In the dim light, Garret could make out a man sleeping on a bunk. He crept toward the still figure. Once he was standing over the man, he signaled that it was indeed Nathan.
He removed a hood from his pack and yanked it down over the banker’s head. In one quick motion, he rolled him over on his back and planted a knee in his chest, subduing him. He pulled out a length of tape and wrapped it around the hood to secure his mouth shut. When Nathan began to struggle, Garret punched him in the face through the cloth.
“Try that again, and it’ll be the last thing you do,” Garret murmured. “Now get on your feet. You’re coming with us.”
Anniston jerked Nathan’s hands behind his back and slapped a pair of handcuffs on him.
Garret opened the door to make sure the coast was clear. He motioned for her to follow with Nathan as he disappeared back around the corner.
But a second after that, he put his fingers up to his lips for quiet. They had to wait for a crewman to finish dumping garbage from the galley over the railing and into the sea below.
After the shipmate disappeared down the corridor, they hugged the wall again until they spotted another member of the crew out on deck, taking a smoke break. Ten long minutes went by before they could head to where they’d left the lifeboat tied up.
This time, Anniston went over the side first. Once she was safely in the skiff, Garret turned to Nathan and tied a rope around his waist. “You try to wriggle out of this or make one sound and you’re a dead man.”
It took every muscle in him to lower Nathan into the raft before he scurried over the side and climbed down. The minute his feet hit the bottom, he untied the rope and shoved off. Anniston took out her paddle and started rowing away.
From somewhere above, a shot rang out. Garret heard shouting overhead.
They paddled harder for a few minutes until Garret said, “To hell with this. I’m starting the engine.” He gunned the throttle, and the lifeboat picked up speed, disappearing into the foggy night.
When Nathan squirmed and tried to talk through the tape and hood, Anniston poked him in the back with the end of her paddle to make him think it was the barrel of a gun. “Stop that. Don’t do it again.”
Nathan took the hint.
No one said another word until they came alongside The Black Rum. Garret killed the motor, secured the raft, then looked at Anniston. “Go on up.”
She scuttled up the ladder and waited on deck for Garret. She saw Mitch and Jackson rush over to lower the winch that would haul up their captive.
Still in the lifeboat, Garret attached the hoist to Nathan’s back and waist, then let the crane lift Nathan out of the raft.
Garret sat there a minute contemplating the close call they’d had. He held out his hand and waited for it to stop shaking before he reached around the back and unzipped his wetsuit. When he thought his wobbly legs could make it, he climbed the ladder up to the deck and looked around for Anniston.
The minute Garret hopped over the railing, she pushed everyone else aside to get to him and locked her arms around his neck. “That was awesome. We did it! We kicked ass. You sure know how to show a girl a good time.”
That’s when she saw the blood. “Oh my God, you’ve been shot!”
“What?” He glanced over at the stream of red trickling down his bare arm. “I’m okay. I didn’t feel a thing. Adrenaline. It’s just a scratch, a little shoulder wound. I’ll be fine.”
She framed his face in her hands and spread kisses everywhere. “I’ve never been shot at before and you took the bullet.”
He laughed, picked her up, and whirled her around in a circle. “I took a scratch for you. I hope it leaves a scar just for you. How do you feel about living in Oahu?”
“How do you feel about moving to Miami?”
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Don't miss these other exciting titles by bestselling author
Vickie McKeehan
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LAST CHANCE HARBOR
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The Evil Secrets Trilogy
JUST EVIL Book One
DEEPER EVIL Book Two
ENDING EVIL Book Three
The Skye Cree Novels
THE BONES OF OTHERS
THE BONES WILL TELL
THE BOX OF BONES
HIS GARDEN OF BONES
TRUTH IN THE BONES
The Indigo Brothers Trilogy
INDIGO FIRE
INDIGO HEAT
INDIGO JUSTICE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Indigo Heat is Vickie McKeehan’s seventeenth novel.
She writes romantic suspense and makes her
home in Southern California.
You can find Vickie online at
https://www.facebook.com/VickieMcKeehan
http://www.vickiemckeehan.com/
https://vickiemckeehan.wordpress.com
also by Vickie McKeehan
The Evil Secrets Trilogy
JUST EVIL Book One
DEEPER EVIL Book Two
ENDING EVIL Book Three
The Pelican Pointe Series
PROMISE COVE
HIDDEN MOON BAY
DANCING TIDES
LIGHTHOUSE REEF
STARLIGHT DUNES
LAST CHANCE HARBOR
SEA GLASS COTTAGE
LAVENDER BEACH
BENEATH WINTER SAND
(2016)
The Skye Cree Novels
THE BONES OF OTHERS
THE BONES WILL TELL
THE BOX OF BONES
TRUTH IN THE BONES
(2016)
The Indigo Brothers Trilogy
INDIGO FIRE Book One
INDIGO HEAT Book Two
INDIGO JUSTICE Book Three
INDIGO JUSTICE
Indigo Brothers Trilogy
Published by Beachdevils Press
Copyright © 2016 Vickie McKeehan
All rights reserved.
Indigo Justice
Indigo Brothers Trilogy
Copyright © 2016 Vickie McKeehan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic format without written permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, incidents, locales, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, businesses or companies, is entirely coincidental.
Excerpt from Promise Cove copyright © 2011 by Vickie McKeehan.
ISBN-10: 0692735453
ISBN-13: 978-0692735459
Published by
Beachdevils Press
Printed in the USA
All Titles Available at Amazon
Cover designed by artist, Jess Johnson
You can visit the author at:
www.vickiemckeehan.com
www.facebook.com/VickieMcKeehan
http://vickiemckeehan.wordpress.com/
www.twitter.com/VickieMcKeehan
For Beau, who always listens and never judges.
Justice is sweet and musical
~ HENRY DAVID THOREAU
The First Warrior looked out on the land and his Home.
He saw the hills
And the stars
And he was happy.
For giving him his home, the first warrior told the Great Spirit
That he would fight and win many battles in His honor.
But the Great Spirit said, “No, do not fight for me.
Fight for your tribe,
Fight for the family born to you,
Fight for the brothers you find.
“Fight for them,” the Great Spirit said, “for they are your Home.”
~ HENRY STANDING BEAR
Longmire TV series
INDIGO JUSTICE
Book Three
by
VICKIE McKEEHAN
Part Three
Mitch
Prologue - Justice
Jackson almost didn’t recognize his best friend from high school. The man certainly didn’t look like the bank president who’d been so helpful at the bank the day they’d started the search for Livvy and the kids.
Nathan Hollister had dyed his hair an awful shade of platinum blond and let it grow out, but his dark roots were beginning to show. He’d grown facial hair, a little goatee that made him look very much like the cartoon character, Mr. Van Driessen from Beavis and Butt-Head. It wasn’t a flattering look.
When the hood was yanked off his head, Nathan’s eyes darted around the galley. When he tried to move, he found one hand cuffed to the table. He was surrounded by Indigos. Maybe that’s why he should’ve been more prepared for the fist to the face.
Jackson connected to Nathan’s nose and flexed his right hand. “I haven’t hit anyone since Mitch ran my car into a ditch and broke the axle the night before high school prom. But I swear to God, I’ll beat you senseless if you don’t tell me what the hell’s going on. What are you doing helping Dietrich look for treasure? What the hell did you get Livvy involved in that got her killed? You’re nothing but a low-life snake!”
“You broke my nose!” Nathan screamed, the words coming out nasal.
Mitch ignored the blood and stepped in front of Nathan’s face. “I’m gonna break more than your nose if you don’t start talking. Jackson is the levelheaded PhD, the scholarly one. You know it’s true. Me? I’m volatile and unpredictable. And you were never my best friend. So start taking, Hollister.”
“Okay. You caught me. I need a doctor first.”
“No, first we ask questions and then you answer,” Jackson fired back. “What happened to your fear of the water, Nathan?”
“Uh, well, I live on an island. I finally got tired of watching everyone else enjoy what the place has to offer. I did something about it. I took lessons from Dave Oakerson’s outfit.”
“I bet you took lessons from the esteemed mayor. So now you’re good at diving, are you?”
“I’m okay. I know enough to not get the bends on deep dives.”
Jackson wanted to smash his lying face again. “Enough to get Dietrich to hire you on the Pike? That sounds like you’re more than okay. You want to tell me how you and your new pals killed Livvy?”
“What? No. I loved Livvy.”
“Then why did you disappear and go to work on Dietrich’s boat using a disguise? You colored your hair. You changed your appearance from the dull and stoic banker to make yourself look more like a member of a motorcycle gang wannabe. What are you hiding? What do you know about Livvy’s murder? Come on, you snake, spill it.”
“Livvy and I’ve been so secretive over the years, it became second nature to keep quiet.”
“We know you’re lying through your teeth,” Garret said, getting to his feet. He circled the man, then reared back like he intended to throw another punch at Nathan’s face.
The banker flinched and put his free hand up in defense. “Okay. Okay. I’ll tell you what I know. Livvy and I were planning to take the kids and get out of our lousy marriages. Livvy mentioned Walker’s plan to find the gold. He’d been obsessed by it for months. Walker seemed convinced he could find it with Werner Dietrich’s help. That’s when things started going south. Royce had brought Dietrich in on the resort development—the project that was going to make everyone involved a bundle. That is, if they could squeeze your old man into giving up on the preserve and get him to stop fighting them at every turn.”
Mitch exchanged a look with his brothers. “So now you’re saying that Dad’s environmental stance got an entire family killed? That’s not what happened, Nathan. Try a different fairy tale.”
“Sure. Okay. The truth then. One-night Walker met up with Hugo Reiner in Mattito’s Bar. You remember Hugo, that old sailor who tells all those outlandish stories about knowing how to find Nazi gold. He claims some U-boat went down around here off the coast in ’45 carrying gold bullion.”
“It seems everyone in town suddenly got interested in it at the same time,” Jackson stated.
“Well, Walker certainly did. He swallowed it like a catfish on a grub worm. The two started plotting. But Walker knew they couldn’t go looking for gold using his yacht or Hugo’s tub of a sailboat. Neither man had the means or the equipment to pull off that kind of operation. And Dietrich? Walker had already met him a couple of times before through his dad. Walker knew Dietrich had a successful salvage operation. According to Livvy, Walker contacted him for help, got turned down a couple of times in the process.”
Mitch interrupted him. “How do you know these kinds of details?”
“Livvy. Walker went home at night and told Livvy about all of it. She in turn, told me. During all those nights drinking at the bar, Walker had been listening to Hugo’s tall tales about Dietrich’s ties to the Nazis. Hugo claimed he had papers to prove it. Livvy told me Walker stole the papers and tried to use them to coerce Dietrich into cutting him in on the gold. But you don’t blackmail a man like Dietrich and get away with it.”
“So we’ve heard.”
“By that time Dietrich had his own salvage operation heading to the Keys. He must’ve had his own leads about Hugo. I know for certain the Patagonia Pike won’t stop until it locates that sub. Dietrich certainly didn’t need Walker or Hugo to get that done. But he must’ve wanted those other documents back, enough to kill them all. Livvy and I thought we could use her share to start a new life together. But then things unraveled. It all went to hell.”
“And you knew all this that day I walked into the bank and asked you for help,” Jackson charged. “What a nasty piece of work you are.”
Jackson reared back and smacked Nathan across the face again. “You lying sack of shit. You got Livvy killed because you stole the papers from Walker. You betrayed Livvy.”
“Me? Not me. I wouldn’t do that. It had to be Dietrich’s henchmen who killed them.”
“Oh, we know that, Nathan. But the murders are on you. You got them all killed because you took the papers and when Baskin tried to beat the information out of them, Walker gave up the location to save his family and himself. But when his accomplice, Boone Dandridge, went to retrieve them, the papers were gone. They weren’t where Walker said they were. So Baskin turned his wrath on Livvy. Unfortunately, Walker had already given up the information. Livvy had nothing new to offer, nothing to divulge. She trusted you. And she and the kids lost their lives because you’d already stolen the documents out from under her. So their deaths are on you, buddy. It’s your fault they all died!” Jackson said, his fists still clenched at his sides.
“No. I loved your sister. For years, I had to watch her live with that lying, cheating Walker. It made me sick. I…I wanted to take her away.”
Mitch picked up the narration. “You were so concerned about Livvy that after she went missing, you weren’t all that interested to find out what happened to her. Why is that, Nathan? Because you already knew.”
“I was afraid I already knew. Yeah. Dietrich had gotten to them all. I was scared, afraid for myself.”
“You were afraid for yourself? Poor guy. S
o what were you planning to do, Nathan? Take off with all that gold without Livvy? You don’t look like you’ve been in mourning all this time. You don’t look grief-stricken either.” Mitch glanced around the room. “Is it just me, or does he look like he’s taking his lover’s death really well?”
Garret cocked his head, studied Nathan’s face. “To me, it looks like he’s gotten over Livvy just fine and moved on to count the gold he hopes to get. Plus, he felt like he was entitled to a bigger share than everyone else. So he took a job on board the Patagonia Pike and began to sabotage things for the crew. One by one, his goal was to eliminate anyone who was entitled to their fair share of the loot.”
He turned his attention to Nathan. “Duarte apparently caught on to your little scheme, that’s why you were locked up. You’ve been a busy boy since you lied to your wife about going to Denver.”
Jackson circled Nathan. “Ah, I’m beginning to get the picture. You never lied to Wendy. That’s why Anniston had such a difficult time talking your wife into filing a missing persons report. Wendy dragged her feet because she already knew where you were all along. And my guess is you planned on dropping Livvy at the first opportunity if she’d lived. After Walker had done all the legwork to get the gold, you and Wendy were off to Fiji. How long had you been using Livvy for information, Nathan? Maybe you knew Dietrich planned to kill them all along since you wanted to keep the gold for yourself. And then there’s your wife. She wants the gold as badly as you do. And so does her lover, Dave Oakerson.”
“No, that’s not it,” Nathan protested.
Jackson grabbed hold of his shirt. “Bullshit. You’re such a lying weasel. The murders didn’t have a thing to do with Dad trying to protect the damn preserve. When did you become such a scum sucker? Where are the documents Dietrich killed for? When exactly did you steal them? You already admitted Livvy told you where they were.”
The Indigo Brothers Trilogy Boxed Set Page 65