A hand clamped over her mouth. Sadie tried to use the rock, but he tightened his grip and whispered in her ear. “I told you to stay put. What are you doing?”
He released her and pulled her into a shadowed groove.
She stood on her toes and whispered into his ear. “I’m hiding with you. I brought a weapon.”
A tenuous grin slid into his face, then he positioned her behind him.
The men were almost upon them. Sadie was more than glad that Gage had caught her and pulled her into the shadows. The men seemed oblivious to their partner’s demise—or had he been their boss? Still, there was someone else involved. Someone they hadn’t figured on.
Sadie stood behind Gage and held her breath. Her hand pressed against his back; she could feel when his muscles tensed. The men walked past them in the shadows. Gage lunged at one and kicked the other. He wrestled the weapon from his holster. The other man charged Gage, but Sadie slammed him in the head with the rock, knocking him nearly unconscious. She straddled him, searching for his weapons. Found a knife and a gun.
And she recognized his dazed eyes as he stared up at her. He was the man who’d been at Donna’s house and tried to inject her with that drug. And now she realized, he’d been on the boat that had shot the Sea Hag to pieces.
Confusion shifted to recognition and his eyes grew wide. Uh-oh. She’d waited too long. Before she could react, he grabbed her by the wrist. Behind her, she heard punches and kicks. Groans and shouts. Sadie fought and twisted enough to aim the gun and shot it next to his head. The man instantly let go. She jumped from him and pointed the weapon at the man Gage fought. Gage gained control and pointed a weapon at the man too.
“Lee and Charles Chang, you’re both under arrest for maritime drug smuggling, fleeing the Coast Guard, murder and attempted murder.”
“You don’t have any proof.” The shorter guy spat at Gage. “You got nothing on us.”
“I have all the proof I need. You two fired on us today. Tried to sink our boat and kill us.”
“You have the wrong guys. We don’t know nothing, man. We were just using this tunnel.”
“Right. Using this tunnel to smuggle drugs. And you’re going straight to prison. Now I want to know who else is involved.”
“We’re not smuggling drugs. No one else is involved.”
That sounded kind of contradictory to Sadie.
“Look, you can’t arrest us,” the man on the ground said. He finally scrambled to his feet, but Sadie now aimed her weapon at him. “He’s going to kill us if you do. You don’t understand. You gotta let us go.”
“I’m not letting you go,” Gage said. “But tell me who and I’ll protect you.”
“Even you can’t protect us.”
“The fish and oyster packing plant in the bay.” The man Gage pointed his weapon at swiped blood from his mouth. “Snell owns it. We transport shark fins and drugs. A single fin is worth $50,000. The drugs are more, sure.”
“Shut up, Lee!” Charles grabbed Sadie and took the gun, then pressed it to her temple. She was really getting tired of this.
“Now, put down your weapon. Kick it over to me.”
Gage slowly placed his gun on the ground and kicked it over.
“I’m so sorry, Gage,” she said.
“You have nothing to be sorry about. It’s going to be okay. These men don’t want to get into more trouble, so they’re going to leave us here and make their escape.”
Charles laughed. He pointed the gun at Lee and shot him.
The sound startled her and she screamed. “You killed him? You killed your brother? Why?”
“He’s not my brother. A distant cousin I never liked. But he’s a talker. He’s going to get me killed with his talking, just like he told you way too much already. Now you must die.” The evil man grinned. “I have a syringe in my pocket. I’m going to enjoy finally getting to use it on you, but you have to die.”
He pointed his weapon.
Gunfire rang out, echoing in her ears again.
* * *
The gun slipped from Charles’s hand and he fell to the ground, a bullet in his forehead.
Thompkins approached the dead man and dropped to one knee. He felt for a pulse then looked at Gage and shook his head. Right. Like Charles could have lived with a bullet in his head. Gage hadn’t even realized Thompkins was approaching, but that had to be on purpose. He hadn’t wanted to give himself away too soon.
Gage’s knees nearly buckled. “You saved my life. Thank you.”
Sadie had crouched next to the other man. He whispered something in her ear. Gage joined her to check the man’s wound, but it was no use. The man died right before his eyes. These men could be the only ones who could fully explain the operation and everyone involved with Hank also gone. Regret rolled through him. Had he botched this entire investigation? Someone had to remain alive to answer questions.
But Sadie needed his attention. A tear slid down her cheek. She pushed away from the dead man and stood.
“And my life,” she said to Thompkins. “You saved my life too.”
Gage rose from the body to face Thompkins. Sadie closed the distance and hugged Gage. He squeezed her to him. Pressed his face into her neck. Closed his eyes as he drew in the scent of her hair. Thank You, God.
“Are you all right?” Thompkins asked.
Gage lifted his face. Thompkins arched a brow. Gage hadn’t maintained his composure around her in front of Thompkins, but how could he? They’d both almost died.
“Yes. Fine, thanks to you. Your timing couldn’t have been better.”
A helicopter whirred in the distance. The Coast Guard was on the way. Gage nodded. “Glad you finally made it. What took so long?”
“Your message was garbled on our end. Took us time to figure out what you said. But we finally searched west of where the boat went down in case you swam in. I found the boat at the dock. Couldn’t find anyone at the house but found the tunnel. I’m glad I did too. Another thirty seconds and...”
He pursed his lips. Probably didn’t want to say anything in front of Sadie.
“What did he whisper to you?” Thompkins asked her.
She pulled from Gage and shrugged. “I asked if they had tried to kill me by leaving me on the boat. He said yes, but with the Coast Guard closing in that day, they called to let you know I needed rescuing.”
Gage nodded. “To divert our attention. It worked. We lost them that day, but found and saved you.”
“Did he say anything else?”
She shook her head.
Thompkins studied her. “I’m glad this is finally over. I’d appreciate if you’d fill me in on everything before we meet with our SAC.”
“Sure thing,” Gage said. “But I think I’d like to get Sadie to the hospital first. She’s been drugged. The effects have mostly worn off, but I’m worried about her.”
Thompkins grinned. “I can see plain enough you’re not going to hand her off to someone else.”
They followed Thompkins out of the tunnel and back to the staircase to the approaching Coast Guard cutter. Someone called down to them from the top of the stairs. Sheriff Garrison and Deputy Crowley.
“Agent Thompkins? Would you mind if I rode back with the sheriff?” Sadie asked. “I don’t much feel like being on the water again today.”
Thompkins chuckled. “No problem. You with me, Gage?”
He angled his head. “I’m with Sadie. I’ll call you from the hospital.”
“Fair enough.” Thompkins descended the stone staircase and headed back to his boat moored at the pier next to the drug runner’s go-fast boat and Hank’s boat.
After taking their statements, the sheriff and Crowley cordoned off the area as a crime scene, though it was secluded. The sheriff agreed to wait for the coroner and additional deputies as well as the state bo
ys, as he called them.
Crowley drove them back all the way to the Coldwater Bay Hospital. “So Henry Snell III and the Changs are dead? Sean Miller and Karon Casings are dead. Everyone who could tell us anything about this is gone.”
“Yep. It appears that way.” Gage kept his responses clipped. He held back his true thoughts.
“And I bet you’re glad to get back to your life as usual, then, right Miss Strand?”
“Yes, but I...I think I’m starting to remember something. Something more from that first day I went to Karon’s house. I think I saw—”
Gage squeezed her hand tight, hoping she understood to keep quiet.
“What’s that you say?” Crowley glanced at her through the rearview mirror.
“I was just going to say it won’t be the same without Karon. Do you happen to know how her mother is doing?”
“Now that we know something about that drug used, I think the doctors can help her, even though like you said, Mr. Snell said there was no antidote, but we can hope and pray.”
Crowley dropped them off at the hospital. “I’m happy to wait with her, Sessions, if you have business to see to in wrapping this up with the Coast Guard.”
“I’m sure you have paperwork to do, as well. Including a more detailed statement from me.”
The man stared at him. What was it Gage saw in his eyes? Distrust? Fear? Had he heard what Sadie said? “That, I do. Just trying to help.”
“Thanks, Crowley, but I’ll see to Sadie.”
He chuckled. “I thought so. Suit yourself.”
Once they had climbed from the vehicle, Gage waved and led Sadie inside the hospital. He pulled her over to the corner.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“You just told Deputy Crowley you remember something. I don’t know who we can trust so I didn’t want you to tell him everything.”
“What? You don’t trust him?”
“I don’t know. Tell me what you remember.”
“Someone else was there at Karon’s house. I always had the sense of someone there, but now I know it wasn’t only Hank. Though it’s just a shadow in my mind, I think there were two people at Karon’s house that day.”
Gage raked a hand over his face and scruffy jaw. He needed a doctor to check her out. He needed her to be safe. “Okay, don’t tell anyone else what you just told me.”
She nodded.
“Let’s go see this doctor who is taking care of Donna and knows about the drugs. Get your blood drawn. Get you taken care of.” He squeezed her hand again. It was getting to be a habit—the only way he could get closer to her. Closer when he really shouldn’t.
A half an hour later, Sadie rested in a hospital bed while they waited for the blood work. Gage stood outside her room waiting on the security detail he’d called in.
The elevator dinged and Jonna Strand strode toward him. Beautiful like her sister Sadie, she was taller and much thinner. “I got your message. What’s going on. Why all the secrecy?”
“Sadie is still in danger. I don’t know who I can trust to watch over her and keep her safe in the hospital. I have to run an errand.”
“You’re kidding.” She arched a dark brow.
“I’m dead serious.” He fisted his hands on his hips. “You were an ICE agent once.”
“You’re asking me to stand bodyguard over my sister.”
“I am.”
She rolled her head back, taking in his request, then leveled her gaze on him. “Okay then.”
“Don’t let anyone take her out of here. Watch everyone like a hawk who goes in to see her—law enforcement included. In fact, maybe say she’s resting, but watch medical personnel, as well. And don’t scare her, or let her know that I left. I don’t want her to try and follow me.”
“No, we wouldn’t want that, would we?” Amusement danced in her eyes to go with her sarcastic tone, then her features turned somber. “Am I allowed to know what I’m up against?”
“You’re up against someone who wants to kill her.”
“And you didn’t call in actual law enforcement, so that tells me something.”
“You’re her sister. Nobody will care as much as you.”
“Except maybe...you.”
EIGHTEEN
Well after dark and the fish and oyster processing plant had closed, Gage stepped inside. The plant supervisor, Gerald Haines, had given him permission to enter and search, and had accompanied him to open up the facility. There’d been no vehicles parked near the plant.
Something clattered in the back.
Gage pulled his weapon out.
“Whoa, what’s up with that?” Haines frowned and glanced at Gage.
Gage pressed his fingers to his lips. Haines reached over to flip on the lights.
“Don’t,” Gage whispered.
“How are you going to see?”
“There’s enough lighting in here already. I need to check it out and make sure no one else is here. Where’s your office?”
Haines gestured to the right.
“Then get in there and lock yourself in.”
Gage ushered the man to his office. Made sure no one else was inside.
“Should I call the sheriff?” Haines asked. “You need backup or something?”
“I’ll take care of it. You just lock yourself inside.”
The man nodded and did as he was told. Gage hoped his gut was right and the man could be trusted. Gage hated that Haines had to be here because it could be dangerous. When he’d knocked on Haines’s door tonight, if the man had told Gage to get a search warrant from a judge, he might have suspected the man involved in the crimes he believed going down at this facility. As it was, he wasn’t sure how things could happen without the man knowing. He certainly would have gotten that warrant but it would have taken longer and increased the chances evidence would be moved. But Haines had been nothing if not cooperative.
And as for backup? Gage didn’t know who he could trust. Thompkins was supposed to meet him here, and then he could find out the truth from him. Thompkins had been the only one to know they were going to dive for that boat. The idea that he was the inside man turned Gage’s insides.
This investigation wasn’t over by a long shot. Not with someone else involved.
Gage had to watch his back while he waited for Thompkins. But it was his best chance to get in without tipping off the man he was after. Chances were he had already been tipped off since Gage was closing in on him and he knew it.
Sweat beaded his forehead and soaked the back of his shirt. At least he’d taken a few minutes to change out of the dry suit into something more appropriate for finishing this investigation.
And that’s how he saw it too. He would finish it tonight if it killed him.
But he hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
Weapon drawn, he crept in through the shadows so he wouldn’t be a target. The fact no other vehicles had been parked out front meant nothing. He hoped he was alone here, besides Haines, but he knew his prey would likely anticipate he would come here next. And that was the point, wasn’t it? To end this? To find out who was left in this smuggling ring that could continue to harm people? They would kill Sadie once Gage was gone and her guard was down.
He wouldn’t leave her until this was over.
His cell buzzed in his pocket. He still hadn’t discovered what had made the noise in the back, but he needed Thompkins to be here with him. He eyed the text. Thompkins.
I’M HERE. IT LOOKS DARK IN THERE. YOU OKAY?
Gage texted he’d heard a noise and for Thompkins to come in, but to be careful.
He made his way back up to meet Thompkins. His CGIS counterpart had his weapon drawn, as well.
“Haines is locked in his office. Let’s make sure it’s safe for him to come out and show us around.”<
br />
Thompkins nodded. Together he and Thompkins cleared the packing plant in a few minutes.
“Well, looks like no one is here.” Thompkins holstered his weapon. “You want me to bring Haines out so he can guide us through the facilities?”
“I’ll go with you. Then we’ll look for evidence of smuggling. I’m thinking they pack drugs in the crates with fish, stuff it inside them or in the ice. Since they’ve been processed for now, we might not find what we’re looking for, but if we can get something, anything at all, we can confirm what he told us.”
“Maybe we need a sting operation. Wait until we catch the workers involved.”
Gage nodded. He’d come here to catch only one person tonight. He’d see how it played out.
Together they walked back to the front. “We can probably switch the lights on too,” Gage said. “So we can see better.”
“I’m glad you didn’t call anyone else for backup, since you don’t know who you can trust,” Thompkins said.
Acid burned in Gage’s gut. “Definitely has to be someone on the inside.” Gage hadn’t holstered his weapon yet. “Have any idea who that could be?”
Ahead of him, Thompkins shook his head. “You know as much as I do.”
“That’s right. You have known everything I’ve known from the start.”
Thompkins turned around. “What are you saying? Gage. Are you accusing me?”
Gage held his weapon at low ready, just in case. “You were the only one who knew Sadie and I were diving to find the boat today. You told me not to tell anyone else. That you thought someone was working on the inside. And yet the Changs show up in their boat and try to gun us down. We almost died out there. Someone told them where to find us.”
The man didn’t react like Gage would expect of a guilty man, but nodded. “I see how that could look suspicious.”
“And you were there before anyone else at Hank’s house. You took out the only man left who could point you out.”
Thompkins shoulders slumped. “Do you even hear yourself? Maybe it’s been you this whole time. You’re the one on the inside who tipped them off. You’re trying to make it look like they’re pursuing you so you’ll not be a suspect. You brought me here tonight to kill me.”
Thread of Revenge Page 17
