She gasped, her nails digging into his back, and wrapped her legs around his waist until he sank deeper.
“Nothing between us.” Her eyes blazed amber fire. “Not this time. Not ever again.”
The words were kerosene on the fire of his passion and he moved inside her, pulling out and driving into her again, watching her face as he occupied every inch of her body.
He wanted to go slow, to savor the moment when they were finally one, but he could feel her climbing toward climax, could feel it in the tightening of her pussy as it clamped down on his shaft, the urgency in her hips as she rose to meet him.
“I’m going to come, Ronan,” she gasped.
He didn’t want her to hold back. He didn’t want her to ever hold anything back again.
“Come for me, beautiful.”
She cried out into the room, her body shuddering under his, and his own release took hold.
He pushed through her swollen channel, thrusting again and again, pouring himself into her until they were both panting and spent, until he knew for sure there was nothing more between them.
28
Ronan was asleep when Julia slipped out of bed. They’d heard Nick, Braden, and Nora come in at some point in the night, but neither of them had wanted to break the spell of their time alone. They’d lain in bed, laughing softly so no one would hear and hoping everyone would think they were asleep. Then they’d made love again, this time slowly and quietly, like they were both trying to memorize every moment in case it was their last.
She put on Ronan’s shirt and slipped onto the terrace off the bedroom. The moon was just a crescent, but the sky was so clear it lit up the sea below.
She looked past the boats docked in the marina, her eyes on the horizon. She knew Elise was out there, could feel her sister’s presence. Could Elise see the moon from a window onboard the Elysium? Did she know she was off the coast of Greece? Did she know what was about to happen to her?
It didn’t matter. At this time tomorrow night, it would all be over. Either they would have Elise or they wouldn’t. Either they would make it out alive, or they wouldn’t.
She walked herself through the night ahead: the boat that would take them into position, the night dive to the Elysium, their breach of the yacht, the moment when she and Ronan would split off from Braden and Nick, their search of the cabins for Elise.
She knew she was the weak link in the team, the one with no experience, but she was determined not to be a liability. Like everyone else, she would be armed, and she wouldn’t hesitate to use her weapon if it meant saving her sister, if it meant saving any of them.
She’d avoided calling her grandfather with an update since Florence. She wanted the next call she made to him to be the one where she told him Elise was safe and sound. False hope was too hard to bear, and he’d borne more than his share of it since their trip to Dubai.
She imagined her and Elise back at her gramps’ house, sitting on the deck while he grilled steaks, both of them wrapped in one of his old blankets and drinking homemade lemonade while he told them about his latest strongly worded letter to the editor of the local newspaper.
The moment felt both impossible and close enough to touch.
“Hey.” Ronan’s hands came down on her shoulders. He kissed her neck and a shiver ran up her spine. “You okay?”
She turned in his arms and nodded, then touched her lips to his. “I’m sorry if I woke you.”
“Don’t be. I don’t want to sleep without you.”
A few weeks ago the words would have terrified her. They would have felt like a jinx on an already precarious situation. Now she knew her relationship with Ronan had never been precarious: it had only been her faith in herself that had been shaky, and that had been nothing but an old story she’d told so many times that she’d believed it without question when it had been flawed all along.
“I don’t want to sleep without you either.” He pulled her closer and she looked up at him, thinking about where they would be the following night. “Is it going to be okay?”
It was something she wouldn’t have dared ask a few weeks earlier. She’d been holding her doubts close, not wanting them to seep into the consciousness of Ronan or Nick or Declan, wanting them to believe she was a hundred percent certain they were going to find Elise, get her out alive, make it out alive themselves.
“Nothing between us?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “But I will promise you one thing.”
“Okay.” A promise from Ronan was one she could take to the bank. Whatever it was, she would cling to it with both hands.
“Whatever happens tomorrow night, I won’t rest until whoever did this pays, one way or another.”
She tightened her arms around him and rested her cheek against his bare chest.
His words should have given her comfort. Instead they had the hint of a bad omen. She couldn’t help feeling that it was too good to be true — setting things right with Ronan, getting Elise out alive, going about her life like she was a normal person, a person who deserved happiness.
Believing it was harder than it should have been.
29
Ronan checked a stack of ammo before setting it into the black duffel on the terrace. He was checking the ammo while Nick did a last-minute check of the weapons and Braden inventoried the grenades and other supplies.
They’d been working quietly for the past half hour, each of them checking off boxes in their mental checklists that would ensure they were prepared for anything. The supply check was soothing and Ronan was glad when Nora had convinced Julia to spend an hour on the beach. He’d been able to feel Julia’s tension, to see it in the way she held her body too tight, her spine straight enough to snap while she paced the house.
It was a reminder of all that was at stake, a reminder that she was inexperienced, that as much as the Elysium was a wild card, Julia was one too, and her own safety was the biggest thing at stake.
“Something you want to say?”
He glanced up to find Nick’s eyes on him. Braden was still working, counting out tear gas grenades and setting them in the duffel, but Ronan wasn’t fooled. Braden would be listening to every word.
Ronan sat back on his heels. Having siblings who knew you so well was a blessing and a curse.
“I want you to promise to get her out,” he said.
Nick’s jaw was set, his eyes hard. “That’s the idea.”
“You know what I mean,” Ronan said.
“Maybe you should spell it out,” Nick said.
“I want you to get Julia out no matter what.”
Nick held his gaze. “No matter what?”
“No matter what.” Ronan was going to leave it at that but decided to make it crystal clear, just to make sure there wouldn’t be any room for Nick to squirm out of it later. “If you have to leave me behind, leave me behind. If you have to sacrifice me, sacrifice me. But whatever happens, you get Julia out alive.”
“That’s the mission now?” It wasn’t really a question.
“That’s the mission. In a perfect world, we get Elise too. But the prime directive is to get Julia out alive,” Ronan said.
Nick set down the semiautomatic weapon in his hand and stood. “So this isn’t a rescue mission anymore. It’s an exercise for Julia.”
Ronan stood, unfurling himself to his full height until he was looking down slightly at his younger brother. “It’s a rescue mission with a caveat: if the rescue means sacrificing Julia, we abort.”
“At any cost?” There was a challenge in Nick’s eyes.
“At any cost.”
“Jesus…” Nick turned away, running his hands through his hair before turning back to face Ronan with his eyes blazing. “Are you sure you’re thinking with the head on top of your neck?”
Ronan’s voice was low. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”
“It’s an honest question,” Nick said.
&n
bsp; They stared each other down, Ronan’s fist balled at his sides as he tried to reign in his temper.
Braden was still kneeling on the terrace, pretending he wasn’t bearing witness to the argument.
Ronan looked at his brother, trying to think of something he could say to make Nick understand. Something that would make it clear that Ronan had thought it through, that he knew exactly what he was doing, that he would do it a hundred times over if it meant keeping Julia safe.
Nick flinched when Ronan clasped a hand on his shoulder, like his brother had expected to take a fist to the jaw.
He looked in his brother’s eyes. “I love her.”
Nick held his gaze so long Ronan wondered if he’d registered the words.
Finally he raised his hands as if in surrender, exhaling like he’d been holding his breath for a hundred years. "Fine. Fuck it. Whatever you say, Ro.”
Ronan pulled his brother into an embrace and clapped him on the back. Nick stiffened like he was surprised before leaning into the hug. Ronan couldn’t remember the last time they’d embraced.
“Thank you.”
30
Julia held onto the bench underneath her as the boat sped across dark waters. Ronan stood silently next to her, bracing himself on the back of the bench while Braden stood next to Nora, steering the boat.
Nick sat apart, silent and brooding, and Julia wondered what had happened while she’d been at the beach with Nora. They’d returned to find the men packing the last of their supplies, the tension so thick it was almost visible.
Nora had waved off her raised eyebrows. “They’ll get over it, whatever it is.”
Other than her gramps and her mother’s assorted boyfriends and husbands, Julia hadn’t spent a lot of time around men, especially those with as close and complicated a relationship as the Murphy brothers. She’d kept quiet, figuring Ronan would talk if he felt like it. They’d spent the rest of the afternoon and evening going over last minute details gleaned from the latest satellite footage of the Elysium.
They were almost positive the security detail involved two guards patrolling the deck, one at the stern and one at the back, plus one on the bridge. Julia had been surprised there weren’t more of them, but Ronan had reminded her there were likely more belowdeck.
Still, she’d felt a burst of optimism. The plan for boarding the Elysium relied on their ability to board the craft from the bow, and that meant surfacing long enough to hook a line that could be used to climb up from the water.
One guard at the front seemed manageable.
She’d played out every possible scenario for freeing Elise once they found her in one of the cabins, but she knew it wasn’t enough. There were a million things she couldn’t anticipate, and there was no way out but through.
Ronan reached for her hand and squeezed and she turned to find him looking at her. He didn’t say anything — it would be impossible to hear him over the roar of the wind and the boat’s engine — but she saw the fear in his eyes.
It was what pained her most: knowing she’d caused such a fearless man, a warrior in every sense of the word, to be afraid. She was surprised he didn’t hate her for that, hoped he wouldn’t come to in the long run.
The boat slowed to a crawl, the noise gradually lessening as the boat came to a stop.
Ronan squeezed her hand, stood, and moved to drop the anchor.
The boat bobbed in the water and Nick moved up to the digital display on the boat’s dashboard.
“Is that it?” he asked, pointing to a green shadow on the screen.
“That’s it,” said Nora. “Mark the coordinates and set your GPS.”
Nick would be their navigator, leading them through the water to the Elysium approximately half a mile away. Braden would follow behind him, then Julia, then Ronan.
Julia looked over the side of the boat and was relieved to see that the water was calm. They’d done a practice night dive two nights before and it had been more disorienting than she’d expected. She was confident she could follow Nick and Braden — and Ronan would be behind her to keep her on track — but dealing with rough waters at the same time was a challenge she had hoped not to face.
Braden reached for his tank. “Let’s suit up.”
Julia zipped up her wetsuit and started putting on the rest of her gear while Nick and Ronan did the same.
“Check your air,” Ronan reminded her.
She put on her mask and took a breath. The sound of air moving through the hoses was reassuring.
She could do this.
She held up a thumb and Ronan signaled for her to turnaround so he could check the levels on her tank and make sure the hoses were securely attached. It was a precaution he didn’t make with anyone else, but she wouldn’t fight it if it made him feel better. She was new enough to diving that the added security made her feel better too.
They lined up at the back of the boat.
“Check your comms,” Nora said.
They went through an audio check, each of them reporting in with their name. Julia wondered if their voices would sound as clear once they were underwater.
“I’ll keep the sat feed up as long as I can,” Nora said. “If it looks like you’re in trouble, I’ll either come for you myself or I’ll send help.”
Braden lifted his mask. “Send help.”
Nora’s eyes hardened and Julia got a glimpse of the tug-of-war that must go hand in hand with working in a dangerous field with your significant other. “You do your job, I’ll do mine.”
Braden glared at Nora and replaced his mask.
She looked at each of them. “Ready?”
They nodded and she turned to Nick and held up three fingers.
3… 2… 1.
Nick went over the side and Nora held up a hand, waiting a few seconds before she gave a similar countdown to Braden.
Julia waited for Braden to move away from the drop zone at the back of the boat, then looked at Ronan. She wanted to tell him she would be okay, that this would all be over soon, but there was no time.
Nora held up her fingers. Julia forced herself to breathe.
Then she was tipping over the side of the boat, the water closing in over her head as she sank through the muffled abyss.
31
Ronan didn’t dare look at his dive watch as they swam through the dark. He was too focused on Julia in front of him, too worried about losing sight of her.
Like all of them, she wore a clip light that illuminated her position, a beacon of gold that made it easier for him to keep his eyes on her, but he was all too aware of the vastness of the water around them. It would only take a few seconds for one of them to disappear.
He didn’t know how long they’d been swimming when Nick’s voice sounded in his ear over the comms system. “Coming up on the Elysium.”
Julia slowed to a stop, hovering in the water in front of him. Nick and Braden appeared next to her and pointed to the surface where the Elysium sat low and heavy in the water.
They were near the vessel’s bow, its lights cast into the water like glittering gems.
“Everybody good?” He looked at Julia when he asked the question, searching her eyes through the mask for any sign of difficulty.
“I’m good.” Julia’s voice was clear and calm.
He held her gaze before looking at Braden.
“All good.”
“Nick?” They hadn’t talked much after their conversation on the terrace, and now he wished that he’d taken more time to tell Nick how much their relationship, their shared history, meant to him.
“A-okay,” Nick said.
“Wait until I give you the all clear,” Ronan said. “Keep an eye on the current.”
It was easy to let an underwater current carry you off course. They would need to watch the Elysium to make sure they stayed in position.
He took a last look at Julia and killed his light before he ascended. There was no way to know the position of the guards while he was underwater, and
he was careful to surface quietly, staying in the shadow of the bow until he could get his bearings.
The bow of the Elysium rose twenty feet overhead, hardly moving in the water. He didn’t see anyone on deck, and he allowed himself a minute to take in the rest of the vessel, long, sleek, and ultra-modern.
The bridge rose into the night sky, the boat’s antenna shining red, announcing its presence to other boats and low-flying aircraft.
A few seconds later, footsteps sounded on the bow.
“Save me some of that ouzo,” a gruff voice said. After a pause, the man laughed and spoke again, this time from the other side of the bow. “Fuck you.”
The footsteps receded and Ronan marked the time on his dive watch. While he waited, he untied the rope looped around his waist and grasped onto the hook on one end.
He swam a few feet away from the boat and tried to gauge the force and trajectory necessary to hit one of the bow’s metal railings. He was on his fifth attempt — casting out the rope, listening to the clink and miss, pulling it back through the water to try again — when the hook finally caught on the railing.
He held onto the rope and sank under the surface, his eyes searching for the lights that marked Julia, Nick, and Braden’s position. He found them right away only a few feet from where he’d left them.
He flashed his own light to make sure they could see him. “We’re clear and tied on,” he said into the comms system. “One guard so far, and I don’t know when he’ll be back, so be quick and keep it quiet.”
Their lights rose toward him like fireflies. He waited until they’d reached his position and surfaced with them.
They pulled off their masks.
“Everybody good?”
They nodded.
“Let’s wait.”
They treaded water in silence. When footsteps sounded on the bow again, Ronan checked his watch: twenty minutes since the last check.
Murphy's Wrath (Murphy's Law Book 2) Page 12
