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We were floating on the surface now, the sun shining down on us as I waited for a glimpse of the boat. “You okay?”
“Fine,” he growled. Now that he wasn’t under the water he was back to being surly.
Probably embarrassed. A lot of people were after something like that.
Splashing sounds made me turn and I saw him swimming for the rocks.
“Hey! No, stay over here.” On the surface you had less control and the waves and currents could easily send you hurtling into the rocks. It was dangerous. Still he kept swimming.
Swearing under my breath, I followed him into the little cove the two rocks created. Greg wasn’t going to find us here. I needed to get us back out into open water so we could get picked up.
Finally, Eric listened and stopped swimming. He turned and watched me as I approached. “We need to-”
His hand came out of nowhere and shock silenced me as he backhanded me across the face.
Pain splintered through my head, and I grabbed it while staring at him. When people are drowning sometimes they’ll shove you under to use you as a floatation device. They’re panicked and don’t know what they’re doing.
That wasn’t the case here. I didn’t know what was going on but there was determination in Eric’s eyes. He looked deranged. That feeling that had been warning me about him rose again as he smiled at me.
“Get over here,” he demanded.
Fuck that.
I turned to swim away from him, but he managed to snag my fin and he pulled me under the water. His hands were grappling with me as I struggled to get away from him. He was stronger than I was, however, and his hands planted on my shoulders, shoving me below the surface.
My eyebrow rose as I tried to figure out what he was thinking. It was clear to me now that he had no idea about diving. He was trying to drown me when I had an almost full tank of air.
I needed to be smart about this. If I put my regulator in the bubbles would clue him in. I’d gotten a good breath of air and I did a lot of free diving so I could hold my breath for up to four minutes at a time. It’s not easy and it takes a lot of practice to be able to do. I doubted Eric knew about it, so I struggled against him, then let myself go limp.
He held me under for another long minute before he let me rise. My body floated, with me face down and as soon as he let me go, I grabbed my dive knife.
His eyes widened when I straightened in the water, sucking in a lungful of air. When he lunged toward me again, I swiped out at him. The knife cut him across the cheek. He grabbed it, glaring at me as blood dripped into the ocean around us.
I didn’t give him time to react. I swam toward the rocks, my strong, sure strokes sending me sailing across the surface of the water. I had to get away from him. I didn’t know why, but he wanted me dead.
As soon as I got to the rocks, I unzipped my BCD, and pulled off my fins. I let them go. I couldn’t keep hold of them and save my life. Scrambling up onto the rock, I looked over my shoulder. Eric was coming after me.
Shit.
I started to climb, hoping to lose him amongst the jagged plains of the rock.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Trip
“What?” I snapped into my phone as I answered it on the second ring.
I was in a shitty mood and knew it. We’d been chasing Eric around this city for a month and though I was glad to have had more time with Marina, I wanted this guy gone.
“Trip. Eric just used his credit card.”
“Where?” I asked, putting the phone on speaker so Drew could hear him. I wasn’t sure why he’d do that because he had to know we’d find him when he did.
We’d just pulled into the club parking lot after another dead end with Eric. I swiped a hand through my hair as we listened to Rat.
“SeaScape Enterprises.”
The name made me freeze. A rushing in my ears made me miss what Rat said next. Shaking my head, I forced myself to focus. “What the fuck was he doing there?” I barked at the phone.
