Chapter 49
FORTY-NINE
Maddy’s knees hit the floor, the phone clutched tight in her icy hand as she stared at the horrific scene unfolding in front of her.
Lachlan’s truck was a ball of fire, blazing out of control after the explosion had ripped the front of it apart.
Her stomach lurched at the thought of him trapped inside it, burning alive. The scream of terror and shock stuck in her throat.
“Oh, relax, he’s not even in there,” Eve snapped, snatching the phone from her.
Maddy looked up at her, queasy and starting to shake all over. Was she lying? Screwing with her head to what, get back at her for something she hadn’t even done? Elliot was dead because of what he’d done to her. Had only himself to blame for what happened to him.
“The word is out now. Slater will track your message, and the cavalry will be on the way soon.” Eve’s face tightened, a fanatical light in her eyes. “But we’re not going fucking anywhere until you crack that code.”
She seized Maddy by the arms and wrenched her off the floor. Dropped her back into the chair. “And to make sure you do as you’re told, I have a little insurance policy. It’s tucked away in your boyfriend’s boat. Oh, look at that, it seems to be headed this way right now.”
No… Was it real? Maddy wanted to warn him away. It’s a trap.
She thrust the phone out again to show a moving dot on a map. “Give me what I want, or I blow him up for real.”
This bitch wasn’t bluffing. There was no way to get another message about the second bomb to Blaine with Eve watching her every move now. All she could do to save Lachlan was give Eve what she wanted.
She got back to work, shoving down the terror crowding the back of her brain. Turning all her focus to breaking through the firewall.
Precious minutes passed before the program opened. “I’m in,” she blurted, relief flooding her rigid body.
Eve moved in closer to access a file named “Backup” and opened it. A line of symbols and code Maddy had never seen before came up. “Enter the third line from the top into the program and decrypt it.”
Maddy did as she was told. The lines condensed into one and became a row of numbers with the preface CH. She recognized it instantly as an IBAN.
A numbered bank account.
“Finally.” Eve smirked as she entered the account number into an app on her phone.
Maddy couldn’t see what she was doing, but she wasn’t stupid.
She and Blaine worked with this kind of security all the time.
Eve must have had all the security information for the account and was transferring money.
Maddy didn’t know where the money had come from, but she was betting it wasn’t a small amount.
Of course, this was about money. This lunatic claimed it was about the man she’d loved, but in reality she was just a greedy asshole.
She stared at the account number, memorizing it. Even though she was probably down to her final few minutes on this earth. As soon as the transfer went through there was no reason for Eve to keep her alive. Eve would want to get rid of her and run before anyone found them.
She glanced at the pistol in Eve’s other hand, her jaw trembling. Praying for a clean shot through the back of the skull rather than a hole somewhere else to bleed out from.
She thought of Lachlan, that he might be racing toward her. She’d done everything she could to save him. But his fate was out of her control now too.
Eve reached out and slammed the laptop shut. “Let’s go. Your boyfriend’s gonna be here soon.” She grabbed Maddy by the back of the shirt and hauled her out of the chair, jamming the pistol against her ribs.
Cold rain soaked them on the trek back to the boat. Numbness closed in, her body moving on autopilot. Her brain felt sluggish. Out of ideas and unable to accept that she was about to die.
The entire way down the wooden steps, Maddy kept trying to come up with a way she could warn Lachlan before Eve killed her. The truck bomb would have been reported immediately.
Blaine knew Elliot had been adept with explosives. If he’d received her message and found out about the bomb, he would put the pieces together about Eve and hopefully know there could be another device.
But if he hadn’t received the message, it was possible no one knew she was missing yet. Maybe Lachlan didn’t know. Maybe Eve was wrong and he wasn’t coming this way.
She didn’t know what to think or believe anymore.
The tide was moving in, filling the gaps between the boulders at the foot of the stairs and turning them into large tidal pools. They splashed through them, weaving their way back to the boat.
Eve shoved her into it. Maddy threw out her hands to break her fall, scraping her palms on the textured surface of the deck. She quickly got to her feet, faced Eve warily as she got in and took control of the helm, still aiming the pistol at her.
Maddy glared back, anger burning through the shock. Eve had the money. Why not just kill her now? “Where are we going?” she finally blurted when she couldn’t stand it a moment longer.
“To see your boyfriend.”
What was she planning? She wanted to kill her in front of him? “Leave him alone. You got what you wanted.”
“Shut up.”
“I did what you asked. Do what you want with me, but leave him alone.”
“How sweet,” Eve sneered, and started the engine. “But the money is only part of what I’m after.”
A terrible foreboding slid through her. She started breathing faster. “What else do you want?”
Eve looked back at her with a satisfied smile and ice in her eyes. “For you to watch him die before I kill you.”
Grey grabbed his duffel from the back of his truck and ran to the empty soccer field at the edge of town that Rafe and his deputies had cleared. As soon as his crew had put the fire out at the marina, he’d raced home to get his gear and come up here as fast as he could.
“Ready?” Rafe was dressed in tactical gear and holding a rifle across his body, his sidearm holstered on his right thigh.
“More than.” They were Maddy’s best chance—and Lachlan’s only backup.
He wasn’t losing his brother.
The Coast Guard had been alerted immediately, but with Maddy and Lachlan both in mortal danger, every minute counted.
It was up to him, Blaine, and Rafe to make sure they both came home alive.
He heard the thump of the helo’s rotors before he saw it.
The Bell 407 appeared over a distant ridge and descended as it angled toward them. A civilian aircraft much smaller than the military ones Grey was used to operating out of.
The pilot slowed as it approached, put the aircraft in a hover high above them and turned its nose to face due west before easing the skids onto the center of the grassy pitch.
Blaine was in the front passenger seat. Grey and Rafe waited for him to wave them forward before they raced for the aircraft.
Grey yanked the righthand back door open and climbed inside while Rafe did the same on the left. They put on their headsets as they strapped in.
“What’s the latest?” Grey said into his mic. The field shrank beneath them as they lifted into the sky. Moments later they were flying over the colorful buildings and trees in Whalebone Cove. Over the marina where the fire truck was still on scene, then out to sea, heading west.
“Nothing since that initial message,” Blaine answered as the pilot nosed them forward and climbed.
“Coast Guard is en route, but it’ll likely be another thirty to forty minutes before they’re on scene,” Rafe said.
That was way too long. Grey’s gut told him Maddy and Lachlan didn’t have that kind of time. “I need to update Lach. He should be getting close to the island now. What’s our ETA?”
“Eleven minutes, maybe less, depending on the wind,” Blaine answered. “Did he find anything on board?”
“No, but he didn’t stop long enough to do a thorough search.” He’d been too focused on getting to Maddy. Ready to take on a psychopath, alone and unarmed, to save her.
Blaine swiveled in his seat to look at him, and his deadly serious expression congealed the blood in Grey’s veins. “You need to get him on the phone and make him look again. Now.”
Grey dialed his brother, waited several agonizing seconds for the call to connect. “Come on, asshole, pick up,” he muttered under his breath as it started to ring.