Sunset Point: A Shelter Bay Novel

by JoAnn Ross

  “You need to untie me,” she said.

  “I wish I could, lass. But I can’t.”

  “You’re a sailor and you can’t untie a simple knot?” she asked incredulously.

  “I was a seaman,” he corrected firmly. “A sailor’s a blasted landlubber’s term. And I’ll have you know that there wasn’t a man on any sea who knew his ropes better than Captain Angus MacGrath.”

  “You should be proud,” Tess said dryly. “So let’s see some seaworthy expertise.”

  “Hang it all, woman, in case you’ve forgotten, I’m dead. And those are earthly ropes.”

  Tess couldn’t believe her ears. “Let me get this straight. You can walk through walls, you can rattle pots and pans, appear and disappear at will, but you can’t untie a damn rope?”

  “Aye. Unfortunately, that’s the way the wind blows.”

  She couldn’t take any more. When she began to cry noisily, the captain became openly distressed. “Now, now, belay that noisy female caterwauling.”

  “Why should I?” she asked between sobs. “I thought I saw the man I love die. I’ve been Tasered, tied up, locked in this trunk, never mind the fact that I happen to be claustrophobic, threatened, and I’m probably going to die at the very hands of the man who terrorized me when I was just a girl. Excuse me if I don’t find haunting Nate’s house with you an ideal way to spend eternity.”

  “You’re not going to die. At least not yet. There’s a whole crew of men out looking for you. Breslin and your father will save you.”

  “Dad’s in Shelter Bay?”

  “He just arrived. Seems he had a feeling something was wrong, so he came down here to rescue you.”

  “You somehow did that, didn’t you?” Tess said. “The same as you put Isabella in Nate’s dreams.”

  When the captain didn’t answer, she realized this might be her only time to tell him what she knew. “Isabella never stopped loving you,” she said. “And Lucia was your daughter.”

  “Why in the blue blazes didn’t she tell me when I came to her?” he demanded. His normally booming voice trembled with what Tess realized was centuries-old emotion. “Why did she lie and tell me that the girl was her husband’s? And that she’d never stoop to marrying the likes of me?”

  “That was because she loved you. Enzo was a dangerously brutal man and she knew, that if you were to confront him, he’d kill you.”

  “She should have had more faith in me,” he said.

  “I suspect, by the time you returned from sea, she’d pretty much lost faith in anything and everyone. Except Lucia.”

  There was a long pause. Then, on a voice that might have been roughened by unshed tears choking his throat, he said, “Thank you, lass. For easing my mind. And my heart.

  “Now, don’t you fret.” He’d gathered himself together and sounded like the bold, larger-than-life great-great-grandfather she’d amazingly come to know. “You’ll be getting out of this mess soon enough.”

  As the temperature in the trunk warmed, ever so slightly, telling her that the captain was gone, Tess continued her silent prayers that Nate and the search party would reach her in time.

  * * *

  “Dammit, it’s my fault,” Nate ground out. “I was supposed to keep her safe.” If she died, it would be like Fallujah all over again. He’d already lost too many people he cared about to violence. But although there were still times when he suffered survivor guilt, Tess was different. As hard as having his battle buddies die in that battle had been, Nate didn’t think he could survive losing the woman he loved. Wasn’t sure he’d even want to.

  “We’ll find her,” Mike said. The roughened stress in his voice suggested he didn’t dare think otherwise. “I didn’t raise a quitter. Tess isn’t going to give up without one helluva fight. We’re going to find Tess safe and sound. Then you can take over the worrying about her.”

  Nate only wished he could be as sure of that as her father was.

  What Nate had no way of knowing was that Mike was torn between being sick with worry about his daughter and fighting the inner rage that made him want to kill her abductors with his bare hands.

  It fucking wasn’t fair. A man shouldn’t have to go through this twice in one lifetime. When Tess had disappeared so many years ago, he had gone without sleep for weeks, obsessed with capturing her kidnappers. That time, being a PPB detective, when he’d located the former Lombardi housekeeper, he’d followed the letter of the law, had dutifully notified the New Mexico police, and arranged for her extradition to Oregon to stand trial.

  Unfortunately, he’d gotten there too late and the housekeeper had been dead.

  This time a very strong part of him hoped that he’d be the one to track the men who’d taken Tess. And then he’d kill them.

  40

  Finally, after what seemed forever, the car stopped and the trunk opened.

  “There you are,” the familiar singsong voice who’d been infiltrating her dreams more and more often lately said. “And didn’t you turn out to be a beauty? I’ve thought about you over the years, you know. Followed your career. Watched you grow up. And waited.”

  “Why?” If she could keep him talking, the captain would bring Nate and her father and Kara here.

  “Why did I wait? Because in the beginning, I stayed out of Oregon because I never knew what you’d remember. Later, I became busy with other girls. And occasionally women, as parents became more vigilant. Do you know how difficult it is to get a child to help you with directions?” he asked. “Or even find a puppy, which used to be a sure thing.”

  He shook his head. “I’ve no idea what the world’s going to come to when such a cynical, distrustful generation grows up.”

  “Why now?” Keep him talking.

  He shrugged. “Because you recognized me, of course.”

  “You looked familiar when you were at the door, but I never would have made the connection.” Though, given more time, the way memories of the events had started breaking through, she might have.

  “No. In the prison.”

  “What?”

  “When you came to talk to the snitch you intended to use to bring down the Russian,” he explained. “I was on the way to outtake to be released. I saw you pause and look at me. That’s when I knew.”

  She vaguely remembered a guard and prisoner passing her in the hallways as she’d paused to collect her thoughts before going into the interview room. But she’d barely noticed him and certainly he hadn’t triggered any memories. At least not consciously.

  “You were in prison? For what?”

  “That’s not important.” He waved her question away. “We don’t have all day. The tide’s going to start coming in soon.” He untied her legs, which still felt wobbly, but left her hands restrained. “Start walking.”

  He held the gun to her side as the trio walked through the woods. The dark, damp earth had a yeasty smell, and what had seemed like a fairyland of ferns when she was walking through this same forest days ago with Nate was ominously threatening. The immense quiet of the shadowy rainforest closed in on her while the black, gesticulating trees seemed to reach for her. As a jay suddenly flew overhead, his screeching call echoing in the darkness, she had to bite back a scream.

  “He stabbed a street hooker,” Eric revealed.

  “It was a very small knife,” her kidnapper qualified. “And a very inept prostitute. She wasn’t one of my special girls. Just someone I used to let off a little steam. Unfortunately, she got away, and what I hadn’t counted on was a security camera in that alley getting my license plate.

  “However, proving that I’m smarter than your average cop, no one ever made the connection to my other diversions over the years. Such as those weeks you and I spent together.”

  Life meant nothing to him, Tess realized. He could kill her as easily as a normal human would swat a mosquito.

  Still stalling, wondering how long it would take a ghost to reach Nate, she turned to Eric. “I don’t understand. What do yo
u have to do with Vasilyev?”

  “I’ve been working for him for a while.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Whatever he needs. Fixing juries, moving funds, letting him know about your snitch.”

  “You told him about my informant? So, essentially you had the guy murdered?”

  “Prison’s a dangerous place. Things happen. Especially when you get branded a stool pigeon.”

  “But why?”

  Eric shrugged. “You know I like to play the horses. When I found myself into Vasilyev’s mob for more than I could repay, he offered a way out. Luckily, since I just happened to be a deputy district attorney, I was more useful to him alive than dead.”

  Two thoughts hit at the same time. “Janet Kagan was laundering money for him. And you’re the one who got to that jury member who held out and hung my trial.”

  “It wasn’t that difficult. Turns out the soccer mom by day was a high-priced call girl at night. All I had to do was threaten to show her website to her minister husband.” He snapped his fingers. “Problem solved.”

  “Your friend has been quite busy moonlighting,” her kidnapper volunteered. “When word got out through the prison grapevine that he was doing work for the Russian, he became one of the most popular visitors at the prison. Which was why I hired him myself to keep an eye on you for me. Until I was released.”

  So much for having felt sorry for the guy. Although deputy district attorneys had to schedule visits, no one would have had any reason to cross-check inmates Jensen had been visiting with cases he was prosecuting.

  “But you didn’t succeed with the son’s jury,” she said to Eric.

  “I didn’t try. He’s a big, strong kid. And not that bright. His mother ran that entire operation, just using him for muscle when needed. Vasilyev had a role for him as an enforcer. In fact, his first assignment was to take out your snitch.” He actually sort of smiled at the irony. “Small world we move in, isn’t it?”

  Forcing herself to remain calm as she stumbled along with that ugly pistol digging into her side was one of the hardest things Tess had ever done. “You also killed Jim Stevens.”

  Her mentor who’d gotten Vasilyev convicted. She’d never believed that had been a boat accident.

  “The Russian finds prison a drag. And he’s a firm believer in sending a message. Stevens’s death was part personal, part professional.”

  “So now you’re going to kill me for him?”

  “It isn’t anything personal, Tess. In fact, I took a risk trying to scare you off with those calls when Vasilyev wanted you dead before the hearing. How was I supposed to know that you shared your old man’s stubbornness?”

  “My father will be in the front row at your execution.”

  “There’s always that chance,” Eric Jensen agreed easily. “There’s also the chance that his heart will give out before he manages to figure things out.”

  “You bastard.”

  Jensen’s shoulders lifted in another careless shrug. “It’s either you or me, Tess. You can’t blame me for wanting it to be you.”

  “He’s right,” her kidnapper rejoined the conversation as they came out of the clearing and she found herself walking toward the cliff. “The only thing he got wrong is that for the next few hours, you’re far more valuable.”

  Taking the pistol from her side, he turned it toward Jensen and pulled the trigger. Once. Twice. A third time. Tess’s former colleague had a look of stunned surprise on his face as he crumpled to the ground. Dead.

  Inside, Tess was screaming. What no one watching her in court would ever know was that there had been a time when she’d suffered stage fright. By the time she’d graduated law school, compartmentalizing her feelings in a separate mental box had become second nature.

  “Are you going to shoot me now?”

  “As it happens, Vasilyev wants you to have plenty of time to understand exactly how badly you inconvenienced him.”

  “I’m not going to jump.”

  “Of course you’re not,” he said patiently. “You’re going to walk very carefully, very slowly, down to the beach.”

  Tess wondered why, if he was going to kill her, he didn’t just do it right here. Then she remembered what the captain had told her about the cave. And understood.

  “Vasilyev’s only part of the equation,” he explained. “I never would have met Jensen if I hadn’t ended up in the same cell block as him, so, since we were both after the same ends and he’s not out yet, we agreed that I’d be the one to take care of you.

  “Meanwhile, you and I never got to finish our party,” he said, confirming her revelation. “So, I’m taking you somewhere private. Where it’s nice and dry. At least it’s nice and dry right now.” An evil amusement gleamed in his eyes. “It’ll be a different story when the tide comes in.”

  After whatever torture he found amusing, he was going to leave her stranded where she’d be certain to drown. But not right away. Not until she’d been sufficiently terror-stricken, scrambling atop rocks, struggling to stay out of the thundering, icy surf.

  It was at that moment that Tess realized that Death did not wear a black hood and carry a scythe. In her case, he was clad in an Oregon State Police uniform and carried an S&W pistol. At the same time, crystal clear memories of her time in that dungeon came flashing back, like a DVR set on fast forward, and she decided that if she was going to die, it wouldn’t be alone.

  Tess knew her self-defense training hadn’t prepared her to protect herself against an armed, stone-cold killer who appeared to have spent most of his prison time in the gym. But her pride, as well as her strong survival instinct, wouldn’t let her go down without a fight. The worst that would happen is that she’d fall off the cliff. But she’d take him with her.

  “You’re remembering now,” he said. One of the reasons they often got away with their crimes for so long was that sociopaths were good at reading people. Which was how they managed to draw in their victims.

  She hoped this murderous sociopath only saw the memories. Not the plan.

  “Did I mention you were always my favorite?” he asked rhetorically. “I couldn’t stop thinking of you. For all these years, whenever I was with another girl, it was always you I saw.”

  When he ran the back of his hand down her cheek in an evil parody of a caress, she bit him. Only to be struck by a backhanded slap with the pistol that knocked her off her feet.

  41

  Nate had never been as relieved to see anyone as he was the captain when the seaman suddenly called him away from the others to tell him Tess’s whereabouts. Although it took a little convincing, since they weren’t having any luck where they were looking, the search team decided to head toward the cliff leading down to the cave.

  The problem was, Tess’s captors had a good lead, and time wasn’t in their favor. But having walked every inch of this coastline, Nate knew both the cliff and the cave well.

  “Does the Shelter Bay sheriff’s office happen to have a Remington 700?” he asked Kara. It was the civilian equivalent of the Marine MP40 sniper rifle he’d used when deployed.

  “I’ve got something even better,” Kara told him. “The military’s been generous to police departments. I just happen to have an MP40.”

  She got it out of a locked case and handed it to him. It had been a few years, but some things you never forgot. “I’m also married to a former SEAL sniper who can spot for you.”

  Nate glanced over at Sax. “You up for this, frogman?”

  “Absolutely, jarhead,” Sax returned. “Let’s go bring home your woman.”

  * * *

  Sax Douchett could not only cook like an Iron Chef, he was probably the best spotter Nate had ever worked with. With the captain guiding them (having hung out with his own ghosts, Sax wasn’t freaked out by him the way some people might’ve been), they found a spot hidden in the trees five hundred yards from the edge of the cliff, where they could see the guy in the blue trooper uniform shoot the deputy district att
orney. Unfortunately, unlike in Iraq or Afghanistan, while they provided a good hide, the trees also presented an obstacle. After coming up with the best angle, Sax calculated the distance, wind coming in off the sea, and weather conditions, which were starting to get dicey with the thickening fog rolling in.

  Not that anything was going to prevent Nate from making the money shot. All he needed was for Tess or the guy to move. Just a fraction of an inch.

  His heart leaped up into his throat as he watched her bite the hand that had dared touch her.

  “Don’t breathe,” Sax, who’d been a damn good sniper in his day, murmured.

  Falling back on training that had once been as natural as breathing, Nate slowed his heartbeat and held his breath.

  A moment later, Tess went down.

  And Nate pulled the trigger.

  As they watched the kidnapper fall over the cliff into the sea, Sax let out his own breath.

  “I always said that if you guys had the high tech stuff we SEALs do, you’d be the best in the business,” he said. “Good job. One shot. One kill.”

  Just as they’d both been trained to do, Nate thought, as he lowered the rifle and went to fetch his woman.

  42

  “I was so afraid I’d lost you,” he whispered into her hair. His voice was husky, rough with emotion. As she ran her fingers wonderingly over his face, Tess thought she detected moisture on his cheeks that was unrelated to the mist.

  “Never happen,” she assured him, smiling tremulously. “Because you’re stuck with me, Nate Breslin.”

  His arms tightened around her with a strength that nearly cut off her breath. “Does that mean what I think it does?”

  She nestled into his embrace, deciding that she could quite easily spend the rest of her life in Nate’s strong, capable arms. “It means,” she said, her eyes filled with the brilliance of love, “that you and the captain are going to have to get used to a woman living at Sunset Point.”