AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her eyelashes lowered.
“So, what happened?”
She sipped her water. “It took them twelve years, but Mom and Dad finally found the ancient shipwreck that had brought them together.”
“Oh wow, that must have been amazing.”
“Yeah, it was. It was a perfect day on the ocean, but very still and hot, and I refused to wear a wetsuit.” She rolled her gaze to me. “You may not know this about me, but I can be stubborn.”
“No?” I feigned shock.
She giggled but then seemed to catch herself, and her expression turned serious. “We dove down to the wreck together, and stupid me, I straddled the ancient cannon. That’s how I got these cuts.”
That’s it?
I frowned. “What about the scar on your forehead?”
She swallowed so hard I imagined she was trying to shift a lump in her throat. “Because the wounds on my legs were so bad, we had to cut our dive short. Back on Rhino, Mom was trying to stop the bleeding on my leg when a couple of men snuck onboard.”
“What did they want?”
“Treasure,” she said matter of fact.
“What treasure?”
“From the ancient wreck. We found gold coins and a few other valuable pieces down there.”
“So they’d been following you?”
“No.” She scowled. “Stupid Dad had bragged about finding the wreck at the tavern the night before. The two men who attacked us overheard him talking about it to the barman.”
“So Smithy knew who the attackers were?”
She shook her head, but something crossed her gaze that I couldn’t interpret.
“What did they do?”
“They demanded the gold, but Dad refused.” She lowered her eyes to the scars on her leg and trailed a finger along the jagged line. “Damn fool.”
I swept her hand into mine and our fingers entwined. “He couldn’t have known what would happen.”
She shook her head. “Mom and I had our hands tied behind our backs and they beat up Dad in front of us. They whipped his bare back. It was fucking awful. But Dad refused to give them the stupid gold even when they pulled his tooth out.”
“Jesus. That’s cold and brutal.”
“Yeah. I wouldn’t stop screaming, even though Dad told me to, so the asshole with a big red beard slapped me.”
“Fucking bastard!”
“I flew sideways and hit my head on a bolt on the crane.”
I cupped her cheek. “That must have been terrifying.”
“Yeah, but Dad still wouldn’t give up the gold. So the ugly redhead picked me up and tossed me overboard.”
“Asshole!” I jerked back. “Then what happened?”
“My arms were tied behind my back, and I tried to swim, but couldn’t. A short time later, Mom plunged into the water beside me. Dad told me afterward that they had thrown Mom into the water, too.” Her eyes grew distant. “I’ll never forget the look on Mom’s face when she saw me. She tried to use her knees to push me up.”
