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Teddy drove Nikki to the docks while his bodyguard drove her car behind them. But the drive was mostly silent as if he was allowing Nikki time to decompress. But when they arrived at the dock office, and they went inside, Teddy couldn’t hold back any longer. He unleashed on her.

“That was some dumbass, backwards-ass shit you pulled, Nikki.”

“That man was attacking her,” Nikki said as she leaned her back against the wall. “What was I supposed to do?”

“Mind your own fucking business, that’s what!” Teddy fired back as he went behind the desk. “You shouldn’t have been there. What you looking her up for with all this work we got to do?”

“You act as if this was some elaborate plan. I was no plan at all. I was wanted a face to face with her, that’s all.”

“But why? What you need to see her face for? I told you she needed a favor and I gave her one. End of story!”

“You say.”

Teddy looked at her. “And your ass better say it too.”

“That may not be what she says, is what I mean.”

“Who gives a shit what she says? You’re my responsibility, not her!” Then he frowned even deeper. “Why would you even go there when I told you she was having trouble with her old man?”

“I wasn’t thinking like that. I just wanted to size her up, that’s all. I never dreamed I’d pull up and there she was being manhandled by that man. He slapped her down as soon as she walked in that house. I couldn’t let that stand.”

“Wait a minute. What do you mean? She was there?”

“Yes, she was there. She ran out not long before you came up.”

Teddy couldn’t believe it. “And she left my wife to fight him off by yourself?”

“I honestly don’t think she knew who I was. She just saw that he and I were fighting and she took that opportunity to get out of there. It was self-preservation.”

“At least somebody cared about themselves up in that motherfucker.”

Nikki leaned her head back against the wall. Teddy watched her. She had thick, full hair that she always wore in a perfect hairstyle that hung just below her neck. Her face could rival the most beautiful girl’s in the world. But she looked troubled to him. “Nikki, what is it?”

“The way you respond to me in the field is the very reason I’m still not fully accepted by the guys. They see how you baby me. How you’re terrified every time I’m in any kind of scuffle like I can’t take care of myself.”

“Scuffle my ass. He could have killed you!”

“Ah come on, Teddy. We deal with guys far worse than him every week.”

“You don’t.”

“I’m the number two in the largest syndicate in the world. If I can’t handle some woman-beating scum like him, then what are we doing? Playing at this shit? Your father wouldn’t have signed off on me becoming your number two if I didn’t have what it takes.”

“Who said you didn’t have what it takes? I never said that. What I’m saying is that you’re my wife too. The mother of my child. And I can’t pretend you aren’t.”

Nikki exhaled as the office phone began to ring.

“And the next time you ditch your security when Pop ordered security for both of us before he left the country, then I’m telling him about it. I’m gonna let him deal with your disobedient ass,” he said as he pressed Speaker on the desk phone and answered the call. “What?”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

The voice was unfamiliar. Teddy glanced at Nikki. Nikki stood away from the wall and looked too. They had been getting those same menacing phone calls all week that grounded their fleet.

“You wouldn’t do what if you were me?” Teddy asked over the phone.

“Sail.”

Sail? Who was sailing, Nikki wondered. All of their ships, the ones dockside anyway, were in a holding pattern.

“Why wouldn’t you sail?” Teddy asked the caller.

“Because it isn’t the wise thing to do.”

“What you know about wisdom?”

“I know who I am. And who I am not.”

Teddy frowned. “Who is this?”

“Do you know who I am not?”

“No. But I’m sure you’re gonna tell me.”

“I’m not the Unabomber. You know why?”

“Why?”

“Because, unlike him, I’ll never get caught. I sail away. Just like your men are about to do.”

“Who are you?” Teddy asked again.

“I’m the man that didn’t have to get onboard.”

Teddy frowned again. “What?”

“Beneath the boat is as good a plant as above it.”

When he said those words, Teddy’s heart dropped. He understood exactly what he meant.

“Tar-tar,” the man said with a laugh in his voice as he ended the call. But Teddy had already dropped the phone and was running out of that office.

“Teddy, what’s wrong?” Nikki was hurrying behind him. “Teddy what is it?”

But Teddy was running toward the docks yelling as he ran. “Abandon ship!” he was crying out. “Abandon ship!” He was flailing his arms as he ran. He was running as fast as he could. “Abandon ship! Get everybody off! Get everybody off!”

But before he could get that last yell out, an explosion could be heard that knocked Teddy off of his feet and nearly knocked Nikki off of her feet further behind him. And the largest boat in the harbor went up in smoke and fire too.

Teddy fell, but he quickly got back up and looked at the harbor. And not one, not two, but three of his ships had been rocked by the explosion. Two were inflames. The other one had split in two. The bodies that were now floating in the water, those poor souls that were onboard and didn’t stand a chance when the explosion happened, were so numerous it looked like a sea of bodies.

Nikki finally ran up to Teddy. She had so many questions. But the most prevalent questions were the obvious ones: Why were so many men onboard those ships when they were on standby? When they were in a holding pattern? When they had been ordered by her and Teddy to wait?

But when Nikki saw Teddy’s face and that look of guilt and regret in his eyes she knew it was not the time nor place.

Especially when he ran and jumped into the water to see if there was anybody still alive that he could save, even though everybody could see there was no way there could have been survivors. But Teddy was just that devastated.

Nikki was devastated too. And a little pissed with Teddy for making a decision that monumental without consulting her first. But that was the way he rolled lately. He was doing it his way and he didn’t give a damn what she thought. But watching the carnage left her almost numb, and watching Teddy fruitlessly search and search for anybody with a pulse in that water, staggered her too. It was unbelievable.

But as the men that were not on board run away from the consuming fires, and as Nikki jumped into the water to make sure Teddy wasn’t so distraught that he took himself under with all those dead men, she also knew that one order of business could not wait. They had already kept all the craziness from him, hoping shit wouldn’t hit the fan before his return. But the fan had been hit, shit was now flying everywhere, and it could not be put off any longer. He had to know.

And the question would be a straightforward one: Was Teddy going to phone him, or was she?