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I should have kept my mouth shut. I did believe she’d stick by her word. She was crazy enough to go with him.

“Whatever,” she said and looked at him with determination. “If you’re to hold up your end of the bargain, we need to move now.”

Larkin looked thoughtfully at us a moment and then nodded. He sat down on the chair again and holstered his weapon. “All right. But first…I have some ground rules.”

Ten

The boat madegreat speed in the darkness, and it surprised me that I didn’t care whether or not the kidnappers heard us approaching. The fact that it was the middle of the night had surprised me a little, though. I felt like we’d been stuck in that auto shop for an eternity. The darkness was fading a little now and dawn would come soon. I glanced over at Hansen, who had said very little since Agent Larkin had agreed to my offer. He was not happy about this. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew, as I did, that I would be under constant surveillance when agreeing to work for whoever was running the show within the FBI. I would always be a flight risk. And that was the thing. I knew how much Andrea would need to flee once she was locked inside Yorov’s grasp. I knew what it meant to be their tool. To be used.

I shivered, both from the wind and the thoughts of past predicaments. The speedboat cut through the water at high speed, bringing us closer to Steep Rock, faster than we would have traveled by car. No twists and turns on the water. I glanced back at Larkin, who was steering the boat. He’d been true to his word. Not unaffected by Andrea’s appearance. Maybe he was human in there somewhere. Mostly, I figured he saw the benefit of me cooperating. Nevertheless, he’d made one phone call, and then waited five minutes. When his contact rang back, the boat had been settled. It had been at a nearby dock, keys in the ignition. If the FBI didn’t have the resources themselves, they sure did seem to know who to turn to.

As we rounded an islet where a few trees grew, Steep Rock came into view. We were so far northeast of Ashport now that I could see the lights of Charlotte Bay further on in that direction. Steep Rock drew my attention, though. The house lay on top of a cliff, a sandy beach below. There were lights on in the house that made it visible in the semi-darkness. The kidnappers were there, and they were awake. It wasn’t even a thought in my head that we could be in the wrong place.

Larkin cut the engine when we were close enough, and as we reached the shore, I got up and jumped into the shallow water. The cold water soaked through my shoes and jeans below my knees at once, the smell of saltwater even more dominant. Hansen did the same on the other side, and we grabbed hold and pulled the boat until it stuck in the sand. After that, we waited until Larkin came ashore–dry feet, the lucky bastard–and secured the boat by tying a rope from it to a heavy rock that protruded enough for the purpose. Hansen and I stood in silence watching him. This was the moment. Larkin’s rules were no weapons unless needed. He’d only cut us loose because we needed to move, but he always kept behind us as well. Gun at the ready.

“I’m trusting you to keep to your word, Ms. Evans,” he said as he approached us, handing me my purse. Except the metal lining, it wasn’t much of a weapon. It still felt comfortable to have it on me, though. I always wore it hanging by my hip. When I needed to move fast, all I had to do was pull at the strap and it would be out of my way against my back.

“And,” the agent continued, “I’m trusting you to let her make her own bargains.”

He handed Hansen his stuff, including his gun. He didn’t look happy. Actually, that is an understatement. He looked like he wanted to shoot Larkin in the face, but he reined himself in and eyed the cliff instead. From where we stood, we couldn’t see the house. At least we all agreed we had something more important to attend to right now.

“Let’s get up there.” I grabbed an elastic band from my purse and fastened my hair with it as we started walking. I had no wish to have my vision impaired by getting hair in my eyes.

“There’s a path over there,” Hansen pointed out. It was a narrow path carved into the cliff that wound its way back and forth to the top. A rickety railing of wood and rope was what kept people from falling. “Wouldn’t want to meet any of them there, though,” he added.

“I say we walk around,” Larkin chimed in. “It’s longer, but safer.”

I wanted to protest. Wanted to run up the steep incline of the cliff. But they were unfortunately right. The cliff itself was about a hundred feet high. More than enough to kill you if one of the kidnappers came down and pushed. They had the high ground after all. The cliff itself wasn’t really a dominating feature in the landscape. It rose behind the beach, its top protruding at its highest about where we knew the house stood. We ran toward its northeastern side to find our way up from there. The sand made our run slower than it had to be, the tiny grains clinging to Hansen’s and my wet shoes. As we reached the grass and hard dirt of the cliffside, I slowed my pace and settled for the run upward. It was a steep incline here as well, though not as bad as the pathway. Still, being exhausted when we reached the top would be foolish. I glanced at my side and saw Hansen keeping up. No surprise there. Then I noticed we’d lost the agent.

I turned around, my steps faltering a little as I saw him further down, gun flying out of his hand as a man came running straight for him. The levitating gun caught the agent completely off guard. I had fought him myself, and I knew nothing else explained why he let the man pummel him to the ground like that.

One of the kidnappers. It had to be. I didn’t recognize him. But I didn’t have to, either. Who else would attack people like that?

Well...fuck that. Let the Suit fend for himself, I thought and turned to continue toward the house again. I got ten steps in before I noticed I was alone. Where the hell was Hansen? It took me second to realize before I turned around again. Sure enough, there he was, sprinting down toward the two fighting men. I could see the kidnapper on top of Agent Larkin, though it seemed they both got in a few punches. No doubt Larkin was the more experienced fighter of the two, but the kidnapper had caught him by surprise.

Hansen drew his gun as he ran, nearing the two fighters. I shook my head at this. Had he not seen what the kidnapper could do? If he had, he was denying it to himself. He stopped beside them, gun aimed and steady. The two men stopped fighting a moment, the kidnapper focused on the weapon directed at him. I couldn’t hear what Hansen said, but I could guess. The kidnapper didn’t listen. Instead, he raised an arm and the gun flew out of Hansen’s hands and hit him smack in the head, sending him backward on his ass. If it wasn’t for the dire circumstances, I would have laughed at that spectacle. As it was, I ran back down. Saw the kidnapper assess his surroundings as he got up. Both Hansen and Larkin were about to get on their feet, a double threat to the man. He only had one chance, and he took it. He crouched and focused on Larkin’s gun, which lay closest. The thing flew into his hand as if it were drawn like a magnet. I didn’t think that was what it was, though. No, his telekinesis was weak. Otherwise, he would have sent both men flying toward the rocks near the cliff. He aimed the weapon toward them in triumph, his back to me.

Sometimes you do get lucky, even in a shit storm.

Hansen and Larkin saw me coming, and they did the most sensible thing they could. They got up, distracting the kidnapper. I was close enough to hear him telling them to get down again, broken English and all. Not until I was three steps away from him did he hear me and start to turn around.

Adrenaline pumping, breath fast but steady, I focused on nothing but him. Small build, muscled. Bigger than me, but not by much. I launched a kick that hit his elbow hard enough to startle him and make him lose his grip on the gun. After that, I used the downward slope and gravity to my advantage. Without pause I threw myself up, one leg going around his neck as my upper body swung around him. My other leg connected the grip around his neck in the same fluent movement, and as my body fell down, he was whipped into the air, swinging over me by his neck. Confusion was all I glimpsed of his face before I heard the loud snap and felt the tremors on the ground as he hit.

Then I realized I had fallen on the ground myself, back first, and it hurt. I groaned as I twisted, sucking in air and getting to my knees. My hands hurt from landing on them and I flexed my fingers on the ground, dirt coloring them. The pain was a dull ache, though. Not the sharp bolts of pain from anything broken.

“Broken necks, huh?” Hansen commented nearby. I didn’t realize he’d come that close. I nodded and looked over at the dead body. He lay sprawled below me, eyes open in shock. It happened so fast. No time for him to make a counter move. Too bad for him, I thought, and then realized there was a cop trying to help me get up. I waved him off and got upright on my own.

“Just get your gun, Detective. And try to hold onto it next time,” I snarled. I wanted to shout at him for going back for Larkin, but the Agent was right there. I didn’t need him to change his mind about this now. But I was pissed off, adrenaline and pain not helping. Old bruises were throbbing in tandem with what would certainly become new ones.

“Where did he come from, anyway?” I asked Larkin, who had walked past me to pick up his own weapon.

“Must have hidden among the rocks by the cliff.” He holstered the gun with remarkable ease. Didn’t seem to be hurting much from the punches he had taken mere moments ago. I didn’t like the man, but I sure envied his way of pushing pain aside.

“He must have seen the boat come in, or heard it,” Larkin continued. “Came down to check, I guess.”

I glanced up toward the house again. I could see the top of it from where we stood now. The lights in the rooms still had a golden tint to them, though darkness was fading fast at this point.

“If he had told the others they would have been here by now,” Hansen said and then looked thoughtfully down at the dead kidnapper. “Must have been the driver,” he mumbled, more to himself than us.

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