“Get off me,” I said when most of the debris had finished pelting us.
Knox moved, letting me stand.
I brushed off my shorts and checked my camera. The lens looked okay, but I’d have to test it. A column of smoke spiraled into the sky, thick and black against the bright blue sky.
“What happened?” I asked, not expecting an answer since we all had the same amount of information.
Calder coughed. “Rex blew up the Maribel at the end of the marina.”
“What?”
3
*KNOX*
Emerson stared down the dock, her face red and her eyes filling with… tears. Was she fond of the Maribel? Fire crackled its way into the sky as the boat burned. Somewhere in the distance, sirens blared awake.
She tried to walk that way, but I grabbed her arm, stopping her. We didn’t know what was down there or if the dock was unstable. “Hold up.”
People often had attachments to boats, but from the way she jerked on my arm, you’d think Emerson planned to jump in the water and save the wreckage herself. Someone shouted, maybe Calder, but still she tried to pull away. “That’s my boat!”
“The Maribel is yours?” I brought her to my chest, clutching her close. Her lavender perfume was barely noticeable with the increasing smell of smoke.
“Yes!” She jerked again. “Someone has to save it.”
I held firm. “Babe, no one is saving that vessel.”
My words broke her, and then she broke my heart. “My life is on that boat. All my research. Everything I’ve worked for.”
The boat groaned and flipped to its side, settling in the water crookedly. Smoke poured from the shell as even the fire seemedto die out slowly. Whatever she had in there burned quickly. The ropes pulled against the dock as if trying to escape.
“It’s not worth it, Emerson,” I said as she tried to pull away again.
She curled around and shoved her face against my chest, her sobs coming freely. Ash from the fire drifted across the marina, landing in her hair and on the dock at our feet.
Just a moment ago, Emerson’s life’s work had been bobbing in the water, but now a burned, sinking silhouette slowly sank against the layers of clouds behind it.
Things just got real.
Calder was right to call me, and as Emerson cried into my chest, I silently vowed to find the asshole who did this and make him pay.
“Are we sure it was the Maribel?” she asked when she finally lifted her head from me.
Calder patted her on the back as the fire crews worked on the boat. “The chief thinks it was a small device. Probably set on a timer.”
She pushed herself against me again, and I wrapped my arm around her. Emerson was mine now, and no one touches what’s mine.
“We’re getting out of here,” I said to Calder as I took a step to the side and moved Emerson with me.
He smiled at me in that knowing way that always annoyed me when we were on the field together. “Thought you would when the time came.”
I ignored his comments. This wasn’t about him. I was here to take care of Emerson, and that’s what I’d do.
For one week.
And one week only.
Then it was back to Alaska.
