Chapter 40
“Do you have the item?” Vladimir asked, his voice crackling through the speaker on Shane’s phone.
“Where is my sister?”
“She is safe and unharmed. Where is the Eye of Destiny?”
“Safe and unharmed.”
“I see we are going to play games.”
“I will give it to you when you release my sister. No games.”
“What about the rest of my money?”
Shane took a deep breath. “I will get it.”
“And how will you do that?”
“I don’t know. I’ll find a way.”
“I’m supposed to just let people steal from me? And if they get caught, allow them to continue living if they promise to repay me?”
“You’re a businessman, and this is a business transaction. I will pay you back everything I owe you, plus interest.”
“I wonder how you will do that when you are in jail? I don’t think your police officer friend is going to turn a blind eye to what you’ve done.”
“Do you want the gem or not?”
“That goes without saying. In a moment, a boat will pull into the harbor. Send the jewel with your deputy friend. When it is back in my possession, I will release your sister.”
I looked around for Vladimir or his thugs. He clearly had eyes on us.
Vladimir added, “You have 48 hours to come up with 12 million.”
“12 million!?”
“6 million plus interest. If you fail to deliver, I will kill you and your sister. Are we clear?”
“We’re clear.”
“Excellent!” Vladimir said. “If you think about running, I will find you. There is no place you can hide from me.”
Vladimir ended the call.
Shane looked at me. “He wants you to deliver the jewel.”
“I heard.”
“You don’t have to do this.”
“He’d be stupid to kill a cop.”
“You sure about that?” he asked, full of doubt.
“Let’s hope he’s smart enough to realize that would be a bad idea.”
Shane dug into his pocket and handed me the gem. I took it and slipped it into mine.
The howl of outboards filled the night as a boat approached—a black center console RHIB.
Jack radioed. “We’ve got company.”
“I see,” I replied over comms. I updated him on the plan.
“I think that’s a bad idea,” he cautioned in a wary voice.
“I’ve got this under control,” I said with confidence.
I didn’t have anything under control.
Jack had his weapon aimed at the incoming boat. It pulled alongside us.
I had a special surprise for them. The fragmentation grenade in my hand with the pin pulled was my insurance policy. I gripped the spoon tight.
Four masked thugs in black tactical gear aimed assault rifles at us. One of them shouted, "Let's see the diamond."
The smell of exhaust swirled.
I pulled Mr. Sparkles from my pocket and displayed it.
"Hand it over."
I laughed. "Nice try. Take me to Riley. If anyone gets any funny ideas along the way, we all die," I said, proudly displaying the grenade.
After a moment's hesitation, the thug waved me on board.
I stuffed the gem back into my pocket. With caution, I climbed over the gunwale onto the boat. The thugs kept their weapons aimed at me. The helmsman reversed, then headed out of the harbor to the west.
The boat bounced on the swells.
With a grenade in my hand, they didn’t bother to disarm me.
"Might want to consider the ramifications of an accidental discharge," I shouted over the wind and engine noise.
"What?"
In a slow, deliberate voice, like I was talking to a child, I said, "If the ride gets rough, and your weapon fires, I might drop the grenade. That would be bad for all of us."
"Maybe you shouldn't have brought the grenade."
"I'd be dead now if I hadn’t."
He shrugged and didn't disagree. The idiot still kept his weapon aimed at me.
I took a seat on the inflatable pontoon as we headed out into the inky abyss.
With the flesh-colored earbud in place, I would still have comms with JD as long as I had cell service.
I don't think the thugs on board paid attention to what was in my ear, and none of them wanted to risk getting close to me.