Ricochet by Cherry Adair Read Free Book Online

door.”
    The fishing boat started pulling away from the mountainous white hull of the bigger ship. She’d never been happier to leave a place in her life. “It was something like…’Savrov used my name,’” she deepened her voice. “‘Get rid of him.’ The other man said, ’Permanently?’ The first guy didn’t say anything else for a few seconds, which I presumed meant he either gave the guy a look, or the answer was rhetorical, then he said, ‘Is it set?’”
    The green blinking lights near the wheel made Grayson’s face look a little demonic. Still, Hannah wanted to fling herself into his arms and have him hold her tightly until her heart settled into a normal rhythm, ‘til nervous sweat wasn’t making her eyes burn, and the smell of dead people was a distant memory.
    “He could’ve been referring to a date, a clock, the table.”
    “Funny.” Hannah continued, “’As you instructed,’ ‘Exactly thirty minutes.’ Then the other guy said, ‘I have the stones. Get the chopper. I want to be out on open water to watch the show.’ Which meant…there’s a bomb on board.”
    She realized as she finished talking, that Gray’s mouth was moving at the same time. She hadn’t noticed, in the dark, and lost momentarily in her own fear. Clearly he was talking into his unseen communications devise to his men. It was like a simultaneous translation, as he relayed everything she said to someone…somewhere while she talked. “You got the part about the bomb, right?” she echoed.
    “I heard. Yo, Salina? Can this thing go any faster?” he shouted, addressing the man at the wheel. “Do you remember anything more about the conversation? Any idea who they were?”
    “I recognized their voices. One served us dinner, the other was one of the bodyguards, I think.”
    “Was that the guy on the stairs back there?” He asked, but he didn’t think so. The timing was right, but it didn’t sound like the convo of two underlings.
    “Hard to recognize someone without a face.” She let out a short, broken breath. Her pupils were dilated, her eyes black but for small rims of vivid blue. “Why would they blow up their multimillion-dollar boat? It doesn’t make sense.”
    “Not their boat. They hijacked it thousands of miles from here, made it their own. If they wanted to lure investors with serious bank, they had to look like they didn’t need it. What was the buy in, do you know?”
    “Colton took just over five million dollars.”
    “Jesus. The Moms had that much?”
    Hannah shrugged. She’d been surprised, too. “Provenance Inc. has always done really well. They buy well, and we have a lot of steady customers from all over the country.”
    “You’re the heart of the store, Hannah. Your creativity, and organizational skills have kept it going long after the Moms lost interest in having a shop.”
    Hannah’s heart melted a little at the compliment, which surprised her, because she hadn’t really thought she’d contributed anything but a warm body to ring up the sales. She drew in a shuddering breath as Grayson communicated with the men.
    His profile, limned by the green glow, looked harsh and grim. As hard and unyielding his expression, she still would’ve liked to crawl into his lap and bury her face against his chest until this all magically went away.
    This entire situation was surreal. Adrenaline surged through her body, and her heart beat so hard she felt it in her fingertips.
    “Get the lead out, Salinas!” he yelled. “We have maybe ten minutes if we’re lucky! By which time we need to be far, far away.”
    Ten freaking minutes didn’t sound long enough to be far, far away, but Hannah presumed Grayson knew what he was doing. She didn’t know what he was doing, but that was par for their course. “Good. Because far, far away is exactly where I want to be.”

SEVEN
    B efore they were clear of the blast zone the fancy Megayacht blew to fucking, spectacular, hell.
    Wrapping his arms around