She didn’t see Dylan. He hadn’t surfaced. He had to surface.
Kenneth caught her hand. “This is how it ends. You come with me and we get on the Dreamer...” His smile flashed. “I always planned for us to leave on that one. Senator Duncan...let’s just say he owed me, too. For past services. The boat will make us even.”
The phone was still in her hand. Still on, so that if anyone was listening on the other end...they’d hear his words.
“Now you come with me, right now, or I’ll give the signal for Harris up there to shoot you in the heart.”
“The way he shot Dylan?”
“Dylan was a dead man walking! But why do you care? You never loved him, you said—”
“I lied,” she told him, voice shaking. Thomas was gone. He’d run toward the building. For the shooter? “I lied, and you didn’t know me well enough to tell.”
Kenneth shook his head. “You didn’t kill me. You had the chance. You didn’t—”
Rachel dropped her phone once more. When his gaze automatically followed the phone’s descent, she yanked out her weapon and pointed it right at his chest. “I won’t miss this time.”
“Rachel.” Kenneth lifted his right hand. “You surprise me. You always have. You weren’t what I expected.”
She tightened her grip on the weapon. She had to get in the water, had to find Dylan.
Kenneth backed up a step. His left hand also rose, as if he were surrendering to her. “I like that you could surprise me.”
No more bullets were being fired. Was that because Thomas had gotten to the shooter? Or because the “surrender” gesture that Kenneth was making actually was just a signal for the shooter to pause?
And what if Kenneth gives him the signal to shoot?
Kenneth took another slow, gliding step back. He was nearly at the edge of the dock. “I wanted you to be the queen. My Queen of Hearts.”
His left hand started to drop.
“Don’t!” Rachel screamed.
“But I’m not going into a cage, and if you have to die—” His hands flew down. “So be it. So damn be it—”
Hard arms wrapped around Kenneth’s legs, catching him beneath the knees. And Rachel saw Dylan’s face appear just above the dock. His expression was locked in lines of fury. Dylan yanked Kenneth back. They both hit the water.
No bullets rained down on Rachel. She spun around, looking up at the window.
“Clear!” Thomas’s voice shouted.
Her breath heaved out and she rushed to the edge of the dock. The men broke the top of the water. Fighting, punching viciously.
Then they went back under.
Rachel aimed her gun, ready to take the shot when Kenneth came back up.
But he didn’t come back up.
Dylan did. Dylan broke through the surface. He stroked toward her, heaved up on the dock. She helped him, grabbing him tightly. Her arms wrapped around him and she held him close, shuddering because she’d thought he was dead.
This is the way he felt about me.
“I love you,” Rachel whispered. “Please, don’t ever leave me.”
But his body started to sag against her. “Dylan?” Rachel whispered.
He fell back. She staggered beneath his weight and slid down with him.