Chapter 36

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

TAVISH

"Tavish!"

"Daddy?"

Is it really him? It can't be. We're in the middle of the ocean.

Samuel shoves us down the stairs, bouncing us off the walls as we go. Our steps wobbly and unsteady, and we nearly fall so many times. I keep pulling at his hold, looking over my shoulder to see if I can spot Draven.

Please let him be here.

Please let him save me.

"Come on, before that big ass Viking finds us!" he yells.

Viking? That's gotta be Daddy!

I want to taunt him for fearing Draven, but I'm having so much trouble staying upright that I can't.

"Samuel, let me go. Please. I'll disappear."

"You stupid cunt."

"Please, Samuel. No one needs to know. I'll go into hiding."

"If you don't shut the fuck up, I'll make the call you don't want me to make. Now shut the fuck up. I've got to think."

She continues to beg, her eyes filled with tears, but he ignores her. Her sobs make the race below deck more and more difficult.

Then I hear Draven calling for me. "Tavish! Where are you, pojke?"

"Daddy!" I scream.

It is him! No one else calls me pojke!

Self-doubt evaporates with the knowledge, and gathering all the strength I have, I pull and push at Samuel and her, trying to get away from them both. I want my daddy, dammit.

Samuel keeps pulling us along, pushing us forward, and dragging us when we try running in the opposite direction to get away from him. I can hear Daddy behind us on the stairs.

I call out, "Daddy! Help me!"

"I'm going to kill your precious daddy. I'm going to gut him like a fucking fish and then toss him overboard," Samuel pulls me toward him and growls, threatening me.

I laugh at him. "Draven Helvig will pull those axes off his back, and when he's done with you, all you'll be good for is the chum bucket."

Her eyes flash to mine. I can see recognition dawn in her eyes. "Draven. That's who you're calling Daddy?"

Samuel lets go of her, his hand flying until the back of it explodes across her cheek. Blood spurts from her mouth and nose. It trickles from the cut the ring he wears makes on her cheekbone.

She stands up, pulls her shoulders back and says, "The boy is right. My father and grandfather trained my brother from the time he could hold those axes to wield them with a vengeance, and now that vengeance is coming for you."

"Maeve?"

She looks at me and smiles as she dips her head in agreement. "Yes."

"You fucking stupid goddamn cunt! You were told to keep your trap shut."

Samuel grabs her by her hair, bending her in half. He wraps his other arm around my bicep, squeezing it until my fingers tingle. He drags us down the hallway, away from the stairs. He descends another set of stairs. The luxury of the upper decks disappears. We're in the crew's mess, it looks like.

Maeve screams out, "Draven!" as I yell, "Daddy!"

Hopefully, Daddy heard us and knows we're not upstairs anymore.

Samuel sweeps his head from side to side as if he's lost, then he turns us, continuing down a long hallway. At the end of the hall, Samuel shoves us into a large room. The smell of diesel and oil fills my head. It's almost too much. Almost overwhelming.

He stops and shoves me toward the door. "Lock that door."

I search the door. I know nothing about boats. This is the first time I've ever been on one. I look at him over my shoulder.

"I can't. There's no lock," I reply.

His head whips around, and he points toward something with his chin. "There. Get that pole and shove it through the wheel."

I do as he tells me, but I don't think it's going to keep Draven out. The door opens into the room, not out, but I don't tell him that. Fuck if I'm going to help him keep me from my Daddy.

Samuel pushes us down another level and deeper into the bow of the boat. The walls narrow the closer we get to the front. In here, the sounds in the room are near deafening. The walls of the hull are exposed and painted, but there's no barrier to dampen the noise from the engine and ocean.

Then he stops.

Rage bellows out of him in a thunderous roar.

"Motherfucker!"

He lets go of us and paces around the room.

"Where the fuck is it?"

I have no clue what he's talking about or what could be missing. We have to be below the waterline by now. The walls of the ship aren't just narrowing toward the front; but the upper part of them is wider than at the floor, so there can't be any further down to go.

While Samuel screams and paces, I grab Maeve's arm and step backwards.

Slowly.

She follows.

We move at a snail's pace, creeping away from him, inch by inch. There's about twenty or thirty feet between us and Samuel. She looks at me and me at her. We nod at one another, then turn and take off. Our bare feet barely making a sound.

Just when I think we've gotten away, Draven's voice fills the hull, calling out my name. His voice echoes off the metal. Then the echoes echo, and it's just a cacophony of my name being repeated.

Samuel's dress shoes smack sharply on the floor behind us. I push Maeve up the stairs, rushing her so I can get up them, too, before he gets to us. If we can just get to Draven.