Depths of Salvation (Love on the Edge) (21 page)

I instantly glanced upward, Sadie’s movements mirroring my own.

“Shit,” she said, her eyes trained on the small boat pulled up against her larger one above. “Pirates.”

“You have trouble with them frequently?” I asked, wondering how the hell this place could be such a magnet for all manner of predators.

“Once.”

“How’d you get out of it.”

“Liz out maneuvered them, got us back to shore. They didn’t even follow us halfway.”

Acid boiled in my gut. I hated bullies, and pirates were nothing more than a bunch of bullies who thought the ocean had no set of laws or rules. It did, and they were breaking the fucking code.

“We have to surface,” she said, already swimming toward the midpoint.

I followed behind her, wishing I had more on me than my diving knife. We stopped at the halfway point, taking the time necessary to formulate a plan.

“Maybe they think we have cash on board. I’ll just explain that we don’t.”

I tilted my head at her. “That’s cute. I’m sure they’ll apologize for the inconvenience too.”

“What would you have me do?”

“Stay down here.”

“You know I can’t do that.” She looked at her watch.

“I know.”

“Liz could already be hurt—“

“Stop,” I cut her off. “Calm your little heroine complex down, Sadie. You have no clue what is really going on up there. Don’t go rushing off to save anyone just yet.”

She pursed her lips, fixing me with a glare. It would’ve been sexy as hell if

I wasn’t trying to calculate how to take on how many pirates were up there, alone, and Sadie not get in the middle of it in the process.

“Time’s up,” she said and tapped the face of her watch. “Let’s roll.”

I grabbed her ankle as she shot off, stopping her speed. “I surface first. I board first.”

“Yes, sir.”

My heart raced at her tone.
Shit, man, even now?
I didn’t know if there would ever be a time she didn’t turn me the fuck on. “Remember to call me that later tonight.”

“Sure, so long as you get me out of whatever trouble I’m already in.”

“Seems like it either follows you around or you go looking for it.”

“At least I’m not boring,” she said as we ascended.

“Definitely never would associate that word with you.” I broke the surface of the water, the sun beaming down in bright rays. I quickly pulled off my mask, grabbing hold of the ladder and surveying the small speedboat next to the ship. Seemed a little fancy for pirates.

Shit.
Drug dealers?

Sadie pressed against me from behind, silently urging me to climb faster.

“About time,” an unfamiliar male voice snapped as we made it on deck.

Liz, Nemo, Todd, Adam
,
and Ryan
were all sitting in a line on the cushioned bench next to the storage compartment where they kept their gear. Not one of them looked like this was a friendly visit from a fellow diving enthusiast.

Four men stood scattered about the boat, the one who’d spoken the closest to Sadie’s crew. All wore shorts, black sandals, and three without shirts and one with an unbuttoned white T-shirt on. He motioned his hand for us to hurry up, and that’s when I saw the Glock he had kept concealed until this moment.

The boil in my gut flared to an inferno, and it took all of my willpower not to rush the son of a bitch.

“Help you?” I said, my voice even despite the rage I felt. I helped Sadie out of her gear, who looked way too fucking calm as she eyed the gun.

“Doubt it.” He looked straight past me to Sadie. “She’s the one we need, yes? The bosslady?”

I stepped in front of her, but she pushed me to the side. “That’s right. Did you bother asking permission to board my ship or do you break code like that without thinking?”

I clenched my eyes shut.
Fuck this woman’s mouth.
If I didn’t love her like I did, I’d throw her ass overboard and negotiate whatever deal they wanted myself.

The man raised his eyebrows, his dark skin contrasting against the white of his T-shirt. “I was warned about you,” he said, a smile shaping his accented words. He was definitely a local, but what the hell he wanted I didn’t know, and the longer he took to get to the point the harder time I had holding back.

“From who?” Sadie asked, and had the audacity to put her hands on her hips. Maybe she
hadn’t
seen the gun in his hand or the looks of sheer terror on the faces of her crew, or maybe . . . maybe she was just insane.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said, shaking his head. “We need to talk some business, you and me.”

“I’m not buying,” she said.

“No, no, no.” He shook the gun in his hand. “We are.”

I slowly moved my hands from their crossed position over my chest, to where my knife still rested on my hip. It would do little good against a gun or the three other men who had drawn their positions in closer once we’d made it on board, but I’d do anything to keep Sadie safe—even when she seemed hell-bent on doing everything to get in the way of that.

She huffed. “You want to buy some old diving equipment? That’s about all I have to offer.”

“Space. We want to rent a space on your boat.”

She scrunched her forehead.

“A lower-level storage compartment,” he continued, walking forward and stopping a few inches from her face.

I flinched, readying to tackle the bastard to the floor, but Sadie placed her hand on my stomach, stopping me before I could start.

“Listening,” she said.

“I have a series of cargo ships coming and going all over the island. Supply is up; demand is down. I need the space to store it, safely and discreetly.”

Fucking drugs. I knew it.

“How much?”

“Forty kilos—“

“Not how much you need me to store,” Sadie cut him off. “How much are you offering?”

I swallowed a mouthful of acid. Assholes like these are what kept my brother supplied.

“A grand per kilo.”

A laugh tore through her lips and my mouth dropped. I shifted again, ready to try to wrestle the gun away, get him as far from Sadie as possible, but her damn touch had me holding off. Her eyes begged me to trust her, so I locked my muscles.

“Something funny, girl?”

She swiped at the corners of her eyes, sucking in a long breath. “Yes, actually.” She straightened her spine, taking the final step of distance between them, and the blood froze in my veins.

“Slade is worth a billion easy, and he has you offer a grand per kilo? That’s weak.”

The man flinched as if her words had stung him, and my mouth dropped.

Sadie never lost the man’s gaze as she reached down and took the gun out of his hand as if she’d talked him down off a ledge.

“What gave me away?” the man asked, his tone completely different from moments before.

Sadie unclipped the gun, showing me it was empty, before handing it to me. I took it, the tightness in my chest loosening, but the anger raging for an entirely new reason.

“I remember just about every face I see. It’s kind of this useless gift. Except in your situation.”

“You work for Slade?” I blurted out, my brain finally catching up with my primal fight instinct.
Son of a bitch!
I’d kept my word by keeping my mouth shut and he still pulled a move like this?

“Sure as hell thought you would’ve pegged me and not this one,” he said, pointing at Sadie.

“How much did he offer you?” she asked.

“Ten grand.”

She whistled. “Not bad. He wanted you . . . to what? Get me on tape saying I’d store your drugs?”

The man had balls enough to look ashamed. He waved his arm toward his boat, and the three other men booked down to it at a run. “Yeah.” He reached into his pocket and handed her a small recorder. “I needed the money.”

“And if my career was jeopardized, my credibility compromised, no big deal?” she snapped. “I knew Slade was an asshole, but this?”

I hurtled a right hook across the man’s jaw, only at half strength—because it was only half his fault—but he still hit the deck.

Sadie knelt down, touching the man’s shoulder. “You know you deserved that,” she said and helped him to his feet. “Tell Slade nice try.”

The man rubbed his jaw, nodded, and hurried back to his boat. Which was probably Slade’s too. We watched as they sped off, the water breaking in their wake.

“You all right?” Sadie asked as her crew came to greet her.

“Damn, boss. I wouldn’t have caught that. Ever,” Nemo said, shaking his head. “Jackasses.”

Liz hugged Sadie. “Thought I’d lost this ship for you.”

Sadie shook her head. “Sorry you had to deal with that alone. I didn’t think he’d stoop this low.” She bit her bottom lip. “This is getting out of hand.”

“Maybe it’s a sign,” Liz said. “Maybe this site isn’t meant to be saved.

The sting of her words hit me in the chest as if I could feel the pain for Sadie.

“I won’t ever believe that,” Sadie said, but from the wary look in her eyes I couldn’t be certain she believed her own words.

And how could she? This place had already had more life-threatening incidents than one normal job would ever have.

“Connell?”

“Yeah?” I took her outstretched hand.

“Thanks for not breaking before I called him out.” She smirked, and I tried not to laugh.

“Almost did.” I drew her closer to me, locking our eyes. “You fucking realize that?”

“What?”

“I nearly charged a gun for you. If you hadn’t stopped me, cooled me down with that look, your touch . . .” I would’ve tackled the guy, taking whatever shot he had. Anything to keep Sadie from getting hurt.

“I know.” She pushed the hair back from my face, and I clenched my eyes shut.

The woman I was hired to destroy had turned out to be the one I was willing to die for, and the site she vowed would save thousands of people someday had tried to kill us both in several different ways.

How the hell were we supposed to come out of this unscathed on the other side?

A new wave of sickness hit my stomach, clashing with the anger and fear. It settled like an anvil—truth.

We weren’t.

I kicked Slade’s office door in so hard I heard it crack.

“What the hell, Murphey?”

Ryan rushed in behind me. “Connell, man, it’s not worth it.” He’d been on my heels the second I’d left Sadie’s boat.

“Not now, man.” I glared at him, promising him pain if he got in the middle of this.

He held his hands up and slowly backed out of Slade’s office, shutting the marred door behind him.

“Something on your mind?” Slade asked, sitting up straighter in his chair.

“Drugs? Really?”

Slade’s shoulders dropped. “I knew I should’ve hired outside the vessel.”

“Wow, you don’t even try to deny it.”

“How quick you make him?”

“I didn’t.
She
did,” I said, unable to hide the pride in my voice.

“Bitch is better than I thought.” He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Don’t call her that.” I gnashed my teeth together, needing the painful release to stop me from flying across his desk.

“She still has her hooks in you, Murphey?”

I shook my head. “That asshole had a gun, Slade.”

“Which I specifically ordered him not to load.”

“You think orders matter to someone willing to pull that job? For a billionaire, you aren’t that smart.”

“Watch it, Connell. I can rip up our contract at any time.”

Relief pooled in my tight chest. “Do it.”

He arched an eyebrow, his eyes trailing me up and down until something clicked behind them. A grin smoothed out over his once-strained face, and he leaned back in his chair. “So she
has
gotten to you, hasn’t she?”

“You can keep your money; just stay as far away from her as possible.” I let all the rage that had gathered in the last twenty-four hours sink into the words, illuminating the threat behind them.

He pushed back from his desk and came around to stand in front of me. “Oh I’ll keep my money, but I won’t stay away from her.”

I grabbed his perfectly pressed shirt, fisting the fabric until he jerked backward. He laughed. “Go on,” he said. “Tear me up. Just know those guys today were the first. A soft test. She wants the hard one? One she won’t recover from? She’ll get it.”

I slammed him forward until his back smacked against his desk, knocking some of his decorative crap to the floor. “Keep pushing me, Slade. I’ll make it where you can’t walk off this vessel ever again.”

“It’s
all
on you, Murphey. You alone have the power to stop this,” he said, negotiating like he had any kind of upper hand. “The hard deal—the one where I simply make her disappear—has already been made; only way I’m calling it off is if you side with me.”

I held him there, my fingers aching to rearrange his face.

“Or keep going, and watch what happens to your new little girlfriend.” The threat in his eyes didn’t waiver, not even with me holding all the power over him. But that wasn’t the case, never would be. Not with a guy as rich and dirty as Slade. He could have anything, including Sadie’s life if he wanted it.

“You’d go that far? Over a fucking pipeline?”

Slade shook his head, pushing against me until I released him and backed up a few feet. “One hundred and twenty million. I’d do it for one hundred and twenty million.” He readjusted his shirt and sat on his desk.