The Breakers - Prologue

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Prologue

EPOV

"Fuck, I'm tired," I whine to Emmett as he hits the lever to bring up another lobster pot.

We've been out on the water for over a week now and I am ready to get back to Corea … and to my girls.

I've promised Peyton I'll watch the football game she is going to save on the DVR with her and well, what I want to do to Bella after not seeing her, touching her, kissing her for more than seven days should be pretty damn self-explanatory. The two of them are my life now, my family … my whole world. I never expected to find them, I damn sure know I don't deserve them, but there is no way I am giving them up now. I've promised myself, but more importantly I've promised the two of them that I will work, every fucking day, to make sure I am worthy of them because they deserve nothing less than my very best.

The muscles in my arms ache from the biting cold that seeps into my bones and the wind that rages around us lashes my skin like a whip. I can barely feel my fingers, even though they're covered with the bulky work gloves I have to wear when we're out on the water. My legs and back feel like they are on fire and it's all I can do to stay upright.

I'm so fucking tired.

We've been pulling the traps up for almost twenty-four hours straight now, trying to get the lobsters in the live tank and the traps stowed on the boat before the storm overwhelms us.

The Isabella Marie rocks and lurches as a gust of wind swirls around the boat and my legs protest painfully as I try to keep myself from falling on my ass.

"Come on, boys! Get those damn traps up. The storm is breathing down our fucking necks!" Charlie barks from the wheelhouse.

"Damn, I hate this shit." Emmett grunts as we reel in the next trap.

Another gust of wind whips through the air and this time when the boat violently pitches to the left a wave of water surges up over the side. I let go of the gaff so that I can hang on, losing my balance in the process. It takes me a moment to right myself and I can tell I'm going to have a hell of a bruise on my thigh from being slammed against the side of the boat. I briefly think of how good it will feel when Bella's warm, soft fingertips will trace over it, like she does to every bruise and ache each time we come in.

I let myself smile for a fraction of a second then my stomach clenches so tightly it hurts. Immediately I remember how she was the night before we pulled out … frantic, almost inconsolable. She'd been positive something bad was going to happen during this trip out and no matter how much I tried to convince her otherwise, she just wouldn't listen. In the blink of an eye, she went from sweet and playful to irrational and petrified. I know every time I go out it reminds her of Evan, but I have a job to do. I've made a commitment to Charlie, Wayne, and Carlisle, and I can't let them down. Charlie needed us to go out this one last time and because of that, I felt like I had to say yes.

Leaving, even if it's only for a short time, is always hard, but this time has just been plain brutal. Bella is always so calm and rational, but something about this trip out hasn't set with her well, at all, and hasn't from the get-go. When another clap of thunder rings out overhead and another gust of wind stings my face like hundreds of tiny needles, I think she's probably right.

"Let's go, fellas. We only have three more trawls to get up," Jasper tells us and I grunt in response.

Emmett is working the hauler and it creaks and squeaks from the pressure of pulling the traps up through the crashing waves and the fierce wind.

Motherfucker, I'm cold.

Waves continue to batter the hull and creep over the side and the spray from the waves that buffet the boat is freezing almost as fast as it hits the deck.

And we're doing it; we've almost got this bastard of a storm beat when I let my guard down like a damn greenhorn. It only takes a moment; just one flickering loss of concentration and a life can change in the blink of an eye. My life.

A vision of my body curled around Bella's as we lie on the couch in front of the fireplace while Peyton watches TV from the floor flits through my mind and … I never see it coming.

"Edward, watch out!" Emmett yells and I don't even have time to react.

One moment I'm standing on the deck of the boat and the next … I'm in the dark: sinking, frozen in the middle of the icy North Atlantic.

As I struggle to breathe, I realize I'm going to break my promise to both Bella and Peyton … my girls … because there is no way in hell I'm going to make it home to them. The water is so cold. It's like nothing I have ever felt before, nothing I could have even imagined.

Bella …

Peyton …

I try to focus on them but I can't.

Fuck! Bella was right to be worried, I think through a haze of numbing pain.

Because … then … my world turns black.

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