by Cherry Adair
"Good man."
"How long do you think we have?" Logan demanded, phone to his ear.
"You heard Núñez. Sixty minutes to get to her house. We've already eaten up nine getting our shit together. So, that, or less, to detonation would be my guess." Finn strode over to the tablets as he fitted the tiny comm over a molar, biting down gently to seat it. A glance at his own pale face, reflected in the night black windows, showed just how fucking scared he was. He might be able to control his voice, and expression, but not his physical, involuntary responses. Not when it came to Persephone.
When he got his hands on Núñez, the sick fuck was going to wish he'd never been born.
"Find the bomb," he told his people remaining onboard. "When you do, toss it onto one of the runabouts and send it, full bore, out into the middle of the ocean." If they didn't find it, they could kiss their asses goodbye. "Evacuate everyone on board both ships in exactly twenty-four minutes if it's not found. Nobody be a hero. Ships can be replaced. This isn't your fight," Finn told the group, voice grim as he hefted the first tablet.
"A stupid fucking statement. Doesn't deserve a response," Zane said, jaw tight, eyes hot.
"Fair enough. I need that," Finn told Callie, who had her large duffel bag at her feet as she readied to depart.
"Of course." She immediately opened the bag and dumped her clothing and cosmetics on the floor without hesitation. "Pad them. Here."
"Thanks." Finn, quickly and efficiently, loaded the tablets into the case, placing whatever clothing Callie handed him, as padding between them. As he worked, he touched his earpiece to alert the crew readying the chopper. "On my way."
"We're all going," Nick informed him, offering him a Sig. Saur from the small of his back.
"I have my own, but thanks." His people would have an entire arsenal waiting for him at the chopper, but he figured the more firepower he had, the better.
"Take this at least," Jonah braced his foot on the coffee table, lifting the leg of his jeans to expose an ankle holster. Withdrawing the gun, he handed it to Finn, then unbuckled the holster, and handed that to him, too. "Glock 27. Pearce extension. Ten rounds. If they're professionals, they'll find these. You need deep conceal. I'll get a neck holster for you. Hands up, hands behind your head. You'll be covered." He indicated what he wanted to one of his counterterrorist guys nearby.
"Appreciate this, but you know they won't let me do anydamnedthing until they've disarmed me."
"You can shoot plenty of the fuckers before that happens," Logan said. "Always be prepared is my motto."
"Oh, I plan to be," Finn said grimly.
"Where do you want us?" Bria asked Nick.
"I'll accompany you back to Scorpion," Nick told his wife. "I think the safest place for you is the mainland. You, Callie, Teal and Dani, head directly to the marina, I'll send a couple of armed men with you. Stay there until we clear things. I'll follow Finn in our chopper."
“First, we don't know that this psycho isn't patrolling the marina waiting for us. Second, there's no damned time,” Callie pointed out. “We'll go to the Tesoro Mio. Ry’s got plenty of security. Don't worry about us. Every minute counts.”
"I'll talk to Case," Finn told her, as he fastened the ankle holster, dropped the Glock into it, then rose to zip Callie's bag. He hefted it onto his shoulder. He'd gladly hand over the fucking tablets to Núñez to save Peri. Nobody present suggested anything different.
Callie shook her head. "Better not. I know him. He's going to want to be right in the middle of the action to save his sister."
Finn held out his hand. "It should be me telling him." Callie slapped the phone into his palm like a surgical nurse a scalpel.
Hell of an introduction, but it had to be done. "Phineas Gallagher," Finn said without preamble when Case answered. "Dr. Thiago Núñez is holding Persephone against her will at her home."
"What the fuck? Why?"
"In exchange for the tablets. I have..." He glanced at his watch. "Forty-eight minutes to make the exchange."
"How many people holding her?"
Finn appreciated the way Case went directly to the crux of the matter.
"Thirty men for a kidnapping?" Case's voice was incredulous. "That doesn't make any fucking sense- I'm going with you."
"Appreciate it. But no time. The Cutters will be right behind me in their choppers, security's taking boats in."
"Know about the caves?"
Finn turned the phone on speaker as he and the Cutter men strode down the length of the corridor. "What caves?"
"The entire bluff under Peri's house is a labyrinth of caves," Case told him shortly. "Her Sea Witch is anchored there. She has an elevator from her private dock up to the house. I'll bring my people and come in that way. Do you have enough firepower?"
"We do."
"Gallagher?"
"Yeah?"
"If one hair on my sister's head is harmed, I'll hunt your ass to the ends of the earth, and I'll kill you. Got it?"
Before he could respond, Case cut him off.
Finn did a quick practice draw. Reaching behind his head for the semi-automatic .380. It cleared the holster between his shoulder blades with ease, and fit, with room to spare, in his palm.
"Eleven ounces," he told Nick. "Six .380 ACP rounds in the magazine, one in the pipe. He listened to McCoy via his comm. "Yeah, I remember. Trigger's a little stiff, but it can fire sixty feet."
"Make them count."
Finn nodded. "Let’s get this shitshow on the road." He was heading to the door, now at a run. "You'll have to land at a distance," he addressed everyone behind him without slowing or turning his head. "There's only room in front of her house for one chopper. A narrow road connects the mainland to her peninsula. One way. Hundred foot drop. We don't know the capabilities of the men holding her. Be prepared for every eventuality. Let me make myself crystal clear. The only thing I care about is Persephone."
"Agreed," Logan said, his voice flat.
The tablets were just a bargaining chip. Peri's life was everything.
Everyone left the salon at a run.
"Keep me advised," Finn told the others, just as Dr. Vadini came toward the women who were yards ahead at the other end of the corridor.
Frowning with concern, the curator spoke rapidly in Italian to Bria, backing up as the men barreled toward him en masse.
Nick's wife responded in equally rapid Italian, without slowing her pace, eyes fierce.
Vadini turned terrified eyes to Finn as he fell into step with them. "I was most afraid of this. It's imperative you not allow El Elegidos to get possession of the tablets! Dr. Núñez's interpretation of the meaning of the tablets was completely erroneous! I must accompany you." The curator grabbed Finn's forearm.
Finn shook him off. "Too dangerous. Go with the women to the Case's ship. The men at Persephone's house are armed, and her house is a fucking fortress," he told the Cutters, who had no problem keeping pace with him. "Which they now hold."
"Please," Vadini's voice broke as he tried to keep up.
"You sure you don't want me to-Go." Nick urged when Finn shook his head. Nick put his phone to his ear shooting out rapid-fire orders to his own people on board his ship Scorpion. "Prep the chopper for immediate departure, and ready all the runabouts," Nick said into his own phone, running beside Finn. "Have security arm themselves and be ready to be wheels up the minute I get there." To Finn, "The others are doing likewise. Don't worry, you'll have plenty of back up for this assfuckery."
Callie reached up to kiss Jonah on the mouth. "Don't get any damned holes in you, Jonah Cutter, or I'll kill you. I still want that honeymoon you promised me."
"Always keep my promises."
"We have a veritable army," Finn said dryly. "These fuckers won't know what hit them. Núñez is mine. Let's go."
The Cutters headed to their runabouts in the garage. Finn took the stairs to the upper deck, and the helipad, two at a time
The metronome ticked at a furious
rate as he climbed into the waiting Augusta Westland AW139. "Everything set?" he demanded of his men waiting for him beside the chopper, their hair blowing in the whir of the rotor.
"Yes, sir," Caplan yelled, climbing in after him, followed by Rodriquez. Both ex-NAVY SEAL's had been with Finn for over ten years. He trusted them with his life. Peri's life.
"Get in. Keep low when we go in for the approach. The house is made up primarily of glass. Don't want them to see you until we need them to see you."
Finn put on his headset. Blades already spinning, they lifted off the helipad.
Other than the dash lights, the interior was dim. His eyes adjusted to the night sky pressing down on the water. The wind had died down as if it had never been, and other than a few clouds, the sky was black and bright with stars. Using his left hand, Finn gripped the collective and increased the pitch of the blades to hover briefly over the deck as he opened the twist-grip throttle to produce more engine power as he pressed the yaw pedals.
Right hand on the cyclic, he pushed sideways, making a curving turn over Blackstar's stern before straightening out and heading inland at top speed. At almost two hundred MPH, they'd be there in minutes. "Show me you're worth your fourteen million dollar price tag," he said under his breath, pushing the machine to its limit.
The whirl of the rotors overhead matched the rapid beat of Finn's heart as he flew low over the star¬-speckled blackness of the ocean. His earpiece came on and Nick Cutter seemed to speak directly into his brain. "Finn?"
"Yeah."
"Vadini just admitted that he is the Protector mentioned in the tablets. Part of a group called el Ehnos- the Protectors of Blackstar's prophesy. Given what has transpired this evening, he believes Núñez is the head of the opposing radical religious group called the Chosen, el Elegidos. The Chosen believe they’ve been selected by God to fulfill the prophecy. Vadini claims the two groups are in direct opposition. The Protectors are just that, protectors of the tablets, certain that the prophecy he read on our tablets is gospel and the direct words from the seer."
Listening with half an ear, Finn snapped, "And I give a fuck-why?"
“Núñez doesn't believe the interpretation at all. His cult's belief is that the end of the world is coming, and he'll be the one to lead the remaining eleven thousand people to the Chosen's version of Nirvana. Vadini believes Núñez will stop at nothing to get his hands on those tablets. He has five fucking hundred years of indoctrination behind him.
"Vadini believes Núñez intends to kill anyone who knows the truth about the prophecy on the tablets. He'll lie to his disciples flat out since no one but Núñez and Vadini can read the ancient text. Núñez needs to keep the real meaning of the tablets a secret to maintain his hold on his followers. From the images, it looks as if he has his followers who are militarized and willing to kill, or die, for what he believes in. We don't know how far reaching the Chosen are. But Vadini claims they are dogmatic, violent and will stop at nothing to achieve their goal. Oh, yeah and another thing. . .The end of the world is in three days. Just sayin'. "
This was all so much bullshit.
All Finn knew was that some fuckhead had his filthy hands on Peri.
If it was a choice between the end of the fucking world and Peri, there was no contest.
Peri was his world.
“He won’t need to destroy the tablets or anything else if I kill him first.”
“Works for me,” Nick responded. Under Nick's voice was the sound of the motor on his runabout, and the faint slap of water as the Cutters made their way to their own ships.
The green dash lights shone eerily on the slight chop of water below as the rotors churned up the surface. Finn made a small adjustment to change course slightly when the lights of the small town of Puerto Mahon appeared in the distance.
"As ludicrous as it seems, goes to motive." So much for the story he'd considered a bullshit scam to part him from his money. Considering these nut jobs held Peri's life in their hands, he'd swallow his disbelief and go along with it. "We need to know more about these 'Chosen'. How many people are part of this cult? Are they prone to acts of violence? Do they have more assets at their disposal? Can you have T-FLAC delve deeply into what we're dealing with here? Walker will give them the access info to the NASA satellite contact person."
"Excellent, already working that angle. I should have more soon."
"Sooner would be better," Finn said, voice grim.
"I hear ya. I'll let you know, the second I know," Nick told him. "Our ETA is fifteen minutes behind you." He disconnected.
The lights of the small coastal town became brighter, and Finn swooped the helicopter low over the marina, heading south.
Sick to his stomach, he realized that what he'd dismissed so readily might just be something that would cost Peri her life.
All the lights were on in the house as the helicopter rose up the rock face. He counted at least half a dozen heads inside. He did not see Peri's bright hair. Mouth dry, he skimmed the chopper above the glass roof to hover briefly over the gravel driveway. Finn brought the chopper down lightly in a hail of gravel that sounded like buckshot against the metal body.
"Stay down," he instructed his men. "Sit tight. The only way I want you to leave this chopper is if you see Peri coming through that door. Once she’s secure, take off."
"But, sir-"
"No variations. Your prime goal is to make sure Peri leaves here alive."
A triangle of light flooded the driveway when the front door pivoted open. Finn stepped down from the helicopter as four men emerged, each pointing an assault weapon at his chest.
Her heartbeat sounded deafening in her ears as Peri calculated that it would take about twenty-running-flat-out-steps to reach the open pantry door.
Bound, and in full view of the armed men surrounding her? That was going to be some trick.
Hopeless.
No. Hopeless was accepting whatever Theo had in store for her. To hell with that.
Think.
Every inch of her body protested painfully as the sheep tranq wore off. Her stomach roiled in reaction, and it was hard to fight her way through the mental fog and lassitude.
Think harder, damn it.
She'd been scared before. She loved scared, she reminded herself. Scared and doing shit anyway, was her crack.
But this was a whole other level.
A faint and distant whop-whop-whop of rotors caused her heart to gallop.
Nobody was crazy enough to fall for Theo's ransom demands, she was pretty damn sure. The tablets had historical significance and were worth an untold fortune. They might show up to try to bargain with Theo for her release. But whoever was out there, was coming empty-handed.
Which was exactly something Rydell would do. If, somehow, Ry had gotten wind of this and broken the sound barrier to get here this quickly.
The sound of the helicopter got closer, and Peri worked harder to liberate her numb hands. Her bloody wrists made her skin slippery, and the cord bindings were stronger now that they were wet.
"Someone's here," Santi cupped his hands to peer out of the blackness behind the window.
She renewed her fight against the fastenings while everyone was distracted. There was no give in whatever was tying her ankles together, and instead of expending useless energy trying to free them, she'd worked her wrists for what seemed like hours. She almost didn't notice the pain any longer as she twisted and pulled. Backed up against the coffee table as she was, whoever stood behind her couldn't see what she was doing. If they had, they would've stopped her long before now.
The cut on her cheek stung like fire ants, her jaw ached where Theo had backhanded her, and her wrists were an agonizing, bloody mess. The son of a bitch was a sadist, and she had no intention of waiting to see what he had planned for his freaking finale.
Theo and the two men who seemed to be running this kidnapping with him, had retreated to the window where they'd been talking quietly for some time. Every no
w and then one of them would look through the telescope to see if anyone was approaching from the water.
Someone was coming. By air. The throbbing sound grew louder and louder.
The group of three, eight-inch marble fertility statues from a long ago dive with Ry, rattled on the coffee table, seconds before the entire house vibrated. The men at the window backed up in a hurry as a helicopter rose up the cliff face out of the darkness, like Kong peering into the windows of the Empire State Building. For a few seconds, the bubble of light hovered, a blade's-width away from the thick windows.
Finn.
For a second she saw his set face through the glass, then the helicopter rose overhead, blocking him from view.
It looked as though he was alone. Oh, God. He had no idea how many armed men he was about to face, and there was no way to warn him before it was too late. The instant burst of hope was crushed by fear for Finn's safety. He had no idea he was walking into a trap.
The sound of the descending rotors so close to the house was deafening. It drowned out the crackle and pop of the two-way radios that the men outside had been using to report in every five minutes with 'No intruders.'
The intruder was here.
"Time to go," Theo shouted to be heard as he walked cautiously across the glass floor to her side. It was impossible to miss the gun he held loosely against his leg. His smile instilled the fear of God in her. It was unnerving seeing him in this new, scary light. He'd always been respectful, always gentle when they'd been together. A fact that had frequently got on her nerves. Now that calm stillness had a whole new meaning.
It was merciless, sterile, psychotic, like someone picking apart a biology specimen just to see how it ticked, only the specimen was still alive. When he'd used that knife on her face earlier there hadn't been one shred of empathy in his eyes. She was merely a means to an end.
He motioned impatiently to a soldier standing nearby. "Get her up."
