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“My arm,” she said. “Grazed it.”
He glanced at her arm long enough to confirm it was just a graze and then even though he didn’t see any blood, he searched the rest of her for any other injuries. He needed to know for sure she was okay.Nothing. His pulse settled back to a normal rhythm when he noticed blood on the floor of the RHIB. Where was it coming from? Not her arm. It was on the wrong side.
“Mac, honey, I’m gonna have to roll you over.”
She grunted as he moved her. “Shit. Get me some more bandages. The bastard got her in the back. I think it’s just a graze, but it went right across her shoulder blades.”
Cass handed him bandages, and they patched her up as best they could. They were just finishing when reinforcements arrived. The driver brought the RHIB alongside theWally. “How the hell did they get here so fast?” Cass asked.
Cain smiled. “Finn Walsh. He called Bertrand, and the Admiral called out theWally.”He squeezed Dane’s shoulder. “They’re gonna take her on board. They’ve got a medical bay. They’ll see to her and make sure she’s okay.”
Dane leaned against the hard rubber, covering his face with his hands.
Mac reached up and took his hand in hers. “Thank you for coming to get me.”
He locked gazes with her. “I’m only sorry we weren’t here sooner.”
She smiled weakly, but gratitude and something more glittered in her eyes. “You were here in time. That’s all that matters.”
He squeezed her hand. There was a lot he wanted to say, to tell her, but this wasn’t the time.
The crew from theWallystrapped her to a stretcher and lifted her on board. Dane and the entire team followed her onto theWally. She was being carried to the medical bay when she stopped them. “Wait. Dane,” she called.
He walked over to the side of the stretcher. “Honey, you have to let them take care of you.”
“I know, but I need to tell you something. Ainsley has a partner.”
Dane stared at her for a moment before he called out, “Cain! You’re gonna want to hear this. Everyone will.” They all walked over and surrounded Mac.
She held onto Dane’s hand as she spoke. “Ainsley had a partner. The person who arranged the drone thing and the payment by bitcoin. Ainsley didn’t have the skillset for that. The TigerKing.”
“Who is it?” Dane asked.
“Manu.”
“No fucking way,” Tac said. “He’s just a kid!”
Jace froze and then swore. “Yeah, but he’s a smart one. He went to Princeton, too. Was the head of the chess society or something.”
Mac nodded. “He had a failed tech startup, something to do with AI software. He’d gotten lots of backing but couldn’t provide what he’d promised. He came back to Hawai’i to lick his wounds.”
“He’s been using the system to reroute the weapons,” Sinclair said.
She nodded. “He’d have the skill for it.” She swallowed. “Ainsley said the deal is going down soon. He said the motherboards were leaving tonight and he was going to be rich in the next twenty-four hours.”
Dane wracked his brain for anything they were missing. “Leaving how? And why twenty-four hours to wait?”
“Flying,” Mac supplied. “Ainsley said they were flying out of here tonight. That there never was a delay. Everything was part of a plan.”
“Sir, we need to get her to the med bay,” said one of the seamen carrying Mac. “She’s losing a lot of blood.”
“Right.” He looked down at her. “Rest up. Call us if you think of anything else.” He desperately wanted to kiss her. Right here, right now, in front of his team and the crew of theWally.But no one needed the distraction. This was work. She was right. The line between personal and professional would be too blurred if they worked together and dated. He gave her hand a squeeze and let them take her away.
He watched their retreat until he couldn’t see her, feeling like his heart was being ripped out and stomped on. Blowing out a breath, he turned toward Cain. “What the hell do we do now?”
Cain shook his head. “I have no idea. We need to get back to Oahu and find Manu. I can’t believe that kid is behind all this.”
“Yeah. Shocking doesn’t quite cover it. Do we have any way to track him?”
