Deeper Than The Ocean by Julie Ann Walker

 

 

Chapter 32

 

12:23 AM…

 

Wolf, no!

Chrissy had managed to push herself up in the backseat of the car just in time to see Wolf spin like a top. She couldn’t be sure, the light was too dim and the windows in the car were tinted, but she thought she saw blood spray.

“You motherfucker!” she screamed when the Goliath jumped into the driver’s seat. But thanks to the bandanna he’d tied around her mouth, the words sounded more like oo-muh-ah-uck-ah!

While keeping her pinned to the mattress, the masked giant had ripped off the sling and wrenched her arms behind her back to secure her wrists. But the pain pounding in her shoulder was the least of her worries. Foremost on her mind was Wolf.

Was he alive?

Where had he been hit?

Secondly, she needed to do everything she could to get away from her assailant. Those true crime podcasts always said a woman should fight like hell before allowing herself to be taken to a secondary location.

She glanced at the car door, thinking she could open it even with her hands tied behind her back and then fling herself out of the speeding vehicle. Sure, the road rash would be epic, but better some flayed skin than…well, whatever Goliath had in mind for her. But the door handle was completely covered by duct tape. So were the window controls.

Her abductor had thought ahead.

Which means this isn’t his first rodeo.

The thought made bile climb into the back of her throat.

Thinking fast, she decided her feet were her only weapons and she employed them by kicking the back of Goliath’s seat in such rapid succession her leg muscles burned.

“Cut it out, you crazy cunt!” Goliath took a corner on what felt like two wheels and Chrissy was thrown across the backseat. Her injured shoulder slammed into the door and white-hot agony made stars blink in front of her eyes.

Before she could catch her breath, he fishtailed around another corner and she was afflicted by carsickness on top of the pain, fear, and worry she was already dealing with.

I hope I puke on him,she thought. But then the car skidded to a stop and Goliath jumped out, slamming the door behind him.

Oh, no! She took a quick look through the front windshield. We’re at the marina!

Her chances of escape went to zero if he got her onto a boat and—

When the backdoor opened, she instinctively kicked out at the big, meaty hands that reached for her.

“Oomph!” Goliath grunted when she landed another blow to his thigh even though she’d been aiming for his balls.

He manacled one of her ankles in an iron grasp and wrenched her toward him until she was flat on her back in the backseat. A second later, she was gasping for air from the pain in her shoulder and from the suffocating weight of him as he stretched his substantial bulk atop her.

“I like that you’re a fighter.” His breath was rancid as it puffed hot against her face. “It’s so much more fun for me.” As if to prove his point, he humped his hips against her pelvis and she could feel he was hard.

Every inch of her flesh tried to crawl off her body. Every follicle on her head tried to eject its hair.

“Fuck you!” she snarled around the bandanna.

The lethal rage she knew was in her eyes was the polar opposite of the prurient gleam shining in his. Even with his features covered by the ski mask, she was convinced she was looking into the face of pure evil.

“That’s the plan.” He smirked. “Not right this second. But soon.”

Before she could blink, he hoisted himself off her and dragged her out of the car. She’d barely caught her breath before he tossed her over his shoulder like she weighed little more than a scuba tank.

She wanted to scratch and punch, but with her hands tied behind her back they were useless. She wanted to bite and shout obscenities, but the bandanna made that impossible too. All she could do was kick and wiggle, which she did. As hard as she could.

All to no avail.

Goliath was brutishly strong, and her efforts did little to slow him as he trotted down the stairs to the dock and hurriedly made his way along the weathered wooden boards. All the blood rushed to her head, and she was acutely aware of her bare ass pointing in the air.

The smells of marine fuel and open water were overpowered by his cheap cologne. His heavy breaths muted the sound of the clanking riggings on the surrounding ships and the music coming from the nearby bars. Every step he took had her terror mounting.

“Mmmm! Mmmm!” she screamed around the bandanna, hoping to get the attention of someone who might still be on their boat.

The fishermen had long since packed up their gear and gone home. Same for the day sailors. But those folks who lived on their yachts and sailboats? Where the hell were they?

“Shut up!” Goliath smacked her butt so hard she could feel the stinging imprint his hand left behind.

My guardian angel is drunk! she thought hysterically. How many times in a twenty-four hour period have I nearly died and—

The sound of screeching tires had her lifting her chin. It was hard to focus. Goliath’s rough gate made her head bounce. But she saw Parsons’s truck slide to a stop near the top of the stairs leading down to the docks.

The driver’s side door burst open, but it wasn’t the policeman who hopped out. It was Wolf.

Wolf!

Her heart leapt with joy.

She could’ve sworn she saw him get shot, but maybe not. And it occurred to her that her guardian angel wasn’t drunk, because Wolf was her guardian angel. The one who was always there when she needed him. The one who always managed to save her in the nick of time.

Naked from the waist up, he looked every inch the Navy SEAL as he took the stairs two at a time, his bare feet thudding against the wooden boards of the dock when he jumped the last few feet. His bare chest caught the glow of the moon, and his eyes were black fire as he sprinted toward her, his weapon raised and at the ready.

“Stop!” his deep, resonant voice echoed across the marina. “Or I swear to Christ I’ll put one in your leg!”

Goliath spun around and Chrissy felt like she was on a carnival ride. The kind that goes in circles and inevitably makes some kid puke up his corndog and candy apple. Then Goliath dropped her to her feet.

She turned to run in Wolf’s direction but hadn’t managed one step before her attacker snaked a sweaty arm around her throat. A heartbeat later, she felt a circle of warm metal kiss her temple.

“Stay where you are!” Her assailant’s voice was as loud as a foghorn in her ear as he used her as a human shield. “Or she gets one in the brainpan!”

Any other time she would’ve been mortified to be standing in the raw out in the open. But with her life dangling by a thread, she didn’t much care that her boobs and butt were being kissed by the warm sea breeze. In fact, if she was about to shuffle off her mortal coil, she could think of plenty of sensations that were far, far worse.

“The jig is up!” Wolf barked. “Your greasy partner is caught and cuffed and probably throwin’ you under the bus to the cops as we speak! So let the woman go! Don’t add her death to your rap sheet!”

Wolf stepped into a circle of light from a lamppost and Chrissy saw two things at once. The first was that his lips looked colorless. The second was that blood dripped down his flank to stain his jeans.

He had been shot! But how bad?

She couldn’t tell and—

A harsh laugh from behind her interrupted her thoughts. “Just ’cause you got Ricky, that don’t mean you’ll get me! Plenty of islands around here I can disappear on.”

Goliath was right. Key West wasn’t known as the “end of the road” simply because it was, quite literally, the end of Highway 1. It also got its nickname because plenty of folks had come down and then simply…vanished.

With how close the place was to Cuba and the other islands of the Caribbean, if someone was of a mind to, they could sail off into the sunset, never to be seen again.

Fear clawed its way into her throat and combined with the arm around her neck to make breathing impossible. Her lungs burned from lack of air. Her heart hammered with the effort of trying to oxygenate her blood. But then Wolf’s steely gaze crossed the distance separating them and locked with hers.

Did he dip his chin?

Yes! Yes he did! And she was instantly reminded of a story he’d told her.

It was about how an “unfriendly”—that was the word he’d used to describe an enemy combatant—had managed to catch Doc unawares and had tried to use the big Montanan as a human shield. Doc had simply gone boneless and dropped to his knees, which had allowed Wolf the opportunity to take out their enemy.

Chrissy’s heart beat more rapidly than the fluttering fins of a seahorse, but she winked to let Wolf know she’d received his message and understood what was required of her.

Every muscle in her body was tight with adrenaline, but she willed her legs to loosen. Just like that, her entire body weight was pressing against Goliath’s forearm and it was too much for the behemoth.

Thank you chicken wings and ranch dressing! she thought crazily as she slipped from Goliath’s grasp.

Boom! The sound of Wolf’s pistol cut through the night like a thunderbolt before her knees even hit the rough boards.

“Oomph!” Goliath grunted and Chrissy turned in time to see the gun slip from his hand. He bent to grab it, but she was quicker. She kicked it over the edge of the dock and smiled around the bandanna when she heard it splash into the water.

“Bitch!” Goliath hissed, pressing a hand to the gunshot wound in his flank before turning to run.

Boom!

Another shot rang out over the marina and Chrissy watched Goliath jerk, stumble, and sprawl face-first onto the dock. She didn’t have time to check to see if he was dead. Wolf was there, gathering her up in his arms.

She desperately wanted to luxuriate in the warmth of this skin, but she couldn’t feel a thing. Her whole body was numb with shock.

With gentle movements, Wolf pulled the bandanna out of her mouth and slid it down over her chin. Her mouth was dry from the material, but she managed to rasp, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he assured her, sliding a knife from his back pocket and neatly slicing through the zip-tie cruelly pinning her wrists together. She realized her hands had gone to sleep when her fingers were instantly plagued by pins and needles.

“Where are you hit?” she demanded, and he lifted his arm to show her the bloody gouge cutting through the thick part of his shoulder and marring the black tribal tattoo inked over his skin.

Relief had her own shoulders sagging. She instantly regretted the move when her injury screamed its displeasure at having been abused.

Wolf was a mind reader. He fingered the edge of the bandage over her wound. “Are you okay?”

She nodded and opened her mouth to tell him she was when the sound of Goliath’s groaning interrupted her.

“You shot me in the back!” the man howled, flopping onto his side. His girth caused the entire dock to tremble.

“That’s what you get for runnin’.” Wolf’s voice was completely devoid of sympathy. “You’re lucky I didn’t make it a kill shot. But I figured death was too good for you. A lifetime behind bars feels far more fittin’.”

As if on cue, the sound of sirens wailed in the distance.

“Now where were we?” Wolf returned his attention to Chrissy, his gaze raking over her face.

“Talking about our wounds.” She wouldn’t have thought it was possible at a time like this, but she was smiling. “And on that note”—she gently traced the scar along his temple—“I would consider it a huge favor to me if you would stop getting shot.”

His lips twitched. “I will if you will.”

“Deal,” she whispered.

Then he kissed her and the terrible, awful, horrible night was okay again.