Authors: Katherine Irons

Waterborne (32 page)

BOOK: Waterborne

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He ran around the house with her dangling over his shoulder like a sack of grain. “Alex!” she screamed. “Alex?”

“Catch her!” he roared.

The next thing she knew, she was flying through the air. Dewi groaned as he caught her, rocked back, and caught his balance. “What’s wrong with you?” he demanded. “The mission’s over.”

“But Alex—”

Alex grabbed her hand. “Are you going to stand here and get us all killed? Over the rim! Dive! Dive!”

The scream of ATV engines blasted just before the first bullets pinged around them. Dewi went over the edge first.

“Do as I say, woman!” Alex ordered. “Dive deep!”

This time, Ree acted. She leaped off the terrace, vaguely aware of Alex beside her. It seemed as if she fell for hours, but eventually cool salt water closed over her. Bullets sprayed the surface of the ocean but deflected harmlessly as the three of them continued down and down until they finally reached the white sand floor.

Alex caught her and pulled her hard against him. “Did you mean it?” he asked. “Will you marry me and be my queen?”

She stared hard at him and touched his face, then burst into tears again. “I thought you were dead,” she said. “I saw you ... I saw ... How ...”

Dewi’s laughter pierced her confusion. “Illusion, Ree. He threw his image over that man you called Nick. Varenkov thought it was Alex and shot his own bodyguard.”

Alex kissed her so long and passionately that she nearly forgot to breathe. She put her arms around his neck and hugged him as hard as she could. “I thought I’d lost you,” she cried. “I thought you were dead.” Then she remembered Varenkov. “We missed him again, didn’t we,” she said. “It was all for nothing.”

“You didn’t miss him.” Bleddyn’s deep voice came out of the shadows. “You killed him right after he killed Nick.”

“I shot Varenkov?”

“Didn’t Bleddyn just say so?”

“But how did he get out of the house?” Ree asked.

“He wasn’t in the house,” Alex said. “He must have been taking a walk as he did nightly on the yacht.”

“Not a bad mission,” Dewi said. “We were on the island, what, Alex? Maybe fifteen human minutes? Bleddyn took out a helicopter, two ATVs and four of Varenkov’s men. You killed the Russian, and Alex got Nick.”

“Strictly speaking, Varenkov got Nick,” Ree corrected. “Alex did get that first guard. What, exactly, did you do, Dewi?”

That brought a round of laughter from all of them, including Dewi, who followed it up by saying, “Don’t tell Anuata that. She’ll never let me live it down.”

Alex motioned to his two companions and nodded.

“I think that means we’re to make ourselves scarce,” Bleddyn said.

“Maybe we’d better,” Dewi agreed. “I can’t stand it when Alex gets all soft and mushy with a woman.”

Alex threw him a look; they both laughed again and swam off. Alex kissed Ree again. “It’s too late to change your mind,” he said. “You’re in for the whole game now.”

“You intend to accept the crown. You’ve decided to give up all this fun and be king?”

“Only if you’ll be beside me.”

“As your wife?” she said, her pulse racing faster than it had when she’d been dodging bullets back at Varenkov’s villa.

“As my wife and my queen,” he answered. “You took out Varenkov. You won.”

“And what did I win?”

“Me.” He grinned at her, and then he kissed her again. Suddenly, Ree knew in her heart that she’d finally found exactly where she belonged—with this man—now and forever.

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