And now we’re going to pay.
“Pet, come here.”
She glares at me, but comes over. She stifles a yawn and ducks below the windshield. I point out the weather monitor and she squints at the dark red and green clouds slowly tracking in our direction.
“Is that a storm?”
“It’s a big one and it’s coming fast.”
She stiffens and she glances back at me. “Can we outrun it?”
“No, we can’t. Even at full throttle.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Listen to me. Things are going to get bad. I need you to trust me and do what I say, okay?”
“Emilio—”
“There’s no going back. There’s no outrunning it. There aren’t any islands. This storm is going to hit us and it’s going to hit us hard. If we’re going to get through it, I need you with me. Do you understand?”
She takes a big, unsteady breath and lets it out. In that moment, I’m utterly enamored with her. There’s no fear in her eyes. There’s no hesitation. She only nods once. “I don’t have any other choice.”
“No, pet, you don’t.” I stare grimly at the screen then up at the sky. The stars and moon are invisible, locked behind a wall of black clouds.
Ahead, the sea continues to rock.
Chapter11
Kaye
Emilio has me running around like crazy.
“Secure everything down below. Seriously, I mean everything, all the cabinets, anything that’s not screwed down. The boat’s about to move a lot and you need to make sure nothing’s going to roll around and break.”
“How bad is this going to get?”
“Bad enough. Get your ass moving.” He’s grim as he begins lowering all flags and pennants and carrying anything loose down below.
“Are we going to sink? Can a boat like this sink? I mean, this freaking thing is tiny—”
“It’s not tiny. We’re in a modern, expensive, high-quality ship. We can weather a storm if we’re careful and don’t do anything stupid.”
“I’ve never been on a boat like this before in the open ocean much less in the middle of a storm. What happens if we start going down? Can we get swamped by a wave? Do you have life rafts? Oh my god, are there sharks in this water? Emilio—”
He comes over and grabs my shoulders. The wind’s beginning to pick up and the first drops of rain trickle down my neck like ice. I want to scream and do anything to get off this boat but there’s nowhere else to go. We’re in the black, in the middle of the ocean, and a storm’s about to roll over us like a truck.
“You have to stay calm. Yes, this is going to get nasty, but we’ll be okay. It’ll pass, and when it does we’ll make it to shore. We’ll get a nice hotel, eat room service, spend the night there, and make the trip back after some good, comfortable sleep. How’s that sound?”
I chew on my lip and nod. “That sounds good. Really good.”
“It’ll be a very fancy fucking hotel, I promise. Champagne, lobster, whatever the fuck you want. Now get down below and start putting things away. Anything that moves or can break has to be secured.”
I head below deck. It’s cramped, but nice. There’s a tiny bathroom, a tiny bedroom, a kitchen area, some seating, and a bunch of equipment I can’t name. Emilio isn’t exactly neat and tidy, which means there are boxes all over, and it takes me forever to get everything as fastened down and put away as possible. By the time I’m finished, the boat’s rolling up and down aggressively, and I’m really happy I took that Dramamine before we left.
The rain’s assaulting the deck as I climb up the steps. Emilio’s behind the wheel sitting in the chair with a seatbelt strapped across him. I crawl over, clinging to the deck, and he glares at me. “Stay down below!” he shouts over the sound of thunder. It’s so much worse up here than I pictured. Lightning flashes nearby and I flinch as the explosive roll of electricity ripping across the sky rumbles down my spine.
“I’m finished with all the stuff. What else should I do?”