He was a black hole. And it was better to stay hell and gone from him, because she knew if she ever allowed herself to get sucked inside his gravitational pull, she was done for. Finished. He’d crush her like one of the eggs the feral chickens of Key West seemed to lay around the island willy-nilly.
She’d decided getting Mason’s opinion on the speedboat was the safer option.
But the look in Alex’s eyes told her she should’ve stuck with door number one.
Sorry, she mouthed again when Mason stood. Given his bulk, it was amazing he could move with such grace.
“Let’s go get a look.” He motioned for her to pass him the binoculars.
She hesitated, thinking maybe she could convince him to sit back down and say more lovely, sweet, flowery things to Alex. But then he frowned—and truly, he had one hell of a frown—and stared at her with those shocking blue eyes. Her arms turned traitorous. They handed him the binoculars of their own volition.
Alex jumped to her feet then, too, dropping her book onto the trampoline before quickly falling in step behind Mason when he made his way around the cabin and headed for the stern.
“See,” Chrissy said under her breath, giving Alex a poke in the small of her back. “I told you.”
When Alex glanced over her shoulder, her expression said she still hoped for a way to singe Chrissy’s eyebrows off. “Told me what?”
“Chocolate syrup.” She gave Alex a knowing wink.
Alex opened her mouth to respond, but quickly closed it again because they’d made it to the swim deck and Mason immediately lifted the binoculars to his eyes. His massive biceps bulged, and Chrissy thought she heard Alex swallow noisily. When she turned to look, sure enough, Alex was staring at Mason like he was an all-you-can-eat shrimp boil.
It was an expression Chrissy recognized well. She’d seen it on her mother’s face often enough, and it had usually resulted in a ring and a trip to the justice of the peace. Josephine Szareck had fallen in love as easily and as often as Chrissy filled her scuba tanks.
Unfortunately, the men Josephine had fallen in love with weren’t the faithful-until-death-do-us-part types, so Josephine had fallen out of love easily too. Chrissy suspected if her mother hadn’t gotten sick, she’d have been on husband number seven or maybe even eight by now.
“Well?” Alex prompted Mason, her voice a little scratchy. “What do you think?”
He didn’t immediately answer. And the apprehension Chrissy had felt when she first saw the rooster-tails began to sneak back in, raising the baby hairs on the back of her neck.
That apprehension quickly morphed into stone-cold fear when he turned to them, his expression like a hurricane. “Call in a Mayday to the Coasties. Tell ’em we got three unfriendlies packing assault weapons and headed our way in a speedboat.”
“What?” Chrissy squeaked. Now it wasn’t only the hairs on the back of her neck standing stick-straight. It was every hair on her body.
She snatched the binoculars from Mason and held them to her eyes. It took her a moment to locate the speedboat amid the vast expanse of sea and sky. When the boat snapped into view, it was still so far back she could barely make out the figures on board. “How do you know they have guns?”
“See that black swatch across the chest of the one who’s piloting?” Mason asked.
She decided if she held her mouth just right, she could possibly see what he was talking about. “Sort of.”
“That’s a full auto.”
She lowered the binoculars, her eyebrows knitting together. “Maybe you were right,” she told Alex. “Maybe I need to get my eyes checked.”
“Nothing wrong with your eyes,” Mason assured her. “Just gotta lotta practice identifying weapons and hostiles. Both are on our tail.”
“Oh god. Not again,” Alex murmured.
“Again?” Chrissy stared hard at the woman. “When has this happened bef—” She cut herself off and answered her own question. “Garden Key,” she whispered and pointed toward the white plumes in the distance. “You think they have something to do with that?”
“Not a fucking clue.” Mason shook his head. Like most folks from Boston, he had a rare affinity for the f-bomb in all its variations.
She opened her mouth to say…she wasn’t sure what. Her mind raced and was completely empty at the same time. How was that even possible?
“Go!” Mason bellowed. “Now!”
It was as though she and Alex had been buzzed by an electric eel. They jumped into action so quickly Chrissy didn’t remember skirting the side of the boat or climbing the steps to the pilothouse. But suddenly, she was standing beside Wolf.
The look on her face must’ve said it all. He took one hand off the big wheel to grab her forearm. “Chrissy? What is it?”
His palm was warm against her skin, making her realize that, despite the heat of the day, she was ice cold. Was it possible to feel your own flesh turning blue?
What had Mason called the people in the speedboat? She couldn’t remember. The only phrase that stuck in her head was assault weapons.
“Coast Guard,” she managed to wheeze despite her heart having jumped out of her chest to hover in the corner of the ceiling.
Wolf’s forehead wrinkled in confusion.
Well, of course it did.
Squaring her shoulders, she opened her mouth to try again. But Alex beat her to the punch.
“I need the marine radio.” Alex reached past Wolf. “Mayday. Mayday,” she barked after finding the Coast Guard channel. “This is the catamaran Second Wind at—”
Alex rattled off their coordinates, speed, and heading, and Chrissy dragged in a deep breath, willing her heart to come back inside her chest. But she was quickly distracted by Wolf’s expression. It morphed from concerned and curious to dangerous and deadly when Alex added, “We have a speedboat with three unfriendlies riding in our wake.”
Unfriendlies. That’s what Mason had called them, and Chrissy understood why she’d had trouble remembering the term.
An old man yelling at kids to get off his lawn was unfriendly. The people who worked at the DMV were unfriendly. But a boatful of bad guys carrying assault-style weapons? They were a lot more than unfriendly.
Wolf released her arm to stomp toward the back of the pilothouse. It was then Chrissy realized she’d been using him for support, because without him, her sea legs failed her and she stumbled.
“Easy, darlin’.” He put a steadying hand on her shoulder even as he squinted at the jets of water in the distance.
Alex continued to answer the Coast Guard’s questions, and Chrissy squeezed her eyes shut. Unfortunately, the truth of the speedboat and its occupants didn’t disappear just because she wasn’t looking at them. When she opened her eyes again, it was to find Mason standing next to her.