Dark Ties (Made Men 9)

They finally reached the tender, and she was grateful when Leo, who had already climbed on board, held out his hand for her to take. Nadia took it like it was the lifeboat and was shocked he managed to pull her out of the water soaking wet. She was not petite by any means, so she knew why Dante had to be the one to swim her to safety, as Leo was still quite young and hadn’t filled out yet.

Being brought onboard the small boat, she helped Leo bring up his father, as he was much heavier.

“We gotta get the fuck out of here,” Amo warned once they were all on. “Now!”

Nadia wiped the water from her eyes, coughing. She could see Amo’s back while he appeared to be facing the culprits with their bloody hands covering their faces. The soldier had obviously been busy.

Dante sprang into action, moving to the wheel to drive them away from the yacht. Even though this tender looked like a really nice speedboat to her, it was like going from Buckingham Palace to a shack with all six people onboard.

When Leo went to help Amo hold them in place, Nadia was able to finally see who was responsible.

Max … Lila?

She found herself more shocked by the latter, not believing the sweet woman could have done anything to hurt them. Well, whatever they had or hadn’t done, she was about to find out as Dante cut the engine. He had brought them quite a distance away from the yacht once he was certain enough they were out of harm’s way.

“Talk.”

Nadia went from fearing for her life to Max’s and Lila’s by not only the anger in Dante’s voice, but his frost-bitten gaze, and they were the ones who were wearing life jackets.

When the two sat there frozen, Amo picked Max up without warning, spun him around, and forced his upper half over the side, holding his head under the water. He pulled him back up for air with the vice grip he had on his hair.

“Now are you willing to talk?” Dante asked over his choking.

“Don’t tell them, honey,” Lila said with a muffled voice, still holding her nose. “They won’t kill—”

Amo sunk Max’s head back under once more, this time holding him there longer than he did last time.

Max came out of the water choking harder as the blood continued to spill from his own broken nose.

“Okay!” Max choked out, agreeing to talk in fear of being drowned.

Lila went to detest, but Max screamed at her, “Easy for you to say; you’re not the one being fucking drowned!”

“I can give you a turn?”

Lila’s mouth snapped close at Amo’s warning.

“Now …” Dante told him to get talking.

“The day you boarded, I was sent a text, along with fifty thousand dollars deposited into my bank account to kill everyone on the ship. They told me, after I did it, I would be deposited another fifty.”

“A hundred thousand?”

She watched Dante utter the number in disappointment. It was quite obvious he thought his life alone was worth more than that, and Nadia was pretty sure he would have doubled the money for him not to do it.

Amo was just as hurt, throwing Max in for another dip.

“It was a hundred,” Max came up out of the water, clarifying in deep breaths, “but I told them I would only do it if my girlfriend, Lila, could come with me and got her own hundred thousand dollars.”

“How sweet …” Nadia grumbled sarcastically.

Dante shared her sentiment but continued on, “Who sent the money?”

A nervous Max started stuttering, looking at Lila as she silently pleaded for him not tell. “I-I-If I tell you, I’m dead anyway.”

“Okay, then.” Amo started jerking off his lifejacket, and when he didn’t reveal the name in the time it took for him to do so, he threw him off the boat. “Get to swimming.”

“He didn’t hurt anyone yet!” Nadia screamed at the soldier over Max’s attempts of swimming away. She couldn’t believe she ever thought Amo wasn’t capable of hurting a fly. “Nothing’s even been done to the ship ye—”

BOOM!

Staring at the flames in the distance, she quietly sat back down, knowing the chef and skipper were still onboard. Nadia didn’t agree with it, but after that, she knew Max had a better chance with Poseidon than up here with the fucking mafia members whom he had almost just killed.

When Amo grabbed a crying Lila by her lifejacket, her mouth started moving a mile per minute.

“One-Shot! All they would tell us is they went by One-Shot! We were to cut the fuel line while everyone was sleeping, and that was it. We tried doing it the first night, but Nadia and Leo woke up and were talking. So, the next day, Max planned to get you all drunk, even told you their rum runners were virgin, but they weren’t.”