Page 45 of Grant’s Blaze

“More importantly, I can’t continue to keep Rio hanging in the dark about all of this. We’ve been working hard with each other. And we made so much progress on our first portion of that trip. Honest to shit, you guys, things were going great.” I took a moment to let the smile spread up from my heart to my face and let my friends see how truly happy I was with this woman. “But then the other night…” I gripped my neck and slid my hand up to rub the back of my head. “Shit.”

“The other night what?” the guys said in tandem.

“Okay, that was just creepy,” I said, giving them the side-eye.

“The two of you do it all the time!” Bas shouted.

Elijah cocked a brow. “Yeah, but our version is cool, man.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Sebastian growled, dropping his chin to his chest. “I’m dealing with grade schoolers.”

“Sorry, man.” I knocked his leg with my foot. “I’ve been so stressed out. You have no idea how good it feels to just cut up today. And for some reason, this dickhead keeps making me lose it.” I pointed at Elijah like everything was his fault.

That earned me another look full of missed impressions from Sebastian, though he was clearly back to business with his typical intensity. “Did you get the impression the people who took you had ties to the other pirates who took over those SE freighters a couple months ago?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” I answered without hesitation.

The corners of his gaze went brutally tight.

Elijah was practically emulating the look.

“What makes you so sure?” Sebastian persisted.

“They underdosed whatever drug they used to keep me compliant. So a lot of times it made me tired but didn’t knock me out. Pretty quickly, I figured that if I played possum, they’d talk freely in front of me. I probably heard a lot more than I would’ve if they knew I was still conscious.”

“Good job, man,” Elijah praised. “That was really smart thinking.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I mean, the first time it happened was a bit of a mistake, but after that, I just went with it and used it to my advantage.”

“Twombley,” Bas bit out. “Will you just spill it? I don’t know why you’re building all this suspense like you’re writing a Helen Hardt novel here. Just fucking tell me what’s going on.”

I readied a good chunk of snark as a comeback but couldn’t go through with it. Bas’s agitation made sense. A shit ton of it. He knew his life was about to get complicated again, and he clearly hated having to accept it. Now he had Abbigail and baby Kaisan to protect too, upping the ante immeasurably on his overall vulnerability.

“On more than one occasion, I overheard these losers talking about the same shipping lane that you brokered the Malaysia deal for. Remember when you went there when you first started dating Abbi? I think you met with the minister of transport.”

“Forgetting that isn’t an option,” he muttered. “As in, ever.”

I reacted with a shaking head more from surprise than argument. “And you say I’m the one with a story to tell?”

“That trip almost ruined everything with Red. Let’s just say that much. I was so lucky she saw the error of her ways. And damn…”

Bas got a far-off look then, and I knew him well enough to know he was remembering something. No. Realizing something. Okay, maybe both.

“What is it?” I finally asked.

“That situation? With Abbigail?” Now his voice was much quieter. Not somber. Focused. Brutally so. “Do you know why she finally heard me out? Gave me a chance to explain myself?”

“Nah, man. Why?”

He couldn’t meet my gaze then, and I had a feeling his answer was going to be a doozy. This answer was the kind that could—and likely would—change things.

“It was Rio,” he explained. “Rio told her to stop trying to control everything all the time. That love doesn’t color inside the lines. Sometimes it’s messy, and that’s what makes it exciting.”

He finally looked me in the eyes then, his blue meeting with my blue. The bottomless oceans of love we felt for these two women reflected back to each other. Finally. God, could I hope that finally our tides would ebb and flow together like they had for most of our lives? Because I missed him. I missed my best friend, and I really needed him right now.

“It was Rio,” he said again, nodding with even more purpose.

I decided to leave it there because we didn’t need to say anything more on the subject. The rest would be up to him as far as how he handled himself with her. She and I both felt like he owed her several apologies, but again, that was on him. Clearing some of the air between us felt so damn good, though.