Dan described what he’d done to the wires and how to put them back. “When the light comes on, you’ll know you did it right.”
Annie didn’t miss that he hadn’t mentioned the kill switch in the wheelhouse.
“You better hope this works.”
Dan didn’t appear concerned. “It will if you do it right.”
Jean Paul handed the gun to Julien, who took it none too happily. “Shoot him if he moves.” He turned to Claude. “Help him keep an eye on them, but be ready to try to start it again when I call up.”
Annie looked at Dan. His expression didn’t give anything away, but she sensed this was exactly what he’d wanted.
•••
Dean was biding his time, waiting for the opportunity to make his move, and this was it.
But he’d have to act fast. He’d given confusing directions, but replacing a few wires wouldn’t take too long. He wanted that gun before Jean Paul came back. One look in that bastard’s eyes, and Dean knew he wouldn’t hesitate to use it.
Julien, on the other hand, looked less certain. Clearly things weren’t going the way he’d planned. And just as clearly he hadn’t been deceiving Annie about everything—he honestly seemed to care about her. He kept staring at her pleadingly, which Dean was about to use to his advantage.
“Talk to him,” he said under his breath.
She didn’t hesitate or look at him questioningly, understanding immediately where he was going with this.
Apparently she had a few questions ready for her former boyfriend. “How could you deceive me like this, Julien? I thought you cared about me.”
Julien looked so relieved that she was talking to him that Dean almost felt sorry for him. Julien glanced first to Claude,who, unlike Jean Paul, didn’t appear to object to him talking to her.
“I do care about you,” he said. “I thought you felt the same way as I did. That you were passionate enough to want to see things changed and that this was the only way to get them to listen to us.”
“By killing people?” she said incredulously. “You thought I would understand blowing up a ship or think that will get anyone to listen to you? It just makes you a terrorist. You are only turning the oil companies into the victims and alienating anyone who might support you.”
Julien had the gall to look offended. But he’d stood up while she was talking and stepped toward her as he talked. “We weren’t going to kill anyone, were we, Claude?”
The other man hesitated before shaking his head.Interesting.
“Our plan wasn’t to blow up the ship, just the moorings,” Julien explained to Annie. “When the ship broke free, the drill would be destroyed.”
“And what if there was oil in there?” she demanded angrily. “You would be doing exactly what we were fighting to prevent.”
“That’s a lot of explosives to just blow up a few moorings,” Dean interjected dryly.
As he’d hoped, Julien didn’t appreciate his butting in. He took a few more steps toward him and waved the gun at him. Unlike Jean Paul, Julien didn’t seem to have much experience with firearms—which wasn’t necessarily a good thing. He could accidentally shoot.
“Shut up,” Julien said to Dean. “And stay out of it. What the hell do you know?”
“Enough to suspect that you are part of OPF”—Dean had been briefed a while back on Ocean Protection Front and wasn’t surprised when his stab in the dark elicited surprise from Julien—“and that your fearless leader was lying to you and had no intention of targeting just the moorings.” Dean saw something flicker across Claude’s face. “Ask your partner over there.”
“Is this true?” Julien said, turning to Claude.
It was the opening Dean was waiting for. In one harsh move he lifted his hands above his head and pulled them down and apart, snapping the ties with the force of the movement. His feet were even easier as Julien had become flustered by his boots and ended up threading the zip tie in the wrong direction.
Dean was out of practice, but his two opponents weren’t well trained and obviously hadn’t had much experience in Close Quarter Battle (CQB) and hand-to-hand combat.
Dean had both.
Before Julien could spin around, Dean had already used his foot to knock him off balance. Keeping an eye on the hand with the gun the whole time—cognizant that Julien could squeeze the trigger in fear—Dean grabbed Julien’s wrist, holding it firm before snapping his elbow over his knee. The gun fell harmlessly to the floor, and Dean kicked it away from Claude, who was only now reacting.
Julien was moaning—Dean had probably broken his arm—but he shut him up quickly with a sharp blow to the head. Better.
