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“Where’s our guy?” he whispered against her cheek.
It took her a few seconds longer to focus. “He’s driving past now.”
“Keep watching him. When he turns the corner, we’re going to briskly make our way over to the pier.”
She nodded slightly. “Now,” she said a moment later.
Hand in hand, they headed for the gangplank of the riverboat. He was handing the purser their tickets when the sedan come at the pier from another side street. Marin flinched beside him.
“Shit,” he mumbled.
There was no place for them to hide. Griffin hurried Marin up the gangplank just as the crew was untying the lines mooring the boat to the pier. The passenger of the sedan got out and argued with the purser. Almost immediately, a beat cop on a bicycle rode up and Griffin was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. When the boat began to push away from the pier, his cell phone rang.
“Where the hell are you?” Adam asked.
“Taking a river cruise on the Cherry Blossom,” he answered as he steered Marin to the bow of the boat. “We had a couple unwanted guests at the house.”
“All we have here is a broken window and a shit-load of blood. It looks like they sent in a cleanup immediately.”
Griffin glanced at Marin. She was silently contemplating her hands. Her skin was dotted with dried blood spatters from when she’d stabbed one of the intruders in the back.
“We had a sendoff party at the pier,” Griffin said. “Two men in a tan Ford sedan. New Jersey plates. I couldn’t make out the number. We were too busy trying not to get run down.”
“Were any of their party the Ukrainian sharp shooter?”
“No. A whole new cast of characters today.”
Adam swore. “They’ll be waiting for you to disembark when the cruise ends in two hours. I’ll make sure the marina is secure.”
Griffin glanced around at the passengers crowded against the rails. “Negative. Too risky. This boat is filled with civilians. And I don’t trust our Ukrainian friend not to be hanging out on a rooftop ready to pick people off. I have another plan.”
* * *
Marin stood in the cramped bathroom on the riverboat, feverishly scrubbing her hands beneath a stream of warm water. She pushed the button on the soap dispenser again. Still empty. It was no use; the blood stains weren’t coming off. Tears blurred her eyes, but they couldn’t erase the vision of her hand plunging an eight-inch chef’s knife into a man’s back. She abhorred violence; yet she’d killed another human being without giving it a second thought.
“He was going to kill Griffin,” she reminded herself. The reminder didn’t help to calm her.
There was a soft knock on the door and she jumped.
“Marin, open up,” Griffin commanded.
Hysterical laughter bubbled up uncontrollably from within her. She didn’t want to open the door. People got hurt or died when Griffin was around. Kissing him never ended well, either. And yet, she still jumped his bones every chance she got. She was embarrassed how often that happened.
“Marin.” He knocked with a little more urgency this time.
What if more men with guns or knives were on board? Marin immediately sobered. She opened the door, telling herself he had a gun and could protect her.
Griffin stepped into the small room, locking the door behind him. He pulled a dark green fanny pack out of a plastic bag and placed it on the sink.
“You went shopping in the gift shop?” she asked incredulously.
His eyes narrowed at her. “I needed something to keep my gun in.” He pulled out his revolver and his cell phone and wrapped both tightly in the plastic bag the fanny pack had come in. “Can you swim?”
“Why?” Marin’s hysteria was bubbling up again.
“We’re making an unscheduled exit in five minutes.”
“We’reswimmingto shore? It’s nearly dark out there.”
