"Thank you," she said, her breath coming out in short gasps. The slide over the side of the boat hadn"t done anything good for her ribs. She closed her eyes for a long moment, trying to regain her balance.
When she opened her swollen eyes it was to find him standing in front of her. A short snub looking handgun pointing at her.
"It"s just not my day, is it?" she muttered, glaring at him. "Who the h.e.l.l are you?"
"You"re luckier than you know," he snapped. "I work with Daniel. And the a.s.sholes who kidnapped you weren"t supposed to leave you on the ship to die. But that"s all right, the a.s.shole that did is paying for his error right now."
"I don"t know anything," she whispered, wondering if she could make it over the railing. She"d rather take her chance with the water than be back in the hands of these a.s.sholes. "Or I"d have told them."
"No, you wouldn"t. You"re too d.a.m.n n.o.ble. And for what?"
She straightened. If she had to do this one more time, then well, she would. Inside she was afraid. What if she couldn"t hold out again? What if she gave in? No. She couldn"t give in.
And yet...she eyed the gun.
"Are you the one paying them to do this to me? Where"s Daniel?"
"Daniel got called away. The presentation you did last night caused the buyers some angst. Daniel is trying to keep things on an even keel. Now the men downstairs? One is punishing the other for sinking the boat with you. You weren"t supposed to die."
"Why did you kill the other man with me?" she whispered, pretending Hawk was dead. "He didn"t do anything to you."
"Maybe not, but he would have." The man shrugged. "He"s a SEAL. He wouldn"t be able to help himself."
"d.a.m.n it." She reached up and rubbed her eyes. Everything hurt. The world was in a dismal state if people like this had nothing better to do but screw around with others and hurt people for fun.
"The money for you is better than most contracts." He snorted. "But you are only valuable if your d.a.m.n software comes with it."
Ah. So that was what was wrong. "And he figured that as I didn"t have it that I was useless and best to let me die."
"Exactly. Then again, getting good help these days is a b.i.t.c.h." He smiled. "But it all worked out in the end."
She nodded as if she understood when in truth she didn"t understand anything.
"Now that we have you again, we"ll toss you to the buyer. Along with the electronics we recovered from your employee."
"Is Robert dead?" She glared at him. She might just kill him herself if he was.
"Nah, not yet. But he"s going to wish he was. He promised the goods and he didn"t deliver."
She closed her eyes. d.a.m.n it. Maybe Mason had been right. Had Robert been after a bigger payday?
"This has been a s.h.i.tty job from start to finish." The gunman growled, "What"s with you d.a.m.n people."
"So finish it now," she snapped.
The gun spun around and faced her again.
"I"d be happy to, but I want my f.u.c.king paycheck."
Her chest seized. She gasped for breath, struggling to get the air locked inside back out. But it wasn"t happening. She made a harsh wheezing sound and watched as the boat swam before her panicked eyes.
"f.u.c.k." A harsh pound on her back had the old air gushing out and new air rushing in. She collapsed to the deck in pain...but alive.
"Enough of that s.h.i.t."
He turned around again and walked up to the pilot house. And fired up the engines again. She briefly wondered about throwing herself over the side of the boat again, but the floatation seat cushions were nowhere in sight. And neither was Hawk.
HAWK CROUCHED BEHIND the cabin, dripping water over the side of the boat. He watched as Tesla collapsed to the ground wheezing, but at least she was breathing again. He"d only seen the one man. There had to be more.
He slipped down the stairs and into the stateroom. At the bedroom he studied the room through the small panes of gla.s.s. Two men, one dead or dying and one stretched out on the bed, his arms crossed under his head. His d.a.m.n phone resting on his chest.
The sleeping man appeared to be the guy who had taken Tesla to the airstrip with Daniel. He gave a brief look to the other man but didn"t recognize him. Someone who screwed up and was paying for it. He gripped the piece of pipe in his hand and went in high and strong and aiming for the a.s.shole"s knees. This guy wasn"t going to walk away again.
Instinct had the man waking just at Hawk"s pipe came down to the bed the empty s.p.a.ce where the man"s legs had been.
Hawk launched himself at the bed, adjusting his position at the last minute, and plowed his fist into the a.s.shole"s face. Then a quick slam of his pipe. d.a.m.n, it was off target. The other man roared and tackled him to the ground. Jammed between the bed and the built in cabinets, the fight was fast and fierce.
But Hawk had the upper hand.
And he was fighting for Tesla.
Hawk was broadside a few moments later. And the second fight was on, this time with the man who"d brought Tesla onboard. Only Hawk found himself flat on his back before he knew what had happened and the a.s.shole had his big thick hands wrapped around his neck. Hawk gasped and struggled to flip him over his back when suddenly he was free and the enemy was fighting for his own life. Tesla had launched herself on the behemoth"s back, and with some kind of strap she"d wrapped the man"s neck and twisted tight, strangling him.
The man jerked back, trying to free himself, but Hawk tripped him up and knocked him down. Tesla went flying and Hawk brought the pipe down on the man"s head. And again.
He didn"t move again.
Crying and laughing, Tesla launched herself at him. "Oh my G.o.d, you"re alive. I was so worried."
Hawk was d.a.m.n near insulted. "I"m fine," he said. "Are you?"
"I"m great." She laughed, then gasped, her hand going to her side. "Okay, so maybe not so great." She pointed toward the stairs. "I think there are other men below."
"No," Hawk said in a hard voice. "There were men below."
"Oh." In a small voice she asked, "Did you kill them?"
What did she think he"d do? Sit them down and spank them? Well, he had in a way, he"d spanked the one with a metal pipe.
"No, the one man had already done a good job of trying to kill the other." He spun around searching the fog. "We need to get to sh.o.r.e."
She nodded. "Do you have a way to communicate with the others?"
He nodded. "The ship"s radio if nothing else."
With that he hopped up to the wheelhouse, and playing with a few k.n.o.bs, clicked a display. Crackling noises filled the air. With her watching his every movement, he soon had the radio working. He sent a message to Mason first. Then he checked the gas and started up the engine that had been previously shut down. He motored slowly to the wreckage of the other boat and marked the GPS location for someone to clean it up and so the authorities would know there"d been no loss of life in the accident.
Then he turned the vessel, and its dead cargo, toward sh.o.r.e.
Tesla settled into the pa.s.senger seat beside him, curling up against the bitter wind. It would be a nice day at this hour, but on the lake in the fog there was nothing but a deep chilliness that seemed to seep into the bones.
"You saved my life," she whispered from somewhere around her knees. He couldn"t see her face, just the top of her head as it burrowed deeper against her legs. He looked around but couldn"t see a blanket. And he had no intention of sending her below. Not with the men down there. He knew the one was gone and doubted the other was still alive. He"d get medical attention as soon as they could get it but suspected it would still be a good twenty minutes.
It wasn"t likely that he had that long.
"Do you think this is done?"
There was no misunderstanding her meaning after all the s.h.i.t they"d been through. "It d.a.m.n well better be," he said, leaning across to rub her shoulder. "Regardless, we"ve got your back."
She smiled mistily up at him, and as she lay her head back down on her knees, she whispered, "Thank you."
He shook his head. "You saved my life and you"re thanking me." Who knew there were women out there like her? She was Mason"s. No doubt there. But she was d.a.m.n fine. If Mason didn"t want her, Hawk wouldn"t mind a chance.
She was some kind of woman. He took another look over at her and realized she"d curled up like a kitten and slept.
Yeah, she was some kind of woman.
He steered the boat to sh.o.r.e. With any luck she"d get enough sleep to be able to handle what was coming.
Chapter 26.
WHEN SHE WOKE, the wind was biting and swirling through the small cabin. The sun was trying to shine, but it was held back by the fog. And although lifting, the fog didn"t appear ready to give up its domain.
Tesla had hoped Mason would be here by now. Wherever here was. She just wanted to get the h.e.l.l home. And even that couldn"t happen. She had to go to the d.a.m.n demonstration. Looking the way she did. Great.
She could probably push it off for a few days, but then this h.e.l.l would continue. Better to suffer through the demonstration and then go hide away and lick her wounds. If Mason found her then, that was a whole different story.
Right now, they all had a job to do.
She was just so d.a.m.n tired of doing it.
Through the fog, she could see a sh.o.r.eline take shape. She smiled. Now that was a mighty fine picture. She stood up to see better. "Any idea where we are?"
"I"m not sure." But from the dark tone to his voice, she thought he might but didn"t want to tell her.
He grabbed the radio. "Penderson Marina. That"s the name I can see."
He clicked off and waited for a response. When it came she didn"t quite understand. Until Hawk said, "Okay, we"re going to be about an hour then unless you can arrange a ride to pick us up."
He nodded at the next response and shut down the radio. "We have car and a helicopter on the way."
At the word helicopter her heart sank. Then she realized after all she"d been through, how d.a.m.n appropriate this would be. She"d arrive in style and to h.e.l.l with them all. She"d come to do a job for those men. She"d do it and go home.
She sat in silence as Hawk handled the boat with enviable skill. She had no idea how long he"d been doing this, but he made it all look easy.
The weather was clear by the time he pulled up to a mooring spot and hopped off, tying the boat up securely. He glanced around and saw what he was looking for. He motioned to the dock. She gasped at the sea of uniforms racing toward them.
Hawk helped her out of the boat and stood with her as the men came and ushered her to a waiting car. She was driven to a small helicopter pad and loaded up and within minutes she was airborne.
Hawk still at her side.
She glanced down and realized she was no longer scared. She"d been through so much s.h.i.t already, riding in a helicopter was no biggie.
"You"re not worried this time?"
She grinned. "Nah, why would I be? Mason"s not here."
He frowned, his gaze searching. "What difference would that make?"
"Tons," she said with a laugh. "He"s not here to throw me out."
Hawk laughed and laughed. "Wait until I tell him that."
"If he doesn"t like the answer, he should have been here," she cried. "Would that have been so hard?"
"You know he"s going to blame himself for this, right?"
She twisted in her seat. "Why would he?"
"He had to leave to make sure the security was in place for the day. When he left, the enemy moved in."
She nodded slowly. "I knew but hadn"t considered how long he"d be gone. Figured he"d gotten busy."
"He"d never have left without it being a direct order."
"He was ordered to leave?" At Hawk"s nod, she smiled. "That makes me feel better, but maybe someone should be asking the hard questions as to who ordered him away."
Hawk sat back and stared at her. "You think military are involved?"
She laughed. "Hawk, at this point, I suspect everyone but you and the rest of the team."
That beautiful white toothed grin flashed. "Glad to hear that."
They landed soon after and were quickly transferred to another car. Inside, she caught Hawk glancing at his watch.
"How close are we?"
"They started the opening speech a few minutes ago."
"Oh good, I"m glad to miss that. Hate those things."