Page 25 of Between Love and Honor

Rich was already skimming the sandy bottom when he saw her.

The necklace she was wearing danced eerily above her neck as the pearl caught the lantern light. A halo of red hair spread out from her still body. Her hands and feet were tied together with the auxiliary stern anchor from the Seas the Day secured to her ankles, its weight easily pressing her to the floor of the bay. Duct tape covered her mouth. Rich was already sawing at the anchor’s ropes when Ben lifted her body and began rapidly kicking them both to the surface. Adam grabbed Ben by the midsection and within seconds, they were above the water gasping for air.

A crowd had gathered along the dock and suddenly there was a swell of voices among the outstretched hands trying to pull them out of the bay. Rich shot out of the water and grabbed onto the deck gulping lungsful of air.

The EMTs reached for Quinn, but Ben was reluctant to let her go. He anxiously searched her neck for a pulse.

“Bennett, let them do their job.” Adam reached around him and hauled Quinn’s body up onto the dock where the two EMTs ripped the tape off her mouth and began resuscitating her.

A hush fell over the crowd as Ben crawled up onto the dock. Aunt Marnie wrapped a towel over his shoulders but he didn’t dare take his eyes off Quinn long enough to even wipe his face.

Breathe, he silently urged. Everyone around him seemed to be collectively holding their breath. Time stood still. When suddenly she began to choke and cough, it was almost as if the dock itself sighed with relief. He scrambled closer helping the EMTs to reassure her as she struggled against their attempts to get oxygen to her lungs.

“Ben.” She gasped his name between violent coughing spasms.

“I’m here.” He squeezed her hand. “Just relax. Leave the mask on and breathe.”

She shook her head agitatedly. “No,” she cried, yanking at the mask. “Need to. . . get out of here.”

“Shh,” he tried to reassure her. “It’s okay. You’re safe.

I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

The EMT was inserting a line into her arm. “Her BP is through the roof. This will help keep her calm,” he murmured. “The IV fluids will stabilize her body temp.”

Ben attempted to place the mask back over her nose and mouth, but she swatted it away.

Her eyes pleaded with him, but her labored words were difficult to make out. “Must. . . disappear. Can’t know. . .

I’m alive!” Her eyelids drooped as the medicine began to take effect. Her words were slurred slightly now. “Make sure he doesn’t get it. Please, Ben.”

“Who, Quinn?” Ben demanded. “Who are you afraid of?”

“She’s out,” the EMT explained when she didn’t answer.

“Make sure who doesn’t get what?” Adam asked from where he had crouched down beside him.

“Damned if I know,” Ben said. “But I’m sure as hell going to find out.”

“My guess is she has something those guys want badly enough to kill for,” Rich announced from his perch on the Seas the Day. “From the looks of it, those goons believed it was on your boat. Any ideas?”

“No clue.”

Could she have planted something on his boat earlier?

Damn it. He’d been too busy lusting over her like a horny teenager to notice if she had.

The EMTs carefully loaded her onto a gurney and wrapped a thermal blanket around her body. She looked so innocent. Minutes before, she’d looked just as peaceful floating to the bottom of the bay. Nausea rolled through his belly. Those men thought nothing of dumping her in the water and leaving her to die. No matter how angry he was with her right now, he never wanted that for her.

Never.

And, right now, he desperately wanted her safe and alive because he had questions for her. Lots of them.

“How do we know those guys got what they were looking for?” he asked. “Or that they won’t come back and finish her off. We need to get her someplace we can secure.”

Adam eyed him warily. “Dude, you may not be thinking with the correct body part here. She’s clearly not as innocent as she appears. She ghosted you, remember? Are you sure you want to involve yourself in her shit storm?”

“I gave her my word,” he snapped.

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