Hurricane Page 29
She felt his isolation, his desperation, and her own body responded independently of her determination to keep the last little piece of herself, for herself. “You’re not immortal. You could’ve been shot a hundred times today. You could have died today.” Her voice broke at the thought of losing him forever, not because either of them was stubborn or didn’t love enough, but because life was fragile, a gift you didn’t know how long you had to enjoy.
“But I didn’t.” He touched a finger to one of her bandaged wrists. “You were hurt worse than I was.”
A hot tear spilled over the dam of her lower lashes, and she saw him through a shiny veil. “Losing Sophie made me realize how short and unpredictable life can be.” Barren. Bleak.
Pushing a strand of hair off her face with a gentle finger, Rydell slid his hand down to cup her cheek. “Then we have to suck every drop out of the life we have, right?” His thumb stroked across her lower lip, taking a tear with it. “Make every second count? Not waste a day lamenting what we don’t have, but celebrate what we do have. I’d rather spend a week with you than have a lifetime without you.
“Not having you beside me for the past year was fucking torture, Addy, but at least I knew you were somewhere on the planet. I knew that, when I couldn’t bear not seeing you any longer, I could find you, at least lay eyes on you. But today … Jesus bloody Christ, I realized today that that pain was nothing compared to how I would feel if you were gone permanently. You could’ve died today. No shit, I wouldn’t make it without you, Addy.”
“Sophia…”
“Our lives will never be the same without Sophie. We’ll miss her every day of our lives. We lost a piece of our hearts when we lost her. Other children will never replace her, and we’ll never forget her. But we’re young. Alive. Vibrant. We love each other. We can still have a good life, Addy. Different, but just as amazing. A life filled with laughter and love, and children’s laughter. Tesoro Mio can be the home it was meant to be.”
“What about the Baillargeons?” Tesoro Mio was subject to being seized to cover his father’s debt. She’d liquidated everything she could think of. It helped some. But not nearly enough.
“Your investment helps. As for the rest—” He gave a c’est la vie shrug. “We can thank your ex-boyfriend and your mother for taking the pressure off. Reward money for finding the paintings will be sizable. I’ll be able to secure a temporary loan until that comes through if we can’t bring up the silver in time.”
He knew people who’d front money based upon treasure that hadn’t yet been found, people who took risks most banks wouldn’t. She presumed those same people would front money based upon the recovery of stolen art. Details, she’d leave to Ry. The bottom line for her was his happiness. “You know the trappings of wealth mean nothing to me.”
He gave her a full, beautiful smile. But his eyes were narrowed, and there was a gleam in them. “You’d love me even if I’m poor?”
“Of course.”
“I hope we never have to test that theory.”
“Will the reward money be enough?” She’d anticipated getting a reward for finding the stolen artwork. But she hadn’t allowed herself to hope it could solve all their financial problems.
“Enough to take the heat off and get the Baillargeons off my back. Enough that Tesoro Mio remains … yours.”
“Ours,” she whispered.
“I’m glad you feel that way. We can use her as our home to travel in search of our pot of gold, and not care if we find it. But first—” Enthusiasm lit his eyes, and she felt his body start to sizzle with excitement. “—we’re going to pull up the silver from than Nicolau Coelho.”
“You sound confident.”
“I feel it, Addy. The stars are in alignment for us. Right here, right now. As long as you forgive me. Can you? Forgive me? Start over? Heal—together, and find new purpose, new reasons to be happy? God only knows we deserve to be happy, Addy.”
Addy wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her mouth to his. They kissed hungrily, all the pent-up longing and despair in the kiss. When they pulled apart they were lying down facing each other. Ry’s eyes looked suspiciously bright as he used his thumb to wipe away her tears.
“I want to fight your battles with you.” Addy murmured, cupping his prickly jaw. “I want to be the female to your male. I want to protect you from my asshole ex boyfriends, and monsters like my mother.” His lips twitched, and she placed a finger across his mouth, because she was serious. “I want to lie on top of you and keep you warm when you’re cold, and shower you with kisses. I want to light a thousand white candles around you, and feel your skin warm and glow because you’re brighter to me than any flame. I want to feel the brush of your fingers on my skin, and feel your hardness deep inside me. I want you to allow me to do things for you—not because you’re helpless and need my assistance, but because it gives us both pleasure. I want the sun and the moon and the stars with you. I want the right to doodle your name on my binder. Now and always.”
That made him blink. “My name on your … notebook?”
“Yes.” Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she padded over to her desk and pulled open a drawer. She returned to the bed where he was sprawled, hands stacked under his head, watching her. “Here.” She curled up beside him and handed him her notebook. “See?”
He angled the spiral-bound notebook to the window and the flood of moonlight so he could see. Like a lovesick schoolgirl, Addison had spent months scrawling ADDISON CASE, MRS. ADDY CASE, RYDELL CASE, RYDELL LOVES ADDISON. ADDISON LOVES RY, and surrounded each pairing with hearts of varying sizes. “I love you, Rydell Case. Now and forever.”
“Ah, Christ,” His face contorted. “Thank God. I love you so much, Addison. I want to make you happy. I want you to make me happy. I want babies, and a puppy, and—”
Snuggling into his arms, Addy laughed, tossing the notebook aside. “Let’s concentrate on finding the rest of that silver, and just being happy for now.”
He wrapped his arms more tightly around her. “Feel it?”
“Your erection?”
He chuckled. “No. Us. Our bodies, touching. The friction we create shows we’re alive. Know this, Addison Case, every moment you’re on this earth: You are the most valuable treasure I’ve ever found, or will ever find. You are the reason I wake up in the morning, the reason why I take each breath. You’re more important to me than any gold medallion, bar of silver, or jewel that I have ever picked up from the ocean. I will be forever grateful that you’ve given me another chance. I will not disappoint. I swear it, with every fiber in my being.”
“Then—anything we want. As long as we have each other, there’s no storm we can’t weather and no limit to our dreams.”
“See, this is why I love you, Addy. When you’re right, you’re right.”
Twenty-seven
One year later
“Is that the last of it?” Addy asked, cradling the baby against her shoulder after his afternoon feeding. Sitting in her favorite big easy chair in the common room, feet up, content and happy, Addison held out her hand for Rydell as he sat on the arm of her chair.
He’d barely stripped off his wet suit before coming inside to see how they were doing. Beyond the sliding door she could see the dive team whooping and yelling, holding the last of the bars of silver aloft and grinning ear-to-ear. Another day of celebration.
“Asleep?” he asked, using a gentle finger to move the soft blanket away from the baby’s cheek.
She nodded. “Like the angel he is.” Adam, named for Rydell’s younger brother, had been born two months ago. So quickly they hadn’t made it by chopper to Malé before his birth. He’d been born right there on Tesoro Mio while the ship lay at anchor over Rydell’s wreck.
His very lucrative wreck.
Four hundred and thirty million dollars’ worth of silver, to be exact. It was the biggest haul of silver ever salvaged. Steven Fenton, one of Rydell’s investors, had come out to the ship shortly
after Naveen and Morimoto had been hauled off by Interpol.
Fenton had dived with the dive team and, wildly excited to see the treasure where it lay at the bottom of the ocean, had upped his investment and fronted Rydell money. Which he’d used to pay off Antoine Baillargeon’s heirs in time.
The reward money for the return of millions of dollars’ worth of artwork had been icing on the cake. Ry hadn’t needed the loan based on the reward for the artwork.
The biggest prize of all was Adam. Their rainbow baby. Their rainbow after the storm of losing Sophie. There was no moving on or recovering from her loss. Adam didn’t fill that empty space, yet he filled a space all his own to the brim.
Still, the nine months Addison carried him were some of the most terrifying months of her life. Fear and doubt plagued her; she’d wake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, terrified for the future. Rydell was always there to hold her. To talk about their daughter so they’d never forget. He helped Addison have hope. He helped her conquer the sadness and fear. He helped her by loving her unconditionally, by telling her that no matter what happened, he’d be with her.
The day Adam was born was the best and worst of Addison’s life. Her emotions, fueled by exhaustion, fear, and postpartum hormones, were chaotic. She’d felt a combination of jubilation and guilt. Trepidation and euphoria.
Now they shared a look over the baby’s head. “It’s done, then?”
“Yeah. That’s it. Not a single silver bar left for the Cutters to find.” He grinned, tanned and rough looking because he hadn’t bothered to shave in days. He was so sexy, Addison’s heart double-tripped. The tiny white-ink tattoo of baby wings over his heart matched her own. “Ready to be on land for a while?”
She took his hand, twining her fingers with his. “I’m not sure my legs will adjust. But yes. Maybe somewhere with snow? I’m done with palm trees and beach sand for a while.”
“Who gets married in Switzerland?” he demanded, not sounding happy.
“Your sister-in-law. We’re going, you will support her, and you’ll be polite to every one of the Cutters.”
“Shit. We hate each other,” he grumbled without much heat.
“I didn’t say you have to bond with them, Ry. Just be friendly and civilized.”
“They’ll have heard about this salvage.” He perked right up. “That’ll be something to talk about.”
Addison laughed as she gently punched his arm. “Don’t go to a wedding and yank the groom’s family’s chains, Rydell! Be humble. Be nice. Be a loving brother. Then we can leave. Peri will be there.”
“I’ll kick her ass, too. Where’s she been all these months? Why’s she been so secretive? Has she told you anything?”
“No, and if she did, and it was a secret I wouldn’t tell you anyway. It’ll be nice to see her and Callie. They’re both eager to meet Adam.”
“Because he’s perfect. And so are you.”
She touched his face. Loving this man so much her heart felt full enough to hurt. Between them, Adam made little bubbly sucking noises in his sleep. They shared a smile over his little bald head.
“We’ll have a party tonight,” Addison told him. She’d been planning this for weeks. And the timing for bringing up the last of the silver was absolutely perfect. Callie and Jonah Cutter were marrying in two weeks in Lucerne, Switzerland. “I’ll go and talk to Patrick in a bit, and see what we can come up with in celebration.”
“Will you go to see Hollis before we go to the wedding?”
Hollis was in Centre Pénitentiaire de Rennes, an all-female prison in France, awaiting trial. Naveen and Morimoto were also still awaiting trial in a different French jail. From there they’d be taken separately to Italy and then Germany to face trials there for the art thefts. Addison stared at Rydell. “See Hollis? This millennium, you mean?”
He grinned. “Guess not.”
Ry slipped down beside her on the wide chair, tugging her against his side. His swim trunks were wet, his body solid and welcome. Addison rested her head on his broad, still-damp shoulder. His skin was warm and supple under her cheek. He smelled of seawater and neoprene. She adored the combination. “Are you happy, Rydell?”
She felt his smile on top of her head as he murmured, “This week, month, year has been the best of my life, Addison Case.”
Heart full, Addison smiled. She was home.
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Cherry Adair has garnered numerous awards for her innovative action-adventure novels, which include White Heat, Hot Ice, On Thin Ice, Out of Sight, In Too Deep, Hide and Seek, and Kiss and Tell, as well as her thrilling Cutter Cay series for St. Martin’s Press. A favorite of reviewers and fans alike, she lives in the Pacific Northwest. Cherry loves to hear from readers. Find her on Facebook and Twitter or at her website: www.cherryadair.com, or sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
&
nbsp; Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-one
Twenty-two
Twenty-three
Twenty-four
Twenty-five
Twenty-six
Twenty-seven
Also by Cherry Adair
Praise for Cherry Adair
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
HURRICANE
Copyright © 2017 by Cherry Adair.
All rights reserved.
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St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / April 2017
St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.