Page 84 of Under Pressure

He grabbed her arm and yanked her back. “He dropped you like a bad habit, and you want him back?”

Blue struggled to get out of his grasp. “Let me go; you’re hurting me.”

Jonah grabbed her other arm. “I’m the one who loves you. The one who’s been here. The one who didn’t run away.”

Blue stopped struggling. “He didn’t run away. I did.” Sean had joined the Navy without telling her he was going to do it, and she’d retaliated by running away. At the time, it’d just made sense. It seemed like the natural end to what they had. And she still had her past looming. Better to leave than to let him hurt her even more later on or for him to get hurt because of her. “And I won’t let you hurt him.”

This time, Jonah wrapped his arms around her, holding hers pinned to her sides. “You won’t have a choice,Vittoria.” He spat out her old name like the curse it was.

Her eyes about burst from her head. “Why . . . why are you calling me that?”

“I know who you are, and I know who your dad is,” Jonah seethed. “I figured it out when we first met. If you try to stop me from getting this treasure. If you try to leave me. If you do anything but walk down that aisle out there and marry me, I’m calling your little mafia buddies and telling them exactly where to find Ryker and Vittoria Rockefeller. If I don’t get my money one way, I’ll get it in another.”

“Did you just threaten me?” she asked, blinking up at him.

“That’s right, darlin’.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I always hated that nickname.” With a quick upward thrust, Blue slammed her knee into Jonah’s groin. He dropped like a sad sack of potatoes, and while he was down, she reached into his suit pocket and grabbed his cell phone. She’d need it.

She pushed out of the closet and ran right up the aisle into Stroup’s surprised arms. “Run, Stroup,” she yelled as she pulled on him. He stood there, confused, and still not showing any emotion.

The guys stopped talking to stare. Jonah crawled out of the closet, sweating, and red in the face, and pointed his gun at her.Crap, the gun.She should’ve grabbed that too. “Stop her!”

There was no way she’d be able to make it out the back exit now. She pulled away from Stroup and ran for the side door, shucking her coat and running right out of her heels which were seriously impeding her movements. She glanced right and left, looking for the best route of escape. Either way, she’d have to hightail it around the building, and as fast as she was, and she was fast, almost all of those guys could outrun her. Her lacy train whipped up around her just as the side door flew open again, and Jonah and his friends came streaming out after her.

So she took the only real route available to her. Cliffside.

Jonah screamed behind her, waving his gun around. He and his friends rushed after her. She reached down to her train and released the clasps holding it on. The wind caught it and flicked it back and into Jonah and Miles’ faces as she approached the cliff.

Blue didn’t think. Didn’t prepare. Didn’t know how the water would be in this storm at the bottom of the cliff. She knew this could be the death of her, but if it would get her away from Jonah, she was willing to take that chance.

The only reason she’d decided to marry Jonah was because she’d thought he was safe. She was wrong. She’d thought he couldn’t hurt her. At least that part was true emotionally. But now she knew that even though he couldn’t hurt her, he could hurt people she cared about. Her dad and . . . Sean.

Without slowing, without looking back, Blue sprung off the edge of the cliff, arched her back, stretched her fingers towardthe churning waters below, and sent a prayer to God that she’d be able to tell Sean everything before it was too late.

19

Chapter 19

Sean

“Holy crap!” Gray lurched forward just as Blue went off the edge of the lighthouse cliff. Again.

“Sean,” Knox glanced back at him as he went for the orange flag and put it up.

“I saw her,” Sean said, putting the boat in a steep turn. Both Gray and Knox fell to the right into the bench.

Blue wasn’t falling right, the jump wasn’t as clean as the last time he’d seen her make the dive, and his stomach jumped into his throat.

Gray swatted Knox with the back of his hand, then signaled to the flag. “Dude, who do you think is out here in a hurricane?”

Sean kept his gaze on Blue until she hit the water—in a not-quite-perfect arch—and went under. Gunfire exploded with a pop, pop, pop from above. Spraying over the water and the front of Sean’s boat. Sean held the boat straight, and he and the guys ducked.

“Whoa!” Knox yelled. “What’s happening?”

“Gray, take the helm!” Sean yelled.

Gray rushed back to where Sean was just as Sean gulped three swallows of air and jumped right, climbed up on the seat, took a deep breath, and swan-dived off the side of his boat. The water enveloped him like a comforting cold embrace—this was his territory. More bullets hit the water as he searched for her.

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