* * *
“That’s it!” I point to the boat on the horizon as I lower the pair of binoculars in my hands, having finally found it. “That’s the Stella Marissa.”
I’ve got you, Marissa.
“Brandon is there,” Janine says, standing beside me. “I think so.”
“I can feel it. He’s so close.”
“Me too.” I grab Janine’s hand. “Let’s go get him back.”
We idle alongside the yacht and board it via a gangway extended between our two boats. I’m sure they can see us, if Marissa is on this boat and if she really did kidnap Brandon. She must be watching the horizon like a hawk.
The alarm sounds.
Fuck.
I manage to pull Janine on to the boat but, moments later, I hear Marissa’s voice right behind us.
“Darling, we have guests.” I whirl to find her and her husband emerging from below deck, Leon with a trembling gun trained directly onto my chest. Marissa beams at us from behind his shoulder, and it looks as if he’s her puppet. “Really, you didn’t have to come all this way. Especially you, Dash. You could have just called.”
“We’ve been expecting you,” Leon says. “Now drop your weapons.”
I lower my gun and raise my hands, still thinking only of Brandon, even with this asshole pointing his gun at me.
“Where’s my boy?” I ask, voice firm as stone.
“Where’s our baby?” Janine echoes much more shakily, her hands raised alongside mine.
“Oh, he’s fine,” Marissa says. Then she grins. “I would never hurt our precious baby boy, Dash.”
I glare at her. “You’re out of your goddamn—”
“Uh-uh.” Leon waves his gun back and forth to silence me. “We’re the ones who’ll do the talking, I think.”
I look at Marissa. She’ll talk to me. She never could resist me. “What do you want, Marissa?”
“I want what every young mother wants, Dash.” Marissa smiles up at me like a coquette, completely unaware of the fact that she is not a young mother. “Daddy’s head on a stick.”
“Leon,” Janine implores Marissa’s husband. “Please… She’s crazy. Don’t do this.”
Marissa giggles, and Leon shrugs. “I have a happy wife. If my Marissa says that that baby is hers, then that baby is hers. You two are the ones who stole it.”
“Aww.” Marissa smiles at him dreamily. “That’s sweet.” “You’re both sick,” I realize.
“Shut the fuck up, pretty boy!” Leon crowds closer to me. “You don’t know how much I’ve been wanting to shoot you. I would if I could.”
“Doubt you could,” I sneer at him. “You don’t have the balls.”
He moves closer, just as I want him to. He nudges my sternum with the barrel of the gun.
“Please,” Janine begs Leon tearfully. “Please don’t.”
Leon’s eyes flick to Janine and he swallows, but then his eyes narrow and he addresses her. “I want you to shut—”
I swing my leg, sweeping both of his out from under him. The gun clatters to the deck. I climb on top of him and punch him. To my surprise, he punches me back, squarely in the jaw. I’m stunned and my stance loosens just a fraction. Leon kicks me off him.
“Dash!” Janine screams.
Leon shambles back on his feet, lip bleeding now. “You’re not the only one who knows how to fight, pretty boy.”
He tries to punch me again, but he’s been exhausted by this assault. I dodge easily, landing my own shot deep into his stomach and sending him reeling back.
Leon collapses back, gasping for breath, his gun close to his head on the floor.
It’s supposed to be a winning move, but Leon goes for the gun. I dive toward my own firearm and feel the sudden hot sting of a bullet sink into my shoulder.
“Dash!” Janine and Marissa scream.
Yes, I’ve been fucking shot. But that doesn’t change anything. My son is still somewhere on this boat.
As Leon splutters at me, my fingers wrap around my gun and squeeze the trigger. A loud crack echoes into the sky over the Atlantic and Leon’s gun flashes away from his hand, skittering across the deck and far from his reach. But it doesn’t matter. His firing hand is crippled as he tumbles to the ground, cupping it in his other hand, sobbing like a woman.
I move over to him and swipe him hard, just once, across the face with my knuckles. He crumbles unconscious easily, and I glower down at his weakness.
I know his type. He’s only here because of his wife. She’s been propping him up the whole way, filling him with steam like a hot air balloon, but one rip was all it took to deflate him. Two rips, if you count my fist.
“No!” Marissa screams as she falls on her knees.
Janine rushes deeper onto the boat as soon as Leon is disabled, dodging around crumbled Marissa easily. I stride behind her to point my gun at Marissa.
She puts her hands up, showing me her palms as she cries. “I don’t know how I got here,” she moans, possibly to herself.
“You kidnapped my son,” I remind her.
“Remember how you said that you thought I was better?” She places her hands on her chest and nods, eyes shimmering. She doesn’t seem to fear the gun at all, and I suppose it’s because she knows I’m not going to fire it as long as she’s in the defensive position. “I did get better,” she goes on, drawing in a deep breath to steady herself. “But then you came back to town… and all my progress just disappeared.” She shakes her head at herself and whispers, “Maybe everything will be okay.”
I keep my gun pointed at her, unflinching. “Probably not for you.” She kidnapped my son. It’s difficult for me to feel anything but hate for her now.
Marissa dissolves into deep sobs on the floor, and I turn around at the sound of Janine’s approaching footfalls on the deck.
“Dash!” she cries, her eyes wide as she rushes to me, still without Brandon. “I can’t open the door!”
“Oh, fuck.” I place a hand on my head and massage my sorely exercised brow muscle. “It’s the security system.”
“Can you disable it?”
“I’ll try,” I tell her. “Tie these two up.”
Janine goes for a coil of rope on a bench. I tuck the gun into my pants as I hunt for the mainframe of the security system, which is certainly in the cockpit.
I’m tapping through all the override codes, the screens flashing from red to green, red to green, until I hear Janine call my name. I was so deep in that monitor, I almost forgot everything around me, solely focused on springing the last lock on the last door on this damn yacht.
“Yeah?” I call back down to her.
As soon as I see her, a crushing weight is alleviated from my chest. She’s holding Brandon in her arms. Her face is streaked in tears, her mouth wide in a smile. “I got him, baby! I got him!”
She’s at a distance, but Brandon looks okay. He’s clinging to Janice’s neck and crying, but she’s crying too. Before she can make it to me, she slows her pace and bows to her knees, cradling him and weeping with gratitude. My heart aches at the sight. I should never have let Marissa back into our lives, even for one second. I knew when she looked at me in that hotel restaurant that she still wasn’t right in the head.
I stride to them, my own heart overflowing with joy—to see Brandon again, and to see Janine happy again—I bow and wrap my arms around them both. Tears snake from my eyes as well. I can’t hold them back.
Janine twists to press her body against mine, and now we both hold Brandon as one, as if we’re one entity. And, in so many ways, we are. “Oh, Dash, he’s okay!” she cries against my chest.
“He looks fine.” I press a kiss to my son’s forehead. “Everything’s alright.”
Janine sniffles against my chest and I plant a soulful kiss into her hair.
Our worst nightmare is over.