Page 9 of Drowning in Sins
That didn’t mean everyone else felt the same. I saw plenty of wine and whiskey passed around the room. I’m sure it helped some open up, as we spent the next couple of hours getting to know everyone.
There were ten onMaribethfor the expedition. I learned the captain, Kai, owned the ship, and it originally belonged to his father, who retired. Joe was part of his team and was apparently on his father’s crew back in the day. Kai’s brother, Fredrick, was quiet, and based on the stories told, they weren’t close.
Warren and Collin were brothers and owned the research company together. It was a family business, which made sense. They had a younger sister who did the paperwork for my hiring, but she wasn’t part of the expedition. Her husband, Bryan, was here though. He was the only other person SCUBA certified besides me and Tyler.
Tyler and Beth I’d known since our freshman year of school when we instantly hit it off while studying for a Biology 101 midterm. Tyler specialized in Maritime Archaeology like me. Beth was working on getting her doctorate now; she wanted to eventually teach.
The last member of the company was Alice. She specialized in the technology they preferred to use and was a cartographer. She was also the one who had drawn out special maps for us of where we were expected to get started.
As everyone shared stories, I couldn’t help but glance at Frederick. Maybe because he was the strong, silent type, but I couldn’t help myself. His quiet demeanor seemed wrong. He looked dangerous. It was when his eyes flickered to mine that I realized how much trouble I was in.
Hot and dangerous was the only cocktail I couldn’t resist.
Chapter Seven
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Ahand gripped mine and pulled me into the shadows. I didn’t have a proper second to panic. My body was pressed between the wall and hard body, a hand covered my mouth, and then my eyes landed on my beloved. He removed his hand and leaned closer.
“Fuck, have I missed you.” His lips grazed my ear. “Did you miss me?”
“Always,” I whispered back. “We can’t be here. Someone might see us.”
“Maybe it would be better if everyone knew. Then nobody could stop us from being together.” His hands ran down my sides, slowly hiking up my skirts until his rough palms could caress my uncovered legs.
“You’d ruin me.” I swallowed as his lips sucked along my neck. My hand rested on his to keep it from traveling farther up.
He dropped my skirts and stepped back. “All that matters is we’re together. You’d really rather everyone think you’re dead than just following your heart?”
I stepped toward him. “You. Are. My. Heart.” My hands pressed to his chest until he was the one leaning against the wall.“John, you forget I’m the one with the most to lose. It doesn’t stop me from choosing you. I’ll choose you every time. In this lifetime and the next.”
He groaned before reaching his hands out to cup my face and bringing it up to meet his. “I’ll keep you to that.” His lips hovered over mine, brushing with every word. “I’ll choose you and chase you. Across. Time.”
Chapter Eight
FREDERICK
Iwas used to not sleeping well, but it was worse on the water. I was surprised I’d been able to steady my breathing when I walked down the dock. We werestilldocked, but that didn’t stop the nightmares from flooding me. I tossed and turned as memories replayed in my head. The entire reason I’d been avoiding the water—the death of my parents.
The rumors circulated, of course. It was the newspaper that everyone trusted, an accident in the storm. Everyone believed the story that my mother was thrown overboard, and my father jumped in after her. It wasn’t what happened and definitely not what I remember. When it happened, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
It was the last time I was on theMaribeth, the boat named after my mother. Kai and I were whale-watching off the bow. A beautiful day, not a single cloud above, and the perfect time of year to see them. The screams were haunting. My mom yelled something, then shrieked in terror. Then my father screamed. I remember all of it vividly, like how I glanced at Kai, and his panic matched my own. We ran to the stern.
There was a large splash as I reached the back. The railing hit my waist as I leaned over and looked everywhere for any sign of them. My eyes landed on tentacles just below the surface of the water before they disappeared into the dark depths.
Of course, when I told Kai what I’d seen, he didn’t believe me. He was barely behind me; he should’ve seen the same thing I did. Was it because I was leaning over the railing? One step back and I wouldn’t have seen it?
Time seemed to move differently after that, a storm starting to brew directly above us. It wasn’t until everyone was rushing around that I snapped out of it. It came out of nowhere—the storm they claimed took my parents.
I was fifteen. Kai is only two years older than me, but he told me it was my imagination. As if I were a toddler.
“There’s no such thing as sea monsters,”he said.
It’s a rare thing to dream and know you’re dreaming. As if every moment you can learn to control what happens around you. Every time I drifted, I went right back into the nightmare. It was an inescapable form of mental torture. Only, each time it changed a little, and I lost any control. The colors faded until all that replayed was like an old black-and-white movie.
It changed until it was no longer about my parents. The last thing I saw was Rosalyn being pulled under. My brother and I both jumped in after her, only to come up empty each time. Bubbles quickly surrounded us in our search until the only other things around us were tentacles and fins.
I’d given up on sleep after that. The nightmare struck a nerve hard enough to get me up and moving, and I threw on some clothes and went to the kitchen to make coffee. The sun wasn’t even up, but there was someone else in the dining room. I hesitated at the door and watched her.
