AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He ran tense fingers through his hair. Sliding the wet strands backwards.
‘The storm will pass,’ his captain assured him. ‘Everything is in place to ride it out. A boat of this size is more than equipped to deal with any storm, sir.’
Raffaele gritted his teeth. He understood his captain’s intentions, and he knew what his boat was capable of. It would withstand extreme weather. This was his home, and he spent half his life at sea. His boat was safe.
But he knew the backlash of storms. The tragedy. The last one—
He slammed the door on that memory.
It was a different kind of storm today.
His boat was a cut above all other super-yachts, with its cables creating a lightning shield from masthead to bow. The glass bridge held various devices and instruments worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to warn them of incoming weather via satellite. There were radars to see through a storm. Closed circuit television triggered by radio announcements and alarms recorded strategic points on the boat.
‘Have you checked the CCTV footage?’ Raffaele asked, and clenched his fists to try and stunt the urge to grab this man by his shirt and rattle him until he gave the answer he wanted.Needed.
‘Of course.’ His captain shook his head. ‘Nothing. No sign of her. But there’s so many places to hide. So many rooms to explore.’ He dragged in a stuttering breath, and promised, ‘We will find her.’
Drops of water ran over Raffaele’s forehead, down his haughty nose, and dripped onto the soaked decking. Absently, he dashed them away.
‘She will be found,’ he agreed stonily. ‘But not by you.’ He moved unseeingly past him and called over his shoulder, ‘Go back to your bridge,Captain,’ he sneered. ‘And keep your staff indoors. Look after your responsibilities.’ He tugged open the door to the lounge. ‘I will take care of mine.’
His heart clenched. Refusing to beat. Refusing to let him move until he acknowledged the words he’d refused to hear. To consider in his conscious thinking because of it what they meant.
He’d failed. Again.
Because they wereallhis responsibility. The staff. The crew.
It wasn’t his captain’s fault that a freak tropical storm had headed straight for them as they sat idle in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea—a storm expected to peak in two days’ time.
It wasn’t his fault that the storm had dragged all the staff and occupants of the super-yacht from their beds before the sun had graced them with its unsuccessful efforts to clear the sky.
Raffaele looked at the waves. They were like a foaming, galloping herd of angry stallions.
He shoved back the sleeve of his sodden jumper.
It was nearly six.
But what was time when it seemed his had run out?
Another rumble shook the boat. Shook him from the outside in with a startling clarity.
It was Raffaele’s responsibility to make sure every member of his staff was safe. Protected.
It was Raffaele’s job to account for every unforeseen danger. To guard against it. To protect his own.
It wasn’t the captain’s fault Flora had not been in her bed when a head-count had been made. She should have been inhisbed. Next to him...under him. He didn’t care what position.
Only that she wassafe.
And she wasn’t.
Lightning flashed and every glass window, every polished surface, reflected the ferocity of the storm that had headed their way. He moved inside through the double doors, felt the wind pushing them closed behind him.
Raffaele just stood there. Taking in the reinforced double port windows. His boat was a ‘go anywhere’ explorer super-yacht. The biggest of its kind. The safest.
She had to be here.
He’d found her once. He would find her again.
