by Mia Dymond
“Billions of dollars.”
“Money? You killed three men because they threatened to intervene in his fortune?” She frowned and shook her head. “This makes absolutely no sense.”
“Drugs, Bailey,” Daniel groaned. “Mr. Valera ships billions of dollars of drugs to the resort. It was my job to assure they arrived and were distributed to his buyers.”
A huge wave of nausea rolled over her and she wasn’t sure if the cause was the boat ride or Daniel’s admission. Either way, the result wouldn’t be pleasurable.
She took a couple deep breaths before she spoke. “Why?”
“Greed,” Daniel said weakly. “He made it well worth my while and it seemed like a perfectly harmless arrangement at first.”
“Harmless? Daniel, you helped put drugs on the street – drugs that ultimately kill people one way or another – and you murdered three employees in the process.”
“If Jack hadn’t insisted on searching the merchandise at the marina, and Marcus hadn’t discovered hidden merchandise in the maintenance garage, and Paul hadn’t snooped around the missing boat, I wouldn’t have had to do that.”
“You’re blaming them?” She turned to one side, lifted one leg, and nailed him in the shin with a heel. “You’re an idiot!”
“There is no sense in unleashing your temper, Miss King.” The gunman shrugged. “What’s done is done. All we can do now is assure there is no evidence left behind.”
She moved her gaze around her surroundings and swallowed hard. Water. Only water and whatever lurked beneath.
“What do I have to do with all of this?” She glanced back at the lunatic with the gun.
“You brought interference to the island.”
“Killing me won’t stop them.”
“No, it won’t,” he agreed calmly, “but luring them away from the resort allows me to use you as a bargaining tool.”
She paused for a brief moment, encouraged that he didn’t plan to kill her immediately. She knew Ice wouldn’t be far behind but when he did arrive, things had a high probability of going terribly wrong. Diesel, Harvard, and Ice would not bargain with this maniac and the resulting fight would be explosive. She swallowed hard and glanced over the side of the boat. Whether she wanted to or not, she had the feeling she would go overboard in the very near future.
***
His lungs burnt from the force of his breathing as Ice sprinted to the marina with murder on his brain. Santana was one cocky son-of-a-bitch to think he could outwit him and as soon as he found him, he would show the cocksucker just how easily he could snap a neck. Not that he was proud of it, but he was much more educated in taking a life.
As soon as he saw Diesel behind the wheel of the Frogman at the end of the dock, he took a running leap and landed solidly in the boat. The sound of thundering boots behind him and the resulting wobble of the vessel told him that Harvard followed suit.
“Alert the Coast Guard,” he told Diesel, “I’m sure he’s headed into international waters.”
“Done. Do you want to drive?”
He shook his head in the negative. “I may have to go in the water.”
Diesel tossed a weapon to Harvard and then grinned at him. “I figured you have a few others stashed onboard.”
He grinned back at his teammate and headed down the stairs to the lower level, through the galley, and then entered the bedroom. He squatted beside the bed, opened a panel in the wooden platform, and then pressed numbers into a digital keypad. Once a steel compartment swung open, he grabbed the weapons inside and headed back up top.
He stood in the space between Diesel and Harvard, who sat in the passenger’s seat.
“He’s not traveling in a resort boat,” Diesel said over the wind as he drove out of the marina. “From the size of the waves, I’d guess it’s not a large vessel but a fairly fast one.”
Harvard nodded. “I’m willing to bet he’s not driving. If he’s got Bailey, she could overtake him easily.”
“He has Bailey.” The words burnt his tongue as he spoke them.
“I agree,” Harvard said. “He’s got help but there’s no way to know who without a visual.”
Diesel accelerated out of the no-wake zone. “Gerard?”
“Negative. He was at the Concierge podium. I nearly strangled him for information.”
Harvard pinched the bridge of his nose. “Aw, hell. We didn’t tell Grace and Trista we were on the move.”
“Relax.” The captain shook his head. “I sent Green up to stay with them.”
“Did he notify you of movement?”
“Affirmative. He’s off the suspect list.”
Harvard frowned. “This has got to be something bigger than we thought. Why would Santana kidnap Bailey?”
“Bargaining power. He now knows who we are and he also knows he didn’t wipe Bickel’s murder from the film.”
“Okay, but bargain for what?”
Diesel took a hard left, accelerated, and pointed ahead at a white, mid-sized craft speeding over the water. “We’re about to find out.”
“Binoculars in the pocket near your left foot,” Ice told Harvard.
His friend retrieved the binoculars and lifted them to his eyes. “Four occupants, three male, one female. Santana and Bailey, for sure. The other two are unknown. Once we’re closer, I’ll snap a picture and send it for identification.”
He gave the other boat a good, hard glare. Personally, he didn’t give a rat’s ass who occupied the boat. Anyone onboard was responsible for kidnapping Bailey and once she was safe and sound, he’d sink them in it.
***
The sound of what she thought was a boat motor caused Bailey to move her attention from the unforgiving ocean beside her to the same tormenting water behind her. And what she saw tempted her to jump in. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the zip-tie that tightly secured her wrist and the weapon aimed directly at her, she just might have done it.
Behind the boat in which she sat as a prisoner, the Frogman travelled toward her, biting through the waves like a hungry shark. Although it wasn’t close enough yet to identify the occupants, she knew Ice was one of them. Her heart pounded wildly inside her chest while thoughts raced through her brain. Relieved that help was near, she knew that stopping a racing speedboat could not be easy.
“We have company,” Valera told the driver. “I’m sure they are armed.”
She grabbed the metal bar to keep from falling backward as the boat picked up more speed. Daniel shrieked like a little girl beside her.
“Shut up,” she snapped while anger colored her vision.
She turned around to glance at their captors in the off-chance she might find a weakness. The driver was a large beefy man but he was somewhat handicapped by driving the boat. If she managed to slip free of the zip-tie, and if she could somehow gain possession of Valera’s weapon, she might be able to take control. She mentally snorted. There were way too many ifs in that scenario. Besides, there was also Daniel to consider. Although he appeared to have made a leap from the dark side, she didn’t trust him. She shrugged. She could always just push him over the side. She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. Ice was going to have to take this one.
Valera stood to face the back of the boat and then turned back to address the driver. “They are quickly approaching. How close are the reinforcements?”
The other man reached into his pocket, retrieved a cell phone, pressed a button with his thumb, and then lifted the device to his ear. She rolled her eyes. Apparently, he’d done this before.
“Approximately five minutes,” he finally answered.
“Full throttle. We have no time to waste.”
“The boat will not go faster, Sir, we have pushed its limits.”
Valera stood silent for a moment and then turned back to face her and Daniel before he spoke.
“I will take the wheel, Mateo. You lighten the load.”
***
“Say cheese, you bastard,” Harvard growled
as he lifted his phone and pointed it at the other boat. Half a second later, he smirked. “Got it.”
Ice tapped his thumb against the back of Harvard’s seat as he watched his teammate feed the photo into the facial recognition app.
“Sebastian Valera.” Harvard lifted his head and glanced at him. “Columbian drug lord. Kingpin of cocaine.”
He nodded. “Makes perfect sense now. The resort is an entry point.”
“They’re changing drivers,” Diesel told them. “Looks like Valera is taking over the helm.”
Ice zeroed in on the action in the other boat as he analyzed options. If Diesel could steer the Frogman close enough, he could easily jump aboard and attempt to take control of the vessel. The only problem with that plan was that both men were most likely armed and he was sure at least one of them aimed a weapon right at Bailey. They could accelerate and ram the other boat but the risk of injury to Bailey was too dangerous to even consider. Even if they managed to fire a shot to take out the driver, the risk to Bailey was too high.
He released a hard sigh and glanced back at Harvard. “How far is the Coast Guard?”
Harvard looked down at his phone. “ETA three minutes.”
“You’re tracking the Coast Guard?”
He shrugged. “I wrote an app.”
“Ice.” Diesel released the throttle to slow the boat. “We’ve got a problem.”
His stomach flipped over as he moved his attention back to the other vessel. Sunlight reflected off what appeared to be a piece of metal as Valera’s partner leaned over Bailey and then grabbed her by one shoulder before he straightened. She screamed a string of curses he’d never heard spoken from her lovely mouth while she kicked and squirmed in the other man’s grasp as he stepped to the side of the boat and extended his arms to the water. Ice’s heart plummeted to his feet as he rushed to the bow of his boat.
“Sonuvabitch is going to dump her.”
Without a second thought, he jumped overboard.
***
Bailey attempted to scream as the force of the water pulled her down into the deep murky darkness while terror clawed her body and tormented her mind, but quickly decided it was better to keep her mouth shut. She’d sink for sure with water in her lungs. Determined not to let that happen, she relaxed her body enough to float for a few seconds and then kicked to bring herself back to the surface. Once her head was once again above water, she forced herself to think.
She had told Ice the truth when she said she knew enough to keep from drowning by treading water, but she had no idea if she possessed the stamina to keep it up for long. She and Ice hadn’t covered the lesson on how not to drown. She bit back the urge to scream and moved her mind back to the swimming pool. Rule number one, don’t panic. Rule number two, don’t fight the unknown. She groaned. It was so much easier to follow the rules in the swimming pool – while a near-naked Ice held her in his arms.
Still moving the water with her arms and legs, she glanced in the direction in which she thought the shoreline should be and found only more water. No land, no rocks, no sand. No safety in sight. This time the panic overtook her and held tight. If exhaustion didn’t kill her, the creatures beneath the water would.
Suddenly, something moved the water a few feet from her. Fear made her feet move faster and she gave a desperate laugh while she pedaled like a madman. So far, she’d managed to live through a kidnapping and survive being thrown in the ocean despite being absolutely terrified of the water. What a shame that a creature from the deep would take her out. Whatever moved toward her wouldn’t have difficulty catching her, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight. Problem was, she would go down. With exhaustion closing in, she finally stopped kicking, squeezed closed her eyes, and braced herself for impact.
***
Ice’s muscles burnt as they propelled him further through the water toward Bailey. Too late he chastised himself for not allowing Diesel to steer the boat a few feet closer before he jumped in. Didn’t matter now, his first priority was closing the distance between them. Deep within the depths of his mind, he pushed his body to perform. At this moment, there was no time to worry about her fear, no time to think about how she reacted to being thrown into the ocean, no time to reflect on the terror in her screams. Protecting her from the madman was the only thing on his mind.
His hands scooped the water out of his way as his body covered the distance like a torpedo. The power of his kick dared anything that threatened to block his path. Several times he had to force himself to come up for air. If he couldn’t save her, he had no reason to breathe.
He stopped long enough to gauge his distance when relief like he’d never experienced before coated his body. Bailey bobbed just a few feet away, treading water like a trooper.
“Bailey!”
He shouted her name, desperate to hear a response. Smart-mouthed, sarcastic or angry – didn’t matter, just so she answered him. Except, she didn’t.
In the tense stillness, he heard the Frogman’s motor as Diesel and Harvard approached, but no sound from Bailey. Her blonde hair, straightened by the weight of the water, flowed around her shoulders and encouraged him that she was still upright. He also knew, though, that adrenaline-fueled courage only lasted so long and soon she would have no choice but to give up. No. Not when he was only laps away.
Blocking out her lack of response, he propelled himself through the water at a furious pace until finally, his body nearly crushed hers. Quickly, he gathered her in his arms, flipped her onto her back, and pressed two fingers to her neck.
“I’m alive,” she croaked. “Just totally exhausted.”
He crushed his lips against hers, just to satisfy himself.
“Ice,” she said breathlessly, “I don’t have much air left.”
He pulled her against him and held tight. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you now.”
“Where’s the idiot drug lord?”
The moment the question left her lips, sirens screamed in the distance. He looked over her shoulder to see a team of Coast Guard boats huddled around Valera’s boat. Muddled voices spoke through a bullhorn.
“Never mind,” she mumbled. “Good.”
“That was some pretty impressive swimming, baby.”
She lifted her head and smiled. “I remembered the rules.”
“Yes, you did.” He moved her arms to circle his neck and glanced back at the action long enough to see Valera and the other two men taken off the boat, restrained by Coast Guard officers. “Buckle your feet around me.”
“We can’t do that here,” she drawled.
He grinned. “No, we can’t. But I can get you back to the boat as long as you’ll hang on tight.”
With her wrapped around him, he swam the short distance to the Frogman and then lifted her out of the water and handed her to Diesel who set her on the nearest sofa. He boosted himself out of the water and sat beside her. Harvard handed them a blanket.
“You swam in your combat boots?” She chattered through the question as he covered them with the blanket and moved her into the circle of his arms.
“No problem, babe.” He placed a kiss on the top of her head as he rubbed her arms to generate heat. “Anything for you.”
“I guess you know about Daniel.” Her body continued to shiver and he pressed her closer.
“Yes, but he’s in custody now.”
“Can you believe that lunatic threw me overboard?”
“No.” Anger boiled his blood at the thought. “Obviously, common sense overtook him. There was no way to escape the Coast Guard.” He quickly pushed the thought to the back of his mind. “We’ll need to hang around to give a statement and then we’ll get you into a warm shower.”
“You’ll come with me, right?”
“Of course.”
“That’s good.” She raised her head and grinned. “Because I have this thing about being in the water ….”
He chuckled low under his breath and pulled her back tighter against him, never more
grateful to hold her than at this very minute. Despite the life-threatening experience they’d just been through, nothing mattered more than the fact that he held her tight. This one tiny, extremely courageous, overly opinionated woman held his heart in the palm of her hand and even though she was a royal pain at times, he wouldn’t trade her for the world.
EPILOGUE
Deep in the confines of his inner sanctum, Diesel sat in his leather executive’s chair behind his desk with his boots crossed at the ankles and propped on the edge. He folded his hands behind his head and settled into the comfort. Nowhere was he more relaxed than in this room while he geared up for work on a new case.
Business was good for Watchdogs, Inc. and it made him proud that they were able to solve problems for so many people. He had a helluva team and every single soldier gave his all to each mission. The only kink in the process, though, was that the more time he spent on investigation, the more time he spent away from his boys. This time, he refused to compromise; he’d hire more investigators before the boys were affected.
He lowered his feet to the floor and sat forward with his elbows on the desk. He’d purposely cleared his calendar for the week. Harvard and Ice could handle anything that came up. He had other important duties to take care of.
He picked up a pen and tapped it against the top of the desk, running plans through his mind. With a whole lot of hard work and discipline, everything would work out perfectly. It was going to be a very good week.
The persistent nag of his cell phone interrupted the blessed silence and he glanced at the screen, unprepared to read the name that appeared in black and white. In fact, he took a second look to assure he’d read correctly. Why was Trista calling?
He paused to mull the question more specifically. How did she even get this phone number? Unless Harvard, Ice, Grace or Bailey gave it to her, there was no way for her to call it. Curiosity pushed him to answer.
