Page 88 of Corrupted Lies

They were partners, a team, she should be there with him.

Alannah believed that even as she knew there was nothing she could contribute right now. She’d be a liability to Jake, splitting his focus and putting him in danger. This might be what he needed her to do, but that didn't mean she liked it.

Jumping back into the water was the last thing she wanted to do. In fact, Alannah would be perfectly happy to never go back in the ocean again for as long as she lived. But if Jake thought that was where she’d be safest so he didn't worry about her, that was what she would do.

Running to the closest railing, she was just lifting her foot over it when she heard footsteps.

Before she could even turn around, she heard a soft whooshing sound, like someone was throwing liquid. For a second, she wondered if she was imagining that the sound wascoming from behind her and was in fact nothing more than the sounds of the ocean below her.

Then something sloshed all over her.

Drenching her.

Only it wasn't water.

It felt thicker and the smell …

She would swear that it was gasoline she’d just been covered in.

Desperate to get the potentially dangerous liquid off her, Alannah was going to throw herself over the edge and into the water, when whoever had thrown the gas at her spoke.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you,” fire man said, and she heard the slight click of the lighter. “You might survive, but the fire mixing with the gasoline would still do tremendous damage in the seconds it would take you to fall and hit the water.”

Those seconds might be barely a couple, but he was right. The flames would still eat at her skin, and by the time she hit the water and hopefully doused them out, they would leave lasting damage.

“Turn around. Don’t be stupid,” fire man ordered, and since she didn't see that she had another option, it would be too big a risk to try jumping and hope for the best when she could feel how close behind her he was, she did as she was told.

Right as she faced him, gunshots echoed from below deck.

Perfect.

Jake was taking out more of fire man’s men right this very second. There had been four in that room, and another five dead before that, which meant only one more of them was up here somewhere.

Not somewhere.

There.

Running toward them.

“Kill him,” fire man ordered, and with a nod, the man took off for the stairs she’d just come up. “I don’t know how he did it, but even if your boyfriend kills him and survives, you won't, my dear.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” she whispered automatically, the smell of the gasoline on her clothes, hair, and skin making her feel a little dizzy.

“Don’t lie, dear. I see how he looks at you.”

It was stupid to be taking relationship advice from a man who had clearly lost his mind when he lost the woman he loved, but she was doing it anyway. “How does he look at me?”

“The same way I looked at Wendy. Like she was the sun of my world, like everything revolved around her, like I couldn’t live without her. I’m glad I'm going to go out the same way she did, burned alive.”

With that, he lifted the plastic container sitting on the deck beside him and doused himself with the remaining gas. She tried to dodge around him, but he was too quick. His arm snapped out to wrap around her neck, pulling her up against his body, the lighter still in his other hand.

Maybe he was glad to be burned alive, she guessed as self-imposed punishment for not saving his love, but she certainly didn't want to die this way. Nor did she want her screams as the flames consumed her to be the last memory Jake would have of her.

Jake was at the top of the stairs, firing shots at the remaining man, who dropped while he stayed standing. Firing a few more shots into the body on the deck, Jake jumped over it, and she knew the exact second he saw her.

The horror on his face as he took in the situation had her heart sinking.

Jake knew there was no way to save her.

---