Page 96 of Shallow Remains

He wasn’t losing his brother.

The Coast Guard had been alerted immediately, but with Maddy and Lachlan both in mortal danger, every minute counted.

It was up to him, Blaine, and Rafe to make sure they both came home alive.

He heard the thump of the helo’s rotors before he saw it.

The Bell 407 appeared over a distant ridge and descended as it angled toward them. A civilian aircraft much smaller than the military ones Grey was used to operating out of.

The pilot slowed as it approached, put the aircraft in a hover high above them and turned its nose to face due west before easing the skids onto the center of the grassy pitch. Blaine was in the front passenger seat. Grey and Rafe waited for him to wave them forward before they raced for the aircraft.

Grey yanked the righthand back door open and climbed inside while Rafe did the same on the left. They put on their headsets as they strapped in.

“What’s the latest?” Grey said into his mic. The field shrank beneath them as they lifted into the sky. Moments later they were flying over the colorful buildings and trees in Whalebone Cove. Over the marina where the fire truck was still on scene, then out to sea, heading west.

“Nothing since that initial message,” Blaine answered as the pilot nosed them forward and climbed.

“Coast Guard is en route, but it’ll likely be another thirty to forty minutes before they’re on scene,” Rafe said.

That was way too long. Grey’s gut told him Maddy and Lachlan didn’t have that kind of time. “I need to update Lach. He should be getting close to the island now. What’s our ETA?”

“Eleven minutes, maybe less, depending on the wind,” Blaine answered. “Did he find anything on board?”

“No, but he didn’t stop long enough to do a thorough search.” He’d been too focused on getting to Maddy. Ready to take on a psychopath, alone and unarmed, to save her.

Blaine swiveled in his seat to look at him, and his deadly serious expression congealed the blood in Grey’s veins. “You need to get him on the phone and make him look again. Now.”

Grey dialed his brother, waited several agonizing seconds for the call to connect. “Come on, asshole, pick up,” he muttered under his breath as it started to ring.

FIFTY

The cold wind, rain and sea spray in her face was exhilarating.

Eve was high on elation and endorphins as she steered the boat from the shelter of Dead Man’s Island behind them and sped toward her unsuspecting target. Lachlan McCaffrey had no idea he was about to die, but Maddy knew it. And that made this so much better.

Beneath that heady rush of triumph, grief swelled. A dark, rising tide that threatened to drown her.

She pushed it down deep. Because she had to settle the score. Once she’d taken her revenge, she could rest. Use the money to realize their dream of living on a tiny Greek island without any more worries.

Except she would be doing it alone.

I’m so close now, Elliot. This one’s for you.

She had an exit plan in place. “Friends” ready to pick her up as soon as she alerted them once this was over. But first she was going to make Maddy watch her man die.

Eve hadn’t been there to see Elliot die, but she’d imagined it a thousand times, and each time the pain was unbearable. The bullets punching through his skull. Splattering blood and brain matter on the concrete walls of the cell Maddy had been in.

Sucking in a bracing breath, she clamped her jaw tight. She would kill Lachlan McCaffrey, wait a few minutes to maximize Maddy’s emotional suffering, and only then would she inflict the physical suffering. Put a few bullets in non-lethal places and dump her overboard to drown or bleed out, whichever happened first. Fish food.

Her portion of the money was secure in her offshore account. Her partner’s share was safe in his. Her escape vehicle was waiting nearby.

It was almost over now, and there was nothing Maddy could do to save either of them.

Maddy braced herself with a hand on the edge of the boat as Eve turned them hard away from the shelter of the island and headed out into the rough strait. She huddled near the stern with her arms wrapped around her body, shivering so hard her muscles felt bruised and her teeth chattered.

But worse than her physical discomfort and dread as she waited for Eve to pull that trigger was the terror of knowing that Lachlan was about to die because of her.

Through the fear and disbelief, the molten anger deep inside began to grow. Hotter and hotter until it suffused her whole body and made her heart pound. Eve continued to divide her attention between Maddy and the water ahead of them, intent on intercepting Lachlan and detonating the bomb.