The Korean soldiers, now surrounded by U.S. sailors, shuffled their feet, but still the officer stalled.
Alex played the winning hand. “The commander of the USS George Washington is waiting on your answer, sir. What shall I tell him? That you’re amenable to compromise or that he’s cleared to blow your ship out of the water?”
The sound of an outboard motor drifted across the waves, probably a flanking maneuver by the Navy to further prove they meant business. Given the powerful aircraft carrier offshore and its awesome firepower, not to mention the sailors onshore, the Korean’s never stood a chance.
The officer in charge took a step back and lowered his weapon. His lip curled at the sight of Paxton’s body. “This man was an American spy.”
“Did you know him?” Adam asked.
“Captain Gangjeon worked with him, strictly on humanitarian issues, you understand.”
Humanitarian drones? Yeah, right. Bullshit.
The Korean spat to his side. “Americans are not to be trusted.”
And Korean officers must save face above all. Adam rolled his shoulder, still pumped from the confrontation with Paxton, but ready for another if this blowhard kept badmouthing the U. S. of A.
“Yes,” Alex agreed diplomatically after a quick glance at Paxton, “some Americans can’t be trusted, but in no way did that man represent The United States. My president will take your gracious act of peace into consideration.”
Adam held his breath. He couldn’t remember Alex using so many carefully crafted words all at one time before. The man had a short temper most days, but what’s this gracious act of peace bullshit? Give me a break. The Koreans hadn’t assisted in anything other than showing up to steal U.S. property.
The Korean officer stiffened his chin and stared at Alex. He’d been offered a way to save face if he was smart enough to take it. After a moment’s fierce stalemate, he nodded curtly to his men. They set the drones down, their eyes on their leader. With one more nod, he signaled them to retreat.
Well done, Boss.
“I trust you’ll require no further assistance,” Alex said, the implication clear as to what assistance he meant.
Adam nearly grinned. Was Alex taunting this guy? Egging him on? It certainly sounded like it.
The Korean turned his back to Alex. His men retrieved their rifles, and in minutes, the sound of their patrol boat motor faded in the noisy surf. Izza holstered her pistol and ran into Alex nearly taking him down. “Damn, am I glad to see you!”
“It looks like we got here just in time.” Alex took a full step back to catch his balance, then shook Connor’s and Adam’s hands while Izza disengaged and surveyed the scene. “Where’s Shannon?” she asked.
“Safe.” Adam thumbed at the jungle behind him. “I’ll go get her.”
He stepped away to do just that. This whole mistake of an operation was done. The Hummingbirds were safe. Before the day was through, he’d be eating lobster and steak in Hawaii with the woman he loved. Maybe dancing with her soft body rubbing against his. Definitely kissing those sweet lips again and again. Bedding her. Making love to her all night long. Damn, it was a good day. Did the sky just get bluer?
He brushed more island vines and brush out of his way, his heart swelled with love. After a layover in Hawaii, he intended to court the beautiful Miss Reagan, and he’d do it right. Little Jimmy Malone would know what it meant to have a real man in his life, and then... well, Adam would know for sure if what he and Shannon felt for each other was meant to last. He was in deep, and she needed to know it.
He tried the words on again for size. He’d said them before, but she might not have heard with all the thunder banging in the sky at the time. “I love you,” he whispered, flinging fronds and branches aside as he marched to the woman of his dreams. She wouldn’t have gone far, and if she overheard his declaration, so much the better. It was time he reminded her. “I love you,” he whispered again. Oh, man, do I love you, Shannon. You and Jimmy Malone.
“Shannon,” he called quietly. “You’re safe now. I have something to tell you. Come on back.”
When a flock of birds scattered at his approach, the first hint of apprehension pumped up his heart. “Shannon? Where are you?” he called louder
Harley and Connor thundered up the path behind him. “I thought you said she was right here?” Connor asked.
“She is. I sent her to hide, so she wouldn’t be in the line of fire,” Adam explained, pushing more greenery aside as he picked up his pace and began to run through the jungle. “She should be right here.”
“Shannon!” Connor yelled. Izza joined the search. Alex, too.
But no Shannon. No Squeaks.
In minutes, Adam and his buddies burst through the trees on the other side of the island. The entrance to the cave beckoned to his left. Harley’s hand on his shoulder brought him around. “Hold up. I found this.”
Adam clutched Squeaks’ baby blanket.
“Over here!” Connor called out. “Got something.”
Adam joined him at the edge of the shore. Two sets of booted footprints marched into the surf with a smaller set of bare feet between them. His heart sank. That was what the sound of that outboard motor was. Not the Navy at all, but someone taking Shannon off the island. Who? Pirates? Another one of Paxton’s buddies? Ramsey’s?
Alex growled, his chin in the two-way radio on his shoulder. “Request electronic counter measures. Are there any other watercraft in the immediate vicinity besides the Koreans?”
The answer came back promptly from the GW. “Negative, sir. Just what appears to be a pod of humpbacks.”
“Location?”
“Twenty knots due west of your position.”
“Copy that.” Alex turned to Adam, regret clear on his face. “I’m sorry, son.”
No! Adam refused to believe. He had plans, damn it, but by the time he’d made two more frantic sweeps of their island, he had to face the truth.
Shannon and Squeaks were gone.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Let me go!”
Shannon spat her demand at the heavy-handed bouncer with a death-grip on her bicep. The enormous watercraft he’d hustled her onto hurtled west across the ocean and away from Adam. Whoever owned it had to have a lot of money. A smoked Plexiglas windshield wrapped around the black and gray metal boat, screening her from the wind as much as blocking her view. The boat’s meticulous interior and plush cushions revealed no indication of its owner. No sign of the diabolical madman behind her abduction, either. Nothing.
Already sitting with her hands tied behind her back, fear rattled over her. The men who’d taken her away from Adam were three buzzed-cut, square-chinned behemoths. All white males. Possible pirates, though she doubted it. They’d moved with precision when they’d grabbed her, as if they’d done this kind of thing before. One drove the boat. Another sat beside her on the bench. Across from them, another buzz-cut held Jimmy in one hand like a football he might spike at any moment.
Poor Jimmy whimpered in that same weak, scratchy preemie voice, but the man didn’t seem to care. Shannon forced her fear down. With the ocean so close, Buzz-Cut could easily toss her baby overboard if he wanted to.
She peered around the massive chest of her bodyguard to Buzz-Cut. “I want my son. Give him to me.”
Neither man so much as twitched. They might as well have been stone deaf, their faces impassive and their eyes cloaked behind the anonymity of dark sunglasses. Both stared straight ahead. She recognized the type. They were like her father’s butler, Hubbard. Just doing their job. And then she was really scared. Whoever these guys were, they could drop her and Jimmy into the ocean if she made too much trouble, and no one would ever know.
She chewed at her lip and faced the bottomless, deep blue sea, her heart throbbing over her predicament. She hadn’t even heard them until it was too late, but they’d been waiting for her, like they’d known exactly when she’d stepped away from Adam.
“He needs to
eat,” she said more calmly. “He’s too small to go long without nourishment for long. May I feed him? Please?”
The man beside her grunted and shook his head.
“Come on, you guys.” She appealed to their humanity, hoping they had some. “He’s not even a day old yet, and he’s two months premature. What could it hurt to let a tiny guy like him nurse? It’s not like either of us are big enough to hurt you.”
Again, the negative shake of her buddy’s square head. Damn him.
“Please.” She tried one last time. Jimmy’s fragile cry tugged at her heart. Her baby needed her.
Without a word, Buss-Cut holding Jimmy grunted and handed him across the narrow aisle. The other guy reached behind her back and unlocked the cuffs that held her. He didn’t touch her baby, but he did lean out of her way so she could grab Jimmy.
Greedily, she gathered her baby into her arms, shaking with relief and checking him for injury. Satisfied he was okay, she slid him back into the sling Izza had crafted, then turned away and nervously slipped her shirt over her shoulder to nurse. The moment his lips touched her breast, she stilled. Adam’s bright smile came to her mind, the smile he’d had just this morning when Jimmy was born, the one that told her the world was full of hope after all.
That smile.
It seemed so long ago. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She bowed her face to the top of Jimmy’s head. “It’s okay,” she soothed. “Mama’s got you. Adam will come and get us. We’ll be okay.”
Shielding her nursing son with the thin material of the sling, she turned back to the unwanted bodyguard at her side. “Where are you taking me?”
He ignored her, so she settled in, thankful for the tiny guy in her arms. He reminded her of Adam, not Brit, and Adam would come for her.
The ocean flew by. More and more watercraft shared the sea. Then a massive gray Navy battleship. Apprehension skulked across her shoulders when their boat passed the breakwater at Hilo Bay. She was in Hawaii. Her father had a plant near Hilo. Shit.
“You men work for Paul Reagan,” she stated flatly. “He sent you to kidnap me, didn’t he?”
It all made sense. The pricey boat. The hired muscle. The abduction. What would these guys have done if they’d had to face Adam? Kill him?
There was no more reason to talk. These hired guns wouldn’t listen to her any more than her father did. A righteous dose of indignation stiffened her spine. How could he treat her like this?
Glancing at the ocean behind her only stabbed at her heart. Adam was out there, and she was hours west of him. He would’ve searched the entire island frantically for her. He’d be out of his mind, but he was also smart enough to figure out what happened. He would’ve seen the tracks in the sand. He’d be mad.
A knot as big as that small island swelled in her heart. Paul Reagan had skated on her good graces and her need to believe in him for too many years. He’d not only overstepped his fatherly bounds with this awful interdiction, but he’d endangered his premature grandson’s life as well. A mother’s last straw.
His highness, Paul Reagan, was in for a rude awakening. She meant to contact the Navy. They’d put her in touch with Adam. He’d stand by her. Izza and Connor would, too. Then she intended to fly off this rock and start her life over again. She’d done it before. Reagan Industries could fall back into the darkest shades of hell, for all she cared.
At last. The boat sidled up to the long private dock of Reagan Industries just like she knew it would. It was him alright, dear old Dad waiting on the dock, all dressed in nautical blue and white, from his fake captain’s hat to his practical boat shoes. A surly woman in a stark white nurse’s uniform stood at his elbow, her fingers clasped over an ample waist, and her hair buzzed-cut short. She was obviously another Reagan employee. Shannon instantly branded the woman an enemy and traitor, someone not to trust.
Just like him.
“Shannon!” Paul Reagan beamed as if he was glad to see her. The liar.
“You did this,” she hissed.
While one of her captors secured the boat’s moorings, the other offered a meaty hand to help her disembark, which she had to accept because her other arm was full of Jimmy. What she really wanted to do was to knock that jerk off his feet and dropkick his ass overboard.
“If you’re referring to your rescue, well of course I did it. I’ve been worried sick since your plane went missing.” Her father made this abduction sound noble.
Shannon stepped onto the dock, but stood her ground. “How dare you send your lackeys to kidnap me? What were you thinking?”
“Now, Shannon.” He persisted with the caring father routine, but he hadn’t even looked at the bundle in her arms. Little Jimmy lay serenely unaware of the drama about to unfold.
“Don’t you ‘Now Shannon’ me.” She planted her feet. “There were four of us on that island, and right now, they don’t know where I am. We’ve been through hell this last week, and the only reason I’m alive is because they took care of me. Why didn’t you rescue them?”
Her father shrugged, almost succeeding in looking apologetic. “I wasn’t sure who was on that island with you, and to be honest, I couldn’t take the chance that I might lose you. I sent my best men to bring you safely home. Come. Let’s get you cleaned up and fed. I have a reservation at—”
“No!” She lifted Jimmy into view to make sure this arrogant excuse for a father got a glimpse of the grandson he might never see again. “You know damn well who was on that island with me. It was your plane. Your idea. Your manifest! And look what else. They helped me with the premature birth of your grandson! Have you even thought to ask where this baby I’m holding came from? Didn’t you wonder? Just a little? Were you in on the sabotage of your Gulfstream? Did you make a deal with the Koreans?”
“Shannon, Shannon, Shannon.” He tsked his annoyance at her. “Of course I’m curious about that child. Who wouldn’t be? But what’s this about sabotage. And what Koreans? My goodness, you might have a touch of sunstroke. Let’s get you inside and—”
“No more, Father” she declared. “I’m done playing your games. I’m done with you and Reagan Industries, too. It’s not my dream, it’s yours, and you can keep it. I’m headed home as soon as I can reconnect with Adam and schedule a flight out of here.” She folded the sling back around her baby. Paul Reagan would never change, but she already had.
He glanced at the two men who until then, had stood at the edge of the dock, their hands clasped behind their backs like good little soldier boys. One stepped forward and restrained her again, his hands firmly attached to her biceps.
“What you’re going to do, little girl, is speak to the press.”
“No, I’m not.” She glared at her father, but then it got worse. The other man eased the sling over her head, twisted her arm and lifted Jimmy away. “No! Don’t take him!” She struggled, her eyes fastened to her child. “You can’t do that! Give my baby back!”
The man handed him off to the gruff-looking woman. A snarky smile lifted her lips as she enfolded Jimmy in her arms. Her arms! Shannon seethed, hating her with all her heart. “Father! What are you—?”
“Don’t you dare ‘father’ me,” Paul Reagan mimicked, his imperious tone a slice of sharpened ice.
Shannon’s mind pinged in desperation. She’d do anything to get Jimmy back. She sought eye contact with the woman, but the thief’s face was a sublime mask of motherly attention focused on the tender babe in her hands. She smiled and cooed at him as if she wasn’t stealing another woman’s child at that very moment.
Resolved to do whatever she needed to get her son back, Shannon ceased struggling. “Fine. What do you want? Tell me.”
Through hooded snake eyes, Paul Reagan studied her, his words clipped and cold. “This is what will happen next. Linda will take over the childcare of this boy, so you can assume a more active role in Reagan Industries.”
“That’s what this is all about?” Shannon’s heart thundered. “Fine. I’ll do it, just give Jimmy b
ack.”
Her father snorted with unblinking disgust. “Jimmy? For a Reagan? Where did you come up with that redneck name?”
She stared right back at him, offering a defiant chin lift in the face of his condescension. “From the man I love. Now give him back, or there’s no deal.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. You will speak with the press, and you will respond appropriately to every last question they ask. They’ve been highly interested in your whereabouts, more so because of the valuable cargo that was lost at sea when my jet went down.”
“The drones weren’t lost.” She corrected his erroneous assumption. “They’re—”
“They’re lost!” The sharp edge was back in his eyes. “Do you understand? That’s the official Reagan statement. All four UAVs were lost in the unfortunate accident at sea, and you’d better make it sound good.”
“I’ll speak to the press,” she agreed quickly. Talking to them was akin to a fox and hound chase. She’d done it enough in the past. One only had to keep a step ahead of the pack and backtrack once in a while to keep them guessing, but tell them an outright lie? Only for Jimmy. “Is that all you want? Where are the reporters?”
“They’ll be here in a moment.”
Okay, that didn’t seem so difficult. She’d gladly tell whatever lies he wanted until she had Jimmy back. At that precise moment, Linda coughed. The child-stealer had the nerve to walk away. She cooed to Jimmy as she disappeared into the stretch limo waiting on the dock.
“Father! Wait! What are you doing?” Angry desperation snapped out of Shannon before it gave way to all out terror. “Tell me. What do you want me to say? I’ll do anything!”
He smiled knowingly. “Only the truth, little girl. Just tell the world the truth.”
“Where is she?”
Adam couldn’t sit still. The trip to Hawaii was long and anguished for a man with his heart in his throat. The Navy stayed behind to retrieve the bodies from the beach graveyard, while the outboard utility ship that had come ashore with Alex hurtled westward. Every crashing wave only took Adam farther from the island. Even though Shannon wasn’t there, the need to be in the place where he’d last held her persisted. Unquenchable apprehension choked him. Who had her? Why? But mostly, how could he have sent her into the jungle alone with an infant? What the hell was I thinking?
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