Chapter 4 - THE MAN I THOUGHT WAS MY ENEMYJulian released me.
For the first time that night, he looked genuinely confused.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Captain Adrian Cole stood in the doorway with the pistol aimed at Julian’s chest.
His white uniform jacket was torn at one shoulder.
Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow.
But his hands were steady.
“Step away from her.”
Julian laughed once.
“You’re joking.”
Cole cocked the pistol.
The laugh vanished.
“Step away.”
Julian moved back.
I pressed myself against the radio console.
Nothing made sense.
I had heard Cole discussing my murder.
I had watched him hold Elena at gunpoint.
I had heard him talk about the current.
Yet now he was protecting me.
Julian looked between us.
“You think she’s going to believe you?”
“I don’t need her to believe me tonight.”
Cole motioned toward the door.
“I need her alive.”
Julian’s face hardened.
“What changed?”
“Nothing.”
That answer changed everything.
Nothing had changed.
Which meant Captain Cole had never been on Julian’s side.
I looked at him.
“You knew?”
Cole kept the gun trained on Julian.
“Your father asked me to protect you.”
“My father is dead.”
“Yes.”
“For fourteen months.”
“Yes.”
“Then start explaining.”
Julian interrupted.
“Don’t listen to him. He took my money.”
Cole almost smiled.
“I took your deposit.”
My stomach turned.
“How much?”
“Two million.”
Julian snapped, “You said we had a deal.”
“We did.”
Cole’s eyes never left him.
“You wanted someone willing to commit murder. I needed you convinced you’d found him.”
I suddenly understood the black gift box.
The champagne.
The planning.
It had all been bait.
But then why hadn’t Cole warned me?
“Why let me get drugged?”
Pain crossed his face.
“I didn’t know about the drugs until this afternoon.”
“Why not tell me then?”
“Because I’d already transmitted the plan to federal investigators.”
Julian’s expression shifted.
That was the first time I saw fear.
“Federal investigators?”
Cole nodded.
“Financial Crimes had been looking into you for six months.”
My mouth fell open.
Julian said, “You’re lying.”
“Am I?”
Cole reached inside his jacket and removed a tiny recording device.
“You’ve been recorded since Miami.”
Julian went pale.
“You’re dead.”
“Possibly. But not tonight.”
Footsteps thundered in the corridor.
Theo appeared with Elena.
Elena rushed to me.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m okay.”
“You’re bleeding.”
I looked down.
A scrape along my elbow.
Nothing serious.
Theo closed the door behind him.
“Engine room secured.”
Cole nodded.
“Disable bridge controls.”
“Already done.”
Julian looked around.
“You’re all working together?”
Elena glared at him.
“Not all of us.”
A noise crackled from the radio.
“…Serenity, this is Coast Guard Sector San Juan. Repeat distress traffic…”
Relief nearly dropped me to my knees.
Cole reached for the microphone.
“Sector San Juan, Serenity. We have confirmed attempted homicide aboard. One suspect detained, second status—”
He stopped.
“Second?” I said.
Cole looked at me.
“Julian wasn’t acting alone.”
“Vanessa?”
“No.”
Cold spread through my chest.
“Who?”
Before he could answer, the yacht lurched violently.
The lights went out again.
An alarm screamed.
Theo grabbed the wall.
“Engine room.”
Smoke curled beneath the door.
Cole swore.
The radio crackled.
Then went dead.
“Fire?” I asked.
Theo ran into the corridor.
Elena followed.
Cole grabbed Julian’s arm.
“Move.”
Julian smiled.
That frightened me more than anything.
“You should probably check your tender.”
Cole froze.
“What did you do?”
Julian laughed.
Then we heard an explosion.
The yacht shook.
Glass shattered.
I fell against the console.
Smoke poured through the corridor.
Cole slammed Julian against the wall.
“What did you do?”
“Insurance.”
“What insurance?”
“The kind that burns.”
I suddenly remembered Julian spending twenty minutes alone near the stern that afternoon.
I had assumed he was swimming.
He had been preparing escape.
Or destruction.
Cole shoved the gun into my hand.
“Can you use this?”
I stared at it.
“My father taught me.”
“Good. Stay behind me.”
We moved into the corridor.
Fire alarms shrieked.
Theo came running from the engine stairwell.
“Suppression system isn’t activating.”
“Manual release?”
“Cut.”
Cole looked at Julian.
“You sabotaged it.”
Julian shrugged.
“You were supposed to help me leave one widow missing, Adrian. Apparently plans changed.”
Elena shouted from the galley.
“Fire extinguisher!”
Smoke thickened.
The flames weren’t yet large, but a yacht was a floating box filled with fuel, wood, fabric, wiring, and nowhere to escape.
Cole forced Julian toward the aft deck.
I followed.
Theo and Elena fought the fire.
“Where are the tenders?” I asked.
Cole pointed.
One was burning.
The second hung from its davits.
“Can we launch it?”
“Maybe.”
Julian suddenly twisted away.
Cole grabbed him.
They struggled.
I raised the gun.
“Julian!”
He stopped.
The husband I had loved turned toward me.
For the first time there was no mask.
No charm.
No gentleness.
Only hate.
“You won’t shoot me.”
I held the gun with both hands.
“Try me.”
He smiled.
“You couldn’t even fire your father’s hunting rifle without crying.”
That shocked me.
Because it was true.
And he knew it because Vanessa knew it.
Every vulnerable detail I had shared with my best friend had become information for the man trying to murder me.
Cole shoved him onto the deck.
“Sit down.”
Julian sat.
Sirens echoed faintly somewhere beyond the darkness.
Coast Guard?
Maybe.
Not close enough.
Theo yelled, “Fire’s spreading!”
Cole moved toward the tender controls.
“Elena, get the emergency bags.”
She disappeared.
I stayed with Julian.
The gun felt heavy.
He looked at me.
“You still don’t understand.”
“What?”
“I never wanted it to happen this way.”
“You planned to throw me into the ocean.”
“I planned a clean death.”
A clean death.
My hands tightened around the gun.
“You poisoned me.”
“I sedated you.”
“You married me.”
“That part wasn’t supposed to be difficult.”
I stared at him.
He laughed softly.
“You want the truth?”
“No.”
“Yes, you do.”
Smoke drifted between us.
“I liked you, Evelyn.”
I nearly choked on the absurdity.
“You tried to kill me.”
“I said I liked you. I didn’t say I loved you.”
“You loved Vanessa?”
Something flickered across his face.
“No.”
That surprised me.
“Then why?”
“Vanessa thinks I love Vanessa.”
The coldness of the sentence stunned me.
“What did you promise her?”
“A future.”
“And what did you promise Cole?”
“Money.”
“What did you promise me?”
His eyes met mine.
“Forever.”
I almost laughed.
Instead, I said, “You must be terrible at keeping promises.”
Cole shouted from the stern.
“Tender’s ready!”
Elena returned with two emergency bags.
Theo stumbled behind her coughing.
We moved toward the tender.
Julian stood.
“Sit down,” I ordered.
He ignored me.
One step.
“Julian.”
Second step.
Then he rushed me.
I moved sideways.
Cole tackled him.
They slammed into the rail.
The yacht rocked.
Julian hit Cole.
Cole struck back.
Theo tried to intervene.
Smoke engulfed them.
Then a second explosion tore through the stern.
The deck tilted violently.
I was thrown onto my back.
The gun slid away.
Someone screamed.
Wood splintered.
Glass rained onto the deck.
When I lifted my head, Captain Cole was clinging to the railing.
Theo was down.
Elena crawled toward me.
And Julian was gone.
I looked over the side.
Black water churned below.
No Julian.
“Elena!”
“I’m okay!”
Cole pulled himself upright.
“Where’s Mercer?”
“In the water.”
Cole grabbed a life ring.
I stared at him.
“He tried to murder me.”
“I know.”
“You’re going to save him?”
“He’s evidence.”
And despite everything, that made sense.
Cole threw the ring.
“Julian!”
No response.
Then I saw movement near the burning tender.
A head.
Julian.
Swimming.
But not toward us.
Toward something fifty yards away.
A dark silhouette.
A second boat.
Cole stared.
“What the hell?”
A light flashed from the other vessel.
Someone had been waiting for Julian.
The boat’s engine roared.
It moved toward him.
Elena whispered, “His escape plan.”
“No,” Cole said.
His expression turned grim.
“His partner.”
I remembered what he had said before the explosion.
Julian wasn’t acting alone.
Not Vanessa.
Someone else.
The mystery boat pulled Julian aboard.
Then accelerated into darkness.
Thirty seconds later, Coast Guard lights appeared on the horizon.
Julian had escaped.
But I was alive.
I thought that meant I had won the night.
I was wrong.
Because when rescuers finally boarded the burning Serenity, one officer pulled Captain Cole aside.
They spoke quietly.
Cole’s face changed.
Then he walked toward me.
“Evelyn.”
“What?”
“There’s something we need to discuss when we’re ashore.”
“About Julian?”
“Yes.”
“What about him?”
Cole looked almost afraid to tell me.
“The man who arranged tonight didn’t start planning after your engagement.”
My heart sank.
“When did he start?”
May you like
Cole swallowed.
“Before your father died.”
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