Page 45 of Beachcomber Enemy

“Shana’s having another surgery?”

Ronnie nodded. “I’m sorry, Dane. But they say she’s still bleeding internally. They have to go back in and find out why and see if they can repair it.”

If they can repair it?

He kept himself together, kept hold of his mind, his sanity, kept himself from yelling out his despair and held onto his hope. He held onto the fact that he’d be getting out of here—lawyer or no lawyer he’d find a way—and he was going to see her before she went into that surgery.

“You said my lawyer, Ms. Kimble, will be here at eight?” He spoke in a calm, measured voice as he gathered all the inner strength he had. All he had left.

Sassy nodded, her eyes sad and tearing up. He looked away from her and spoke to Ronnie.

“What time is Shana’s surgery?”

“I think it’s at ten—”

“Find out for sure.” His voice was tight, matching every muscle in his body as he thought about how he would escape the cell if he had to. He would use Ronnie and Sassy—didn’t even care if he got the boy in trouble and ruined his West Point career.

“Calling Dr. Aoki right now.”

Dane nodded at him without guilt as he plotted. But his attention was drawn to the stairs as he heard footsteps and voices. Two voices. One female and one Cap’s.

The visceral reaction to the man’s presence was immediate, turning the dormant rage white hot in a nanosecond. He did what he’d said he wouldn’t, gripping the bars to get himself back under control as the two reached the bottom of the stairs and into the hall to join Ronnie and Sassy at his cell.

Cap looked at him. He met the man’s cool eyes. There was no apology, no remorse, no nothing. He had a blank look. His was almost as good as Dane’s blank stare, but his eyes were still alive, they still had a spark. In that spark Dane could see his humanity. His imperfect humanity.

“Good to finally meet you in person, Mr. Blaise.” Ms. Kimble spoke and he snapped his eyes from Cap’s.

Sassy and Ronnie had been holding their breath, waiting out the tense moment. Dane tossed them a small smile of reassurance. It was real enough because he was fond of them. Then he turned to Ms. Kimble and nodded as he studied her.

She was short and nicely rounded with unruly dark hair that she let go in a riot around her smart face. Her big owl-like brown eyes were magnified with super-size glasses. But her smiling mouth was remarkable and lush and he’d bet she had plenty of men wanting to kiss those lips. Dane wouldn’t have been one of them, even if he hadn’t been hopelessly in love with his girl. But maybe Ms. Kimble could use her feminine wiles along with her intelligence and legal expertise to get Dane out of there within the next thirty minutes. Tops.

Because that’s all Dane figured he had before Shana became inaccessible. Normally he wouldn’t let pre-op procedures stop him from getting to a person, but this surgery was too important. He had to get out of jail pronto.

“Captain Lynch, you can leave us now so that I can have a private chat with my client.”

Cap nodded, looked at Dane like he might say something, hesitated, then left.

Guess Cap is still a coward today. Same as yesterday.

Sassy stepped close to the bars half whispered, “Cap is just doing his job. He knows you did the right thing. This will all blow over. No one is going to convict you of murder for killing that horrible nut job.”

“We’ll leave you—” Ronnie started to say, taking Sassy by the arm.

“No, Mr. Ryan, is it? I’d like you to stay. I want to hear your part of the story while I have you here. It’ll give me a more complete picture of what happened.”

“Sure. What do you need to know?”

“Tell me what happened from when you arrived at Sassy’s home.” Ms. Kimble gave Sassy a soft smile and grasped her hand and held it as if to brace her for the retelling of a horror story.

“I went to Sassy’s by myself. Reconnaissance. Ahead of the others. Everything was quiet. There was no vehicle at the house. My guess was that Whitey was using Sassy’s car to do whatever he had to do. I hadn’t seen him leave on the surveillance feed so I figured he left while I was in transit.” Ronnie took a breath and held onto Sassy’s other hand. Sassy looked at the floor. Dane let go of the bars and stepped back while he listened to the kid—or rather young man. He hadn’t heard about this part. Although he’d been keen on rescuing Sassy, most of his attention and energy had been focused on protecting Shana. Especially that morning. Yesterday morning.

“I came in through the woods behind her backyard and went low. I needed to see in the basement window, needed to see Sassy and make sure she was . . . okay. But what I saw was not okay. She was . . . strung up by her wrists and Eli was staring at her, sitting there holding a remote in his hand as if he were watching TV. But I saw the wires attached to Sassy and strung to an explosive device and I knew the remote was a detonator.”

“What did you do then?” Ms. Kimble asked in a quiet, curious voice.

“Then I called to let Dane and Cap and Joe know the status and I waited.” He turned to Sassy. “But I swear on my Bible that I would have gone in on my own if backup didn’t arrive within ten minutes.” He took another breath and Dane was proud of how the kid calmed himself.

“Joe got there within ten and we checked again. No change. It was odd though because Cap had said that they hadn’t spotted Whitey or Sassy’s car anywhere near the church. Now we know why. He’d left early to set up his bomb.