“What are you talking about?” she managed, a new fear taking shape in the pit of her stomach. Her hands were trembling and she stumbled awkwardly as he pulled her across the deck to the small ladder that hung over the side.
“You’re my key to getting that mask, but I’m not going to send you back for it. Lassiter knows where it is, too, doesn’t he? I thought so,” Haley added in brutal satisfaction as he saw the betraying tension in her expression. “Well, we’re going to find out if he thinks enough of his new playmate to trade that mask for her. Your best hope is that he doesn’t know what the thing’s worth. Because if he does, I can tell you right now he won’t give it up just to get your warm body back in his bed. He’ll be able to buy all the warm bodies he needs if he learns the value of that thing. Come on! Quit stalling. Get into the dinghy.”
Amy nearly fell going over the side into the quietly rocking little boat that trailed the cruiser. She’d never felt so clumsy in her life. What would Haley do if her nervous awkwardness resulted in the dinghy tipping over? Or should she try to tip it deliberately?
That feeble plan was crushed almost at once.
“Put your hands behind your back,” Haley growled roughly, reaching for a coil of rope in the bottom of the small boat. With a few savage twists he immobilized her wrists. Any thought of trying to deliberately overturn the dinghy died. She would probably drown herself if she tried such a thing, now that her hands were tied. Even if she could make it to shore, it wasn’t likely she would do so alone. Haley would be right behind her.
In deadly silence he rowed them both to shore. There Haley forced her quickly out of the boat and into the shallow water. Amy waded toward the sliver of sandy beach, her sandals heavy and uncomfortable as they became waterlogged.
“I want to make sure I can find you when I get back,” Haley drawled coldly, pushing her toward the trunk of a palm tree. There he lashed her uncomfortably, hand and foot, securing her to the tree. “Don’t run off now, will you? It’s going to be interesting to see what Lassiter does. Is he going to be smart enough to figure out that the mask is worth a hell of a lot more than you are? Better hope not.”
Amy watched in dismay as Dirk Haley rowed himself back to the cruiser, climbed aboard and started the engines. In a few minutes the big boat was leaving the cove, heading back toward town. Amy sagged back against the rough palm trunk, trying desperately to think
How well did she really know Jase Lassiter? What would he do when confronted with the ultimatum Haley intended to deliver? She had only met the man a couple of days ago, and now her fate was in his hands. The hands of a man who had willingly separated himself from civilization and its code of behavior years ago.
It would be obvious to Jase when Haley contacted him that the mask must be worth a great deal. Would he try to keep it for himself?
The sun had risen rapidly in the sky, and the heat of the day was beginning to make itself felt. Amy wasted a lot of energy struggling with her bonds before deciding that Dirk Haley had tied them with the skill of an expert. How had Ty Murdock gotten mixed up with such a man?
She could well believe Ty had gone looking for adventure and a life of excitement, but until now she hadn’t really believed he could have become an outlaw. There was no doubt, however, that Haley was operating far outside the law. If he had been a friend of Ty’s, that meant Murdock had fallen quite low before his search for excitement had finally killed him.
She thought of her nephew and her sister. Melissa had fabricated tales that she could tell her son about his father when the child was old enough to ask questions. Now Amy fabricated tales that she could tell her sister. If she got out of this mess alive, did she really want to go back to Melissa with the full story of what had become of Ty Murdock? What good would it do Melissa to know that the man she had loved had become, in all probability, a renegade?
If she got out of this alive.
Amy tried to concentrate on deep breathing to calm herself. There was no doubt that murder would come easily to Haley. Ty’s death had obviously meant little to him—had simply solved a problem. What made that damn mask so valuable?
The palm to which she had been tied was one of a small grove which straggled down to the tiny beach. Flanking the grove and extending out into the sea to form a natural harbor were huge arms of chunky lava, frozen forever into craggy, bizarre formations. Occasionally jets of water spouted into the air, seeming to come from the joining of the arms on dry land. The plumes, she guessed, were evidence of natural caverns and tunnels which had their openings below the water line. With the ebb and flow of the waves, water was forced into them to erupt at the opposite end, on the surface of the rocks.
When the distant sound of a boat’s engine caught her attention, a new tide of fear washed through her. Haley was on his way back to the cove. Had he confronted Jase? What would be her fate now?
She waited, every fiber of her being tight with tension as Haley anchored the cruiser once more in the cove. He came over the side and rowed to shore in the dinghy, his gun clearly visible now that he’d taken off the flight jacket.
“Curious, are you?” he mocked as he loosened her bonds and dragged her back toward the boat. “So am I. We’ll soon find out how much Lassiter thinks of you. Or how much he knows about that mask!”
“What did you do?” she whispered as he forced her back into the dinghy.
“Sent a message through one of the men working at the dock.”
“What kind of message?”
“Just that I had something of his that I would be willing to exchange for something he had in his possession. I wrote down a brief description of how to find this cove and added that if he didn’t come alone, I would be forced to destroy the, er, object in my possession.”
Amy sucked in her breath as he casually explained that he would kill her. “Did you do this sort of thing a lot with Ty?” she asked bitterly.
“Ty and I had some good times together before we parted company. Made a lot of money and spent it.”
“Did he... did he ever mention his wife or his son?” For the life of her she didn’t know what made her ask that question.
“Just once. The night he told me about the mask and how he had sent it back to the States for safekeeping. Said it was going to be his pension plan,” Haley told her, forcing her up the boat ladder ahead of him.
“He meant to return someday?” she pressed, needing to know the answer for Melissa’s sake.
“How the hell should I know? He was an unpredictable bastard,” Haley said unconcernedly. “Sit down in that deck chair. I want you very visible when Lassiter arrives. Don’t want him doing anything rash, like trying to sink the boat with a few shots below the waterline. He’ll be a bit more cautious if he can see you’re aboard.”
Would Jase show? Amy glanced toward the horizon, her eye sweeping the entrance to the cove. Yes, she thought suddenly. He’ll come for me. She knew that with perfect clarity. For some inexplicable reason she had trusted him from the beginning. As Maggie had said, women were the real risk-takers. Who else but a woman would be crazy enough to instinctively trust someone she had known for such a short time? Amy shook her head in wonder. It was a miracle the human race had survived, with half its members willing to take such crazy chances with the other half. Or perhaps that was the reason the race had survived!
Haley lapsed into a brooding, uncommunicative silence. He fixed himself a cup of coffee but didn’t offer her one as she sat, hands still tied behind her back, on the deck of the boat. The sun was beating down on her now, and Amy was aware of the perspiration soaking the T-shirt she wore. God, it was hot out here on the ocean in the full glare of the sun. She was going to be burned. Which wouldn’t matter a whole lot if she didn’t get out of this alive, she reminded herself gloomily.
Where was Jase?
She sensed Haley’s increasing tension and it fed her own. If there was one
thing worse than confronting a man with a gun, it was confronting a nervous man with a gun. She sincerely hoped he didn’t become as clumsy as she did when she got nervous!
The muted roar of the launch was audible before it came into view around the jutting shoreline. Haley heard it at once, emerging from the shadow of the cabin to watch along with Amy as the craft cruised slowly into the calm water of the cove. Jase was at the helm and he was alone. There could be no doubt about that. The boat had no concealing cabin in which someone else might be hiding.
“Well, I’ll be damned. The fool decided to play it straight,” Haley muttered in triumphant relief. For the first time Amy realized just how uncertain the man had been about what Jase would do. Probably worrying that the other man would behave as he himself would have done in a similar situation, Amy thought disgustedly. There was no doubt that Dirk Haley wouldn’t have valued a woman’s life above possession of that mask. She could have told him Jase was different.
She would have put her money on Jase any day. She loved him.
The engines of the motor launch shut off a moment later, though it was still some distance away.
“Amy, are you all right?” Jase called.
From where she was sitting she could see only that his face was set in grim, unreadable lines.
“Answer him,” Haley snapped, prodding her shoulder with the gun.
“Yes. Yes, Jase, I’m all right.” Her voice was weak, even to her own ears, but Jase seemed to hear her. “Did you bring the mask?” Haley shouted.
For the first time Jase, who had been standing on the right side of the launch, lifted his right arm. In his hand was the end of a length of rope and dangling at the other end of the rope was the mask. Tied to it was a heavy-looking metal weight. The mask swung lazily just above the surface of the water.
“I’ve got it. But as you can see, the only thing keeping it safe is my grip on the rope. The water’s quite deep over here, Haley. You’d need diving gear and a lot of time to find it on the bottom if this rope slipped out of my hand. And it will slip out of my hand if you hurt Amy or try to take a potshot at me.”
Haley swore a short, violent oath. “I’m willing to deal, Lassiter. You can have the woman. All I want is the mask.”
“You can have it,” Jase assured him. “But it goes to the bottom if anything happens to Amy.”
“Cruise closer and I’ll let her step into your boat as you hand me the mask,” Haley instructed quickly.
June’s mouth curved disdainfully, “I’m not quite that stupid, Haley. As soon as you have the mask, you’ll shoot us both. I get the uneasy feeling you’re not the type to be comfortable at the thought of having left witnesses behind.”
“You’re not in much of a bargaining position, Lassiter! I’ll kill her if you don’t hand over that mask and you know it.”
“I know it. I also know the mask means more to you than anything else in the immediate vicinity. I’ve got an alternate suggestion.” Jase waited coolly for the other man’s response.
“Let’s hear it.”
“Put Amy over the side. Let her swim to shore. When
she’s safe, I’ll cruise past your boat and hand you the mask. You’ll still have me to shoot if you don’t like the way the trade goes.”
“Are you armed?” Haley demanded after a pause.
“No.”
“Prove it.” Haley waited grimly.
Slowly, never letting go of the dangling mask, Jase peeled off the tan shirt he was wearing. A moment later he stood naked from the waist up, wearing only a pair of snug-fitting khaki slacks. It was obvious he wasn’t concealing a gun.
Haley considered the situation, and Amy sensed that his tension was increasing. She kept still, not daring to distract him. “All right, Lassiter, you’ve got a deal.”
Amy leaped to her feet. “No, Jase! He’ll kill you.”
Haley grabbed at her arm, yanking her back against him. “Shut up,” he hissed angrily.
“Amy, do as he says. Go over the side and swim to shore,” Jase called hurriedly.
“But, Jase...!”
“Amy!” Jase’s voice was suddenly full of the heavy authority it had held when he had broken up the fight in his bar. “I’m telling you to go over the side and swim to shore. No arguments. Move, woman!”
She fell silent, staring across the expanse of water, her eyes wide with mute appeal. He was ordering her to follow the plan of action he’d worked out. Jase was not a stupid man. Perhaps he knew what he was doing. She felt Haley tearing impatiently at the rope that bound her wrists. A moment later she was free. He pushed her viciously.
“Go on, get out of here. I don’t want to wait around any longer than I have to, damn it! Swim to shore.”
With one last helpless glance at Jase’s hard, unyielding expression, Amy shakily swung her leg over the side of the boat and dropped into the water. The pleasant coolness was a welcome relief from the heat of the blazing sun, but she wasn’t particularly grateful for it. All she could think about as she obediently struck out for shore was that it was her fault Jase was in such terrible danger. What a fool she had been to think she could handle the unknown quantity of Dirk Haley.
A few minutes later her feet found the sandy bottom and she waded ashore, the wet clothing dragging at her limbs. Dripping wet, she turned to view the scene on the water.
As soon as she looked in his direction, Jase waved her into the palm grove to her right. He wanted her out of target range, she realized. But what about him?
He must have some plan, she told herself over and over again as she trotted obediently into the grove. Surely he won’t just let himself get shot after he hands over the mask. She hurried into the cover of the palms.
The shot rang out the moment she moved into the grove. Amy whirled, horrified, to stare in the direction of the two boats. “Oh, my God! Jase!” He was nowhere in sight.
She could see Dirk Haley’s figure poised at the stern of the cruiser, the barrel of his gun swinging back and forth as he scanned the water. Even as Amy watched, he fired again and again into the sea.
Jase must have deliberately gone overboard, Amy thought frantically. Had he hoped to swim underwater to shore? Haley was certain to spot him as he came out of the sea. Jase would be a perfect target as he waded ashore. Or was he trying to hold his breath and fool Haley into thinking he’d been killed?
The only other alternative that Amy could imagine was that Jase actually had been killed. Perhaps Haley had hit him just as Jase had gone over the side. “No,” she whispered, refusing to accept that possibility. No. She couldn’t bear that thought.
Again Haley fired into the water and then spun around, his gaze searching rapidly for her on the beach. She saw the wild, infuriated expression on his face just as he raised the gun and pointed it in her direction. Could he see her through the cover of the palms? She glanced toward the craggy lava arm to her right.
Instinct alone sent her diving behind the shelter of the rocky outcropping. An instant later two shots pinged off the rock, and Amy closed her eyes, crouching.
“Amy!”
Jase’s voice brought her eyes open in a hurry. “Jase! My God! How did you get here?” she breathed, fascinated by the sight of him, half naked and soaking wet. He was about five yards away from her and he seemed to have emerged from the middle of the craggy arm of land that framed that side of the cove. From the boat Haley wouldn’t yet be able to see him. Another shot hit the wall of rock behind her. “I thought you were in the water. I was afraid—” She broke off, unable to even say the words aloud.
“I know this island a hell of a lot better than Haley,” Jase got out tightly as he crawled quickly toward her. “There’s an undersea cavern that opens down below the waterline at the edge of the cove. The other end opens over there.” He nodded with his chin toward a stretch of rock, confirming her earlier guess. �
��I’ve swum here a lot.”
Amy could see nothing, but she could vaguely hear the echo of water rushing into the bottom of the cave.
“This island is all volcanic and there are a lot of odd formations like that around here.” He drew himself into a crouching position beside her, keeping out of sight. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. Oh, Jase, I’m so sorry. I made such a mess of things,” she wailed.
“You sure as hell did,” he agreed, showing a marked lack of sympathy. “And we’re not out of it yet. Haley’s madder than a wet hen.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” she breathed as another shot struck the rock. “What did you do with the mask?”
“Dropped it overboard when I jumped out of the boat,” he told her carelessly. “Which means we’ve got a problem. Haley didn’t get the mask, but he’s got two witnesses to a kidnapping and assault charge. Even out here in the backwater islands we don’t look on attempted murder as a joke.” Another shot chipped off a sliver of rock and sent it whizzing past Amy’s head. “Come on, we’ve got to get out of here.”
Without waiting for her acquiescence, Jase pulled her after him as he led the way across the rough volcanic rock. “Stay low.”
On her hands and knees Amy did as instructed, trying to ignore what the rough surface was doing to both portions of her anatomy. If they had to travel much distance in this style, her palms were going to be in shreds, she thought ruefully.
“He’s stopped shooting,” Amy observed a few minutes later as Jase reached the end of the volcanic outcropping and dropped lightly down onto the sandy beach on the far side. He reached up to help her.
“That’s probably because he’s busy rowing himself to shore,” Jase explained grimly, catching her fingers and turning them over to look at her badly scratched palms. “Damn! Look at your hands.”
She snatched her fingers away. “I’m sure yours aren’t in any better condition. We can compare our dishwater hands together later. What are we going to do now?” She glanced worriedly back over her shoulder but could see nothing. The tumble of volcanic rock shielded them from Dirk Haley.
Serpent in Paradise Page 12
