Join the club. Alexei had the same idea, though he’d never considered outright killing me, or what the leader of these men wanted to do before I ended up floating face down in the Mediterranean. The life or death stakes hadn’t stopped me from discovering who these men worked for, it couldn’t stop me from again realizing how much better off I’d have been if I’d never run.
“The boss will reward us well,” said the man who squatted over me. He’d withdrawn his hand after I jerked my head away but remained close. “Well enough that you can hire a girl back home. We bring her in unharmed and unmolested. Unless you’d like to use that pretty little mouth of yours to thank us for our mercy.”
He stood up and leaned back against the balcony’s guard rail. His hand slipped to his belt. I glared up at him and I wasn’t alone. The thug without his gun drawn shook his head and muttered something.
“Stop fooling around, man,” he said, stepping closer to the first. His hands shook and rose to his sides before he pointed at the idiot. “One word to her uncle and our big reward becomes a swift death.”
“That’s why we should have our fun and get rid of her,” argued the leader, his gun still on me.
I would have glared at the man to hide my fear but I never moved my eyes from the one who held his hand over his belt buckle – behind him actually. In the darkness beyond the balcony, something moved. Just a dark blur in front of a pitch black background. It shifted toward the front of the boat where these thugs had latched their hook to the guardrail the next cabin over. Was someone coming up the rope?
“But then we wouldn’t get the re—” The man who stood nearest the balcony’s edge froze when a line flew over his shoulder.
Every eye fell on the dark cord. The equally black grappling hook on the end weighed it down. He stared at the prongs where it landed on his chest. His eyes shot wide, but he responded too late.
The line tightened over his shoulder. One of the sharp prongs sank into his collarbone. His feet kicked up, almost connecting with the nearest man but he jumped away. The scream faded as he fell, ending in a dull splash.
Two glowing green circles the size of eyes appeared on the far side of the glass. Between the night vision and his Batman-like dispatch of one of the men, our newcomer had to be Alexei. Such a showoff, but the welcome lesser of two evils I’d happily choose over the men deciding between raping and killing me or selling me off to an uncle I never met.
The leader between the two remaining recovered before his underling. The gun trained on me darted toward my savior. Still on my back, I had few options. My leg lashed out at his. His foot slipped and he teetered to the side.
A gunshot sounded. My ears rang and the glass shattered.
14
Alexei
Ifound the inflatable Franco’s men had used to get to the cruise ship easily enough. It was the only small boat being dragged beside the mammoth ship, after all. With my scooter attached to the hull in front of the empty boat, I pulled myself aboard. The cord attaching it to the cruise ship rose up five stories of windows. They hadn’t made it easy to follow them.
My bare feet worked well in the water. Against the side of a ship was another story. I ascended the rope with arms alone before I got to the first windows. The portholes offered a little purchase, just enough to ease the strain.
The deck below the hook had a balcony. Quiet voices sounded above me to the right so I waited. Any thought of rest disappeared when her voice joined the others. How the hell had they found her? Franco’s people must have discovered the room of the person she’d impersonated.
Slowly climbing the last story, my thoughts fired, too fast to be useful. Panic wouldn’t help her. I needed focus and closed my eyes for a moment.
When I reached the hook, I peeked over at the next balcony. Gianna lay on her back. Three men stood around her, one with his back to the railing. Another held a gun toward her.
My surprise plan almost failed before it began. The drag on the hook’s cord had my fingers straining on the railing. That same force tore one of the men over the ledge but he kicked my leg on the way down. Instead of hopping over the railing and taking the men down before they knew what happened, I hung from it by one arm.
I’d stretched to grab the rail with my other arm when the shot rang out. The glass in front of me shattered. My thigh burned. There were a hell of a lot worse places to be shot and it missed the bone, unless a hell of a lot more adrenalin was surging through me than I thought.
“You’ll get it for that, bitch,” screamed the man with the gun.
He’d fallen over but lifted his gun. It was aimed at Gianna. Ignoring the burn in my thigh and the glass my bare feet were not ready for, I kicked back and let gravity swing me forward.
My foot connected with his arm. The gun fired again. The bulled burst through the barrier at the side of the balcony, gun clattering from his hand. My eyes darted to Gianna. I let out a breath when I found her unhurt, but it cost me.
The other man finally recovered from his shock. He dropped to his knee, fists flying too fast for me to stop. They landed on my stomach. Half hanging over the edge, I latched on to his arm.
The glass bit into my foot when I planted it to roll over. My opponent struggled under me. A headbutt with my night vision goggles sent him blinking and twitching and would leave me with raccoon eyes of bruises. I added an elbow to the gut for good measure but there was still one more. I couldn’t rest yet.
I rolled over and froze. Gianna stood over me. The pistol in her hand shook but she’d aimed it true. Everything I’d learned about her – both my reports and the short moments we’d spent together – told me she wouldn’t shoot. She wasn’t her father – but I’d been wrong about her already.
My plan relied on her being different than the Bastard. No matter how I went about it, there would have been a moment like this. She’d prove me wrong or right, choose her father or herself… and me.
“Sorry I’m late,” I said, shifting off the thug I’d knocked out of the fight. I moved slowly; I didn’t want to spook her.
“Is that the only thing you’re sorry about?” She wiggled the gun but kept it aimed at me. Her finger stayed straight and off the trigger, a small victory.
