Jack Rogan - The Ocean Dark

Josh gave her a sheepish grin. If she didn’t want to tell him her new name, that spoke volumes.

“Listen, there are some things I want to say. Some things I should have said—”

“Please, don’t.” She smiled to take the sting out of it. “We’ve said what needs saying, I think. I only wanted to see you to tell you good-bye, and that I’ll miss you.”

Josh dropped his gaze and gave a slow shake of his head. “I wish things had been different.”

Tori laughed. He looked up, maybe a little hurt, until he saw the real mirth that must have been in her expression.

“Which part?” she asked. “Getting beaten up and shot, or running for our lives?”

The absurdity of it touched him then, and he chuckled softly. A silence fell between them and several long seconds ticked by. Tori wondered if Josh filled those seconds with the same thoughts that she did, memories of the days they had spent flirting in the galley on board the Antoinette and the few precious hours they had passed making love in her quarters. She thought perhaps he did.

In all of the ways that mattered, when she parted company with him here, she would be leaving Tori Austin behind as well. By the end of the day, she would have a new identity, a new name, and Josh Hart would be the only person in the world who had ever really known a woman named Tori Austin, and who cared that she had been erased from the world.

“You know,” he said, “you could get a new name and a new life right here in St. Croix.”

Tori gave a small sigh and rose from her chair. Nothing more could come of the conversation. “Somehow, I don’t think Rachael would like that. She wants you all to herself.”

Josh stood as well. “I already told you, we’re partners. It isn’t like that between us.”

Tori glanced over at the dock, saw the way Voss stood tensed, watching them, and turned back to Josh. She reached up and touched his face, fighting the bittersweet feelings that welled inside her. Holding her breath, she slid her hand behind his neck and pulled him down for a kiss — to hell with what her FBI handlers might put in their report. Her lips brushed his and she breathed in his breath.

“If you don’t think it’s like that between you,” Tori whispered in his ear, “you’re just not paying attention.”

She withdrew from him, chuckled at the confusion etched on his face, and then touched his arm. “Sit a minute, Josh. Finish my iced tea. It’s probably better all around for me to leave first.”

“Okay,” he said, but he didn’t sit. “Take care of yourself.”

“You, too. Maybe work on not getting shot in the future. Try not to die.”

That earned her a grin. “Not dying,” he said. “Pretty much my whole plan.”

Tori nodded. “Mine, too.”

And she left him standing there, drinking the rest of her iced tea, and headed off to begin again. She only hoped that this time she would get it right.