Page 40 of Corrupted Lies

“P-pay the price?” she repeated, voice wobbling. “That means they knew I'd come here, they wanted me to find the note, to know that I was going to die because of you.” Digging her fingers into his forearms as she clung to him, she couldn’t stop a couple of tears from tumbling free as reality sank in. “That means we’re both going to die.”

Chapter

Ten

October 18th

2:39 A.M.

“We are not going to die,” Jake growled into the night.

That was almost definitely a lie. If the boat had been sabotaged and they couldn’t make it to land then the chances of them surviving were slim, but Alannah was in his arms, trembling and crying, and he had to do something to calm her down.

He should have had the boat checked out more thoroughly. When they arrived, he’d done a quick sweep and not come up with anything. Since he hadn't really expected the men to have done a deep enough dive into Alannah’s life that they would know about the boat, let alone that they would think she might go to it, he hadn't thought he needed to do anything other than a cursory sweep.

Stupid.

It was his job to think up every possible scenario and play them all through.

Because of his mistakes, Alannah really was going to wind up paying the ultimate price.

From the note, it seemed they thought that Alannah would wind up on the boat alone and not with him, because unlike the last note that they’d left in her car, this one was speaking to her and not to him.

But hewasthere.

Which meant maybe they still stood a chance.

At least he hoped they did.

“Alannah, listen to me.” Hardening his voice, pretending that it wasn't his best friend shivering in fear in his arms, he spoke to her like he would anyone else.

The lack of softness and gentleness in his tone seemed to snap her out of her impending meltdown, and she looked up at him. Even in the thin light from the moon and stars spread out above them like a canopy of twinkling diamonds, he could see the raw terror in her eyes.

This was supposed to be a safe place.

She’d gone out there thinking she was eliminating herself as bait to control him and thus his family, and instead she found she was still in the same position she’d been in the previous morning before they set sail.

A worse position in fact.

Because on the ocean they didn't have many options.

“I need you to hold it together,” he said, keeping his tone brisk when all he wanted to do was hold her tight and apologize to her, begging for forgiveness for getting her into this mess.

It was too late to wish he’d maintained his distance, that he hadn't given in to the urge to spend a little time with the best friend who kept him grounded. What was done was done. There was no going back and redoing it, all he could do was deal with the problems set out before him.

“I want you to go and put on warmer clothes, then your life jacket. I'm going to see if I can take a look and figure out what exactly they did to the boat.”

Giving a jerky nod, she went to move out of his arms then hesitated. “I'm scared, grumpy.”

“Me too, sunshine.” Admitting his fear wasn't something he would normally do. Not even with his brothers. He’d been scared in his career in Delta Force and in his career with Prey as part of Charlie Team. He’d also been scared of losing his brothers while each one of them fought for their lives and the women who had claimed their hearts.

But this level of fear was something else.

It was akin to what he’d felt when they were trapped in the basement of Alannah’s gym, and again when he thought he’d lost her in the fire at the park.

This fear was about losing Alannah not losing his own life.

Without her he …

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