by Cynthia Eden
She was ice cold.
She rattled on about getting money. About it being brought to the island and—
“You’re in on it,” Linc said flatly.
Natasha blinked.
“You have to be. I mean…you’re so cool.” He shook his head. “You’ve done this before? To other people? What in the hell is wrong with you?”
Her eyes became saucers. “I’m not in on anything!”
“I think you are.” He closed in on her. “I think you know who took my wife. I think you know where she is right now.”
Her lower lip trembled. “Follow the demands that the kidnappers gave you. If you give them what they want, you will get your wife back. If you don’t…” Her words trailed away.
You’re in on it. I know you are, Natasha. “This is my wife. This shit has happened before, and you didn’t say anything about it?”
“I-I couldn’t!”
“Bullshit.” He let his rage crack through. “I’m going to destroy you.”
“But I didn’t do anything!”
“Doing nothing is just as bad. Don’t you get that? This happened before. You knew it. Why the hell didn’t you go to the cops?”
“The families didn’t want the cops involved.” Her thin shoulders straightened. “And in case you missed it, we’re on an island. Not like there are police running around in their patrol cars here. We’re kind of…a law unto ourselves out here.”
The hell you are.
“We increased security,” she rushed to add. “I made certain of it. Brought in new personnel and introduced new safety protocols.”
“Obviously, that crap didn’t work.” He pointed at her. “If I don’t get Blair back, I will destroy you and I will rip apart this entire island.”
Natasha flinched. “I understand you’re upset, but there is no need for threats—”
“Trust me, there is every need for them.” His nostrils flared. “Now give me a phone so that I can get the money for my wife.”
Moments later, he’d made his call.
And Natasha had watched him every second.
“It’s good that you didn’t alert anyone else to what happened,” she said when he ended the call and gave the phone back to her. “It’s safer for your wife that way.”
“How many times has this happened?”
She shook her head. “I need to speak with the staff.”
“Yeah, we both do. Assemble every staff member you’ve got. I want to see them all in the restaurant in the next ten minutes.”
“But—but they are working with—”
“My wife has been abducted. You’re the employee in charge here. That means I hold you responsible.” He moved closer to her. Leaned toward her. Let her see his raw fury. “You don’t know me.” His voice was low. Lethal. “You don’t know where my money comes from or what blood I already have on my hands.”
He heard the faint click of her swallow. “I thought…your father is a—”
“I’m not my father, and I’m not afraid to kill in order to get the things I want.”
She backed up a step. “You’re threatening me?”
“Hell, yes, I am. See, I’ll do anything for my wife. If that means someone else has to suffer, so be it.”
A tremble shook her body.
“I’m not like the assholes you dealt with before. I don’t play games. Now get every freaking employee in the restaurant. Because someone saw something, and I’m going to find out what it was.”
Ten minutes later…
The employees were lined up in the restaurant.
“Everyone is here,” Natasha informed him curtly. Her posture was stiff and her gaze kept darting away from his. “I asked them, but no one saw anything last night and—”
Linc lifted a hand. “Everyone isn’t here.” His gaze swept the group once more.
Cole stood in the crowd. He was right next to Martin. The doctor, Henri Wallace, was close by them.
“Uh, yes,” Natasha responded quickly. “These are all the employees currently on the island and—”
“Where the hell is the nurse?”
Natasha swallowed. “Georgia?”
The doc was there. Georgia wasn’t. “Where is she?”
The doctor stepped forward. “Georgia went on her usual run to pick up supplies from Key West. Because of the storm, she won’t be back until late tomorrow. She’ll have to wait for the bad weather to pass before she can come back.”
Tension knotted between Linc’s shoulders. “When did she leave?”
“Early this morning,” Natasha replied. “When we heard the storm was delayed, we knew that would give her a window for the supply run. She took the boat, but like Henri said, she’ll be back tomorrow."
Linc stared at her in disbelief. “You didn’t think it was relevant to tell me that a staff member had left the island at the same time my wife vanished?”
A nervous laugh slipped from Natasha. “Georgia isn’t involved in this. She wouldn’t hurt anyone! She just went for supplies. She grew up on Key West. She makes the trip back and forth from the islands all the time. She—”
“Might have my wife on that boat.” He glared at her. “You’re going to radio her, right now, and you’re going to tell her to come back.”
Everyone had gone dead quiet.
“But…a storm is out there. She would have made it to Key West by now. She’s docked and safe. She can’t just come back when a storm—”
“Get her on the radio. Tell her to come back. Now.”
***
Okay, yes, she had to get off the freaking boat.
Blair stared up at the woman before her. “Aren’t nurses supposed to take some sort of oath? Don’t they promise to help people and not hurt them?”
“Doctors take the Hippocratic oath,” Georgia Dushane answered with a bored shrug.
“I’m sure you have to swear to something.” She kept her hands down and twisted her wrists against the ropes as she tried to work them free. “Though I guess it’s really just one of those understood things that most people don’t, you know, drug and kidnap others.”
Georgia’s eyes turned to slits. “Do you think you’re funny?”
“No. I think I’m buying time.” Her hands were tucked beneath the table. Georgia couldn’t see them, not from where she stood.
“Buying time?” Now Georgia laughed. “For what?”
“To get out of these ropes. To lull you into a false sense of security. To attack.” Blair nodded. She thought she’d covered everything.
Georgia laughed harder. “What would a piece of fluff like you know about attacking anyone?” She turned away. Reached into a storage locker.
Blair caught a glimpse of a gun inside the locker. Oh, hell no. The ropes at her wrists gave way. She’d already untied the ones on her ankles. “Hey, guess what?”
Georgia hadn’t touched the gun yet. Fingers poised near it, her head swung back toward Blair.
“You can’t tie knots for shit.”
Georgia blinked.
Blair jumped up. Heaved herself over the table and threw her body at Georgia. Georgia’s head slammed into the locker she’d just opened, and that bitch went down. Smack. Her body went limp because she was out cold.
“That was easy enough.” Blair glared at Georgia as she crouched over her body. “For the record, I’ve never been fluff.” So suck it. She straightened and grabbed the gun. She checked it—loaded and ready to go. The weight was reassuring in her hand as she hurriedly climbed up the steps.
She didn’t know what to expect when she reached the top of the boat. Maybe Georgia’s partner was lurking around. The way Blair figured it, there had to be a partner somewhere.
But when she got to the deck, no one was there. She appeared to be on about a thirty-foot yacht, one that had been anchored. The waves were getting rougher and making the yacht jostle from side to side as water sprayed onto the deck.
Okay. Where the hell am I?
Her gaze darted to
the left. To the right. Was that land over there? Yes, it was. But…was it Turquoise Island? Or some other place? Just how long had she been knocked out?
The crackle of the radio had her head whipping toward the steering wheel. The radio. She grabbed it with shuddering relief. This wasn’t her first time on a boat, and she had the radio working in seconds as—
“I need you to return to the island!” Natasha’s voice shot from the radio. “Over.”
Blair frowned. “Yes, that’s going to be a little tricky.”
“Who is this?” Natasha demanded.
“It’s Blair,” she said. “Blair Rutherford, and I have to get my bearings before I can figure out how to get back.” She gripped the radio’s receiver tightly. “But I will be back, and I’ll be taking you down, Natasha.”
“What? I didn’t do anything!” A squawk. “I’ve been trying to help your husband find you!”
Wait, Natasha was helping Linc? She hadn’t just been radioing to check in with her partner, Georgia?
“Blair?”
Her knees did a little tremble. Linc’s voice. God, had anything ever sounded so good?
In the distance, thunder rumbled.
“Baby, are you okay?”
She closed her eyes for a moment and let his voice rush over her. “Nothing that a super long massage won’t fix.”
“I will give you the best massage of your life.”
She opened her eyes. “It was the nurse, Linc. Georgia. She drugged me. She’s locked down in the cabin now.”
“Baby, where are you?”
“I…” She looked down at the GPS system near the steering wheel. Tried to calculate. “I’m about four miles from Turquoise Island.”
“Can you get back to me?”
She reached for the keys. “I think so. It’s a thirty-foot yacht, and I’ve handled bigger.” Her breath released slowly. Just talking to Linc helped settle her nerves. “I can get it back.” She would get back to him. Blair twisted the keys in the ignition.
The engine sputtered. A little sputter that…
Her heart trembled. “Linc?”
She looked over her shoulder. Stared hard at the water. In the distance, was that another boat, rushing away? A much smaller boat. Lighter and—
“I’m sorry,” Blair whispered.
“Sorry?” Linc barked. “Sorry for what?”
She’d locked Georgia down below. She rushed toward the locked cabin door—
The boat exploded.
***
Linc couldn’t breathe. He’d just heard a terrible thunder—no, that hadn’t been thunder.
An explosion.
“Blair?” He gripped the radio so tightly that he feared he’d splinter it into a thousand pieces. “Blair, baby?”
Just the crackle of static.
“OhmyGod.” Natasha sat down, heavily. “Did…please tell me that boat didn’t just…?” But her words faded away. Her mouth hung open as she shook her head over and over.
He’d been talking to Blair, hearing her sweet voice, feeling relief rush through him and then—then she’d said…
I’m sorry.
“There’s another boat on this island,” he said. His voice sounded wrong. Broken. Rusty. Savage.
“It’s…yes. Yes, but—”
“I’m getting on it.” He raced for the door.
“But you don’t know where she is!” Natasha yelled after him. “You don’t—”
He spun toward her. “That was the sound of a fucking explosion. The sound of my wife being on a boat that exploded. Trust me, we’ll be able to see the smoke and flames.”
She flinched. “I’m sorry.”
He heard Blair, in his mind—
I’m sorry.
“Don’t be fucking sorry,” he snarled back. “Get me to the boat. Now.”
They ran out of the office. Cole immediately glanced up. “What’s happening?”
“Blair.” That was all he’d say.
“He might need your help,” Natasha added quickly. “Please, Cole, go with him!”
They got to the boat. Linc jumped on. So did Cole. Natasha stood back. “Be careful,” she said as she tossed keys toward them. “I need you to be—”
Linc grabbed her wrist and hauled her onto the boat. “Lady, you’re coming with us.”
Blair. Have to get to Blair. Blair.
“Why?” Natasha hunched her shoulders. “I should stay here and—”
“Run away? No. You’re not leaving my sight. You know too damn much about what’s happening. You’re coming with me.”
Cole pinned him with a hard stare. “Tell me what happened.”
What happened?
I’m sorry.
He cranked the motor. Shot out of there as lightning flashed. “What happened?” His fingers clenched around the wheel. “Blair was on a boat. From the sound of things…” He couldn’t get the words out.
“The boat exploded,” Natasha finished.
Cole slapped a hand on Linc’s shoulder. Squeezed.
“Don’t,” Linc growled. “My wife is fine.”
From the corner of his eye, he saw Natasha shake her head.
He made that boat go faster. They flew over the waves as the whole boat jolted. He could see a billowing cloud of smoke in the distance. Dark smoke that was thicker and blacker than the growing clouds.
He headed straight for the smoke. And he prayed.
He could not lose his partner. Would not.
I’m sorry.
Chapter Twelve
Burning wreckage littered the water. The yacht was gone. Only random pieces remained. Chunks of wood. What looked like a burning couch cushion. Metal poles. A life preserver.
“I don’t see her.” Cole’s voice was gruff.
Linc idled the engine as he carefully navigated through the wreckage. “Blair!” Linc roared her name.
At the edge of the boat, Cole stared into the water. “Blair!” Cole shouted her name, too.
No response.
Boat fenders floated in the water. White fenders that drifted lazily past Linc’s small vessel.
“She’s not here.” Natasha sounded wooden. No, shocked as she took in the wreckage. “No one could survive that. She’s gone.”
Linc turned on her with a snarl. “You don’t fucking know my wife!”
She jerked back.
He sucked in a breath and tasted smoke. “Blair can survive anything. She’s the strongest person I know.” He focused back on the water. “We’re finding her. She’s here.”
Cole cleared his throat. “Linc—”
“She is here!” How could Cole doubt that? “She jumped off the boat.” That was what she’d done. He was sure of it. “Blair knew the boat was going to explode—”
“Um, how would she know that?” Natasha asked.
Because it’s Blair. Because something gave it away. She said she was sorry. Her voice changed. She knew what was going to happen. He was certain of it. The only thing he wasn’t certain of?
Why had Blair apologized? Why?
Deep inside, he feared it was because…
She knew she was leaving me. She was telling me that she was—
“No.” He cut off the thought. “Blair jumped off the yacht. She’s in the water. We have to find her.” Rain began to pelt down on him. The stupid damn storm. Finally arriving. Making visibility even worse. “We need a light.” He killed the engine and rushed to the back of the boat. The boat bobbed beneath his feet as he grabbed for the supply box. He rummaged inside.
“She’s not in the water,” Natasha mumbled. “I think…I think he just can’t deal with her being gone—”
His fingers curled around the flashlight. “Blair is not gone.” He turned on the light. “She’s—”
“Here.” Weak. Low.
He whirled, yanking that flashlight with him. The light hit the back of the boat, and he saw delicate fingers curled over the stern. The fingers tightened, and then Blair’s head appeared as she hauled
herself up.
“A little help here,” she gasped.
The light was on her face. Her beautiful, unforgettable face.
He lunged for her. Dropped the light. Grabbed her hands and hauled her onto the boat. Water poured down her body. She was wearing a soaking wet shirt that clung to her like a second skin, and hard shudders raked over her. Linc locked his arms around her and held Blair as tightly as he could. “Baby…”
She’s alive. She’s alive. He’d known she would be.
There simply hadn’t been an alternative for him.
“H-had to stay under…” Blair’s voice was shaking as hard as she was. “Couldn’t be sure…y-you were…g-good guys.”
“I need you out of this shirt.” She was freezing, and the sodden material wasn’t helping. “Look away, Cole.” He yanked the shirt over her head. Tossed it onto the boat. He hauled off his own shirt and pulled it over her. “Better, baby?”
She shook her head. Shivered harder. “No.”
He turned his head. “Cole, get us back to the island, now.” He wanted Blair checked out—thoroughly. No, hell, he wanted to get back to the island because more Wilde agents were coming in on the seaplane that Eric had gotten for them. He wanted Blair on the plane ASAP. He wanted her the hell away from this whole nightmare.
Cole moved toward the wheel.
Natasha inched closer to Blair. “Are you all right?”
Blair turned her head toward the other woman. “F-freaking f-fabulous.” Her teeth chattered.
Linc sat down. Pulled Blair onto his lap. Rubbed her arms and her back and just held her. She was in his arms. She was alive. Alive.
“Where’s Georgia?” Natasha asked softly.
Blair stiffened.
Cole’s hand was reaching for the key. He hesitated. “Do we need to search for her?” he asked Blair.
Her lips pressed together. She shook her head.
He started the boat. Hauled ass away from there.
Blair glanced back at the wreckage. “I’m s-sorry,” she whispered.
Linc realized that when he’d heard her say I’m sorry on the radio, she hadn’t been talking to him.
She’d been talking to Georgia.
A tear leaked down Blair’s cheek. “My c-cover is blown,” she said, her voice so soft he would have missed it if he hadn’t been leaning in so close to her. “Someone knows who I really am.”