“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.
“Jeez!” She jumped so far out of her skin she was surprised she didn’t land back in Key West. Oh, how she would love to be back in Key West. “How are you so big and so quiet at the same time? You move like a Prius!”
Mason didn’t answer. Instead, he shrugged two gnarly-looking machine guns off his shoulders and onto the back console. Then, from the pockets of his swim trunks, he pulled out a matte-black handgun and a knife with a rubber grip handle and a shiny silver blade.
Once a SEAL, always a SEAL, Chrissy supposed, staring goggle-eyed at the weapons.
She forgot all about that night two months ago and what had happened between her and Wolf. She forgot she’d convinced herself that no way, no how was she allowing herself to like him again. She forgot everything except for how comforting it was to touch him.
Slipping her hand into his, she swallowed a shaky breath of gratitude when he unhesitatingly curled his long, strong fingers around hers.
Chapter 6
11:06 a.m.
Every time I think I’m done with killing, Mason thought as he press-checked the chamber on his pistol, something happens to prove killing isn’t done with me.
“What the hell’s goin’ on?” Wolf demanded, grabbing his Colt M4 A1