Page 75 of Forged in Secrets

“Uh-oh,” he said, holding up the screen so Ben could see. He’d expected a paragraph-long, bossy message from Gabe, but what he actually saw was much worse.

“No service,” Ben said, pressing the heel of his palm against his forehead as he let a few swear words escape his lips. He could have acquired a satellite phone, but he hadn’t even considered the possibility that they’d need one. Worrying about Grace was clouding his judgment.

“Well, hopefully we won’t need to talk to Gabe,” Asher said. His tone was jovial, but Ben knew him well enough to sense the anxiety that lingered beneath his unflappable demeanor.

They were going in blind, and if they weren’t careful, things could get dangerous fast.

“Look straight ahead,” Patrick called from the cockpit area of the speedboat, gesturing with one hand.

Ben gazed out across the impossibly blue water. In the distance, he could see several colorful mid-sized fishing boats dotting the Gulf.

“La Pesca beach is close now,” Patrick continued loudly. “Lots of commercial fishermen work here.”

Ben got up from his seat next to Asher and walked closer to where Patrick sat at the controls, gripping the safety bars that lined the edge of the boat. He waited in silence as they continued to draw closer, the sound of the growling motor filling his ears.

They were close, but were they close enough? What if they didn’t make it before Grace got off the boat?

“Ben, yo!” Asher shouted out from behind him. “Check your three o’clock. Is that it?”

Ben squinted at the horizon, trying to figure out what Asher was talking about without having to raise his voice over the noise to ask him.

And then he saw what his brother meant.

“It’s the yacht!” he cried. “Can you go any faster?”

Patrick didn’t say anything, but he felt the grumbling beneath the deck deepening.

For a few minutes, he waited as they motored toward the much larger craft.

“Here’s good!” Asher called out, getting up from his own seat as Patrick eased off of the throttle and stood up.

“Once you get in that water, I’m out of here,” Patrick warned, stretching his arms high over his head. “I’m a security guard, not a cop.”

“Neither are we.”

“I carry a baton.”

Asher paused for a moment, halfway through stuffingtheir pistols into two small waterproof bags. “You know, that’s fair. Thanks for everything, man.”

“Thank you, Patrick,” Ben added quickly, his mind already focused on the task ahead.

“Best of luck,” Patrick said, clapping them both on the shoulder.

Ben forced himself to breathe slowly as he and his twin climbed onto the edge of the boat. Suddenly, the reality of what he was about to do started to sink in. Gabe had been right from the beginning. He was rusty in the field, and now that the moment of truth had come, he was terrified of failure.

If it had been just some client, it would have been easier to fake confidence, but it wasn’t. It was Grace, and failing her wasn’t an option.

“You ready for this, bro?” Asher asked, a grin spreading across his face as he eyed the crystal water spread out before them.

Not even close.

Ben nodded, said a final desperate prayer, and jumped into the blue.

GRACE

The water shushed gently against the boat as Grace waited, the sound only just loud enough to be heard through the thick glass of the porthole. The sun’s reflection was her only clock, and time was passing with impossible slowness.

She no longer bothered to grip the curtain rod in her fist. She had set it against the edge of the desk where she could easily reach it, but as minutes drew into hours, she began to second guess whether she would even try to useit after all.

---