Tattoo(46)

I began turning the little handle, slowly towing in the fish. “The key to not losing the fish is to go nice and slow,” I murmured right against her ear.

A little shiver jerked her body and I smiled, liking the effect I had on her.

I adjusted my hands so that my hold on the rod was a little tighter – really I just wanted to hold her closer. “You have to let the water caress the fish as you reel it in, so that when it comes up out of the water its relaxed.”

“Mmm-Hmm,” she replied.

The fish was almost out of the water when I stopped turning and dipped down to press my lips against her cheek. Damn, she smelled so good.

On the end of the line the fish started to struggle so I pulled away from her and brought him up.

She shrieked when it appeared from the water, dripping and flopping around. “It’s a big one!”

“Yep, it’s a beauty.”

I brought it over the side of the boat as it continued to flop around.

“It’s pretty,” she said, admiring her catch.

She made no move at all to leave my arms. In fact, she stayed leaning against me, resting her head against my chest. The fish flopped again and smacked into her ankle. She shrieked and pulled her leg away, shrinking against me.

“Are you telling me you’re afraid to touch it?”

“It’s slimy!”

Unbelievable. There was that girly side coming out again. “I take it you aren’t going to be the one to throw it back?”

“I’ll leave that honor to you.”

I scooped up the fish, gently pulled the hook out of its lip, and then dropped it over the side of the boat and back into the water.

“A girl who likes to fish but refuses to actually touch one,” I muttered.

She giggled and watched the fish jump back into the water. I didn’t bother re-baiting her hook. I liked sharing better. So I handed her my rod, which was lying abandoned off to the side. “Here, hold this,” I said as I made myself more comfortable, spreading my thighs out behind her so she could settle more firmly against me.

After I took the rod back, I was contemplating recasting it when two black SUVs came around the curve in the road, following alongside the lakeshore. It wasn’t anything unusual, but the hairs on the back of my neck stood up anyway.

I stared at the vehicles, unable to see behind the windshield because of the glare on the glass from the sun. My body stiffened as a feeling of foreboding came over me.

“Brody?” Taylor asked, sensing the change in my demeanor.

I sat the fishing rod down inside the boat as the SUVs swerved to the side of the road and stopped at the bank, directly across from where the boat floated.

“Get down, Taylor,” I ordered, my voice urgent and low.

“Wh-what?” she said, her head swinging around to look at the men who were getting out of the cars.

One of them raised a pistol and pointed it right at me.

I surged to my feet, pushing her down into the bottom of the boat, and stood over her, turning toward the men.

“Brody,” she called, and I hated the fear in her voice.

“Don’t get up,” I said and reached behind me into the waistband of my jeans for the .45 caliber I was carrying.

But their guns were already out.

“Fucking pig!” one of them yelled, and bullets started flying.

The first couple shots slammed into the water, making innocent splashing sounds, and then the third and fourth bullet hit the side of the boat. One of them plowed straight through the side, and water started seeping into the bottom of the vessel.

Taylor screamed.

Goddamn, we were sitting ducks out here in the center of the water with no protection at all.

I fired back and the men dove behind the SUVs, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think those couple bullets would chase them away. Even as I thought it, one of the guys, wearing baggy jeans and a baseball hat pulled low, rose up from behind the hood to take aim at me once more.

I squeezed off a shot. My aim was true and the windshield he was standing by shattered instantly. He yelled a few curses and dove back down, taking cover from the raining glass.

I was a good shot, but there were three of them and only one of me. And they had cover, where I did not.

I didn’t have any choice. It was a bullet or the water.

Just as the guys took aim again, I knocked the boat over, pitching us into the dark, cool lake.





16




Taylor

The water wasn’t necessarily freezing cold, but it was a shock against my sun-heated skin. Everything happened so fast I barely had time to register what was going on, and then the all-too-familiar sounds of gunshots radiated through the air and literally paralyzed my limbs with fear.

Before I could do little more than scream, the boat was rocking violently and then Brody was flinging himself over me and launching into the water. But he didn’t leave me alone. He turned the boat as he went so I was dumped right into the current.