Page 135 of Nowhere to Hide

I gripped his hand. “I’m good.”

He laced our fingers together. “Look.”

I glanced out the open doors and my stomach pitched again, but then my breath caught. From up here the hundreds of boats seemed like toys. The sails were a mix of pure white and rich colors along with names for the boats as well as companies that probably sponsored either the crew or the regatta itself.

But as we banked back inland I caught a whale breaching the water.

I glanced at Locke. The day had been filled with so much fear and joy that my system didn’t even know what to assimilate first. But when he gripped my hand, I concentrated on him.

On Locke and how he grounded me in the moment.

Even when I wasn’t sure where we were going from here.

CHAPTER 27

LOCKE

Back at TheKendrick Group I was sent to Leo’s domain while Nyx whisked Priscilla away to get cleaned up and into new clothes.

When I walked in both Leo and Dom were talking by the windows.

My gut twisted. I hadn’t seen Dom since the day we buried Milligan.

He turned. There was some gray at his temples since the last time I’d seen him. I had a feeling I’d given him a few of those. He crossed to me and shocked me when he dragged me forward in a hard, clasping hug.

“Asshole.”

I slapped his back in return. “Dom. Been awhile.”

“You sure know how to come out of hiding, you son of a bitch.”

“I know. Thanks for taking Cilla on.”

“As if we’d say no.” He stepped back and crossed his arms. “You look better than the last time I saw you. Wish I had that tan.”

Leo came up to stand by his brother. Where Leo was dark swept back hair with icy blue eyes, Dom was crinkled hazel eyesfrom smiling and a thousand dollar haircut to tame his curls into something close to professional. Both of them former military, but they’d come out with very different personalities.

Leo was ruthless to Dom’s diplomatic.

“You were taking off, weren’t you?” Leo crossed his arms.

“I was.”

I wasn’t about to lie. When it came to Priscilla, there was no way I was putting her in danger—even if that meant we went into deep hiding.

“Dante found a bug on your ship.”

“What? Where?”

“He took a dip and checked the integrity of the hull, then on a hunch decided to check the whole damn thing and found something on the underside of the...is it a bridge deck?”

“Son of a bitch.”

“It was small—at first he thought it was a barnacle or whatever sticks to a boat.” Leo shrugged. “There was a reason I sent Dante, but I thought I was being paranoid.”

I raked my fingers through my hair. “Well, that makes two of us. I want you to check on a boat that came to help us. Something felt off about them. I get that the boating community can be helpful, but I don’t know. Something was hinky.”

Dom snickered. “Haven’t heard that word in a minute.” He rocked back on his heels much like Leo. “But I usually agree with your instincts. Send the boat details to me and I’ll check out who it’s registered to.”