Safe Harbor

Chapter Twenty-Four

Clarisse helped Mac unload the groceries and supplies from the Bug at the marina. “I’m going to run Bart over to Uncle Tad.”

He hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her close, kissing her deeply. “Hurry.” He nipped her bottom lip. “I’ve got a collar with your name on it, and I’m in a mood to play.” He ground his hips into hers, making sure she felt his stiff cock. “I’m in a mood to play hard.”

She grinned. “I’d say you are.”

He swatted her ass before releasing her with a final kiss. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.” She climbed back into the Bug and drove off.

Mac smiled as he watched her go. A four-day weekend alone with her was a special treat. Sully could have taken her with him to the conference, but wanted them to have time together.

He returned to the boat to finish his trip preparations. In the three months since the wedding, life had hit a happy plateau he never wanted to come down from. He hadn’t had a single nightmare, and neither had Sully. Clarisse also slept like a rock every night.

Sully smiled more than Mac ever remembered him smiling before.

It tickled Mac when Sully would be the stern, unyielding Master, yet turn around later the same day and drop protocols to privately ask him if he wanted alone time with Clarisse.

Sully had started to accept that Mac really wasn’t jealous. Mac had tried to explain it to him one evening after dinner while Clarisse cleaned up the kitchen. “Could you honestly see her trying to beat or dominate me?”

A cloud passed through Sully’s face, darkening his expression.

“No.”

“You and I go back further than our relationship. You know that. I need that from you. I need the things you do for me that she can’t do.

Let’s face it, you redlight every other scene with her when she’s begging you not to stop. You don’t do that nearly as often with me.”

A slow smile crept across Sully’s face. “You could spend all day with your cock in her mouth.”

“Duh.” He grinned. “So could you.”

“You’re better at than her. Just don’t tell her I said that.”

Mac hugged him. “Yeah, like I’d be stupid enough to do that.”

He came back to the present and looked around. Lots to do before they pulled out, including a couple of minor honey-do projects. He rummaged through the tool box and found the wrench he’d need for one, the hammer he’d need for another, and laid them on the dash. He waved to Dan and Elise in the next slip over before heading into the wheelhouse.

Across the marina, under the shade of a dry-docked sailboat and still feeling the three beers he’d drunk earlier, Bryan Jackson watched the man who’d kissed Clarisse good-bye. The same guy he saw with her in Ohio.

He wasn’t sure if he was the ex-cop Nicoletto or not, but the guy would definitely never forget Bryan Jackson. The PI had confirmed Nicoletto had bucks, and obviously Clarisse was someone special to him.

He didn’t care who he got his money from, but he would get that as well as a pound of flesh for fucking up his life.

He glanced around to make sure no one had spotted him, then quickly strode across the yard. The man was below decks when he walked down the dock. Without hesitation, Bryan jumped to the deck and ducked through the open wheelhouse door. The man had his back turned to him.

Bryan attacked.

Dan heard noises from the Dilly Dally’s slip, and not good ones.

Mac screaming, crashes, and another man’s enraged voice.

He didn’t have a weapon, but he yelled at his wife to call 911 as he raced off their boat. As he ran up the dock so he could circle back to the Dilly, he saw a man bent over, raining punches on someone crumpled on the deck.

“Hey! What the hell’s going on?”

The man looked up, startled, then dropped a hammer and bolted for the dock. Dan didn’t have time to go after him because he spotted Mac, still and bloodied, lying on the deck.

“Shit!” Elise had stuck her head above deck. “Mac’s hurt bad!

Have them send a cop and ambulance!” he screamed.

Heads popped up from boats around the marina, but the guy had already disappeared among the dry-docked boats. Dan didn’t get a good look at him.

He jumped onto the Dilly’s deck to help Mac. Next to him lay a bloody hammer.

Mac moaned. Dan grabbed his hand. “Hey, buddy, hang on.

Please, Jesus, hang on.”

His face battered almost beyond recognition, Mac turned toward the sound of Dan’s voice. “…Jackson.”

“It’s Dan, Mac. Stay with me.” He screamed over his shoulder.

“Where’s the goddamned ambulance?”

Mac spit up blood. “Bryan Jackson…did it. Tell them I love them.”

“Jesus, Mac, don’t you fucking die on me!” In the distance, he heard the wail of a siren.

Mac’s world began and ended with pain. He remembered feeling the boat rock, the sound of someone jumping onto the deck, assumed it was Clarisse. He had time to catch a glimpse of the man’s face as he sucker punched him, enough to recognize Bryan Jackson.

As his vision greyed, he tried to focus on Dan one more time.

“Sully…Risse…I love them.”

“You can tell them yourself, buddy. The ambulance is almost here.”

His world went black.

Clarisse spent some time talking with Uncle Tad and the nurses.

“You have no idea how cool this is,” she said as she handed Bart over to her uncle.

One of the nurses laughed. “We love Bart. He’s so cute and no trouble. The residents love him. This works out great for everyone, seriously.”

She kissed Bart and her uncle and headed for her car. She’d spent more time there than she’d meant to. It’d been over an hour since she’d left the marina. When she pulled in and saw the deputy cruisers and yellow crime scene tape, her heart hit her feet.

Dan and Elise intercepted her, looking grim.

“What happened? What’s wrong? Where’s Mac?”

Dan tried to hold her back. “Honey, he’s not here. They already took him to Harborside.”

“What happened?” she screamed.

Elise had been crying and looked like she’d start again any moment.

A deputy and a detective approached her. She recognized the detective as Jason Callahan. From his equally grim look, it couldn’t be good.

“Jason, please, what’s going on?”

He pulled her to the side and nodded to the deputy. “We’re going to take you to him.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh my god. It was Bryan, wasn’t it?”

Dan took her hands. “He told me Bryan Jackson did it.”

She sobbed as Dan and Elise hugged her. “Is he going to die?”

“They airlifted him to Harborside,” Jason said. “I don’t have an update on his condition.”

Dan kept her on her feet as her knees gave out. He guided her to a bench. Elise flanked her on her other side. “He told me to tell you and Sully he loves you.”

Numb, she nodded.

“Give me your keys. Elise and I will drive your car, meet you there, okay? Where’s your cell?”

“My purse. Car.”

Dan had to cup her hand in his to take the keys from her trembling fingers. Elise brought Clarisse’s purse, and Dan and Jason Callahan carefully guided her to the passenger seat of Jason’s unmarked car.

With the deputy leading the way in his marked cruiser, lights and sirens blaring, they left for Harborside Hospital in St. Pete.

Emotional numbness had set in. “We’ve got to call Sully,” she said as they pulled out of the marina parking lot. “His plane leaves in an hour.”

“Do you want me to do it?”

“Please.” She broke down crying again.

Sully sat at the gate, reading, when he felt his BlackBerry vibrate.

He pulled it from the holster and answered without looking at the screen. “Nicoletto.”

“Sul, it’s Jayce.”

Maybe it was instincts, maybe it his cop training, maybe it just recognizing the tone of his friend and former partner’s voice. He sat bolt upright in his seat, his heart freezing into a hard, cold ball. “What happened?”

“The fucker nailed Mac on the boat.”

“How is he? How’s Clarisse?” Please, please, please let him be alive! Let her be safe!

“I’ve got her. She’s okay. She wasn’t here when he attacked Mac.

They airlifted Mac to Harborside. We’re on the way there in a cruiser.”

Sully numbly gathered his carry-ons and raced toward the security checkpoint where he’d catch a shuttle to the main terminal. “What happened?” His voice broke.

“Jackson jumped him. Mac ID’d him before he passed out and the EMTs took him.”

“What’d he do to Mac?” Jason didn’t want to answer. “Dammit, tell me!”

Jason’s voice quieted. “It happened quick. He ambushed him on the boat, nailed him in the head with a hammer.” He dropped his voice even lower. “It’s bad, Sul. I know he made it to Harborside alive, but I don’t have any other news.”

Sully felt the tears on his face as he ran for the shuttles. “You find that fucker. You find him before I do, Jayce. Because if I find him first I’m killing the son of a bitch, do you hear me?” He managed to catch a shuttle to the main terminal, pushing through the doors before they could slide shut.

“Calm down, Sul. Don’t say anything—”

“I’m not saying—I’m promising. Put Clarisse on.”

There was a pause as Jason handed the phone over. Sully angrily brushed his tears away on his sleeve, ignoring the other passengers in the shuttle with him. Then Clarisse’s voice, haunting and flat, came on the line.

“Master?”

Formal meant she wasn’t doing well at all. That she had used formal speech without hesitation in front of someone else told him not only how upset and in shock she was, but how much it comforted her.

He had to stay calm for her. She needed him. Brant needed him.

He forced a strength he didn’t feel. “I’m here, pet. I’m leaving the airport and heading straight for the hospital. I’ll be there in about forty-five minutes.”

“I’m scared.”

“I know, pet. You listen to me, stay with Jason until I get there, do you hear? You do not leave his side, not even to go to the bathroom alone, understand?”

“Yes.”

He hated himself, but said it anyway. “Yes, what, pet?”

“Yes, Master.”

“That’s my good girl. You stay with Jason. He’ll keep you safe until I get there. I love you.”

“I love you too, Master.”

“Put Jayce back on, pet.”

There was a pause, then Jason’s voice. “Yeah.”

Sully dropped his voice to an angry growl. “Don’t you dare let her out of your sight, do you hear me? That fucker will track her to the hospital. Swear to me you’ll personally stay with her.”

“Jesus, Sul, you know I will.”

He reached the taxi stand and grabbed the first one that would take him to St. Pete. He jumped into the back and let the driver handle his bags. “I’m on the way. Keep her safe for me.”

“I’ll see you soon.”

Sully hung up, laid his head back on the seat, and allowed himself to cry. It would be the only luxury of time he’d have. Because once he knew Brant was okay and he could get Clarisse to a safe house, he wouldn’t have any more time to cry.

He’d only have time to kill.