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

“I’m still baffled,” Simon growled. “Didn’t she say she was genetically engineering plants? They blew up her house because of her plants?”

Ian frowned. “Maybe and maybe not. If they knew we were there, they could’ve had an entirely different reason for blowing it up—us. If we’d been found floating near the scene, what do you suppose the cops would’ve thought?”

Simon stared at him in disbelief. “That we’re terrorists?”

“Can you think of a better way to turn sentiment completely against us? Possibly even start a war.”

“Jesus!” Simon muttered. “Where do you think he’s heading?”

“Home to papa,” Ian said tightly.

* * * *

Caleb had contemplated murdering Simon throughout the nightmarish trip down the coast to the tiny island where they were currently moored. He didn’t even make any attempt to contain his wrath when he finally boarded the sub. “You planned it, didn’t you!” he growled. “You let that cold-blooded bastard get his hands on her just so you could get to him!”

“Hold it!” Ian bellowed, leaping between the two men before they could launch themselves at one another. “If you’re looking for some-fucking-body to blame, check out the god damned mirror! We didn’t plan this! Simon didn’t plan it! They knew we were there and they outmaneuvered us because they did. And they knew because you didn’t fucking follow orders and Anna came out looking for you!”

Caleb recoiled as if he’d punched him. He stared at Ian in stunned disbelief for several moments as that sank in and then looked around for a place to sit. Landing heavily on the floor when he discovered there was nothing closer, he clasped his head in his hands.

“Forget it!” Simon said harshly. “The important thing is to get her back before anything happens to her.”

Caleb dropped his hands to his knees and looked up at him. “He wouldn’t hurt her,” he said hoarsely.

Ian and Simon exchanged a look, but Simon saw no sense in telling him Paul hadn’t been exactly gentle with her. It wouldn’t help matters and, in any case, Paul was his. “We don’t know. I don’t want her in there when we go in, though. I want to try to extract her before the shooting starts.”

Caleb nodded and glanced guiltily at Joshua, but Joshua refused to meet his gaze.

“We’ll go in,” Caleb volunteered.

“We’ll all go in,” Simon said grimly. “We need to reconnoiter before we launch any kind of assault anyway. Top priority is locating Anna and getting her out if we can.

If it looks like we can’t, we’ll have to try to plan the assault so that we can reach her as quickly as possible and remove her from the line of fire.”

Ian hesitated, but he knew it needed to be said. “There is a possibility that he’s using her to bait a trap for us.”

Even Simon looked like he wanted to take his head off at that comment.

“I didn’t say she was willing. She was fighting like hell when she was kidnapped.

I’m saying that might be what the bastard wanted her for from the beginning. Or she might’ve given herself away—and there’s a good chance she did when she was fighting Paul. He might have decided to seize the day.”

Simon digested that for several moments. “We won’t know until we get in there.”

* * * *

Anna was too numb to really feel the fear beating at the back of her mind. She was aware of it on some levels. She could feel it at the back of her mind like a shadow slithering around in the back of a dark cave. And like that unknown ‘something’, she felt as if it might suddenly erupt from the shadows and envelope her in terror, but the numbness was a blessing she was holding on to as tightly as she could. It allowed her some ability to process thoughts. She knew she wasn’t thinking ‘normally’, but she was at least capable of processing, even though it seemed to take a very long time to do it.

Beyond that, it had shielded her enough that Miles Cavendish didn’t seem to realize that she was terrified of him or that she was as completely opposed to everything he stood for as she could possibly be. He didn’t seem to suspect that she was his enemy.

Paul had carried her miles and miles. They’d been in the boat for hours. She was almost certain of that even though she was aware that she didn’t have a firm grasp on time. The trip alone had been one of the most frightening experiences of her life. If there’d been no threat hanging over her at all, she thought she would still have been traumatized by the terrifying speed he’d maintained, by being surrounded by nothing but black, seething water, and by the sight of the enormous waves that looked like they might swallow the boat at any moment.

She’d always enjoyed looking at the sea from a safe distance. She’d never wanted to set off across it, to find herself completely surrounded by it so that she couldn’t get her mind off of the immensity of it, the dark depths waiting to swallow her up.

She’d been so glad when they’d finally arrived, so eager to get off the tiny, bucking boat and feel something solid and reassuring beneath her that Miles Cavendish, who’d come out to greet them, had gotten the entirely false impression that she was thrilled to have been brought to him. It was purely a stroke of luck that he’d misinterpreted her reaction. She couldn’t have pretended even though she knew her life depended on it.

He’d noticed her face