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Aleksey glanced to the island.
Back at the boat approaching them.
He could not spend his entire life anticipating disaster.
He was guilty, he knew this. How much more atonement was he supposed to make?
A small piece of Spindrift suddenly popped up alongside him.
It did nothing to ease his odd foreboding.
The man steering the launch came close, cut the engine, and as the boat drifted towards them, a second man grabbed their uplifted arms and one by one hauled them in. They immediately started the engine once more and spun violently around towards the big boat. ‘You fucking ran us over, mate.’
They ignored Ben.
‘Did you not fucking see us?’
For some reason, Aleksey wanted Ben to curb his righteous anger.
‘Hey! You swung into us! You’ve just sunk our boat!’ Ben made to make a move towards the crewmember who’d pulled them in, not stand exactly, but possibly grab his arm, when the silent man put a hand into his windbreaker jacket pulled out an extendable baton, flicked it out and swung it right into Ben’s face.
A wave destroyed his aim, and the tip alone landed above Ben’s ear, but even so, even over the wind and the sound of the engine, Aleksey heard the crack it made as it connected. He didn’t think he’d ever forget it. Ben went down as if someone had flicked a switch off somewhere.
The other man behind Aleksey growled, ‘If you jump, I’ll turn this fucking boat around and have some fun with the propeller on you.’
Aleksey wasn’t going anywhere. Not with Ben lying at his feet. Distracted by these thoughts, it took him a moment to realise that the man had spoken to him in Russian.
* * *
Chapter Forty-Eight
Aleksey was shivering by the time they got to the yacht. Soaking wet clothes, wind speed, and, he supposed, shock, made his hands slip on the metal rail of the ladder he was told to climb. Neither of the men could lift the unconscious Ben, so they left him in the bottom of the launch while it was winched up into its berth, then they just tipped it and he rolled out onto the deck. Aleksey knelt with difficulty to inspect his head. He was bleeding where the cosh had caught the tip of his ear. There was a slight swelling above this on the skull, but otherwise he seemed okay. His eyes began to flutter at Aleksey’s touch, and Aleksey put a hand on his arm and squeezed lightly.
‘Come.’
‘And my friend?’
Two men were ordered to carry Ben, and Aleksey took the route indicated. He didn’t see he had much choice. Yet.
He was led up to what he assumed was the owner’s deck and stateroom. It was ridiculously opulent for any boat, in his opinion (which was not all that favourable to this vessel at the moment), although it appeared to be going for organic, understated, holistic. Yeah, he knew what teak engineered to perfection cost.
There was a curved desk, and some similarlyorganicsofas placed at strategic points to create littleclustersof comfort. Ben was dumped unceremoniously onto one at right angles to the desk.
Aleksey eyed the man sitting behind his sweep of endangered hardwood, typing a few things into his computer. When he was finished to his satisfaction, he raised his gaze and smiled pleasantly. ‘It seems I need to apologise, Sir Nikolas, for your friend’s unfortunate accident. I told them no violence.’
The German’s accent didn’t improve being face to face.
Aleksey felt an inward slump of humiliation. It was almost worse than a librarian. He’d just been taken out, according to the cretin, by a lizard in human form: Wulf Schulz, the head of the World Bank—who apparently knew him.
He couldn’t make sense of any of it and sat heavily next to Ben.
‘You are wet.’ Having nicely stated the obvious, the German picked up a radio on his desk and began to stab the intercom button.
When he could get no response, he muttered something and strode out through the wide double doors.
Aleksey had more time to take in his surroundings, but really couldn’t be bothered. All that flittered across his mind wasI don’t want any of thisand then he closed his eyes, laid his hand on Ben’s hair gently, and allowed himself to recall the depth and beauty of his green eyes as Spindrift had been running before the wind.
Whetherthismeant the wealth and opulence on display, or the adversity they were currently in, despite all hisfuckingprecautions, he did not try to untangle.
