Winds of Deception (Samantha Rite Series Book 2)

by Hope Callaghan

Finally, her townhome was in view. There was a car in the driveway and it wasn’t hers.

  Since walking up to the front door and ringing the bell wasn’t an option, they threw together a hasty plan to head to the back of the house and look in the windows.

  As they made their way to the back, Donovan glanced around. His sharp eye spied something lying on the front step. They crept over to take a closer look. It was a shoe! A woman’s high-heeled shoe was dangling on the porch stoop. Sam was in the house!

  It was too early to celebrate but it gave them hope she was there and that they had reached her in time.

  The two picked up the pace as they tiptoed past and headed to a side window first. Lee slowly lifted his head as he tried to glimpse inside. The shades were drawn and there were no holes or gaps to peek through. Lee shook his head in Donovan’s direction.

  Donovan slowly inched his way to the corner of the house and cautiously peered into the living room slider. He look at Lee and shook his head as he whispered, “Closed tight.”

  Lee jerked his head back towards the last window. It was Sam’s bedroom and they could see a bright light pouring out. Finally, a window without shades! They cautiously looked inside but no one was around.

  “They must be in the living room or kitchen,” Lee whispered.

  Donovan motioned to Lee. As they moved a short distance away and out of earshot, he began talking. “We’re going to have to just bust our way into the house and take our chances.”

  “I’m sure he has a weapon – probably a gun - so the only chance we have is the element of surprise,” he reasoned.

  Donovan patted his hip. “I have my Glock but I’m guessing you don’t want to use this unless absolutely necessary?”

  Lee nodded. “I don’t want to chance Sam getting caught in the crossfire.”

  Donovan stared at the ground. “We need a better plan.” He looked around. “What if one of us busts through the front while the other one smashes through the dining room window?”

  Lee was skeptical. The plan was shaky at best. “You don’t think there’s a chance the garage side door is unlocked …?”

  Donovan shrugged. He hadn’t thought of that. It was worth a shot.

  They quietly made their way over to the garage door and Lee slowly turned the knob. He shook his head. “It’s locked.”

  Donovan glanced at the door frame before reaching up and slowly running his hand over the top of the frame. “Bingo!” He pulled his hand back down and in it was a key.

  Within seconds the door was unlocked and they silently slipped inside. The room was pitch black so it took a few seconds for their eyes to adjust. Finally, they could see enough to know the garage was empty.

  There was no time to look around. They cautiously made their way toward the door leading into the kitchen.

  Lee reached out to turn the door knob. It was locked. He took a step back and with as much force as possible, he kicked the door wide open…

  Chapter 7

  A nagging sense of foreboding inched its way up Sam’s spine as she carefully maneuvered through the piles of what used to be her life but was now nothing more than a heartbreaking mound of trash on her floor.

  Not only was she was filled with thoughts of her impending doom, she started to get angry. REALLY angry! She had done nothing to deserve being kidnapped, terrorized and have her home destroyed. She took several deep breaths as she fought to control the rage that was beginning to consume her.

  She didn’t need to turn around to know that a set of sharp, cruel eyes were closely following her.

  Desperate to buy some time, she slowly walked around the room, occasionally bending down to pick something up.

  The gunman grew impatient when he realized she was stalling. He angrily strode towards her as he shouted, “Get it and get it now!”

  She pretended not to hear him as she worked to quiet her inner rage. She tightly clenched her fists as she slowly turned to face him, her expression unreadable.

  With every ounce of self-control she could summon, she haltingly replied, “I told you, I don’t…”

  Just then, she was interrupted by a loud commotion coming from the kitchen. It sounded as if someone had just come crashing through her garage door.

  Her abductor gave Sam a warning look as if to say, “Stay put.” With that, he turned on his heel and ran to the kitchen doorway.

  Sam stared at his retreating back, fury still raging inside of her. Now was her only chance to save herself!

  Her eyes quickly darted around the room and finally settled on a heavy brass lamp that was lying on the floor near her feet. It was one her grandmother had given her before she died. At the thought of that and all the precious things this worthless loser carelessly destroyed, Sam was once again filled with a seething anger that threatened to boil over.

  From where she stood, she could see him in the hallway as he peeked around the corner that led out to the kitchen. It was time to make her move!

  Sam reached down and grabbed the heavy lamp off the floor. She quietly crept up behind her abductor.

  Using both hands, she lifted the lamp high above her head and with as much force as she could muster, she slammed the lamp down on the back of the masked man’s skull. He staggered backwards, grabbing his head as he reeled around to face Sam.

  At that exact moment, two shadowy figures barreled out of the kitchen and into the hallway. Like a steamroller, they tackled Sam’s abductor and shoved him to the ground.

  The three of them began rolling around on the floor as one of them struggled to grab the gun that was tightly clenched in the gunman’s hand.

  There was no time to think! Sam rushed over to the pile of thrashing arms and legs as all three men fought to gain control.

  She carefully watched as each of them wrestled back and forth. Finally, Sam saw her opportunity to make a move. All her anger was now focused on her tormentor and with all the anger spilling out at that exact moment, she stomped on the gunman’s hand with the tip of her only remaining high-heeled shoe.

  The second her sharp heel made contact with his flesh, she ground her foot back and forth, determined to leave her mark. The gunman shrieked in pain as he loosened his grip on the weapon.

  Sam quickly jumped out of the way.

  Seizing the opportunity to finally grab the gun, one of the intruders snatched it from his loosened grip and freed himself from the scuffle still being played out on the floor.

  He quickly jumped to his feet as he leveled the gun at Sam’s tormenter. “Freeze!”

  The fighting stopped instantly as both men lay motionless on the ground.

  Seconds later, the second man crawled away from Sam’s abductor and pulled himself to his feet. He stood there for a long moment as he struggled to catch his breath.

  When he finally turned around, his eyes met Sam’s. Her jaw dropped and all the color drained from her face as she whispered, “Lee.”

  By the time Sam was able to suck in a deep breath, Lee was beside her. In one motion, he wrapped his arms around her shaking shoulders.

  All her pent up emotions spilled over as she buried her head in his chest and began to sob uncontrollably.

  Donovan couldn’t stand the thought of a crying woman as he shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. In fact, it made him really, really mad!

  With that thought in mind, he looked down at the scowling masked man and did the one thing that was going to give him GREAT pleasure.

  Donovan pulled a set of handcuffs from his pants pocket and with considerable enthusiasm, snapped them on the thug.

  “OUCH!!”

  He looked down at the creep’s beady little eyes with disgust. “Ooh, what’s the matter? Cuffs a little too tight??”

  After making sure his captive wasn’t going anywhere, Donovan pulled out his phone and called for back-up.

  He looked over to where Lee and Sam were still standing. “Ten minutes and they’ll be here to pick up our friend.”

  Sam pulle
d away from Lee’s embrace as she wiped the last of her tears with the back of her hand. Her sad, upturned face gazing into his.

  “I’m sorry…. I-I couldn’t stop the meltdown.” She attempted a half-hearted smile.

  Lee reached out and caressed her cheek. “You have every right. In fact, I’d have to wonder what was wrong with you if there weren’t any tears.”

  He grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze then turned to look at Sam’s tormentor.

  Good thing she couldn’t see the look on Lee’s face when he turned away. But Donovan recognized it and quickly took a step back.

  Lee angrily strode over to the cuffed, masked man. He bent down, his face mere inches from the man reclining against the wall. In one swift motion, he reached over and grabbed a fistful of black ski mask mixed with hair.

  He turned back to where Sam was still standing. “Time to put a face on the coward that destroyed your home and had every intention of killing you.” He didn’t wait for an answer before he yanked off the disguise.

  Sam gasped as she stared at her abductor. Somehow, he looked different than she remembered. He’d always given her an odd feeling but looking at him now, he seemed downright sinister. She shook her head in disbelief.

  Michel jerked away from Lee as he looked back at Sam and sneered. “If not for your meddling boyfriend, I would have been long gone by now.”

  He turned to glare at Lee. “You got me but there are others – and they’ll be looking for the map. Just don’t expect them to be as nice as I was.”

  Moments later, Donovan led two uniformed police officers into Sam’s house.

  “I think we’ve heard enough.” Lee grabbed Michel’s arm and roughly jerked him to his feet. “Looks like your ride is here. I’ll see you in a little while and then you and I are going to have a nice long chat.” With that, the police led Michel away.

  After the three disappeared out the door, Lee turned to Sam. “You haven’t officially met Donovan. Special Agent James Donovan, this is Samantha Rite.”

  Donovan stepped forward, a sheepish look on his face. “I owe you an apology…”

  Sam held up her hand to stop him as she shook her head. “You’re not to blame. It was my own stupid fault. You tried to tell me and I was just being stubborn. Looks like I got what I deserved…”

  Lee cut in. “There’s no way you deserved to be kidnapped and have your home ruined. It was my fault. I should’ve called you myself.”

  Sam looked at Donovan solemnly as she put her hand on his arm. “Thank you for trying to keep me from harm.”

  She looked over at Lee. “I just have to say – when Michel had me blindfolded, I thought the voice sounded vaguely familiar but it just dawned on me…he didn’t have that French accent anymore. So that was fake??”

  Donovan and Lee nodded in unison. “Yeah, there was nothing genuine about that guy. Everything he ever told you was a big, fat lie.”

  More questions kept popping into her head. “So what’s this map Michel is looking for? He kept saying I had something that was his. But he kept calling them papers.”

  Lee started to explain, “He obviously didn’t want to tell you what it was in case you really didn’t know.”

  “You’re not going to believe this but he’s looking for a map – a treasure map that’s worth a whole lot of money.”

  Sam’s eyes widened in disbelief as she looked at Lee and then over at Donovan.

  Lee took a deep breath. “Maybe I should go back and start at the beginning.”

  “There’s a Spanish ship, the San Miguel that sunk off the coast of Florida back in 1715. In fact, the last sighting of it was just north of St. Augustine, Florida.”

  “It got caught in a fierce hurricane that destroyed its sails and navigation system. For hours, it was tossed around like a cork in the ocean until it eventually sank. At the time it went down, it was full of treasure, headed home to Spain.”

  “Everyone onboard went down with it. Everyone that is, except for one person who managed to make it to shore alive. It was the ship’s captain. He died shortly after washing up on the beach but not before he drew a crude map of where the ship sunk. The map was found near his dead body,” Lee explained.

  “For almost 300 years now, the ship and its treasure have been laying at the bottom of the ocean. Only a few rare coins have ever been recovered.”

  He paused for a moment before going on. “The map went missing decades ago and rumors are flying that it finally surfaced and was being sold on the black market – for millions of dollars.”

  Lee looked at Sam. “That’s where Michel comes in. He was paid handsomely by someone in the States to smuggle the map onto a cruise ship – our cruise ship – to buyers in Mexico.”

  “From what we can gather, Michel didn’t know exactly what he was smuggling into Mexico until after he picked it up. But until we get a chance to interrogate him, we can only speculate. What that has to do with you remains to be seen.”

  He continued, “When we got to Belize, the CIA was hot on the trail of the map – and Michel. But they wanted to flush out the rest of the bad guys – whoever Michel was to rendezvous with.”

  “That’s where I came in. Authorities knew something was going down on that trip but they didn’t know exactly what until after the ship set sail from Miami. By the time they figured out the exchange was to happen first in Mexico and later, Belize, they made the decision to let it play out in the jungle.”

  Lee patted Sam’s back. “I know it was scary but the good guys were close by at all times. They just had to wait until the right moment to pounce – to make sure everyone was safe. So they waited until it was dark and everyone was safely in their tents. Plus, they had night vision goggles and the abductors didn’t. They wanted to take every advantage possible.”

  Donovan finished the story. “The abductors apparently moved Michel to another location before the camp was raided. After they found out he had hidden the map, they let him go with a warning. If he didn’t hand over the map in seven days, they would kill him. A slow, painful, torturous death.”

  “So he’s pretty desperate to get his hands on the map…” Lee added.

  Sam’s lips started to quiver and her eyes filled with tears as she looked around. “Well, it’s not like he hasn’t tried…”

  Lee put an arm around Sam’s shoulders. “Sam, I am so sorry. It seems every time you’re with me you’re either being stalked, getting kidnapped and now your home has been destroyed.”

  Sam choked back a sob. The stress of the last 24 hours was taking its toll. “Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t hang out with you anymore!”

  Lee cupped her chin in his hand as he gazed into her tear-filled eyes. “We will have all this replaced and repaired – it’ll be like brand-new. I promise. But there’s nothing we can do about it right now,” he reasoned. “Why don’t you go grab some things and we’ll spend the night at a nearby hotel?”

  He looked around in disgust at the damage Michel had caused. “We can worry about this tomorrow.”

  The three of them grabbed a quick bite to eat on their way to the hotel. At the elevator, Sam and Lee told Donovan good-night with the men agreeing to ride down to the station together in the morning to question Michel.

  Lee walked Sam to her room and when they reached her door, he apologized again. “I’m so sorry you got dragged into this, Sam.” He paused as he looked down at her tired, sad face. “But if you hadn’t been caught in the middle, I never would’ve met you…”

  Sam swallowed hard as she forced a smile. “Well, I GUESS you’re worth a little trouble,” she joked.

  His look got serious when their eyes met. He leaned his head towards her and then slowly lowered his lips. Sam had never noticed the small scar on the edge of Lee’s brow. For a brief moment, she wondered how he got it.

  Sam closed her eyes, desperately wanting to feel his lips on hers. At first, his kiss was soft and gentle, almost as if it was a question. She leaned into him, her arms resting
on his broad chest where she could feel his heart pounding.

  It didn’t take long before the kiss turned from a question to a demand. Demanding more attention, more response as his lips explored hers. A sea of emotions threatened to swallow her up.

  Tearing his lips away from her mouth, they made a slow path across her cheek and down the curve of her neck, leaving a trail of hot spots in their wake.

  Sam reached up to put her hands around Lee’s neck as she pulled him even closer to her. The trailing kisses ended when Lee buried his face in her hair, breathing her in.

  By the time Lee finally pulled away, Sam was breathing unsteadily. He looked down at her, his eyes dark and unreadable. “I’m not sorry, either.”

  Sam paused for a minute as she thought about what he just said and then laughed. “Well, I’m glad!”

  As much as she would have thoroughly enjoyed another kiss that made her insides melt, she sighed and said, “I guess we better call it a day.”

  Lee nodded in agreement. “I’ll be at the station first thing in the morning to start questioning Michel.” He continued, “We’ll be turning in a report on the damage to your place so you’ll be reimbursed. I hope he didn’t destroy anything that can’t be replaced.”

  A small frown formed on Sam’s brow. “I hope not, either.” She sighed again as she shook her head. “We’ll find out soon enough.”

  Lee glanced at this watch. “As soon as I’m done with him tomorrow, I’ll give you a call and let you know what we find out.”

  With that, he gave her a tender good-night hug and then he was gone.

  Chapter 8

  Brianna let out an exasperated sigh. “We lost the car – again!” She and Jasmine had been wandering aimlessly around the massive theme park parking lot for over an hour.

  By now, Brianna was more than just a little perturbed when she suddenly stopped and put her hands on her hips. “I am positive we parked in the Pixie Dust lot!”

  Jasmine shook her head as she vehemently disagreed with her friend. “No, I’m almost 100% certain we parked in the Wooly Mammoth section.”