Just because hecould? The ego on this guy is fucking sky high. I glance down at the gun on his hip, quietly debating how successful I would be in stealing it from him and killing him.
“Actually, we should be setting off any time?—”
The yacht lurches suddenly and vibrations tremor through the floor. Hawk shoots me a tight smile and pulls a radio from his pocket. “Sorry about that,” he says as he clicks the radio on. “Hector, what the hell is going on down there?”
Silence.
“Hector!”
More silence.
My heart begins to pound.
Is it Faina? Or something else entirely? The radio crackles and a male voice tries to speak, but other than a few sounds and gasps, I catch on to nothing. Slowly, I step toward Hawk and keep his gun in my peripheral vision.
“Hector, you’re making me look like a fool and I—” He abruptly stops talking and very slowly lifts his head, gazing out into the pitch-black ocean. Then he snatches his gun from his hip and whips around to face me, aiming it at my chest.
“Cian.”
“What the fuck?” Raising both hands, I step back. “Is this really how you want to start this fucking partnership?”
“I knew I shouldn’t have?—”
CLANG!
With a wide swipe, Faina suddenly leaps over the railing behind Hawk and smacks him clean over the head with a fire extinguisher. He crumples to the ground like a sack of bricks while she stands over him, panting. Blood stains her shoulder and neck, her hair is soaked and hanging in straggles around her face, and she’s magnificent.
“Faina?” She’s alive. Oh my God, she’s alive! “Faina!” Rushing toward her, we meet halfway and clash instantly. Her hands cup my face and she kisses me repeatedly, breathless.
“I’m okay,” she gasps. “I’m okay! I can’t believe you fucking shot me but I’m okay!”
“I’m so sorry, I’m so—watch out!” Our reunion is cut short by Hawk surging up from the floor with blood steadily pouring down from his hairline. He raises his arm and points his gun at Faina, so I shove her away from me as hard as I can while stumbling backward just enough to miss the bullet as Hawk opens fire.
He follows Faina with his weapon raised, so I scramble upward and throw myself forward, grabbing his wrist and jerking it up and away. At the same time, I throw my knee upward. It collides with his chest and he grunts, then together, we fall backward.
“You motherfucker, I should have known!” Hawk yells as we grapple for control of the gun. “I knew a weakling like you couldn’t be trusted. You only survived because you’re a fucking roach!”
His fist collides with my jaw and pain explodes through my face and neck as my head snaps back. It’s fleeting because anger consumes me along with the determination to protect Faina. Grabbing his hair with one hand, I wrench his head back, hoping the blow from the fire extinguisher continues to disorientate him while digging my fingertips hard into his wrist. He yells at me in rage, then his knee collides with my crotch and I see stars.
My vision blurs and my grasp on him slips long enough for Hawk to free himself. He scrambles back to his feet, lifts his gun, and aims at Faina a few feet away.
“Fucking bit?—”
His words are consumed by an almighty boom that rises from inside the yacht, followed by an incredible explosion that rips through the entire yacht and sends a gigantic ball of fire shooting straight up into the sky. We’re all thrown backward, hitting thedeck hard as metal, wood, and more all cascade down around us like timber rain. The fire stretches its claws high into the sky, bringing plumes of smoke with it, and then the deck starts to dip. Toppled over chairs and loose items from the dining table start to clatter and slide down toward the cavernous hole that’s feeding the fire, and my heart lurches.
“No!”
Faina’s scream brings me back to the present and I scramble up.
Hawk and Faina are locked in a brawl where Hawk’s doing everything he can to try and impale Faina with a knife he snatched up from somewhere.
Shit, where’s his gun?
It must have slipped from his hand in the explosion and he lost it. I scramble up, scanning around until I spot it slowly sliding across the upper deck toward the inferno. Sprinting toward it, I throw myself forward and catch it before it slides too far, then I’m back on my feet with a twinge of pain in my leg. Faina backhands Hawk and he stumbles away from her. He lunges forward, but I’m right there with him, tripping him up and spinning, then kicking him hard in the chest. He flies backward with a ferocious yell. I brace down and shove off with my left leg and despite the pain, I don’t waver.
My fist slams into his face and he falls down flat, then I raise the gun and point it at his face.
“I’m a Gifford through and through, you son of a bitch. That’s the one thing you forgot about. Being on top isn’t about how many people you kill or the money you make. It’s the fucking loyalty you instill in people. Somethingyouforgot.”
