Raging Hard(36)

With a sigh, I began to drag his body up the steps. Dead bodies weighed a lot, and so it was a bit of a struggle, but I managed. Once there, I lifted him up and perched him on the railing.

Before I could let him go, I caught sight of a tattoo on his wrist: a red heart with a dagger in it. I didn’t think much of it as I tossed him over the side.

The sea reclaimed him, too.

I sat down on the deck, breathing deeply. The rain had finally given up. My battle calmness was slowly beginning to fade away.

What a fucked up day. I knew we should never have gone out. There was only one last problem: their boat. I forced myself to my feet, because a SEAL never left a job unfinished, and walked over to the lines. I cut the ropes and decided to let the boat drift free. There might have been something useful on board, but I didn’t want to risk the climb.

Besides, I couldn’t leave Claire down below much longer. She was likely freaking out. Civilians weren’t trained for the sort of thing that had just happened. They couldn’t handle the violent and sudden realities of life. That’s why SEALs existed. We were the men that protected people from the bad shit in the world.

I didn’t know what I’d say to her. I didn’t know what the right thing was. Talking down scared girls wasn’t exactly my kind of shit.

But I was going to have to figure it out.

The last few minutes had been a blur of violence and danger. It all had come out of nowhere, but I was always ready, always prepared to do what I had to do.

Claire, however, was probably going to be a little fucked up from it, at least for a little while.

Still, I’d take care of her, because that’s what I did.





Chapter Nine: Claire





I was shivering by the time Nathan pulled the boat back into the harbor.

The face of the dead man kept coming back to me, over and over. Everything had happened so suddenly and so brutally. I didn’t have a second to really understand until the guns started going off.

Then there was Nate. The way he had reacted, so swiftly and seriously, was both terrifying and incredible. I couldn’t believe that he was able to take out those two guys when he had only a knife. Without him, I had no clue where I would be, probably tied to the bottom of a boat on my way to sex traffickers or something equally horrifying.

What had those men wanted? Did they just want to rob us? We didn’t have anything worth taking, as far as I knew. I couldn’t fathom what had happened because it felt too fake, too surreal.

The rain began to slowly stop and Nate gave me a look.

“Come on,” he said, “we need to get you home.”

I followed him in a daze as he tied the boat off to the dock. Normally I would have helped, but it was like my body didn’t want to respond to the commands of my mind. I stood there on the dock watching him, wrapped in a blanket he had found below deck for me, staring vacantly out into space.

“We’re okay,” he whispered in my ear as he wrapped his arm around me and steered me away from the boat and toward the house. “We’re going to be okay.”

“The police,” I said suddenly. “We have to call the police.”

“No cops,” he growled. “I killed those men. I can’t risk getting the cops involved.”

“But you defended us.”

“Yeah, you’re right, but trust me on this.”

I stayed silent. Nate was right. We couldn’t involve the police. He had taken care of me so far, and he would continue to do so.

I found myself trusting him more than I thought possible. Where he was a crude and rude asshole before, suddenly he was the man that risked his life to keep us both safe.

As we moved back toward the house, walking down the path, he kept whispering comforting things in my ear. He kept telling me that we were safe, that nobody was going to come for us, but it was like his words just slipped from my mind as soon as he said them.

I could barely concentrate. I could only see the man’s face, the knife in his neck.

Finally, we made it back to the house. Nate pushed open the back doors and ushered me inside.

“Hello?” he yelled out. Silence greeted us. “Good,” he mumbled, “the assholes aren’t home.”

“Where’s my dad?” I asked him.

“Business deal or some shit, probably. Don’t worry.” He led me upstairs toward our bathroom. I didn’t bother trying to resist. I didn’t think I could even if I wanted to.

He pushed open the bathroom door and started the shower. The room quickly filled with steam.

“You’re shaking,” he said softly. “Get in and take a nice hot shower.”

“Okay,” I said automatically. I stripped my shirt off, not caring that he was standing right there. He stared at me for a second until I reached back to untie my bikini top. He quickly turned around. I barely registered that uncharacteristic action.