Page 133 of Nowhere to Hide

“Just too friendly.”

I tipped my chin up. “Too friendly?”

He shrugged. “They could just be gossipy, but I don’t know. I don’t trust anything right now.”

I glanced out at the boat. The quieter guy was still looking our way. I raised a hand to wave to him, and he seemed to startle before waving back.

“Maybe you’re right.”

He looked down at me. “Thanks for not getting in their boat. I know you were scared.”

“More scared to be without you.” I turned into him and wrapped both arms around him.

“Did Bastian say what their ETA was?”

I shook my head.

He brushed a kiss at my temple. “I’m going to check something.”

I followed him down to the bridge deck. He was coming out of the sliding door with a big black case. “Is that from Nyx?”

“No, Mason. He’s the tech guru at Kendrick.” He flipped it open and pulled out a small cube and tablet. “We need to go to the top deck for this, I think.”

I followed him back up, my thigh throbbed from all the excitement, but it was only a twinge.

He set the cube down on the smooth nose of the neck. He tapped on the tablet and suddenly it opened with tiny littlemachines that looked about the size of a large insect. “Are those drones?”

“Sure are. They are programmed to create a grid. I want to take a look at the boats around here and the marina. I doubt it will help at this point, but I’d like to record what’s around us and see if Nyx can find anything out of the ordinary.”

My breath caught as the drones lifted out and scattered into the sky.

“I’m assuming you got the name of the boat from our helpers?”

He grinned at me. “You gunning for a job with Leo?”

I laughed. “Hardly. I am exceptional with numbers though. Think he needs another analyst?”

“He always needs those.”

I’d said it as a joke, but the idea of it settled in my chest. I would need to start over whenever this ordeal was over. Would Locke even want me around still?

Pushing that thought aside, I peered over his shoulder at the screen. It was a surprisingly clear picture of the marina and the sailboats anchored around the island.

I didn’t know the first thing about it, but Locke seemed to know what he was doing. I left him to it and wandered over to the railing. Our little oasis was now smoke-tinged and damaged. Was it a freak incident or had the monster found us?

I rubbed my arms as a chill ripped through me even as the sun shimmered off the choppy sea around us.

The sound of chopper blades in the distance had me shielding my eyes and looking to the sky. An impressive black helicopter advanced on us. It stayed well up into the sky, the blades whipping the waves into a frenzy around us.

The doors opened and a black cord came down.

“We’re not going up there like that are we?” I shouted over the noise.

“We sure are.” The little drones careened around the boat thanks to the helicopter’s disturbance of the air. But they all filed into the little cube that Locke stuffed into his cargo leg pocket.

A man came zipping down the black rope. He wore all black with a backpack strapped to him that could fit a damn body. He dropped to the deck with a devilish smile. “You rang?”

Locke rolled his eyes. “Jesus, I know Leo must be worried about us if he sent you, Durant.”