Page 46 of Austen

“My grandfather was in the Navy and spoke highly of the spec ops team.When I got older, I just wanted to test myself and see if I could make it.”He’d picked up his Fanta.“I did.The fact is that I like being on a team, working with people that have a mutual mission.We have each other’s backs, and it reminds me a lot of my family.”

“What, you have stubborn, tough, and a little bit arrogant siblings?”She’d laughed then, and he’d responded with a chuckle.A deep sound that had tunneled right into her skin and bones.

“Yeah, actually, I do.That includes my two sisters, Austen and Boo.My three brothers are just as, what did you say?—stubborn, tough, and...”

“Arrogant.”

“Right.”He’d leaned back and put his ankle up on his knee.“So, is your sister like you?”

“Like me?”

“Um, sassy, smart, and maybe a little bit pretty?”

Oh.She hadn’t had words, so she’d looked out the window, and her reflection had looked back at her.Short dark hair, big gray-green eyes.Fit, yes, but petite.Unremarkable.Hence, she excelled at blending in.

“Let me amend that,” he’d said.“Let’s try surprising.”

She could acceptsurprising.She’d looked at him.“No.She’s not like me.She’s steady, solid, and incredibly smart.”

“Incredibly smart.Ididsay smart.”

“Right, okay.”She’d smiled.

He’d smiled back.“Where does she live?”

“She’s down in Florida.Has a little house on the east coast, in a place called Melbourne Beach.”

She’d looked away again.She’d known she should schedule a trip to visit Nim after they got all this sorted.About that—“Have you heard from your team yet?”

“Yeah.I’m supposed to meet them at a coffee shop tomorrow.I’ll bring Luis down to the shop and they’ll pick us up there.”He’d raised an eyebrow.“In broad daylight, so no funny business.”

Aw.“You can’t think I’m gonna let you take him.”

He’d held up a hand.“No, of course not.You come with us.You get all the information you need out of him, and then he’s ours.”

“Or you get the information you need out of him, and he’s allmine.”She hadn’t smiled as she’d met his eyes.

“I should have added stubborn,” he’d said quietly.

She’d stared at him and he’d stared back, and suddenly the kiss they’d shared in the alleyway just a few hours earlier had risen between them.She could still taste his lips on hers and feel his body closing in as he’d pressed his hands on the wall behind her.It had been a quick kiss, of course—just to hide them from the police that had walked by.But he’d put enough into it to make it look real, and for that moment, maybe...maybe she’d wanted it to be.

Which was super crazy—then and later and especially now, as she shook the memories away in the galley of the yacht.

Darkness bathed the kitchen, the only sound the motor’s hum as the yacht churned through the waters.At the top of the stairs, she eased the galley door open.

Two guards sat in the salon, their guns trained on the captives.Declan sat on one of the sofas next to Austen.He held a towel to his nose and sported a fairly brutal black eye.Yeah, well,that’s what he got for being a terrorist.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t fair.Or even accurate.But she found it hard to echo compassion for the man, given his evil global plot.Still, nobody else deserved to suffer, especially since the Russians wouldn’t be here if they weren’t tracking Emberly.So...it was now or never.

She sneaked back down the stairs to the front of the galley.The forward stairs wound up from the galley all the way to the bridge, with an exit to the bow lounge area.Slinging the bag with the flares over her shoulder and hanging the Sig Sauer across her body, she eased up the stairs and opened the door to the bow.She crept out into the lounge area.

The area at the very front, beyond the bow lounge, held all the buoys and bumpers and ropes and coils needed to dock the ship.

She crouched by the built-in sofa, took off the bag, and pulled out a flare gun.She loaded a flare and was about to fire when a hand snaked around her mouth.Another hand grabbed the gun and then yanked her hard against a sopping-wet body.

“Stop.”A voice low in her ear.

She jerked, elbowed him hard in the ribs.He released her, and she turned.

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