Page 81 of Under Pressure
“I said if we’re lucky,” Gray snarled—he was getting grumpier and grumpier the longer Titan was here. Good thing he wouldn’t be diving now. Hallelujah their C.O. let Mack and Gray go. Also, he glanced toward Titan’s boats. He had several professional underwater salvagers here too. They probably didn’t even need Sean at this point.
Sean quickly laid out their plans to retrieve the crates from the ship. Last night, they decided cutting a hole in the hull would be faster than trying to attach the flotation devices and moving it through the halls and up the stairwell. Then they could use thecrane to crank them up and the people at the surface would be able to do the majority of the work.
Titan turned to his men. “All right, suit up.” He hurried back over to his boat, but Sean couldn’t stop staring at the storm. Thinking about how their timeline moved up again, and . . . picturing Blue walking down the aisle to Jonah. All because he was a coward yet again.
Wolfe came up next to him. “You’re thinking about Blue, aren’t you?”
The rest of the guys gathered around him.
Knox clapped him on the shoulder. “You did everything you could, man.”
That snapped Sean out of it. He faced his friends. “No, I didn’t. I didn’t fight for her. I didn’t fight for her ten years ago, and I didn’t fight for her last night.”
Liam leaned closer to Mack, and stage whispered, “What’s happening? Who are we fighting for?”
Mack’s thick red brow furrowed in concentration. He shrugged.
“We’ll fill you in later,” Knox said.
Sean turned, with his left side to the storm, and his right to Diamond Cove. His gaze traveled from the stormy sea to the water somewhere back in the direction of Diamond Cove and it hit him, even as the weight of all the responsibility on his shoulders fell heavy. Yes, he and his guys were up against a serious deadline. Yes, Ryker needed help, and so did the people of Isola del la Famiglia, and maybe now, a whole heck of a lot of other countries. But if he stayed here, he’d live with a storm his entire life. Only Blue could calm these choppy waters.
The only time in his life he had ever done something for himself was when he’d chosen to date Blue, to prioritize her in his always crazy life, and it had been the best time of his life.
And like the idiot he was, and apparently still was, he kept letting her go. But not this time.
“I’ve got to go,” Sean said.
“Go where?” Liam asked.
Ryker smiled at him. “To fight for his woman.”
“What woman?” Mack demanded, his arm halfway into his wet suit.
“We need you here,” Aaron pointed to the deck.
“No, you don’t,” Sean said. “There’s more than enough people here to make this happen.”
Knox let out a cheer that had the men on all of the boats staring in their direction. Gray patted Sean on the back.
Mack lifted a hand. “Question: Sean’s got a girl? Question two: Is this some weird alternate universe?”
Sean grinned back at him. Now that he’d decided to go after Blue, he already felt lighter, better, stronger, happier. “Yes! Yes, it is my large Scottish friend. Anything could happen here.”
“You might even find a woman who would take your large sorry backside.” Gray bumped Mack from behind.
Mack scowled at him and zipped up. “No need for a woman,” he mumbled.
“Later guys,” Knox promised them. “We’ll explain everything later.”
“I leave for two weeks,” Mack continued to grumble as he strapped on his tank.
They did another quick shuffling of boats, with Knox and Gray, the two with the least amount of underwater salvage experience, deciding to come back with Sean just in case they needed to sound the alarm that the storm would hit Diamond Cove a full twenty hours sooner than they’d been told.
As the speedboat broke away from the Bluebell and the other boats, Titan called out. “Hey, where are they headed?”
“To get his lassie!” Mack pointed after them.
“Oh . . .” Titan scratched his head.
