Page 91 of Light of Day
As Chen fired in the direction the shot had come from, running cover for him, he jerked the throttle into idle and ran to the back deck, crouching low. Another bullet winged above his back as he reached over the side. In the bobbing light from the running lights, he saw Fiona holding her arm, moaning.
With her uninjured hand, she unsnapped her spray skirt and reached toward him. He wrapped his hand around her arm and muscled her onboard. She collapsed onto the floorboards. “Carson killed that man,” she spat. “I was just trying to scare him into telling us who he’d found, what descendants, but Carson came and injected the poor dude with something and rolled him off a cliff.”
So Denton had died to protect Sasha Mackey. But once he was dead, her name had come out thanks to his will. No wonder Gabby had fled the island to go find her.
Luke knelt next to Fiona, but the boat’s rocking made it hard to see the extent of her wound. “Why? Why’d Carson do that?”
“He doesn’t like not getting his way.” She coughed up some saltwater and spit it out.
“Jesus, Fiona.” His heart broke at the reality that things had come to this. Sure, he’d been mostly out of touch with his family, but he’d never imagined she and Carson—and Celine—would go this far. “Why would you get into this mess? Was it Carson’s idea?”
“Are you being a constable right now? Or my brother?”
Good question.
“He’s a constable, and a damn good one,” called Chen, right before firing another round into the ocean.
Normally, Luke would have appreciated that compliment. But right now, it was bittersweet. “Constable.”
Fiona sighed. “I guess I should probably have a lawyer then.”
“Yes.” With a heavy heart, he had to agree.
“I winged the other one,” Chen called. “No more shots fired. Let’s snag him while he’s out.”
The other one. She meant his other half-sibling…the murderer.
He’d snag Carson, all right. But first…“Fiona, here’s your last chance to redeem yourself. Where can we find Heather?”
43
The next lobsterboat that churned across the mouth of the cove was lit up like a Christmas tree.
When Heather saw Gabby on the stern deck, waving wildly, Heather could have cried. When she saw Luke at the controls, she did cry. A beam of light shone from the top of the cabin, sweeping across the shoreline. She darted out from under the shelter of the trees and jumped up and down, shouting and screaming in the rain.
Yes, the rain. On top of everything else, Sea Smoke Island had decided to grace her with its signature weather pattern.
But she didn’t care how drenched she got, as long as rescue had arrived.
Luke left someone else in charge of the controls—in the cluttered confines of the barely lit cabin, she couldn’t make out who—and rowed toward the rocks. She picked her way down them, shaky muscles and all, and practically threw herself into his wooden skiff.
He shipped the oars and gathered her against him.
“You came,” she kept saying through her shivers. “Thank you, thank you, thank you…I kept thinking about you that whole time…”
“Shhh. It’s okay,” he murmured as the dinghy rode the waves. The tide was coming in now, the current pushing them toward the rocks. “Let’s get to the boat. You’re freezing.”
“I’m fine. I’m so much better now. Luke, I’m sorry I doubted you. I…I think I was afraid because…I…I have real feelings for you. I’m not used to that. This is…this is big.” Her teeth were chattering so much she wasn’t sure he could understand her.
Until his lips claimed hers in a kiss that sent warmth and life coursing through her being. She clutched at him in the dark and the falling rain, in this tiny craft rocking on the waves, and knew she’d found safe harbor.
“I do too, sweetheart. You scared the hell out of me.” His lips moved against her mouth. Joy shot through her body. “Now do you mind if I let you go so we can get to that boat out there? Not a single person on it has ever driven a boat before. Well, except Fiona and Carson, but they’re both incapacitated.”
With a hysterical giggle, she settled on the bench at the bow and watched his strong body stroke across the water. That moment of laughter did almost as much as the kiss for her state of mind. Then she sobered. “Luke, it was a whole conspiracy, your family?—”
“I know.” He cut her off. “We have a confession from Fiona, and I already know Celine was involved. Fiona tricked her into it, made her think Dad was having an affair, but that doesn’t absolve her from what she was planning.”
“She was trying to pull a Hennessy, wasn’t she?”
