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The moment I removed it, the door flew open, revealing a nearly drowning Dunn, his eyes wide with panic as water filled his mouth.
“Come on!” I pulled him up the stairs with me.
He didn’t resist, climbing up after me and across the quickly sinking boat.
“What’re you doing?” Cait screamed from the rope ladder. “Hurry!”
I pushed Dunn forward. “Jump!”
He gripped the mast. “They’ll kill me like they did Merrick and?—”
“No, they won’t!” I pried his hands off and shoved him upward, toward the boat’s rim.
Dunn must’ve realized his only chance of survival was to listen to me. He finally jumped, but he missed the ladder andlanded in the ocean, kicking for his life as he sank. He clearly couldn’t swim.
I climbed onto the gunwale, the boat swiftly rotating as it started to capsize. I jumped, grasping the rope ladder, then reached down toward the water for Dunn.
He grabbed my hand.
I pulled him up until his trembling hands gripped the rung, then I climbed up ahead of him, eerily reminded of the last time I’d held this ladder and the pain and death of that fateful day. I hadn’t been able to save Nevin, the youngest of Keane’s men, but in some way, I felt like I was redeeming myself by saving Dunn, even if he happened to be my enemy.
I clambered onto the deck, my body still weak and sick from what I’d just seen.
Keane, Cait, and about ten outlaws frowned at me, disapproval in their glares.
Dunn rolled onto the deck and stumbled to his feet, his eyes swimming with terror.
“What’re we s’posed to do with this suit?” Pete asked.
Vaughn lunged toward Dunn with fury in his eyes.
“Stop!” I stood between the outlaw and the Enforcer, my arms extended. “None of you will hurt him.”
Chapter
Six
I stoodin front of Dunn until Vaughn backed down. I wasn’t sure if they really intended to let him be or if they were just humoring me, so I made up my mind to keep the young Enforcer in my sight at all times.
When the men left for the sails and the helm, I turned to him.
Dunn flinched, his hands clutching the gunwale. “What is this game?”
“It’s not a game,” I said.
“You have tried to kill me twice before,” he said.
“No, I’ve chosennotto kill you twice. And that was before I saved you from sinking to the bottom of the ocean just now. So that makes three times of me not killing you.”
“There must be a reason,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re planning to involve me in some . . . evil plan.”
“Yeah, there is a reason.” I gestured out to the sea, but his boat was completely gone now. “I prefer live people to dead people. But now that you mention it, maybe there is some evil plan we can use you for.”
He blinked. “You ended a sentence with a?—”
I gave him a dark look that ended his sentence right there. “If you want to get tossed overboard, by all means, keep enforcing my grammar.”
His face reddened, but he nodded and sank to the deck with a shaky sigh.
