Chương 12
I had accused her of trying to control my life.
Florent had found me afterward.
He had held me on the bathroom floor.
He had brought me water.
“You gave me something that night.”
“You asked for something.”
“I asked for aspirin.”
His expression flickered.
A tiny pause.
There.
A gap in the story.
Elias said, “What medication?”
Florent looked at him.
“This is not your concern.”
“It became my concern when she showed up downstairs looking sedated.”
Florent’s jaw tightened.
“You’re an engineer.”
“And you’re avoiding the question.”
Florent stepped toward him.
The yacht rolled suddenly.
All three of us shifted with it.
A drawer slid open behind me and struck the cabinet with a bang.
Elias used the movement to pull the radio free.
Florent saw.
He lunged.
Everything happened badly.
Not like a fight in a movie.
Too fast, too close, too stupid.
Florent grabbed Elias’s wrist.
Elias hit the edge of the desk.
The radio fell.
I bent for it.
Florent shoved Elias backward.
Elias caught himself against the bed and swore.
I got one hand on the radio.
Florent’s fingers closed around my arm.
Hard.
Pain shot from my wrist to my shoulder.
I screamed.
Not because I meant to.
Because my body did it.
Elias slammed into Florent from the side.
Florent released me.
The radio skidded beneath the desk.
I backed into the wall.
My whole arm burned.
Florent stared at me.
He looked horrified.
Genuinely horrified.
“I didn’t mean—”
Elias struck him.
One punch.
Ugly and badly aimed.
It caught Florent high on the cheek.
Florent stumbled into the chair.
For half a second, nobody moved.
Then Florent touched his face.
Blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.
He looked at Elias with disbelief.
“You hit me.”
Elias shook out his hand.
“Yes.”
Florent charged him.
They crashed into the desk.
A lamp fell.
I dropped to my knees and reached beneath the desk.
My fingers found the radio.
“Laurent.”
Static.
I pressed the button harder.
“Laurent.”
Elias grunted.
Something hit the wall.
“Bridge, this is—”
Florent’s shoe kicked the radio from my hand.
It smashed into the cabinet.
The battery popped loose.
Silence.
Florent froze.
So did I.
He had not meant to do that either.
That was the frightening part.
His plan downstairs had been controlled.
This was not.
This was panic.
Elias got an arm around his chest and pulled him backward.
“Open the door.”
Florent elbowed him.
Elias cursed.
I moved toward the handle.
Florent grabbed the back of the engineering jacket.
The fabric tightened across my throat.
I clawed at the zipper.
Elias pulled him away again.
I reached the door.
Locked.
I stared at it.
Of course.
Florent had locked it when he entered.
“Code,” I said.
Nobody answered.
“Florent, unlock it.”
He and Elias separated.
Both were breathing hard.
Florent’s lower lip was bleeding now.
His hair had fallen across his forehead.
I had never seen him look so ordinary.
Not charming.
Not polished.
Just a frightened man in an expensive shirt.
He said, “If you open that door, this gets worse.”
“It’s already worse.”
“You don’t understand what my father has done.”
“Then tell me.”
He laughed breathlessly.
“You keep saying that as if explanation changes anything.”
“It might.”
“No.”
He wiped blood from his lip.
“You decided I’m a murderer.”
“You told them you’d push me into the ocean.”
His face tightened.
Elias looked sharply at me.
There was the confirmation.
I had said the exact thing Florent had hoped I might have misheard.
Florent closed his eyes.
When he opened them, something in him had given up pretending.
“My father was testing me.”
The words came quietly.
“What?”
“He wanted to know whether I would go through with it.”
I stared at him.
“With killing me.”
Florent did not answer.
That was answer enough.
Elias said, “Jesus Christ.”
Florent looked at the floor.
“My father has been moving money through shell companies for years.”
I said nothing.
“He borrowed against assets he didn’t own.”
“You expect me to care?”
“No.”
His voice cracked.
It was the first time I had ever heard that happen.
“He owes people who don’t sue.”
The room seemed to contract.
Elias said, “What people?”
Florent ignored him.
“My parents thought your family was a solution.”
“You thought that too.”
He looked at me.
“At first.”
The words hit harder than a denial would have.
“At first?”
“Yes.”
I swallowed.
“And later?”
He looked away.
“Later got complicated.”
I laughed.
It sounded awful.
“Because you fell in love with me?”
His face tightened.
I hated myself for asking.
I hated that some humiliating part of me still wanted to know.
Florent said nothing.
That silence hurt more than the staircase.
I nodded.
“Right.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m trying to tell you.”
“You’re trying to survive.”
“So are you.”
The words landed between us.
He regretted them immediately.
I saw it.
Elias stepped closer to me.
Florent raised both hands.
“I’m not going to hurt her.”
Elias looked at my wrist.
Red marks were already forming where Florent had grabbed me.
Florent followed his gaze.
His face changed.
“I didn’t mean to do that.”
“You keep saying that,” I said.
He swallowed.
Outside the cabin, footsteps approached.
We all heard them.
Florent turned toward the door.
A knock.
“Florent?”
Antoine.
My stomach tightened.
Florent said nothing.
Another knock.
“Open the door.”
Florent looked at me.
Then at Elias.
Antoine knocked harder.
“We have a problem.”
Florent closed his eyes briefly.
“What?”
“The captain changed course.”
Elias and I exchanged a glance.
Antoine continued through the door.
“And outgoing calls are blocked.”
Florent leaned toward the door.
“Go back to the salon.”
“No.”
“Go.”
“We need to leave now.”
Florent’s face hardened.
“How?”
“The tender.”
Elias shook his head.
“In this weather?”
Antoine heard him.
“Who is in there?”
Silence.
Then Antoine struck the door.
“Florent.”
My husband did not answer.
Antoine’s voice changed.
Lower.
May you like
Dangerous.
“Open this door.”
