On the seat beside his leg, the cell phone began chirping. He cast a furious glance at the evil messenger then snapped it open.
“What?”
“Whoa, bud. Just thought I’d give you, as Paul Harvey says, the rest of the story,” Ben answered.
“You’ve told me enough to hang her. What else is there?”
“I’ve actually got something good to tell you,” Ben offered.
“Oh?” He’d kill for some good news about Angel.
“Okay. She was a high-school champion track star and long-distance runner, Olympic material. Fifteen or twenty top universities offered her a scholarship, but Stanford won out, then reneged after she was arrested.”
“I’d figured something along those lines,” Zane interjected.
“She spent the summers working as a bicycle courier in New York,” Ben continued. “Her mother died of alcoholism. Nothing to indicate that she knew her father dealt drugs or ever worked with him before that one time. Her arrest was the only instance when she’d ever been involved in anything illegal. Word is she got railroaded by the district attorney and detective, some questionable circumstances, something about the whole case was predicated on one fingerprint.”
No wonder she meticulously wiped her prints away.
Red taillights glared at Zane all the way up to the span of the bridge. Throwing himself from the pinnacle of the steel structure was a consideration, but too good for what he deserved. He’d never listened to Angel’s side once he got Ben’s first report, just assumed the worst.
She must hate him.
“One more thing.” Ben interrupted Zane’s self-abasement.
Zane cut him off. “I don’t know which I really dislike more right now, your voice or this damn phone that brings it to me.”
“Hey, bud, you’ve got to hear one more thing. That coin is a 1933 Saint Gauden’s Double Eagle gold piece. There’s a whole history on it that I’ll spare you right now, but suffice it to say it’s not legal for anyone to own it. That single coin is worth over a million dollars and it is from the Boston heist.”
Ben added, “She doesn’t sound sophisticated enough to be the original thief. Whoever she took it from is probably very unhappy. Add that to the FBI and she has some major players gunning for her.”
Sweat broke out on Zane’s forehead. Everything was so convoluted at this point that he couldn’t call anyone to help him. Traffic had completely stopped.
Angel was running solo until he found her.
The tropical depression had disintegrated by midmorning, leaving scattered clouds to shield Ft. Lauderdale from becoming a sauna. Angel climbed out of the parts delivery truck from which she’d hitched a ride and thanked the young guy for the lift. He’d been kind enough to drop her close to the marina.
She watched her back, weaving behind the cover of thick shrubs to reach the far end of the marina. To enter through the front gates didn’t seem at all prudent with everybody and their brother after her. At the property line, she skirted the outside of the fence until she located a rusted opening in the ragged box wire.
Not much of a deterrent.
A few boats traveled from the direction of the bay down the wide canal toward the marina. More cars and trucks filled the lot than on the day she’d stopped by with Zane, but not many. People were still out celebrating the holiday.
Meandering over to the closest dock, she slipped into the bathtub-temperature saltwater and found it refreshing compared to the humidity she’d endured since diving off the balcony.
Training for triathlons meant swimming miles of rough currents, but little diving practice. Zane’s frantic scream had trailed behind her until she’d hit the water, jarring her teeth.
She’d calculated the jump. Still, luck had smiled on her. She could have just as easily broken her neck. The dive had been her last resort. From the look on Zane’s face after he’d heard her record, she’d been reasonably sure he’d turn her over to the police.
Her choices seemed destined to always fall between bad and unbelievably worse.
Zane worked undercover for drug enforcement. He had to be sickened once he heard she’d been convicted of transporting drugs, especially after spending the night making love.
That he immediately assumed the worst of her had hurt. She tried not to fault him, but when would one person give her a break? She was upset with him for deceiving her. However, she hadn’t told him who she was either. In Zane’s shoes, wouldn’t she have reacted the same way?
Maybe, maybe not. She’d never been in love until now, but cared enough for Zane to give him the benefit of the doubt. Something he hadn’t given her.
She’d prove her innocence to him somehow before she left.
First, she had to drive Mason away.
A few marina inhabitants reclined lazily on the rear decks of their boats backed up to the dock walkway. They were clueless a woman stroked silently through the water beyond their bows.
Angel made the turn at the end of the dock so she could swim past each row until reaching the one for Zane’s boat. She dived underwater, paddling hard, and surfaced at the next one, then continued the same process.
When she reached his boat, she floated to the rear and climbed up a short metal ladder. With a fast check of the parking lot and dock, she scurried down into the cabin to search for the coins.
She dug through cabinets and felt along cubbyholes, then ran out to see if anyone approached. Mason had men everywhere. If they’d found her at Zane’s apartment, she had no doubt they knew about the boat. Why hadn’t they searched it?
Mason must believe she had the coins stashed somewhere that no one knew about.
Nothing had been disturbed. The only alteration was the elusive canvas curtain now surrounding the cockpit.
Where would Zane hide the coins?
Shoving aside the cushions covering the bed in the cabin, she methodically went through each of the compartments and stopped again to scan outside for anyone within proximity. She continued hunting through life-jacket bags and tackle boxes, almost forgetting to keep watch.
The next time Angel stuck her head out of the cabin, a black Land Rover swung inside the marina and parked across the lot near the entrance. She squinted to see if they were just going to observe or come to the boat.
Oh, God, the monster who’d abducted her. C.K. climbed out of the sport utility.
She ducked into the cabin and yanked drawers open until she found the keys then jumped up on deck. Her heart climbed into her throat when another Land Rover drove up to the first one.
Mason appeared.
Her hand quaked. She stabbed the first key at the ignition, hitting all around the hole with her shaking hand until it went in. She got the second key in place and realized she had to untie ropes then flip on the battery and pump the do-ma-hickey down in the deck to prime something.
Mason was talking to C.K., who pointed toward the boat a couple times then started striding her way.
She tucked down close to the deck, crab-walking across the weathered teak. At each cleat above her head, she reached up and unwound the ropes, jerking them loose and letting them fall to the water. Thank goodness they were all looped in simple S formations.
Down on the deck, she twisted a pitted chrome catch to open a section of the floor covering the engines. When it flipped up, she pushed it aside, shoved her hand in until she found the rubber balls and squeezed hard several times.
She stayed hunched over and scuttled through the curtains to the cockpit, jumped up and pulled the control handles to the middle the way Zane had.
When she glanced over her shoulder to check on C.K., he was nearing the beginning of the dock to Zane’s boat.
Angel swiveled both keys at once. The motors turned over and over, but neither cranked. She glanced back up the dock.
The demon of her future nightmares hesitated then jutted his head forward and started running as if he’d just realized she was on the boat.
Somewhere behin
d him another man shouted something she couldn’t make out.
Twisting the keys again, she begged the churning motors to start. One caught. She kept turning the other one. It caught. She pulled hard on the gears, throwing the boat in reverse, ramming the dock.
Bad idea, bad idea.
She reached over and shoved the gears ahead.
The boat lurched to one side, slamming into the walkway next to her, bouncing hard enough to toss her sideways. Motors whined in protest when the boat hung up on the right side of the slip.
She clawed her way up and watched in horror as the monster closed in to fifteen feet away.
Zane spun into the parking lot past two black sport utilities with gold triangle logos. He’d skidded to a stop near his dock just as he caught sight of the giant who had kidnapped Angel stepping onto the wooden planks.
Zane jumped from the truck, pursuing the kidnapper like a madman.
The hulking beast of a man hesitated briefly then started running.
Angel had to be on the boat.
“Halt! You’re under arrest!” Zane bellowed as he charged ahead with his weapon drawn.
The giant didn’t slow his pace.
A loud bam sounded, the dock shuddered.
Zane’s gaze rocketed past the hulking body to the stern of his boat. It had hit the dock, rattling the pilings. “Stop or I’ll shoot,” he yelled at the kidnapper.
Never missing a step, the charging perp threw his arm behind him and fired wildly at Zane.
A shot ricocheted off a boat and splintered a wooden rafter.
Angel lunged for the controls, throwing a look over her shoulder.
C.K. dived forward from the dock, angled for the deck of the boat.
Angel wrenched hard on the wheel. The boat bounced left. Released from being hung up, the heavy cabin cruiser lunged forward under full power.
A gunshot and gargled shout carried over the motor rumble, but she couldn’t let go of the wheel to look. She fought to get the boat to open water. Zane’s ark plowed around the small waterway between the two rows of docks like an out-of-control, windup toy. Every turn she made was oversteered, curving the boat around in a hard left, then a hard right.
She missed a sleek yacht sticking out from the next dock over, but bounced a piling on a slip at the end. Comprehension struck as she exited the marina. Angel tugged the handles on her right back halfway to neutral. The bow lowered in the water when the motors chugged down to an idle.
With the boat under control, she jerked around to see what had happened to her pursuer, but by now a row of boats blocked her view.
“Halt!” Zane shouted again and forged ahead.
Heavy soles pounded the wooden dock behind him. A squeeze play was coming with him in the middle.
Another shot blasted at him from up ahead. It skipped against the piling next to his foot. The crazy bastard dived toward his boat, toward Angel.
Zane leveled his gun and fired at the bulky target stretched out in midair.
When he reached the slip, blood spread across the water. He’d aimed for a beefy shoulder. Had he missed and hit a vital organ?
The man’s bald head bobbed along facedown on the surface. He thrashed one hand against the water.
Zane shoved his weapon in his waistband and picked up a rope to throw. “Hold on!” he shouted, intending to keep the enormous mass from drowning.
The giant’s shiny head rolled back, baring a heinous smile on his face. He raised his good arm from under water to point his weapon at Zane.
With both hands full of rope and no time to react, Zane flinched in anticipation of a bullet bound for his chest, but it wasn’t to be.
A shot fired close by centered the kidnapper’s forehead. He sunk like a lead pipe.
Zane jerked around to see who had fired the gun.
Two winded men in dark gray suits stumbled to a stop, both with guns drawn.
“Who in the hell are you?” Zane demanded.
“FBI. Was that Angel Farentino in the boat?”
Angel. Zane spun away without answering. His hands shook as he ran to the end of the dock. Mason had almost gotten her.
He heard one of the two FBI agents close behind him yell, “She can’t go anywhere. We’ve got the entrance to the bay blocked. In another fifteen minutes, we’ll have her.”
Zane’s mind raced. He couldn’t let them take her. She’d trusted him and he’d turned his back on her. She’d pleaded her innocence. He had to get to her first and tell her he believed her. Then he’d find a way to get her out of this mess.
He reached the end of the dock, barely able to see his boat motoring slowly down the far side of the empty canal.
Drawing in a breath to yell her name, he hoped against the odds of being heard.
The cabin cruiser exploded into a fireball.
Zane’s screams echoed across the calm water.
Chapter 20
Information flew around Zane’s head, some of it finding a way into his mind.
Some of it passing with the end of the day.
No one had been near the boat when it blew. Angel had been driving down the undeveloped side of the canal, so the casualties were low.
Just one dead Angel and an emotionally destroyed pilot.
Zane numbly went through the motions as if caught in the netherworld of the walking dead. He vaguely recalled thinking he was functioning as a professional.
FBI agents, emergency personnel and the public must have thought otherwise. They approached him cautiously, as though he were a rabid wolf to be avoided.
Howling like a wounded animal at the end of the dock might be the reason.
He didn’t care.
His cell phone chirped one time too many. It sunk faster than C.K. He now knew the street name of the man who had been after Angel.
That was good to know. He supposed.
The FBI agents tried to fill him in on details, like why they’d sought Angel. They knew she was not involved with Mason because they’d had her under surveillance for a while. They’d assumed when she disappeared that Mason had probably been the reason. One of their agents had actually seen her by accident the night Zane had taken her into De Nikki’s to eat.
She’d been too sharp and spotted the agent’s surprise when he saw her.
So that’s why she ran—that time.
Somehow, Mason had slipped away from the marina when all the action started, but the FBI still felt they could nail him.
It would have made their life easier if Angel had lived.
His, too.
The FBI uncovered enough information to prove she hadn’t intentionally delivered drugs. She’d been set up.
Hmm, that’s also good to know, Zane mused.
Someone asked Zane if he wanted a doctor. “No,” he answered. He wasn’t injured—physically.
Everyone wanted to know what had happened to the coins. Zane lost interest and wandered away. He didn’t care about coins.
He wanted Angel.
Twilight cloaked the marina by the time the divers confirmed no body had been found. Everyone dispersed. One of the FBI agents mentioned he’d be in touch in a day or two, when Zane was feeling better.
A day or two? Was that all it would take to stop the gut-wrenching pain?
Fog drifted in off the water. Tears trickled down each side of his nose as he strolled aimlessly along the deserted seawall away from the marina, away from the world.
He didn’t want to leave.
He wanted Angel.
As if he’d conjured up her ghost, Angel floated along the seawall toward him, surrounded by a heavy mist. She wore the jog bra and shorts from earlier. He’d always wondered if ghosts really looked the same as when they died.
Her dark coppery hair glowed. She looked every bit an angel.
His angel was talking. Cool. If he were going completely mad, then he wanted to hear her voice, too.
“I’m sorry,” Angel said. She floated closer and closer. “I had to get Maso
n to leave. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
His throat constricted. He forced the words out he had to say.
“It was my fault. I should have believed you. I’m the one who’s sorry.” Seeing her was killing him. He wanted to touch her, but you can’t touch a vision. Can you?
She kept coming nearer.
He could see her legs and feet moving. Good. She didn’t have to float if she didn’t want to.
“Zane, I destroyed your boat.”
“I don’t care. I wish you’d come back to me.” Strips of his heart peeled away, one raw section at a time.
“I did come back to you,” she said fervently, almost close enough for him to grab. The mist swirled between them and he blinked quickly not to lose her.
“But I want you alive,” he cried out. “I love you and I should have protected you.”
“I am alive,” she whispered right in front of him. “You did protect me, and I’ve never loved you more than I do at this moment.” She reached up and touched his face.
Dear God, she was alive. He hadn’t gone off the deep end.
Zane hovered between reality and fantasy for a split second then wrapped her up in his arms. He kissed her everywhere. Joy like he’d never felt in his life filled him. He couldn’t stop touching her.
“You’re really alive,” he croaked out in a raspy voice. “I don’t understand, but I don’t care.”
“I’m so sorry.” She cried against his throat.
“No, honey, I’m the one who’s sorry. You tried to tell me the truth. If I’d told you the truth about who I was, you might have trusted me. If I’d listened with my heart, I’d have heard you. I knew there was no way you could be a criminal.”
He was afraid his knees would buckle, afraid she’d disappear, afraid this wasn’t real, but none of that mattered.
Angel was back.
Their lips met. His kiss begged her forgiveness, promised her the world and thanked God for a miracle called Angel.
She pushed back a tiny bit, but Zane wouldn’t relinquish his hold. He was never going to let her go.
“How can you be here?” he asked in wonder.
“I had to make Mason go away. He wouldn’t as long as I was alive,” she explained. “While the boat was going slow, I dug out some rags and tied them together. Then I stuffed them down the gas tank and found matches in the drawers.”
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