Page 54 of Shaken Knot Stirred

After the fact, I had pieced together a better picture of the story. He could inherit the Pax if he formed a pack. He didn’t want to do that, but he had run out of time to raise the cash to buy it from his brothers. A pack became his only option. And then everything went sideways with his brother and this was his revenge.

“Well, there’s only one thing for it then,” Moxie finally spoke. She stepped up on the lowest railing and covered her eyes to peer at the boats, like the extra foot in height would give her an advantage.

“Here’s the plan. I go after Grayhouse and Beg’s brother, play them off each other. Either way, I win and buy myself out.”

“What about Beg’s brother?” I hung my head, suddenly exhausted by it all.

I was responsible for these two women. All because I stole a bag of money from Beg to give Moxie a better life.

She wasn’t supposed to work that night. I had picked a fight and blew up. Told her I was done with her. I’d expected her to storm off and kick the shit out of me when I got home. I had stashed the duffle in the omega lounge. I had go-bags packed for us already. I’d just slip out of Saiko and we’d be in the wind. But she got to the bag first. She must have gone to cry in the lounge, found the bag, took the opportunity. Beg showed me the footage of a petite blond walking out of the hotel with a duffle bag.

Moxie kicked her leg back. The blue in her hair stood out in the sunlight. She leaned further over the railing, seemingly without a care in the world. Just a girl watching the boat race.

“And then we’ll kill Beg.”

I felt Lana’s fear first before my own chilled me. Her eyes were filled with dead panic. I turned back to look at the water, wanting its soothing waves to consume me. I had tried to kill Beg once, and he’d locked Lana alone in that interrogation room with Grayhouse as a punishment. He was pack lead. I couldn’t kill him. It wasn’t possible.

Sunlight sparkled on the waves. The water was choppy today, not smooth like glass. But still perfect.

We saw the explosion first. A burst of orange and white as it kicked up spray. The boom took a second to travel across the bay. And then the screaming started, which I could only hear because my heart had stopped.

Chapter 30

Star

The mainsheet snagged theanchor when the boat exploded. It wrapped around my foot, dragging me down. Salt stung my eyes. Blind, I clawed at the rope, heaving the line up as I worked to kick off my sneaker. The line gave but took my shoe. I kicked for the murky sunlight above me.

Coughing out bay water, I gulped at the air. I let the life vest do its job and hold me in a dead man’s float. I hooked my fingers into the top of the vest, pulling it away from my neck. Slimy seaweed was plastered to my lips. It evaded my attempt to spit it out.

When I picked my head up and looked around, my vision was cloudy from salt. Blinking, I scanned the shore. I had swum to the buoys before, I could make it back if I had to. Treading water, I spun 360 degrees. Two sailboats were still headed for the marina; the third was headed straight for me. Pay was at the rudder, leaned way back with an arm out. He dropped the mainline and pushed the boom out with a foot. We locked forearms. He grunted as he heaved me out of the water, using the last of the little boat's momentum to swing me up.

The skiff, at a dead stop, bobbed softly. Pay hooked his fingers in the bottom of the life vest. I threw my leg over the edge and rolled into the shallow hull.

“Fingers and toes.” Pay gave me a few hearty slaps to the cheek.

“Get the fuck off,” I groaned.

“Fingers and toes,” he commanded again. His mom always demanded a digit check every time we came back home after whatever madness Payton had cooked up. She figured if you still had all your fingers and toes, you couldn’t be hurt that bad.

I wiggled all ten fingers for him.

“I was the only one who knew what boat I was choosing. I took them out of storage myself this morning,” Pay said, like he had to defend himself.

I just nodded and picked at the seaweed still stuck to my lips. I knew Pay wouldn’t sabotage the boats, at least not in that way. At least not my boat. Payton was many things, competitive, petty, obnoxious, but I knew for damn sure he didn’t want me dead. Beg was another story.

“I don’t think Beg is smart enough to run a covert wet op with a diver in the water to strap a bomb to the boat. Win maybe, but…”

“Fuck. The juice box.” I rubbed my ear. They were ringing slightly.

“A juice box?”

I nodded. “He tossed me one as we launched. The little shit knew I wouldn’t toss it overboard and litter in your pretty little bay.”

“Can you even put a bomb in a juice box?”

I groaned and tried to rearrange myself into a more comfortable position.

Pay trimmed the mainline to catch the wind again. “After the bullshit he pulled to form his pack, it should be you blowing him up.”

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