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“Someone must have sabotaged the boat,” Donal muttered helplessly for the hundredth time. “Who would do that?”

I didn’t have the heart to tell a man who had survived fifty years of ferrying people across a body of water that could turn dangerous in an instant that I was the reason he might die out here.

That I was the reason his boat had been sabotaged.

The thought of Caoimhe going to these lengths …

Maybe she’d just wanted to scare me.

Maybe she didn’t understand how dangerous what she’d done was.

Or maybe she was more than a salty wee turd. Maybe for the second time in my life, I’d attracted a sociopath into my orbit.

“What’s that?” Donal suddenly pushed out of the cabin.

My heart lurched at his abruptness, thinking the worst.

But then I followed him out and I saw it.

A light in the distance.

And I knew deep in my bones like I had from the moment I met him … “It’s Forde.” His name broke on a sob as I reached back into the cabin for the torch and flashed it in three short bursts followed by three longer ones and then three short.

Morse code for SOS.

42. Forde

“Forde!” My name crackled through the radio below deck. “We’ve found them!”

My heart lurched as I raced upstairs.

Isla was already unbuckling her seat belt. “Torch light. Flashing SOS.”

Cameron. My gaze shot out the window, and I saw the light flashing the Morse code over and over and then the beam of light from our boat as Bryan responded so they knew we saw them.

Nausea rolled through me as the boat changed course toward them, the relief so strong I felt close to passing out.

I gripped the closest handrail, squeezing my eyes closed and breathing through gritted teeth.

“You all right?” Grant shouted to me.

I nodded, biting back the tears burning my nose and eyes, because I was fucking overwhelmed. “Let’s get my girl.” I rushed over to the life savers to suit up.

Bryan had volunteered for the service almost as soon as he and Harry moved to Leth Sholas, because he’d grown up as the son of a fisherman in Western Australia and knew how to handle a boat. As our pilot, he glided the lifeboat alongside the small cabin cruiser with expert control, even as the waves kept trying to push us apart.

I was shaking so hard with relief to see Cameron lit up in the dark, huddled with Donal, but alive. Her face was pale and eyes wide and dark with fear and that helped me get my shit together. She needed me.

“The boat looks intact, Forde,” Grant called to me. “I think we’re safer just towing them home than trying to get them on board.”

I cursed under my breath because I wanted Cameron inside the lifeboat where I knew she was safe. Isla must have recognized my anxiety because she suggested, “We’ll check with Cammie and Donal to see if they need medical assistance before we make that decision.”

She and I hurried outside, the wind blasting us and rocking our vessel. We immediately grabbed hold of the handrail guard and used it to race toward the cabin cruiser.

Our spotlight lit Cameron and Donal up. They were huddled together on the open deck. The instinct to throw myself over this fucking boat to get to her was real, but it was also a moronic idea.

“Cameron!” I yelled over the wind and surf. “Are you hurt?”

She shook her head.