Illusion (Billionaire in Disguise 2)

I splashed him with water, and he splashed back. We laughed and tried to one-up one another, with him eventually diving under the water and pulling me under with him. I came up for air, flipping my hair back and splashing him repeatedly.

He drenched me in water as I continued to flail with my eyes closed.

“You’re such a dick! Pulling me under is cheating,” I said.

But when I didn’t hear his voice, I wiped the water from my face and opened my eyes.

“Derek?” I asked.

I turned around, trying to see where he went as panic rose in my chest.

“Derek? Where are you? This isn’t funny anymore.”

He was nowhere to be found. I turned back toward the bungalow, hoping he was walking up the steps that led straight into his room. Shit. There were steps that led straight into the bungalow from the ocean? I didn’t have those on my deck. How the hell could I have not known that?

I turned toward the rocks on the other side of us. I swam toward them, trying to see if he had gotten caught up in the current. I scrambled onto one of them, my eyes scanning the ocean as I tried to spot him.

And still, there was nothing.

“Derek!”

My heart was slamming against my chest. My blood was rushing through my veins. My ears were ringing, my hands were trembling, and I felt myself slipping. This was what happened when I put my guard down. This was what happened when I didn’t do my job. Someone had gotten to him. Someone had dragged him off somewhere the moment I grew weak.

“Derek!” I said with a shriek. “Derek, where the fuck are you?”

I dove back into the water, opening my eyes as they burned. The salt was searing my face, bringing about a pounding headache as I dove around in the water. I tried looking around for anything that could conceal him. A rock underwater or a person lying in wait. I searched for his body, thinking maybe he had gotten trapped and couldn’t come back up for air.

But I had to come back up for air.

I had to resurface so I could keep looking for him.

I pushed off from the ocean floor and flung my hair back. I kept my head on a swivel as I paddled back toward the shore. I felt sick to my stomach. I felt the earth crumbling beneath my feet. I was going to kill them. Whoever had taken Derek was going to pay with their—

“Sam! Over here!”

I looked up from the ocean water and saw Derek standing on the shoreline. He was flagging me down, a giant smile on his lips. Tears of relief filled my eyes and streamed down my face as I stood there, taking him in as I walked toward the shore. He wasn’t bleeding or bruised. He didn’t seem to be in pain or limping. I looked around to see if anyone was threatening him from the low-lying land. I looked for the glint of a gun or the shuffling of a body and listened for the ticking of a bomb.

But there was nothing.

Only Derek, his beautiful body, and the crashing of the ocean waves.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I asked.

I ran up to him, sniffling as I slammed my fists into his chest.

“What the—? Sam? What the hell’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong? Seriously? You’ve got a psychopath who hasn’t been caught yet, and you disappear fuck-knows-where and just pop up at the shoreline?”

I took a step back from him as I furiously wiped at my face. I was crying over him. Crying over the fact that he could've been hurt. Taken. Beaten and tortured. I was crying over someone.

I hadn’t done that since I’d lost my parents.

“Sam? What’s wrong? What happened?” Derek asked.

“You scared the hell out of me, that’s what happened.”

“I’m sorry. I was trying to get away from you after pulling you under.”