Chapter 4
Chapter Four
“Fine, we’ll backtrack. Emma, do you have any clue how long ago or where you tossed the bag?”
Emma shook her head. “All I remember is it was after we got out of the canal. You were already going pretty fast.”
She glanced around the vast expanse of water. “It all looks the same to me out here.”
“We need to move. Now!” the man with the Colombian accent demanded.
Cap looked at the three women huddled around Preston.
“One of you needs to go into the cabin and grab a blanket from the drawer under the bench seat. Cover Preston and keep him secure while we’re moving. Don’t move him. I don’t know if he has a neck injury.”
“We don’t have time for this!” the gunman snapped.
“I’m not moving until he’s taken care of and my lines are reeled in,” Cap stated firmly.
He was trying to buy time to think about what to do.
“Fine,” the man said, irritation flashing across his face as he motioned for Morgan to go into the cabin.
Then, without warning, he and his partner grabbed the four active rods from the rod holders and hurled them into the lake.
Cap winced. Nearly a thousand dollars’ worth of equipment vanished beneath the surface.
“Done,” the man said with a laugh.
The man on the speedboat laughed, too.
Assholes.
Morgan returned with the blanket and covered Preston.
“Okay, you three ladies sit by Preston and keep him from bouncing around.”
They followed his directions without complaint.
“I’ll backtrack, but we’ll probably never find this bag,” Cap said, turning to the man who appeared to be the ringleader of the trio.
“It floats and has a beacon,” Jonathan muttered from his seated position on the deck.
So, the coward speaks.
“Beacon?” Emma questioned.
“You would have needed to activate it. Which you obviously didn’t, or I’d be able to find it without your help,” the gunman said.
Emma’s hand flew over her mouth, and her eyes watered. “Oh, no.”
“Oh yes. This is all your fault, and now you are going to fix it. If you don’t…”
The guy stopped talking, quickly sidestepped toward the women, reached down, and yanked Carly to her feet by her upper arm.
Carly screamed. Her eyes were wide. Her lip trembled.
“Your friend here dies. So, start remembering. Where did you toss the bag?”
Emma’s teary gaze landed on Cap. He could see the regret and fear in her eyes, along with the pleading for his help, but he had no clue where she’d tossed the bag. They’d covered miles on the lake to get to this spot.
The man directed his partner on the speedboat to grab hold of Carly.
He pulled her onto their boat. Carly tried to tug away, but it was of no use.
The guy slammed her down onto a seat and zip-tied her wrists to the armrests.
She sobbed. He yelled at her to stop. When she didn’t, he fisted a handful of her long, golden hair and yanked her head back.
“You aren’t going to be trouble, are you? I don’t need this, and I don’t need you. Do you understand?”
There were no truer words, and he hoped Carly would understand and comply. If she did, it might buy him more time to think of a way out of this mess.
Carly met his gaze, and he offered a slight nod. Then, she looked at the man in her boat and nodded.
It killed Cap to watch this, but three against two, if he counted Jonathan, were not good odds for him. Especially since his opponents had weapons.
A voice sounded over the radio on the other boat. The words were garbled.
“What do you want me to tell Dario?” the man on the other boat yelled to the ringleader.
Dario. So, the guy on his boat wasn’t the man in charge of this operation, just the ringleader of this trio.
Cap embedded the name into his memory in the event he needed to recall it later.
So, there were at least four, not three, men in this operation, if not more.
Things were getting worse by the moment.
“Just tell him it’s taking longer than expected. That’s it,” the ringleader replied.
The ringleader looked at him, then shifted his gaze to Jonathan, who’d picked himself up off the deck and stood at Cap’s side.
“Get your woman under control and find the bag.”
Emma’s body went rigid. Was it because the man referred to her as Jonathan’s woman? He’d bet his next paycheck that was part of it. She was strong-minded, and he suspected that even in this danger, she didn’t appreciate the man’s reference.
“Here’s how this is going down. If any of you do anything I don’t like, your friend over there dies. Am I clear?” he asked as he used his weapon to point at Carly on the other boat.
The ringleader looked at Morgan and Hailey, who sat on the deck by Preston. “You two will not move from that spot.”
The ladies nodded.
Then he looked at Jonathan. “You, come here.”
Jonathan took a few reluctant steps toward the two men. The quiet one zip-tied Jonathan’s hands behind his back and plunked him onto the bench seat. Then he moved to the back of the boat. Cap suspected he deemed that the best position in which to keep a watchful eye on everyone.
The ringleader pointed up to the wheelhouse. “You. And her. Up there now, and start retracing your route.”
Cap went first and Emma followed. The ringleader was behind them both, leaving one of his partners on the back of the boat and the other in the speedboat.
The three of them in the wheelhouse stood shoulder to shoulder, staring out over the cool blue waters. Emma was in the center.
He felt her tremble. She was warm…fragile…human.
Steering the boat, Cap retraced his path. Or, at least as close to the path as he could, buying time before anyone was killed.
The ringleader leaned into Emma, causing her to press firmly against Cap. Then he reached over and tapped the GPS screen.
“Turn that on. I want to see your track.”
Dammit. The guy knew the equipment.
“And turn on that fancy fish finder of yours to see if we can pick up the bag.”
The man leaned in front of Emma, closer to him. “Don’t make me have to tell you this kind of stuff again.”
Cap veered right to follow the line shown on the screen.
“That’s better. Now, Emma, be a dear and pay attention. I need that bag, or your friend in the other boat dies. Am I clear?”
Emma swallowed audibly. “Yes.”
Cap leaned subtly into her to offer some reassurance.
Her fear-filled gaze latched onto his for a moment before he pulled away and looked forward.
He hadn’t wanted to look away from her; rather, he wanted to focus on those dark eyes of hers and project surety that everything would be okay. But would it?
What a freaking mess. He left his job as a drug investigator for a reason.
He didn’t need this kind of stress. The blood pressure, which he’d gotten under control since he’d left protective service, was probably through the roof right now.
It would be one thing if it were just his life in danger, but six others relied on him.
If he didn’t think of some way out of this mess, they’d all be dead soon.
The men showed their faces, their boat. There was no way they would get out of this alive.
Once those drugs were found, they’d be killed.
He drew a deep breath to reset himself. He could handle this, had done so in the past.
Panic surged, and Emma nearly cried out when Cap pulled his reassuring gaze from her. She wondered what he was thinking. Did he think they’d not get through this alive?
Her heart beat wildly. Everyone depended on her. Morgan, Carly, Hailey, Preston, Cap, and even Jonathan. She needed to find that bag.
She studied the shoreline as Cap drove. Trees, houses…
they all looked the same. The only thing she could recall was that she tossed the bag a few minutes after they’d exited the canal.
She hadn’t cared where; at the time, she just wanted it gone.
She just wanted to hurt Jonathan. Now, it made sense why the bag was so heavy.
It had contained drugs. How did she not have a clue her ex was a drug dealer?
How could she have been so dumb to not realize this?
The man dressed in black with the gun in his hand looked at her. His dark, intense gaze bore into her, heating the blood coursing through her veins. The evil, blank darkness beyond his irises scared her.
He looked like a man capable of anything. Was she a fool to think that even if she found the drugs for him, he’d let them go? Or let them live? One thing was for sure, though: the only way they stood a chance was to find those drugs.
“Emma, does anything look familiar? Anything at all?” Cap asked.
His tone was far calmer than she’d expected hers would be if she spoke. How could he be so calm when she was on the verge of falling to pieces?
She pulled her gaze from the shoreline, which felt closer to her than when they’d initially passed by, but she knew Cap had to be following his exact path because the guy with the gun demanded it.
She focused on Cap. Even in this chaos, his warm gaze soothed her. The tension in his facial muscles softened.
“Deep breath, sweetheart. It’s okay. Just take your time. We’ll find it,” Cap said.
Sweetheart. Her heart fluttered. How could this be the same guy from the dock who had dissed both her and marriage? He seemed too…caring.
She drew in a long breath and let it out, and then, even though she didn’t want to tear her gaze from Cap, she turned her head and looked at the shoreline.
Beach and trees were all she saw. Some homes and cottages were in the mix, but it all looked the same. No different identifying markers. There was no way she would remember the exact location. She had paid little attention.
The only thing she could remember was that she had tossed it once they were out of the canal. At the point the boat had traveled faster.