Page 38 of Corrupted Lies

There were a lot of little islands dotted off the coast and she thought they might slowly make their way around them, spend the odd day on shore before setting off somewhere else. It was safer to keep on the move most of the time just in case anyone was looking for her.

Not that she thought they would be.

Well, not out there at least.

Climbing out of bed, she didn't bother to put on any shoes as she padded quietly through the living room, careful not to make a sound and disturb Jake.

Something was going on with him, he’d seemed … different, last night.

Not necessarily in a bad way. After knowing Jake for so long, growing up together, she knew him better than most people did. Maybe even better than Jax and his stepbrothers. She knew him in a different way, and she knew he had a lot of unresolvedfeelings leftover from his childhood and no outlet for them. Both his parents were gone, so it wasn't like he could yell at them for dying and leaving him, and the rest of his family he’d gone no contact with after his dad’s death.

He and Jax had stayed with the Charleston kids’ grandparents, and she knew it had hurt Jake further that his biological family hadn't had a problem with allowing people they didn't know to take over raising their relatives. Even though staying with his stepbrothers was what he’d wanted, it still hurt when family didn't fight for you.

She knew from firsthand experience.

Right now, Jake had something on his mind, something that was worrying him, and she hoped that soon he’d feel comfortable talking to her about it.

Making her way up the steps, she drank in a deep breath of the clean, fresh air and tipped her head up to take in the stars.

There was something different about the stars out there. It wasn't like at home when you looked up to see a few stars dotted about, there was too much light pollution to see them in all their glorious majesty.

But out there …

It was breathtaking.

The sky was literally filled to the brim with twinkling little lights. They looked so bright and happy, and they immediately put her at ease.

As much as she adored watching sunrises and sunsets on the water, there was something equally as magical about the night sky.

Feeling like the whole world was finally smiling down on her for once, she was halfway to the cockpit when the boat suddenly gave a violent shudder.

It was so strong, in fact, that it knocked her down to her knees.

What the heck was that?

Scrambling back to her feet, Alannah hurried over to the edge of the boat to look out across the ocean, wondering if it had perhaps been a freak wave.

It hadn't felt like one, though.

And when she looked over the sea, she saw it was almost completely calm.

If it hadn't been a wave knocking the yacht about then what was it? It had felt like it was the boat itself shuddering, independently of the water in which it sat.

But what would make the boat shake like that?

She was almost wondering if she’d imagined the whole thing, that seemed a more logical conclusion than anything else her imagination could conjure up, when the boat suddenly shook again, this time almost sending her flying over the railing and into the water.

Something was wrong.

She had no idea what, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that the boat had a problem. One she wasn't sure she would know how to fix. Just because she knew how to drive her boat didn't mean that she knew anything about the mechanics of how it worked.

Still, she had to do something.

As she was running toward the cockpit, she heard Jake shout her name.

“Over here,” she called back as she began checking over the controls.

“What the hell was that?” Jake asked as he ran up behind her.

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