Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor (top fiction books of all time txt) 📗

the floor by the seat and bent down to untie it when a dark shadow fell over her. Her heart skipped several beats as her head jerked up guiltily.

“Your father sent me,” Paul said.

Chapter Eight

Anna came upright jerkily. “Paul!” she gasped faintly.

He glanced around and placed a hand on her elbow. “We need to get moving. He’s waiting.”

Anna gulped, trying to get her mind into gear. All she could think about, however was the chip lying not three feet from where they were standing and the fact that she didn’t want her father to have it. “I don’t understand,” she managed to say finally.

Paul pulled on her arm to get her going and began walking her briskly toward the back of her house. “He’ll explain. It isn’t safe for you to stay here anymore. They’ll have you under surveillance.”

“Who?” Anna asked uneasily.

“The damned mutants!” Paul said testily. “You didn’t think they would just let you go, did you? They’ve had you under watch since they released you.”

It took all Anna could do to keep from glancing in the direction of the sub. It occurred to her, though, that Paul and her father clearly knew she’d been taken in for questioning which meant she didn’t have to pretend they hadn’t. “They cleared me and let me go. Why would they watch me?”

“Because they know of your connection to Miles Cavendish,” he said tightly.

“They wouldn’t have picked you up otherwise.”

Did that mean they did or they didn’t know that she’d offered to turn him over to them, she wondered uneasily? Where were her watchmen? “But there really isn’t a connection!” she objected in dismay.

“He’s your father!”

Anna stared at him uneasily. “Besides that, I mean.”

“That’s enough,” he said grimly. “They’ve already tried to assassinate him several times. They’ll use you to get to him if they can.”

That was a lie! They couldn’t possibly have done any such thing when they didn’t even know what he looked like until she’d given them the image!

It occurred to her forcefully, though, that they did want to get her father. Maybe they hadn’t come because they were waiting to see if Paul would lead them to him? For several moments she felt lightheaded at the prospect, but even as Paul helped her into the boat he’d moored at the back of her property she realized that it might be their only chance to stop him.

And he needed to be stopped.

And if she somehow managed to help maybe it would redeem her in Simon’s eyes?

Abandoning her first impulse, which was to leap from the boat while Paul was occupied with untying it and starting the engine, she settled uneasily on the seat and glanced around a little hopefully. They would be following her, she assured herself.

They wouldn’t have left! Not without telling her they were pulling out. She knew they wouldn’t!

It didn’t occur to her that Paul had caught everyone by surprise, not just her.

Neither Simon nor Ian had heard his approach because she’d left the house and was beyond the range of the electronic devices. They hadn’t spotted him until he was upon her because they were watching her place the reader in the paddler. They’d abandoned the sub because they knew they could cover the distance faster swimming than they could starting up the sub and sailing it to her house and then leaping out of it. And they hadn’t reached her to stop Paul because they were five minutes away and he’d walked her from the front yard to the back and pulled away in less than three minutes.

Paul cut through the channel between the houses and rounded Anna’s house when the two of them were still little more than halfway between the sub and Anna’s place. He spotted them in the water just about the time Anna did.

Uttering a snarl, he pushed the boat to full speed and headed directly for them.

For a split second, Anna was too stunned to react. The scream of terror that tore its way from her chest thawed her. She leapt to her feet and made a grab for the wheel, trying to wrestle it from his grip. The boat careened wildly from side to side, nearly pitching Anna out, but she was too intent on trying to turn the wheel to feel the fear she might have otherwise.

Abruptly, Paul ceased trying to pry her fingers loose and backhanded her hard enough she lost her grip and flew backwards, nearly toppling over the side of the boat.

She caught herself instinctively before it even occurred to her that she should’ve seized the opportunity and gone out of the boat. By the time she realized it, though, Paul had grabbed her around the waist and hauled her back.

“What the hell is the matter with you?” he demanded furiously, shaking her. “It was the mutants!”

Anna gaped at him, trying to force her shocked brain into functioning, trying to gather the wits for survival. “It was?” she gasped.

“I missed them! Sit down and try to stay out of the way!”

He flung her toward the seat beside him even as he said it. Anna stumbled, caught herself, and looked back. To her disappointment, she saw that it was too dark to see anything. She couldn’t do anything but take Paul’s word for it that he’d missed them.

She didn’t know he had.

Her teeth began to chatter in reaction as she settled weakly in the seat Paul had shoved her into. It didn’t help that he was going so fast that the air blowing over her felt like arctic air. She didn’t know what to do, but one