Taken By My Fiancé's Uncle - Chapter 60: Chapter 60

Lorenzo also suddenly leaped down, grabbing Lorraine's hand. "Stick with me! Swim hard!"
Lorraine reached out, struggling to switch off the locator light on her life vest and trying to make the two of them less visible. Then she followed Lorenzo, swimming frantically into the unknown.
Behind them, gunshots and explosions thundered from the boat. Lorenzo pulled her along, not letting her look back.
But several speedboats came barreling toward them. They churned up huge waves that nearly swallowed them whole.
Lorraine's mind was a mess. "Lorenzo, maybe we should go back and check on them. They..."
'They are outnumbered. Eugene might be in danger right now?' she thought.
Panicking, she tried to twist around, but Lorenzo yanked her back, not giving her a chance. "Don't look back. Just—"
Before he could finish, a speedboat roared past. It was so close it nearly clipped them. Lorraine was caught off guard, her hand torn from Lorenzo's.
A wall of water crashed over her, stealing her breath and making her head pound.
Lorenzo swallowed a mouthful of seawater but fought his way toward her. "Don't be scared. Over here. Grab my hand again!"
Lorraine forced herself to push through dizziness, swimming toward his voice. Just as she was about to grab his hand, the speedboats came at them again. Two of them were side by side, trying to crush them.
Saltwater burned Lorraine's eyes. She was dragged under by the waves and then bobbed back up thanks to her life vest.
Her lungs felt like they were full of water, burning and aching. Through the blur, she thought she saw someone standing on the speedboat. It was Kevin with long hair flying, his face both delicate and vicious. She figured he'd never let them go.
Lorenzo didn't hesitate. He took a deep breath, dove under, fought through the crashing waves to reach Lorraine, then grabbed her and pulled her down with him.
Kevin spotted what they were doing and actually snatched a machine gun from someone nearby, spraying bullets across the water's surface.
Bullets tore through the water. No one knew who got hit, but blood quickly spread across the waves.
Kevin went even crazier, grabbing a grenade, yanking out the pin, and tossing it straight into the sea. "Lorraine, go to hell! Stephen is mine and mine alone!" His determination to kill her had never wavered.
A deafening boom erupted, sending a monstrous wave crashing over the speedboat. Bloody foam splattered everywhere, flooding the deck, and the air was thick with the stench of blood.
"Kill the engines," Kevin ordered. All the speedboats shut down and formed a circle, boxing in the bloody water at their center.
Kevin watched the sea calmly for a moment. Once he was sure nothing was moving beneath the surface, he waved his hand. "Let's head back."
The speedboats quickly turned and made their way back toward the cruise ship, leaving behind a perfectly calm sea, not a ripple in sight.
Soon, even the scent of blood faded away, as if nothing had ever happened here.
Lorenzo swam almost the whole night, never once looking back. He just swam forward with all his might.
By the time he finally reached the shore, he was completely exhausted. He collapsed onto the sand, gasping for air. He was glad he didn't die in the sea.
Once he caught his breath, he fished out his waterproof phone from his pocket and immediately called Eugene. "A-are you guys okay?" he asked.
"We're fine. Just bring Lorraine to the meeting spot," Eugene replied, his voice calm and steady.
Their backup had finally arrived last night, and another brutal fight broke out. They lost a lot of men, but thankfully, Eugene and Nathan both made it out in one piece. Now, they were waiting in the helicopter for Lorenzo and Lorraine.
Lorenzo grunted in response, started unfastening his life vest, and he called out for Lorraine. But when he turned around, the sight hit him like a punch to the gut. His face went completely pale.
"Is she okay?" Eugene asked again.
But since Lorenzo had made it out, Eugene figured Lorraine must be fine too, so he wasn't too worried.
"S-she..." Lorenzo couldn't get the words out. It felt like a heavy weight was dragging his heart down.
In the end, he squeezed his eyes shut and forced the words out through gritted teeth. "She got knocked out by an explosion on the surface.
"I dove down, put my life vest on her, and tried to swim us both out. She was tied to my back the whole time, but she's gone."
The only thing still strapped to him was another life vest. However, Lorraine had vanished without a trace.
He'd been swimming for so long, completely exhausted. Fighting the current, he was just desperate to get her out alive. He didn't even know when he lost her.
Eugene sat in the helicopter, gripping his phone and staying still for a long time.
Even after Lorenzo had hung up, Eugene stayed frozen in place, as if he were still on the call. His face grew paler by the second. His whole body tensed up.
After a while, he finally set the phone down, turned calmly to the side, and said, "Tell them to shut off the engine. I'm getting off."
Nathan, his shoulder still bleeding from a gunshot, stared at him in disbelief. "Get off? Get off where?"
"The island," Eugene replied.
Nathan yelled, "You've lost your mind. This whole island is Gordie and Stephen's private armory. That's why he dared to hold his so-called wedding here. He knew he was untouchable.
"We barely made it out alive, and now you want to go back in and get yourself killed? Queenie, aren't you going to stop him?"
In the front seat, Queenie took off her eye mask, clearly annoyed her beauty sleep had been interrupted. She glanced back at Eugene, her gaze cool and distant. "Wasn't last night's lesson on the ship hard enough for you?
"We found out about Stephen's wedding, snuck onto his yacht, and called you in. We risked everything and went through hell and back, not so you could risk your life again."
Her tone was flat, cold, and detached, with pressure that made it hard to argue. Her pretty face was as expressionless as when Lorraine saw her yesterday.
But Eugene didn't care. He reached into a box for a gun. "I'm going. I have to find her."
"Find who? That girl I helped you rescue yesterday?" Queenie looked at Eugene calmly. "She's not worth it, is she?"
She thought, 'The mission's done. There's a whole world of power and chaos waiting for you out there. Why risk everything for a pawn who doesn't matter? Lorenzo made it out alive, and that's enough.'
Eugene didn't move for a moment. Then, after a long pause, he managed a faint smile. "You all get out safely. I'm going to find her. She came here safely, and I'll take her back safe and sound."
He paused and then added, "She can't be harmed in any way."
Queenie said, her voice steady and cool, "Eugene, we've followed you for years, seen you fight Gordie and Stephen, and watched you plan every step so carefully. It's never been easy.
"So please, think this through before you throw it all away. Don't let everything you've built go to waste."
Eugene stood there for a moment, looking at them. He then turned and jumped straight out of the helicopter onto the beach. He told someone to find Lorenzo and get him on board, but he himself walked off alone.
Back in the helicopter, Nathan was so shocked that he nearly tore open his wound. Lorenzo, wracked with guilt and exhaustion, wanted to follow but simply didn't have the strength. He drifted off into a troubled sleep.
Only Queenie remained seated, watching Eugene's figure shrink into a tiny black dot on the sand. Finally, she pulled her eye mask back down and said, "Take off."
Using the spot where Lorenzo was just found as a clue, Eugene worked out a possible location. He stood on the rocks by the sea, scanning the horizon.
The endless blue ocean looked completely lifeless. He had no idea where Lorraine was, but his determination to find her only grew stronger.
He didn't know if she was hurt or whether she was still out at sea or already on land.
They'd only been here for two or three days, but to him, it felt like an eternity.
Suddenly, he remembered the day she first arrived. Her eyes shone as she asked if they were here on vacation. She was so naive yet stubborn.
The memory hit him so hard that he couldn't hold back anymore. He jumped off the rocks, waded straight into the water, and headed deeper along the shoreline.
Lorraine felt cold when she opened her eyes. She had no idea how she'd made it to shore or when she'd gotten separated from Lorenzo. The sun overhead was blinding, almost painful to look at.
'We've been swimming all night, and now, I'm lying on this unfamiliar beach? How long have I been here? Could things get any worse?' she wondered.
She wondered how Eugene and the others were doing. The memory of the gunshots and chaos on the boat instantly made her tense up again.
She tried to move her fingers, but a sharp pain made her gasp. Her whole right hand felt useless, completely limp. Saltwater had seeped into the wound on her arm, burning like someone was rubbing salt right into it.
Lorraine wanted to cry, but tears just wouldn't come. All the fear she'd bottled up through the night finally crashed over her. She even saw a helicopter overhead flying away.
'Are they all leaving? Did they really just leave me here on this strange, lonely island to fend for myself? So this is it. I've finally become nothing more than Eugene's discarded pawn,' she thought.
Another wave of pain washed over her, and her eyelids slowly fluttered shut once more. She drifted back into unconsciousness.