Page 69 of Glorious Rivals

“Boatward, ho!”Gigi declared.She took to the beaten path.Eventually, itdidcurve back toward the water—and a small dock, which contained exactly one boat that looked like it had been built in the seventies.

That tracks.“Jackson?”she called.She searched the boat—first above, then down below, and…nothing.No Jackson.

Gigi let out a long, slow breath.“How hard could it possibly be,” she said out loud, “for a person with an extremely eclectic skillset to hot-wire a boat?”

With a silent promise to send Jackson apology Twinkies after the fact, Gigi turned and bolted up the steps out of the cabin—and directly into a human chest.A male one.Black T-shirt, hard muscles.

With a passing prayer to the Patron Saint of Chaotic Girls, Gigicalculated the best angle at which to drive her knee into a certain someone’s tender bits, should the need arise.

She lifted her chin and stalled for time.“I escaped.”

Slate’s lips twitched slightly.“I noticed.”

“Out of my way, Eyebrow Scar.I’m going to my sister, and you can’t stop me.Observe the threatening look on my face as I say: I’d really hate to have to hurt you.”

Slate shrugged.“You can hurt me if you want.”

Gigi narrowed her eyes.She made a fist and drew back her arm—and then she kneed him in the crotch.With gusto.Misdirection for the win!

Gigi made it about four feet past him before Slate was suddenly in front of her again.Apparently, testicular damage had done nothing to his speed.

“Come on, sunshine.”

Gigi liked to think the growl in his voice was just a little bit higher pitched than usual.“It’s nothing personal,” she told him.“I have a sister to save, and you have some private parts to ice.We can both win here!”

Slate was not amused.“Do you even know how to drive a fishing boat?Or a boat this old, period?”

Gigi folded her arms over her chest.“I can learn.The ocean is a great place for learning.”

“You are a hazard to yourself.”

“Thank you.”Gigi tried to dart around him and ended up running smack into his chest again.

Slate caught her shoulders and righted her.“Wasn’t a compliment.”

“Let me go or I’ll scream,” Gigi replied.“And I have to warn you, Slate: My bellowing skills are second to none.”

“Mattias.”Beneath the blond hair hanging down over his face, the expression in his eyes shifted slightly.“My first name.It’sMattias.”

Gigi didn’t want to remember that when he’d given her the nameSlate, he’d said it was both true and false.She also didn’t want to ask: “Slate is your last name?”

“Slater, actually.”

Mattias Slater.There was something about this moment—the sunrise, an ocean mist thick enough to gather on their skin, his hands on her shoulders, the fact that he’d just given her his name—that threatened Gigi’s resolve.

“Mattias,” she said quietly.And then she opened her mouth and screamed.Wildly.Loudly.Directly in his fuzzy face.

Wait.Fuzzy?Mattias Slater’s blurry hands fell from Gigi’s shoulders.Time slowed.Gigi’s head pounded, and the next thing she knew, she couldn’t feel her face.She went down with a thud.

Slate fell to his knees beside her.

Prone on the wood floor of the boat, Gigi belatedly realized:the mist.Her vision began to go black around the edges, and the last thing Gigi saw before the world gave way to total darkness—seriously?again?—was a pair of leather boots stepping onto Jackson’s boat.

They were red.

Chapter 50

LYRA