Chapter 14
The hand in her hair pulled so hard, Holly’s eyes watered.
The man had sneaked up so silently she hadn’t heard him. She hadn’t known he was there until he’d grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her head back.
She hadn’t even had time to scream before he’d pressed the cold, hard barrel of a gun to her temple.
As Simon yelled, “Holly, run!” he’d spun toward her.
The guy holding her hair said, “Make any stupid moves, and I’ll blow her head off.”
Simon stood still and slowly raised his hand. “Don’t hurt her.”
“I won’t as long as you do exactly as I say.” The man pulled on her hair, making her lean back to ease the pain.
“Down on your knees,” he demanded, “and hands behind your head.”
Simon dropped to his knees and clasped his hands behind his head.
The guy behind him stuck his handgun in his waistband and grabbed Simon’s wrists, securing them with a zip tie.
“Get his ankles,” Holly’s captor said.
The man following orders kicked Simon’s feet together behind him and secured his ankles with another long zip tie.
Movement in the water past the end of the houseboat caught Holly’s eye.
A pirogue floated silently in the shadow of the houseboat, captained by Holly’s cousin Lissette.
She stared at Holly, her eyes round and wary.
When she started toward the dock, Holly gave a small shake of her head and mouthed the word, “No.”
Lissette pushed back into the shadows and waited.
Once the man had secured Simon’s ankles, he shoved Simon hard.
With his hands and his ankles bound behind him, Simon had no way to balance. He fell onto his side.
“Leave him alone!” Holly cried.
“Oh, we will,” the guy holding her hair said, his tone low and dangerous. “We’ll leave him alone...in the water.”
“No!” Holly lurched forward, the hand in her hair keeping her from getting any closer to Simon.
The guy who’d secured his wrists and ankles grabbed under Simon’s arms and dragged him to the edge of the dock.
“Don’t do it,” Holly said. “I’ll do anything. Just don’t do this.” Tears welled in her eyes. “Please, don’t hurt him.”
“Come on, bitch.” The man holding her hair in his fist pulled her toward the other side of the dock, where a boat was tied to a piling.
Holly glanced back. “No! Simon!”
The other man tried to roll Simon into the water.
Simon drew his legs in and jettisoned them out, catching the man in the chest and sending him over the edge of the dock. A loud splash sounded.
Moments later, the guy came up cursing. “Son of a bitch.” He climbed up a nearby ladder, stomped over to where Simon struggled, but he finally managed to sit up.
His tormentor waited until Simon was upright, then he plowed into him, shoving as hard as he could, pushing him over the edge.
“No!” Holly cried out. “He’ll die!”
The man who’d pushed him in turned with a malevolent smile. “That’s the idea.” He pulled another zip tie out of his wet back pocket and advanced on Holly. He yanked her arms behind her back and slapped the zip tie on her wrists.
His boss shoved his weapon into the waistband of his jeans and then stepped into the boat.
At that moment, Holly could see the man who’d held her at gunpoint. “Gunnar Resznik.”
“And you’re Holly Gautier. Get in the boat.”
She lifted her chin but didn’t move. “Why?”
“Because you’re coming with us,” Gunnar said.
“No.”
The man behind her grabbed her around the middle and dropped her into the boat. She fell forward, landing on her knees, almost face-planting against a bench.
After the second man got into the boat, Gunnar started the engine, spun it around and blasted out into the bayou.
Holly struggled to see over the side of the boat where Simon had gone into the water. His wrists had been bound behind his back and his ankles cinched together. He wouldn’t have much time to figure out how to get to the surface.
Holly’s heart ached. She maneuvered to her knees and tried to throw herself overboard.
Gunnar yelled to the other guy. “Hold her or she’ll get away.”
Big, meaty arms wrapped around, holding her back from the edge as they got further and further away from the dock with the houseboat and Simon, lying at the bottom of the bayou.
“Why are you doing this?” she demanded.
“We need your parents,” Gunnar said. “You’re the bait.”
“They died in a boating accident.”
“Wrong,” he smirked. “Try again. When they learn we have their daughter, they’ll suddenly come back to life.”
“But you don’t understand. They’re dead,” she said. “They’re not coming back to life.”
“If they don’t come for you, we’ll have no reason to keep you. At that point, you can join your boyfriend.”
Her dead boyfriend, lying at the bottom of the bayou.
“No, please, no,” she prayed. Please be okay. Please. Lissette, please help Simon.
As soon as Simon hit the water, he fought to turn himself upright so that his feet hit bottom first. If he could do that, he might be able to bounce to the surface for air. Failure wasn’t an option. They had Holly. He had to get out of the water and go after her.
As much as he twisted and turned, he couldn’t get his feet to hit bottom first. He went all the way down on his side, sinking into the silt. There, he bunched his legs and tried to get them beneath him. Already, his lungs burned for air. If he stayed down much longer...
The more he tried, the more silt he stirred.
His chest hurt with the need to breathe. Much longer and he’d suck water in, instead of air.
Something bumped against him. His first thought was that it was an alligator. When a hand grabbed his arm, he realized it was a human. That human was holding onto him at the same time as they kicked, sending them upward.
When his head cleared the surface, he sucked in a breath and then sank beneath the surface. God, he felt helpless. Again, the hand dragged him up.
“Hold on,” a breathless, female voice called out. “I’ve got you.”
Then her hand slipped, and he went under again.
This time, she grabbed hold of his hair and dragged him upward.
He did his best to kick his bound legs to keep coming up for air.
“Holly?”
“No. Lissette,” she said. “They took Holly. I have a knife, but I can’t hold onto the ladder at the same time as I saw at the zip ties. We’ll go under for a moment.”
“Just do it.”
With one hand, she felt her way around to the zip tie at his back. “Okay. Deep breath.”
Simon drew in a breath.
Lissette let go of the ladder on the pier. They sank together, her hands working to place the knife between his wrists. Once there, she sawed at the plastic as they continued to descend, all the way to the bottom, where their feet sank into the silt.
Then the knife broke through the plastic zip tie, and his hands were free.
Simon pushed off the bottom, kicked his bound feet and pushed at the water with his hands until he broke the surface, filling his lungs with precious air.
Lissette came up beside him, gasping.
He guided her to the ladder on the dock and grasped the rungs. For a moment, he breathed in and out. Finally, he asked. “Do you still have the knife?”
She held out a slim, bejeweled knife. “A girl can never have too many accessories,” she said and climbed up the ladder.
With the knife, Simon bent and sliced through the zip tie around his ankles, then climbed up to the dock. “Did they say where they were taking her?”
Lissette shook her head. “No.”
“Do you have a cell phone?”
“In my pirogue,” she said. “I’ll get it.” She went over the side of the dock, dropping down into the small boat tied to the piling. She found the phone and handed it up to him before climbing back onto the deck.
Simon called Remy.
“Simon, you made it back?”
“We were ambushed,” Simon said. “They took Holly. I figure they’ll call the office of the Brotherhood Protectors to make their demands.”
“I have Shelby with me at the boat factory. Got an incoming call as we speak with no caller ID.” Remy said. “Putting you on hold.”
Simon put the phone on speaker and paced as he waited for Remy to come back.
“What’s going on?” Lissette came to stand beside him.
“Hopefully, Remy’s getting the call from Holly’s kidnappers to give their demands.”
“Let’s get into some dry clothes.” Simon placed the phone on speaker and hurried into the houseboat. “Holly’s clothes are upstairs.”
Lissette ran up the steps.
Simon shucked his jeans and pulled on his last clean pair from his go-bag. Then he yanked his wet T-shirt over his head and dragged a dry one on, the fabric sticking to his still damp body.
Lissette descended the stairs wearing loose-fitting jeans and a faded T-shirt. She carried a pair of sneakers. “Everything’s a little big on me, but still better than wet.”
Simon was tying his spare running shoes when Remy came back. “They want Holly’s parents to come to the BioEnergen facility in one hour—by themselves, or they’ll kill Holly. If they bring the cops, they’ll kill her. If they bring our Brotherhood Protectors...”
“They’ll kill her,” Simon said. “I get the picture. So, what’s the plan?”
“We get the sheriff involved, bring our entire team and get Holly back.”
“You said they’ll kill her if her parents don’t show up alone. You can’t go in guns blazing. Her parents have to show up.”
“We can’t let them have Holly’s parents. If the Russians get the formula, they’ll weaponize the energy and use it against our country and others. They’re already causing enough problems without adding additional weapons to their arsenal.”
“To save Holly, we have to send in her parents,” Simon insisted. And he had to figure out how to navigate the bayou even with the GPS location.
Lissette placed a hand on his arm. “They’re expecting a man and a woman. It’ll be dark. They won’t know they have the wrong couple at first. Maybe we’ll have long enough to make the trade for Holly and get all the backup we need in place.”
Simon stared at Lissette, her proposal blossoming in his head. “I can go in for Mr. Gautier.”
“And for Mrs. Gautier?” Remy asked. “Shelby wants to go in her place.”