“You’re never going to let me live it down, are you?”
“Not a chance Evie, not a chance. And beautiful, we’ll both be naked the next time you sing it.”
Chapter Sixteen
Let’s Go Fishing
Sawyer showedup at the marina with several hours to spare. The three of them walked onto the boat I’d rented. “Sit,” I told the two Russians. Sawyer tied their hands and their feet together. This was the moment of truth. Sawyer would show me his loyalty by doing precisely what I’d ask of him tonight. Once I was confident the two were incapacitated, I went to the helm and put the boat in motion. I took us from the Marina to the South River, into the Chesapeake, and then to the North Atlantic.
I turned the engine to the boat off, and Sawyer asked, “So now what?”
“Now, I get the answers I need, or we do some fishing with Russian chum.”
Making my way into the salon, I pulled up a chair and turned it around, straddling it as I sat in front of the two Russians. “Sawyer, take the little guy onto the deck and strap him to the chair.”
My best friend retrieved the gun from the small of his back. Then he cut the rope around the legs of one of the assholes and ushered him to the deck. Making eye contact with the remaining man in front of me, I spoke. “I’m going to ask you a few questions, and you will answer them. If you don’t answer them or I don’t like your answer, I will go outside and cut your friend’s hands off and use them for fishing bait.”
One by one, I removed two hands and two feet from the man strapped to the chair on the deck. Hooking them to a line, I tossed them into the water and locked the pole in place. I put the boat in drive, slowly the appendages drug in the water, enticing the blacktips into a feeding frenzy. At the first tug of the pole, it cut the line. “Sawyer,” I called from above. “Cut him loose and toss him overboard.” Without hesitation, several sharks fought over the Russian remains. Killing the engine, I made my way downstairs.
“You’re next,” I said to the remaining man, sitting wide-eyed at what he’d just watched. “Last chance to tell me who hired you. Was it the man standing on the deck?”
“No,” the Russian spoke. “It was another American man, and he paid Konstantin and Vlad to rough up a girl and offered Mikhail and me some money to protect him when he went to a warehouse to pick up something. Only he never showed back up.” The Russian pointed his finger at Sawyer. “That man showed up instead and told us he came in the other man's place.”
“Now, that is the answer I wanted to hear.” I smiled as I spoke.
“You will let me go then?”
“No, I won’t be letting you go then.” I pulled the knife from inside my jacket and stabbed it directly into his heart. Falling forward, the man landed on the ground. Reaching beneath his arms, I drug him out onto the deck. Pouring the remaining blood from the bucket that held the hands and feet of his partner into the water, I waited for the blacktips to surface. Sawyer helped me toss the body over the side when several fins began swimming in a circle.
“Max,” Sawyer spoke. “You’re one sick motherfucker.”
I couldn’t help but grin at my best friend. “It’s good he cleared your name before I killed him, or I’d have left you to swim back to land.” Tossing a clean bucket at Sawyer, who stood there looking at me in disbelief, I said, “Get some water and help me wash the evidence off this boat.”
“You’d have tossed me overboard?” Sawyer asked.
“In a heartbeat, if I thought you betrayed me.”
Chapter Seventeen
A New Beginning
The lightson my yacht were on when I got back, even though it was two in the morning. I’d expected Evie to be asleep, so I was shocked when it wasn’t dark. I looked everywhere on the top deck but couldn’t find her. Deciding that she must be in one of the two bedrooms, I moved to the lower level. As I suspected, one of the doors was open, signifying I’d found her, so I piqued my head inside.
Evie was dressed in one of my t-shirts, reading a book she’d pulled off my bookshelf. “Oh my God, Max.” She jumped off the bed when she saw me, my shirt falling just enough to cover her private parts. “I couldn’t get through to you. I was scared something had happened. You told me to call you, so I expected you to answer, and you didn’t.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t answer when you called. The cellular service was almost nonexistent, which I hadn’t expected when I told you to contact me so much.”
Evie stepped a little closer to me and wrinkled her nose. “You stink, Max. Have you not bathed in three days?”
“I was headed to the bathroom but wanted to check on you first. Let me wash the stench off, and we can chat about what happens next when I get out.”
“I want to fuck you like an animal,” I sang as I turned to exit the room. I heard the whooshing sound as the book flew through the air and hit me on the back of the head.Smack.Rubbing my skull, I laughed. “Ouch. That was uncalled for,” I called back to her as I walked toward the other room.
The sea water, blood, and sweat filled my clothes, the smell stronger than it was the prior days. I tolerated it long enough to get home, but now I just wanted it off my body. Hell, I’d burn my clothes if I had to. I barely fit in the shower. It was the only downside to this boat. Everything else was perfect. By the time I bumped my elbow the second time on the wall, I’d finally removed the putrid smell I’d been living with. Stepping out of the shower, I opened the bathroom door to find Evie lying sideways on my bed, waiting for me to come out. I hadn’t expected her to be there, so I stood in front of her, naked with my junk swinging in the wind. “Excuse me, did I miss the party invite to my room?”
“Nope,” Evie responded. “I just thought I’d give you the same surprise you gave me.”
I turned, reaching into a drawer to retrieve a pair of boxers, giving her a look at my glorious ass. “I want to feel you from the inside.” I couldn’t help myself. I had to sing it as I slid the black cotton up my legs and over my hips.