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“Fucking move!”
I try to roll out of the way. Can’t.
Bang, bang, bang!
I flinch at the sound and watch as the car sails past my ear and smashes into a tree trunk, sending the hood flipping up and smoke billowing toward the sky. “Fuck,” I breathe, my ears ringing as I’m grabbed on each side and pulled to my feet. “Ouch.” I try to shake them off, stand on my own, and once I’ve found my balance, I grab James’s gun, the one that just saved my life, and limp round to the driver’s door.
It's open. The seat is empty. “No.” I back up, heading toward the container, my gut, my instincts, my heart leading me there. “Fuck, no!” I go as fast as I can, the feeling of dread getting heavier the closer I get. I arrive, limping. Out of breath. No Pearl. And Nolan is face down on the metal floor, blood pooling his torso. “No!” I roar, falling to my knees beside him, turning his limp, broken body over. “No, no, no.” I shout the words repeatedly, like he might hear me. Listen to me. “You fucking hear me, boy,” I yell. “Fucking hear me!” I pull his shoulders onto my knees and scan his face. “Nolan!” I yell, getting nothing from him, his eyes remaining closed. “Nolan, fucking hear me!” My voice cracks. My heart splinters. “Fucking hear me,” I murmur, feeling his pulse. Weak. Too weak. I stand, my bones cracking, and pick him up, hoofing him onto my shoulder and carrying him to the nearest car, easing him onto the back seat. “Hospital,” I order, feeling everyone behind me. “Now!” I find my gun.
“Brad, no.” Danny moves in front of me.
I push him out of my way. “Get him to the fucking hospital.” I stalk away in a haze of ruin, fear, and anger, my limp harsh, sweat dripping from my body.
Murder.
“Brad!”
Pearl?
Her voice infiltrates my blinding rage, clearing my vision, and I spin on the spot searching. I find her being dragged onto the boat by King. “No.”
“Use my boat!” Chaka yells, finishing one more man who’s face down in the dirt.
Danny jogs past me toward Chaka’s boat, his own limp hampering him, and I follow, catching up, the pair of us struggling. But determined. James falls into stride beside us, keeping our pace, his eyes flicking over to King’s boat with Pearl onboard and now pulling away from the shore.
“Brad!” Pearl screams, the terror in her voice cutting.
“Fuck,” Danny whispers, hearing it too. And then King clouts her around her face, putting her on her ass. I don’t think I’ve ever felt anger so deeply rooted as I do now. My injuries forgotten, my pace picks up, as does Danny’s and James’s, all of us running toward Chaka’s boat.
And we get blown back twenty paces when it explodes.
Heat licks my skin, fire blinds me. I blink, shaking my daze away, and watch as King races away from the shore.
With Pearl.
69
PEARL
* * *
My head rings, the throb on my cheekbone adding one more layer of pain to my already broken body. I tremble—cold and utterly terrified—my knees clenched to my chest with one arm as I’m constantly jarred by the boat hitting the waves. The shore is getting farther away. My freedom.
Brad.
A choked sob escapes as I look around at the bags of money. He’s got his compensation for me being ruined. And now he has the best of both worlds. Millions of dollars and his plaything to torture and tease for . . . ever.
No.
I look over the edge of the boat into the murky darkness of the water as tears stream down my cheeks, and then I reach for the side to pull myself closer with my working arm, peeking over my shoulder. He’s laughing at the horizon. Manic. I crawl up onto the edge and watch the water kick up the edge of the boat. Take a breath.
Roll in.
The pain when I hit the water is excruciating, and I try my hardest to ignore it as I frantically kick my legs to stop myself sinking. I break the surface and gasp, searching around me. His boat’s slowing. “No,” I pant. “Keep going.” But he won’t. He can’t lose. The boat circles, and I turn in the water, as if I might find somewhere nearby to swim to, to escape, before he makes it to me.
I’m going nowhere.
“No,” I murmur, exhausted already, hearing him getting closer, slowing, searching the water for me. I take a deep breath and go under, counting in my head, releasing just a little bit of breath to sink. My lungs begin to scream, the stabbing constant in my ribs. My heart throbs in my ears. Just a little longer, a little while longer. My chest burns. My natural instinct to take a breath nearly gets the better of me. A few more seconds.
