Page 71 of Pucker Factor

I nodded.

“I think maybe that’s enough sharing for one day,” Red grunted.

18

ELI

“How the fuck do we find ourselves in these positions?” I asked Red as night fell. Everyone else was asleep in the boat, but I couldn’t close my eyes knowing someone might miss us in passing.

“Well, I would say it’s all your fault. It started the moment you slept with her.”

I shot him an incredulous look that he probably couldn’t see in the dark. “I didn’t cause this by sleeping with her.”

“Think about it,” he said, keeping his voice low. “If you hadn’t slept with her, you wouldn’t have cared who she was when we found her strapped to the bomb. But the moment you saw her again, you decided to take her with us. Now look at where we are.”

I hated that he was right. While this couldn’t be directly linked to me as all my fault, it sure felt that way at the moment. I glanced down at Sarah curled up by my side. Somehow, I didn’t regret a thing.

“You know, she’s a little weird.”

He snorted in laughter. “Don’t let her hear you say that. Women tend to not like it when we call them weird. Or hookers.”

Still… ”But don’t you find it strange that she didn’t get freaked out at all when we were about to die?”

“A little, but people react differently in life or death situations.”

“Okay, then what about how she freaked out getting on the plane? But did you notice she didn’t even bat an eyelash getting into that Cessna?”

He shrugged. “People were shooting at us?”

“That’s all you’ve got for me? People were shooting at us? She nearly took us down when we were flying to Florida. She was losing her shit. Andnow!We’re in the fucking middle of nowhere, floating around in the ocean and she’s not panicking at all. That’s just wrong.”

“Would you prefer a hysterical woman?”

“I don’t know!” I nearly shouted, catching myself at the last minute. “I don’t know what I want. I like her just the way she is, but it’s fucking wrong. No woman should react that way. She should be terrified and shaking. She shouldnotbe sympathizing with her kidnappers!”

He scratched his jaw. “Well, you heard her. The guy only held her. Technically, he didn’t kidnap her.”

“And you don’t find it fucking strange that she distinguishes between the two?”

He sighed heavily. “What do you want me to say? Zoe wasn’t exactly easy to read either.”

“Whoa, don’t compare this to Zoe.”

“Why not?”

“Because you married Zoe. I’m just…transporting Sarah.”

“Yeah, that’s what this is.” He jerked his head at her. “You have your arm wrapped around her.”

“I’m keeping her warm.”

“You kissed her on the plane. You were going to tell her something. What was it?”

I snapped my mouth closed, refusing to answer.

“Come on, man. It’s me. You can tell me.”

“I don’t know what I was going to say, alright? It was a moment of weakness. We were about to jump out of a fucking plane! I had vomit on me from Scottie Dog!”

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