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But, of course, that was advice for a rational mind. My lungs burned for oxygen, and in a panic, I sucked in and tasted salt.
CHAPTER11
Omar
“She really can’t swim,” I said, mostly to myself, but I could hear Felix swearing and pleading in turn on the other end of the line as Lyse’s splashing ceased and she sank beneath the blue currents.
I don’t feel anything, damn it. I had killed more men than anyone on my father’s security team. Lyse was just one more person. She was the daughter of my enemy. She wasnobody.
But I’d never killed a woman before, and there was a lump in my chest that I couldn’t quite breathe past. I stepped to the end of the dock when she didn’t come up again and looked down. Lyse thrashed beneath the surface, though she wasn’t able to push herself upward any longer.
You had that woman spread out beneath you, my mind whispered torturously. I’d had her gasping and pleading for me and walked away with her scent on my fingers…and now I was watching as she drowned.
“Hijo de puta.” Dropping the phone onto the dock, I dove off the end. The water was warm and clear, but the salt stung my eyes as I kept my sight locked on Lyse. It was hard to tell if she was still conscious or not.
It was easy enough to reach her — she hadn’t quite hit the sea floor — and once I had my hands on her, I kicked off from the bottom and sped back toward the surface. It took less than thirty seconds for the whole retrieval, and when we were in the sunshine again, I held her above the surface with one arm and paddled over to the dock ladder with the other.
Climbing up the ladder was difficult, but since Lyse was unconscious, I balanced her on my shoulder. Pain speared through me.My fucking shoulder. The stitches were definitely torn.
When we reached the top of the ladder, I set Lyse down on the dock and pounded her once on the back. The force of it startled her into breathing again, and she began to cough roughly, retching up salt water.
Keeping my eyes on her, I picked up the burner phone. I could hear Felix screaming at me. “Señor Suarez,” I said, spitting out the taste of salt.
“Is she dead?”
I held out the phone so that he could hear her struggling to take breaths. She was in pain, that was for sure, but she was alive. “Can you hear her? She swallowed half the Caribbean, but she’ll live. For now.”
“Keep your hands off of her. Do you understand me? If I—”
“Who do you think you’re speaking to?” I kept my tone flat. It was a trick that I learned from Padre and Angel: there was almost never a reason to yell. Remaining calm and emotionless would get my point across far more harshly than if I screamed at him to shut the hell up like I wanted to. “Do you think that I’m somehow weaker now that my brother is in a coma? Or because the police have searched my home?”
“Do you have any idea whoyouare speaking to?”
“Felix.” Lyse’s voice was rough; it sounded like her throat was torn to pieces. “Shut. Up.”
The voice on the other side of the phone paused in its ranting. “Lyse? Love?”
Lyse looked up at me, and when I nodded, she said, “Do you want me dead?”
“No! Of course not!”
“Then shut up and do what he says.”
A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. There was a fierceness beneath all that trained fragility; I had seen it in the hotel, when she jumped in front of my gun to protect her cousins, and as sure as I was that her father had done his best to beat that streak out of her, it was easily her most attractive trait. “Your fiancée is surprisingly mouthy, Señor Suarez. I like that in a girl.” That sent Felix off on another rant about keeping my hands to myself. The man sounded near-frantic, and it was precisely where I wanted him to be. “Make this right,” I advised him, “or next time, I won’t pull her out.”
I threw the phone behind me; it made a satisfyingplopas it hit the water and sank. Lyse was staring at me, eyes wide and soaking wet; her hair was a dark tangle.A beautiful mess, I thought absently, and my stomach clenched. Despite my threat, I wasn’t sure if I’d actually be able to let her drown. It was the first time in my life that I’d made such a threat against a woman.
I reached out a hand for her. “Come on.”
Lyse’s eyes traveled up the length of my body and met mine. “Absolutely not.”
I gritted my teeth and tamped down the irritation that flared through me. “Get up, or I’ll pick you up.” Lyse tried to push herself up, but her body was exhausted, and she nearly tipped off the dock when she attempted to stand.
My hands shot out, grabbing onto her before she could plunge back into the water. She was such a tiny thing. It was hardly any effort to lift her up and fit an arm beneath her knees. “Wha—?”
“My shoulder is fucked,” I grunted. “This puts less strain on it.”
“Put me down.” I ignored her and walked back up the dock toward the house. Lyse struggled in my grip, but she was as weak as a drenched kitten. “Seriously, Omar, put medown.”
