Chapter 6 - THE CAPTAIN'S REAL PLANMaya didn't scream.
That frightened me more than if she had.
Captain Mercer held her against his chest with the knife pressed beneath her jaw.
Leo stood several feet away.
Arun had arrived behind him.
Vanessa was still downstairs.
Adrian remained locked inside the bridge.
And somewhere beyond the dark horizon, rescue was moving toward us.
But not fast enough.
"Open the door," Mercer repeated.
"I can't," I said.
"Then find someone who can."
Maya's eyes met mine.
Don't.
She didn't have to say it.
Mercer dragged the blade slightly.
A tiny line of blood appeared.
My stomach twisted.
"Okay."
I moved toward the emergency panel beside the bridge.
"Claire," Maya said.
"Quiet!"
Mercer jerked her backward.
I stopped.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"A tender."
"You could take one."
"Remote locks."
My father again.
The yacht's security system had automatically secured external launches once the emergency protocol activated.
Mercer needed my biometric authorization.
"And Adrian?"
Mercer looked through the glass.
Adrian was shouting something we couldn't hear.
Mercer smiled coldly.
"He can stay."
That surprised me.
Adrian clearly read his lips.
He slammed both hands against the bridge window.
Mercer ignored him.
"You were going to abandon him too?" I asked.
"Eventually."
"So Adrian wasn't your partner."
"Adrian is an idiot with expensive taste."
The trapped man behind the glass went still.
I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
"You convinced him he'd inherit my fortune."
"No. Vanessa did."
Interesting.
Mercer shifted his grip.
"Your husband came to me six months ago. Wanted to know whether somebody could disappear at sea without raising questions."
Six months ago.
Before our engagement party.
Before Adrian had proposed.
My throat tightened.
"I told him accidents happen."
"You planned all this together."
"I planned to get paid."
"And the transfer?"
"My insurance."
"Sixty-two million?"
"Adrian believed he could move more later."
I looked toward the bridge.
Adrian's face had gone gray.
Everything Mercer said was being heard by the people around us.
Possibly recorded too.
I kept him talking.
"What did Vanessa get?"
"Whatever Adrian promised her."
"And what would Adrian get?"
Mercer laughed.
"Nothing."
Adrian erupted behind the glass.
He grabbed a chair and smashed it against the bridge door.
Once.
Twice.
A crack appeared.
Mercer glanced toward him.
That tiny distraction was all Maya needed.
She stamped on Mercer's foot and dropped her weight.
The knife moved.
I screamed.
Leo charged.
Mercer shoved Maya aside and slashed toward Leo.
Leo blocked with his forearm.
Arun grabbed Mercer's wrist.
The three men crashed into the wall.
I pulled Maya away.
Blood covered her neck.
"Are you cut?"
"Surface."
We ran toward the stairs.
Behind us came a massive crash.
Adrian broke through the damaged bridge door.
He emerged holding a broken metal chair leg.
Mercer saw him.
Adrian saw Mercer.
For several seconds they simply stared at each other.
Two men who had planned my death.
Now furious because each had planned to betray the other.
Adrian raised the metal bar.
"You son of a—"
Mercer lunged.
Their fight was vicious.
Not elegant.
Not cinematic.
Ugly.
Terrified.
Desperate.
Leo and Arun backed away rather than getting between them.
"Let them," Maya whispered.
I disagreed.
Not because I cared what happened to either man.
Because I wasn't letting them turn my yacht into a crime scene with a corpse if I could prevent it.
"Stop!"
Neither listened.
Mercer slammed Adrian against the bridge wall.
Adrian drove his knee into Mercer's stomach.
The knife skittered across the deck.
Adrian saw it.
So did I.
He dove.
I kicked it.
The knife slid under a cabinet.
Adrian looked up at me.
"You!"
He changed targets.
He came for me.
Again.
Maya stepped between us.
I pulled her back.
"No."
I was done hiding behind other people.
Adrian approached slowly.
"Claire, you have destroyed my life."
That sentence almost impressed me.
"You tried to murder me."
"Because you never saw me."
"I saw exactly what you wanted me to see."
"You treated me like an accessory."
"I loved you."
"You loved rescuing me."
That was partly true.
Adrian had told me about growing up with debt.
About his father's failed businesses.
About wanting stability.
I had introduced him to investors.
Helped fund a consulting company he wanted to launch.
Invited him into rooms where my name opened doors.
Maybe I had been too eager to help.
But gratitude was not a debt payable in obedience.
And humiliation did not excuse murder.
"You could have left," I said.
He laughed bitterly.
"And walk away with nothing?"
There it was again.
Money.
Always money.
"You could have built something."
"Easy for an heiress to say."
"You had two years beside me. Contacts. Education. Capital. Every opportunity."
"I wanted what you had."
"Then you should have earned it."
His face twisted.
He swung at me.
I ducked.
The metal bar hit the wall.
Maya shouted.
I ran toward the outer deck.
Bad choice.
The yacht had slowed, but waves were larger now.
Wind pushed hard across the stern.
Adrian followed.
"Claire!"
I reached a curved staircase.
He caught the back of my robe.
The fabric tore.
I fell to one knee.
He grabbed my ankle.
I kicked.
My heel struck his chin.
He released me.
Then a searchlight flooded the yacht.
Bright white.
Everybody froze.
A horn sounded across the water.
Rescue.
For one glorious second, I thought it was over.
Then Mercer, bloodied and staggering, rushed toward the tender controls.
He ripped open an access panel and started cutting wires.
"What's he doing?" I shouted.
Arun swore.
"Releasing the tender manually."
The tender dropped.
Mercer vaulted over the rail onto it.
"Stop him!"
Leo ran for the stairs.
Mercer started the engine.
Adrian looked from him to the rescue lights.
Then made his choice.
He ran.
Toward Mercer.
"Wait!"
Mercer didn't.
Adrian jumped from the yacht.
He barely landed inside the tender.
Mercer screamed at him.
Adrian punched him.
The little boat shot away into darkness.
A rescue vessel turned its searchlight.
Someone on a loudspeaker ordered them to stop.
They accelerated.
Maya came beside me.
"Idiots."
I stared at the disappearing tender.
"They won't get far."
But she didn't look relieved.
"Claire."
"What?"
She pointed toward the yacht's navigation display visible through the broken bridge door.
Our speed was increasing again.
Slowly.
Two knots.
Four.
Six.
"But David took control."
Arun rushed inside.
His face hardened.
"Remote steering is responding."
"Then why are we moving?"
He checked the engine controls.
"Mercer engaged a mechanical override before leaving."
The yacht accelerated.
Eight knots.
Ten.
Ahead of us, reef warnings flashed again.
The rescue vessel was chasing Mercer and Adrian.
And we were now moving in the opposite direction.
Toward rocks.
"Can you stop it?" I asked.
Arun was already running.
"From the engine room."
"How long?"
May you like
He looked at the distance indicator.
"Longer than we have."
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