by Sommer Smith
And her expression—it brooked no argument.
He knew exactly how she felt.
* * *
By the time they got back, Xavier had done everything Micah had already thought of doing.
“The gates were all opened. Every single dolphin has been released into open waters. I don’t have access to their tracking devices. How do you find them?” Xavier gestured around the empty enclosures.
“That’s assuming their tracking devices haven’t been disabled. Those dolphins have been in captivity for all or most of their lives. They aren’t accustomed to being without a handler nearby in open waters. I have no idea how they will react.” Micah was pacing again.
“We have to find them ASAP.” Keilani stood, hands on hips, glaring at them both.
Before either man could respond, bullets ricocheted all around them from the open side of the dolphin bay. Someone would have to be shooting from somewhere offshore—in a boat, perhaps. Micah scanned the water, looking for a clue as they took cover.
“There’s more than one shooter,” Micah informed Keilani. “Keep close to me, but stay as low as possible.”
She did as he asked and they belly-crawled their way behind one of the partition walls near the entrance. While they were crawling, Micah noted where each shooter was. One in the northwest corner of the bay on a fishing boat, one to the east just beyond a civilian dock that ran on the outskirts of the facility, and a third shooter off to their left, his upper body hovering just above water where he crouched in one of the enclosure pens.
Micah began to rattle off code words to Xavier to see if he noticed the same details, keeping their voices low so the shooters wouldn’t hear. He knew the main guy had to be someone on the inside. No one else knew everything the smugglers seemed to know. Keeping one eye on Keilani, he aimed his Sig at one of the shooters. He gave Xavier the signal.
Both men fired at the same time, taking out two of the shooters at once. The third man realized what had happened and fled.
“Come on.” Micah motioned to Keilani. “Let’s go find our dolphins.”
Xavier nodded and gestured them forward. “Go ahead. I’ve got your six.”
Micah led Keilani to a boat often used by the marine mammal program for the transport of cetaceans. He had no idea how they were going to round up dozens of AWOL navy dolphins, but he had to do something. The odds were that he would find them all sticking pretty close together, but where? The thought of even one of his dolphins being set upon by predators sent his blood pressure skyrocketing. The only thing he could do was go out and call to them using the commands he had taught them. Whether or not those would be effective in open waters so close to home was anybody’s guess. This was a different situation from any mission they’d encountered, and some of those dolphins had never even been out on an open water mission before.
Keilani looked every bit as distraught as he felt. He would have loved to comfort her, but he had no idea how. Guiding the boat through the surf and into the ocean, he kept both eyes on the horizon for any sign of his cetaceans. Those were his babies out there somewhere. He would never let them go without a fight.
His frustration intensified the farther they got from shore. Surely, there should be some sign of the dolphins by now. They couldn’t have been out here that long. Waves rippled placidly in the distance. There was nothing to catch his eye.
Keeping the boat on a steady path, Micah held to the course. Think like a dolphin, he commanded himself. If you’d been in that enclosure your whole life, where would you go?
Nothing came to him. They would just be happy to be free, right? Go exploring, swim unencumbered, dive and leap... And go see new sights, of course. The reef. They would head for the reef. It would be a marine mammal’s playground.
Micah turned the boat in the direction of the reef. Keilani gave him a questioning look.
“The reef,” he explained. “They’ve probably gone to the reef.”
She nodded, but his attention was drawn to a low whine in the distance. A glance over his shoulder confirmed his fears. They were being followed.
It was a speedboat, and making better time than they were, so it was gaining on them quickly. The transport boat was maxed out. The speedboat came within range and began to fire on them. Keilani hunched below the bow as Micah tried to maneuver away from their pursuer. There wasn’t much he could do to evade the faster boat. It had all been part of an elaborate trap. Deliver a bomb threat. Isolate the dolphins. Retrieve their drugs and then release the dolphins so Micah and Keilani would go out looking for them alone. And now the men would apprehend them in a much faster boat. He was going to have to think fast.
“Drive.” Handing the wheel over to Keilani, Micah began to fire back, but with little success.
He was pondering whether they should jump ship or just wait on their pursuer to catch up when a bullet struck the propeller of the transport boat. It began to sputter, just as another sound registered. The gurgling could only mean their boat was taking on water. They were about to sink. Keilani cried out, but he had to keep focused.
Micah tried to keep firing, but the man in the speedboat was upon them, and he winged Micah in the shooting arm just before drawing up beside them.
“Sorry, brother, but I’m going to have to take this woman off your hands.” A familiar voice spoke from behind a mask just before a fist connected with his jaw and everything went black.
* * *
Keilani had never hyperventilated before, but she was about to now.
She struggled with all her might, biting, kicking and screaming as the man dragged her into the speedboat. The sight of Micah’s invincible form slumped over in the sinking transport boat as they sped away was burned indelibly into her memory. How would she ever live with herself if she got out of this alive and he didn’t?
The driver of the speedboat tied her securely before tossing her into a seat and heading back toward shore. The zip ties were biting into her wrists with fervor, but all she could think about was Micah, unconscious and sinking slowly with the transport boat. Helplessness overtook her and she closed her eyes. All the little moments she had spent with Micah over the past few days ran together, and she felt the loss deep down. She knew he hadn’t wanted a relationship, a commitment, or any type of future with her, but she didn’t want him to die not knowing that she cared about him. No, it was much more than just caring. She loved him. Like it or not, she had fallen for him. At this moment it really didn’t matter to her whether he returned her affection or not; she simply wanted him to know he was loved.
Waves rocked the speedboat, driving the nose up into the air and then crashing back down, but Keilani barely noticed any of it. Tears blurred her vision while her chest nearly exploded with the pain. Micah’s gray eyes dancing over his steel-jawed frown filled her thoughts, along with images of Micah playing with the dolphins like a child with a new puppy and doing the hard work of helping her secure the injured Gus and Rhianna when they needed treatment. They had shared so many things in a very short time. And they’d worked so well together, as if they had been doing it for years.
Keilani’s musings were interrupted when the waves began hitting the boat at a different angle. Her abductor had turned the boat away from shore and was heading parallel to the coastline away from the base. What was that about? He must have wanted to trick Micah into believing that was where they were going just in case he managed to survive and awakened before they were out of sight. The farther they went from the base, the more her hopes of any rescue dissipated. No one would know to look for her way out here, even if anyone realized she was missing. It was completely up to her to escape and somehow get back to Micah.
Her mind spun with a desperation she had never known, trying to discern any way it might be possible to get the upper hand. She needed to get back to Micah in time to rescue him, but looking at the burly man who had taken her, she
knew she couldn’t possibly overpower him. The only hope she might have would be in outsmarting him somehow. The question remaining was how.
She studied him carefully, looking for anything that might indicate a weakness of any kind. What about this man might she use to get an advantage? He wore a wetsuit and a mask, not uncommon for a diver in the cold waters of the Pacific, and the neoprene only emphasized his strength. He moved athletically and didn’t seem to have any type of physical impairments. Of course he didn’t, if he was a SEAL like Micah suspected. The man had his attention focused between driving the boat and looking at a cell phone he had anchored to the dash. Was he using some type of GPS to guide him to their destination?
Just great. If he didn’t even know how to get there, how would anyone ever find them? It just reinforced her theory that she would have to outmaneuver this guy on her own and very soon, because the likelihood of finding her way back decreased with every mile they traveled.
She couldn’t see the shore anymore, so she feared they had gone past the edge of the island and were headed for open water. If that was the case, there was no way of knowing where the man was taking her. The boat just seemed to increase its speed until their surroundings were little more than a blur. Remembering their rescue from the dive Keilani tried to seek out the fishing boat belonging to Xavier’s uncle, Tom Hawkins, but if he was anywhere close she couldn’t see him. Even if she could, she wasn’t sure how to get his attention, and against a SEAL, she wasn’t sure he would be any help.
The horizon seemed hopelessly empty. The idea of being alone on the ocean with her abductor made her heart race until she was sick. Think, Keilani! There has to be a way out of this. Crazy thoughts swarmed in her head—throwing herself overboard or launching herself at him and trying to knock him off balance—but she knew she could never overpower him and leaving the boat was a sure death sentence this far out. The sharks would find her before anyone else did.
She watched his movements, wondering if he had any accomplices he would be in contact with, but he didn’t seem concerned with anyone else. She had a feeling this guy was the one who wanted her dead. It seemed likely he was tired of the failed attempts of his cohorts and intended to see the job completed.
She intended to see that he failed.
Using all of her powers of reasoning, Keilani began to concoct a plan to outsmart him. What would he expect her to do? How did he plan to carry out her murder? She shuddered at the thought, but knew figuring it out was her only hope of thwarting him. If she could deduce his intentions and surprise him by doing the opposite of what he thought she would, she just might be able to get away.
But that was a very important if.
* * *
A little while into the boat ride, Keilani’s captor turned off the GPS device he had been looking at. Was he playing some sort of mind game with her? Or had there been a sudden change of plans? He had been on his cell phone several times as well, so she suspected it was the latter.
Her stomach clenched when he pulled the mask off his head. The message couldn’t be clearer. He had no intention of letting her go alive. Worse, she knew his face. He was the officer who had often come into the dolphin enclosures, the one who had tried to send Micah to the admiral while Gus was sick. Hadn’t Micah said the man’s marriage was struggling or something like that? She strained to remember what she knew about the man, but even his name eluded her.
She watched as the water went by, hoping for any sort of landmark—even a buoy that might help her eventually find her way back to the base should she manage to escape. The hard-eyed stare of her abductor was on her constantly, and when he realized what she was doing, he let out a cruel laugh just before his fist connected with the side of her head. She wobbled a bit in stubborn determination before everything went black.
He was hauling her off the boat when she came to, an unfamiliar bay surrounding them. Tossing her into a miserable position over his shoulder, he carted her struggling form into a dark opening beside the water, low enough that he had to duck to enter. He wasn’t affected by her kicking and writhing in the least and her hopes sank further still. He seemed to possess superhuman strength. Even if she could outsmart him somehow, if he ever caught her, he could simply snap her to pieces with his bare hands.
Depositing her on the rocky ground with a merciless thud, her abductor pulled out a blade that looked every bit as evil as he did. “Talk. What all do they know?”
Keilani struggled to a sitting position and shook her head. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He came closer and trailed the hooked end of the knife down her arm. “You won’t bleed to death for a long time, but it will hurt—a lot. You can at least make your death less painful by telling me what I want to know.”
Keilani’s pulse was loud in her ears, her chest almost aching with the fierce pounding of her heart. “I don’t know what you’re asking.”
He jerked in anger, slashing the blade across the surface of her forearm, leaving a trail of blood welling up in its path. It wasn’t deep but it sent a searing pain coursing through her. “You know exactly what I’m asking. How did you know where to find our operation? Who are you working for? Did the FBI send you?”
She let out a high-pitched laugh. “You’ve got it all wrong. I found it by accident. I am a civilian employed temporarily by the navy as a consultant for the marine mammal program. That’s it. That’s all.”
“So the Feds? What do they know?” He paced away and then came back, seeming to have completely ignored her statement.
“How should I know?” Keilani shrugged, desperate to make him understand.
He slapped her hard. “I don’t need your sarcasm. You expect me to believe you didn’t report it?”
“Only to the navy. I don’t know what they’ve done with the information.” She flinched as she felt blood oozing from the corner of her mouth. He still had her wrists zip-tied together and she could do nothing except endure the sensation of it trickling down her chin.
“And what exactly have you reported to the navy? Location? Vessels you saw? People involved?” He waved the wicked-looking knife around at her again. His expression was wild.
Keilani tried to shrink away. “The only information I had was the location. I shared that. How could I know anyone involved? They were all wearing scuba gear.”
He lunged at her, knife in one hand, the other at her throat. “You’re lying! How else could they know I am involved?”
The expression on his face was terrifying. Keilani shook her head frantically, trying to think. How would she ever convince him she was telling the truth? What made him think the navy knew he was involved? What had she missed?
Desperation made her a little reckless. She grunted as she shoved at the knife.
“I’m telling the truth.” She spat the words out forcefully.
He reacted in anger once again. The musty scent of damp rocks and brine filled her nose as he shoved her at the ground, face-first. Her cheek connected with a sharp rock and she gasped in pain.
“Who did you see on the beach?” He screamed the question in her ear and she winced.
What was he talking about? Her mind raced for answers.
“What beach?” Her air was limited, his knee in her back, but she managed the question anyway.
He smacked the back of her head, sending her forehead slamming into the rock below her. Pain exploded in her head and her vision blurred.
“I know you saw them. You had to see them leaving the dock while you were on the beach. Why else would you swim out to follow them?” His voice was strident with anger. Reasoning with him wasn’t going to work. She decided to try to find out all she could instead.
“Was it Jarnigan? Was he on the beach? Did you kill him?”
His expression took on a faraway look. “I didn’t kill Bax. He’s my friend. He didn’t deserve that. That was all on...”
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He stopped and turned to stare at her. “How did you know about Bax?”
“He was a Ghost, wasn’t he?” She kept her voice quiet, soothing.
“He was. Until they dismissed him. It wasn’t his fault he was pulled in. Same with me. That’s how they found me.” He shook his head, and she decided it wasn’t the time to ask about that. The answers would come.
“So you were both coerced into helping?” She made it almost a statement.
“At first. But they were so stupid, I had to take charge. They were going to get us all killed or thrown in prison. It was a matter of time. They didn’t have great ideas. I figured out the dolphins.”
“How many navy dolphins did you use? It must have been hard to pull that off.” She waited for the anger, but something changed in his whole demeanor.
“I should have gotten Lieutenant Kent’s job. They never gave me a fair shot at it.” There was a smugness to his remark that told her she had found a way to get him talking.
“Oh? Why do you say that? Didn’t you get a chance to apply for the position?” It made her almost physically ill to think of this monster working with the dolphins, but she could pretend to believe it might be okay if it would buy her some time.
“The navy doesn’t work like that. They have their favorites. And Micah Kent wasn’t going to last as a regular SEAL. But being a favorite of our CO, they gave it to him just to save his career. I was much better with the animals.” He seemed convinced he was telling the truth.
“You know, that’s not really the story I heard. Maybe you can clarify what happened.”
His eyes narrowed and she wondered if she had just pushed too far. “I’m sure Kent told you some dumb story about how well the dolphins liked him.”
“Something like that.” She tried to look confounded, like it surprised her that the reports didn’t line up.