“I get that, but I thought we’d be safe here.”
“You are,” he said. “Stretch out and sleep.”
“Right,” she said, looking a little confused.
“We’re only here for a little while,” he said. “We’re meeting up with somebody else. When we do, we’ll be moving on.”
“Right,” she said, “so basically just roll over and crash. No nightclothes. No …?”
He immediately shook his head. “No, just in case we have to move fast.”
“Well, that tells me where we’re at relationship-wise, so fair warning right there,” she said, with a sigh. But obediently she rolled over onto her side, pulled her pillow under her head, and asked, “Do you have an ETA for when we’ll hit home?”
“Two to three days,” he said.
“Still that long?”
“Remember. It’s all about safety and security, not about speed.”
“Got it,” she said. She closed her eyes, and, just as she went under, Diesel spoke.
“By the way, how’s that neck?”
“Nonexistent,” she said, with a wave of her hand. “It’s totally fine.”
“Good,” he said. “I’m sorry we had to do it.”
“I’m not,” she said, her eyes popping open. “I’m just grateful that you found it.”
“Me too,” he said. And, at that, he sat back and let her sleep. As soon as she was out, he pulled out his laptop and immediately signed into the Mavericks chat window and registered with Shane where they were and how far they had made it. Jerricho’s sleeping, and I’m on first watch.
Shane immediately typed back, Any danger?
No.
Good. Get some sleep.
Can’t. On watch.
You should be good for a bit, Shane came back.
Yeah, my nerves won’t settle, he snapped. I’ll stay awake.
Good, then work out the rest of your plan.
Already done, he wrote a trifle smugly.
At that, he signed off and researched a little more on her family and the company she worked for. It wasn’t the company’s full-time responsibility to keep her safe per se, but it did bring up some interesting questions about their manipulating media in order to keep investors involved. And, of course, anybody looking at hiring after something like this would keep a watch on the company. And still the kidnapping could have been completely random.
But now that they had found that tracker on Eva, Diesel was definitely a little worried. They had gotten free and clear, and the tracker couldn’t possibly make it out to where they were, so he wasn’t sure what was still bugging him. He also didn’t know how long that tracker had been in there, and that was a concern too. But it was just one of many.
Unable to rest, he found articles on her father and read them avidly and about the lake he fished at and an interview. And then switched to her file on her mother and her brother and any other family members. But it was pretty scant information. Finally he closed his laptop, leaned his head back, and just dozed.
Every slightest movement had his eyes popping open to check to make sure all was well. But absolutely nothing was wrong, and, for that, he was grateful. By the time the four hours were up, he was ready to snooze. As he stood and opened the door, Jerricho walked toward him. “It’s all clear,” Diesel said.
“Good,” Jerricho said. “Why don’t you stay in there and sleep? I’ll sit out here in one of the other rooms, with the door open, just to make sure we don’t get any unexpected visitors.”
Diesel nodded. “I can’t see it happening,” he said, “but …”
“But,” Jerricho said, “we can’t let down our guard, just in case.”
With that, Diesel curled up beside Eva and fell asleep.
Chapter 13
Eva woke up the next day to a repeat of the previous day. They went on another ship, met another ship, switched over, met another ship, switched over. And by the time she woke up two mornings later, she looked over at Diesel, who at this point was just sleeping beside her and holding her in his arms anytime they were alone. She smiled, reached up, stroked his cheek, and asked, “Did you get any sleep?”
Diesel just grunted.
She chuckled, got up, and said, “I’ll have a shower.”
“Do that,” he said. “We land in an hour.”
She stopped, turned, and looked at him. “Seriously?”
“Yes.”
She gave a crow of delight and raced into the shower. By the time she was done, out, and dressed, she noticed that her clothes from the previous day were hung on the doorknob. “I didn’t even question why you told me to strip down last night,” she said. “I was so tired.”
“I just wanted to make sure we got clean clothes,” he said, sitting up, giving her a nice view of his chest. “I’ll hop into the shower myself. Then we have breakfast and will see where the lay of the land is.”
“Well, once I gave up worrying about it,” she said, “I have to admit that this has been quite an adventure.”
“And that’s a good way to look at it too,” he said, with a smile. “Just don’t forget that, you know, theoretically danger is still all around us.”
“And that’s so hard to believe,” she said. “I mean, it just seems so surreal.”
“Maybe, but that doesn’t change it though.”
She nodded and watched as he walked into the bathroom, very naked, and smiled because he was just such a prime male. She deliberately turned her back as his heavily muscled cheeks walked past her. At the bathroom, he asked, “Are you okay?”
She snorted. “I’m fine,” she said.
He looked at her with an odd glint in his eye.
She just laughed and said, “Go. Have your shower.”
He shrugged and headed into the bathroom, and, when he came back out again, he had only a towel wrapped around him. She deliberately turned her gaze away and walked to stare out at the ocean. From what she saw, it was nothing but water and blue sky and just this faint line where the two met. “It’s hard to believe just how vast the ocean is,” she murmured.
“It is, indeed,” he said. She heard
