Brogan glared at Donny. “What the fuck is going on here?” “Sorry, Brogan,” Donny sighed. “We had to hold our cover even with you. Though it was damned hard to hold the part the night you visited.”

“Where is she?” he rasped again, his fists clenching furiously.

“Kiser’s not involved with this,” Sandi said quickly. “His foreman is another story. He was one of Chandler Mackay’s partners. He believes Brogan has the coordinates of the stolen gold. He’s holding Eve for the gold.”

“Where is she?” he rasped again, his fists clenching furiously.

“You’re not going in alone,” Donny stated firmly, coolly. Before Brogan could stop himself he had a handful of the agent’s shirt as he hauled him nearly off his feet, dragging him nose-to-nose with him.

“I will kill you,” he stated with an icy calm. “Where is she?”

“They stole the Nauti Buoy.” Donny grimaced. “It’s currently anchored in the middle of the left fork of Lake Cumberland. Kiser’s foreman, Kai Maynard, is a former Special Forces and one of his cohorts is a formerly dishonorably discharged Ranger named Joel Keller.”

Brogan turned to a fuming Rowdy, the owner of the Nauti Buoy. “How do I get to that boat and how do I get on it?”

“Getting on it is easy,” Rowdy answered. “Getting to her is another thing, according to where they’re holding her.”

“According to our information she is on the first level, tied to one of the bunk beds on the right, in the hall,” Donny stated.

“Where are you getting your information?” Brogan snarled.

“Poppa Bear’s with them,” Donny admitted. “He’s been part of Kai’s group for several years. Before that he was with Chandler Mackay. But he’s always been a federal agent and informant.” He gave Dawg and Brogan a hard look. “We don’t have much time. Now do we get onto that fucking houseboat?”

Brogan’s gaze sharpened on the other man. “Kai has more than just Eve,” he guessed in a dangerous voice. “What does he have that the FBI is after?”

Donny’s lips tightened as Sandi whispered something to him. His gaze shifted to Brogan furiously as he gave a tight nod. Sandi stepped back. “One of the files Kai Maynard stole had a list of agent code names assigned to several subversive Homeland Security groups. If he gets away with that file, a lot of agents are going to die.”

“He’s definitely a dead man,” Brogan declared as he turned to Dawg. “You ready to go?”

Dawg nodded, his smile savage. “Let’s go.”

TWENTY

Eve sat on the bunk, her arms stretched above her and secured to the bottom of the metal bunk frame with a pair of handcuffs. Her fingers bit into the metal slats above her as she held onto them in an attempt to keep the pressure of the cuffs from tightening around her wrists each time her arms got tired and slipped. Not that holding them up by her fingertips tucked beneath the slats was really helping a lot.

“Here you go, cutie pie.” Poppa Bear gripped her shoulder and pulled her forward to tuck another pillow behind her without asking if that would make her more comfortable.

She glared at him, taking in the Santa look of the full head of gray hair and the well-trimmed beard and mustache of the same color.

“Why are you doing this?” she whispered, staring up into the dark brown eyes that held a twinkle of a smile.

“Because it makes me happy,” he laughed jovially.

He may look like that jolly little elf, but she couldn’t remember a single story where Santa took hostages or where he threatened to kill them. Unless that was fun and games in his off hours, she thought half hysterically.

This was just wonderful. She was definitely living on a much shorter time line than she had ever imagined and here she was worrying about Santa.

“Too bad we lost Kraig,” Kai grumbled as Poppa Bear moved back to his seat just inside the hall where he could keep an eye on her. “He’d make a hell of a scapegoat.”

“Once we get the gold we’ll just take care of both of them.” Poppa Bear shrugged as he looked back at Eve, grinned and winked merrily. “Don’t worry, sweetie, I’ll make sure it don’t hurt.”

She sneered back at him.

Yeah, that was a comforting thought. It just wouldn’t hurt.

Kai laughed at the other man’s comment as Eve glimpsed him prowling about the other side of the kitchen.

“How long do you think it should take?” Kai asked. “I have to call them soon. I don’t want anyone getting any ideas if they figure out we have the boat and where we are.”

“It’s all depending on where that gold is.” Poppa Bear shrugged. “It will take them a while to load it, though. Chandler never got it all transported after he stole it. Though, I’d say Dawg can get it all in one haul in that heavy-duty delivery truck he has for the store if he can get it to wherever his daddy hid it.”

“Too bad it wasn’t hidden in the house.” Kai grimaced.

“I spent three nights searching that house after Chandler died.” Poppa Bear sighed. “If it was there, it was hid so damned good that even my electronics couldn’t find the shit.”

What gold?

God, she hated this. If she ever got out of it alive and Brogan kept so much as one damned secret from her then she was going to end up shooting him.

Besides the fact she was way too damned nosy and hated, absolutely hated, not knowing what was going on, she had also not been prepared for Kai Maynard. Perhaps if she had known what was going on, she would have been prepared.

“If we could have gotten rid of Brogan’s sister, then none of us would have been identified,” Kai snapped, his anger obviously brewing. “Son of a bitch, Bear, this is ridiculous. How the hell did he manage to fuck up?”

“We warned him,” Poppa Bear seemed to be reminding him. “Samantha Bryce ain’t no man’s dummy. And her instincts are out of this world. She was already gettin’ suspicious of him and he wouldn’t hear it.”

Kai muttered something that caused Poppa Bear to chuckle in amusement. “Just ’cause she’s a lesbian don’t make her no dummy, Kai.”

“Fine, she’s no dummy,” Kai snapped, his tone hard and angry. “Kraig wasn’t stupid either. So how did she manage it?”

“I told you Kraig was underestimating her,” Poppa Bear retorted, obviously becoming irritated. “I even told Kraig and he wouldn’t listen to me.”

“Stupid bastard,” Kai cursed again. “I should have called one of the men in from Illinois. They wouldn’t have put up with her shit.”

“Yeah, us Southern boys just seem to have trouble believin’ our womenfolk are as smart as we are.” Poppa guffawed. “It ends up gettin’ most of us hurt. Boys like Kraig end up gettin’ killed.”

Poppa Bear looked back at her, winked again, this time without the smile, but with a warning look instead before turning back to Kai.

“Give ’em a call, Kai,” Poppa Bear told him patiently. “Make the call to Ray, he has a cooler head. Those boys just blow up and lose their senses when they get pissed.”

“Now don’t it just break my heart that they’re gonna get pissed,” Kai sneered. “See if you can find that location scrambler for me.”

“Hell, I told you to keep it with you, Kai,” Poppa Bear growled in irritation. “Hang on.”

Straightening from his chair Poppa Bear moved down the hall to the back bedroom. Watching him, Eve saw him going through the blankets on the bed before turning into the bathroom. Empty-handed, he moved back into the bedroom, started going through some bags then moments later gave a muffled “Aha.”

Stepping back into the hall, he paused.

Pushing a small metal key quickly into her hand, he whispered so low she barely heard him. “Wait for the sign. Unlock. Go over back into water. Hear me?”

She nodded quickly.

Rising, he took a quick step away from her as she felt the cool light weight of the key in her curled fingers.

“I got our location scrambler,” Poppa Bear announced as he moved back into the kitchen. “Is there anything else you need, young’un?”

Kai laughed fondly as he stepped to the other man and took the device.

“Two hours,” Kai remarked. “That should be plenty of time for them to get everyone together.”

“Definitely,” Poppa Bear agreed. “Make sure old Dawg has plenty of help loadin’ all that purty gold.”

Eve watched as Kai plugged his phone into it then quickly made his call.

Location scrambler?

She knew it was possible to track cell phones, but strangely enough no one had taken her cell phone from her bag, nor had they turned it off. It was lying at the bottom of the bunk bed, and she prayed it was providing a beacon to the houseboat.

As she watched, Kai moved past Poppa Bear toward her as the phone rang.

“Hello,” Grandpa Ray answered the phone carefully.

“Ray Mackay?” Kai asked.

“It is.”

“Your niece Eve wants to say hello,” he spoke into the speaker phone. “Here she is.”

“Grandpa? I’m fine,” she told him, avoiding Kai’s cruel, hazel eyes. “Tell Brogan not to worry.”

Kai pulled the phone back.

“Ray, if you ever want to see Eve alive again, then listen up. And tell your boys they better follow my directions exactly.” He chuckled then. “And tell Brogan to worry. ’Cause if they don’t hurry, then I’m going to have a little personal party with Ms. Mackay here. I’ll show her how a real man fucks.”

He smiled down at Eve in leering lust before turning and pacing back to the front of the boat before he began conveying his “orders” to Ray.

As Kai spoke, Poppa Bear moved back to the hall, turned, and mouthed “Now.”

Eve moved. Carefully turning the key in her fingers she inserted it into the lock and turned it carefully.

The cuffs clicked open.

Glancing up the hall again to see Poppa Bear’s wide form blocking Kai’s sight down the hall, she quickly slid from the bunk before slipping into the back room and moving nervously to the sliding glass door at the back.

Sliding it open just enough to slip onto the narrow deck, she edged over to the ladder that led into the water and quickly began descending.

The water was still chilly.

Summer hadn’t gotten as hot as it normally did by now, but even then, the deeper waters took longer to warm.

Not quite icy but definitely uncomfortable, the water washed over her ankles, her knees as she glanced up quickly, all too aware of the two men Kai had directed onto the top deck of the houseboat.

Thankfully, the overhang from the second floor and deck roof provided just enough protection that they wouldn’t see her easing into the water, but after she got into the cold lake, there would be no swimming for shore.

The water lapped over her waist, causing a shiver to wash up her spine as she ran out of ladder and finished lowering herself by holding onto the ladder’s rungs with her hands.

She was at the last rung, thinking desperately, trying to figure out how to hide when a hard hand suddenly capped over her mouth.

She froze.

“Hello, baby,” Brogan whispered at her ear. “Ready to go hide with me?”

Relief rushed through her with tidal wave force, sucking the strength from her knees and making her damned glad she didn’t need them right now.

As he helped her, she turned in his arms, feeling the wetsuit he wore and seeing the oxygen tank on his back, the rebreather on his face.

“We’re going under the boat,” he explained quickly. “On three take a deep breath. One. Two. Three.”