Radclyffe - Wild Shores

“It’s not as if she’s completely responsible,” Gem said. “There were two of us in that bed, you know.”

Emily looked up, quirked a brow. “Uh-huh. I got that part. Don’t tell me you’re not steamed about her keeping a whopper of a secret.”

Secrets. They’d always been her undoing. Paul’s secret fantasies, Christie’s secret desires, even her own. For years, she’d been a secret to herself, unable or unwilling to recognize her true needs. She’d promised herself never to fall victim to secrets again, and at the first surge of passion she’d fallen. “I haven’t forgotten.”

“I like the way she looks at you,” Emily said matter-of-factly.

“I’m sorry?”

“She looks at you like she’s hungry.”

Heat flashed through Gem’s chest and into her throat. For an instant, she was straddling Austin’s hips, leaning over her, face-to-face, lost in her eyes, consumed by her hunger. Desire coiled in her depths. She should’ve been embarrassed that Emily had seen that craving, but she couldn’t be, not when she hungered herself. “There’s more to life than lust.”

Emily laughed. “I can’t believe you just said that. Go ahead, keep trying to convince yourself you don’t want it, but I think it would be easier to just make her suffer. And then find a way to set things right.”

Make things right. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to, even if it was possible. She didn’t trust herself or what she felt, and right now, she wasn’t sure she wanted to trust Austin either.

❖

Benny set the bird down on the helipad, and Austin released her seat belt. “When are you and Rio taking the birds to the mainland?”

Removing her headset, Benny rifled a hand through her short-cropped hair. She cut the engine and the rotors slowed, but the sound of the wind rushing past the cockpit made it sound as if they were still flying. “No word on that yet.”

Austin frowned. If the storm came up quickly, the helicopters would be stranded on the rig. Benny and Rio were the last two pilots remaining, since they had the most experience flying in bad weather. All the same, they needed to leave while it was still safe to do so. “Dr. Spencer will need a lift back later today. You and Rio should plan on evac-ing all nonessentials then and grounding your birds until the weather clears.”

Benny jumped out and came around to join her as they trotted across the platform. “How do the rest of you plan to get off of here?”

“We’ll grab a lift with one of the ships after they deploy the booms.”

“Roger that. I’ll give Rio the word,” Benny said and angled off in the direction of the pilots’ ready room.

Tatum was just coming into the command center when Austin arrived. Claudia was packing up some of her equipment.

“Any new developments?” Austin said.

“Good news and bad,” Tatum said, but for the first time, his expression was slightly less than sour.

“Progress?” They were about at the eleventh hour, but at this point, Austin would take any scrap of good news.

“We got the fucking leak isolated, and Reddy thinks his boys can plug it just above, slowing it down to a manageable trickle until we can get the remotes down there to patch it.”

Austin frowned. “The remotes won’t function in these kinds of seas.”

“You’re fucking right about that,” Tatum said. “So we need to buy some time.”

“That puts us about where we’ve been all along,” Austin said, the bubble of optimism shrinking.

“Not exactly,” Tatum said. “Reddy thinks he can get a container shaft down the outside and funnel the oil up the shaft.”

“They tried that on Deepwater Horizon,” Austin said.

“Yeah, and it didn’t work,” Tatum said, “but that was then and this is now. We’re way ahead of the game.” He grinned. “And we’re better.”

“How long?”

“Too long. We’ll have to feed the exterior shaft down in sections and hook them together, which wouldn’t take all that long if we had a full crew under perfect conditions, but we fucking don’t have any of those things working for us. A couple of days, at least.”

Claudia moved over to join the conversation. “But if you can do it, you can contain the leak?”

“That’s the idea, and keep the well functioning.” Tatum’s eyes sparkled as he spoke.

“What about the oil that’s leaking now?” Claudia asked, looking from Austin to Tatum.

“We’ll burn it,” Austin said. “If and when it surfaces.”

“We’ll start sliding the sheath down now, but it will be slow going with a small crew,” Tatum said. “Given a day or two and if the creek don’t rise, we got a chance.”

Claudia sighed. “I hate to tell you this, but the creek’s about to rise. The latest projections have the storm making landfall by midday tomorrow.”

“Twenty-four hours,” Austin murmured. Her phone rang and she grimaced. She really didn’t want to have to tell Eloise they’d have to abandon the rig, ride out the storm, and hope the spill didn’t get worse before it was over. “Germaine.”

“Linda Kane and NBC News are headed your way.”

“How did that happen so quickly? We don’t even have oil on the surface yet,” Austin said.

“I think she slept with everyone at FEMA down in New Orleans,” Eloise snarled. “Someone tipped her off.”

“Okay.” Austin grabbed her jacket. “I’ll head her off before she finds someone to fly her out here.”

“That’s all we need is her on the rig. Don’t let that happen.”

“Believe me, I won’t.”

❖

Gem’s phone rang just as Emily was uncovering the third and next to the last clutch. The readout indicated an unknown caller. “This is Gillian Martin.”

“Bill Peabody with FEMA. We got ten people in your parking lot right now, and a half dozen trucks of sand coming in behind us pretty quick. Where do you want us?”

“Stay right there. I’m ten minutes away.” She disconnected and turned to Emily. “I’ll get a couple of interns out here to help you finish up. FEMA is here.”

“Time to start sandbagging. Oh, what fun.” Emily grinned. “Keep the interns. I can handle this myself. If you see Joe, send him out and he can help me carry the clutches back.”

“I’ll find him for you.”

As Gem jogged back, she called Joe’s number and gave him Emily’s location. “As soon as you’re done securing the buildings, can you give her a hand?”

“Sure. You know there’s a bunch of people out front, right?”

“I’m on it.”

“All right then,” he said, sounding a little skeptical. “Good luck.”

Gem tucked her phone back into her pants pocket. She came around the back of the center and realized she had more company than she expected. A news van with antennae bristling and a satellite dish mounted to the rear sat idling in the middle of the parking lot. A gaggle of people with equipment surrounded another group with microphones out thrust. Great, the press had arrived.

As Gem strode toward the congregation, Austin pulled in, hopped out of her SUV, and cut into their midst ahead of her. Gem edged up to the group, close enough to hear.

“Linda,” Austin said with a friendly smile as she extended her hand. “Austin Germaine. We met in Port Arthur after the last big blow down there.”

The busty redhead smiled and tilted her head at what Gem figured was a perfect camera-worthy angle. She practically preened, and Gem had an urge to ruffle her own feathers more than a little bit. She pushed a little closer.

“Austin, yes,” the reporter purred, “how can I possibly forget? You certainly got here in a hurry, or have you been here for a while?”

Gem tensed. She didn’t like the redhead one little bit, a snap judgment totally unlike her. It couldn’t possibly be because the redhead was both flirtatious and baiting Austin at the same time. As if Austin could be trapped so easily. All the same, Gem’s skin prickled uneasily.