Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Her forehead scrunched as the noise grew louder. A boat motor. “Those papers you gave him? Do they mean I have to be a secret?”
My jaw started to shiver uncontrollably. “No,” I forced out. “They mean there’s a few of us who can’t say he’s your father. But you?” I tugged her closer. “You get to say whatever you want, whenever you want to. You have choices. We took the power from him, never from you.”
She nodded. Her lips had taken on a bluish tinge.
I looked over my shoulder as the rescue dinghy approached and nearly sank with relief. “They’re coming.”
The driver killed the motor, and Hudson appeared at the edge of the stern as the small vessel drifted toward us. Fear was etched into every line of his face as the boat slowed, the tip of its bow pointed about ten feet away from us. “Allie! Juniper!”
“We’ll swim!” I shouted before he got any ideas about jumping into this freezer called an ocean. “Can you do it?” I asked Juniper.
“Yeah.” She nodded, and then we swam.
I kept one hand on her dress and moved through the water in a sidestroke, ignoring the cramps that were slowly seizing my muscles as we rounded the stern of the bobbing boat.
Both Hudson and Gavin waited on the small swim deck, Gavin crouched and Hudson on one knee.
“Take her!” I shouted at Gavin when we reached him first, then put both my hands on Juniper’s waist and shoved her up toward the deck, kicking as hard as I could.
“Got her!” Gavin shouted, and I let go, sinking back into the water.
“Allie!” Hudson shouted, and I wrenched my gaze from Juniper’s rising body to Hudson’s outstretched hand, then looked back as Juniper’s bare feet emerged from the ocean. “He has her. Now get in the damned boat, or I’m coming in!”
I kicked, forcing my body left, and reached for Hudson.
He clasped my right hand, then my left, and hauled me out of the water with unthinkable strength, plastering me against his chest before throwing his arms around my back one at a time, leaving my hands to fall to his shoulders as he twisted and set me down on the swim deck. “Are you all right?” His gaze raked over me.
“F-f-fine,” I chattered out.
“Okay.” He nodded, then hauled me into his arms and stood. The boat swayed as he carried me into it, then sat me on the U-shaped bench that took up the stern.
I shook uncontrollably as I searched for Juniper and found her wrapped in a silver blanket on Gavin’s lap a few feet away. Two of the yacht’s crew were on board with us, one at the helm and the other shaking out another silver blanket.
Hudson wrapped it around my shoulders and then crouched in front of me. “Anything broken in the fall?”
“Check her first,” I demanded, my frozen fingers clutching the edge of the blanket.
“She’s with Gavin. I’m checking you.” He studied my eyes, then put his fingers to my wrist, quieting for a moment before he nodded. “Did you breathe in any water?”
“I don’t think so? Maybe? It happened really fast.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked. “Don’t move.” He crossed the small boat to Juniper, then sat beside her and checked her over as the engines gurgled to life.
“Two survivors on board. We’re headed back to the marina,” one of the crew said into the radio. The reply was muffled by the engines, and we started moving, cutting across the ocean in the opposite direction of the yacht.
Hudson returned a few minutes later, and tucked me into his side, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. His warmth trickled into me, and he pressed a kiss to my temple. “God, Allie, you jumped in after her.”
“If you even think about lecturing me,” I shouted over the roar of the engines.
“Thank you.” He tucked my ice-cold forehead against his neck. “Just . . . thank you. But please. Just don’t. But thank you. Fuck, I’m a wreck.”
“Does Caroline know she’s here?” The marina came into sight.
Hudson shook his head. “She thinks she’s at a sleepover, but trust me, she’s about to find out. Pretty sure our niece is going to have an ankle monitor by the end of the night.”
“She knows,” I said, loud enough for him to hear. “She knows about Vasily. She heard the whole thing.” I looked her way, but Gavin had her tucked against his chest, both arms enveloping her small frame as she faced away from me.
“Fuck.” Hudson held me tighter.
That word covered it, so I let the rest go and simply soaked up the heat radiating from his body as we bounced our way back to the marina.
When we arrived, there was an ambulance waiting.
Two hours and a hot shower later, I felt mostly human as I walked out of the kitchen, brownie in one hand and a bottle of water in the other.