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Lyric smacked me on the shoulder but held my hand as I helped her on board.
“Take care of my boat,” Caspian yelled as we pulled away from the dock.
“You worry about my sister, and I’ll worry about your boat.”
The ride to the next island wasn’t long—thirty minutes, tops. Grey leaned against the rail with his arms folded over his chest, watching every move Lyric made. Mrs. McTavish sat in the bow pretending to read a book, but I felt her eyes on me most of the time, too.
Newsflash: I’m not the guy who kidnapped another human being.
Lyric stood behind me at the helm with her arms circled around my waist and her head resting on my back. The boat bobbed in the water, breaking the waves in crests at the bow.
“Do you think they can do it?” she asked me. Her sweet voice was music to my ears. It vibrated against my back all the way to my balls.
What she was really asking was if I thought she would ever see me again, if she would ever see any of us again.
“Yes,” I said. That was the only answer either one of us would accept.
For almost five years I walked around a shell of a man. Lyric showed up and breathed life into an empty void. She brought light to my darkness. No drug in the world compared to the high I had when I was with her. She was anything and everything. I hadn’t done a lot of good in my life, but I would die to keep her safe. Nothing else mattered.
“Tell me about the theater,” she said, and it almost felt like one of those conversations you had with someone when you knew they were dying, so you used your voice to keep them holding on.
I smiled and shook my head, letting the toothpick roll between my teeth. “Nah. I’d rather show you.”
Her arms squeezed me harder. “Why do you fight?”
Because life turned me into a weapon.
“Because without it, I had nothing.” I pulled the toothpick from my mouth, then turned to kiss the top of her head. “Until now.”
The shoreline of Barbados came into view. Boats of all colors and sizes lined up along the docks with a backdrop of colorful buildings, tall palm trees, and green hills. Paradise to some. A graveyard to me, a place where any hope for a future with her would die the minute she stepped foot off this boat. There was nothing serene about watching her leave with him. I wouldn’t take fucking pictures and remember it fondly.
Grey stood up straight and walked over to us as I eased up to the dock. I hated the way he looked at Lyric like she was his to protect. She wasn’t.
“Ready?” he asked her.
She dropped her arms and lifted her head. I hated that too. I already felt her warmth disappearing from inside me. “Give me a minute?”
He nodded, then glanced at me. Like she needed his permission.
I glared back at him. She doesn’t need your permission for shit.
“Of course,” he said. “Lincoln.” He dismissed me with a slight of his head.
Mrs. McTavish closed her book and gave me a warm smile. “It was nice to meet you.”
“Yeah, you too.” I would’ve been nicer if the woman hadn’t made it blatantly obvious she was rooting for Grey in this fucked-up situation.
I watched them step over the hull onto the dock, waiting until they were no longer within hearing distance. Nervous anxiety built up inside me, winding me tighter and tighter. My pulse kicked into high gear.
Lyric stepped closer to me, hooking her arms around my waist from the side. “This isn’t forever. They’re going to find a way to—”
I cut her off. “Hold on.”
She looked up at me with wide eyes. “What?”
“Hold. The. Fuck. On.”
And then I geared the boat into reverse and took off.
