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firing all around. They sounded like Alfredo’s gun.
    All I could think about was a scene where a soldier dove to the ground and covered his head while bullets flew above him. I did that, my face meeting the slimy wood. If I could have dug into the deck with my fingernails, I would have.
    The shots stopped and there was a splash. I heard Ramon yelling and then a sharper crack from above my head, I guess from his gun going off. I tried to get lower and flatter, tightening my shoulders. I expected to feel a bullet between them at any second.
    My chest hurt with each ragged pant.
    I heard thuds and the sound flesh makes slapping flesh. I rolled over just as Ramon fell backwards with Karl on flailing away on top.
    Huber yelled and fired his pistol above Karl's head. “Stop eet! Stop eet!” Another blond hero leapt from the Wind Walker carrying an aluminum pole with a hook on the end.
    “Boat hook,” I whispered.
    Grace you awesome nautical trivia goddess, get the fuck moving.
    Like a crab, I tried to walk backwards with my elbows and knees, keeping my eyes on Huber and his waving gun and the other on what seemed to be a pile of churning arms and legs where Karl and Ramon rolled around.
    The pole connected and bent around Huber’s head. Then the other hero reversed his grip and knocked Huber’s black pistol flying. I heard a splash. I looked at the man-pile Karl and Ramon were making and then Karl's head rose above the fray, and his massive fist fell again and again.
     

nine
     
    “Can I help you stand, miss?”
    I looked up at the world’s second most beautiful man gazing down at me. The spotlight sparkled off the mist in the air, giving the whole scene a fuzzy shine like an old movie. My crazed brain replayed a scene of Cary Grant whistling Singing in the Rain . I opened my mouth, but I could not speak.
    Water ran between my lips from the fading storm and I swallowed, trying to sooth my aching throat.
    “Get back, Jack, I saw her first.”
    I looked at Karl Norman. Yep, he’s still the world’s first most beautiful man.
    He reached for me and lifted me like I weighed nothing. As if I hadn’t drained half a wine-bottle and consumed half a pound of free chocolates for lunch. As if my bikini was a size two and not a size fifteen.
    Jack looked angry. Oh my god, are these two really going to fight over me ? “Hey,” I yelled and held out my hands so they could see my wrists were bound with zip ties. “A little help?”
    Karl glared at his brother again. “You see?”
    “She was being kidnapped.”
    “Of course she was.” He set my feet under me, and produced a blade like the one that had split Alfredo’s face. The metal shone brightly in the moonlight, more specular than normal steel. “I can fix her problem, because I didn’t lose my knife in the ocean.”
    “You’re a real asshole.” Jack laughed. “OK, she’s all yours, brother.”
    He leapt back onto the Wind Walker . “Besides, while you play white knight, I have to crank up the extra pumps before our ride home sinks.”
    I was miffed he’d given up, having these two fighting over me felt pretty nice after the night I’d had. I looked at Karl and showed him my wrists, wiggling them.
    With his golden hair, I’d expected his eyes to be blue, instead they were a bright coal color like a late fall Moon.
    What’s he waiting for?
    “Before I untie a girl, I like to know her name.”
    “Really? You want to do this now?”
    “There’s no time like the present, Miss…?”
    Men! “Grace. Grace Dawson.”
    “Well Miss Dawson, I just need two more things before I can wield my blade.”
    I agreed with Jack. This handsome man was an ass. Not only did he leave me standing there with my wrists bound, but he spewed annoying literary references while doing it.
    I turned up my lip. “Just please cut me loose now.”
    “You shouldn’t do that to your lips, Grace. They’re made for kissing, not for sneering like some lightweight pop-star.”
    He put the