by Ginna Gray
Chapter Fourteen
David slammed Charley Higgins up against the paneled wall of Fernando Santana's study and held him there with a fist balled in his shirt front. Travis lounged back against the door, arms folded over his chest, feet crossed at the ankles, watching the action with an amused smile.
"Now, listen up, Charley, because I'm only going to say this one more time," David snarled into the CIA man's face. "What kind of operation are you heading up here? You spooks over at Langley must know about the microdot, otherwise you wouldn't be so damned interested in Abbey. So why haven't you picked her up?"
"Look, I told you," Charley Higgins croaked. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just here on vacation."
"All right! That does it!"
David drew back his fist, but a sudden pounding on the door stayed the blow and had Travis jumping away from the wooden panel as though he'd been touched by a cattle prod.
"What the—"
"David? David, are you in there?"
The frantic note in Elise's voice was unmistakable. The cousins exchanged a wary glance. Releasing Charley Higgins, David signaled to Travis to let her in.
Elise rushed into the study wringing her hands. "Oh, David! Travis! Thank God you're both here! You've got to come quick! Erin and I saw some men taking Abbey through the back garden."
"What? When was this?"
"Just a minute ago."
"Where is Erin now?"
"She's following them. Senor Santana's garage opens onto the alley." Elise looked at her brother apprehensively and wrung her hands. "She broke in and hot-wired the houseboy's motor scooter." At David's groan she rushed on. "I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen. Oh, David, you've got to do something!"
It was a toss-up as to who cursed more colorfully, David or Charley Higgins.
"Damn you hotshots!" the CIA man raged, striding for the door. "If you hadn't dragged me out of there I would have seen who took her and I'd be trailing them right now. If you two have bungled this assignment with your interference—"
"Wait a minute." David grabbed him by the collar and jerked him to a halt. "On vacation, were you? You lying scum. Why, I ought to—"
"C'mon, Cuz, we don't have time for this right now!" Travis urged, pulling David away from Charley. "We've got to find Abbey before it's too late."
"Where do we start? We don't know who the guys were or where they're headed."
"I... I know who one of the men was."
The hesitant statement brought three heads swivelling toward Elise with a barrage of demands.
"Who?"
"What's his name?"
"Tell us, quick!"
"I-it's Nathan Sumner. He's a wealthy industrialist."
"C'mon," Charley Higgins barked. "Sumner has a yacht docked at Pier One. My guess is he's headed for the harbor."
***
The black sedan glided to a stop across the quayside road from where Pepe's dilapidated truck was parked. Abigail did not dare even glance in that direction for fear of drawing Nathan or his cohorts' attention to the vehicle... and Pepe.
Nathan Sumner reached for the door handle, then paused and looked at her. "You know, you could make this easy on yourself and tell us what we want to know. You will eventually anyway." He smiled his cold smile and ran the backs of his knuckles down her cheek. "Tell us where the toy dog is, Miss Stewart," he said in his soft-as-velvet voice. "And I promise your death will be quick and painless."
Abigail could not help it; she shuddered violently. Nathan smiled.
"Wh—" She stopped and cleared her throat. "What toy dog? I don't know what you're talking about."
The smile vanished, and Nathan's face tightened. "Very well, if that's the way you want it." He opened the door and stepped out into the road. Ivor shoved her across the seat. Hampered by the long gown and high heels, she almost stumbled to her knees as she left the car.
Nathan and his two thugs formed a phalanx around Abigail, and as they crossed the quayside road she sent up a silent prayer that Pepe would stay out of sight and not try to be a hero. David had told him to just watch the boat and report anything suspicious, but with Pepe you never knew.
All hope of them passing the truck by ended when a furious spate of high-pitched barking erupted within the cab. Oh, Lord, Abigail groaned silently. Chelsea had spotted her. Gritting her teeth, she stared straight ahead and kept going, hoping that Nathan would pay no attention to the frantic yips.
She should have known it was a forlorn hope at best. They had taken only a few steps when the din drew her captor's attention.
"Wait a minute," Nathan said, halting. He gazed back at the truck, where a furry little head bobbed into view every few seconds through the rear window. He looked back at Abigail with a smug smile. "Why, I believe that's your little dog, isn't it, Miss Stewart? And as I recall Patrice's message, the toy belongs to your pet."
Abigail answered with a lift of her chin and a glare, which merely amused him.
Fear for Pepe nearly choked Abigail as they led her to the truck, but to her surprise—and relief—he was not there; only Chelsea. Beside the terrier on the seat lay the ever-present stuffed puppy.
Nathan jerked open the door, and the Yorkie's yips of delight over seeing Abigail turned to warning barks. She backed away, snarling and growling low in her throat, and stood over the toy with all the ferocity of a mother protecting her young. When Nathan made a grab for the stuffed animal, Chelsea bit him twice before he could yank his hand back. She'd had her baby taken from her once that day already; she wasn't about to let it happen again.
Cursing, Nathan cradled his injured hand and stared at the puncture wounds. He glared at Abigail and barked, "Get that damned toy, Miss Stewart. Now. Or I'll have Ivor shoot that vicious little mutt."
Her expression pained, Abigail hesitated. She couldn't just hand government secrets over to an enemy agent. But she couldn't let them kill Chelsea, either. If they did, they'd get the toy anyway, she reasoned, so she had to do it. "There, Chels. Take it easy, girl," she crooned as she reluctantly reached inside the truck. Chelsea whined and pranced, but she did not resist.
Abigail's fingertips touched the fuzzy cloth, but before her hand could close around the toy, Erin came flying out of the darkness and rammed her shoulder into Ivor's back.
Abigail let out a squeak and jumped. With a grunt, Ivor staggered forward and slammed into Nathan, and both men went sprawling. The third man was so stunned he just stared, unable to move for an instant. Recovering her senses, Abigail kicked out and caught him square in the groin. He doubled over and hit the ground rolled up in a ball like an armadillo, moaning.
"C'mon!" Erin grabbed Abigail's arm. "Let's get out of here!"
Abigail hiked up the sequined gown, and they took off down the pier toward the Freewind, running full tilt. Chelsea, her beloved toy clamped between her teeth, raced right at their heels.
In a matter of seconds, Nathan and Ivor were pounding after them. Abigail lost a shoe. She kicked off the other one in midstride and poured on more speed.
When they reached the boat, she scooped up Chelsea and tossed her on board. "Get the other line," she yelled to Erin as she tackled the rear mooring. Working frantically, their gazes darting every few seconds to the men bearing down on them, they cast off the lines and jumped aboard.
"Grab a gaff and push us off. I'll start the engines." Abigail was already climbing the ladder to the bridge as she shouted the instructions. Nathan and Ivor were less than ten yards away.
Erin ran along the side, pushing the gaff handle against the dock. The strip of water between the side of the boat and the pier grew wider with painful slowness—three feet, four feet, five...
The engines cranked and sputtered, then fired to life. Erin staggered back and fell hard on her rump as the Freewind surged away from the pier, and the two men giving chase came to a teetering halt at the edge, arms flailing like windmill blades.
Up on the road tires squealed and car doo
rs slammed. Running footsteps thundered down the pier, and David shouted, "No, Abbey! Not the boat! For God sake, not my boat! Comeback!"
Abigail didn't hear him over the roar of the engines. Neither did Nathan and Ivor. The two men quickly commandeered a speedboat and went zooming out into the harbor after the women.
David, with Travis and Charley Higgins and a half dozen or so of his men following, raced down the pier. At the
Freewind's empty berth he staggered to a halt and stared, appalled, as Abbey steered a drunken course across the wide harbor. Behind the Freewind, the speedboat bounced and pounded over the bigger craft's wake.
Caught in the speedboat's searchlight, Abbey stood at the wheel, the aqua sequined dress a glittering beacon in the darkness.
"Holy hell," Travis muttered beside David. "That lady is one ba-aad sailor."
"You got that right," David groaned.
Abbey was trying desperately to get out of the harbor, but the speedboat was quicker and more maneuverable and kept cutting her off. David moaned and winced when she made a sharp turn and missed an anchored sailboat by a hair. "God, help us. If she doesn't crash it'll be a miracle."
More car doors slammed back on the road. "David! David!" Elise ran toward them with Sam and Max.
"Great. Now they get here," David muttered.
"Ha...have you found...them?" Elise gasped as the trio skidded to a halt.
"We chartered a plane as soon as you called," Sam said. "You were just leaving when we arrived at Santana's. What the devil is going on? Elise is so upset she's not making sense."
"She said something about the KGB and a kidnapping, and my wife following the ones who did it," Max put in, looking around anxiously. "Where is Erin?"
David slanted him a sour look and pointed. "Out there."
In unison three pairs of eyes turned seaward to the two boats racing around the harbor, and three mouths dropped. For once, even Sam appeared thunderstruck.
"Apparently she got Abbey away from the men who snatched her, but the KGB don't give up easily."
"Dammit! Are you telling me that my wife is out there being chased by foreign agents?" Max exploded.
Before David could answer, a gasp went up from the others as the powerboat sheared a dinghy off the stern of a yacht.
David turned pale and cursed.
Max almost came unspooled. "Holy—! Who the hell is the maniac skippering the Freewind, for God's sake?"
"That's Abbey. And the answer to your first question is, yes, those are KGB agents."
"Well, isn't anyone going to do something?"
"What do you suggest, Max? There isn't another boat in the harbor that can catch that jet boat. Hell, if I could do something, I'd be doing it. That's my sister and my lady out there."
"Everyone just stay calm," Charley Higgins ordered. "My men are rousting out the harbor patrol now. They'll go out with them and pick up Sumner and his henchmen. We already have the one they left on the dock. One of those women gave the guy a shot that'll have him singing soprano for a month."
"You mean all we can do is stand here helpless and watch!" Max demanded.
"Only if you've got a strongheart," Travis drawled.
***
The Freewind careened around the harbor. Abbey's carefully coiffed hair streamed out behind her, straight once again. The borrowed sequined dress molded her body and whipped around her legs. Her feet, which were bare except for the shredded stockings, were braced wide. She gripped the wheel tight with both hands and concentrated fiercely on avoiding the sailboats and other pleasure craft that dotted the harbor and on escaping the pesky speedboat that darted around the Freewind like a gnat around a sweaty brow.
"Abbey! Abbey!" Erin called to her, struggling up the ladder. She gained the bridge and tottered toward Abbey. "I found... Oh! Ohhhhh!" she shrieked, and staggered sideways, flailing her arms as Abbey spun the wheel hard to the left, and the boat went into a tight turn heeled over almost on its side.
Erin barely managed to grab the rail and save herself from being pitched overboard. When Abigail righted the boat, she lurched back across the deck to her and latched on to the brass rail that surrounded the control console. "I found Pepe tied up below deck!" she yelled to Abbey.
"What!" Abigail shot her an alarmed glance and yelled back, "Is he all right?"
"Yes! But the cabin has been trashed! The cushions and the bed are all slashed! Everything is in shambles! They must've been searching for the toy!"
Abigail spun the wheel to the right, then to the left and fishtailed between two sailboats. Erin closed her eyes, and her lips moved in what looked to be a silent prayer.
"Where is Pepe now?" Abigail shouted.
"Now?" Erin craned her neck and looked over the rail to the deck below. "Right now he's down on his knees praying! By the way!" Erin hollered in her ear. "Have you ever operated a boat before?"
"Just once!"
Erin rolled her eyes.
The speedboat pulled up alongside, and Nathan Sumner's disembodied voice blared through a horn. "Give up, Miss Stewart. You can't outrun us."
"He's right, we can't!" Erin yelled. "And every time we get near the mouth of the harbor he cuts us off! So what do we do?"
Abigail chewed on her bottom Up for a few seconds. Then she set her jaw and swung the Freewind to the right, away from the speedboat and toward the harbor entrance. The smaller craft dropped back and turned to head her off.
The speedboat raced past them and cut across their path. Abigail firmed her mouth and took a tighter grip on the wheel. "Hang on!" she yelled to Erin.
"What're you going to do?"
Instead of veering off, as she had every other time the smaller boat blocked their way, this time the Freewind bore down on the vessel at full throttle. The faces of the two men on the boat were at first scornful, then disbelieving, then panic-stricken.
Erin's eyes widened. "Oh—my—God!"
***
"Oh, my God! I don't believe it. She wouldn't! She couldnt! Oh, hell, she's going to!" David yelled. "She's going to ram them!"
Nathan Sumner and his henchman came to the same conclusion. The terrified men dived for safety seconds before the Freewind's prow hit the fiberglass boat and sent it sailing skyward, smashed into a hundred pieces.
Elise screamed, and a storm of shocked curses and exclamations erupted from those watching from the dock. As the furor raged, David stood like a man turned to stone, his heart clubbing his rib cage, his eyes fixed on the Freewind.
Travis laid a hand on his shoulder. "Take it easy. They're okay. I can see them both on the deck," he murmured.
The Harbor Patrol boats, which had already left the dock, moved out to fish the men out of the water. Reducing speed, Abigail turned the Freewind around and headed back to the docks.
David and Max waited anxiously at the side of the pier, watching the sleek power cruiser cut an erratic path through the water at what seemed like a snail's pace after the hair-raising chase. When the boat drew near enough, both men jumped aboard. At the same time, Pepe jumped off, fell to his knees and kissed the pier.
"Max! Darling!" Erin scrambled down from the bridge, her face alight.
David dashed past his sister with barely a nod as she threw herself into her husband's arm. He took the bridge ladder in two leaps, not even wincing as the hull banged against the pier and scraped the side.
"Abbey! God, Abbey, are you all right?" He leaped across the bridge and snatched her into his arms before she could shut off the engines. "Oh, Abbey," he groaned against the side of her neck, rocking her in his tight embrace. "I have never been so scared in my life."
He kissed her then, long and hungrily, with the wild passion of a man who has been pushed too far. Hands clutched and stroked, slanted mouths rocked and tongues swirled as their bodies strained together.
When the need for air ended the kiss, he ran his hands over her—her back, her hips, her arms, finally sinking his fingers into her tangled hair and cradling her head. "O
h, baby. Are you sure you're okay? Those bastards didn't hurt you, did they?"
She touched his cheek and smiled, her eyes glowing at the concern she saw in his. "I'm fine. Really. And, David ... I'm sorry about your boat. I—"
"Don't worry about the boat. It's insured."
He could not have stunned her more if he had suddenly taken off and flown around the harbor. Nothing he could have said would have convinced her more that he truly cared for her. She was touched and elated and so swamped with emotions she could not speak, and she looked at him with misty eyes, her soft mouth trembling.
He pressed a firm kiss on those quivering lips, and when he straightened, her knees were wobbly. He smiled into her eyes and slipped his arm around her shoulder. "C'mon. There's a whole raft of CIA guys down on the pier. Let's go give them the microdot and find out what the devil we almost got ourselves killed for."
Abigail's face lit up. "The microdot! I'd almost forgotten about it!"
Below deck she held Chelsea, who snarled and snapped, while David removed the film from the toy's eye. On shore, minutes later, Abigail handed the microdot over to Agent Higgins, flush with triumphant pride over her part in keeping the information from enemy hands.
"There you are, Mr. Higgins. I'm sure you're as relieved to have this back—whatever it is—as I am to be rid of it."
Charley Higgins stared at the tiny dot of film, his mouth set in a grim line. After a moment he sighed and slipped it into his shirt pocket as though it were of no more importance than a grocery list. "Yeah, sure. Thanks," he said with an annoyed edge to his voice.
"Hey, wait a minute!" David barked. "That's it? A lousy 'thanks'?"
"Whadda you want, a medal? Get off my case, Blaine. You've given me enough grief already. From now on, just keep your nose out of things that don't concern you."