Romance on the Edge 01 - Hooked

or without you drifting. Plus, we have no idea if that was his trigger or if it’s something else. It could very well be something that’s been brewing for a long time.”
    “You’re talking about the sinking of the Mystic ?” That was twice today she’d mentioned the Mystic .
    “A lot of unresolved issues with that.”
    “I’m the one who lost the most when she went down.” Her father, her mother, her twin. “What more could the person responsible want?”
    His somber gaze sunk into hers. “You.”

    “What do you know about the sinking of the Mystic ?” Garrett asked Skip as soon as he boarded the Calypso later that evening after returning from Sonya’s. He remembered Skip and Judd touching on it during his debriefing when he’d first arrived.
    “I wondered when that would come up.” Skip sighed and stretched his legs out in front of him, crossing his ankles. “Any time the Savonskis and Kendrick are mentioned in the same sentence, the mystery of the Mystic resurfaces.”
    “Sad, sad times.” Judd shook his head, his eyes trained on the aluminum deck of the cabin. “It was my first summer out here.” He raised his head and looked at Skip. “It’s been what, fourteen years now?”
    “Yeah, coming up on the anniversary in about a week.” Skip rubbed the back of his neck. “Sonya’s dad, Mik, had purchased the Mystic around the end of the season.”
    “Let me guess,” Garrett said. “He bought it from Chuck Kendrick.”
    “Yep.” Judd nodded. “Mik wanted to get into drifting.” He gave a humorless chuckle. “Like father, like daughter.”
    “Except Mik had two daughters then,” Skip added.
    Garrett’s gut churned. Sonya had lost a sister along with her parents? No wonder she was so protective of Peter. Other than her grandparents, he was all the family she had left. “What happened?”
    “The family was on board, taking the Mystic for a spin, so to speak.” Judd leaned against the wall, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “The boy, Peter, was just a toddler, so he stayed on shore with the grandparents. So it was Sonya, Mik, her mother—Kyra I believe her name was—and Sonya’s sister.”
    “How old was her sister?”
    “Twin,” Skip added. “Identical. Her name was Sasha.”
    Shit. Could the news get any worse? “Give me the rest.”
    “No one knows for sure what went wrong,” Skip said, “but from accounts—mostly Sonya’s—there was an explosion below in the engine room, and then fire.”
    Fire aboard a boat was a fisherman’s worst nightmare. Garrett hardened his jaw at the thought of Sonya fighting for her life in a no-win situation. “How did they die?”
    “Mik was never found and was presumed killed in the initial blast. Kyra had a head injury, one she probably never would have woken up from even if rescue had gotten to her sooner. Her death was ruled as drowning. Along with Sasha’s.”
    “How did Sonya survive?”
    “Apparently, Sasha and Sonya were having a race over who could get in and out of their survival gear the fastest. Sonya still had hers on when the explosion happened.”
    “Not Sasha.”
    “No. They figured Sonya was in the water for over an hour before she was rescued.”
    “The boat was never recovered?” Garrett knew the answer before Skip sadly shook his head.
    “You know how these tides are. The ocean swept it out to sea along with any evidence that could have been recovered.”
    “Kendrick has always been suspected because it would be like him to sell a compromised boat,” Judd said.
    “Actually, back then, Kendrick wasn’t so bad,” Skip said. “Guess with all the speculation, he must have given in to his true nature.”
    How had Sonya survived in that cold ocean alone, knowing her family had perished? Died right in front of her. “How old was Sonya?”
    Skip answered. “Fourteen or fifteen, I believe.” He looked at Judd. “That sound right to you?”
    Judd nodded. “Not old enough to handle losing her sister and parents all in one evening.”
    When was anyone old enough to handle a tragedy like that?

    “Why didn’t you tell me?” Garrett demanded, finally locating Sonya down at the Cannery’s General Store the following evening. He needed a tracking device attached to her. The woman was never in one place for long. If Peter—keeping watch on the Double Dippin’ —hadn’t informed him that his sister was off shopping, Garrett wouldn’t have found her.
    Tonight, she wore a t-shirt that proclaimed,