Tides of Deception (Samantha Rite Mystery Series Book 3)

by Hope Callaghan

  Brianna opened the hotel room door and flopped onto one of the beds. “I don’t see what the big deal is. If we stay with her, it would save us some money. Plus, we were going to be staying at her place anyways, Mom,” she pointed out.

  “Yeah, you’re right,” Sam admitted. She looked over at her sister. “Well, if you don’t mind, it would save us some cash…”

  “You know me, I’m up for whatever.” Deb yawned. “Wow, am I beat.”

  By now, Sam was exhausted too. They really needed to get some rest. Tomorrow was shaping up to be another stressful day. “Let’s worry about this in the morning. I can hardly keep my eyes open.”

  Chapter 9

  Lee closed his eyes. First and foremost in his mind was Sam. He knew by now she would be worried to death. More than being concerned for himself, he knew she wouldn’t rest until she found him – dead or alive. Somehow it was comforting to know that someone in the world cared enough about him to look for him. On the other hand, her life would once again be in danger – because of him.

  In the stillness of the night, he prayed for the first time in a long time.

  Dear God, if you can hear me, I know I don’t deserve to ask you for anything but could you please protect Sam? I can’t bear the thought of something happening to her. She loves you and really trusts you. For that I ask that you protect her and keep her from harm. Thank you, God. Amen.

  Lee opened his eyes. The prayer made him feel a little bit better.

  Guilt was plainly written all over his face as he looked over at his best friend. It was all his fault they were in this predicament. First Sam and now Donovan. Lee let out a heavy sigh as he shook his head. He should’ve listened to Sam in the first place. Why did she always have to be right??

  Lee woke with a start. He must’ve dozed off.

  Donovan shifted uncomfortably in the bed next to Lee’s. “Man, I’m getting too old for this kind of crap.”

  Light was pouring into the rickety little shack through the large gaping holes. Lee could now see the shack was in even worse shape than he originally thought. Not only were there large gaps in the wooden panels that were supposed to be the walls, when he tilted his head to look up, he could see the sky.

  His gaze leveled and he made eye contact with Carlos who must’ve read his mind. “Yeah, this ain’t the Taj Mahal, that’s for sure.”

  For some reason, Lee liked Carlos better than Daniel. For a criminal, he seemed a little more likable. There was just something about Daniel that screamed unstable and loose cannon.

  Just then, the door to the shack swung open and Daniel stepped inside. He was carrying paper bags from a fast food restaurant. He tossed one to Carlos and then walked over and dropped a bag on the bed next to Donovan. He fished the keys out of his pocket and unlocked Donovan’s handcuffs.

  “You eat first. When you’re done, we’ll let your friend over here have some breakfast.”

  Daniel glanced over at Lee. “Gotta have lots of energy today to go find that treasure.”

  Donovan caught of whiff of greasy food. He slowly opened the bag and peered inside before reaching in and grabbing a sausage biscuit sandwich and hash brown. He quickly gobbled down his food and took a few huge gulps of the Coke that Daniel set on the floor nearby. “OK, I’m done.”

  With that, Daniel put the cuffs back on Donovan and walked over to release the cuffs on Lee. Lee ate his food as fast, if not faster than Donovan.

  While eating, he furtively scoped the place out. Daniel’s shrewd eyes knew exactly what Lee was up to.

  “Don’t even try it.” He waved the gun in his hand. “I’ll shoot you before you ever make it off that bed.”

  It did seem pretty futile, Lee had to admit. There really wasn’t anywhere for him to go, even if he was able to overpower Daniel.

  Daniel quickly put the cuffs back on Lee, snapping them nice and tight, just to be sure.

  He looked over at Carlos who was now standing in the doorway. “You ready to get this show on the road?”

  Carlos nodded.

  Daniel waved his gun towards the door. “Let’s move.”

  As they made their way down the rickety old dock, Lee noticed their boat was gone. Trying to get rid of any evidence, I suppose.

  Moments later, they were settled in the boat. Daniel fired up the motor. Carlos quickly untied the boat from the dock, jumped in and pushed off.

  It wasn’t long before they were in open water, the shoreline a small speck in the distance. From what Lee could tell, they were heading back in the direction of where they had been yesterday. Daniel carefully studied Lee’s GPS that was sitting next to him.

  Carlos walked over to where Daniel was navigating. “Were you able to reach them this morning?”

  Daniel turned back and looked at Lee and Donovan before answering. “Yeah. The plan is to get confirmation of the treasure’s location and bring a few coins back with us to take to our meeting place.”

  Carlos nodded towards the back of the boat. “What about them?”

  Daniel shook his head. “They won’t be coming back with us.”

  After hearing that little tidbit of information, Donovan shifted in his seat. They needed to come up with a plan – and fast.

  After decades of friendship and getting out of some pretty tight spots together, the two could almost read each other’s minds. Lee moved his head ever-so-slightly in the direction of his dive gear and then looked up at Carlos and Daniel.

  If Donovan read the look right, they would wait until Lee had the cuffs off and was in his dive suit before trying to make a move. They just might have a shot at it since only one of them had a gun.

  Lee looked down at his lap and then directly at Daniel.

  So the plan would be for Lee to tackle Daniel and grab the gun while a handcuffed Donovan would have to perform some tricky foot maneuvers to take out Carlos.

  But first, they needed to get the two of them as far apart as possible. If Donovan could somehow convince Carlos to come to the back of the boat, while Daniel and Lee were still up near the front...

  Lee leaned closer to Donovan. As he edged slightly to the side, Donovan caught a glimpse of something shiny and pointed in the palm of Lee’s hand.

  Somehow Lee had managed to get his hands on a small pick! Now if only he could get close enough to Donovan’s cuffs to pop them open.

  Donovan shifted his body so that his hands were almost directly beside Lee.

  The boat began to slow down which meant they were getting close to the dive spot. Both Carlos and Daniel were staring intently at the GPS. Lee would only have this one chance to pick the lock!

  He could feel the sharp pick pressing against the metal cuffs. Seconds later, Donovan felt the tight, metal band loosen. He slowly ran his index finger along the edge of the ring. Yes! Lee had managed to pop the lock.

  The two of them casually inched away from each other. Out of the corner of his eye, Donovan watched Lee slip the pick into the rear pocket of his pants.

  Now all Donovan needed to do was keep the cuffs together so no one could see they’d been opened.

  Lee stood up, making sure all the attention was focused on him. “Maybe you should undo these cuffs so I can start putting the wetsuit on.”

  Daniel looked up from the GPS he’d been studying so intently and nodded at Carlos. “Go ahead and take them off.”

  He gave Lee a look of warning. “Don’t try anything funny.”

  Carlos quickly unlocked the cuffs and took a step back.

  By now, they were almost over the dive spot. Daniel slowed the boat and cut the motor. He consulted the GPS one final time. “This is it.”

  Lee nonchalantly began pulling the wetsuit on, starting with the pants. Next, he slowly eased into the jacket, one arm at a time. As he yanked the zipper up, he gave a slight nod to Donovan.

  That was the signal! It was now or never!

  Donovan quickly stood up and stared out over the edge of the boat. “Did you feel that? Something just bumpe
d the back of the boat!”

  Carlos quickly turned and rushed over to where Donovan was standing.

  Daniel glanced back to where the two of them were now peering over the side, his attention momentarily diverted.

  Lee drew his arm back and with brute force, landed a heavy blow to the side of Daniel’s face. At the same time he reached out with his other hand in an attempt to yank the gun from Daniel’s hand.

  Daniel staggered backwards from the force of the blow, his grip on the gun loosened. As Daniel fell back against the seat, he squeezed the gun’s trigger, hoping to hit Lee on the way down. His aim was still on target. Lee felt a sharp pain as the bullet made contact with his chest.

  Lee didn’t stop to see where exactly he’d been shot as he reached down, clamped a powerful hand around Daniel’s throat and yanked the gun from his grasp.

  In the meantime, Donovan shook off the loosened cuffs and lunged forward, squeezing Carlos in a death grip. He easily picked him up off his feet and tossed him over the side of the boat and into the ocean.

  Carlos hit the water with a loud splash and momentarily disappeared below the surface. Seconds later, he popped up out of the water, his arms waving wildly as he sputtered frantically.

  “I can’t swim!” Cough! Cough!

  “I can’t swim!” His eyes were wide with terror as he pleaded for help. “Help me! I’m drowning!”

  Donovan studied the panic-stricken Carlos for a second and decided he could manage to keep his head above water for at least a few minutes. He needed to get to the front of the boat and check on Lee.

  Lee was calmly sitting on a cushion, directly across from Daniel. The gun was now in Lee’s hand pointed right at Daniel’s head.

  Donovan reached down and grabbed Daniel by the front of his shirt, yanking him to his feet. In one quick move, he snapped one of the cuffs on Daniel’s right wrist. He pulled his left hand around and seconds later, the cuffs were securely locked in place.

  Next, he reached into Daniel’s front pocket and pulled out the keys to the handcuffs. He looked down at the keys in his hand and after pausing for only a second, gave them a swift toss into the water. “Won’t need these.”

  They lay there bobbing on top of the water for several seconds, taunting Daniel. Slowly, they sunk down into the dark waters and were soon out of sight.

  The sudden turn of events did not make Daniel one bit happy. “Scumbag!”

  Donovan turned his attention to his best friend. Lee’s face was pale and drawn. Donovan could see he was in shock.

  He reached over and unzipped the front of Lee’s dive suit as he searched for the spot the bullet went in.

  His mouth dropped open as he gazed at Lee’s chest. He shook his head in amazement. “I can’t believe it.”

  Donovan quickly reached around and unhooked the dog tags that were hanging from Lee’s neck. He carefully slid them off and brought them around so they were dangling only inches from Lee’s face.

  “Never in my life have I ever seen anything like this before.” Both men were now staring at the tags in disbelief.

  There was one lone bullet lodged in the center of one of the tags. Donovan flipped it over. There was the slightest indentation on the backside of the tag where the bullet started to pierce the metal but suddenly stopped.

  He looked over at Lee’s exposed chest. The only sign that the bullet had gotten even remotely close to entering his body was an angry red mark, roughly the size of a dime.

  He shook his head in amazement as he looked down at the tag again. “That cheap little piece of metal just saved your life.”

  Lee was just as shocked. God had truly been with him. This was nothing short of a miracle.

  “I can’t stay up any longer! Help me! I’m going to die!” Carlos had managed to make his way to the front of the boat but was still flailing around in the water like a duck who had lost all its feathers. Obviously, the instinct for self-preservation had kicked in and he was managing to keep his head above the water line.

  Lee waved the gun in his direction and shook his head in disgust. “I suppose we better get him out.”

  Donovan nodded. He reached over and grabbed Carlos’s arm. In one swift motion, he easily jerked him up out of the water and back into the boat where he landed face down on the floor.

  His chest was heaving heavily as he tried to catch his breath. “Thank you! Thank you! Senor. I did see my very life flashing before my eyes!”

  Donovan couldn’t help but smile, just a little. Poor guy seemed really shook up.

  He grabbed the other set of handcuffs from Lee and quickly put them on a soaking wet Carlos. With that, they motioned both men to the back of the boat. “Have a seat.”

  After they made sure the two thugs were safely seated and unable to cause any more trouble, Lee turned to Donovan. “What’s the plan?”

  Donovan shook his head as he looked longingly at the water. “Seems a shame that we’re already here, right over the treasure…”

  Lee nodded. They were thinking the exact same thing. “Maybe I could take a quick trip down and bring up a few extra coins…”

  “Sounds good to me.” Donovan grinned as he nodded to the back of the boat. “What are we gonna do with these two?”

  Lee looked thoughtfully at Carlos and Daniel. “I dunno. We need to think about it.”

  He shrugged. “We’ve got two choices. Leave them here, bouncing around in a couple life preservers and then if they’re still alive by the time we get back, we’ll send the Marine Patrol to come pick them up.”

  Carlos thought that was a terrible idea. “No! Please, no! We’ll die out here!”

  He looked at them pleadingly. “Please take us back with you.”

  “That does seem a little harsh.” Lee sighed and shook his head in disgust. “I must be turning into a softy.”

  He looked at Carlos. “Well, what did you plan to do with Donovan and me? You already said you didn’t plan on bringing us back.”

  Carlos shook his head vehemently. “Oh, but we weren’t going to just leave you out here. We were going to kill you. You know, put you out of your misery,” he explained earnestly.

  Daniel looked at Carlos in disbelief. “Well, I’m sure telling them that helped us!” he snarled sarcastically.

  Donovan shook his head at the two clowns in cuffs. They definitely weren’t what you would call polished criminals.

  Instead of answering. Lee donned the rest of his dive gear and tied the safety rope to his belt loop. He pulled himself up onto the edge of the boat. “Think you can handle these two for a few minutes while I make us some money?”

  Donovan nodded firmly. “Absolutely!”

  With that, Lee gave Donovan the thumbs up and fell back into the dark, blue seas. Seconds later he was out of sight, the rope disappearing along with Lee.

  He turned his full attention to the men in the back of the boat. “Don’t even try anything funny,” he warned menacingly.

  Chapter 10

  Sam woke early the next morning to the annoying sound of her ringing cell phone. She pried one eye open and looked down at the screen. It was Gabby. Sam sighed. Might as well answer it.

  “Hey, yeah, Sam. I hope I didn’t wake you. I didn’t get too much sleep last night, you know. Worrying and all about Lee and Donovan.” She paused. “You didn’t hear anything, did you?” she added hopefully.

  Sam shook her head as she replied. “No. Nothing. And I haven’t come up with a plan yet, either.”

  As usual, Gabby didn’t give her a chance to finish. “Well, I was just thinkin’, you know maybe we could start by takin’ a look over at the marina where they left the truck the other day.”

  Sam thought about it for a moment. “Yeah, I guess we could…”

  “Great! Yeah, well, I’ve been up for a while. Why don’t I head over there in say an hour or so – and we can all ride over there together…”

  “Can you hold off for a little while? I’m going to drive down to Lee’s office to see
if I can track down that Agent Addison I spoke with yesterday.”

  “I don’t think you have to make a special trip down there, Sam. Detective Robache said he’d call if he had any news.”

  Sam shook her head. “No, I do need to go down there and meet her.” She left it at that. Sam had every intention of finding out exactly who this woman was and how “close” she and Lee really were!

  Gabby sighed in disappointment. “OK. Just give me a call when you get back.”

  Sam hung up the phone and started towards the bathroom to get ready.

  “You need some back up on this one?” Her sister was awake.

  Sam shook her head. “This is something I need to take care of by myself.”

  A muffled voice spoke from under the blankets. Apparently Brianna was awake, too. “Mom’s going to put a hurtin’ on this lady!”

  “Brianna!!!!”

  Brianna grinned as she poked her head out from under the covers. “Well, you are!”

  Sam shrugged but didn’t reply. That was probably closer to the truth than she cared to admit.

  An hour later, Sam was parked in front of the station. She took a deep breath as she stared at the front door. She was having second thoughts. Maybe this wasn’t such a brilliant idea.

  But it was too late now. Before she could change her mind, Sam grabbed her purse and headed towards the building.

  The uniformed officer looked up as Sam made her way to the counter. “Can I help you?”

  Sam hesitated, just for a second. “Yes. I’m looking for Agent Addison.”

  “Let me see if she’s here…” He studied her momentarily. “What’s your name?”

  Sam swallowed hard. “Samantha. Samantha Rite. I spoke with her on the phone yesterday.”

  The officer was gone for several long minutes. Sam walked over and nervously studied the “Wanted” posters on the wall. There sure were a lot of criminals in Orlando!

  “Samantha Rite?”

  Sam spun around and came face-to-face with one incredibly gorgeous Jennifer Addison.