Flood Rising (A Jenna Flood Thriller) by Jeremy Robinson, Sean Ellis Read Free Book Online

tried to strike up what he must have thought would be a casual conversation as a way to make his pitch. Jenna had been eavesdropping from the relative isolation of the bridge, curious to hear how Noah would shoot him down, when to her astonishment, Raul had appeared on the ladder.
    “Is this where you’ve been hiding, chica ?” Without waiting for an invitation, he climbed up onto the elevated deck and then leaned back against the control console as if he had every right to be there.
    Jenna had felt herself go cold. It was, she realized now, the first time she had ever truly felt the fight or flight response. She wanted to scream for help, to run down to the lower deck and take shelter behind Noah, but she had resisted the urge. This was one of those opportunities Noah had talked about, a chance to put what she had learned to use in real life. And besides, other than sneaking up on her, what bad thing had Raul done? Nothing. Yet.
    His smile had been genuine, but his eyes had betrayed him. Jenna noticed how he had kept glancing to his left, mentally constructing the fiction he would use to win her over. “You should come down and party with us.”
    “I don’t think my father would like that.”
    She had stressed the word ‘father’ hoping that would be enough to discourage him, and almost immediately saw that it would not. He had smiled like they were old friends who skirted parental rules on a regular basis. Co-conspirators. “You always do what daddy says?”
    “It’s a small boat.”
    He had licked his lips and eased forward. “Aww, c’mon baby. Don’t play hard to get.”
    He wants me to call for help, to be scared. What will shut him down?
    She had forced herself to relax, leaned against the console beside him, mimicking his posture, and had looked him in the eye. “Raul, I’m not playing hard to get.”
    There was a glimmer of triumph in his eyes, and she had wondered for a moment if she had misjudged him. Desperately, she had searched her repertoire of techniques. “Do you have a sister, Raul? Or is Carlos your only family?”
    The triumphant look had faded. He had looked away, and she’d known that she had found the right pressure point, perhaps more than one.
    “No. No sister. I have a younger brother in Cuba.”
    “Oh? What’s his name? How old is he?”
    She had sensed a shift in his demeanor. His narcissism was ebbing. He no longer felt compelled to conquer her, to possess her. His lust was gradually changing into something more like the protective love of a brother for a sister.
    Suddenly, Noah had charged up the ladder. “What the hell is going on here?”
    Before Jenna had been able to answer, Noah had slammed a fist into Raul’s abdomen. Raul had curled around the blow like a worm on a fishhook. Noah had grabbed him by the neck and propelled him away from Jenna, pitching him off the elevated platform. Raul had thudded, senseless, onto the deck below.
    Noah had turned to Jenna, and in a voice that still chilled her, said simply. “Stay here.”
    Jenna had complied, but her insatiable curiosity had driven her once more to spy on what was happening below. She saw Noah pull Carlos close and whisper something in his ear. A moment later, both of the Villegas brothers had gone into the water, willingly it seemed, and had begun swimming toward nearby Long Key.
    When Noah had joined her on the bridge, he’d said, “We won’t speak of this.”
    And they didn’t.
    To the best of her knowledge, no complaints were registered with local law enforcement or maritime authorities. If they had wanted to, the Villegas brothers could have sued Noah or tried to get his charter privileges revoked, but doing so would have exposed them to further investigation that might have revealed their illegal activities. Yet, they had not seemed the sort to simply let it go.
    Somehow though, the idea that the Villegas brothers were behind the bomb attack just didn’t fit. It was too complex, too sophisticated. They