The Price of Gold | Fortune's Fool #1

31 | our laced hands

• [ o u r   l a c e d   h a n d s ] •

♥ louisa ♥

THE LAST TIME I'd been on a yacht was when I was thirteen years old. It was with my family on the Bahamas back when everything was alright. All four of us had been staying on a comfortable family friendly boat and I could still distinctively remember the name Blue Moon written on the front of it.

I gazed at the clear ripples of water that playfully unfurled through the sea. We had landed at Sydney Airport at 4am and taken a coach to the large, fully furnished yacht which we would all be staying at. It was called Raging Waves which evidently didn't quite have the same serenity as the name Blue Moon.

Not that the yacht wasn't equip. Rather the opposite.

The time difference hasn't quite sunk in yet so whilst everyone else has gone for a nap before our breakfast at some five star boutique that Arlo had booked, I'd decided to explore the deck. The modern yacht was incredible with numerous well thought out features.

After looking at the beautiful skyline illuminated by the beginning of sunrise for a couple minutes and feeling the surprisingly fierce heat of the sun on my back, I pulled off my sheer swim suit cover revealing my black swim suit.

I bent down and ran my hand through the warm water before walking towards the gleaming white steps at the edge of the yacht that led into the water. Right beside it was an intricately woven net that hovered above the crystal blue water that was peacefully undisturbed.

Smiling to myself, I slipped into the water and briefly ducked beneath the waves, feeling the lukewarm water gracefully surround my skin.

When I'd gone to Logan's house last Friday, he hadn't been too violent. Not because the bastard cared for me but because he knew people would notice if I wore turtleneck sweaters in 25 °C weather. That would make anybody suspicous.

Thankfully, Gabriel hadn't brought up the day he'd seen me in bruises on the bus. Was it too optimistic to wish he'd forgotten about it?

Slim chance, Lou.

Shaking my head, I forced my mind to traverse anywhere and everywhere apart from Gabriel. He'd been on my mind more than he should have recently.

For a couple minutes, I relished the feeling of the white froth lapping around my body as I pedalled my feet around treading water.

All of a sudden a loud splash broke the calm bubble I was suspended in, causing me to frown. I could have sworn nobody else was awake. Droplets of water from the impact a few metres away from me landed on my back as I turned around in the water. Astoundingly, there was nobody beside me.

"Who's there?" I asked, my heart speeding up slightly as I gazed up at the yacht to see if somebody had accidentally dropped something. The light was dim due to the sun that had not fully broken the horizon yet and I found myself squinting to try and see more clearly.

Not a soul was there.

Calm down, Louisa. It was probably just a pebble of something. That or an Australian serial killer.

Of course, the annoyingly more educated side of myself argued that a pebble wouldn't have made a splash as big as that. Fuck, that unfortunately left me with the serial killer theory.

I instinctively made my way closer the the boat. "T-This isn't funny. I'll call the police if you don't show yourself."

That's highly unlikely considering people don't go swimming with their phones. A very believable threat, Louisa.