Corrupt(130)

He reached down and hauled up the blocks, sitting them on the edge of the yacht.

“No!” I shouted, letting go of Rika and holding out my hand. “Stop! Just…just wait!”

He tilted the blocks back and forth, toying with me.

“Stop!” I growled. “Just…” I ground my teeth together, my head swimming. “Fuck you!”

If I shot one of them, he would still have time to dump the blocks, and Damon could make short of Kai before I even had a chance. I might be able to get Rika out of here, but I wouldn’t be able to save them.

“Why are you doing this?” I bared my teeth, seething. “Why?”

“For this!” Trevor finally growled, showing his anger. “For this, right here. To see you exactly like this. You’re so f*cking desperate, it’s priceless.”

He took his hands off the blocks, leaving them to sit on the ledge, teetering and threatening to fall with the slightest vibration.

“I could say it was all the attention laid on you for your basketball career,” he explained, “the way you always finished things I could never even start, or the way Rika always loved you, not once ever looking at me the way she did you.”

He hung the gun at his side and glared past me to Rika, who had stepped up next to me.

“But really?” He gazed at her. “I think it’s because the great Michael Crist is so f*cking helpless right now, and I want to see the look in her eyes when she knows it’s about to end and that you can’t help her.”

I breathed in and out, my lungs getting smaller and smaller.

“Don’t worry,” Trevor soothed. “You’ll join her soon.”

And then Trevor shot out his hand and pushed the blocks off the ledge. I growled, raging as I rushed forward, swinging out my arm, and firing the gun three times, hitting him.

But I didn’t see where.

I threw the gun down and leapt up to the ledge, diving off just as Will’s head disappeared under the surface.

I crashed through the water, my body immediately submerging and going cold with the rush of the icy black October sea.

I opened my eyes, seeing Will just ahead of me, sinking fast, and struggling against his ropes. I kicked and pushed my way through the water, reaching out and grabbing him by the shirt.

But when I tried to pull him up, kicking and fighting my way to the surface, the purple light overhead was only disappearing.

We were sinking.

I dived back down, keeping hold of his clothes as my lungs stretched, growing desperate for air. Reaching his foot, I worked the knot, the f*cking weight of the blocks making it hard to get the rope to thread back out.

Will twisted and fought, keeping his eyes on the surface, and I yanked and jerked at the rope, trying to get him free.

But the water was only getting blacker. The lights from the yacht were all but gone, and Rika and Kai were up there alone.

I growled, the sound muffled in the water as I pulled and thrashed.

Fuck!

I couldn’t let him go. Please.

Not again.

Squeezing the rope between my chilled fingers, I worked and pried, tearing my skin until…

It gave way. The rope dislodged, and I quickly unraveled it, pulling it apart and letting the blocks and rope sink away into the clack depths. I kept hold of Will and pulled him to the surface as he kicked.

We broke through the water, sucking in air, and I darted my gaze up, seeing Kai with his hands around Damon’s neck. He pressed him against the edge of the yacht and then pulled his fist back and punched him.

Rika.

“Go over there!” I shouted at Will, gesturing to the speedboat.

“What about my hands?” His body was shaking from the water.

“I have to get to Rika.” And I swam for the yacht again.

But then something crashed into the water on my right, and I looked up to see a rope draping down the side of the boat.

What the…?

Two blocks came spilling over the edge then, sinking into the ocean, and I jerked my head up, seeing Trevor hunched over and heaving. But there was a twisted smile on his face.

“Fuck!” I bellowed. I dived down, shooting my arms out in front of me and pushing the water back, struggling through the icy sea as I fought and kicked.

Rika.

I darted my eyes everywhere, looking for her hands, her white T-shirt, her hair, but…

I swam down, down, down, as fast as I could, looking side to side and not wasting a second.

But as the moments passed, and I didn’t see her, fear thundered in my chest. I was going to lose my f*cking mind.

Where the hell was she?

Pressure built in my lungs, and my eyes blurred. I heaved, needing air, and bellowing into the water, I shot back up for the surface and sucked in a hard breath as I came through.

“Rika!” I raged, spinning in a circle to see if she came up. “Rika!”

Nothing.

I shot my head up, seeing Kai hanging over the edge, breathing hard and looking exhausted.

“Kai, get in here!” I yelled. “I can’t find her!”

He looked up, narrowing his eyes in worry. I couldn’t see Damon or Trevor, but I didn’t f*cking care anymore. Will was still tied up, and Rika was…

I dived back down, hearing the distant sound of Kai entering the water seconds later, and we descended, pushing through the water and into the black.