Page 159 of Possession

My eyes widen. “What? I don’t know how to shoot.”

He looks from the fishing boat to me and bites, “It’s shoot or drive.”

I almost topple over sideways when we bounce over another wave. “No. I don’t want to drive.”

“Point and shoot. That’s all you have to do.”

I nod and move to a sofa that’s open to the outside. Wind whips my hair around my face. There’s no way I could aim at the biggest target with the boat jerking around, so I do what he says. I steady it in both hands, point, and squeeze.

The machine in my hand fires.

The powerful discharge rocks through my body.

“No, baby. Unload on those fuckers,” Brax shouts over the wind, waves, and engine.

I turn back and see they’re keeping up with us.

Shit.

I grip the gun tighter and steady myself as best I can. Then I do what Brax told me to do.

I shoot.

Like really shoot.

Their guns are bigger. The long barrels are pointed at us from the bow of the fishing boat. The water behind us is littered with bullets, but the fishing boat starts to weave just like Brax is doing.

“Good,” Brax yells for me as I feel the yacht increase in speed. “Keep going.”

I nod and turn back.

I keep shooting until I hear an empty click.

“Dammit,” I mutter and reach for the bag.

“Get down,” Brax demands.

The moment I scrunch to my feet, Brax keeps one hand on the steering column and extends his other over my head.

His shots aren’t defensive, random, or chaotic. He’s intense and deliberate. His dark eyes narrow as he aims. His muscled arm flexes and tenses as he squeezes the trigger and fires out the back of the boat.

Over and over and over.

When he empties his pistol, he drops the weapon in the chair behind him and turns back to the open water in front of us.

I peek over the sofa, and the fishing boat has swerved to the side. One man is hanging over the bow of the boat with another trying to pull him back.

But the gunfire has stopped.

I turn to find Brax’s stare heavy on me. He exhales a breath so deep I sense the anxiety leave his body.

I scramble off the sofa and move to him as we race across the open seas in Damian’s yacht. He turns back to watch where we’re going as the land has all but disappeared on the horizon and picks up the phone. “You still there?”

I can’t hear what Cole says on the other side, but Brax looks down at me when I slide between him and the helm to wrap my arms around him. “Yeah, we’re okay.” He pauses two beats before I feel his entire body go taut. “Please tell me that’s the Coast Guard barreling at us.”

I crane my neck around and see two boats speeding straight for us. “Is that them?”

Brax pulls back on the throttle, and the boat instantly slows. He presses his lips to the top of my head. “Yeah, baby. That’s them.”