Tag: romantic suspense

They hit the water with a muted splash that thankfully wouldn’t be heard over the found of the sirens. If they moved quickly they could probably get far enough away that it would be hard for the cops to find them. The fact that both their boars were still there was a giveaway multiple people had fled the yacht. Black was banking on the cops believing that whoever the other boats belonged to had been slaughtered along with everyone else.

The second their heads broke the surface Emma was spluttering and attempting to yank her arm from his grasp. “Why jump isn’t that the police?” she demanded, sounding equal parts angry and confused.

“Don’t trust them,” he said simply. “Gut says something isn’t right. I always trust my gut.” Completely true, his gut had kept him alive more times than he could count, and he wasn’t going to discount it now.

“That makes zero sense. Let’s just go back there and tell them we don’t know anything, then we can go.” She sounded nervous but he wasn’t sure if it was just that he’d made her jump into the ocean or if it was something else.

“We’re not going back on that boat. And you’re not telling anyone you’re involved in this mess until I have a better idea of what’s going on.”

Call him arrogant, call him controlling, call him crazy if you wanted but he wasn’t doing anything until he knew what he’d unwittingly stumbled onto tonight and neither was Emma.

Rather than argue the point, he simply gripped her bicep in a hold she had no hope of breaking and dragged her along with him as he swam away from the boats.

The little fiery redhead didn’t make it easy on him, she fought him every step of the way, she was just too small to do any good.

He had no idea how long he swam, towing Emma along with him, but eventually he felt content that he’d put enough distance between them and the yacht for now.

Obviously he’d been swimming longer than he’d realised because now that he was stopped he could see the first hints of dawn lightening the sky. He wasn’t the only one who saw it, Emma did too and her entire body went absolutely rigid.

“What have you done?” she whispered, sounding completely horrified. “You’ve just signed my death warrant.”

Fury unlike anything Emma had ever experienced before flooded through her system, decimating the fear.

How dare he.

He knew absolutely nothing about her, about what she’d suffered, what she’d lost. His accusation hit directly on her most sensitive nerve, her greatest pain, and she hated him for it.

Those black eyes of his flickered for a moment, and his grip on her neck loosened. Taking advantage of that she shoved at his chest with all her might, it did little more than hurt her hands, but it obviously amused this man who did the last thing she expected and burst into laughter.

“Are you laughing at me?” she demanded, still riding her high of anger. It would fade soon enough, when this huge man decided he was ready to kill her.

“You’re adorable,” he said as a response and released his hold on her, stepping back and lowering his weapon.

Guess she was no longer a suspect in his mind. Emma couldn’t say the same for herself. He’d shown up here with a weapon, threatened her, left her with bruises she was sure. He had what it took to kill whoever had been on board the boat.

“But you don’t have what it takes to take lives. You didn’t do this. Did you answer the distress call, Emma?”

While he seemed inclined to move on as though he hadn’t hurt her, terrified her, she wasn’t so inclined to forgive and forget. Still she couldn’t not answer, that would be rude.

“Yes. Did you?”

“Yeah. I didn’t see anything when I was approaching, but you got here first. Did you see anything?”

“Just a boat leaving, I thought it was odd, wanted to check everything was okay, so I came on board anyway. S-saw the b-blood …” An image she would never forget. It was seared into her mind now along with all the other times she’d seen blood drenched floors.

“Hey.” The big man stepped closer, grasped her chin, only this time his touch was incredibly gentle and there was not a spark of fury in his black eyes. “You’ll be okay, you’re tough.”

That surprised a laugh out of her. “How would you know? You don’t know me.”

“You hit me. Granted it didn’t achieve anything, but even though you were scared you fought back. You’re a fighter, thats all I need to know.”

Unsure what to make of his statement, said so confidently, Emma said nothing. Then all of a sudden there are lights and sirens surrounding them.

While she interpreted that as a sign the cavalry had shown up, the man obviously did not. Grabbing her hand he dragged her along with him out into the cold night.

“Hope you can swim,” was all he said before he picked her up and jumped off the side of the yacht with her in his arms.

She felt so small beneath his hand, fragile, her delicate bones would be so easily crushed.

If she was involved with whatever happened on this boat tonight, he’d break those bones himself. Didn’t matter to him. Nothing mattered to him anymore.

Having everything you loved ripped away from you would do that to a man.

Easing off her throat when he saw her eyes begin to bulge he growled again. “What did you do?”

Pure terror shone from the grey eyes that stared back at him. Dark red hair hung around a pretty face that was currently much too pale, fear having sapped any color that was usually in her cheeks or plump lips.

“What. Did. You. Do?” he demanded again when she still didn’t speak.

“W-was it y-you?” she stammered.

“Was what me?”

“Th-the b-blood.” Her face took on a green tint as she mentioned the blood as though the thought of it made her nauseous.

Black loosened the hand on her neck further, suddenly uncertain that this woman was involved in what looked like a massacre by the amount of blood. Could she have answered the distress call as well?

Letting his guard down was a surefire way to getting himself killed. Sure the woman looked all sweet and kissable, she had perfect curves, and a heart shaped face, she was the kind of woman men dreamed about but that didn’t make her innocent.

As he’d searched the boat he’d seen toys scattered about. Children had been on here, had likely been killed along with everyone else.

“What’s your name?”

“E-Emma.”

“Are you the kind of woman who kills innocent babies, Emma?”

Emma stiffened her backbone and snarled at him. “I don’t hurt babies, you jerk. You’re the one with a weapon, maybe you killed them all.”

This was going to wind up being the worst mistake of her life.

If she lived through it.

Emma wasn’t so sure she would.

Someone was out there, and she was sure they were heading right towards her hiding place.

Her fear was confirmed when the top of the seat concealing her from view was suddenly ripped off and she was left staring into the barrel of a weapon and a very angry face.

Despite her terror the first thing she noticed about the man was that he was handsome. Model level handsome. Like the kind of face that filled women’s dreams. There wasn’t a single thing wrong with it. Except maybe the eyes. They were so black you couldn’t distinguish the iris from the pupil.

“Who are you?” the man snarled. For a second his expression flitted to a scared eyes looked up at me one, but it was quickly gone and suspicion and fury were all that were left.

This was a dangerous man. Emma knew that without a shadow of a doubt. Was he one of them? One of the men who had killed whoever had been on the boat?

She’d answered the distress call when it had gone out. By the time she’d arrived a second boat had been driving away from this one. Confused and wondering if the problem had been a simple one that someone else had already fixed she’d approached and come on board anyway, wanting to be sure these people were okay before resuming her evening on the ocean.

But then she’d seen the blood, heard the roar of an approaching engine and terrified that whoever had killed the owners of this yacht had returned she’d hidden.

“Answer me,” the man holding a gun on her ordered, but she was so scared she couldn’t have spoken no matter what he did. “Did you do this? Did you slaughter them?”

When she still couldn’t make her voice work he growled, an actually growled, and reached towards her. His large hand tangled in her hair, making her scalp burn as he dragged her out of her hiding place. Too terrified to fight back, not that she knew any self defence moves anyway, he yanked her hands behind her back, bound them with something hard and unyielding, then shoved her up against the wall, one hand wrapped around her throat, the other holding his weapon against her temple.

“Tell me what you did.”

Black relaxed as the last rays of sunlight disappeared and night fully took hold.

Iy had been a lovely day, clear blue skies, sunshine, birds singing, butterflies flitting, warm but not too hot. The kind of day people went all soft and gooey over.

But not him.

He hated the summer. With a vengeance. Couldn’t wait for it to hurry up and get gone for another year. Give him a freezing cold, dark, overcast, snowy day and he was a happy camper. But summer and sunshine and heat, it hurt his black little heart.

Like most things in life, summer had to be endured, and so he did so without complaint. Okay, that was a lie. He complained. A lot. All summer long. But in the end he still what he needed to do even if all he wanted to do was hide out in his house with he lights off until winter returned.

At least with the sun down, the dark sky spread out above him like a beautiful black canvas dotted with millions of twinkling stars, Black could pretend that it wasn’t his least favourite time of the year. With the wind in his hair he steered his yacht towards the boat that had let out a distress signal.

Usually it wasn’t in his nature to go out of his way to help others. Black was focused to the point of obsession on any goal he set himself, and this time out here on his yacht at night was supposed to be his own, his time to unwind, declutter his mind, prepare for the next day. But rules of the sea said you answered the call. So he was. Reluctantly.

All was quiet when he approached the other vessel. It was dark, no lights on, no sounds, no person awaiting help.

Nothing.

Unease prickled across his skin. Something wasn’t right. While he wanted to turn, drive off, pretend he’d never heard the call, Black found that he couldn’t.

Something was drawing him towards the boat.

So he pulled up alongside the vessel, a slightly larger yacht than his own, and boarded. Even now as he walked about there was nothing, not a single sound, not a single sign of life.

Then he saw it.

The blood.

Everywhere.

Like a massacre had occurred.

Pulling out his weapon, he moved methodically through the yacht, searching for anything that might tell him what had gone on here. He should leave, call in the cops, let them deal with it.

He almost did, but then he sensed it.

A person.

Close by.

There. His gaze zeroed in on a small space under a seat was what looked like a storage compartment. It was just big enough to hide a person.

Weapon trained on the space, he reached out with one hand and ripped off the top of the seat.