“True. What if they lost power and are stranded?” I mused.
“Good point. Let’s see if they’re reaching out for help on the radio.” Twisting the knob, Langston clicked through the various channels, his frown growing by the second when there were no calls for help or SOS signals.
“If they were stranded, they would either be on the radio or sending some type of signal to us that they need help. There’s no way someone doesn’t see us with our lights on.” Never breaking his stare out over the dark water, Langston reached into a side cabinet, withdrew a nine-millimeter, and placed it on the dash. “Just in case things aren’t on the up-and-up. Something doesn’t feel right.”
I nodded, fully agreeing with him; this felt off. I studied my friend and sighed. “You want to check it out, see what’s going on, don’t you?” I glanced over my shoulder at Juno, giving her a tight smile. “You know, I would normally be all in, but our girl is on board with us. Wouldn’t that be putting her in a potentially dangerous situation?”
Langston grunted in agreement, twisting around to check on Juno, who was already coming closer. Brows pulled in tight, gaze locked on us, she made her way from the back of the boat to where we stood.
“What’s going on?” she asked, studying us, no doubt sensing our tension. “What is that look?” She pointed to Langston’s face and then mine. “You’d think we were in danger or something.” Her nervous laugh faded when we didn’t respond. “Wait, are we? Is it something to do with the boat?”
“There’s nothing wrong with the boat, but we’re not sure what’s going on,” Langston stated. With a hand on each shoulder, he turned her toward the mystery spot and pointed like he had with me. “Out there. It was there and gone, so I’m not positive, but I thought I saw a boat stranded.”
“We’re assuming stranded,” I mumbled.
“It makes the most sense,” Langston replied, pulling Juno against him, sealing her back to his chest.
“Or,” I drawled, “the boat is fine, and whatever they’re doing, they don’t want anyone to know about it. What if we just interrupted something illegal, Lang? They would no doubt have more guns than your single nine-millimeter. It’s not smart to?—”
“But what if theyarein trouble and need our help?” Juno interrupted, placing a hand on my forearm. “We have a weapon just in case, right?”
Langston inclined his head to the gun on the dash, and of course, he had his knife stashed somewhere too.
She nodded. “Then I think we should check it out, make sure they’re okay. If they are doing something illegal….” She paused, chewing on her lip as she stared at her feet. “I mean, like, it’s already happening. So on the super-odd chance they are, then we can figure out what to do from there. But again, I highly doubt it.” She gestured around us. “We’re in Alaska, in the middle of the water, at night. Who would it be, the Russians?”
I huffed out a laugh while Langston smiled and shook his head.
“Russians,” he joked. “This isn’t a Bond orMission Impossiblemovie.”
Juno slapped his bicep. “See, youareinto action films, not just cheesy romance.”
“I agree that it’s a long shot that they’re a danger to us, but you’re here with us. I don’t want to potentially put you in harm’sway,” I stated, extracting her from Langston’s hold and pulling her into my arms.
“And we have more than one gun.” He reached into the cabinet again and pulled out another nine-millimeter. He looked between it and my bandaged hand. “How good of a shot are you with your nondominant hand?”
“Guess we’ll find out,” I said with a resigned sigh. After taking it from him, I cursed under my breath and handed it back to him. “I can’t rack the slide. Can you put one in the chamber for me?”
His responding cocky grin proved he was the ultimate jackass for reveling in my current limitations.Asshole.
The click of the slide slamming into place cut through the night, making Juno jump. Taking her hand, Langston guided her to his seat, made sure she was secure, and shot me a glance over his shoulder. At my reluctant but confirming nod, he gripped the throttle and pushed, making the engines roar to life. The boat quickly picked up speed, gliding over the water in the direction of our unknown fate.
“I don’t want to run into the fucking thing,” Langston grumbled under his breath before hitching his chin toward the back of the boat. “Grab the spotlight from one of the storage compartments. That will help us see farther.”
With a clipped nod, I went in search of the light. There were only life jackets and spare ropes in the first hold, but I found it in the second with other miscellaneous equipment. Careful not to move too fast so I didn’t lose my balance and fly overboard, I stumbled up to Langston’s side and plugged in the power cord.
A blinding stream of light cut through the dark, highlighting just how far away from land—hell, anyone—we were out in the middle of the large bay. Sweeping the light from side to side, my frown deepened. Nothing but water, more water, and wavy water. I shared a confused look with Langston, who shrugged.
“Maybe we were seeing things?” I suggested, though the doubt was clear in my tone.
“Keep searching, widen the scope. If the engines are off, it would have drifted with these choppy waves,” Langston stated.
On my third, much wider scan over the water, the light glinted off metal. There it was—a ship, not a boat like ours, utterly dark and quiet as if abandoned.
“Even with it drifting, there’s no way it made it all the way over there unless….” He trailed off, sounding bewildered as he slowed the boat, maintaining a comfortable distance between us and the ship. “Why would they try to evade us if they need help?”
“Maybe you just have a shitty sense of direction,” I joked, knowing it was a lie, but hoping it would help lighten the tense situation we’d found ourselves in. My stomach tightened with nerves as we all watched the dark ship. “I don’t have a good feeling about this, Langston.”
“Same.” Flexing his fingers, he adjusted his white-knuckled grip on the wheel as we idled, the waves pushing us closer. Too fucking close. “It’s too late to turn around and hope they didn’t see us, though, not with that spotlight.” Grabbing the end of the light, he adjusted the angle, sweeping it along the hull. “I’m trying to tell what kind of ship it is. It looks to be a midsize commercial fishing boat, but it’s old. I don’t see any fishing gear stacked on the deck, which is odd. And where the hell is the IMO number?”
