“What did you do to Finn? Where is he? If you’ve hurt him…”
The man didn’t hesitate, striding towards me and forcing the barrel of the gun to the centre of my forehead. My mouth fell open, but no sound came out, but Jasper’s gasp was loud and filled the room.
“You’ll what, pretty boy?” He laughed, and it sounded cold and malicious. “I think you’ll find the hand you’ve been dealt is pretty crappy right now, and I’m playing to win. Don’t push me because I will use this.” Then he eased back and twisted slightly, pointing the gun at Jas. Jasper’s eyes widened, and his hands shot up in the air. “But I think you’ll probably play ball more easily if I threaten Loverboy here. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes, yes. Fine, whatever you want, just don’t hurt him,” I stuttered, letting out a sigh of relief when he lowered his gun with a chuckle.
“Follow me and don’t try anything stupid because I will shoot him. And FYI, in case you think I’m bluffing, your other little friend. Fish food.”
My hand flew to my mouth as bile burned my throat, and the enormity of his words hit me like a punch to the gut.
“You killed him?” Jasper whispered from behind me, his pain obvious in the way his voice cracked when he spoke.
The man threw the gun to his friend as he started walking; the now gun-wielding one bringing up the rear as we all moved through the boat.
I couldn’t believe how matter-of-factly he delivered his next words. “He probably wasn’t dead when we threw him overboard, but he will be now.”
I wasn’t sure if we’d make it out of this alive or how long we had left to live, but I knew that I’d never forget the sound Jasper made for as long as I lived.
THIRTY-NINE
JASPER
Travisand I stood to the side watching as these two masked men bagged up whatever they could find and carry from the equipment room. The rain hammered outside, and the boat swayed, the waves getting more violent as a storm rolled in. I didn’t think about the changing weather or how much danger we were in, because all I could think about was Finn.
“He can’t swim,” I whispered. “He’ll be so scared. I promised to look after him.”
A tear rolled down my cheek, but Travis turned to me, his face hard.
“Please, Jas. Don’t fall apart. Not yet. I need you thinking. I need you focused.”
His voice was barely audible as he leant in close to my ear.
“Shut up. No talking,” the man with the gun yelled, pulling it out from his waistband as if to prove he still had it and was still willing to use it on us.
“This one’s too heavy to lift,” the other man muttered as he tried to lift a robot from its housing.
“Of course it is. These things go down hundreds of meters where the pressure is so high they’d be crushed in seconds,” I spat, my pain and fear morphing into rage.
The man looked at me before pulling the gun from the other one, pointing and firing it. I wasn’t sure it would even leave a dent, but the man seemed satisfied, saying to his friend, “I guess breaking it is as good as stealing it. Either way, you can’t use it anymore.”
I turned to Travis, who was watching them with a murderous expression on his face, but he didn’t say a word. Instead, wrapping his hand in mine, he squeezed. It wouldn’t change our situation, but it was enough to ground me in the moment, so I could think. This was my boat, my equipment. I had planned and organised everything on here and I refused to let some fucking pirates get away with taking anything from us.
The image of Finn’s smiling face popped into my head, making tears build behind my eyes, but I refused to let these arseholes see me fall apart.
“Here, there’s some pretty valuable stuff at the back, there,” I said, stepping forward, but Travis’s hand tightened in mine as he tried to pull me back. “The sooner we give them everything, the sooner they’re out of here.” I gave him an imploring look that said,trust me,andplease work out what I’m doing here.I was putting all my trust in the fact that I was braver than I felt and that my best friend, the man who loved me, would be able to catch on to my plan, so it actually had a chance of working.
Who was I kidding? It was half-baked at best, and I wasn’t sure if adrenaline was clouding my judgement, but I could almost hear Finn telling me to be brave and get on with it.
“This better not be a fucking trick?” the gunman grumbled as I walked past.
“No trick. I just don’t want to get hurt, so if I help you, you have to promise to get the fuck off my boat in the next five minutes.”
As if the ocean was listening, the boat listed dramatically, and we all stumbled sideways. I braced my arm on the metal shelves as the man laughed to his friend. “Better make it three minutes. Storm’s coming in fast.”
Sucking in a breath to calm my racing heart, I reached to the back of the unit until my hand landed on what I wanted, easing it out slowly. I made sure I could see the gunman out of the corner of my eye, then I pulled my hand back and, with all the force I could muster, I swung, slamming the heavy diving weight against the side of his head. The man was huge, and while his head snapped to the side, it was enough to disorientate him, but not much else.
Travis had obviously got the message, jumping onto the man’s back and grabbing his arms as they battled over the gun. The crack of a bullet being fired made my ears explode, ringing so loudly that I couldn’t hear anything else.