“I’m coming with you,” I snap as I try to find some clothes.
“You are not fucking coming with me. What are you going to do?”
I put my hands on my naked hips in an outrage. “I can fight, you know.”
He smirks and kisses me quickly on the lips. “I can fight better. Go to bed. I will be home soon.” And with that he leaves the room.
Oh no. Oh no, no, no. I grab some clothes from the drawer and pull them on, and then I get down on the floor and slide my rifle out and attach the silencer.
I click it up to ready the ammunition.
I warned that fucker not to mess with him.
I open the cabin door and peer out into the darkened hallway.
Game on.
14
I creep up the hall in the darkness until I get to the staircase, then l look back down from where I came from, relieved there’s still nobody around. I glance at the staircase going up, and although it feels like the safer option, I know that side of the ship is the enemy at the moment. If you go overboard, you’re toast. The thought of the cold, hard maintenance level is freaking me out, but I head down anyway with my gun gripped tightly in my hand. I tiptoe down the stairs that are lit only by the exit sign. The sound of the engine is loud and obnoxious. My heart is beating so fast and I have no idea what I am going to be faced with when I get to the bottom. Fuck’s sake, why did I let him come back here to this hell ship?
I arrive on the bottom step and slowly peer around the corner to see there’s nobody around. The engine is loud and whirring. With my gun in my hand, I walk farther into the room.
What if he is already dead?
No, the call was only moments ago.
I hear someone coming down the stairs from where I just came from and I duck into a darkened hallway.
Shit. Who is that?
I stand flattened against the wall as I listen, and then I see Stucco walk past. Shit, it is really true.
This is it.
My heart begins to hammer and I see him stuff something in his back pocket.
Was that a knife? I frown. It wasn’t big enough to be a gun. I peer around the darkened corner and he calls out, “Mac, you here?”
I listen and I know that Stace is down here doing the exact same thing as me. Flattened against a wall somewhere listening to the fucker. I wonder how fast his heart is beating?
“Mac!” He calls again.
“What’s the problem?” Stace eventually replies as he appears around the back corner.
“The gasket in the rotator is gone.”
Stace’s knowing eyes hold his.
The tension between them is thick.
“No, they aren’t. That’s a blatant lie,” Stace replies calmly.
“But…”
“There are no buts. I just fucking checked them.” He sneers.
Stucco stares him down.