Romance on the Edge 01 - Hooked

Scared.” Sharing with Wes had always served to calm and center her thoughts. “What if I’ve taken on more than I can handle?” What if she piloted her boat into the foray of the seasoned drifters and made a fool of herself? “What if this gamble doesn’t pay off?” She’d literally laid everything she had on the line. “What if someone gets hurt?” There. Her biggest fear.
    She couldn’t lose another member of her family.
    “Those are a lot of what ifs.” Wes leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “Let’s start with the first one. Do you really believe you’ve taken on more than you can handle? Is that your thought or someone else’s?”
    “Oh, you’re good.” She hadn’t realized she’d let Aidan get to her. How had she let herself doubt? She’d fished out here all her life. She knew fishing. It had driven her crazy when the Fish and Game opened the area for drifters and closed the set netters. The drifters cleaned up. They could go where the fish were, while the set netters were stuck fishing in the same place. She was in the commercial fishing business to make money, and there was a lot of money out there to be made. She just needed to maximize her take of the catch.
    Drifting and set netting was good business.
    “You’re right, I can handle this,” she said. “I’ve had to deal with tougher stuff.” She discarded the apple, throwing it out the window into the sea, and then mimicked his elbows on knees posture. “Okay, on to the next what if.”
    Wes smiled. “That’s the spirit. Gambling. You gamble every year out here. Other than the bigger stake, what’s different?”
    She thought about it. The game was still the same. The goal: to catch as much fish as she could. “I have better equipment to maximize my return.” She tapped her lips with her fingertip. “I’ve spent all winter planning. I know what I’m doing, and I do have the best crew.”
    Wes smiled again and nodded. “Good. Now, onto the big one. What if someone gets hurt?”
    Sweat broke out all over her body in a cold chill. She swallowed passed the lump in her throat. “I can’t work through this one, Wes.”
    “Yes, you can. There are no guarantees, Sonya. Fishing is risky business. You know that more than most. You can’t let the past paralyze your future choices.”
    He was right, but knowing that didn’t silence the screams from the past that still haunted her. She was the captain. Captains were responsible for their crews. It was up to them to make sure everything was safe. She’d taken precautions. The Double Dippin’ was hands down the safest boat in Bristol Bay. She’d seen to it. She’d put her crew through safety drills yesterday until they’d begged to stop, and then she’d put them through more.
    She’d done everything physically possible to ensure the safety of her crew.
    The only thing left to do was pray.

    Garrett couldn’t keep his head on the job. He was dressed in uniform. There was no doubt of who he was today. Regardless of the regulations to uphold, laws to enforce, safety to insure, he couldn’t stop thinking of Sonya Savonski. The feel of her under his hands and the burn she’d started in his gut.
    They’d just left a trooper meeting where it was apparent, as always, that the law was at a disadvantage. There were roughly four hundred drift boats to police out there, and not enough troopers.
    “Hunt,” Judd hollered. “You with me or not?”
    “Yeah.” He and Judd were doing a food run at the Cannery’s General Store before heading out. Who knew when they’d have a chance at a warm meal? For now, quick and easy food for the man-on-the-go was the order of the day.
    And it promised to be one hell of a day.
    “Plain or peanut? Make a decision, would ya?” Judd elbowed him into the present, and he was struck by the colorful, amused woman waiting behind the counter for his decision.
    “Peanut.” The nuts in the M&M’s would at least provide some protein.
    “Why the hell was that so hard?” Judd tossed a dozen packages of peanut M&M’s on the counter already littered with string cheese, pop, chips, beer nuts, and peperoni sticks.
    “Lot on my mind.” Not a thing on his mind but a woman. When was the last time that had happened? He’d always been able to compartmentalize. One of the talents that’d made him a good Navy SEAL.
    Focus. He needed to focus.
    Then he heard Sonya’s name drift through the open window. He shook his head, figuring it had