Depths of Salvation (Love on the Edge) (26 page)

“Maybe I should leave more often?” I glanced around the lab. “Why is everyone working after hours?”

“Lab results came back on your superhero plant,” he said, his eyebrows reaching nearly his hairline.

“What?” This was the day for surprises. I may as well dive and look for treasure now, with how my luck was rolling.

Nemo nodded.

“And?” I urged, scanning the room for Liz.

“They’re inconclusive,” an unfamiliar voice said from behind me.

I whirled around, setting eyes on a fit woman with pitch black hair cut off at her chin in a sharp angle. Liz smiled beside her.

“Sadie,” Liz said. “This is Dr. Cunningham. Doctor, this is our fearless—and I mean that—leader.”

My mouth dropped, though I told it not to. I reached out and took the hand she offered, smiling as I looked from her to Liz and back again, like if I looked hard enough, I’d wake up. “You’re . . .
the
Dr. Cunningham?” I asked, proud of myself for not adding
world-renowned marine preservationist extraordinaire?

“Yes. I’ve heard a lot about you, Sadie. And your ship. She’s got massive potential, but like I said, the results weren’t substantial enough to make a big push.”

My shoulders sank. If Dr. Cunningham didn’t think the evidence was solid, then we didn’t stand a chance.

“Hey,” she said, lightly tapping my shoulder. “Don’t lose heart. I’ve made some calls to have a few more rapid tests done and to push your research through with the FDA. We’ll know more in a week.”

A week. My heart raced at breakneck speeds fueled by hope. That might just give us enough time.

I nodded, my mind calculating the odds.

“I took a dive today and gave her a look,” she said. “It’s an amazing system. She’ll hold. You just have to have faith.” She pinned me with a look that felt slightly familiar, though I assumed it was from my basic obsession with her since grad school. She’d changed her hair, but I’d seen her in the pages of
Time
magazine on several occasions. “I know it can be hard,” she continued when I didn’t say anything. “To keep faith when things look so bleak. But I assure you, if it’s within my power, your site will be protected.”

I smiled, shaking my head. “Don’t get me wrong, Dr. Cunningham, I’m beyond grateful you’re here . . . but . . .”

“Why?” she finished for me.

“Yes.”

She shrugged. “Lucky coincidence. Heard about your ship and the government problems around the case. Can’t believe some asshole is trying to blow it up for a stupid pipeline.”

I snorted. “That’s Slade all right.”

“I hope he gets everything that is coming to him,” she said, her tone again pulling on some memory I couldn’t place.

“Me as well. That’s where I was earlier, trying to make sure he does.”

She nodded, like that answered a question she hadn’t wanted to voice.

I hadn’t told my team where I was going, just that I’d be gone for a day, possibly two. I didn’t know how quickly Mr. Williams—Casey—would see me. Thanks to Ryan, I’d gotten lucky, but I hadn’t wanted any member of my crew wrapped up in what I was doing, just in case it backfired, and Slade won.

“We’ll work hard in the mean time. Double down on the
Falconer
. If that is, you permit me to stay and observe and offer advice.” She tilted her head, her hair falling in front of her eyes.

I clenched mine shut, the image of Connell hitting me so hard and completely out of no where I lost my breath for a second. I mentally kicked myself and smiled at her.

“I’d be honored to have you, Dr. Cunningham. We all would.” I motioned toward my crew.

“Wonderful. Then let’s talk about your superhero plant.”

I couldn’t stop the grin shaping my lips. With her help and whatever help Casey ended up bringing to the table, the
Falconer
may just make it out of this alive.

Hope bloomed brighter and bigger than I dared to let it, but it was an unstoppable reaction. I tried to welcome it, swim in it, but I knew all too well that hope was as steady as the ocean—one minute it’s smooth and calm, the next, you’re sunk.

I sent up a silent prayer that the sea gods would grant my site a safer resting place than it had a passage and then thanked whatever angel had brought Dr. Cunningham to my door. She was a game changer Henrick wouldn’t be able to ignore.

Connell

TIME WAS UP.

T
he thought consumed me as I walked into the overcrowded room in Henrick’s building where they held meetings where other members of parliament were needed to weigh in. I took the only available seat in the place, a slim spot on one of the walnut benches in the back of the room.

Ryan had stayed on the vessel after Sadie had begged him not to come to the meeting—she hadn’t wanted any of the help he . . .
we . . .
had offered coming back to him if things didn’t pan out for her site. He’d obliged but not before he’d told me how well the meeting with the investor had gone. The man above Slade—according to Ryan—believed Sadie and was going to take action. The relief behind the notion almost turned into hope, but I kept myself in check. We had to get through this meeting first, and then I had to come clean about everything—my Mom, Slade’s threats, and how deeply sorry I was about it all—before I could ever entertain the thought that she might be mine again.

Sadie sat in the front with Mom, who glanced over her shoulder just long enough to properly chide me for being late without opening her mouth. Mom could always do that, not to mention make me feel like I’d failed even when the meeting wouldn’t start for another ten minutes. I’d gotten tied up at the docking station, and Slade had worked me to the bone this last week as if he could torture the “correct response” out of me when the time came to side with him or Sadie. If I had thought for a second I could quit without accelerating the threats on Sadie, I would’ve.

There was nothing more I could do now. I’d taken every action necessary—outside of murder Slade, which I still plotted nightly. And if Ryan’s guy didn’t come through and handle Slade in only the way billionaire’s can handle people . . . well, then I’d take the risk of going to the authorities.

Sadie’s life was worth every kind of risk and if
she
knew the threat against her? Hell, she would’ve already saved herself. Salvation—for people, sunken ships, ecosystems, whatever—was simply in her nature. It was like she had the instinct in her blood and it overran every other aspect of her life, including the logical survival instinct that would’ve kept her out of danger more times than I liked to remember. Still, she wouldn’t be my Sadie if she were any different.

She’s not yours anymore, asshole.

I swallowed hard, and flat-out stared at her profile. The golden-blond hair that hung just past her shoulders, the smooth skin of her neck, the slight shape of her lips that I knew tasted like the sea—I took each element in and drank it like the thirsty man I was. After today, I didn’t think I’d see her again. But she’d be alive. That was all that mattered.

A sharp twist of metal snapped inside my chest, and I tore my eyes away from her. Mom had gotten plenty of evidence; she could save Sadie’s site without the need for my testimony, but I knew Henrick would put me on the spot. I gazed at the crowd—parliament members, teams on both sides of the situation—even the damn governor-general had made the trip out to hear about the status of the pipeline’s progression. He served just beneath the prime minister, who answered to the queen, and while I knew this was the first and largest merger between the United States and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, I couldn’t believe the amount of bigwigs that had shown up.

Good. They deserved to see Slade go down.

Would he?

The stinging pain in my chest rose to such a strength I rubbed it from the outside, like that would soothe it. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t stand up and say Sadie’s site wasn’t worth saving. I wouldn’t lie. Not again. Not after what I’d put her through already. If all else failed I’d just have to handle Slade the second this meeting ended. I’d corner him in the parking lot and pummel him until he wasn’t capable of making good on his threats. It’d be impossible to make a few calls without a working jaw. Maybe I’d break his thumbs for good measure, in case he was a texter.

“Thank you all for coming,” Henrick said, taking his spot in the middle of the long table in the front of the room. “I know this has been a pressing and stressful issue for both parties involved, and I’m relieved to know we will settle the matter here, today, without fail.” He eyed Slade and then Sadie, who sat on opposite ends of the room. “And when the governor-general and I have come to a conclusion on the matter, it’s final. No more will be discussed after we leave this room. Understood?”

Sadie nodded once.

Slade scoffed.
Asshole.
He had the nerve to look annoyed. Like he had better things to do than listen to the outcome of a one hundred and twenty million dollar deal he’d threatened to kill a woman over. His aloofness made me feel like an exposed nerve, and I tried to steady my breathing as adrenaline made my limbs shake.

“Mr. Slade.” Henrick glanced at him. “Do you have anything new to present?”

He stood, smoothing out his red tie and buttoning his dress jacket. “No. You know where the company stands. Going thirty miles around her little ship will cost millions of dollars. It’s not plausible, and it’s a waste of supplies and man-hours.” He sat back down as if that is all he ever needed to say.

I cracked my knuckles as Henrick waved an arm to Sadie. “Ms. Jenkins, I imagine you have new evidence to provide to your case.”

She stood up, folding her hands in front of her instead of popping them on her delicious hips like I knew she wanted to do.

“Yes, I do.” She looked each of the members in the eyes as she handed them all a blue folder filled with paperwork. “What you have before you are a significant amount of test results my team and outside working parties have run on a succession of plant and marine life thriving only within the ecosystem found in the
Falconer
.” She took a deep breath, and I wanted to place my hand on the small of her back, comfort her, let her know she had no reason to be nervous, she would have these people eating out of her hand in moments if Mom had been right about the superhero plant—and she normally was. She and Sadie had that in common.

“You can skim over the sections where I reiterate the direct effect on the islands’ keystone food source if the
Falconer
is destroyed—I don’t think you need to hear about that again. What you absolutely can’t ignore are the results from what we’ve dubbed the
superhero plant
—which is a new, previously unidentified strain of seagrass with similar aspects to the purple and red algae. In this plant’s case, the properties have been magnified by the environment in which it was bred, and the effects it has on its own species’ cell regeneration alone are unprecedented.” She paced the area before the members, and I couldn’t help but watch her ass as it swished back and forth with each step.

“Cell regrowth,” she continued, “and rapid acceleration of immunity carriers are but a few effects the plant could have on the human system if ingested—and each of those aspects could lead to a number of diseases either managed with more vigor or, as we hope, eradicate them completely.” She returned to her seat at the table next to my mom but remained standing, her hand on the back of the chair. “The superhero plant hasn’t been found in any other area surrounding the
Falconer
, and its growth relies on the delicate balance that resides in and directly around the ship. Destroying it would kill its chances of advancing the medical fight against a dozen different diseases.”

“There are still too many ‘coulds’ in these notes, Sadie.” Henrick shuffled the paperwork in front of him.

She clenched her fists at the same time I did.

“We’re actively working with the FDA for more human trials with a concentrated, daily dose of the plant.”

Henrick nodded. “And they’re on board?”

“Yes,” she said, pushing some of her hair behind her ear. I wanted to do that for her, to tangle my fingers in her strands and yank her to me, kiss her until she forgot what I’d done, until she forgave me.