Page 106 of Ship Outta Luck

I study the knife for a moment, the lemon-yellow handle, the balanced tip. Then throw it, my aim steady as ever.

Throwing knives, however, is notoriously unreliable. More likely to piss off your opponent than hurt them.

Still. Pierce flinches and June gasps in disbelief. The knife sails past Pierce, landing with a splash in the water.

“I’m unarmed. Let her go.” I hold my hands wide.

“Dean.” I can’t bear to look at June, listening to the way she sobs my name.

“The drugsaredown there, aren’t they?” Pierce’s gaze is avid now, hungry.

Fuck him.

“She didn’t know shit. Your intel was bad.” Behind me, June sucks in a breath.

Something bangs against the cabin walls.Charlie.Goddammit, this is a clusterfuck of epic proportions and I can’t think straight with June here, in danger.

I raise my hands over my head, the barely healed wound in my side pulling tight.

“Smart. Smarter than I gave you credit for.”

“June,” I bark her name. “Go.”

Salt spray licks across my back and June is gone, hopefully swimming to the rental boat Pierce anchored. Something like pride flickers through me, replaced by the agony of knowing she must hate me now, must think the worst.

At least she’s out of harm’s way.

Even if it means we’ll never be together.

CHAPTER

THIRTY

JUNE

I sputter,saltwater stinging my eyes, lungs burning from the effort of hauling ass across the water to Pierce’s boat. Water puddles around me on the white fiberglass deck and I stay low, out of theBetty’sline of sight. Checking the radio first, I pull the walkie set off the carrier.

The wire’s completely cut.Son of a gun. Not that the Coast Guard could make it out to the middle of the gulf fast enough. At this rate, I doubt even Dean’s Ken Dolls will make it in time.

Across the water, theBetty’sengines rev.

A bullet pings off the side of the rental boat, and my mouth drops in disbelief. He’s shooting at me? A DEA officer, who accused Dean of working for the smugglers?

Uh, what the fuck?

My mind clips along, sorting and filing information.

Dean’s discharge from the Marines is due to some impropriety with a woman. Not good. Dean was scary with that knife on the boat. Which, if I’m honest, wasn’t completelyuncalled for, understandable even, given that Pierce has to be working for the Russians.

Why else would that smarmy jerk be shooting at me?

Which brings me to the biggest problem: Pierce is working for the Russians.

My fingers work on automatic, finding the key fob and turning the boat on.

Pierce is working for the Russians.

He has Dean.

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