Seven Nights

by Kristin Daniels

  Even though a huge part of him already did…

  Her shoulders slumped and she momentarily closed her eyes. “Oh hell. No, no. I’m the one who should be sorry. I hate guilt trips. Yet here I am, laying a big one on you.”

  There was a good chance he’d regret saying this—because, Jesus, what if she took him up on it—but he had to at least put it out there. He had to offer her the same out, just as she’d done with him earlier this afternoon. “Listen, if you want me to go, I will. Like you said to me, if this is too hard…”

  Garrett told him if he took off before the end of the week it would only make her all the more upset, but now Evan wasn’t so sure. Leaving was the last thing he wanted to do, but he’d hop on his Monster and light out of here if it meant he wouldn’t end up hurting her any more than he already had.

  “No. God no. I also said I wasn’t ready for this to end and I truly meant that. I love being with you, Evan. I love the fun we’ve had. I love the way you look at me and the incredible way you make me feel. No one besides Garrett has ever made me feel the way you do.”

  His throat tightened, but somehow he managed to swallow past it. She’d given him the exact answer he wanted. And the one he also dreaded. “Then I’ll stay.”

  “Good,” she said quietly.

  He shared a smile with her, one that erupted out of happiness, but one that was alternately laced with so much apprehension. He was a fool to think he was going to walk away from this—from her—unscathed. All week long, from the instant she’d meandered into that hotel bar the first night of the convention, she’d been leaving her mark on him. He’d already memorized her laugh. He licked his lips now and could taste her on his tongue. He could feel her sandwiched between him and Garrett—from the heat coming off her skin down to the scent of her arousal dancing under his nose—and he honestly couldn’t think of anything more ideal for him than this, than them.

  And it killed him to know he was going to have to turn his back on all of it.

  He’d do it, though. When the time came, he’d pull strength from some unknown place inside him and do it. He simply didn’t have any other choice.

  “Medium rare?” he asked, changing the subject.

  “What? Oh, the steaks. Yes, absolutely.”

  When she drew her feet out of Garrett’s grip and made her way around the table to help him out at the grill, Evan noticed a lightness to her eyes and a calmness in her demeanor that wasn’t there just moments before. Every part of him loved that she felt better, even as a sense of foreboding prickled its way through his own body. Because when the time came to move on, he didn’t know which of them was going to be more torn apart.

  Her or him.

  Chapter Nine

  By the time they’d arrived at Destin’s harbor the next evening, the day on the water for most vacationers was beginning to wind down. Evan, Garrett and Riley, on the other hand, were just getting started.

  The place was a tourist attraction as well as a working marina, what with all the shops, galleries, restaurants and tawdry summer drink stands lining the boardwalk that led to the docks. Every water-related rental you could think of was within a short walk. They passed pontoons for families, party boats for groups, a slew of jet skis for the speed-freak types, and fishing boat after fishing boat docked for the night before they came upon the Sunset Tryst at the far end. She was a forty-footer, sleek, gorgeous and just as Evan’s buddy had said, it was loaded up and ready to go with everything they’d need for a night out on the Gulf.

  It didn’t take any time at all for them to stow their gear and idle their way through the no-wake zone. Once they made it into the lagoon, they sped past the entrance to the harbor and took off at a steady clip out into the Gulf of Mexico.

  The waters were amazingly calm and against the evening sky they were the most breathtaking shade of blue-green. Evan stood at the helm while Riley and Garrett lounged on the bench seat behind him. He followed the boat’s GPS and had planned to travel to a set of coordinates thirty miles out, but once they’d gone that far, he opted to go to another spot ten miles further south. There was a certain serenity to this, to being out here on the open water with the wind in his face, to traveling toward a darkening nothingness while being in the peaceful company of two people he was beginning to really care about.

  As the last of the day’s sun faded behind the horizon, Evan throttled the boat back and let her come to a rest in what looked to be the middle of nowhere. He killed the engine and dropped anchor as the gentle splashing of the waves against the hull seamlessly replaced the low rumble of the motor.

  “This is as good a spot as any,” he said. “Ready to get started?”

  “Oh God,” Riley muttered as Garrett jumped to his feet and rubbed his hands together. “Sure,” she said after a moment. She stood as well, grabbing onto Garrett’s arm to steady herself when the boat rocked slightly.

  Garrett widened his stance and slipped his arm around her waist. “Come on now. Get your sea legs under you, babe.”

  She elbowed him in the gut. “Hush. I’m fine. Let’s do this,” she said to Evan.

  “That’s the spirit. First up, we ready the gear. Then we hang the chum.”

  “Even the word sounds disgusting. Chum. Yuck.”

  Evan chuckled. “No worries, it’s frozen. I promise it smells a lot better that way than it would if it were fresh.”

  She teased him by giving him a half-smile, and he hoped he’d chipped away at a little of her nervousness.

  Since the sky hadn’t yet completely darkened and Evan wanted them both to experience the full effects of a nighttime shark fishing adventure, he took his time getting the gear out and ready. He chose two heavy-duty rods with Penn 50 wide reels, killing even more time as he explained in detail the drag and speed shift systems and the adjustable clicker settings to Garrett—who had to have known what he was doing simply by all the in-depth questions he was asking in return. Riley stood nearby, listening in between stolen glances overboard. Evan hadn’t yet turned on the underwater lights so she couldn’t see anything that might already be swimming beneath them, but that didn’t stop her from repeatedly looking.

  He pulled out the rest of the gear, setting the rod harness and a pair of wire cutters aside but within reach. After he placed the rods into holders secured to the boat, the only thing he had left to do was bait the massive hooks and ready the chum.

  An impressive array of stars began to pop up as the twilight sky gave way to pure middle-of-the-night blackness. The moon rose high, cutting through the now ebony-colored water with a dramatic streak of shimmering white, but it wasn’t bright enough for Evan to finish up what needed to be done. He flipped the boat’s deck lights on and with Garrett’s help readied the bait. They hooked twenty-pound, whole black fin tunas to each of the lines before tethering a mesh bag filled with a frozen block of ground fish and blood—and whatever else rounded out his buddy’s chum recipe—to a heavy-duty, braided line attached to the aft of the boat.

  “Okay, here we go.” Evan looked to Garrett. “Care to do the honors?”

  Garrett looked as hyped up as a kid in a candy store. “Hell yes. Give me that.”

  He unceremoniously chucked the frozen hunk of chum over the side with a loud ker-plop. Evan waited a moment, then cast each of the rod’s lines out into the darkness, one starboard and the other portside. Without a word, he killed most of the deck lights, trading them for the muted underwater ones he turned on instead. There wasn’t a sound to be heard, nothing but the mesmerizing slosh-slosh-slosh of the water slapping lightly against Sunset Tryst’s hull.

  “Now,” he said quietly, “We wait.”

  As far as Riley was concerned, they could wait all night. The ride out here had been beautiful, the sunset spectacular. And okay, so she’d never seen this many stars anywhere else. None of that, however, was enough to make her feel even a fraction better.

  They were still out here in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by pitch black, being c
ircled by killers that could sometimes weigh as much as a small car. Ones that wouldn’t hesitate to rip into you with their razor-sharp teeth and tear you to shreds.

  Her stomach lurched at the thought as Evan and Garrett expectantly peered over the edge of the boat. They were pumped, she knew they were. Their enthusiasm sped through her own body, only difference there being that hers ended with zings of fear instead of the hyped-up anticipation she knew was raging through their bloodstreams.

  No, what she felt now was a prickly apprehension mixed with a sense of dread. What if they actually got a bite? What if a bull or tiger or, Lord forbid, even a great white shark actually chomped on the line and took off?

  She nudged in between them and peeked into the water. The lighting below glowed in the blue-green depths and a shiver raced up her spine despite the warm Gulf air. “You know guys, I’m not so sure about this.”

  Before they had the chance to respond, a shadow moved under the water. She saw it first off to the side, at the far end of the boat. Then again seconds later, deeper, at the furthest reaches of the underwater beams.

  Then it was gone.

  Oh God Oh God Oh God.

  “Did you see that?” she asked. “Was that one?”

  Evan bowed further over the side. “I saw it. It might’ve been, yeah.”

  Garrett hooked his arm around her and tucked her in closer by his side, but it didn’t help. Not when he was practically bouncing from being so excited and she was freaked to the bone. “Breathe, babe. Everything’s going to be fine.”

  She loved everything about Garrett—except when he told her that. How many times had he said those exact words to her only to have things not end up being fine? Like when he broke his wrist the first time he snowboarded down Devil’s Run. Or the time he came home with a dozen stitches across his shoulder after a weekend of white-water rafting with his buddies. He was an eternal optimist—and a thrill-seeker. A dangerous combination on the best of days.

  A deadly one on the worst.

  They all stood at the boat’s railing, stretching to peer overboard for what seemed like ages—only to see nothing else. Schools of smaller fish darted around haphazardly under the lights, but nothing as large as that first shadow. And Riley was good with that. The longer they waited, the more the stiffness in her shoulders and back eased. The more her nerves calmed. The easier it was to draw in that breath Garrett had told her to take.

  After a while, she actually got a little bored. The guys boomeranged from side to side, searching the water over and over again but coming up empty. She passed the time by lounging on the rear bench and gazing into the star-dotted sky. Evan surprised her by plopping down next to her and slinging his arm across the seat behind her.

  “Orion’s Belt is there,” he said, pointing high above them. He searched some more and pointed again. “The dippers are over there.”

  “So you’re an astronomer too?” she whispered.

  He laughed a little. “Not even close. Sorry, but that’s about the extent of my constellation knowledge.”

  “It really is gorgeous out here. So quiet. Not to mention a little freaky.”

  “Freaky? Why?” Garrett slid in beside her, effectively squishing her between the two men.

  “Why? Because we’re in the middle of nowhere. No one else is around. We’re all alone out here.”

  “I think it’s peaceful,” Garrett added, skimming his hand up her thigh. “How often do you get the opportunity to see the night sky like this? To really be away from everything and everyone?”

  “I guess. We just seem to be too alone, is all.”

  “No such thing,” Garrett murmured into her ear before gently kissing her neck.

  Hmm, maybe he had a point, but she still found the whole experience creepy. She couldn’t fault his method of trying to make her more comfortable, though. Maybe if she distracted them in just the right way, they’d forget about all this shark-catching nonsense. Maybe if she were to—

  Garrett’s lips froze on her neck when the starboard reel clicked for the first time. A second later, it clicked again. Their stares shot over to the rod. None of them breathed. Not one of them moved.

  They weren’t alone any longer.

  Something was there, close by. She knew it. The hair at the back of her neck stood on end. A chill scurried over her skin. Garrett and Evan bolted to their feet, but she couldn’t get her arms or legs to work. This was what she was afraid of.

  This was what her men had been waiting all night for.

  The heavy, methodical clicking of the reel vibrated through the hull of the boat and seeped into her bones. Her heart began to pound. Her mouth went dry. She watched as the taut line slowly traveled from the reel, up through the rod’s roller guides and out into the dark.

  “Okay, let’s do this,” Evan said, breaking her trance.

  Somehow, she managed to spring to her feet as Evan grabbed the rod harness and handed it off to Garrett. She wanted to scream as he strapped it on, or at the very least beg him to please, please not do this. But all she could do was stand there in shock as the clicking of the reel sped up. As Evan manhandled the large fishing rod. As he and Garrett mounted the rod onto the harness’s fighting belt.

  “Remember, you’ve got to feel that pop of the hook in her jaw or she’s going to get away from you. Do it fast. Do it like you mean it.”

  Garrett nodded once and braced himself before yanking sharply on the reel as Evan stepped back. With how well she knew her husband, she shouldn’t have been surprised by how quickly and naturally he carried out Evan’s instructions. Anyone on the outside peering in would be easily convinced that Garrett wasn’t the shark-fishing-expedition virgin he truly was. Just by looking at him, they wouldn’t hesitate to believe that he had spent his entire life out here on the water and that he had spent it by being a deep-sea fisherman.

  “Yeah, baby. Got her. I got her.” Garrett practically growled the words out as he arched his back and started to crank on the reel. He grimaced. He pulled. He swore.

  Just like that, his deadly tug-of-war began.

  Evan leapt to the railing and scanned the water. He pointed down, but Riley hadn’t gotten there fast enough to see. “She’s a big one.”

  Oh God, of course she was.

  Riley white-knuckled the railing next to Evan, searching the water as Garrett let up on the line and then reeled it in again. The rod bowed to the point where she thought it might snap in two.

  And then she spotted it.

  The shark glided through the glowing underwater lights before circling back into the darkness once again. Jesus, Evan had been right. She was fricking huge.

  A ball of ice formed in her gut as the beast snapped back around with a shake of its massive head. The harsh tug on the line knocked Garrett off balance. He regained his footing quickly, but that didn’t keep Riley’s stomach from plunging straight to her feet.

  “Garrett! Be careful!”

  He didn’t stop scowling at her plea, nor did he ease up on the way he worked at that reel. But she knew “careful” had a different meaning for her than it did for him. She hadn’t expected him to stop. She knew there was no way he would, not until that shark had been reeled in close enough to the side of the boat to consider her caught.

  “You’ve got her,” Evan said. “Keep going.”

  Keep going? They were insane. She was insane for being out here with them. Heaven above, she didn’t know what she’d do if—

  The monster changed direction again, yanking hard on the line and jerking Garrett off center once more. His shins smacked into the railing with a sharp skin-on-fiberglass crack before he caught and steadied himself. He bit out a strangled “Shit,” as his forearm, biceps, shoulder and chest muscles contracted. Riley’s own muscles screamed in protest just from watching his struggle.

  Her heart cramped when the shark jolted him again.

  God, she couldn’t take much more of this. Garrett strained against the forward momentum the shark crea
ted and alternately cranked on the reel, repeating the motion over and over. He widened his footing and clutched the rod in his fists as if it was his only lifeline.

  Evan tugged on a pair of heavy-duty work gloves before gripping the railing yet again. “She’s a ten-footer, minimum. Tiger, I think.”

  Garrett continued to battle the drag on the line. “I knew sharks were strong, but holy hell…”

  The shark changed course again with a flip of her powerful tail, soaking all three of them and the deck of the boat in a single massive splash. Still Garrett didn’t let up. Five minutes quickly became ten, then barreled into twenty, but he never once eased up.

  Riley was damn near beside herself. “Enough. Cut the line. Let her go. Something!”

  “No, don’t!” Garrett shouted. “I…” He cranked on the reel. “Got…” He heaved on the rod. “This.”

  Lord have mercy, no he didn’t.

  When he went to crank the reel again, it wouldn’t budge. Somehow, quicker than she could steal a breath, it had completely locked up. Garrett threw a look at Evan. Panic riddled his eyes. He tried the reel again.

  Nothing.

  Oh hell. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all.

  Evan lunged toward Garrett. “The drag system—”

  The rest of his sentence was bitten off. It was as if the shark knew exactly what was happening up on the boat deck and she wasn’t beyond taking advantage of the situation. This was her chance.

  She was so out of here.

  Only problem was, Garrett was still attached to the rod harness. Riley screamed. Evan lurched. But none of that did any good.

  Garrett flew over the railing and out into the black water right along with the shark.

  Chapter Ten

  “No!”

  Riley’s scream burned her throat as Garrett disappeared into the water. She lunged, stretching over the side, reaching out to him—for his leg, his foot, for, God, any part of him—but he was already gone.