he felt my body halt behind him. It was only then that he turned around to face me.
He bent low to speak for my ears only. “Baby, listen to me. I appreciate the effort and the offer, but I don’t want you to call attention to yourself again. Okay?” He only waited for a beat or two for my reply, and when it didn’t come, he continued. “We don’t know how long these creeps have been out to sea, and scumbags like these have very little, if anything, to lose.” He gave me a brief hug that felt more like desperation, and then after only a moment, he jerked me away from his body.
I could only guess it was to gauge my reaction to what he had said. But my face was twisted in confusion as I tried to follow whatever path he was leading us down with his weird comments.
My dearest let out an exasperated breath and spewed, “I don’t want to have to watch you get gang-raped by four fucking pirates right before they drag me out of here to beat me an inch from my life because of some fucking debt someone is trying to collect of Sebastian’s. Is that clear enough?”
“Very,” I croaked, feeling like I was going to vomit. “Grant.” I pleaded with my eyes while I begged with my words. “Please, please don’t give in. I can’t… I can’t do this without you.” A wave of my hand around the room symbolized the word this, meaning life, in my declaration.
But I had to continue. If this was the one and only chance I had to beg Grant to hear my heart, I had to really make it count. Planting my palms on his cheeks, I pulled his face closer until our foreheads touched. “I don’t know how to live without you. What am I going to do? Please. I’m begging you not to leave me. I’d rather die together than watch you leave and surely die apart.”
When I pulled back to meet his beautiful blue stare, maybe for the last time ever, tears scorched hot tracks down my cheeks.
And now, Grant had matching tear streaks on his cheeks, too. “Stop. You stop right now,” he said in a low, husky voice. “I told you what you have to do. Do you remember?”
“Please don’t do this to me,” I answered instead and wrapped my fingers around his forearm in a desperate grip. “Grant, please.”
“Rio.”
“Please.”
In a flash, everything changed about Grant’s demeanor. The set of his shoulders, the stiffness in his spine, even the light sky in his eyes darkened to a deep navy. When he spoke, the unmistakable Dominant tone vibrated through my entire body, and where goose bumps didn’t prickle, little hairs stood on end.
He leveled his question one last time. “Do you remember what I told you?”
“Let’s go, Twombley. Now.” One of the kidnappers barked the command from his position near the door while another jabbed the barrel of his gun in the small of Grant’s back.
“I love you, Blaze. Be brave for me.” Grant kissed the top of my head and quickly moved out of my octopus arms’ reach.
“Grant, please,” I moaned just as I crumpled to the floor. I couldn’t bear to watch him go.
“Get your fucking hands off me. I can walk myself,” I heard Grant growl to one of his captors as they shoved him down the narrow passageway outside our door.
And stole him from me.
“Well, we don’t want you getting any funny ideas,” the leader’s gravelly voice responded.
Soon, footsteps could be heard on the deck above our stateroom, and I scrambled into action. Grant told me to call Elijah or Sebastian as soon as he left, and I wouldn’t let him down. I would do everything in my power to save him. Maybe Elijah could track Grant’s phone as long as the thugs didn’t take it from him. Hopefully he’d had a chance to stash it in an inconspicuous place.
Deep, throaty engines roared to life in the distance, and I scrambled to look out the bulkhead portholes in our cabin to see if I could catch a glimpse of their craft. Unfortunately, the crazy events that had just taken place had completely disoriented me on the time of day. No surprise, then, when I looked outside and saw nothing but pitch-black water and the star-filled sky. A quick glance at the clock on the bedside table informed me it was only 4:27 a.m. Now, the sliver of moon