Storm Force

by Meredith Fletcher

  “Do it, you backstabbing bitch!” Jolly swore. “I’ll put a bullet right through your black heart!”

  “Jolly,” Desiree said, fear showing on her face. “You don’t want to kill me.”

  “The hell I don’t!” Jolly roared.

  “You can ransom me back to my father,” Desiree said.

  “No!” Jolly shook his head. “You were the one who wanted to get cute with the plan in the first place! If it hadn’t been for you changing things, none of us would have gotten caught!”

  “That wasn’t my fault,” Desiree pleaded. “I thought my father loved me. I didn’t think he’d do something to jeopardize my life.”

  “I should have had you killed then,” Jolly said. He spat blood and twisted his head on his neck as if he were in great pain.

  Beside Desiree, Shane tensed and Kate knew he was going to try something stupid.

  Kate almost hauled herself up then. Instead, she reached down and caught a dead rat by the tail, lifting it from the water. It was heavy and solid, a limp weight at the end of her arm. The hairless tail felt like rope.

  “Hey,” a voice called from the pier. “That’s my boat!” Bryce stumbled along the pier, one hand to his head.

  Jolly’s attention wavered, and he was further handicapped because Bryce was coming up on his blind side. He shifted his pistol toward Bryce.

  “Oh hell no!” Bryce yelped, diving to the pier.

  Chapter 18

  Jolly’s first bullet split the air over Bryce’s head. By then Shane was in motion, throwing himself forward. Quick as a snake, Jolly swung the pistol back around and fired at Shane from point-blank range. Shane’s leap turned into a sprawl as he went down. Desiree fired three times, hitting Jolly in the chest each time.

  Staggered by the rounds, Jolly stepped back, holding his free hand to one of the bullet holes that pumped crimson. “Damn you!” he said hoarsely. He tried to pull his pistol up but didn’t have the strength.

  Desiree Martini fired at him one last time. The bullet smashed into Jolly’s already-ruined face and knocked him backward. Kate hugged the ladder as the big man spilled over the side and disappeared into the swirling water. She made herself not cry out and turned her attention back to Desiree and Shane. Bryce cowered on the pier.

  Blood covered Shane’s right thigh. He stripped his belt off, obviously intending to use it as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

  “Don’t bother,” Desiree said, holding the pistol on him. “You’re not going anywhere.”

  Shane tried to get up, but the wounded leg wouldn’t hold his weight. “So it’s true?” He scooted to the side and threw an arm over the gunwale.

  “About me helping stage my own kidnapping?” Desiree smiled and arched an eyebrow. “Yeah. And it would have worked, too. If dear old Daddy hadn’t cared more about his money than he did about me.” She sighed theatrically. “And if Jolly had told me where he really hid the money that night. He lied to me about that. When he didn’t come to Everglades City for me, I came out here and waited. I’ve got a camp up in the woods. I knew the money was out here somewhere, but I could never find it. I was just about to run out of savings when you guys escaped the bus. If Jolly had trusted me, I could have already been gone. Ten million dollars richer.”

  “Maybe he suspected that you’d called in the anonymous tip that got him arrested,” Shane accused. “You don’t come across as exactly trustworthy.”

  “Really?” Desiree smiled and shook her head. “Say what you want, Mr. FBI-Guy, but I think you were buying into it before Jolly arrived.” She waved the pistol. “It wasn’t Jolly’s money anyway. It was mine. I didn’t need him. You’re just lucky I need you to start the engine.”

  “You don’t need him,” Bryce called from the pier. “There’s a spare key.” Slowly, he stood. “You need me. I know where the key is, and I can pilot the boat.”

  Desiree turned slightly and pointed the pistol at Bryce.

  “Can you pilot the boat?” Bryce demanded in that holier-than-thou tone that Kate had learned to hate.

  Desiree didn’t say anything.

  “If you can,” Bryce went on, “do you really want to bet that you can handle everything that storm is throwing our way?”

  Shane finished getting to his feet. The stain spreading down his wounded leg grew bigger and bigger. He was finding his balance, timing the rhythm of the boat, and Kate knew he wasn’t going to lie down and die.

  “I can pilot the boat,” Bryce said. “I can get us out of here. More than that, I can back your story up and tell everyone that you were being held captive all this time. You don’t really want to continue hiding, do you?”

  Thunder pealed while Desiree considered her options. A fresh wave of water spilled into the lagoon, causing the powerboat to violently rock and smash against the pier.

  “Why would you do that?” Desiree asked.

  Bryce nodded toward the suitcase on the boat’s deck. “That’s the ransom money, right?”

  Desiree didn’t reply.

  “I’m not greedy,” Bryce went on. “I want half.”

  “All right,” Desiree said with a smile. She turned back to Shane. “You’ve met my new partner. I don’t need you anymore.”

  Shane tried to throw himself at her, but his wounded leg gave out beneath him. He went down and tried at once to push himself back up. He was never going to make it.

  Curling her fingers tightly around the dead rat’s tail, Kate whipped her arm forward and over the boat’s stern section, throwing as hard as she ever had when pitching for the beer-league overhand softball games.

  The rat crossed the distance in a hairy blur and smacked into the center of Desiree’s chest. The tail slapped her across the face. Staggered by the impact, she stumbled back. She looked down and saw the dead rat rolling across the heaving deck, then screamed.

  By that time, Kate had hauled herself over the boat’s stern and rolled on to the deck. She reached behind her and slipped the flashlight from her waistband, sliding it through her hand till she gripped it by the end as she threw herself forward.

  “Kate!” Bryce called.

  “Don’t!” Shane yelled, trying to get to his feet again.

  Kate threw herself forward, desperate. No matter what else she did, Desiree wouldn’t allow Kate to bring Steven and Hannah aboard. The woman would leave them to drown when the storm surge rolled across the swamp.

  “Get away from me!” Desiree yelled as she leveled the Magnum.

  Mercilessly, Kate swung the flashlight as hard as she could. The blow connected with the pistol and Desiree’s hand. Metal rang and bone snapped, followed immediately by Desiree’s scream.

  “You bitch!” Desiree dodged Kate’s next blow, then set up in a martial arts stance. She ducked under Kate’s next swing and stood toe-to-toe with her. Then she powered a palm-heel strike to Kate’s face.

  Kate turned her head just enough to keep the blow from breaking her nose as Desiree had intended, but not from avoiding the explosion of pain that filled her head. She swung and missed as Desiree crouched and shot a foot into her stomach.

  Air left Kate’s lungs and she crashed back against the pilot cabin. Her head struck the metal frame and stars swirled in her vision. She barely saw Desiree set herself and lash out with another kick till she felt it crash against her forehead.

  Kate’s knees went weak and she dropped. She caught Desiree kicking out at her again. This time she rolled beneath it, coming over swinging the flashlight into the back of her opponent’s knee. Desiree’s leg buckled and she came down.

  Desiree cursed in pain but she scrambled and tried to get up. Kate didn’t let her, going after her at once. She swept Desiree’s ankles in her arm and pulled her feet out from under her. Desiree scratched and bit, screaming in fury. Kate rode her, trying to stay on top. In her peripheral vision, she could see Bryce at the side of the boat, frozen in fear or surprise.

  Grabbing Kate’s hair in her fist, Desiree yanked, still cursing and kicki
ng. Somehow they came up together in the pilot cabin, reaching their feet while pushing and pulling each other. They banged against the interior of the confined space and skidded over the battered control-panel cover.

  Then Desiree’s good hand closed on the hunting knife at Kate’s hip. The other woman ripped the blade free and slashed at her face. Kate blocked the blow with the flashlight. Somehow she’d maintained a hold on it. The sharp blade stopped less than an inch from Kate’s eye. Both of them were breathing hard, shaking from the strain of the fight. Kate felt Desiree’s body trembling against hers.

  “I’m going to kill you!” Desiree screamed.

  Thinking of Steven and Hannah waiting for her out in the dark forest, Kate shook her head. “Not today.” She forced Desiree’s hand back with the flashlight, banging it against the metal bulkhead. Once, twice, three times, all of them as hard as she could.

  The knife fell limply from Desiree’s grip. Then, unexpectedly, she headbutted Kate in the face. Kate’s nose broke and she immediately tasted blood. Unable to move for a moment, she watched as Desiree bent down for the hunting knife. The blade sparked, catching the lightning that strobed the whirling storm clouds.

  Desiree drove the knife forward. Kate ducked inside the blow, then whipped the flashlight back across her body, catching the woman in the face and knocking her back through the doorway out on to the deck.

  Shane was on his feet now, but still bleeding badly. He started toward them.

  Kate didn’t wait, didn’t hesitate. Desiree Martini’s kidnapping, aided and abetted, had turned Kate’s life inside out. She struck, putting her body behind the blow as she swung the flashlight into Desiree’s jaw. The lens cover broke and batteries shot across the deck as the flashlight emptied.

  Desiree dropped in a loose sprawl of limbs.

  Standing above her, chest heaving, pain shooting through her nose and face, Kate hated the woman at the same time she hoped she hadn’t killed her.

  Shane knelt beside her. His fingertips pressed against her throat. Then he looked at Kate. “She’s alive.”

  “Thank God,” Kate said. She threw the broken flashlight away then grabbed Shane’s belt from the deck. “Sit down.”

  Shane hesitated a moment.

  “Your leg,” Kate said. “If you don’t take care of it, you’re going to bleed out.”

  Shane sat.

  Without a word, Kate dropped to her knees and expertly wrapped the belt around his thigh. She pulled it as tight as she could, then used the clasp knife to cut a new hole so she could buckle it.

  “Where are your kids?” Worry sounded in his voice.

  “I found them,” Kate told him. “They’re nearby.”

  Bryce jumped aboard and ran to the pilot cabin. After a frantic search, he announced, “They found the spare key too.”

  “Maybe I can hotwire it,” Shane said. “I almost had it before Jolly arrived.”

  Kate reached in her pocket and took out the key. “I’ve got that, too.”

  “I’ll be damned,” Shane said, shaking his head and smiling in amazement.

  “I’ll take that.” Bryce crossed to her and tried to snatch the key from her hand.

  Kate closed her fingers over it and made a fist. “No.”

  “No?” Bryce glared murderously at her.

  “No,” Kate repeated, and she knew the word sounded strange due to the swelling caused by the broken nose. She stood straight and tall, looking up at him.

  “It’s my damn boat.”

  “Not tonight.” Kate started for the pilot cabin.

  “Hey, just a damn minute.” Bryce grabbed her by the arm and spun her around. “This is my boat and we’re going to do things my way.”

  “I know the swamp,” Kate said, trying to reason with him. Surely now, with the storm unfolding all around them again, he could see that she was the best gamble they had.

  “I don’t care,” Bryce said. “This is my boat.”

  The wind suddenly rose again, howling now and tearing branches and limbs from the trees surrounding the lagoon. The powerboat slammed harder against the pier.

  “Bryce,” Kate said, trying to think of some way to negotiate with her ex-husband.

  “Mr. Colbert,” Shane said in a tone that suddenly sounded totally official.

  “I told you,” Bryce yelled, putting his hands out to shove Shane, “this is my—”

  Shane hit him, putting all of his weight behind the blow and snapping the punch as he connected with Bryce’s chin. Bryce’s eyes rolled up into his head and he sank like a stone to lie beside Desiree Martini.

  “Damn!” Shane swore, shaking his hand. Then he turned to Kate. “What did you see in that guy?”

  “He was a jerk,” Kate told him evenly, walling off the confusion of emotions that swirled around inside her head and her heart when she thought of Shane. “I’ve never been able to pick a guy who wasn’t a jerk.”

  He started to say something, but closed his mouth, shook his head and growled. “The storm’s getting worse. One of the agents I talked to said a whole new front is moving in. This area is about to be sea bottom for a while.”

  “Cast off,” Kate said, turning to the pilot cabin. “We’ve got to go get Steven and Hannah.”

  She started the engine and watched as Shane climbed from the boat, then threw the lines on to the deck. Kate fought to keep the boat close enough to the pier for him to jump, and he barely made it. He fell heavily to the deck, then pushed himself back up.

  “You need to stay off that leg,” she said as she reversed the engines and backed out into the lagoon.

  “Got it on my list of things to do,” Shane replied. He dragged Desiree and Bryce to the stern and rolled them into the small cargo hold.

  “If the boat goes down, they’ll drown,” Kate said.

  “So don’t let the boat go down.” Shane stood at the railing. “Where are the kids?”

  “In the treeline. I told them to wait for me.” Kate guided the powerboat toward the trees, then switched on the spotlight. She yelled over the noise of the approaching storm front. “Steven! Hannah!”

  They didn’t answer.

  She called again, worried that something had happened to them.

  “Mom! Mom!” Steven yelled. He came running toward the boat, charging through the shallow water with Hannah in tow.

  “Hold up, Steven,” Shane called. “Let me come to you.” He’d taken two child-sized float vests from under the seats and had them under an arm as he jumped over the side.

  So much for staying off that leg, Kate thought. But it took everything she could do to hold the boat in place.

  Shane swam a short distance, then waded through the shallows. He tied the float vests on her son and daughter, then looped the rope through both of them. At his direction, they began swimming through the water to the boat.

  Monstrous roaring and grinding from the port side drew Kate’s attention. As she stared in disbelief, she saw the huge wave approaching them, rushing across the land with inexorable force and speed.

  “Oh my God,” Kate whispered, and it was as though she was trapped in a bad dream. The wave was twenty feet high. It ripped up trees and shoved them before it, a roiling mass of destruction.

  In all the years she’d lived in the Everglades, through all the storms she’d weathered, she’d never seen anything like the horror that swept toward her now. The dull roaring of the churning water filled her ears. White curlers appeared and disappeared at once.

  The sea had raised a mountain of water. And it was all about to slam into the boat.

  Kate turned back to Steven, Hannah and Shane, seeing that they were nearly to the boat. “Hurry!” Her voice came out more as a scream than a yell.

  The roaring sound increased, growing closer in a rush. Above them, the eye of the storm whirled, dark and mysterious and ravenous. The eye looked like a hole that had been poked into the cloud cover. It was calm, serene, but the clouds around it whirled, spinning faster and faster.
r />   Oh God! Kate thought. It’s right on top of us!

  Steven reached the boat first and hauled himself aboard. He didn’t even notice the coming wave. It was everything Kate could do not to leave the controls and go to them. But if she did the boat might come around and hit them or catch them in the twin props. Her heart hammered in her chest.

  Steven leaned over the railing and caught Hannah’s hands. By then the boat was bucking, getting harder to control as the rising water pushed in front of the main body of the surge slammed into the vessel. He pulled her up while Shane pushed her from below. She spilled over the side and fell on to the deck.

  “Get over here!” Kate called. She struggled with the engines, trying to find the best power to use that would allow her to hold the position, knowing in her heart that she was doomed to futility.

  In fact, it was already too late. The water raced toward them and hit the boat just as Shane came over the side. He had time for one startled glance, then he flung himself at Steven and Hannah, dragging them down.

  Kate lost sight of them when the monster wave slammed into the boat. Spray and water filled the air, sluicing over the vessel in a deluge that covered everything.

  For one minute she was terrified that they’d been shoved to the bottom of the sea in a watery coffin. She hung on to the wheel and the throttles, knowing she didn’t have a choice. She could only hope that her kids were still on the boat.

  She slapped the throttles forward, giving the engines full power. The sea was a surging monster that the boat had to find the will and power to ride. The boat was submerged beneath the roil of water for a minute, then it powered through, ripping apart the curtain of the sea.

  A trailer house came up out of the water and hit them. That close in to the coast, Kate knew the surge had ripped the home from the trees, offering further proof of how deep it was.

  A grinding noise ripped through the storm’s fury as the trailer house battered the boat. Kate was certain the fiberglass hull would cave in.

  Kate reversed the throttles, hoping to pull away from the trailer house before it caught hold of them and pulled them under. Then the home disappeared once more beneath the water, gliding like a shark. The tops of trees raked at the boat’s hull, clawing like a skeleton’s fingers. Kate shoved the throttles forward again, cutting the wheel hard to bring the boat around so it would be caught broadsides.