didn't fight for you.

She knew from firsthand experience.

Right now, Jake had something on his mind, something that was worrying him, and she hoped that soon he’d feel comfortable talking to her about it.

Making her way up the steps, she drank in a deep breath of the clean, fresh air and tipped her head up to take in the stars.

There was something different about the stars out there. It wasn't like at home when you looked up to see a few stars dotted about, there was too much light pollution to see them in all their glorious majesty.

But out there …

It was breathtaking.

The sky was literally filled to the brim with twinkling little lights. They looked so bright and happy, and they immediately put her at ease.

As much as she adored watching sunrises and sunsets on the water, there was something equally as magical about the night sky.

Feeling like the whole world was finally smiling down on her for once, she was halfway to the cockpit when the boat suddenly gave a violent shudder.

It was so strong, in fact, that it knocked her down to her knees.

What the heck was that?

Scrambling back to her feet, Alannah hurried over to the edge of the boat to look out across the ocean, wondering if it had perhaps been a freak wave.

It hadn't felt like one, though.

And when she looked over the sea, she saw it was almost completely calm.

If it hadn't been a wave knocking the yacht about then what was it? It had felt like it was the boat itself shuddering, independently of the water in which it sat.

But what would make the boat shake like that?

She was almost wondering if she’d imagined the whole thing, that seemed a more logical conclusion than anything else her imagination could conjure up, when the boat suddenly shook again, this time almost sending her flying over the railing and into the water.

Something was wrong.

She had no idea what, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that the boat had a problem. One she wasn't sure she would know how to fix. Just because she knew how to drive her boat didn't mean that she knew anything about the mechanics of how it worked.

Still, she had to do something.

As she was running toward the cockpit, she heard Jake shout her name.

“Over here,” she called back as she began checking over the controls.

“What the hell was that?” Jake asked as he ran up behind her.

“No idea.”

“Are you okay? Did it wake you?”

“I was already out here. Woke up, couldn’t go back to sleep, and thought I'd come and look at the stars. It knocked me to my knees as I got to the deck. Are you okay?” Alannah paused to give him a quick once-over.

He looked all right. Actually, he looked more than all right.

With his hair sleep mussed and wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants hanging low on his hips, he looked delicious.

Like a tasty treat she wanted to devour.

Focus, Alannah.

“Fine. We need to figure that out, though.”

“We should put on life vests,” she added, already moving to grab them from the small cupboard beneath the controls.

Since both she and Jake could swim, and they were planning to be out on the ocean for a while, it wasn't like they were going to wear a life vest permanently.

But with the boat acting up it was better to be prepared for the worst rather than get caught out.

Right as she was reaching for the bright yellow vests, she noticed it.

A slip of paper eerily reminiscent of the one she’d found in the glove compartment of her car right before a burning vehicle came barreling toward them.

“J-Jake,” she stammered, unable to reach out and pick it up.

She hadn't put it there.

That she was certain of.

Why would she write herself a note and hide it with the life vests that she’d never used?

“What?”

“L-look?”

Following her trembling hand, she knew the second he saw what she was pointing at because his entire body stiffened.

“I think …” Alannah trailed off unable to say it out loud.

Because saying it out loud was acknowledging it.

And acknowledging it was admitting that someone else had been on her boat without her permission.

Not just someone but the people who were out to hurt her to try to convince Jake to back off and stop looking into what happened to his dad and stepmom.

If she accepted all of that, she also had to accept that whatever was wrong with the boat wasn't an accident, and it wasn't a malfunction.

Someone had guessed she might come to the boat so they’d sabotaged it.

Jake picked up the piece of paper, opened it, and read it. If it was possible his body went even stiffer at whatever it was that he read.

Even though she didn't want to know, Alannah couldn’t seem to stop herself from asking, “Wh-what does it say?”

“Nothing,” he muttered, shoving the paper into his pocket.

That lie was as obvious as the fact that they were out on the ocean on a boat that was no longer safe.

As if to prove her point, the boat suddenly shuddered again sending her flying sideways. Jake’s hands snapped around her biceps before she could hit the deck, dragging her up against his bigger, stronger body.

“What does it say, Jake?” she asked again.

It was bad, she knew that already, but she had to know how bad.

Had to know if the boat was about to catch fire.

They were surrounded by water, so they could avoid the fire, but it would only end with them trapped in the water because there was no land nearby.

Could they make it back to the marina?

Or the closest island?

“It says your friend should have listened, now you have to pay the price.” Jake growled, and she knew he wasn't angry with her, just the situation, and maybe himself as well.

“P-pay the price?” she repeated, voice wobbling.

“That means they knew I'd come here, they wanted me to find the note, to know that I was going to die because of you.” Digging her fingers into his forearms as she clung to him, she couldn’t stop a couple of tears from tumbling free as reality sank in. “That means we’re both going to die.”