Julie Walker - Born Wild

“Hurry, B-Billy,” she sputtered. “W-we…” Her teeth were chattering so hard, her jaw was locking down. “We h-have to get o-out of th-this water.”

“I know,” he coughed. “Wrap your arms around m-my neck and hang on. I can get us there f-faster—” Another wave rolled over their heads, filling their ears and mouths. And Eve wondered, as the frigid water swirled above her, whether or not they could actually make it. Any relief she’d felt upon seeing Billy beside her leaked from her to sink down to the pitch-black bottom of the lake. If he died while trying to save her, she’d never forgive herself…

Of course, she’d be dead, too. So yeah. There was that…

They bobbed to the surface, buoyed by their life vests, hacking up lake water. “I’ll get us there f-faster on my own!” he yelled.

And though she hated the fact that he was right—because he was right—hated the fact that, in this instance, she really did need saving, her ego wasn’t so big that she let it keep her from doing as he instructed. Releasing the lifeline, she wrapped her frozen, numb arms around his neck. In the next instant, they surged through the chop, his big shoulder muscles and sleek back muscles working beneath her as he pulled them through the turgid water toward the rolling boat.

She didn’t know how long he worked as she did nothing but hang on. It felt like hours but could’ve only been a minute. And then, suddenly, Summer Lovin’ rode the swell directly in front of them. And with a strength Eve would later marvel at, Billy hauled them the last few feet, managing to hook an arm around her waist and boost her up onto the swim ladder bolted to the back of the sailboat.

“Climb up!” he bellowed. And, yep, that should’ve been easy. There were just three measly rungs, after all. But her entire body was frozen.

He must’ve seen her trouble as she clung to the back of the boat, unable to move, unable to feel the fingers wrapped around the top wrung. With a curse, he grabbed the sides of the ladder when the boat sank into the bottom of another swell. Then, somehow he managed to climb over her and into the vessel. Hooking his hands under her armpits, with a grunt and mighty heave, he hauled her aboard.

And the only thing better than feeling Billy pressed against her in all that freezing water? Feeling the slick slats of the sailboat beneath her feet. Well, in all honestly she couldn’t actually feel them. But when she glanced down at her pink, polished toenails, she knew they were there.

Holy moly! We actually made it!

She couldn’t believe it!

“Come on!” Billy yelled, half dragging/half stumbling with her into the covered cockpit just as the rain picked up in intensity. “Sit!” he ordered, pushing her into the captain’s chair and tossing a towel over her shoulders, chafing her arms until her skin began to sting. But that was a good thing, wasn’t it? Stinging skin was reheating skin.

“W-w-what happened?” she asked through chattering, clenched teeth.

“The main mast was struck by lightning,” he told her, moving his chafing to her sides. “The force of it knocked you off the deck into the water.”

“Lightning?” She couldn’t believe it. Boats weren’t often struck, but when they were, it was usually catastrophic to the electronics on board.

“The navigation system?” she asked, and he moved slightly to the left so she could see the electrical panels on the console. The dark electrical panels. Not one light glowed on the entire vessel when she glanced around.

“The radio is shot, too,” he informed her, raising his voice above the driving sound of the rain on the roof. “And I’m assuming…” He peeled up the Velcro on the pocket of his swim trunks and pulled out his iPhone. Pressing the power button, she didn’t need to see the darkened screen to know the cell phone was a dead stick. The information was written all over Billy’s scowling face. “We’re on our own here,” he muttered. Which was true. Because her phone was shoved in an evidence locker somewhere back in Chicago.

And though her mind should’ve been filled with all sorts of logistics—like the tricky business of navigating the boat without the electronics, like the danger of riding out the storm when the waves and wind seemed to be getting worse and worse—she instead found herself occupied with one and only one thought. This was the fifth time she’d almost died in less than three months, and if things kept going like this, chances were pretty good she might not survive the sixth.

And she’d never told Billy she loved him.

It seemed such an easy thing to say, such an easy thing to admit, so why hadn’t she? Was she still, deep down, that cowardly eighteen-year-old? Was she still—

“Hey.” He pulled her into his arms, pressing her against his warm, wet chest, palming the back of her head. When she sucked a breath in through her nose—a deep breath that brought the crisp smell of lake water combined with the burnt rubber aroma of fried electrical wire casings—she realized her lips were trembling and hot, salty tears were pouring over her lower lids. “It’s all right, now. We’re going to be all right. I know you’ve been through hell, sweetheart. I know it must seem like the world is out to get you. But you just need to hold on for a little while longer, okay? Just hold on for a little while longer, and I promise you—”

“I’ve been holding on by sheer force of will these last f-few days,” she whispered against his shoulder. “H-holding myself together, so you’d see I’m not that same cowardly girl from twelve years ago.”

“Eve—”

“But I can’t h-hold myself together anymore.” She talked over him, her voice rising with every word out of her mouth. Now that she’d started, she couldn’t stop. “And I c-can’t hold it in anymore. I love you, Billy. I’ve always loved you. And it’s okay if you don’t love me back. Because if these last few days have taught me anything, it’s that I don’t want to live with regrets anymore. And I regret not telling you right from the very start that I still love you. And I will always love you.” She felt him still against her. The hands that’d been rubbing up and down her back stopped on her shoulders. “And it’s a love with no strings attached. No expectations. Just a one-way love. F-freely given.”

That’s what she said. And she meant it when she said it. She really did. But, naturally, there was a part of her, a really big, really hopeful part of her, that wanted Billy to reiterate her words, to return her love. So when he gently pushed back, his brown eyes searching her face, his expression somewhere between anguish and sadness, a monster wave of grief threatened to overwhelm her as all that hope was washed away like the water washing over the hull of Summer Lovin’.

“Eve, I—”

“Shh.” She pressed a cold finger over his lips. “You don’t have to say anything.”

“But, I—” Just then, the boat was pulled off course by the power of the current, the mainsail lost the wind, and the vessel rolled violently.

Cursing, Billy turned to grab the wheel.

She watched the muscles in his back and shoulders bunch as he wrestled the vessel back into the face of the storm, as the mainsail once again snapped tight. Then she blew out a shaky breath and thought, It’s done.

She’d gone all in. Put all her chips on the table. Played her last hand. Unfortunately, this time, the cards hadn’t gone her way. Not that she should be surprised, really. The cards hadn’t gone her way in a very long time.

But at least you had last night, a voice whispered through her head. And at least you finally told him the truth…

Yes. She could find comfort in those things, she supposed. She could find comfort in them because they were the only things she still had left to hold on to…

Red Delilah’s Biker Bar, Second Floor Apartment

8:34 a.m.

The notes of Neil Young’s “Unknown Legend” woke Delilah from a deep sleep, and she fumbled for her cell phone on the cherrywood nightstand. She’d been too exhausted to scrub off her mascara in the shower last night, and in the intervening hours between then and now, it’d turned into some sort of industrial-strength adhesive. She had to use her thumb and forefinger to pry her left eyelid open. Blearily reading the number on her phone’s screen, for a moment she forgot why Brenda, the office assistant extraordinaire at McClovern and Brown, would be calling her. Then, everything came back in a rush.

The shoot-out in the bar. Buzzard’s death. That scene with Eve’s father and ex-husband. The long minutes inside an interrogation room reliving it all. The coffee shop. Mac’s refusal to take her to the chopper shop. And, finally, her decision to use her contacts at McClovern and Brown to see if she could find out anything about Keystone Property Development.

She’d shot off an email to Brenda last night before crawling into bed to cry herself silly—perhaps, along with her crusty mascara, her dried tears had a little to do with the whole eye-goop-glue thing she had going. Then, shockingly, because she hadn’t really thought she would or could, she’d fallen into an exhausted, nearly catatonic sleep.

Unfortunately, instead of feeling better this morning, she just felt worse. Her limbs weighed a cool thousand pounds each. Her head was one giant throbbing ache. Her right nostril was completely clogged with…something she didn’t want to think about. And, to top it all off, she’d forgotten to brush her teeth before bed. So now, her mouth tasted like a combo of used kitty litter and fresh road kill. Blech…

“Heh—” Okay, used kitty litter and fresh road kill all wrapped up in cotton, because she had to swallow twice, her dry throat sticking both times, before she could talk without sounding like Joe Cocker. “Hey, Brenda. That was quick.” She blinked at the glowing red numbers on her digital alarm clock.

“When I got your email last night, I decided to head to the office early this morning. Personal business, eh?” Brenda’s voice sounded perky, as always. And Delilah could not understand people who were cheerful in the morning. It’s like they were aliens that came down from planet Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed. “That sounds interesting. Although,” Brenda’s tone darkened, “if you’re thinking of investing with these guys or something, I’d think twice. They’re in it up to their eyeballs.”

“No, no,” Delilah assured the woman. “It’s not that. It’s—” And then she stopped herself. Because how the hell was she supposed to explain all of yesterday in two sentences? Which was really about the uppermost limit of any conversational energy she had in her. So, she finished lamely with, “It-it’s something else.”

“Mmm,” Brenda purred. “More and more intriguing. Color me curious.”

“I’ll tell you all about it,” Delilah promised, because she really did like Brenda despite the whole evil-alien-morning-person shtick. “But right now, I need to know what you found.”

“The usual,” Brenda said. “Three rich guys go into a highly speculative business together and then lose their pants.”

“Wait…” Delilah sat up in the bed, throwing the autumnal-colored comforter aside and realizing she’d put her polka dot pajama bottoms on both inside out and backward. Maybe it was a good thing Mac hadn’t let her go home with him. She’d obviously been a wreck last night, not fit for company. “Three rich guys? I thought the business was founded by two men, Patrick Edens and Blake Parish.”

“Nope,” Brenda said just as Delilah caught sight of her reflection in her dresser mirror. Sonofa— She looked like she was the fresh road kill. Lifting a hand, she tried unsuccessfully to pat some of her hair into place. “There was a third guy, a minor partner, and a silent one at that. I can’t remember his name, but it’s in the files I emailed you. I think it’s spelled out somewhere in the articles of incorporation.”

Another partner? Perhaps another man who’d have reason to see Eve dead? Delilah’s hand halted mid-pat then she lowered it shakily to her throat.

“Brenda,” her heart was a hammer in her chest, “I’ve got to go. But I owe you. Big time. Next time you come into the bar—” the bar where Buzzard had died, the bar she needed to get back up and running, the bar she wasn’t going to think about right now, “—drinks are on me. All night.”

“Deal,” Brenda said, adding, “and toodles,” before clicking off.