Page 82 of Reluctantly His

They may have had a point, but their point no longer mattered the second they put my girl in danger.

Once Charlotte was in the crosshairs, they were dead men.

I didn’t give a fuck what they wanted.

The only thing I wanted was to see their life drain from their eyes. And that was the thing about me. I usually got whatever the fuck I wanted. I took it by force if I had to. This would be no exception.

As soon as the ladder was lined up enough, I jumped, caught the first rung, and my fingers slipped.

I managed to catch myself on the sides of the ladder using my feet to stop my descent. Thankfully, my clumsy moment was relatively silent, and no one looked over the side of the ship. I carefully climbed up and went to the lowest deck I could access. It was the main deck, but it was empty.

That was perfect. I could hear the people above me, all held on the smaller sun deck. It was smart, since it was a smaller area with fewer places people could hide.

Too bad it wouldn’t be enough to save them.

Hunter was still bleeding out below, so that was where I needed to go.

Once I got him at least stable, then I would take his weapons as well as mine, sneak around the ship, and start taking motherfuckers out.

Hunter was easy enough to find. I just found the first stairway down, and when I got to the bottom level, he was the only soul I saw.

He had managed to move himself, so he was leaning against a doorway, the trail of blood telling me exactly how far he had managed to crawl before giving up. It wasn’t very far, but I suppose with two gunshot wounds, it was somewhat impressive.

Without a word, I ripped off the pieces of his shirt that covered his wounds and started assessing the damage.

“You know, out of all the people aboard this ship, I was pretty sure I wasn’t on the list of people you wanted to get naked,” Hunter said.

“You are definitely not on that list. Sadly, you are on the list of people on the ship that I don’t want to die, so shut the fuck up while I figure out what to do with you.”

At least the shots had missed his arteries and vital organs, so it really was just a blood loss issue. I took his shirt and ripped it into long strips, balling up some of it to press against the wounds, making him bite into his own forearm to muffle a yell.

“Don’t be a bitch. If they figure out I’m here because of you, I will shoot you again myself. This time, I’ll make sure it sticks,” I said as I wrapped a few of the strips around his chest to secure the padding.

“You would, would you? You fucking dick.”

“Yes, I would,” I said, testing the bindings. “Now, where are they keeping the hostages?”

I knew where they were, but I needed to keep Hunter thinking for another moment. Maybe he had more information.

“Top deck. Fastest way up is through that stairway. I don’t know which way they’re facing, but that stairway will lead you to a door that is blocked by some catering tables.”

“Okay, I’m going to go handle this situation. And once we get help, I’ll make sure someone comes down and gets you and will get you properly patched up.”

Hunter nodded for a second, and his eyes closed as he leaned his head against the wall. “Oh, and Reid?”

“Yeah?” I asked, turning back to look at him.

“You so fucking owe me for this. The bar tab is on you forever.”

“I don’t fucking owe you for doing a half-ass job. You’re here to protect Charlotte, and you’re down here just lying around doing nothing while she’s up there. Do you think two little tiny pieces of lead change that? Bitch, please.”

When he flipped me off, I knew that he’d be fine for at least a little bit, and I went to go get my girl back.

The second I got to the main deck, I could hear them screaming again.

I snuck up to the sun deck, thankful that they actually had most of the hostages facing me, so the assailants had their backs to me.

There were four men. Each of them was dressed in solid black, with black ski masks and holding Glocks, and two were holding AK-47s.

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