Page 52 of Explosive Vengeance

Guillaume seized her arm, banded his fingers tight enough around her right wrist to leave marks. “Who are you working for?” he demanded through clenched teeth.

She wheeled to the side, her left arm flashing out. He hissed in pain as something sharp sliced through his forearm and immediately let go.

Camille turned and raced for the gangway. Guillaume cursed, ignored Jean-Pierre as his head of security burst out of the bridge, and reached inside his jacket to draw his own weapon.

Taking aim at Camille’s back, he fired.

She crumpled to the ground feet from the gangway, blood blooming on the back of her suit jacket. Guillaume was on her in an instant. He grabbed her by the hair, and wound up with a fist full of wig.

Enraged, he seized her real hair and wrenched her head back. She was choking, blood dripping down her lips and chin, her eyes filled with shock and agony.

He leaned down to snarl in her face. “Who do you work for, bitch? Where’s Gabrielle?”

She struggled weakly, fighting to breathe.

He shook her, ready to strangle the life out of her rather than let her choke on her own blood. “Where is she?Tellme!”

She thrashed in his hold, her mouth opening and closing. Beyond the ability to think. She wasn’t going to tell him anything, and he was out of patience—and control. This bitch knew who had killed his brother. He was certain of it.

“I don’t have time for this shit,” he growled, then grabbed her by the back of her collar, dragged her to the edge of the deck and tossed her over.

Her body hit the water with a splash and Guillaume turned to Jean-Pierre. She was a plant. There would be others watching nearby. Someone would have heard the shots, and might have seen what he’d done. He had to escape. “Let’s get out of here.”

“What about the cargo?”

“It’s being handled.”

Chapter Seventeen

No!

Chloe watched in horror as Fleur hit the water and went under. She was too far away to help. A scream of denial locked in her throat as she raced down the dock.

“She’s surfaced,” Heath said in her earpiece, his voice uneven, as if he was running.

“Copy. We’re heading after Dubois,” Megan said.

Chloe didn’t respond, her feet thudding on the wooden dock as she scanned the water for Fleur. She caught sight of her friend’s head bobbing above the waterline, one arm flailing.

Reaching the edge of the dock, she vaulted off it, hitting the water in a clean, shallow dive. The shock of the cold water took her breath away for a moment.

She knifed through it, staying beneath the surface, heading for the last place she’d seen Fleur. Only when her lungs threatened to burst did she come up for a breath, pushing her arms and legs to move faster, harder. She was vaguely aware of the roar of a boat motor somewhere nearby, her sole focus on saving her friend.

The cold was already numbing her legs and arms. She wasn’t going fast enough. Fleur was getting weaker by the second. “Fleur! I’m coming. Just keep your head above water,” she shouted. Oh, dammit, she was still too far away. She’d never reach her in time—

A dark head surfaced a few yards from where Fleur had just been.

Heath. Somehow, he’d gotten there.

He shook the water from his face and turned in a circle, searching for Fleur. Before Chloe could call out, he dived under the murky surface, coming up a few seconds later with Fleur, one hand on her forehead, her head resting on his shoulder as he swam to the gangway. Chloe choked back a sob and swam toward them, pushing herself as hard as she could go.

Heath reached the gangway of the nearest ship. Two crewmembers were there to help pull Fleur from the water. Heath vaulted up and straddled her, immediately checking her vitals.

When Chloe got there twenty seconds later, someone grabbed her hands and pulled her up. Cold water sluiced off her as she pushed everyone aside to kneel beside Fleur. Her friend’s face was eerily pale, blood soaking the front of her clothing and the gangway beneath her.

“No pulse and she’s not breathing.” Heath immediately started chest compressions. “Get me the ship’s portable defibrillator.”

Chloe jumped to her feet and raced up the gangway. One of the crewmembers was already on his way down carrying a bright red emergency medical kit. She grabbed it from him and tore back to Heath, walling off the terror rising inside her. Heath had dried Fleur’s chest as best he could.

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