Page 10 of On the Line

I wanted to make her stay, all right. But not in a nightclub. “We’ll leave by midnight. Scout’s honor.” I held up two fingers.

Her mouth curled into a smile. “You don’t strike me as a boy scout. But I trust you.”

“Good.” My lips brushed hers and I swept her off her feet, dress flapping in the wind as I twirled her in my arms. Her trust felt more valuable than her love at that point. Maybe keeping my word would make up for the secrets I kept.

I reached across her lap to open the glove compartment. “You better get the sand off your feet before you put your dancing shoes back on.” I pulled out a rag, dropping it on her knee beside the high heels she’d been carrying. “Don’t want you getting blisters.”

She stared at me for a long second. “That’s very considerate. Thank you, Spencer.”

Considerate, and maybe a tiny bit selfish. I grinned. “I wanna be sure we get that whole hour of dancing in.”

Cruising down Ocean Drive with the wind whipping through the cab of the old Ford, I felt like the king of theworld with my hand on Ellie’s knee. We drove past the entrance to the club. A line of at least thirty people spilled out the door. Ellie gawked at the spiked heels and tight dresses as we passed. “I might be underdressed.”

We both were, but I didn’t care if we looked like two Conch bumpkins showing up to the party. “You’ll be the prettiest girl in the club.” I squeezed her knee as I hung a right to circle around the block. “If we can find a place to park.”

Ellie’s hand covered mine. “Big city life.”

An Oldsmobile was pulling away from the curb half a block from the club. I grinned over at Ellie. “Small town luck in the big city.”

I walked around the truck to take Ellie’s hand as she stepped down. The night was hotter than it’d been in months. Neon lights flickered hot pink over the doorway, the same color as the spandex dress so tight it looked painted on a woman near the front of the line. As we crossed the street, I saw the dress go down in a flash before I registered theBANGthat echoed through the thick air. Then I realized everyone at the front of the line had dropped to the ground while those further back scattered, screaming. Ellie froze, stunned, as five more shots rang into the night.

My arm instinctively wrapped around her head and shoulders in a football hold and I turned, dragging her back toward the truck. I yanked her down to crouch behind the side of the pickup while I flung the door open. Shoving her inside, I pushed her head toward the floorboard. “Stay down!”

I started to slam the door shut but then realized I’d have to walk around the truck—and possibly into the line of fire—if I did. I clambered over Ellie in the floorboard and slinked onmy belly across the seat, wiggling to get my feet around and down to the pedals. “Get the door. I can’t reach it.”

Ellie popped up enough to grab the door handle. The tires squealed as we tore away. I made myself as small as possible, barely peeking over the steering wheel, grateful that Ellie couldn’t see the panicked scene as we sped past the nightclub. “Stay down, Ellie, stay down.” I yelled, swerving to dodge dozens running for their lives. The terror in their eyes burned a permanent scar on my brain.

Ellie stared up with frightened eyes, speechless. It was only after we’d gotten several blocks away and started over the causeway back toward downtown Miami that I could breathe enough to speak. “It’s safe to get up now.”

She clambered into the seat, wringing trembling hands in her lap. “Was that gunshots? I thought a car backfired at first.”

“It was definitely gunshots.”

Her eyes glazed over, awash with fear. “If we’d gotten there five minutes earlier...”

I swallowed, hoping to quiet the screams still ringing in my head. Somehow I managed a calm voice, hoping to comfort her. “Lucky for us we didn’t.”

Her lower lip quivered, eyes full of tears. “If you hadn’t pulled me out of there I’d have been trampled.”

I slid my arm along the back of the bench seat, drawing her into my side. “Don’t think about what could’ve gone wrong.”

But it was all I could think about. I’d rather die than let anything happen to her. “We’re safe now. Everything is fine.”

CHAPTER 6

Everything wasn’t fine.

For the next week, cartel violence dominated national news. Miami was turning into Medellín and the police had no control. The President stepped in and before long South Florida was swarming with Feds.

In our Keys bubble, we tend to ignore what’s happening on the mainland, pretend like it isn’t in our backyard, like it can’t affect us. George was no different. He continued to maintain his position that the Feds cracking down on cocaine took the heat off of marijuana. And it seemed he might be right. None of the crackdowns imposed in Miami had affected our operation much. With multiple lookouts and alternate drop points, it seemed bulletproof. Our weekly drops went off without a hitch, while just sixty miles up the road the DEA declared all out war on the cartel.

George toned down his presence out on the sandbar and around town, and kept to his bunker of a house for the mostpart, but it was still business as usual for the drops. We all felt invincible.

My charter business was picking up. My savings were growing. And Ellie was my girl.

Ellie had gotten over the shooting much faster than I expected. Of course, she hadn’t seen the carnage, and she wasn’t working in the drug smuggling business. When her aunt Val brought it up over dinner one night a couple of week after the incident, Ellie didn’t seem the least bit shaken by the memory. My heart was relieved that she wasn’t terrified. Nightmares of the scene still kept me up at night.

Ellie and I kept squeezing in time together, several days a week, even if only for short moments. Her kisses always left me wanting more, and my dreams about her had gotten downright dirty. But her company was what I craved the most. I was in no hurry for anything more, and actually felt grateful we hadn’t gotten physical too soon. Instead, we’d become best friends.

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