Shot Through the Heart

by Diane Benefiel

  “Kyle, I’m going up on the deck.”

  She rounded the crates to find him huddled with his arms around his knees, body shaking. He lifted his head, expression haunted. “Be careful.”

  A moment later, Rane slipped through the door, closing it softly behind her. Glancing around, she spied the large winch with its coils of fishnet at the stern. Taking a quick breath, she darted across an open space and crouched behind the nets. She peered around them to scan the front of the boat. A light shone from the bridge, and two figures faced away from her toward the bow. Perhaps the boat had a dinghy or even life vests. She couldn’t see her crazy idea of overpowering Simon and Mick working, especially because Kyle’s help was far from certain. She was pretty sure he’d be on her side, but he was in bad shape, and the longer he went without a hit, the shakier he would get.

  She looked across the bay. The Seattle skyline in the distance reflected the setting sun. Over her shoulder, closer, she could make out the silhouette of Bainbridge Island. She was a strong swimmer. If she had something to hold on to, she could do it. Maybe she could find a floatation device, slip into the water undetected, and swim toward Bainbridge, hopefully before hypothermia set in. Maybe she’d get lucky, and a passing boat or ferry would pick her up. Once she was able, she would call for help for Kyle. A cold breeze blew in from the ocean, and Rane suppressed a shiver. Her plan was plain weak. She knew it, but she didn’t have anything better, and she refused to wait around for Simon to kill her.

  Keeping a wary eye on the men on the bridge, Rane dashed to the walkway on the starboard side. A red and white life preserver hung on the inside of the rail. That might work if there was nothing else, but a life vest and an inflatable raft were infinitely preferable. She paused, the sound of something rubbing the side of the boat reaching her ears. Unsure what was making the noise, she surreptitiously glanced over the railing. A black raft floated, tethered to the boat. It had a small outboard motor as well as oars lying across the bottom. Were Simon and Mick planning on using it? Why would they need it? Well, they were going to be disappointed. Eyeing the distance, she judged she could drop into the water, swim to the dinghy, untie it, and she’d be on her way before anyone knew she had it.

  She set the crowbar and hammer on the deck, hooked one leg over the rail, and shifted to swing the other over…and stifled a scream when an arm grabbed her suddenly from behind. The iron grip tightened around her waist, a rough hand clamping over her mouth. She was pulled off the rail and dragged backward through the open door of a cabin.

  Rane bucked and twisted and, at the same time, tried to open her jaw to bite down on the fingers over her mouth. They’d found her, but no way was she going down without a fight. She scratched at the hand covering her mouth while at the same time kicking back, her heel connecting with her captor’s knee. She heard a grunt followed by a hoarse whisper. “Rane!”

  A feeling of relief so acute she thought she’d pass out coursed through her. The hands gripping her turned her around, and the next thing she knew, her mouth was consumed in a wild, frantic kiss. “John.” She breathed his name when he finally released her lips. Clutching his shoulders, she thought she would crawl into him if she could. He fused hard lips to hers once again, desperation evident in his frenetic movements. She reached under his clothing to rub the warm skin along his ribs. She needed to feel him, to get the reassurance he was truly there. Desperate fingers brushed against a heavy weight and she paused. His gun in its shoulder holster brought reality crashing back. She pulled away to look at him. In the dim light, she could see the glint of his eyes. “You’re alive.” The words came out shaky.

  Long fingers threaded through her hair, and calloused thumbs stroked her jaw. He tipped her head back once more and spoke against her lips. “I’m never going to let you out of my sight again. Ever.” He kissed her, and Rane thought there had never been a kiss more steeped in fear and passion.

  “Do you think you kids could hold that until later? We’re not exactly out of the woods yet.”

  John settled his hands on her shoulders, and she felt him inhale. “Yeah, okay.” He turned toward the door. Nathan came into the shadowed room.

  “What did you see?”

  Nathan cast a quick glance out the door before approaching the couple. “Simon and another guy on the bridge. We’re heading out toward the Sound, so I’m guessing that’s where they’re planning to dump this one overboard.” He frowned as he gave Rane a once-over. “Glad to see you, darlin’, but do you want to tell us what all that blood is from?”

  She looked down in the direction of his gaze. Her shirt and jacket were already caked with dried blood, but now she could see bright red soaking into the top of her jeans.

  “Holy Christ, Rane.” John tugged up the hem of her shirt to reveal the shallow gash below her ribs, now oozing sluggishly. He whirled on Nathan, already pushing her toward the door. “Forget those two. Let’s get her into the dinghy and to a hospital.”

  “No! It’s shallow, the bleeding just started up again when you grabbed me. It’ll stop in a minute. Kyle’s in the hold and needs help. He’s not a threat. And there’s enough heroin down there to put Simon away for the rest of his life.”

  A shout from the deck made the decision for them. The dinghy had been discovered. Running feet approached along the passage, and with movement as stealthy as a trained assassin, Nathan crouched in the darkened opening to the cabin. When the man came into view, he struck. Nate went in low and took him down in a rolling tumble. John pushed Rane back so he could help his brother, but he didn’t need help. With surprise on his side, Nathan acted with controlled violence and knocked the guy out cold before he likely knew what hit him. Together, the two men pulled the limp form into the cabin.

  “It’s Mick. He’s related to Simon and Kyle. He’s one of the men who grabbed me this morning.”

  John grunted as he pulled cuffs from the back of his belt. With Nathan keeping watch, she and John pulled Mick to the far side of the cabin. “Hope he doesn’t come around too soon. I don’t have anything to gag him with, and he could make a lot of noise.”

  It wouldn’t matter because Rane could hear Simon calling Mick’s name. “He’s going to come looking for him in a second.” Silence descended when the engines were cut off, and the boat lost its forward momentum.

  “Yeah.” Rane could see John’s nod at Nathan. Obviously knowing each other’s moves, they pulled their guns free of their holsters and, from the cover of the doorway, checked to be sure they were clear. John spared her a glance. “Stay here, Rane.” Not waiting for her agreement, they slipped through the door and out of sight.

  Simon must have realized something was up because he didn’t call out again. He wouldn’t want to pinpoint his location. Long minutes passed, and Rane could feel herself getting antsy wondering what was going on. Peeking through the doorway, she spied the hammer and crowbar. She crouched down and slipped across the deck to pick them up. At least she wouldn’t be defenseless.

  She glanced left and right along the walkway and could see no one. The sun had set, and lights from the bridge and along the rails cast a muted glow in the darkening twilight. In the distance, lights shone from another boat that seemed to be coming closer. She eased along the side of the cabin to peek onto the deck. She couldn’t see where John and Nathan had gone; maybe up to the bridge. She stepped back, thinking she would return to the cabin and stay out of the way, when, for the second time in less than an hour, she was grabbed roughly from behind, a hand clamped over her mouth.

  John stood motionless at the base of the stairs, senses alert to anything that would give away Simon’s location. Nathan crept up the treads and peeked into the bridge then turned and, with a shake of his head, motioned to John it was empty. With hand gestures, John indicated he would search starboard and Nathan would search aft. A ghost of sound reached him, and he swung his gun toward the source of the noise. His heart stumbled in his chest.

  Simon stood near the door to the hold
, clutching Rane from behind, a wicked-looking knife biting into her neck just over the carotid artery. A thin trickle of blood showed dark against her pale skin where the knife had nicked her. The entreaty in her eyes tore at him. He fought to control his breathing, to focus his thinking. Fear threatened to overwhelm him, and he struggled to force it back. He’d trained for this; so had Nathan. He would need to call on all of his discipline and preparation to get her free and keep her alive.

  He spoke, keeping all emotion out of his voice. “Put down the knife, and let Rane go, DiNardo. You’re done. The Coast Guard is almost here. There’s no way out of this for you.”

  “She’s my way out of this. Call that brother of yours, and you two are going to give me your guns. And if you don’t do what I tell you, her blood’s going to be spraying all over this deck.”

  John sucked in a breath when Simon wrenched back Rane’s head. Keeping his attention on John, he pulled Rane’s hair aside so he could nuzzle her neck. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she, Detective Garretson? She smells so sweet…like sunshine. You’ve had some of this, haven’t you? I guess that’s what’s called going above and beyond the call of duty. I bet all the guys wanted in on the sweet gig you had.” John refused to rise to the bait, or let the taunting mess with his concentration.

  “I don’t really want to kill her, you know. But sometimes there are unpleasant costs in this business.”

  Gaze focused, John didn’t let it waver by so much as a flicker when he noted Nathan moving into place about ten feet behind Simon. In his peripheral vision, he could see another movement in the shadowed doorway of the hold. Shit. It had to be Kyle, and that made things a whole lot more complicated. John slowly edged across the deck, forcing Simon to shift to keep him in sight, but also making it less likely he’d see Nathan or Kyle.

  “Stay where you are, Garretson!” Simon screamed the order. He was losing control. “I told you to call your brother. I want you both where I can see you.”

  John halted his movement and bit back an oath when he saw Rane’s hand slide to the crowbar hanging from her belt. Simon must have felt the move because he tightened his grip, all but crooning in her ear. “Rane, you don’t want to do anything that would end things for you, do you? Do you want your boyfriend to see you spurting blood from an artery? To see you die?”

  “You think they’ll let you live if you kill me? They’ll rip you apart.” Rane’s voice came out strong, and John silently applauded her. She wasn’t letting the bastard win.

  Simon seemed to grow tired of waiting because he pressed the knife deeper into her skin, and blood ran down her neck. “Put down your gun, asshole! Kick it over to me.”

  John shifted to set down his gun, but as he crouched, he caught a furtive movement from the doorway. The hand holding the knife against Rane’s throat suddenly jerked back, and in the dim light, John saw Kyle gripping a fishing gaff he’d somehow managed to hook around Simon’s arm. Simon released Rane, but struck out blindly with the fist still clutching the knife. The moment Rane was free, John lunged headfirst and swept her in a forward roll, propelling them both behind the giant coil of fishing net. He glanced back and saw the glint of the knife as it slashed across the dark form that had emerged from the hold.

  He pushed Rane down on the deck and growled, “Stay put, and this time do what I say.” He glanced back around the netting in time to see Simon reeling back, arms wide, knife still in his grip. A still form lay on the deck, a dark pool spreading from beneath it.

  “You made me kill him! You made me kill my brother!” Anguish laced Simon’s tone. He caught sight of Nathan and lunged toward him, bloody knife swinging. Twin blasts of gunfire exploded into the night, and John felt the recoil of the gun through his arm. Simon staggered against the rail, and, arms wheeling, tipped backwards to fall headfirst into the water.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Rane wrapped the blanket a seaman had given her tightly around her shoulders. He’d cleaned up the shallow slices in her neck and applied a bandage. The deck was a blur of activity that hadn’t subsided from the moment two Coast Guard ships had flanked Heaven’s Bounty. Kyle’s body had been zipped into a black bag while Simon’s had been fished from the ocean and brought aboard one of the ships. She’d seen them pull him out of the sea and knew the man was dead, probably had been before he’d hit the water, but it seemed surreal. Mick was moved onto a Coast Guard ship in cuffs. The threat from Simon DiNardo had been so huge, and in a split second, it had vanished. It might take some time for the new reality to sink in. She was no longer in danger.

  Coast Guard officers had boarded the fishing boat and were currently talking with John and Nathan while seamen busily moved in and out of the hold, cataloguing the illegal haul of heroin. Given the tone of the discussion, she figured the man who had introduced himself as Commander Rocklin wasn’t happy, and from Nathan’s body language, she could tell he wasn’t happy being dressed down.

  She approached the group as John put a restraining hand on his brother’s shoulder. He spoke in a firm voice, smoothing over Nathan’s aggressive response. “Yes, sir. We understand we should have waited for the Coast Guard, that this is your jurisdiction.”

  “Damn right, it is, and you two hot shots were explicitly told not to take off in that dinghy until the Coast Guard was in place to support the operation. You defied a direct order, and your supervisor will hear about it.”

  When Nathan looked ready to snarl out a response that Rane thought probably included “fuck you,” John tightened his grip and said, “Yes, sir.”

  Nathan shook off the restraint and stalked to the stern of the ship. She left John placating the commander and followed Nathan. He stood with hands on his hips, jacket open, seemingly oblivious to the cold wind blowing off the water.

  “Thank you.” She shivered under the blanket, not really sure if it was from cold or reaction to the violence she’d witnessed.

  He gave her a long look. “Sorry about Kyle. I don’t know how we could have prevented that, but I’m sorry we didn’t. I may have wanted him dead for Savannah, but I know you once cared about him.”

  Rane sighed. “I’m sorry, too. He was messed up, but he’d finally decided to break with Simon. He wanted the chance to start over. But he was using heroin, and that would have tripped him up down the road.” Something was puzzling her, so she asked the question. “How did you know where to find me? That I was on this boat?”

  “Your dad. We went to see him, find out if he could tell us anything about the DiNardos. John talked to him, asked him if there was any place they would hide out, and he said ‘Heaven’s Bounty.’ Didn’t know what the hell he was talking about until you told John you were at the docks, and he figured it must mean a boat. After that, it was easy.”

  She shook her head. “Dad pulled through when you needed him to. I’m glad you guys thought to ask him.”

  Nathan nodded, and his gaze shifted back to his brother. “You’d better not hurt him.”

  “I love him.” She drew in a shaky breath. “Wow. I didn’t even think that was in my head, and it just popped out.”

  Nathan’s grin flashed, making him look suddenly boyish. “Good. That’s real good. He deserves to have someone love him, and I’m glad it’s you.”

  She suddenly felt uncertain. “I hope he thinks it’s a good thing, too. Please don’t say anything to him. I’m not sure what our relationship will be without the police stuff that brought us together. And there are things he doesn’t know about that I have to tell him. I need some time to think it through.”

  Nathan stepped toward her and wrapped her in a hug. “He’s the best man I know,” he said, his voice muffled against her hair. “And he’s crazy about you. You’ll be fine.” He kissed the top of her head, and let her go. “Thanks for helping me calm down.”

  She wished she had Nathan’s confidence. The realization she was in love with John had been growing steadily for days, but she’d ignored the feelings. With all the violence and threats they’d
faced, it was possible, even likely, that for both of them, emotions had been manipulated by circumstances. What had Simon said— guys like John need to be the hero, to have women rely on them? Simon was hardly the best judge of character, but she wondered if he was right about that at least. John had put himself between her and danger without thought for his own safety, and she wondered if once things settled down, once his emotions weren’t always heightened by the instinct to protect, he’d start to pull back.

  The extent of her father’s involvement in Kyle’s arrest was another factor to consider. John knew her dad had been involved, but she had come to realize she couldn’t have a relationship with him if she didn’t tell him everything. She shivered and looked out over the water, where a thick layer of fog had moved in like a dark blanket. It felt suddenly oppressive and smothering.

  Very soon after she’d spoken with Nathan, the commander decided to separate her, Nathan, and John. Rane guessed that was probably standard procedure in an officer-involved shooting. They’d each been assigned a minder and been sequestered in separate cabins on one of the Coast Guard ships. A medic had applied a temporary bandage to the cut below her ribs, she’d had a chance to pee, thank God, and devour a cup of hot soup. Feeling warmer and steadier, all she wanted now was to see John. She knew he was fine, but she needed to know they were fine. He would be busy dealing with the ramifications of the shooting for some time, though, so she’d have to tap into the patience she currently held in short supply.