Chapter 14
Dangling the gun on his forefinger, Dane held his hand up and turned around.
“I thought it was you.” The officer lowered his weapon.
Cap had forewarned the Steamship Authority about the situation, that there might be trouble.
“This man needs medical attention.”
Panic drove his heart into race mode. He couldn’t stop the flood of adrenaline.
On a shaky knee, Dane knelt beside Jake and raised the man’s lids.
His eyes checked out. Jake’s pulse was steady.
The officer took out his two-way and called for emergency medical assistance.
Then he and his partner took the Mongol thug by the shoulders, laid him out, and attached a plastic flex cuffs around his wrists.
Dane needed to find out more about what Dag was up to, what kind of boat he had, and where they intended to go if he got hold of his mother. He needed vent his fearful rage.
The surge of fear-induced adrenaline made him move. He grabbed the Mongol member by the jacket collar as they stood him back up and, with a warning look at the officer, he got in the thug’s face.
“What kind of boat does he have?”
“I don’t know. They were stealing something from the marina. Something big and fast.”
“Where is Dag planning to take—”
“He ain’t taking no one nowhere, man. Dag is out for blood.”
The words stopped his wild heart for a beat. Then it resumed pounding with more fervor. He needed to get off the ferry now. He needed to call Shana and Sam and warn them.
The officer pulled the man forward and Dane let go of him. The medic arrived and, as they put Jake on the stretcher, he came around.
“They’ll take care of you, Jake. I can’t stay.”
“Don’t worry about me. Go get that bastard.”
Dane ran for the stairway leading up to the main deck while he pulled his phone out and pressed the number one. Shana’s speed-dial number.
No answer.
When he arrived on the main deck, the ferry’s second officer was running toward him. The man had probably planned to run downstairs toward the commotion, but Dane caught him.
“I need to take an inflatable. I need to get off the ferry. Now.”
“You Dane Blaise?”
Dane didn’t wait for the man, but kept going in the direction of the nearest inflatable-hull boat held aloft near the railing.
“Wait a second—you can’t just—you’re not official police.”
Dane quickly studied the mechanisms to lower the boat and pressed a button, bringing the hydraulic lift to life.
The officer grabbed his arm and shut the lift down before the boat got more than three feet.
As Dane turned to him, he saw two Steamship Authority police coming his way. He slipped his phone from his pocket again and punched in the number two. He hoped to hell Cap answered.
On the first ring, he heard Cap’s voice.
“Cap, I need you to call the Coast Guard. Get Vendi in on this. Dag stole a boat from the marina. He figured out the decoy. Had someone watching the house from the harbor.”
“Shit. Then he’s after Sam’s boat—did you warn them?”
“Tried. No answer.”
He eyed the two ferry police and the ferry’s second officer according to his insignia, as they stood surrounding him.
“Can you do me a favor and have a word with the ferry guy, let him know I can use the inflatable. Time’s wasting.”
“Put him on the line.”
Dane handed the second officer his phone and the man listened. Then he handed the phone back to Dane. The call was disconnected.
“You can take the boat. It has a tracker. Captain Vendi will meet you with the USCG boat Monomy at sea on our way to wherever you’re going.” He paused a beat. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Don’t worry about me.” Dane pressed the button again to lower the boat the rest of the way into the water.
“Thank you.” He turned and climbed down into the boat.
He called Vendi and gave him Shana’s phone number so he could track her location.
“Once you get a bead on her position, go there. That’s where I’m headed. You can pick me up before we arrive.”
“Any idea what direction or how far?”
“They’re on their way to Woods Hole.”
Vendi snorted. “That narrows it down. I’ll see you in less than ten.”
Dane hated to call on the man for help again—hated relying on people outside his sphere, especially official law enforcement. But Vendi was an exception. He was the real deal and he enjoyed the action.
Vendi also wasn’t above bending the rules and the Coast Guard wasn’t above letting him.
Dane got the impression that Vendi had a what-they-didn’t-know-wouldn’t-hurt-them kind of relationship with his superiors.
It worked because he got them results. And Dane also had the suspicion that Vendi had something on someone high up.
Once he got the outboard started and cleared from the ferry, Dane pulled it to full throttle and took off, setting his direction on the heading indicated on his tracker app. The app was set to track Shana’s phone.
He hoped to hell he could keep her in range.
Shana hurried to the boat and hoped to hell Sam knew how to operate it. It loomed large at the dock. If worse came to worse, She and Dane would owe the Gables about a million clams for the boat.
From behind her, as she stepped through the gate onto the aft deck, Sam spoke.
“I’m sure they have insurance.”
She turned. “Not funny.”
He helped Claire onto the deck as if she needed it, but she didn’t. Of course, Claire was gracious about it. She was always gracious. She had an uncanny serenity about her.
“Let’s get underway. Claire, do you want to check out the lounge?”
Shana led the way inside. She’d been on the boat once before for a party to celebrate the return of the Gables’ prized jewels after she and Dane had caught the jewel thief. The memory of that case drifted through her head, but her focus remained pinned on Dane’s mother.
There were plenty of things to think about here and now.
Enough to make her jittery. She checked her phone to make sure it was on.
Dane would be tracking them with her phone to catch up with them somewhere between here and Woods Hole.
Inside the lounge area, which was larger than the beach shack’s kitchen, dining room, and office combined, she dropped the phone on a side table and went into the galley.
“This is beautiful. More comfortable than the ferry. Do you know how long the trip to Woods Hole will be?”
Good question. Shana had no answer.
“Captain Sam will have to answer that one.”
She went up the ladder to the bridge deck where the small wheelhouse rose above the main deck and gave them a beautiful early evening view.
“We need to move fast.” Sam started up the engines.
The boat shuddered and the engine purred as it moved away from the dock.
“How long will the trip be?”
“That depends.”
“On?” She didn’t need for Sam to be his cagey self at this moment and plastered her hands to her hips in challenge.
“Two to four hours. Depending on winds, current—I didn’t have much time to check the conditions.”
“Cap put the Coast Guard on alert. Vendi said there were no advisories.”
Sam shook his head and turned to face the open ocean where they were headed. Or at least it looked like open ocean.
“Spill it,” she said. He always sounded like he had more to say than he said.
“Seems Cap routinely communicates strategic information through you.”
“And?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing my ass. You think he should be telling Dane? Or you? I’m just as much a part of this operation—”
She stopped cold when Sam looked up over her shoulder. She spun around.
“Everything all right?” Claire stood in the doorway.
She didn’t look alarmed. But the serenity was absent from her face. In fact, all expression was absent from her face and she was reminded of Dane.
Damn.
“No problem. I’m a little edgy is all,” Shana said. She smiled at the woman and hoped to hell what she said was half true.
“Mrs. Blaise, we’ll be arriving before you know it. A few hours or so. Help yourself to refreshments. I’m told the galley is fully stocked.”
Shana went back down to the lounge with her. It was her job to keep her company, keep her protected and to watch their back. She took the binoculars from the small duffel she’d brought aboard and positioned herself so that she could watch out the aft window.
Claire found a CD player and turned on some quiet background music—jazz—and took out her book.
All was well.
Until it wasn’t.
With the binoculars held to her eyes, Shana rose from her seat and stepped outside onto the aft deck.
A small boat-like shape showed up on the horizon and it was getting bigger. Fast.
Using her communicator, she called Sam.
“Boat closing in at seven o’clock. And it’s not Dane—not unless he commandeered the ferry and the ferry suddenly got a jet engine.”
“So you’re saying it’s a big fast boat—how far away?”
“I have no clue. But it’s gaining on us.”
“I’ll check it out.”
Static. Sam signed off to use his own binoculars. Shana decided to join him up at the wheel. She took her bag with her. It held her weapons.
“Problem?” Claire said.
“There’s another boat. Not Dane. You should go below until we know who it is—do you mind?”
“No.” Claire rose and went to the ladder that led below deck to the state rooms.
Shana watched her, then took her bag of weapons to the pilot house to join Sam.
Dane alternated between calling Shana’s phone and checking the time while he held the outboard steady in the direction dictated by the fluorescent green arrow of the small navigator. He’d plugged Shana’s last whereabouts into the app.
Holding the phone to his ear, he listened to it ring five times before it went to voicemail. He left his message in a clipped voice.
“Dag and at least two of his gang stole a big fast boat and they’re looking for you. He knows you’re heading for Woods Hole. Watch your six. Keep my mother below deck.”
He knew he didn’t need to add that last part.
But the worry edged in like tremors from an earthquake that started from a distance.
The feeling that there was a major eruption coming loomed and darkened his mind.
The fear hovered close now. Like a cloud cover that had started descending ever since he’d heard from his mother about her decision to visit.
And that was all wrong.
Damn Dagmar Hunt to hell.
Rage swept the darkness away like a fireball of vengeance, a fire he could feel in his chest.
He checked the tracking app for Shana’s location again and plugged the new coordinates into the navigator. When he finished, he searched the horizon with his binoculars. They had an hour of sun left, then this entire adventure would get a whole lot more interesting.
Spotting Monomy in the distance, and closing fast, he lowered the binoculars and shut the engine. As the Coast Guard island-class cutter approached, Dane grabbed his weapons and prepared to board.
Shana couldn’t make out the details of the approaching boat.
“Take the wheel for me,” Sam said.
She watched him reach for his M16.
“What are you doing? You can’t shoot at that boat—you don’t know who it is. What if it’s Dane?”
“Have you had a call from him?” He waited half a blink of her eye for an answer.
“I don’t know—there’s no cell coverage here.”
“If it’s Dane, he’ll slow down and—”
“Take a look.”
She shook with toe-curling waves of nausea. What the hell was wrong with her? She slipped out her phone again to check it. She needed to hear Dane’s voice. Irrational nerves bubbled through her as if it were the first time she’d ever been on a dangerous mission.
The phone betrayed her again. Still no coverage.
Sam lowered the rifle and raised his binoculars without a word, backing off without argument.
That was the only outward sign that he was on edge as far as Shana could tell.
For her part, her heart thundered louder than the boat’s engines and the wind.
She took the wheel and pushed the throttle, hitting the maximum speed, surprised that they hadn’t already been at max.
“Shit.” Sam spat the word and tossed his binoculars aside.
Shana raised hers again to see the boat shockingly close now. She had a clear view of a man on deck. It wasn’t Dane.
The man wielded a high-powered weapon and aimed it at them.
“Hit the deck.” She shoved Sam as he grabbed his rifle and they fell to the deck as a shot hit their engines.
It rocked the forty-foot yacht with a small explosion.
Shana’s ears rang with mind-numbing noise, but one thought stuck in her head.
Dane’s mother. I have to protect Dane’s mother.