Page 53 of Dare Me

“Yeah.” Josie tapped his shoulder. “I knew you would come around.” She shook her head. “Okay, so if Jade’s not answering her phone and she’s not at our place, her office, or shagging with you…”

He frowned. “She walks the grounds every now and then.”

“Right, what about using that thing.” Josie pulled the tracking device out of her pocket. She had placed it on a fuzzy purple key ring and had put a sparkling unicorn sticker on it.

“That’s government property,” he reminded her as he walked over and flipped open his laptop. It took a moment for it to boot back up and open the application. When he punched in Jade’s name, Josie gasped as the arrow pointed in the middle of the ocean.

“What the…” He zoomed in closer. “She’s on a boat.” He turned to Josie.

“Why is she on a boat?” Josie asked.

“Damn it.” He jumped up and started making calls as he gathered the items he would need. “Stay here,” he called over his shoulder as he rushed out of the bungalow, but Josie was two steps behind him, and the look she gave him told him there was no way in hell she was being left behind.

By the time they made it to the docks, there was a speed boat waiting for them.

“Do you know how to drive one of these?” he asked as he gunned the engine once they’d left the no-wake zone.

“Yes,” Josie said, holding his laptop to her chest as she watched the little blip that was Jade’s location continue to move away from them.

“Good. I may need you to take over for me at some point,” he said as water sprayed into their faces.

They traveled along the island as the sun sank lower in the sky. The clear water grew darker as the barren land to the right of them became less visible in the darkness.

“They’re slowing down,” Josie said sometime later. The island was pretty void of life with the exception of Freeport and a few smaller towns. Still, there were plenty of places to hide out or take off from in a sea plane.

“Good,” he said.

“They’re almost to Blue Marlin Cove.”

“Yeah, we are too,” he said. He made another call. “Help is about half an hour out.” He turned and looked down at her. “You stay with the boat. No arguments there. Understood?”

She nodded, but the look in her eyes had him second-guessing her.

He slowed the engine once they reached the wake zone less than five minutes later. They went through a narrow channel that opened up into the small man-made port. Several channels jutted off the main one.

“Where is she?” he asked, looking around.

“She’s still here,” Jade said, zooming in on the screen. “To the left.”

He turned the boat slightly towards the other resort’s docks. The Cove’s docks were smaller than the ones at Freeport. Still, at this time of night, there were more than two dozen boats docked.

Two main docks had several others jutting off from them. Jade was somewhere on the back end of the area. There were currently three boats in slips along the back. She could be in any one of them. They wouldn’t know until they got closer. The problem was, if they got too close, whoever had her might do something drastic.

He killed the engine and coasted the boat into an empty slip near the end of the dock. After tying off the boat, he told Josie once more to stay put.

When he pulled his service weapon from his holster and checked it, he heard Josie swallow and watched her sink back into the seat.

Thankfully, it was dark enough now that, unless they were looking for him, no one would see him until he was directly in front of them.

Moving quietly, he went to the first boat and checked it. It was empty. Besides, it was too small to hide anyone in. The next boat was a little bigger and when he moved closer, he heard talking in the hull.

“What are you going to do?” He heard Jade’s voice. “Shoot me? Do you even know who I am?”

Shit. Wyatt slipped onto the boat and moved closer. He chanced a peek inside a small window on the door that led downstairs and saw Jade standing just inside, a young teenager behind her, as if she was guarding the girl with her own life. Two men stood between them and the door.

As far as he could tell, neither of the men had weapons of any type. But Jade had mentioned shooting her. Did that mean they had guns?

Then he noticed that the teenager was leaning heavily on Jade. What did that mean? Had she been drugged? Had Jade?

---