Figured I wouldn't make you all wait too long. Enjoy!

Crystal's POV

My eyes suddenly flew open and I felt like I was drowning all over again. Choking on seawater. I was shoved to my side by a pair of strong hands and ended up coughing up the water that had previously been in my throat and lungs. My chest was burning, I was gasping in gulps of air, and my throat felt like I had swallowed shards of glass.

I continued to cough, rubbing at my throat with one hand as was I suddenly-and roughly-pulled into a sitting position, my back against something strong and solid.

The first thing I noticed was that I was no longer on the yacht-or any yacht for that matter-rather, I was on the deck of a good-sized motorboat. Big enough for about eight to ten people. Though, most of them would have to be sitting.

My back was pressed up against the side of the boat. It rocked back and forth with the waves. The sun was shining high, and for some reason, everything seemed so much brighter than usual. Though, the sun was suddenly obstructed by a figure crouched in front of me.

I blinked my eyes a few times and tried to focus but everything just seemed fuzzy. Finally, however, I was able to focus on Jackson as he crouched in front of me on his knees, looking me over seriously.

I opened my mouth to say something-though what I wasn't even sure-and Jackson held up a hand to silence me.

He slumped back against the opposite side of the boat and put his elbows on his knees, head in his hands. "I need a minute," He said.

I was speechless . . . and then I wasn't. "You need a minute!?"

He didn't acknowledge me. Instead, it was Damien who moved in front of me and grabbed hold of my wrist.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"Checking your pulse," He muttered. "Jackson had to give you CPR. Don't get up."

I just nodded weakly. I didn't think I could get up at the moment even if I had wanted to.

Noah! My brain screamed at me.

"Noah," I said as I tried to push to my feet. "He was on the yacht with me. He's still there-"

"It's being taken care of," Damien said. "I was told he was locked in the room with the scuba equipment. He'll be fine. He's getting pulled out of the yacht right now."

I frowned as I looked between Damien and Jackson, both of who were wet, yet not soaked as they should have been if they'd dived in to save me and Noah. Julie was standing next to the controls of the boat, looking at me in concern and then back out at where I'm assuming the yacht was submerged.

"Who-" I started to ask, but ended up not needing to, as Noah was suddenly launched out of the water like a missile and thrown onto the boat.

He screamed as he flew through the air and then landed flat on his face on the boat, groaning as he rolled over and clutched at his chest.

Marrek suddenly appeared at the end of the boat and pulled himself up and out of the water effortlessly. His t-shirt and shorts clinging to him as water dripped down his skin.

He looked down at me. "You good?" He asked me.

"I just drowned," I replied flatly.

"Is that a no?"

"What are you doing here?" I questioned.

He nodded his head in Julie's direction.

I looked over at her and she just shrugged. "I told you I had a getaway plan."

Jackson lifted his head from his hands to glare at her. She flipped him off.

"And your getaway plan involved Marrek?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "Who else carries dynamite in their pocket?"

I rolled my eyes. I then looked between Marrek and Damien who appeared to be having a staring match with one another. "I bet you two have been getting along."

I received two sets of glares for my statement.

Marrek trudged past Noah and over to Julie. "Get this boat moving, now," He said as he looked back over his shoulder at the open water.

Julie started up the engine and turned to Marrek. "What's the rush?"

"The rush is that whoever sunk the yacht sent divers to make sure that those two," He pointed to me and Noah. "went down with it. The second they realize that that wasn't the case, they're going back to their boat and then that boat is coming after us."

"How do you know they sent divers?" Julie questioned.

"Because I had to kill one of them."

Silence.

"How did you kill one of them?" Julie finally asked. "You didn't even have any weapons."

"You don't want to know," Noah muttered.

"Well . . ." Julie trailed off as she looked over her shoulder. "that's a problem."

Marrek turned to look over his shoulder as a motorboat began to speed toward us. "Gun it," Marrek, told Julie.

Julie didn't hesitate. The boat lurched forward and Damien swore as he fell backward into the seats, Jackson and I slid across the floor on either side of the motorboat and Noah let out a shout of surprise. Neither Julie nor Marrek reacted. Julie just held onto to the controls, and Marrek stood calmly with his feet shoulder length apart, arms crossed over his chest.

I pulled myself up so I was sitting on the seats beside me and watched as Noah did the same. Jackson however, opted to remain seated on the floor of the boat.

Marrek looked over his shoulder at the other boat speeding toward us before turning back to Julie. "Where did you put my bag?" He asked her.

She pointed a hand over her shoulder, toward the seats I was sitting on. "Under the seats," She told him as she jerked the steering to the left, causing the boat to swerve sharply.

Marrek barely even looked at me, didn't even seem to acknowledge that I was anything more than something in his way, and promptly pushed me off the seats and onto the floor of the boat.

I landed next to Jackson, who shot his arms out to keep me from falling into the side of the boat. I sat myself upright, wincing as I did so, my whole body feeling incredibly sore, and glared at Marrek.

"You could have just said excuse me!" I shouted at him as he rifled through the large duffle bag he had pulled from the compartment under the seats.

"You wouldn't have moved fast enough," Marrek replied as he removed a rifle from the bag and began assembling it. He then shoved his hand in the bag, pulled something out, and tossed it to Damien. "Hold that for me."

Damien looked down at the object in his hands and then glared at Marrek. "You make a habit of tossing around grenades?"

"It's not live."

"That's so not the point."

Bullets suddenly began spraying up the back of the boat and the water around us.

I swore and slumped down further onto the floor of the boat along with Jackson, Noah screamed and dove to the ground, Julie swore and began making more sharp turns with the boat, Damien ducked down low, and Marrek just stood calmly in the middle of the rocking and swerving boat, bullets flying around him, loaded up the rifle and then just began firing back like this was all in a day's work. And I could swear I saw him smile.

"Are you enjoying this?" I questioned him.

He lowered the gun, removed the empty magazine, put in a new one, and repositioned the gun. "If you'd been doing what I've been doing lately you'd be enjoying this too." He once again began firing off bullets.

Julie looked over her shoulder and swore. "They're getting closer!" She shouted.

"They wouldn't be if you'd stolen a faster boat," Marrek said as he set down the rifle. "Cut the engines for a second, would you?"

"What?!" Julie shouted. "Why?"

"Just do it," Marrek said as he held out his hand to Damien. "Pass that back to me."

"Oh no," Noah said and he paled, scooting backward across the floor until his back hit a wall.

Marrek rolled his eyes at him. "Kid, you need to get out more," He said.

Julie cut the engines, causing us all to slide forward, with the exception of Marrek who simply put a foot back onto the seats behind him, keeping himself steady.

He then pulled back his arm, waited a moment, and then launched the grenade into their boat. "Step on it!" He shouted to Julie.

Julie fired up the engines and wasted no time in speeding up, causing us all once again to slide around and grumble out curses as she maneuvered the boat away as fast as possible.

An explosion sounded out behind us, waves rocking the boat, and fire shooting into the air as the motorboat that was previously following us went up in a ball of smoke and flames. I looked back to see some of the occupants in the water, swimming around it as they had clearly abandoned ship when Marrek threw the grenade.

I breathed out a sigh and leaned back, relaxing somewhat since the immediate threat was dealt with. It was only after a moment that I realized that I had leaned back into Jackson's shoulder. I turned to look at him only to see he was watching me, but otherwise said nothing and didn't move.

Marrek walked over and knelt down in front of me. "You alright?" He questioned. "You look pretty banged up and I know it wasn't caused by pulling you from the yacht."

I shrugged and then winced when the movement brought me pain. "Pretty sure nothing's broken," I replied. "so, I'll be fine." I looked over at Damien who was watching Marrek like a hawk.

"He doesn't trust you," I told Marrek.

Marrek shrugged. "The feeling's mutual." He pushed himself back up to his feet. "We should be getting back to the docks soon. Just relax."

"Easier said than done," I muttered. "Where's Hunter?" I asked.

Marrek looked at me like I was out of my mind for questioning where his dog was. "Why would I voluntarily bring Hunter into a gunfight?"

"That isn't what I asked."

Marrek continued to stare at me like I was crazy. "He's waiting at the dock. Did you really think I was going to bring him along to get shot at?"

I held my hands up in surrender. "I just asked a question."

Marrek shot me a look and turned away, shaking his head and muttering something to himself. I suspected his muttered words were something about how stupid I was for suggesting that Hunter actually be here right now.

True to his word though, Hunter was sitting on the edge of the dock when we got back. His tongue was hanging out of his mouth, his tail wagging back and forth causing his whole body to wiggle, but he still stayed seated, eyes watching us as Julie and Marrek tied up the boat and everyone stepped off and onto the dock. It wasn't until Marrek whistled that Hunter finally moved from his position and bounded over to Marrek's side with a happy bark, tail wagging the whole time.

Marrek looked down at him with arms crossed over his chest. "What are you so happy about?"

Hunter let out a couple of loud, happy barks.

Marrek shook his head and let out a small smile, reaching down to scratch at Hunter's ears. "Come on, Crazy," He muttered and Hunter happily began to follow Marrek down the dock.

I stood on the dock and watched as Noah and Damien followed after him, Julie still on the boat, doing who knew what.

The sun was just beginning to set, there was a slight breeze in the air, and I was still mostly soaking wet. I hadn't even realized that I was cold until now, but I found myself shivering and wrapping my arms around myself as I stood on the dock.

Something was suddenly draped over my shoulders and Jackson walked around from behind me, securing the jacket he had been wearing around me.

I watched him as his hands lingered on the front of the jacket before he finally let go and shoved his hands in his pockets, raising his head and locking eyes with me.

He shrugged. "Didn't think to bring a towel," He said simply.

I nodded and held the jacket closed, wrapped tightly around me. "Took you long enough to show up," I told him.

He shrugged again and looked away, a muscle in his jaw ticking. "Maybe," He said. "but my heroics cannot go unnoticed." He smiled in that reckless sort of way of his.

I rolled my eyes and couldn't help but smile back at him. "Marrek's heroics, you mean," I corrected him.

He made a big show of rolling his eyes and letting out an overdramatic sigh. "Yes well," He said. "I suppose he deserves some of the credit. Like two percent."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "I think Marrek would disagree with you."

Jackson shrugged and continued to smile at me, hands still shoved deep in his pockets, but I could see in his eyes there was something. Something he wanted to say, but he was stopping himself.

He suddenly cleared his throat. "Right, well," He started. "do keep yourself from dying again, you're not much use if you're dead."

I rolled my eyes at him. "You make it sound like saving my life was such a chore for you," I said with a smile.

He looked down at me, that sly smile spreading across his lips. "You know," He said. "you could make it up to me."

I shook my head. "Nope."

"You don't even know what I was going to say."

"Believe me, I do."

"Who's the mind reader now?"

I just shook my head and turned away so I was standing beside him rather than facing him.

"Who did this?" Jackson asked me.

I blew out a breath. "Branson's wife," I muttered. "She's more dangerous than you thought."

He looked me up and down for a moment before nodding. "Clearly," He mumbled.

"And she knows, Jackson."

He turned his head to look at me once more.

"She knows who you are," I told. "Who we all are."

His jaw clenched and turned away to look out at the ocean. "Does Branson-"

"No," I cut him off. "If she's to be believed, she hasn't told Branson who we are."

He nodded and let out a breath. "Then we have time."

"Jackson," I said and he turned his head to look at me. I reached up and grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling him down closer to me, and pressed my lips lightly against his cheek before letting go and backing away. "Thank you," I whispered.

Jackson looked beyond surprised. He stood there staring at me for a moment, his eyes widened slightly and for a split second, I thought I saw a blush cover his cheeks before he quickly turned away, looking back out into the night. He said nothing to me.

I walked away, holding the jacket tight over my shoulders. Julie was waiting for me a short distance away and she wrapped her arm over my shoulders and pulled me close.

"You alright?" She asked me as we continued walking down the dock.

I nodded. "Yeah," I replied.

I looked over my shoulder to see Jackson with his back to us, still standing at the end of the dock, looking out at the ocean. He turned for a moment and looked over his shoulder, his eyes finding mine. He still didn't make a move, and his face was a blank mask, but I gave him a small smile all the same before turning away and allowing Julie to lead me down the dock.

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