Emerald Fire (37 page)

“Son of a bitch!” Finn swore. She was going to be the death of him yet.

He watched her walk over to join her uncle, who at least had the good sense to look horrified at her life-threatening move.

“You know, Hosea, you’d make friends a whole lot easier if you weren’t threatening to kill them all the time.” Chloe sounded calm as you please, not at all like she was desperate to change the status quo.

“I knew I’d find you again,” Hosea said with a grin. “You are beautiful and brave and a little
loco
. I think I like you. You would make a fine wife.”

“Is this a proposal?” she asked.

Finn took a deep breath, trying to calm the red haze of panic that threatened to make him do something rash. Like grab Hosea by the throat and wring the bastard’s neck.

“Maybe,” Hosea said, as though he considered the idea. “I grow tired of Reyes. She spends too much of my money. But she makes fine tortillas, so maybe we keep her as a cook, no?”

“See, that’s a problem,” Chloe said. “You’ve no sense of loyalty. I’d truly be
loco
to marry a man like you.”

Finn clamped his jaw in anger. He’d be damned if she married anyone but him.

“Ah, but with me, you will have the pretty emeralds. I know this is important to you. It’s why you stole my boat.”

“His boat,” she said, pointing to Jonathan. “But no need to quibble. There’s another problem.”

Finn took his eyes off Chloe long enough to check on his dad. The third pirate was done dousing the woodpile and tossed the empty can into the mix. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter. His dad was on his knees, sighting in the arsonist.

Damn it to hell and back. He couldn’t do anything about it, couldn’t help his dad. Chloe took absolute priority.

“The problem belongs to this
senorita
,” Hosea said. “Tell your other friend to come out, or we will finish this now.”

“Do not hurt her,” Jonathan demanded. But Hosea only laughed.

“I will trade her to you,” the pirate said, “this
chica
who paid me to kill you. I do not understand why this is important to you, but I do not judge. We all have our problems. Mine is the emeralds. Give them to me, and you can have this traitorous wife.”

“We can’t,” Chloe said. “They are in the harbor.”

“You are lying,” Hosea spat.

“My friend dropped them when we jumped,” she replied.

Finn glanced again at his dad.
Now dad, do it now
.
Pull the trigger.

“This most is unfortunate,” Hosea said with a sigh. “My operation has suffered, my people are unhappy. The damage you have done is not fixable without much money. This concerns me greatly and hurts my reputation. Without the emeralds, I’m afraid I must kill you.”

Finn had to move before Hosea did the unthinkable. If anyone else was going to die tonight, it was going to be the pirate leader. Finn lowered the spear gun to his side but kept his finger on the trigger, then stepped out into the yard.

“How’s the jaw, Hosea?” Finn said boldly. “Did I manage to break it or do I need to try again?”

Chloe spun to face him, her eyes huge. “What are you doing?”

“The same as you,” he said without looking away from Hosea. “Changing things up.”

Hosea moved his weapon’s aim from Jonathan to Chloe. Finn lifted the spear gun at the same time his dad let loose a string of bullets on the arsonist. Hosea snarled in fury, but Finn kept his aim dead on.

“You are down one man, Hosea,” Chloe taunted. “Maybe you should quit while you have the chance to walk out of here.”

“I did not much like him anyway,” Hosea snapped. He still had a gun, but the odds were no longer in his favor. He knew it, too, and fury gleamed in the man’s eyes. This was a man who’d cause as much grief as he could before going down.

A whoosh of igniting gasoline filled Finn with dread. Chloe gasped, but he ignored it, trusted that his father had the situation in hand. He’d locked gazes with Hosea and saw the intent in the other man’s eyes, then the smile on his face when he spoke in his native language to Hector.

The death order.

Lisa screamed and struggled wildly. And in a split second move, Jonathan shifted his gun to Hector and double tapped. Lisa’s scream was cut off as she and her captor crumpled to the ground.

Hosea didn’t flinch, didn’t hesitate, and fired straight at Chloe. Finn instinctively dove for her, to cover her from the line of fire. A searing pain pierced his shoulder on the way down, and he hit the ground harder than he intended, knocking the spear gun out of his hands.

“Finn!” The agonized cry came from Chloe. He felt woozy and shook his head to clear it, then looked up to see Hosea bearing down on him, the muzzle of his firearm lifting to shoot.

Chloe squirmed beneath him, snatched the spear gun, and pulled the trigger. There was a quick whizzing sound then a solid
thunk
as the arrow sank into Hosea’s chest.

Sirens sounded in the distance, and Finn blinked, uncertain if it was real. He watched Hosea drop to his knees, a look of incredulous horror on his face. He stared down at the spear sticking out of his body, at the bright red blood surging onto the white pullover he wore. Then his face went slack, and he fell.

The rushing in Finn’s head got louder, and he fought to rise, but couldn’t.

“No, Finn, no,” Chloe sounded desperate, pushing his shoulder into the ground. “Stay with me, Finn,” she ordered. “Don’t you dare leave me.” She was crying, and he reached up to touch her face.

Then his whole world went black.

Chloe kept pressure on Finn’s wound, trying not to look at the very dead Hosea only a few feet from them, at the arrow sticking out from both sides of his body.

She kept her eyes firmly on Finn, on his too pale face and dark lashes that stood out against the whiteness of his skin.

“Finn,” she cried. “I love you. Do you hear me? I love you. Wake up!”

Sirens were drawing closer.

Finn was unconscious, hadn’t moved, but he was still breathing. “Please, Finn,” she begged. “Please be okay.”

Ronan dropped down beside her on the ground, next to his son’s head. He pulled off his blue denim shirt and used a pocketknife to rip it in half. “He’s a fighter.”

“I love him, Ronan. He has to be okay, has to wake up so I can tell him.” She felt hot tears on her face and didn’t care.

“I know,” Ronan said softly. “Finn is strong. He will live to hear your words.”

He lifted his son’s shoulder. “Bullet went through,” he said and wadded up one half of his shirt to put beneath the wound. The other he loosely folded and handed to her to continue pushing against the front.

“Hang in there, son. Help is coming.”

“Uncle Jonathan?” Chloe asked.

“He’s with Lisa. She took a bullet in the arm. They will both be okay.”

Chloe’s breath caught on a sob of relief until she remembered the fire. “The office?” She asked, turning her head to look toward the building. It still stood, partially blackened, with a pile of debris burning nearby. A forklift sat off to the side.

“It’s damaged, will probably have to be rebuilt.”

She nodded and looked back at Finn. He looked pale and still, but his chest rose and fell with each wonderful breath. She kept the pressure against his shoulder.

Emergency vehicles were pulling into the yard.

The man from NorthStar damn well better survive. She’d never forgive William Desmond if this quest gave her the love of her life, then took him away. Nothing was worth that kind of loss. Nothing.

“Finnegan Kane,” she whispered to him. “If you don’t wake up soon, I’m going to take Simonelli.”

“No.”

The word was so soft she almost didn’t hear it over all the shouting and arriving sirens.

“No?” She said with hope. “Stop me, mister.”

“You love me.” He said it like a statement, not a question. But his beautiful blue eyes were open and staring right at her.

“Yes!” she sobbed. “Yes, I do.”

“I love you, too.”

Her heart soared. “You have to,” she said, her voice cracking. “I’m pretty certain it’s in the journal.”

“Marry me,” he said in almost a whisper.

She laughed with the sheer joy of it. “I think Desmond and Mathis would haunt us if we don’t.”

A tiny smile moved his lips.

The EMTs arrived, and she moved over to give them room. Within a few minutes, they had Finn loaded onto a gurney and rolling. She walked beside him, reluctant to step away, even for a second.

They rolled to a stop at the back of the ambulance, and Finn grabbed her hand. “Promise you won’t leave,” he said.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” she said with a grin.

Ronan came around the vehicle and joined them. “This place is a mess, son. You need to get on your feet and do something about it.”

“Do I have to do everything around here?”

His dad laughed. “I’ll follow to the hospital as soon as things are done here.”

Finn nodded.

The EMTs loaded Finn into the ambulance, and before she could climb in after him, Ronan grabbed her arm. When she turned to face him, he lifted her hand and dropped the emerald necklace into her palm.

The emeralds flashed in the sunlight, and Chloe stilled. They were beautiful, worthy of a queen. She’d spent years searching for them, but right now, they took a back seat to the man in the ambulance. With a deep breath and a grim smile, she handed the necklace back to Ronan. “You keep it.”

Ronan nodded approvingly. “Take good care of him, Chloe.”

She knew what he meant and warmed at his acceptance. “Always.”

Chloe stepped off the porch of Ronan’s house, her arms loaded down with a lunch basket. Since returning home from the hospital three days ago, Finn had worked alongside his dad in getting the grounds cleaned up. He tired easy and took frequent breaks, always seeking her out no matter where onsite she worked. That was mostly in the office, getting the video equipment dismantled and safely stored so they could strip the fire-damaged walls down to the bones and start over.

The lumber corral was a total loss, and they planned on rebuilding but in a different spot. Finn said it had been in the way where it was anyhow, so they planned to move it over alongside the preservation shed.

She made her way across the new gravel to the Harbor Master’s office by the old dry dock. When she entered the shop, Finn was prepping his scuba gear.

“Today is the day?” Excitement fluttered in her stomach. “Are you certain? The bandages aren’t yet off.”

“I have a dry suit.”

She set the basket on a drawing table. “Do you think they are still there?”

“Aye. They’ll be there waiting.”

“The museum curator has called me every day,” she said. “They are chomping at the bit to buy the collection.”

Ronan entered then, carrying two scuba tanks. “Thank the seven seas you brought lunch. I’m starving.”

“Gourmet ham and cheese sandwiches.”

He snorted. “This is just ham, cheese, and bread. Why couldn’t you find a woman to marry who had cooking skills?” Ronan asked his son.

Finnegan smiled at her. “Don’t let him give you grief, Mrs. Kane. He’d be crushed if you replaced him in the kitchen.”

She twisted the simple gold band on her finger. They’d gone straight to the Justice of the Peace from the hospital. Finn promised to have a big ceremony later, but he refused to wait to get the job done. She didn’t care, not as long as Uncle Jon and Ronan stood as witnesses. She’d have married him anywhere he chose.

Her uncle left the next day. He had to assess the damage to his accounts and sign the paperwork to press charges against Lisa for murder and conspiracy. She’d be going to jail for a long time, as soon as she recovered from being shot by her husband. But he mostly wanted to go home, to visit Mike and Brett’s family, and tell them how they died heroes. He also wanted to make certain they were taken care of right.

All that remained unfinished was retrieving the emeralds from their watery safe house. After eating the ham and cheese, Finn and his dad suited up. She carried both sets of flippers as they made their way onto the old boards of the dry dock. Chloe sat on the edge as they made their way down the ladder, then she tossed down the flippers.

A minute later they had the footgear in place and masks lowered.

“See you in a few minutes, sweetheart.” Finn put the breather into his mouth, and they disappeared beneath the waves.

She could track their progress by the air bubbles and the two powerful underwater lights they’d rented just for this purpose. The beams swept back and forth as they searched. Twenty minutes passed, then thirty. She began to worry the emeralds were gone, floated out in the harbor to never be seen again.

Then suddenly, Ronan popped up by the ladder. He spit out his breather and scooted the mask up on his forehead and smiled at her.

Anticipation skyrocketed as Finn surfaced beside him and did the same.

“Well?” she yelled down to them.

Finn reached for the ladder and held on with one hand, then lifted himself high enough to reveal the chest he carried in the crook of his other arm.

She jumped up, hands covering her mouth to stop herself from screaming.

Ronan came up first, carrying his and Finn’s footgear. Then Finnegan climbed, his ascent awkward due to the burden he brought up with him. She nearly exploded with impatience as they methodically stripped out of the scuba gear, dumped the mask and snorkel into a bucket of clean water, then wiggled out of the dry suits.

She was dying to tear into the chest, to reunite the necklace with the rest of the collection. But she forced herself to remain calm, to follow a barefoot Finn back to the Harbor Master’s office. A foldout table had been placed right outside the door, and Finn dropped his burden at one end. She handed both men fluffy towels to dry off, but couldn’t take her eyes off the wooden box, the tightly secured latch, and water dripping off the saturated wood.

When she thought she couldn’t stand it another minute, they finally tossed the towels aside and pulled the chest to the edge of the table.