51. Knox

"Uh, excuse me."

Knox looked up to find Jubilee gripping the doorjamb, her knuckles white.

"I don't want another drink."

"I think Luna fell in the water."

What the actual fuck?

"You think Luna fell in the water?"

He repeated it slowly because the idea was ridiculous. Luna wouldn't even go near the edge of the boat. When she boarded, she scooted over the passerelle so fast you'd think it was on fire.

"Or maybe someone pushed her?"

Fuck, fuck, fuck.Knox grabbed a crutch, then dropped it and just gritted his teeth as he half ran, half hobbled out of the room behind Jubilee. She pointed over the railing, beyond the smaller boats berthed next to them to a commotion in the water. Splashing, shrieking, there had to be twenty bodies in there. All male apart from Luna, and where the hell were her clothes?

"Who are those men?"

"I don't know—I think they jumped in to save her."

Great, someone had already done the hard part. "Maybe you should take her a towel?"

And Knox would prepare a lesson about the dangers of getting too close to the edge, right after he delivered a lecture on never, ever going ashore without the bodyguard she was paying to accompany her at all times. Shit, he'd have to explain this to Emmy.

Then his heart stuttered.

Luna wasn't the only woman in the water.

He saw the face he'd been dreaming of for the past three weeks, the lips he'd feared he'd never kiss again. Only Caro's head was visible, and one of the wannabe heroes was with her, but she wasn't looking at him. No, she was staring at something else. Someone else. A dark-haired man stroking through the water, heading away from the scene. Aiden Kingsley. That motherfucker. Even from the deck of the Cleopatra, Knox could see the dark bruises marring Caro's beautiful features.

He also saw red.

Walking might have been a problem, but he could still swim, and he dove off the yacht, calculating speed and trajectories in his head. He could catch that asshole. Catch him and make sure he never got his hands on Knox's girl again.

Because Caro was his girl.

She might not realise it yet, but he'd convince her to come around to his way of thinking, and he'd do it with love, not by force and manipulation.

Aiden Kingsley was so focused on his destination, so convinced by his own immortality that he didn't look back. Didn't see Knox heading toward him, low in the water. When Knox got close, he ducked beneath the surface, propelled himself forward, and dragged Kingsley under like a shark snatching a turtle. After a moment of shock, the fucker began to struggle, fast realising that he was fighting for his life. Did he know who Knox was? Recognise him as the man who spent time with Caro? Knox hoped he did, wanted Kingsley to understand with his last breath who had killed him and why.

The two men grappled, experience and skill versus raw desperation. When Kingsley tried to kick for the surface, Knox pulled him under again. Kingsley was more proficient underwater than Knox had expected, but that didn't matter. This would still be his grave. Gazes met, and Knox saw the spark of recognition. But his satisfaction was quickly damped when instead of swimming upward, Kingsley dove down, arms reaching out, and grabbed Knox's thigh. Fuck. The man homed in on Knox's exit wound and pressed, forcing his thumb inside, and it was all Knox could do not to roar in agony.

He fought the inferno that shot up his leg, that weakened his hold, that flooded his brain with signals to get away, get away, get away. Knox stretched for Kingsley's head, feeling his way, ready to force nails into his eyeball. He needed a miracle, an unearthly intervention to help him fight against this blackout pain. An arm snaked around Kingsley's neck, but…but it wasn't Knox's arm. No, he was still gripping the motherfucker's head, and this arm belonged to a giant.

No, it belonged to Black.

Emmy's husband tightened his chokehold and motioned Knox away with his other hand. Get out of here. His calm, almost bored expression said he had everything under control. Knox wasn't about to disobey a direct order just to prove a point. He released his prey and shot upward, gulping in mouthfuls of air when he surfaced, keeping his face hidden among the wind-blown ripples. The crowd's attention was still fixed on Luna and Caro, but Knox still didn't want to risk being spotted. Once the pain had turned from white hot to red, he submerged and headed back to the Cleopatra, one useless leg trailing behind him.

He had to find his girl.

Jubilee gasped when he hauled himself onto the promenade, hand over hand up the trailing end of the mooring rope, and dripped blood and water across the passerelle. He scanned the shore for Caro as he grabbed a towel from a sun lounger and used it to stem the flow from his wound.

"What…what happened?" Jubilee asked, ashen.

"Tore a few stitches, that's all."

"Should I call an ambulance?"

There she was. Caro stumbled toward him like a baby fawn. Someone had given her a towel, but every bit of skin he could see was covered in bruises, some purple, some already yellowing around the edges. Her bottom lip was split and swollen, and she winced with every step she took. But she kept going.

"Yeah, call an ambulance," Knox said and limped back across the passerelle.

He wanted to gather her up in his arms and kiss her senseless, but he couldn't, not without hurting her more, plus he was still holding the damn towel against his bleeding thigh. Instead, he had to settle for running one finger down an undamaged part of her cheek.

"Did you…?" she whispered.

Knox knew exactly what she was asking. "You're safe."

She took a shaky breath and then began crying. Fuck. That wasn't the reaction he'd hoped for.

"I thought you wanted that?"

Through the tears came a barely audible "Thank you."

Better. "I'll ask ‘what the fuck?' later, but for now, I'm just going to say that I love you."

A sharp intake of breath.

"I don't expect you to say it back, not yet, but maybe someday."

"I love you," she blurted. "I can't… I can't believe I'm here."

Luna, also with a towel wrapped around her, was posing for pictures and signing autographs for her rescuers. Nobody noticed when Knox and Caro slipped back onto the Cleopatra and into the saloon. Would his blood come out of the carpet? If not, they could deduct from his paycheck because he needed to get Caro away from the cameras.

"Medics are on the way. How badly hurt are you?"

"Nothing…nothing life-threatening. A lot of bruises."

"Tell me he didn't…"

Caro cried harder, and fury boiled through Knox's veins. Now he did hug her, but ever so gently, and peppered her wet hair with soft kisses.

"I wish I could go back and kill him again, but slower."

"He's really dead?"

Knox nodded. He absolutely trusted that Black would have finished the job, but if there was any comeback, it was on him. He'd take the heat.

"Then that's all that matters. I'm here, and he's not. We won. He lost."

"We're going to get through this. Together."

She hugged him tighter. "Are the police coming? There are still men on the boat, at least two of them."

"Fuck, I should—" Knox took a step toward the stern, but Caro clung to him.

"They're not going anywhere. I hit one with a turtle, and Luna got the other with a champagne bottle. I think she might have broken his skull. The second crack sounded odd."

"A turtle?"

"I felt bad about it, but it was already dead, and I didn't want to join it. Where's Franklin? The shooting… Did he…?"

"Still in the hospital, but he's expected to recover. Volunteers have been feeding the turtles at the sanctuary."

Luna strolled in and flopped onto the nearest couch with a heavy sigh. "In ten minutes, everyone on the internet will have seen my boobs."

And Ryder would probably go feral.

"Not everyone," Knox said, trying to make her feel better. "Maybe just a few million." That didn't help much, did it? "Where's Kory?"

"Talking to the hot guy from the burrito stand. Can you save the lecture about boarding strangers' yachts for later? Because I know I'm gonna get one."

Even Caro smiled at that.

"Sure, I'll let Ryder do the honours."

Luna rolled her eyes, but then she turned to face Caro. "I'm so, so sorry I made that post. If I'd known it would lead to…to this…" She gestured at the chaos outside. "I think I might just quit social media altogether."

"It wasn't your fault."

"Really?"

"A member of the smuggling gang saw Knox and me when we were looking for Monique. They took a picture, and it found its way to Aiden. It's all connected—him, the poaching, some guy called Theron. The cops. Not Vince, but Jason Roy and Maceo Beattie, plus a bunch of others."

"Aiden told you that?" Knox asked.

"He's so fucking arrogant. He wanted me to know how successful he'd been after…after I reported him to the IRS." Another sob escaped. "I thought he'd go to prison. He cheated so much, and I spent a year gathering the evidence."

"We know," Knox said gently. "We know everything. Stanford, huh?"

She covered her face with her hands. "I should have told you. I just found it so hard to trust anyone."

"A wise woman once told me not to dwell on the past, and she was right."

"What woman?"

Was that a hint of jealousy? If it was, Knox kind of liked it.

"Relax, she's my boss."

Sirens were coming from all directions now, and as they grew louder, Caro sank onto the couch beside Luna. Fuckin' Luna. Ryder was going to lose his shit when he found out what she'd done. That she'd risked her own safety to help Caro. Maybe they could wait until tomorrow to tell him? Until after the— Shit, the operation on Malavilla.

"I need to call Emmy," Knox said, mostly to himself, but it was Black who answered. The big man strode in shirtless, drying his hair with a towel. Relaxed, casual, no hint that he'd just strangled a man and left his lifeless body for the fishes.

"I've already spoken with her."

"She's calling off the operation?"

"No, we're going ahead. Theron Voss was on the Kraken, so it's fair to say he's involved, as we suspected."

"You went on board?"

"I got curious. Thought I'd take a look around before the police arrived and tainted the scene." He glanced at his watch. In a nod to practicality, today he'd worn a Panerai Submersible, which retailed at more than Knox's monthly salary. And Knox earned good money. "I need to change. There will be questions to answer this afternoon."

Luna had one. "Did…did those men on the Kraken… Are they still alive?"

Black smiled, and his smiles were rarer than the hawksbills Caro had worked so hard to save.

"If you're ever looking to change career, I'll give you a job."