by Becky McGraw
Keegan’s body wilted with relief. But Jules was right—hiding in this room was not finding them, or identifying the threat. There wouldn’t be surfing, scuba diving, or beachcombing on this trip, but Keegan would make it up to Jules later.
From here on out, it would be all hands and eyes on deck when they docked, to observe the loading process. Keegan wished like hell he could fill in the Captain and crew about the potential threat, but he couldn’t risk it.
“Can’t we alert the Captain and crew about the situation now?” Jules asked, as if reading his mind.
“No, we don’t have enough evidence,” Keegan replied, with a sigh. “And if something is being loaded on this ship, we don’t know that one of the crew isn’t involved in the plan.” Keegan looked at his friend. “Lawrence, round up the others and come back so we can have a SITREP and make assignments for the rest of the cruise.”
The only question in his mind at the moment was how many people were at risk here—two thousand on the passenger list, or two million on the east coast? To impress the whole east coast, as Jules heard Ari and Abdel discuss at the bar, it would have to be one hell of a party, so he would bet on the latter.
That meant they were probably talking about a bomb.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“Nothing out of the ordinary and forward bay is buttoned up,” Wilson murmured as he walked up beside Keegan at the second loading area aft on the ship. “Lawrence and Gars are down checking the hull. Bob saw Godzilla leave the ship when we docked this morning, so he’s following him.”
Day before yesterday, it had almost killed him having to stand on the dock in Tortola and watch the waves crashing into the nearby shore. But he’d done it, and so had Jules to give him cover as they strolled back and forth along the pier. Nothing had been loaded on that ship that day, he knew that for sure.
Today, she and Louise decided to stay in the cabin, and he didn’t blame them.
It had to happen here—the Dominican Republic was their last stop. Unless they’d missed it in Bermuda and the device was already onboard. Keegan just couldn’t get that out of his mind. One of the jihadists could have managed to smuggle something on the ship. That was a possibility, too. They’d smuggled small automatic rifles, hadn’t they? A dirty bomb could fit in a suitcase—but probably not one that would do the damage they were talking about—and it would’ve had to go through the X-ray.
Keegan looked back at the fork trucks, which were steadily moving crates of food and supplies onto the ship. Any one of those crates could hold enough explosives to take out this vessel, and more. It was like finding a needle in a hundred-ton haystack.
“We’ve got to try to search the ship. We know what cabins the tangos are in, so we should start there. Maybe find some crew uniforms, so we can move around easier,” Keegan said.
“I’ll catch up with the guys and see what we can do,” Lawrence said as he strode toward the gangway.
Other than entertaining Wilson, the navy officer Greg sent as an interpreter, who met them in Tortola, had been a waste. In her defense, the deal was done by the time she got on the ship and they hadn’t seen the suspects meet again.
She found out what kind of wine Abdel liked with dinner by serving them in the main dining room, but other than that, nothing. He looked down the dock and saw Wilson and Gars walking toward them, drying off with towels and carrying their snorkeling gear. Gars gave him the all clear sign before they walked up the gangplank to re-board.
Keegan looked at his watch and saw it was almost time for the ship to leave. Bob wasn’t back yet, which worried him. He took out his phone to text him, but remembered Bob’s phone was off because they didn’t have service in port. It was stupid to let his uncle go off alone, following one of the most dangerous men on the planet, but there just wasn’t anyone to spare to go with him. Louise offered to go, but he refused and he was stubborn enough to win that argument. Her last words, said in anger to him, “Well go ahead and get your stupid ass killed. Your life insurance is paid up,” rang inside of Keegan’s skull.
If those words came to pass, he knew it would crush his aunt. He had never known a married couple who loved each other more than them, even his own parents. Bob and Louise MacDonald argued hard, but they loved harder and were perfect for one another.
A lot like you and Jules Lawson.
No time to be going there now, MacDonald.
After the last crate was loaded into the hatch, the dock workers closed it and moved their equipment. Keegan looked at the re-boarding line, which was getting longer by the second and headed that way to see if his uncle was there. When he got to the last person in line, his worry notched up to the yellow zone. When he saw the dock attendant close the gate, it went into full red alert. Keegan took off running toward the gate, but stopped when a taxi came to a screeching, sliding stop at the curb and Bob flew out of the back door.
When he got closer, Keegan saw his bloody face, his bloodier knuckles and the fear on his face. “Let me in, moron!” he shouted at the guard, grabbing the gate to rattle it.
The guard took a step back and folded his arms. “With that attitude, I think you need to be a guest here for a few days to learn some manners. It looks like some of the locals have started those lessons, eh?” Keegan hurried to the gate to intervene.
“My uncle is obviously distressed and in need of medical attention,” Keegan said, moving to stand in front of the guard. “I’m sure he’ll apologize, if you give him a second to catch his breath.” He turned to glare at Bob. “Isn’t that right, Uncle Bob?”
Bob huffed a deep breath. “Yes, I’m sorry. Will you please let me in so I don’t miss my ship, mo—ah, sir?” he growled, but the guard didn’t budge, he just stared at Bob.
“Try again, Unk!” Keegan shouted, grinding his teeth.
“Look—I’ve had a really bad day in your beautiful country. If you let me through that gate, I promise I will never be back here to bother you again.”
Keegan knew that was as good as he was going to give, so he worked on Plan B in his mind as the guard just continued to stare at his uncle. The ship’s horn blew, and Keegan knew his time was up. He didn’t want to—but he had no choice. He turned back toward the ship, moved past the guard then turned and put a blood choke on the guard. The man clawed at his arm, tried to twist out of Keegan’s hold, but he held tight until the man passed out.
When he released him, his shoulder told him that was a terrible idea. It felt like the joint was out of place and shards of searing pain streaked down his arm, until they hit the numb spot on the side of his hand.
“Well, fuck me,” he growled, holding his arm as he fished the key out of the guard’s pocket with his left hand. His hand shook as he opened the gate, tossed the keys down beside the prone man then took off running for the gangway, which they were preparing to lift. He heard Bob running behind him and sent up thanks.
“Two more—wait!” he shouted, and breathed when the dock worker stopped unwinding the anchor rope from the piling.
Keegan’s shoulder was on fire as he ran up the gangway and handed his on board account card to the crew member who checked him back in. Bob did the same and they went through security. When they got to the elevator and the hatch closed, he turned to glare at Bob.
“What in the ever loving hell have you been doing?!?” he grated.
“Making sure Godzilla didn’t get away,” Bob replied, with a grin. His split lip opened and blood coated his teeth. “There were a few hitches in that plan, but I survived.”
“What did you do?” Keegan asked with a groan.
“I escorted him to the U.S. Embassy,” Bob replied proudly. “His associate wasn’t too keen on the idea, but he finally saw things my way.”
His uncle was fucking brilliant—that’s all there was to it.
A rush of emotion surged through him as he hugged Bob with his good arm. “Have I told you how much I love you lately, Unk?”
“No, but you better love me plenty. I
think I broke my fucking hand on that guy’s face,” he said, rubbing his rapidly swelling right hand.
“You didn’t tuck your thumb, did you? Keegan asked with a laugh, as they walked into the elevator. “Hell, you taught me not to do that when I was ten.”
“Yep, sure did. It’s been too damned long since I was in a good fight so I forgot. But it was worth it. That big bastard fell hard and the other smaller one is where he belongs.”
Keegan just hoped the rest of this operation ended so well, because they had a lot of area to cover, only seven people to do the searching and two days at sea before they reached Baltimore.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“We’re twelve hours out of Baltimore and we’re only halfway done with our search. I’m bored and could help if you let me,” Jules said, blowing out a breath.
With every second that ticked off the clock, every nautical mile they got closer to Baltimore, the tension inside him grew. Keegan still didn’t know if they were going to blow up the ship to kill the two thousand passengers on board, or if they planned to wait until they were in the harbor for something much grander.
Evidence or not, it was probably time to alert the Captain. From a public relations standpoint, the cruise line may or may not do anything about it anyway, without evidence. Freaking out two thousand wealthy guests on a boutique cruise line could be very bad for business, if it turned out to be nothing.
In five hours, they’d be in US waters so he could tell Commander Lambert to alert the Navy and Coast Guard, if they would do anything without evidence. Hell, the photos he sent to Greg should be enough. The fact that five known terrorists had been on this ship and three left the ship before it returned to port should be enough.
Keegan was very afraid it wouldn’t be enough.
Playing devil’s advocate to see it from Greg and the military’s perspective, the tangos could’ve been on vacation and Keegan could be just looking for terror plots where none existed to find excitement, since he was now a washed up SEAL.
“Maybe I was wrong and this is about caviar and champagne for a party,” Jules said, her voice trembling. “I could be wrong, you know.”
“No, they wouldn’t want to kill us if that were the case,” Keegan replied, pulling off his hat to run a hand through his hair. “It’s the only explanation.”
She walked her fingers up his arm to the padded shoulder of his white coat and squeezed the cap. He flinched as shards of white hot pain sliced down his arm.
“How’s your shoulder? Why don’t you take off your coat and shirt so I can put another ice pack on it?”
Garrison helped him put his shoulder back in place last night and Jules applied ice packs all night, even while he was sleeping. It felt marginally better this morning as long as he kept his arm at his side. He just hoped he didn’t have reason to fire his pistol today, because he wasn’t sure he could grip it.
“It’s fine—I don’t have time. I just got frustrated and had to come back here to think for a minute.” Jules wasn’t making that easy by twisting her fingers in the hair at his nape.
“What are you thinking about?” Jules asked, and agitation rippled through him. “Why aren’t you including me in things and what aren’t you telling me?”
I’m thinking that I need to focus and you are hell bent on distracting me. The last time he let a woman do that during a mission is why his shoulder was fucked up and he was off the teams. Keegan needed to remember that.
“Now that Abdel is off the ship, you can help us search.” So maybe you’ll give me five feet of breathing room to reason this out and plan. “I found out that Abbad Salam and his wife didn’t re-board the ship either, so that leaves us with only two men to surveil, but so far we can’t find either of them, or the bomb. They didn’t leave the ship, but disappeared.”
“Have I told you how hot you look in that uniform? I bet you looked hotter in your dress whites with all those medals I’m sure you earned.” She cradled his jaw in her hands and rubbed her thumb over his beard stubble. When he went rock-hard, his insides twisted. “You’ll have to pull them out and model them for me one day.”
He turned his face away. “I need to think, Jules.”
She pulled her hand off his shoulder and sat up. “Do you think maybe they had the same idea we did? That they stole uniforms to blend in so they’re ready to do whatever they have planned?”
That could definitely explain their disappearance. With a crew of one thousand from all nationalities, who all resembled each other in uniform, they could blend in as easily as their team had. If he was a terrorist looking to hide out, that’s exactly what he would have done.
“Other than the remainder of the staterooms, where else do we need to search?” Jules asked.
“The kitchen and the bridge,” he replied, trying but failing to keep the sharpness from his tone. “The kitchen staff wear different uniforms than the rest of the crew, though, so I’ll have to requisition those. It will be tough going to search there and not to be noticed, because it’s staffed twenty-four hours.” And I need you to back off, so I can work out how we’re going to search there without spending the rest of the cruise in the brig for trespassing.
Maybe it was time for him to at least talk to the Captain. But what would he say? I think your ship might be under terrorist attack so you should take action to protect the passengers? Evidence? Oh, no, sir, I don’t have any evidence, but you should just trust my gut feeling.
Yeah, he knew how that scenario would work out.
“Let’s go out on deck,” he said, standing and holding his hand out to Jules. She uncurled her legs and took his hand to stand.
“After this is over, I’m paying for us to go back to Tortola to surf, Boris. I hear there are naked beaches there. You ever surfed naked?” she said, walking with him toward the slider.
“Can’t say that I have,” he replied, opening the glass door as snapshots of her on a board without a stitch, her wet skin glistening in the tropical sun, almost brought him to his knees.
Fuck—stop it, MacDonald. He walked to the rail, sucked it a deep breath to cool his insides and his libido. This was not the time, but he had no control over it. His fantasy slipped the leash and he chased it into the surf.
Everything about this woman excited and distracted him, and that was fine, as long as he wasn’t worried about saving thousands of lives. The way Jules Lawson thought was different from any other woman he’d ever known. She was not only beautiful and smart, she knew how to live. Surfing, riding a bike, diving head-first into danger to avenge her parents’ deaths? All of his own favorite flavors wrapped up into the most delicious woman he’d ever had.
Most women didn’t seek out adventure and danger, but Jules seemed to thrive on it. Her parents and brother’s lives being cut so short affected her deeply, and was probably a major factor in her wanting to squeeze every ounce out of life. But the thought of her continuing to take those adventures alone made his insides twist.
Keegan hoped after this was over, she’d seek out a nice desk job somewhere safe. They had no ties yet really, but he couldn’t help but hope he would be around to protect her from herself. He wanted to be on that quest for adventure with her. To crawl inside her delicious body and live there to soak up everything she had to offer.
But first, he had to get them out of this situation alive. And then he had to find the balls to tell her that he thought he was falling in love with her. That would be the sticker because the last woman he’d said that to had kicked him in the teeth.
Never in his wildest imagination did he think he’d be saying those words to a woman again. Especially not so soon. Being with a woman like her would definitely make being off the teams more bearable.
“It’s so beautiful out here,” Jules said with a soulful sigh as she walked up beside him. “I wish we had more time to enjoy it.”
“Me, too, baby,” Keegan said sliding his left arm around her. “I promise we’ll do something to make up for this—�
�� Keegan’s stomach clenched, pinching off his words as the ship rocked and he realized it had just slowed down to a crawl.
His leaned over the railing and looked toward the bow, where he saw a pilot boat headed toward them. Their guide through the Chesapeake channel into to the harbor was probably on board. The smaller boat bobbed violently in the ship’s wake then swung wide to match up and pull aside. The single door on the pilot boat cabin opened and a man in black BDUs walked across the deck to the ladder holding something to his side. He grabbed the rung near his head and climbed up to the deck.
Keegan expected the pilot boat to pull off, but it stayed. Another man dressed the same as the first appeared on deck and rushed to climb the ladder too. When two more followed, Keegan knew the party had just started and it was time to get dressed to meet the new arrivals.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Keegan’s insides buzzed as he hung up the phone after leaving a message for Greg Lambert to get the Coast Guard and Navy on standby in Baltimore. He gave the Commander a SITREP and told him they needed backup, but not until after they neutralized the threat in the wheelhouse. Then they could safely offload the passengers into lifeboats as calmly as possible.
He hoped like hell Greg Lambert wasn’t in one of those infamous and useless all-day-long meetings at the Pentagon, which was usually followed by a half-the-night drinks and dinner recap. That was the only reason he could think of as to why the man’s phone would be off.
Since the tangos had most likely taken over the bridge by now, which Wilson and Garrison were verifying, talking to the Captain to get the crew’s assistance wasn’t an option. If the Coast Guard and Navy charged in before they regained control of the bridge and neutralized the threat, it would only get people killed.
