Chapter Nine
“My life hasturned into an unpublished tabloid story. People breaking into my apartment, stealing my underwear, and leaving who knows what DNA. Jerks trying to pull me into SUVs. Piece of shit rental cars. My brother and everybody else thinks I don’t know what he does or who he works for, and now, some hot shot cat burglar is breaking into my apartment to find out what thelast burglars left behind.” Lakyn relaxed on the tube as much as anyone could, wrapped in a life preserver she was certain had been designed to save a drunken sailor drifting in hurricane tossed seas. Of course, the life vest inventor probably hadn’t anticipated a group of Doms tying every safety device their former SEAL-selves could find to the obnoxious orange safety devices.
“I can help withthe unpublished part. It would probably only take a phone call or two, but you’re on your own with the rest of that nonsense. Now that I think about it, I think you should write a book. Hell, it probably wouldn’t work, no one would believe it, and wouldn’t that just piss you off?”
“What?”
“When they put it in the fiction section.” Tobi’s snark earned her a splash of river water, and Lakyn smiledto herself at the woman’s high-pitched squeal. She was laughing so hard, she almost fell off the enormous tube that looked like it might swallow the tiny blonde whole. “You’ll pay for that. If you fall off your tube, I’m going to let you drown, and with all the crap they’ve got tied on us, you’re toast. I don’t think these life jackets have a prayer of saving anyone.” Truer words had never beenspoken.
“Are you sure this rope is strong enough?” Lakyn was only half kidding. The rope looked awfully skimpy to her despite the reassurance of a man named Sam McCall whose wife was currently being fitted with her own arsenal.
“Jen said it’s ski rope,” Tobi shrugged, “but that doesn’t mean anything to me. I asked for a jet ski for my birthday a couple of years ago, and I thought Kyle was goingto have a stroke every time I mentioned it. When he heard his dads were going to buy one for me, he was apoplectic. Something about me attracting trouble.” She shrugged innocently, but Lakyn wasn’t falling for it, and Jen’s hysterical laughter from the dock let them know she’d heard what Tobi had said.
“Seriously, Tobi? Even I would know better than to get you a jet ski. I heard about your lastadventure on one, and as I recall, that ended with an explosion.”
“Don’t be a party-pooper. Stop playing grab-ass with Sam and get your fanny out here.”
“Tobi, you are a menace, and you know perfectly well your Masters are going to hear your chatter.” The man helping Jen into a tube was huge and intimidating as hell. Lakyn had been introduced to both Sam and Sage, but this was the McCall brotherwho scared her.
As if Tobi had read her mind, she looked at Lakyn and rolled her eyes.
“Do not and I repeat… do not show fear. They are like sharks… they can smell it like blood in the water, and they’ll use it against you. Geez, Sam is a big softy, just like Kyle.” She flashed the enormous man a smile as phony as any Lakyn had ever seen, then snickered when he growled at her.
Jen paddled herfeet, trying to get closer to them, but the current had other ideas. “Good grief, I have so much tactical gear tied on me, I’m worried I might actually sink. And the one thing I asked for, they wouldn’t give me.”
“Pet, no one in their right mind was going to give you a trolling motor.” Sam moved back to the shore and settled into a lounge chair Lakyn hadn’t noticed under a nearby tree.
“Is hegoing to watch us the whole time?” Lakyn had tried to whisper, but she’d obviously misjudged how easily sound traveled over water.
“Yes, he is. He is going to sit right here and sip a fucking root beer because I need to keep my wits about me to deal with whatever trouble the three of you manage to attract.”
“Three? What about me? My sons said my girl was down here tubing, and I want to play,too.” Lakyn didn’t know who the gorgeous middle-aged woman was, but if Tobi’s squeal of happiness and Sam’s groan were any indication, she was going to guess she was Lilly West. “Now be a dear and find me a tube, Sam. I’ll wear a regular life jacket rather than one of those bulky ones, that’s just overkill.”
“Do your husbands know you are here, Mrs. West?”
Watching the sweet woman morph intoa cross between the Wicked Witch of the West and Wonder Woman was fascinating. Lilly West could have made a fortune acting, but if Lakyn remembered correctly, Tobi said her mother-in-law had been a successful model before marrying two men.
“Sam, Iusuallylike you. I’m somewhat surprised to hear you ask me that question.” The look on Sam McCall’s face told Lakyn he wasn’t falling for Mrs. West’stap dance around the question.
“That won’t work with me, Mrs. West. I’m not suiting you up without talking to one of your men.”
“You’re a brave man, Sam.” A very distinguished looking man ambled around a hedge into view, and Lilly’s entire face lit up when he looked her way. “My love, are you stirring up trouble? You know how Del gets when you’re being ornery, and since he is currently beingout-maneuvered by our lovely granddaughter, he’ll be particularly difficult to deal with this evening.” Lakyn was mesmerized by the man’s interaction with his wife. It was easy to see where Kent West got his charm… holy cats.
After a brief discussion, Sam dropped the lifejacket over Lilly’s head and began securing the numerous straps and buckles. Tobi and Jen moved closer to the dock, chatteringa mile a minute with Lilly while Lakyn drifted further out in the river as she studied the rock cliff on the opposite side.
The geological formations drew her attention, and she paddled closer, taking up a lot of the slack in the rope tethering her to the dock. Lakyn had done a photo shoot at the Grand Canyon a couple of years earlier, and she’d felt drawn to the layers marking of the passageof time in eons rather than days or weeks. The wall she was facing now had some of the same layering and before she realized how far she’d drifted, she was almost in the middle of the river and so lost in thought, she didn’t hear the approaching boat until it was close… really close.
Everything slowed down, just like it did in the movies, and Lakyn scanned the area around her, looking for a wayto avoid being hit by the oncoming speedboat. Glancing toward the dock, she saw Sam waving frantically at her, and she could hear the echoes of Tobi and Jen screaming for her to come back. When she looked at the approaching boat, she knew it was too late, she’d never reach the dock in time. For a few seconds, she thought the looming craft was going to skirt around her, but one look at the man behindthe wheel, and she knew he intended her harm.
The leer on the driver’s face was frightening, and she held her breath waiting for the blow she knew was coming. The man behind the wheel wore dark clothing, and there was something familiar about him, but she didn’t have time to think about it as she watched him veer sharply to his right cutting between her and the dock. For a split second, Lakynthought she’d be okay, but the reprieve was short-lived as the boat’s propeller tangled with the rope holding her to the dock. She felt the moment the thin nylon rope snapped, and the tube was almost yanked out from under her as it was pulled behind the speeding boat.
Lakyn frantically began trying to free herself from the tube, but the force of the boat pulling her faster and faster along thewater and all the crap they’d tied to her life preserver made it difficult to maneuver. The driver started weaving back and forth, causing the rope to sail her in an ever-widening arc, reminding her of her friends playing crack the whip when they’d all gone ice skating. She suspected he was planning to swing her into the rock cliff without driving his boat near the shallow rocks.
Sam McCall hadwarned her not to venture past the boundary of the Prairie Winds property under any circumstances and described the marker she’d already sailed past. Everyone had made such a production of pointing out the facility’s boundaries, Lakyn assumed her tracking bracelet only worked if she was within those confines.
God only knew how long it would take them to find her now that she’d been pulled muchfarther downstream. Finally remembering the small tool Sam had tucked in the pocket of her life preserver, she pulled it free and sliced the rope just before she hit the peak of the arc nearest the shore. The force sent her tube skipping over the water like a stone, but Lakyn’s relief at being free from the boat was short-lived when she realized she didn’t have any way to stop. Why the hell didTobi’s husband think tubes were safer? Jet skis were far easier to control.Damn!
Years of training kicked in, and Lakyn tucked her chin against her chest and crossed her arms over her face, protecting what her team always told her was her most valuable asset. The emptiness of that realization slammed into her chest a split second before the tube lodged in thick reeds along the river, sendingher sailing through the air.