by Rachel Grant
Just like her dad to take credit for presenting her with an opportunity she didn’t want or need. “Dad, I already work for UAB. I was already on the excavation. Luke and I are the ones who found the frigging…other thing.”
“Yes, but you were just the UAB advisor on the dig. Now you’re going to be the woman in charge. You’ll be sidestepping Erica in seniority, equal to Greg on this. The star of the documentary.”
“I don’t want to sidestep Erica, and I sure as hell don’t want to star in any documentary. I’m content where I am. I need to work my way up through the ranks like anyone. Jesus, this is one of the reasons why I got into underwater archaeology, so my famous father couldn’t meddle in my career. So no one could say I got where I am because it was handed to me.”
“That’s not the reason you gave when you quit your job at the institute.”
“I said it’s one of the reasons. The other reason still stands. I won’t dive with you again.”
“But you’ll dive with Luke?”
She stiffened at his tone. “Hell yes, I’ll dive with Luke.” She glanced up to see him standing in the bedroom doorway. God, what must he think of her?
“Well, tough. I told UAB they could have Nereid for the excavation as long as you run the project. I’m bringing the boat north as soon as the storm breaks. You’ll have at your disposal an integrated side scan sonar, a multibeam sub bottom profiler, and the latest in magnetometer technology to examine the wrecks for the Navy, Coast Guard, and Attorney General’s office. And you and I are going to dive on the wreck for the opening shot of the documentary.”
His words were a sucker punch to the gut. “You would really hold the investigation hostage just to force me to dive with you again? Have you forgotten that they’re investigating why someone tried to kill me?”
“I’ll do all the remote sensing without your cooperation, but I won’t let the Navy use the boat for more than that unless you dive with me.”
“It’s really that important for you to win? One forced dive won’t change a damn thing. You were wrong about Luke twelve years ago. You’re wrong about him now.”
“I wasn’t wrong then or now. It’s time for you to take your childish blinders off and see him for what he really is. He saw a vulnerable young girl who was heir to the institute. You were his ticket into the business. He used you, Undine.”
“No, Dad. It’s time for you to take your blinders off. You felt betrayed because you were as impressed by him as I was. He was the son you never had, and that warped your view of what happened. Getting involved with me was the fastest way to the exit, not to the top. And he resisted every step of the way, but I pushed. Because I was young and stupid and selfish.”
Luke’s expression was shuttered as he listened to her side of the never-ending argument with her father.
They’d both been able to forget the past, for a few days at least, but with her father heading north, returning to that happy place would be impossible. And dammit, she was emotionally invested now. Probably even in love. She couldn’t be sure what she felt when it came to Luke, but it was something far more significant than lust.
“He didn’t know it would get him kicked out of the institute or he’d lose his scholarship. He’s a snake, Undine. Accept it and move on as I had to do. He’s damaged our relationship enough.”
“No, Dad. You damaged our relationship with your insistence he’s more to blame than he was.” She met Luke’s gaze, and a tear escaped, which she immediately wiped away. “Luke Sevick is every bit as amazing as we both thought he was twelve years ago. I betrayed him, and you kicked him in the face and stole his dreams. But he turned around and joined the Navy and served his country as an elite operator, and then he joined NOAA so he could work to study and protect the very resource you value the most, so get off your high horse and stop judging him. He’s saved my life two, possibly three, times, and he helped me get back in the water when I feared I’d never dive again. So back. The fuck. Off.”
She’d never cursed at her father before, although she’d been sorely tempted over the years. And always, Luke had been the center of their argument, their once-tight father-daughter bond irreparably damaged.
She took another deep breath. “I have no control over whether or not you come north and map the wreck. All I can say is it’s the right thing to do, and I would be ashamed of you if you refused over something so petty as our ongoing disagreement. But I also don’t know if I’ll be here when you arrive. I’m done and want to return to DC. It’s time for me to get back to my life. But, if I am here, and if Luke is here, you will greet him with respect. You will shake his hand. You will thank him for all he has done for our country and for me. If you can’t do that, if you say so much as one disparaging word about Luke to anyone at NOAA, the Coast Guard, the Navy, the film crew, a cab driver, or even a waitress at IHOP, I promise you, I will never set foot in the institute again, and I sure as hell won’t be in your damn documentary.”
She punched the End button and threw the phone on the couch, then took a deep breath and swiped at her eyes again. On shaky legs, she stood and passed Luke on her way to the stairs. She climbed to the loft, grabbed her suitcase, and began dumping her clothes inside.
“What are you doing?” Luke asked from the staircase.
“I want to go to Port Angeles now, before the road closes.”
He ducked down and moved to sit on the foot of the bed behind her. “I don’t care if the road is open. We’re not driving in this storm. Rocks will be sliding down the embankments along the coastal road. It’s too dangerous.”
“Fine. Then take me back to the cabins in town. I can’t afford one of these by myself.” She waved a hand to indicate the loft and the nearly full-sized kitchen below.
“You don’t want to stay here with me?”
She swiped at more tears as she emptied another drawer. “Please. I just gave my dad the ultimatum I’ve been trying to avoid for twelve years. I don’t have it in me to fight with you too.” The towel around her chest slipped, and she grabbed it before it could fall. She might have a bit more dignity if she weren’t hunched over under the low ceiling, packing while wearing nothing but a small hotel bath towel.
Warm hands landed on her waist, and he pulled her onto his lap. “Why would we fight?”
“Because it’s my fault he ruined your life, and he’s bringing Nereid here. And he’s such a stubborn ass, he’s bound to be horrible to you, and you’ll start to hate me again, and I can’t face that.”
Not when I’m crazy in love with you.
Aw, hell. What a moment for her feelings to become crystal clear, even if she only said it in her mind.
Luke ran a thumb over her right cheek, spreading her tears across a cheekbone. “First, my life was changed, but not ruined. I’ve had a pretty damn amazing life so far. Joining the Navy wasn’t my original, intended path, but it was where I was meant to end up, and I wouldn’t give up my years of service for anything. Maybe I should thank your dad.”
She glared at him. “Don’t joke about that. It’s not funny.”
One corner of his mouth curled in a smile. “The strangest part is, I’m not joking. And it might be fun to freak Stefan out by telling him how grateful I am that I lost the scholarship and was forced to look elsewhere for a career.” With his other thumb, he wiped away the tears on her left cheek. “And there’s nothing Stefan can say that will make me hate you again. Your father has no part in what’s between us now.”
He pressed his mouth to hers, lips closed, sweet and gentle. “I’m not going to lie and say I know or understand what I feel for you, but I can promise you, it’s not hate.”
She held his gaze, at a loss for what to say. She wasn’t entirely certain if her heart was breaking or opening. Breaking because this was a temporary thing between them that would end when either of them left Neah Bay, or opening because he’d admitted to having feelings for her, he just wasn’t sure what they were.
“As far as Stefan goe
s, with this storm, he won’t be here for a few days. When he gets here, we’ll face him together.”
“You’re staying? You aren’t planning to go back to your life in Port Angeles before he gets here?”
He glanced toward the front window. “No one’s going anywhere in this storm. But even if we had crystal-clear blue sky, I’d stay. I have more than a week before NOAA is expecting me back, and if you aren’t rushing back to DC, I can’t think of anything better than spending the next few days making love to you. I still owe you bedroom-wall sex.”
She pressed her nose into his chest, taking in his musky, masculine scent. Their early morning sex still lingered on his skin. She ran her tongue over his pectoral muscle and licked his nipple. “I’d like a do-over on the couch.”
“That can be arranged.” He bounced his butt on the bed. “Right now I’m thinking we haven’t tried loft sex yet.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The storm lasted for three days, and it took out power along with the coastal road. On the second day, the cell tower went out, severing their final tie with the outside world. They’d stocked up on groceries and condoms on the first day, and Luke purchased a camp stove and several canisters of propane, which he set up on the covered porch for cooking and heating water for bathing. Their cabin was a perfect haven during the deluge, and they stayed warm by sharing body heat.
“When this storm’s over, you’re going to owe me a ten-mile run,” Luke said as he ran his tongue down her belly late in the afternoon of the third day.
“It’s not my fault it was raining too hard to run three mornings in a row.”
“It’s barely raining now. We could knock out three miles, then you’ll only owe me seven tomorrow.”
She enjoyed running with him, but enjoyed teasing him even more. “How about I go down on you instead?”
He shook his head. “I’m still enjoying the memory of you going down on me an hour ago. I don’t want to replace it yet.”
She closed her eyes and replayed in her mind the encounter that had started out as a sponge bath. Power outages were a helluva lot of fun when stranded with a hot former SEAL in an oceanfront cabin that was made for sex.
“C’mon, babe. I need to run.”
“You don’t need me to go with you. You said Yuri’s not a threat anymore now that we’ve exposed his secret.”
“But I like being with you. Tomorrow the sun’s gonna shine and the power will come back on and the world will intrude. I don’t want to give up even one minute of this time alone with you. Even for a run.”
She threaded her fingers through his hair. “When you put it that way, how can I say no?”
They set out in the sprinkling rain an hour before sunset. She wasn’t as avid a runner as Luke, but she wasn’t a hater either. It was an inexpensive form of exercise and took less time than walking. She loved this, though, running by his side.
She had no idea what she was going to do when this was over, because she had no doubt she’d fallen hard. She knew he cared about her and would even miss her when they said good-bye, but he’d been careful to make no promises, offer no hint that this was anything other than a fling.
This ended when they left Neah Bay. Those were the rules she’d agreed to. And she’d abide by them. But damn, Trina was going to be pissed when Undine came home with a broken heart. Cressida at least had the decency to return from her nightmare with Ian.
Everyone had planned to rally around Cressida, but in the end, she didn’t need the emotional support because she and Ian were working through the trauma they’d faced together. Having been gone for most of the summer that Cressida interned at NHHC, Undine didn’t know her well, but according to Trina, she’d come back with an inner strength she’d lacked before. Tempered steel.
Undine had a feeling she’d return from Neah Bay a needy mess, much worse off than she’d been when she left. What was the opposite of tempered steel? Aluminum foil?
But then, she’d been fine when she left DC, having faced zero attempts on her life at the time and not having been the sole survivor of an explosion that killed four coworkers and which may have been rigged by the fifth.
She’d also never been in love before. Not when she was sixteen with Luke. Not when she was twenty-four and dated Trey, her dad’s right-hand man at the institute. And not in September, when she’d broken things off with the latest in a string of boyfriends before heading to Washington.
But she was in love now, and it was a euphoric heartbreaking feeling she didn’t know what to do with. These last days with Luke had been the euphoric part. If she could just forget they had no future, she could enjoy each moment for the perfection it was.
She’d never realized how much happiness was tied to hope. How much thoughts of the future contributed to enjoying the moment, until she was trying desperately to hold on to the thrill of the moment and forget the bleak future.
She’d ruined any possibility of a future with Luke when she was too young to understand what she was doing.
Yuri watched the couple run down the beach, not a care in the world. Gray had lost four coworkers, and she treated this like it was a romantic vacation for two. Selfish bitch. People were dying in Ukraine, and Americans reneged on their promise to train Ukrainian soldiers. The Canadians were balking as well. No one cared unless oil was involved. They were all selfish.
Yuri wasn’t a killer; he was a soldier serving his country. Jared, Loren, Sandy, and Scotty had been casualties of war. Their deaths would serve a bigger purpose, and Yuri had disposed of them with the same level of remorse Lt. Sevick and all special operators of his ilk gave the enemy combatants they injured or killed.
Yuri considered himself a special operator and as such hadn’t enjoyed the killing, nor had he celebrated the deaths. It was simple necessity. Like lancing a wound or setting a broken bone. To heal, to get stronger, first, one must hurt.
To win a revolution, one must accept the burden of killing. He would give his all to his people, if not his country, and knew that to see this mission to the bitter end, he would likely make the ultimate sacrifice. His death, like Jared’s, would be a necessity.
But now that he was certain Gray and Sevick had found Magnum and had shared the story with local and federal authorities, it was starting to feel a little personal. Gray needed to understand his pain. His loss. Her particular suffering might not be a necessity, but it would be…satisfying.
Media hound Dr. Stefan Gray didn’t sneeze without alerting the media. Convenient for Yuri, because he’d set up a Google alert on the man’s name the moment he’d realized Undine Gray planned to dive on Wrasse again. Thanks to the alerts, he’d learned Gray was bringing his research vessel to Neah Bay. It gave Yuri the perfect opportunity.
The timing was perfect. It was all coming together.
Dr. Gray never missed a photo op, and Yuri could make sure the attention-hungry reality TV star would have the ultimate moment in the limelight. The world would witness his grief.
It was a bitter pill that Undine Gray’s death would likely receive more attention and outrage from Americans than his city of Chernobyl had received. Her death would garner more sympathy than the ferry sinking that had taken Iryna.
But so be it. He’d use that too.
The twins had agreed this was a better plan than going after Moscow. Either way, Moscow would burn. Eventually.
The device would go off in the middle of the strait, when the boat was over a fault line. Hundreds, even thousands might be killed from the initial blast. But hundreds of thousands, even millions, would be taken out by the resulting earthquake and tsunami.
Then the US and Canada would finally understand they shouldn’t have turned their backs on the soldiers they’d promised to train. If they weren’t with all Ukrainians who fought against pro-Russian separatists and Russian annexation, then they stood with the invading army. The factions and distinctions didn’t matter. Russia and their allies—both passive and aggressive—would suffer the same
fate as Chernobyl.
The power came on that night, and the following morning dawned crisp and clear. Undine frowned at the bright, sunny morning. Their happy, secluded respite was over. And today Luke was going to make her do CrossFit in addition to the run.
He was far too cheery about the coming workout as he bribed her by delivering her tea in bed. “I think we need to break up,” she said as she sipped her tea.
“I’m too much of a morning person for you?” he asked.
“Too much of a fitness nut. Plus, I need butter in my diet.”
He straddled her legs on the bed and cradled a cup of coffee in his hands. “No one needs butter.”
“When was the last time you had real butter? Have you forgotten how amazing it is?”
He laughed. “Probably.”
A loud knock on the front door heralded the end of their respite from the world. “Maybe it’s the resort manager,” she said hopefully. They’d left a note on the management office door saying they were fine without electricity and didn’t need assistance during the outage. Being midweek and with the storm making surfing dangerous, the two adjacent beachfront cabins were empty, as were most of the ones that lined the road and faced the water. Even though there were a few guests at the resort, it had felt like they were the only people for miles.
He leaned down and kissed her. “I’ll check while you throw on some clothes.”
He climbed from the bed. Shirtless, he wore only his favorite exercise shorts. He closed the bedroom door, and she slipped from the bed and grabbed underwear, bra, T-shirt, and sweatpants from the drawer. It was seven thirty in the morning, just after sunrise, early for a drop-in visitor.
She’d just donned her panties when she heard her father say, “I’d like to talk to my daughter.”
