Across the Sound:

by Mark Stone

  "No," I answered, shaking my head. "Because that little boy, he's the reason you were born. You had to stay to get him, and you have to do everything in your power to keep him, Char. You have to." I took a deep breath. "One." She shuddered. "Two." She nearly squealed in terror. I waited a beat too long, looking at her. "Three."

  As soon as the word left my mouth, my body turned. I tightened the grip on my gun, arching myself upward.

  Before I could spring over the altar though, I heard a loud banging that stopped me from completing the task.

  "That's enough!" A twangy and familiar voice shouted from the far end of the room. "We have had enough!"

  Slowly, I looked up over the altar. Franklin, the Hangman, Oscar, and the others were turned away from me now. Weapons were pointed in the opposite direction, toward the far door.

  I looked past the mob to find another group of people. Led by Ray, the man who helped ferry me over here, a group of plainly dressed men and women stood in the doorway. Ten, fifteen, maybe thirty of them all stood there. They had rifles and pistols, and even pitchforks in their hands and, in their eyes, was a sensation I knew all too well. They had had enough, and they were going to fight back.

  "You have stolen our churches," Ray said breathlessly. "You stole our streets. You took the innocence from our children, and forced us to lock our doors on an island that had never seen anything like that before. You tried to break us, you son of a bitch, but this is Pine Freaking Island. You're about to find out that we don't break so easy!"

  I guess the people of this island weren't as afraid of Franklin as he thought they were.

  "This isn't something you want to do," Franklin said. "You might have us outnumbered here, but my men are trained, and there's a difference between thinking you can pull that trigger and actually doing it."

  I stood slowly, motioning for Charlotte to stay still as I rounded the altar slowly and made my way toward Franklin and his people, all turned away from me.

  "Are you killers?" Franklin asked. "Because, looking at you, it doesn’t seem like any of you have it in you. Let me ask you a question, you backwoods island rednecks. Have any of you ever even shot a gun in the direction of another human being? DO you have any idea what that would even feel like?"

  "I do," I said, pressing my gun to the back of Franklin's neck.

  I felt him stiffen.

  "Don't!" I yelled, as his men started to turn. "He's pushed me too far. One move from you and I will blow a hole through him."

  I wouldn't have. At least, I didn't think I would, but I had the upper hand, and I was going to use it.

  "You wouldn't," Franklin said. So, I pressed the gun harder against his skin.

  "I don't think you know me as well as you think you do," I said. "But you're welcome to find out. Now tell your men to set their weapons down or they won't have anyone to work for anymore."

  "There won't be anyone to do the working either," Ray said.

  Looking forward, I saw that he and several people had walked toward the group, guns raised.

  "The thing you're not taking into consideration when you ask about whether or not we've shot at human beings, sir," Ray said, looking at Franklin. "Is that, when you do the things people like you have done, you give up the right to that distinction."

  He cocked his gun and his men and women followed. "Now all of you drug dealing losers can get on your knees."

  I looked over at Ray as the group did as he asked. Pulling my handcuffs off my belt and slapping them on Franklin's wrists, I said, "I couldn't have said it better myself."

  Chapter 31

  "And they just burst in like something out of an old Western?" Rebecca asked me, her eyes wide and engaged, and her smile as bright as any of the lights in Rocco's.

  It had been a few days since I'd gotten back from Fort Myers, just long enough for the story of what happened to us there to circulate around town. Luckily, after what we'd been through, finding time for another date with Rebecca wasn't as hard as it had been before. Maybe fate was finally starting to shine a light down for the two of us ... at least for now.

  She slurped down another oyster, the way any self-respecting Floridian ate them; plain; though she added a squeeze of lemon. She seemed to be in awe of the story I was telling, maybe even in awe of me.

  As much as she may have been, she couldn't have been half as enraptured with me as I was with her. Any woman who could save a couple lives in the morning and down oysters with the best of them at night was a lady my grandfather would have told me I should hold onto for dear life. The fact that she looked like Natalie Wood with seafoam eyes was just a plus.

  "They were pretty amazing," I answered, picking up an oyster of my own and smiling. This place wasn't fancy, not like the restaurant where our last date was cut short. There were no swanky tablecloths, no candle light between us, and certainly no translations on the menu. The closest thing Rocco's got to French food was their fries.

  Still, this was better. It was right. It felt like I could be myself here and, judging by the look of her, Rebecca was just fine with that.

  "I guess they were sick of getting screwed around with," she said, tapping her fingers against the table.

  "You'd be surprised at what a person is capable of when they get fed up," I said.

  "I bet," she answered, looking over at me. "I just wish we could have put a stop to it before all the tragedy here."

  "Me too," I answered. "Father Jameson's funeral is the day after tomorrow. Will you be there?"

  "Unless there's an emergency," she answered, nodding at me. "I didn't know him very well, certainly not as well as you guys, but he seemed like a stand-up man."

  "He was," I answered, my heart hurting for the loss. "The world doesn't have enough of those."

  "It has one more than you think it does," she answered. "What about that Franklin guy? I know you had him arrested, but do you think it'll stick? And what about the other people in his employ? Obviously, they weren't all in that church."

  "I hit record on my phone pretty soon after I got in there," I said. "Got a lot of his garbage on tape. I sent what I had to Ethan Sands, the district attorney. He seems confident about his chances." I shrugged. "As for the others, I've found from my time up in Chicago that, once you cut the head off an operation, the rest of it is sure to follow."

  "I hope so," Rebecca answered. Leaning forward, she added, "Have I told you lately how amazing you are? The fact that you had the wherewithal to think of recording that man while all of that was going on is nothing short of superhuman."

  "You're being too kind," I answered. "It's just my job." Winking at her, I said. "Unless, of course, you're trying to butter me up."

  "That would depend on whether or not it's working, Mr. Storm," she answered, smiling coyly at me.

  "You, Dr. Day," I said, leaning forward across the table. "Are very good at what you do."

  "Dillon," I said, and I could hear the seriousness return to her tone as she pulled back a little. "I know you've been through a lot and I know you went through that with your ex-girlfriend."

  I narrowed my eyes. "Your point being?"

  "I've seen people in high stress situations before," she answered. "I know that, more often than not, they can bring simmering things to the surface. Emergencies have a way of cutting through the clutter, or exposing what's true. I guess what I'm saying is, if that's what happened with you out there, if you realized there was still something between you and Charlotte, that would be okay." She blinked hard. "I mean, it would be awful. I would be hurt, and I'd probably come up with a horrible nickname for you to talk about with all my friends over wine and ice cream, but I would understand." She reached across the table and took my hand. "I would just ask that you were honest with me about it."

  I thought for a second about all the stuff that happened in that church, about what Charlotte said to me, about what I said to her, and the way it all turned out.

  Then I thought about what was sitting right in front o
f me.

  What Charlotte and I had was complicated. There was no getting around that. It probably always would be but, for me, I could honestly say that I was past it. Looking at Rebecca, at the kind of woman she was, I knew what I wanted.

  We might not end up together in the long run. Hell, we might end this date realizing we never wanted to see each other again, but I had to move forward with my life. I had to look ahead and to trust my instincts when they told me what I wanted. Especially given what they told me I wanted to do right now.

  "Remember when we talked in the hospital before everything went to hell?" I asked, leaning for far forward I was practically stretched across the table. "You remember what we were discussing."

  A sly smile crept across her face and a flush of red colored her cheeks.

  "If I remember correctly, you were talking about kissing me," she said.

  "And, if I remember correctly, you said that—when it happened for the first time—you wanted to know it was because I wanted it." I shook my head. "No drama. No afterglow. No anything else. Just you and me. Just what we want."

  "That's right," she answered, swallowing hard.

  "What Charlotte and I had is in the past and I, for one, am looking very forward to the future," I said. "What I'm trying to tell you without being overly smooth or anything, is that I want to, Rebecca. I want to kiss you, just you."

  She leaned forward. "You're smoother than you think," she said.

  And then she kissed me.

  The End

  Want to know what happens to Dillon, Boomer, Charlotte, and the rest of the gang?

  Well, I’ve got some bad news for you.

  Amazon won’t tell you when the next book is out!

  You’ll be left wondering what happens in Naples to all your favorite characters, and that’s not great because- I promise- what’s coming up next is pretty awesome.

  But don’t worry. There’s good news!

  To find out what’s happening next to the Naples crew, all you have to do is:

  Sign up for my monthly newsletter right here! I’ll let you know when the next book will be coming out and I’ll keep you posted on free stuff and upcoming adventures.

  Also, check out my website and get in touch with me on Facebook.

  Also, be sure to click the follow me link on Amazon here.

  For more on Dillon Storm and his group of Naples neighbors, check out the sequels.

  Book 2: Far From Shore can be found here. Check it out!

  Book 3 Across the Sound can be found here.

  Book 4: Caught in the Surf can be found here

  Book 5: Buried in the Sand can be found here

  And…

  A new Spinoff Series set in the Coastal Justice world can be found here.

  Thanks, and until next time, happy sailing,

  Mark