do you want?” I shifted closer to her. “I think I forgot to ask before now.”
She cracked an eye, frowning at me before shutting it again. “That’s a big question with an impossible answer, Badge.”
“Answer it anyway,” I urged.
She remained quiet for a while like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to tell me, but she finally did. “I want what I had when I was fifteen, riding waves with my boys and knowing no matter what happened, we’d be okay. Because we had each other.”
I sighed, rolling onto my back as a crushing weight fell on my chest. “So you want the one thing I can’t give you.”
She shifted closer, wrapping her arm around me and laying her head over my heart. It eased the cloying despair in my chest so I just held her, closing my eyes and pretending we were at Sinners’ Playground, sleeping between the Pac Man and Space Invaders machines. But then I thought of Chase there too and I held her even tighter, my jaw clenched as I tried not to lean into that pain and just steal some peace with Rogue for once.
“I know you need it too,” she whispered just as I was falling asleep. “I’m sorry I can’t give you it either.”
***
“Shit, we need to put everything back where we found it and get the hell out of here,” JJ said in a panic.
I stared at the symbol on the medallion in my hand in fear before looking around at my friends’ pale faces.
“Um, guys, it gets worse. Far fucking worse,” Chase called and I looked over to where he was standing peering in a doorway with a cigarette between his lips. We moved after him and I smelled the death before I saw it. He pushed the door wide and I took in the bodies lying everywhere in there, bloody and mutilated, their faces twisted in death.
“Oh fuck,” Rogue gasped and I reached for her hand, stuffing the medallion into my pocket as I tried to remember exactly where we’d found it.
“Holy shit, look at this.” I turned at Maverick’s voice, finding him with a bottle of vodka in his hand with what looked like a thumb floating in it.
“Put it down,” Rogue hissed like she feared his fingerprints being on that thing and she pulled out of my grip, taking it from his hand. A large wave rocked the boat at that moment and it slipped from her fingers, crashing to the deck and vodka spilled across it along with the severed thumb.
JJ bumped into Chase and I moved to brace them, but my foot slipped on the vodka and I crashed to the floor, taking Chase out with me. His cigarette popped form his lips, hitting the deck in a shower of sparks and the vodka caught alight in a blaze.
JJ hauled us upright as another wave made the boat rock wildly and Rogue and Maverick clung onto each other so they didn’t fall.
“I told you there was a fucking storm coming in tonight,” JJ said in alarm. “We shouldn’t have come out here.”
“Keep your panties on,” Maverick barked, but the fire flared in his eyes and we all scrambled to get out of its way, scrambling towards the stairs that led back up to the top deck.
The fire flared hotter and Chase pushed me along as we all started running up the stairs, the heat of the flames washing over my back.
I kept my gaze on Rogue ahead of us as Maverick clung onto her hand and we all gasped as the boat rocked wildly once more. I leapt up a step, cushioning Rogue as she skidded sideways towards the wall. My head impacted with it but she thumped harmlessly against my chest and I pushed her up the next step, encouraging her to keep going as Maverick tugged her along. I threw a glance back to make sure Chase and JJ were right behind me, my heart thrashing at the sight of the spreading flames at their heels.
“Go!” JJ cried and I damn well did, racing along with all of them as we made it to the top deck and dove over the railing. I plunged into the ocean and the moment I resurfaced, we all started swimming for my dad’s speedboat which we’d tied off beside the yacht.
Maverick heaved himself up first, pulling Rogue after him before they both worked to help the rest of us out of the water. Chase ran to start the