Page 112 of Endless Depths

“Why? What’s in it for me?” His lips twist into a smirk that promises destruction. “We’re not friends. I’m just a guy you jerk off with sometimes until you get back together with your girl on land.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Javi shouts.

“Lawrence, quit your bullshit,” Cole says over the PA.

“Maybe I should tell Gabi,” Lawrence continues, unperturbed. “She deserves to know, doesn’t she? I mean, I’d want toknow if the man I was about to marry is a coward with a crush on his best friend. Gabi deserves someone who isn’t settling for her.”

“I said shut the fuck up.” Javi slips behind me, and barrels toward Lawrence, leading with his fist.

“That’s enough!” I grab Javi’s arm and drag him away from Lawrence before he can connect.

Javi comes willingly, all the fight fleeing him, something I didn’t prepare for. We both stagger back a few paces before I catch myself inches away from the rail.

“Shit, Lawrence. I’m sorry.” Javi shakes me off and rushes forward, hands outspread, stopping short when Lawrence flinches.

“You were going to hit me,” Lawrence says, brow furrowed like it’s just an observation, a scientific experiment with a surprising outcome. Zero emotion.

“Lawless…”

“You’re my best friend and you were going to hit me?” Anger slips into his tone, before he laughs mirthlessly. “I thought you said you would never touch me again.”

Javi rips off his gloves and gently takes Lawrence’s face in his hands. “I’m sorry.”

Lawrence slants his gaze toward the deck, blond hair falling forward to shield his face. “How many ways are you going to hurt me?”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Yeah. You keep saying that.” Lawrence pulls Javi’s hands down, then steps out of his reach. “Congratulations. You got your wish. I’m done with you.”

The deck sways. The wind kicks up. Then Javi nods. Lawrence nods too, as if Javi did exactly what he expected him to do—leave him without a fight. He rakes his hair back from his forehead and turns on his heel toward the gear room.

The bulkhead door bursts open, and Cole storms out. “Turn your ass back around, Lawless. We’re not done sorting crab. Fuck you for outing Javi when he wasn’t ready.”

“Roger,” Lawrence says sullenly.

Cole charges past Lawrence toward Javi. “What the actual fuck is wrong with you? We don’t lay hands on each other. Ever. Especially on deck. It’s already a goddamn death trap. You’d never forgive yourself if you shoved someone over the rail, and I’d never forgive you if that someone was my husband.” He stabs a finger toward me. “Which is exactly what you almost did!”

I’m not going to lie, it’s really hot watching my golden retriever of a husband lose his shit on someone to defend me, but I see the fear behind his fury.

Javi glances back at me, face pale, hand over his mouth like he’s going to be sick.

“I’m okay,” I say, gaze on Cole. “I’m still here.”

A wave slams into the starboard side. The deck tilts to portside, but we all manage to stay upright.

“Sorry,” Wes says over the PA. “That one snuck up on me—WATCH OUT FOR THAT CRAB POT!”

My stomach drops. The wave knocked the 800-pound trap off the locks on the hydraulic lift, and the trap teeters on the verge of falling onto the deck. Cole and Javi are directly in the path, wedged between the sorting table and the rail.

No. No. No.This can’t be happening.

Terror wraps a hand around my heart. I feel like I’m in one of my recurrent nightmares where my legs are too heavy to lift, like they’re trapped in cement, and I won’t be able to do anything except watch Cole die again.

Time slows down. All sound fades away except for my pulse pounding in my ears and the churning waves.

I lunge forward, and grab one side of the trap, and push it back toward the ocean as hard as I can. I’m not strong enough to stop it, but I have to try. Lawrence joins me on the opposite side of the trap, face warped into fierce defiance, veins popping in his neck, an angry stranger I’ve never met. It’s probably what he looked like when he beat the shit out of his stepdad. But evenwith his help, fighting gravity and the weight of the trap is impossible.

I meet Cole’s gaze, offering him the comfort of eye contact as he faces down death. It’s the only tool I have left. He looks as terrified as the night he almost died, as terrified as the night he stopped me from jumping over the rail after his phantom doppelgänger.