At least they have a heart somewhat. I ignore the sound of gunshots behind me as I zigzag my way to the captain’s room. It’s locked, but I kick the knob five times before it breaks off. The door swings open, and something comes flying at me.
“Whoa! Nina?”
“You aren’t Frankie.” Nina eyes me, well, as much as she can. She sports a nasty black eye. That eye is swollen halfway shut. Her one arm dangles by her side.
“Nope. Isabella. Strol and I came to rescue you.”
“Strol?” she asks.
“Come on.”
I usher her out of there to realize that it’s complete chaos on the deck. Frankie has more like a dozen and a half men, and they’re running around like crazy. Strol doesn’t have a weapon, but he has a hold of some guy and is using him as a human shield. Frankie is screaming at his men to fire, but they aren’t listening. Good. I wouldn’t know what to think if Strol got his human shield killed.
I slink down to make myself as small of a target as possible and motion for Nina to follow.
That’s when the plane stops hovering.
The men all shriek, and Frankie races to the steering wheel. We’ve drifted some from the spot where the plane hovered, but as she falls out of the sky, we’re too close. The boat just narrowly misses being hit, but the wave that’s generated causes the boat to nearly capsize.
Despite the chaos and the heavy rocking of the boat, water covering the entire deck, Nina and I make it to where Strol is.
There's no real choice in the matter because we have to get to safety. That's our first objective.
“We need to—” I shout.
“Jump!” Strol agrees.
We race over to the railing. Strol lost his human shield before we reached him, and he jumps onto the railing.
Nina jumps first. Strol and I nod, and we jump together. It’s not easy for Nina to swim with her one arm, so Strol has her wrap her good arm around his neck, and he carries her.
Frankie, the bastard, gets his boat moving a lot faster than I would’ve thought possible. He’s hightailing it out of here. As for the ship, it’s sinking fast, and my stomach churns. Did Kyle get out of there in time? Just because he associates with Frankie doesn’t mean I want him dead. I don’t necessarily want Frankie dead either. I’d rather he rot behind bars for the rest of his life. Kidnapping is no joke, and he at least fought and beat up Nina. Who knows if he did worse.
Eventually, we make our way to shore, and I struggle to find a silver lining. Yes, we did it. Well, partially. We’ve managed to save Nina, that fucker Frankie and his goons still need to be captured.
“Don’t you worry,” I tell Nina. “We’ll get them.”
“I want to help,” she says stubbornly.
On impulse, I hug her. “I’m sure you do, but your arm…”
"It's not broken," she protests. "It just needs to be popped back in. I dislocated it once when I fell out of a tree when I was seven years old. I broke my first bone when I was three. I might've given my parents a few heart attacks over the years." She grins. "I want to give them hell."
“I’m sure you do, but for now, how about we go see your parents and friends?” I urge. “They’re worried sick about you.”
Nina hangs her heard. “You’re right, but if I do that, that means I won’t be able to go after them. There’s no way my parents will agree to that. They might not even let me out of their sight to go to Kuria now!”
“Oh, I doubt that. You’re too headstrong for that,” Strol says. “Besides, you’ll be away from Frankie and his ilk if you’re on Kuria.”
“True.” She eyes him. “Are they all as big as you?”
“Just about.”
She nods slowly. “It’s not about the sex. That’s not why I want to go. Something inside of me is calling for me to go there, and I want to help. I heard that they’re starting to build levitating cities, aren’t they?”
“That’s the plan. It hasn’t started yet.”
“Good. I want to be a part of that. I studied some engineering, and I really want to help with that. Plus, they do need women, and if I happen to fall in love…” She scowls. “That’s what most people don’t talk about. That I want to go because of my brain, not because of my body and wanting to spread my legs. But no. That doesn’t fit Frankie’s narrative, so he spread to everyone who would listen that I was a whore.”
I hesitate. “He said something about…”
“What? That we were dating? We never did. We happened to be at a bar once. My friends were late, and I claimed a table for us. He sat down next to me, tried to be all touchy-feely, and I wouldn’t have it. I almost broke his finger. If he kept it up, I was thinking about stabbing him with a fork. I wanted nothing to do with him.”
“I’m sorry, Nina.”
She waves the hand of her good arm. “Don’t worry about it, but, ah, do you think you can pop my shoulder back into the joint? I hate doing it myself.”
“I’ll do it,” Strol says.
I flinch and look away. I’m not much of a wuss, but the noise always gets to me. It does this time, too, and my stomach churns.
“Come on,” I say after she’s ready. “Let’s get you home. Strol and I will handle Frankie. I promise.”
“Thank you,” she says warmly.
“Don’t mention it,” Strol says grimly, and I know he’s furious about the goons evading our grasp.
But not for long.
17
Strol
It’s maddening how things went down. Yes, I’m grateful we could rescue Nina. There’s no issue there, but
