Tsunami Blue by Gayle Ann Williams Page A

I’d seen so up close and personal that the thought made me blush. I mean, come on, there was nothing little about it. The man was amazing.
    Heat flared in my cheeks as the visual hit my brain, and I quickly found something fascinating to look at on my boots.
    “You doing okay? You look flushed.”
    Okay. The jury was in: Gabriel Black had turned me into a pervert for real. Great. Just great.
    Gabriel motioned to the shoreline, and, not having any choice in the matter, I followed his lead. As we approached I saw my kayak. It had been moved and now sat ready to launch in the unwelcoming sea.
    I had built the boat when I was a kid; Seamus hadn’t helped, but instead stood watching and criticizing each and every phase along the way. But I was stubborn and I built the boat my way. Strong, durable, fast. I built it with one thing in mind: to escape him. Little did I know that the time would never come. It was Seamus who had left first—left me alone to find him gutted and bleeding and dying on this very beach.
    The boat held two, and Max made three. It wouldn’t be easy, but maybe if Max was still for once, we could balance him just so, and maybe I could slip the cuff and shove Gabriel overboard. I mean, he did look good wet, and maybe—
    “Good work, Black.”
    We both jerked around to the raspy, low voice. A voice that sounded like its owner had been gargling with nails and rinsing with sand. A voice that sounded mean and scary and so unlike Gabriel’s silken whispers.
    “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to keep the bitch for yourself. Of course, Indigo wouldn’t be happy about that.”
    Indigo? I looked questioningly at Gabriel. He stood silent and unreadable, as always.
    My heart automatically kicked into high gear and thudded against my chest. I hadn’t been this close to a Runner since the night I’d been attacked. And now I was looking at three of them, not more than an arm’s length away.
    The men were huge, all three taller than Gabriel. Raspy Voice had long, tangled black dreads that he’d knotted and woven with seashells and shards of beach glass. He had a massive, serrated shark’s-tooth necklace, and long vertical scars ran down the left side of his face. He wore a coat similar to Gabriel’s but much worse for the wear. The bloodstains were hard to miss. So were the twin blades he held in each hand.
    Gabriel shrugged and reached into his inner pocket and produced a key. I shook my head. My arrogance from the night before had gotten the better of me. I hadn’t even taken the time to hide the key. I’d just left it on the counter, so sure was I he’d never reach it. Stupid, Blue, whispered the voice of Seamus in my head. Stupid. Gabriel proceeded to open the cuff on his hand. So this was it. He was just going to hand me over to these three monsters. So much for not sharing.
    “Coward,” I whispered.
    He looked at me and raised that questioning dark brow of his, and with one more tug, I was sitting on the stern of my little boat, handcuffed to an exposed beam that had rotted through the leather.
    “Not that I’d blame you, Black.” The man pushed past Gabriel and ran a blade lightly down my cheek. “She’s a looker, all right. Look at them blue eyes.” He pointed the tip of his knife at my pupil and I refused to blink. He lowered the blade and added, “Scrawny, though. Still…” He reached out and squeezed my breast through my Gore-Tex jacket. “She’s got enough meat on her for one good ride. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?” He pushed his scarred and ruined face near mine and he smiled, showing brown and decaying teeth. His breath smelled rank and rotting, like death.
    I’d had enough.
    Maybe it was the “scrawny” comment. Or most likely the uninvited hand on my breast might have done it. Not that I’d invited many hands to touch my breasts. Okay. None that I could think of.
    Whatever.
    I kneed him hard in the groin. I gave it my all, and he went down with a