Page 105 of Hidden Depths

“I didn’t do that.” He looked at Balthazar. “Was that you?”

“We were being thorough.”

“Can’t fault you for that. All right. We’ll hold tight here, and in the morning—”

“Hey!” One of the other men yelled and fired his weapon.

Lansky grabbed Sara and dragged her around to the other side of the car.

“Someone’s behind the shed!”

More shots were fired. “You little rat,” Lansky sneered, digging his fingers into her arm. “You’re gonna regret this. You’re coming with me, and I’ll let your imagination run wild with ideas about what I’m going to do to you once we get there.”

He shouted orders to his men, who gave him cover fire as he and Balthazar dragged Sara to the waiting boat.

Lansky started the engine and pulled away from the dock while Balthazar pushed her into the seat.

The last thing Sara saw before he knocked her across the head was Tom as he took out one of Lansky’s men.

Chapter26

Tom duckedback into the shed after shooting one of the men, then dove as bullets ripped through the wall in quick succession.

“Looks like someone has an assault rifle,” Tom mumbled as he crawled for the nearest window and peeked out.

Two of the three men who were left were converging on his position.

A round was fired from somewhere nearby, and one of the men fell. The other scrambled for cover, but Tom still had the man with the rifle to contend with.

“Nice shot, Isla, but you gave yourself away.” He couldn’t get a clear shot of anyone from his vantage point, so he climbed back out the rear window and edged across the back in time to see one of the men had circled around, advancing on the position Isla was last in.

He was about to fire when he heard a sound from behind. He spun as the other man leaned through the window to fire. Tom shot first.

As he went back to find Isla, he heard another gunshot and ran. He found her standing over the last dead man, the edge of her bandage flapping in the howling wind.

She swung her gun into position to fire on Tom, then retracted it. “Did we get them all?”

“Yeah. But Lansky and Balthazar are gone with Sara.”

“They won’t get far. I did some damage to the engine before we were caught.”

“Then they’ll be stuck out there in that raging storm. I’m not happy with that scenario either.”

“The other boat’s still good, so we had better get going. We have some ground to catch up on.”

“We? You should stay here. You’re injured, and I’m not certain I’ll make it back anyway.”

“Are you kidding? You say that like I’ve never done this sort of thing before. If you’re going, I’m going.”

* * *

As soon as they left the shore, the winds became fierce, and the boat nearly capsized several times as Tom steered it over the swell and waves.

It had grown darker, making it nearly impossible to see into the distance, but he caught sight of a light on Lansky’s boat as it rolled over a wave and out of view.

“I can see them!” he shouted.

The rain and salt spray stung as it pelted from every direction, but Tom kept focused on his quarry. He’d give everything to save Sara. He just hoped Isla wouldn’t have to surrender her own life in his pursuit.

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