Page 73 of Take Me Back
His eyes bulge. “Crash it? No fucking way!”
“You’ll be fine as long as you dive off before it blows.”
* * *
He calls me a crazy motherfucker a half dozen times as we motor in as close to the island as we can get without drawing attention. I turn off the engine, and we paddle the rest of the way. I untie him so he can help, but keep the gun close at hand.
Once we’re close enough for me to swim to the beach, I take off my shirt and cut it into a few long strips. Opening the red plastic gas tank, I shove one end of the strips inside and pull them out when they’re soaked. I loosen the hose leading to the engine and tie the end around it, before reaching into the compartment below the helm and pulling out the dry bag with the lighter and the cigarettes.
He shakes his head at what I’m doing. “You’re gonna kill me. No way that thing doesn’t explode before I get there.”
“It’ll take a minute for the flame to work its way up the fabric to the hose, and for the gas inside the hose to ignite.” I’m mostly sure about that. This isn’t rocket science. “All you have to do is point the boat at the beach, make sure the throttle is tied down, and dive off before it gets there. The gas will do the rest.”
At least, I really fucking hope so. It’s been a while since I rigged explosives, and it was never my best skill.
“If I get dead, I’m gonna haunt your ass.”
“You don’t go through with the plan, and I’m going to hunt you down—”
“And make me wish I’m dead before you kill me. Got it.”
I flick the lighter and nothing happens.
Fuck. This whole diversion rests on a shitty lighter that might not work.
“Give it to me.”
I hand it over to him, and he shakes it and smacks it against the side before trying again.
Flame. Thank God.
I tuck the gun into the dry bag and seal it up before tying it to my shorts. The knife goes in my cargo pocket.
My heartbeat slows, just like it would before I’d rappel down the ropes from a chopper.
I got this. This is what I do. This is in my blood. This is who I fucking am.
No one takes my wife from me.
I grab the lighter from him and ignite the hem of the gas-soaked shirt. It catches immediately, and I slip over the edge.
“You better fucking go.”
He gives me a nod. “Good luck.”
That’s when we hear a gunshot and the screams.
Chapter 33
Kat
Someone screams uncontrollably, and until Vander stomps across the room and grabs me by the hair, I don’t realize it’s me.
“Shut the fuck up. You want to scream? I can give you a reason to scream.”
He drags me out of the one-room hut onto a sandy beach, pausing when the sound of an engine comes roaring out of the distance. Anton is nowhere in sight.
“What the fuck?”
