Page 88 of Damaged

“I know this bay like the back of my hand. Claremont is near my house and it’s close to the water.” I immediately headed for one of the smaller, less flashy speedboats.

“Dalton, the one over there”—Nick pointed to a larger boat with twin engines— “is faster.”

“Just trust me, Nick,” I said as I began untying the smaller boat. I grabbed my phone and sent a text as I turned the key to start the boat’s single engine. I was glad when Nick jumped in without question.

The small boat might not have been as flashy or even as fast, but what the people who’d taken Silver and Aggie hadn’t considered was that it was low tide. That meant they’d have to remain in deeper waters. The boat I’d selected was made of a lighter material so even with the weight of two people on it, it could fly over the shallower waters, which meant a shorter path to our destination. Even if we couldn’t overtake the other boat, we’d be docked behind it within a matter of minutes.

“God, please let me be right,” I whispered. I had no proof that they’d even taken Silver and Aggie north instead of south. All I had was my gut.

That gut I’d ignored even though it had been right about the first two attempts to get to Silver.

I wouldn’t make that mistake a third time.

Chapter 30

SILVER

My heart was racing so fast, I was sure it would burst right out of my chest.

Dalton will find us. He’ll find us.

It was a familiar chant because I’d been repeating it in my head from the moment Aggie and I had been forced onto the speedboat by four men dressed in black clothing. Like Ronan’s men, they’d carried big guns along with several knives and smaller guns on their person. The guns they’d used to force Aggie and me into compliance had been the kind that were quiet when the trigger was pulled. It was one of those bullets that had hit Sadie as she’d gone after the man who’d grabbed me by the arm while another had put duct tape over my mouth.

I’d screamed behind the duct tape as Sadie had hit the ground and blood had begun to pool around her body. I’d tried to go after the man holding my arm, but he’d punched me and before I could recover from the blow, my hands had been bound behind my back. The men hadn’t spoken much, but I’d understood them because they’d been speaking Russian. While the words they’d said to each other hadn’t been anything other than instructions to tie both me and Aggie up, I had heard one order in particular that had me cursing my own stupidity. The order had been to get rid of the locket around my neck because they didn’t need it anymore.

It was then that I’d realized that the locket Ivan had given me so many years ago probably had some kind of tracking device in it. It explained why Ivan’s men had been able to find me so easily after I’d taken Willa to reunite her with the only family she’d had left. The locket was also what had allowed the men holding me and Aggie captive to find my location. They’d been smart and waited weeks until they’d found the opportunity to get to me when I’d been at my most vulnerable. Aggie, sadly, had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

My sister was crying but when I tried to reach out to touch her with my bound hands, one of the men shoved me hard enough that I barely managed to catch myself before I hit the asphalt. I already knew where we were and why we were there. I hadn’t seen Dmitri or heard mention of his name since we’d been taken, but it was the only explanation. It also meant that the numbers Ivan had given me did indeed mean something. Dmitri must have had a spy in Ivan’s house and he or she had overheard one of Ivan’s many rants about the numbers.

Sure enough, as we neared the private plane sitting on the tarmac, I saw a man through the small window. He was completely bald and had a portly face. He never looked up from whatever he was doing until Aggie and I were forced onto the plane and shoved into oversized leather seats that faced Dmitri but were a row in front of him. He was doing something on his phone and smoking a cigar.

“You know who I am?” he asked in English. There was a heavy accent, but the words were clear.

“Yes,” I said. “Let her go and I’ll give you whatever you want.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” the grotesquely overweight man said as he shook his finger at me. My heart dropped when I saw the plane’s steps lifting. “I think you know what I want, silver eyes.”

“Let her go and I’ll give you the numbers,” I responded. My only goal was to get Aggie safely off the plane and out of Dmitri’s reach.

Dmitri pretended to mull it over and then nodded his head. I knew it was all for show, though. He told one of his men to get the plane moving in Russian. The pilots heeded the order and began the short taxi to the runway. Since the pilots didn’t seem to give a shit that two tied-up people had been forced onto the plane, I knew they weren’t just pilots for hire. They worked for Dmitri.

“Now, my little silver eyes, we go back to negotiating, yes?” Dmitri said with a smug look.

I didn’t answer because I knew they weren’t going to let Aggie off the plane no matter what I said.

“Did my brother tell you how he came by his riches?”

“No,” I responded. “I wasn’t exactly his confidante.”

Dmitri laughed heartily. “Yes, my brother did have his… perversions.” He took a drag on his cigar. “He also didn’t like to work for his money… or should I say my money.” Dmitri waved his hand. “Ah, what does it matter now. Your friends did the favor of killing him for me, no?”

I remained silent.

“Luckily, my little birdie overheard Ivan telling you some numbers. Sadly, that birdie met his end because he didn’t sing quickly enough, and he remember only a few numbers.” Dmitri paused to take another drag on his cigar. “My brother, he not right in the head, yes?”

When I didn’t answer, Dmitri let out a heavy, dramatic sigh and pointed to one of his men. When I heard the order spoken in Russian, I prayed it was a bluff. But it wasn’t. The man grabbed Aggie and pulled her to her feet. He began pushing her toward the back of the plane. I could see the bed in it.

“Okay, I’ll tell you the numbers. Please, just don’t hurt her.”

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