Page 78 of Hear Me Roar

“Tattoos?” The Coastie asked, his tone light, to which I nodded oncemore.

“Yes, ma’am, he's here and he's just fine. We’ll make it up there in a few minutes, I just need to check you forexplosives.”

“Explosives?” My eyeswidened.

“Apparently, Mr. Petrova claimed to have strapped a bomb to yourbody?”

“I can assure you there's nothing on me. One of his men roughed me up a bit before tossing me in here, but they never strapped a thing tome.”

“There's another one over here!” A different Guard yelled from somewhere outside of the room, prompting the two that’d been standing at the door to take off and offerassistance.

“Come on, let's get you out of here.” The one attending to me rose to his feet and held out a hand. “Can youwalk?”

“Yeah, I'm good,” I said, pulling myself up with hishelp.

He checked me over quickly, just to be sure nothing had been hidden in one of my pockets. Thankfully, therewasnothing. Dimitri had lied.Why?

“We’re all clear,” the Coastie radioed in. “There was nothing onher.”

“We’re clear here too,” one said behindus.

I turned around and had to do a double take at what followed him, or really,whofollowedhim.

“Manny,” I squeaked, bounding up to him, my arms flying around him when he bent down to catchme.

“Good fucking God, you're alive!” He squeezed the shit out of me, breathing out a sigh arelief.

“How did you findus?”

“Sicko kept your phone on. I tracked it as soon as I woke up and realized you two had beentaken.”

“Oh my God, they put you outtoo.”

He nodded, setting me onto my feet. “All of us. They left us seated in the arena. A janitor woke us up before heleft.”

“Jesus, Manny, and then you woke up to this shit storm.” I shook my head in disbelief as we followed the Coast Guard through all the different levels of the ship, to thedeck.

“Took me about two minutes to put the pieces together before I sprang into action. By the time I met up with Knox, it’d been well over two hours. I was so worried something had happened to the both of you. Then we get here and they throw me down there. I was going crazy,” he admitted, scrubbing a hand down hisface.

“Trust me, so was I. It was bad, Manny...not so much for me, but for Maya. I thought she wasdead.”

He stiffened beside me, almost blanching. I reached for his hand and gave it a little squeeze, knowing this wasn’t what he wanted to hear. There was definitely something there between those two, and it both broke and warmed my heart that he’d been as worried for her safety as he’d been for mine, especially when they hadn’t been too fond of one another at the start of itall.

Manny squeezed my hand back and helped me up the last flight of iron steps. “I’m interested to know what Dimitri wanted withKnox.”

WithKnox?

Knox. He was here. He’d come for me, even when I’d pushed him inanger.

“What are you talkingabout?”

“When Knox and I made it onto the ship, there was no one on the deck, so we made it into the deckhouse in under two minutes. The second we made it down the first flight of stairs, two of Dimitri’s men caught us and they forced us further downstairs with their guns at ourheads.”

My heart shot up to my throat, rendering me speechless, so Mannycontinued.

“They led us to some vast room that sits right above the hold and as soon we walked in, they had one drag me right backout.”

“Just you?” I asked, as we passed dozens of cargopods.

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