Page 50 of Austen

The gunman aimed toward the ship, and whoever piloted the trawler put it into reverse.

“Get on that boat!”Declan practically pushed her toward the sea.The trawler was close enough that she could leap and grab the edge of the ladder.

“Go!”Declan put his hands on her waist as if to toss her.Another shot, and she ignored it and leaped for the boat, hands out for the ladder.

Too far away.She splashed down into the water, the trawler inching away.

“Swim for it!”Declan shouted, and then he, too, dove off the edge of the swim deck.

She started swimming as bullets ripped into the night at the trawler.

The pilot rammed it into high gear.The motor revved, churned up a wake.

From the yacht’s bow, more gunfire.

The trawler turned and sped into the darkness.

Declan surfaced.“Stop!Wait!”

More shots, now pinging into the water.Austen grabbed Declan’s hand.“Big breath!”

Then she pulled him down, deep under the water.Silence filled her ears, followed by the distant hum of a motor as the trawler thundered away.

Hide.

She kicked and pulled Declan around the side of the yacht.They surfaced in the luminescence of the boat, puddling out the back, and she maneuvered them deeper into the shadows.

Declan treaded water beside her.“We have to get to the life raft,” he said.“It’s on the swim deck.We can just throw it in the water and it’ll inflate.”

“I’ll do it.”She started to swim, but he grabbed her arm.

“No, you stay here.I’ll do it.”

“For the love!We’ll both do it.Let’s go.”She took off, slicing through the water, the waves choppier in the darkness.

Belle still had a position on the swim deck, shooting.

Then, nothing.Her gun empty.

She stood, her hands up, and just as Austen reached the ladder, one of the Russians advanced on her.

Belle glared at him, and Austen couldn’t help it: “No.Don’t shoot her!Please don’t shoot her!”

Austen scrambled aboard, and yes, Stein would have killed her, but she walked right up to Belle, hands up.“She’s just a steward.She has nothing to do with this.”

Honestly, Austen didn’t know whatthiswas really.Belle could have something to do with it, she supposed, but it didn’t feel that way.Especially when Declan, his hands up, stepped between them and the gunman.

“Everybody just calm down.I’m still here, and I’m the one you want.”

And if Austen had any final question as to whether or not Declan was a criminal, it died as he walked up the stairs and said, “I’ll tell you everything you want if you let them go.”

* * *

According to his SEAL training, no plan survived first contact with the enemy, but especially one as reckless and probably poorly thought out as Stein’s epic failure to recapture the ship.Not that he really wanted torecapturethe ship, but he would have preferred spending the next two days on Declan’s luxurious yacht to being shoved into a smelly fishing trawler.

But since he was currently swimming in the ocean in the darkness, trying to figure out how to get back onto a boat, either option might have been better.

At least he wasn’t dead.And as far as he could see, Austen wasn’t dead either, nor Declan and Phoenix.No, they all sat under the bright stern deck lights, their hands up.Whoever had helmed the trawler and driven away had probably done the right thing.However, he would be having a small conversation with said person later aboutdoing unto others.

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