Sunset Point: A Shelter Bay Novel (28 page)

“Doing what?”

“Whatever he needs. Fixing juries, moving funds, letting him know about your snitch.”

“You told him about my informant? So, essentially you had the guy murdered?”

“Prison’s a dangerous place. Things happen. Especially when you get branded a stool pigeon.”

“But why?”

Eric shrugged. “You know I like to play the horses. When I found myself into Vasilyev’s mob for more than I could repay, he offered a way out. Luckily, since I just happened to be a deputy district attorney, I was more useful to him alive than dead.”

Two thoughts hit at the same time. “Janet Kagan was laundering money for him. And you’re the one who got to that jury member who held out and hung my trial.”

“It wasn’t that difficult. Turns out the soccer mom by day was a high-priced call girl at night. All I had to do was threaten to show her website to her minister husband.” He snapped his fingers. “Problem solved.”

“Your friend has been quite busy moonlighting,” her kidnapper volunteered. “When word got out through the prison grapevine that he was doing work for the Russian, he became one of the most popular visitors at the prison. Which was why I hired him myself to keep an eye on you for me. Until I was released.”

So much for having felt sorry for the guy. Although deputy district attorneys had to schedule visits, no one would have had any reason to cross-check inmates Jensen had been visiting with cases he was prosecuting.

“But you didn’t succeed with the son’s jury,” she said to Eric.

“I didn’t try. He’s a big, strong kid. And not that bright. His mother ran that entire operation, just using him for muscle when needed. Vasilyev had a role for him as an enforcer. In fact, his first assignment was to take out your snitch.” He actually sort of smiled at the irony. “Small world we move in, isn’t it?”

Forcing herself to remain calm as she stumbled along with that ugly pistol digging into her side was one of the hardest things Tess had ever done. “You also killed Jim Stevens.”

Her mentor who’d gotten Vasilyev convicted. She’d never believed that had been a boat accident.

“The Russian finds prison a drag. And he’s a firm believer in sending a message. Stevens’s death was part personal, part professional.”

“So now you’re going to kill me for him?”

“It isn’t anything personal, Tess. In fact, I took a risk trying to scare you off with those calls when Vasilyev wanted you dead before the hearing. How was I supposed to know that you shared your old man’s stubbornness?”

“My father will be in the front row at your execution.”

“There’s always that chance,” Eric Jensen agreed easily. “There’s also the chance that his heart will give out before he manages to figure things out.”

“You bastard.”

Jensen’s shoulders lifted in another careless shrug. “It’s either you or me, Tess. You can’t blame me for wanting it to be you.”

“He’s right,” her kidnapper rejoined the conversation as they came out of the clearing and she found herself walking toward the cliff. “The only thing he got wrong is that for the next few hours, you’re far more valuable.”

Taking the pistol from her side, he turned it toward Jensen and pulled the trigger. Once. Twice. A third time. Tess’s former colleague had a look of stunned surprise on his face as he crumpled to the ground. Dead.

Inside, Tess was screaming. What no one watching her in court would ever know was that there had been a time when she’d suffered stage fright. By the time she’d graduated law school, compartmentalizing her feelings in a separate mental box had become second nature.

“Are you going to shoot me now?”

“As it happens, Vasilyev wants you to have plenty of time to understand exactly how badly you inconvenienced him.”

“I’m not going to jump.”

“Of course you’re not,” he said patiently. “You’re going to walk very carefully, very slowly, down to the beach.”

Tess wondered why, if he was going to kill her, he didn’t just do it right here. Then she remembered what the captain had told her about the cave. And understood.

“Vasilyev’s only part of the equation,” he explained. “I never would have met Jensen if I hadn’t ended up in the same cell block as him, so, since we were both after the same ends and he’s not out yet, we agreed that I’d be the one to take care of you.

“Meanwhile, you and I never got to finish our party,” he said, confirming her revelation. “So, I’m taking you somewhere private. Where it’s nice and dry. At least it’s nice and dry right now.” An evil amusement gleamed in his eyes. “It’ll be a different story when the tide comes in.”

After whatever torture he found amusing, he was going to leave her stranded where she’d be certain to drown. But not right away. Not until she’d been sufficiently terror-stricken, scrambling atop rocks, struggling to stay out of the thundering, icy surf.

It was at that moment that Tess realized that Death did not wear a black hood and carry a scythe. In her case, he was clad in an Oregon State Police uniform and carried an S&W pistol. At the same time, crystal clear memories of her time in that dungeon came flashing back, like a DVR set on fast forward, and she decided that if she was going to die, it wouldn’t be alone.

Tess knew her self-defense training hadn’t prepared her to protect herself against an armed, stone-cold killer who appeared to have spent most of his prison time in the gym. But her pride, as well as her strong survival instinct, wouldn’t let her go down without a fight. The worst that would happen is that she’d fall off the cliff. But she’d take him with her.

“You’re remembering now,” he said. One of the reasons they often got away with their crimes for so long was that sociopaths were good at reading people. Which was how they managed to draw in their victims.

She hoped this murderous sociopath only saw the memories. Not the plan.

“Did I mention you were always my favorite?” he asked rhetorically. “I couldn’t stop thinking of you. For all these years, whenever I was with another girl, it was always you I saw.”

When he ran the back of his hand down her cheek in an evil parody of a caress, she bit him. Only to be struck by a backhanded slap with the pistol that knocked her off her feet.

Nate had never been as relieved to see anyone as he was the captain when the seaman suddenly called him away from the others to tell him Tess’s whereabouts. Although it took a little convincing, since they weren’t having any luck where they were looking, the search team decided to head toward the cliff leading down to the cave.

The problem was, Tess’s captors had a good lead, and time wasn’t in their favor. But having walked every inch of this coastline, Nate knew both the cliff and the cave well.

“Does the Shelter Bay sheriff’s office happen to have a Remington 700?” he asked Kara. It was the civilian equivalent of the Marine MP40 sniper rifle he’d used when deployed.

“I’ve got something even better,” Kara told him. “The military’s been generous to police departments. I just happen to have an MP40.”

She got it out of a locked case and handed it to him. It had been a few years, but some things you never forgot. “I’m also married to a former SEAL sniper who can spot for you.”

Nate glanced over at Sax. “You up for this, frogman?”

“Absolutely, jarhead,” Sax returned. “Let’s go bring home your woman.”

*     *     *

Sax Douchett could not only cook like an Iron Chef, he was probably the best spotter Nate had ever worked with. With the captain guiding them (having hung out with his own ghosts, Sax wasn’t freaked out by him the way some people might’ve been), they found a spot hidden in the trees five hundred yards from the edge of the cliff, where they could see the guy in the blue trooper uniform shoot the deputy district attorney. Unfortunately, unlike in Iraq or Afghanistan, while they provided a good hide, the trees also presented an obstacle. After coming up with the best angle, Sax calculated the distance, wind coming in off the sea, and weather conditions, which were starting to get dicey with the thickening fog rolling in.

Not that anything was going to prevent Nate from making the money shot. All he needed was for Tess or the guy to move. Just a fraction of an inch.

His heart leaped up into his throat as he watched her bite the hand that had dared touch her.

“Don’t breathe,” Sax, who’d been a damn good sniper in his day, murmured.

Falling back on training that had once been as natural as breathing, Nate slowed his heartbeat and held his breath.

A moment later, Tess went down.

And Nate pulled the trigger.

As they watched the kidnapper fall over the cliff into the sea, Sax let out his own breath.

“I always said that if you guys had the high tech stuff we SEALs do, you’d be the best in the business,” he said. “Good job. One shot. One kill.”

Just as they’d both been trained to do, Nate thought, as he lowered the rifle and went to fetch his woman.

“I was so afraid I’d lost you,” he whispered into her hair. His voice was husky, rough with emotion. As she ran her fingers wonderingly over his face, Tess thought she detected moisture on his cheeks that was unrelated to the mist.

“Never happen,” she assured him, smiling tremulously. “Because you’re stuck with me, Nate Breslin.”

His arms tightened around her with a strength that nearly cut off her breath. “Does that mean what I think it does?”

She nestled into his embrace, deciding that she could quite easily spend the rest of her life in Nate’s strong, capable arms. “It means,” she said, her eyes filled with the brilliance of love, “that you and the captain are going to have to get used to a woman living at Sunset Point.”

He bent his head, kissing her with a rough tenderness that almost managed to make her forget the trauma of the past few hours. “Let’s get out of here and go home.”

“Home,” she agreed fervently.

*     *     *

Tess woke slowly, luxuriating in the feel of Nate’s arms around her. It felt so good to be home after those two unbearably long days in the hospital. She’d tried to tell them that it was only a little concussion, certainly nothing to worry about. She’d fully expected Mike to put up a fuss and want her to be hospitalized, but when Nate had instantly sided with her father and the doctors, insisting that she remain in the narrow, lonely bed until all the appropriate tests could be done, Tess had known she’d met her match.

During the time she’d been missing, her father and Nate had become not merely friends, but allies, as well.

She stretched lazily, looking down into Nate’s handsome face. As her gaze drifted down his body, she wondered if she would ever be able to look at this man without loving him. Wanting him.

In the spirit of compromise, they’d decided to spend Monday morning through Friday afternoon in Portland, then Friday night through the weekend, and holidays on Sunset Point. Tess understood that there would be times when Nate would require the inspiration provided by the rugged coastline for his work. During those times they’d simply have to work things out.

What was most important was their love. And as the captain had already demonstrated so clearly, where love flourished, anything was possible.

Deciding that making the man she loved breakfast in bed would be a romantic gesture—she was an intelligent woman, surely she could follow the instructions in one of Nate’s many cookbooks—Tess crept carefully out of bed and slipped into a short satin robe.

As she passed the study, the letters on the computer screen caught her attention. Which was strange, because Nate hadn’t written last night.

Neither of them had gotten a great deal of sleep. She certainly would have noticed if he’d slipped away from their bed to write.

As she read the message on the screen, Tess began to laugh. When the sound woke Nate, he followed it to the office.

“I was dreaming of Orchid Island,” he murmured as he came up behind her and pressed a kiss against the top of her head. “Making love on the beach with you.”

The light touch of his lips thrilled her all the way to her toes. She turned around to smile up at him. “I can’t wait.”

“Nice of Schiff to free up your calendar by plea-bargaining at the last minute.”

“Wasn’t it?” Tess murmured happily. Who would have suspected that she would be grateful to Melvin Schiff for anything?

“Come back to bed, and I’ll show you what I was dreaming of us doing.”

“But I was going to cook you breakfast.”

Alarm sprang into his eyes. “Why don’t I cook breakfast instead? Later.”

She punched him playfully. “Coward.”

“You bet your life. I leave all the bravery to my fiancée.”

Nate frowned as he ran his fingers lightly down the side of her face. The angry bruises were fading to a deep, mottled yellow, but he knew he’d never forget how Tess had looked when he’d carried her back to the sheriff’s department SUV.

It was probably just as well Tess’s kidnapper had killed Jensen. Because it was a toss-up who’d wanted to do the job worse—Mike or himself.

“How’s your head?” he asked suddenly.

“Dizzy.”

Nate’s eyes narrowed. “I’m taking you back to the hospital.”

Tess went up on her toes and pressed a quick, hard kiss against his frowning mouth. “I don’t need to go to the hospital, silly. I’m always dizzy when I’m standing this close to you.”

The deep lines on his forehead eased. “I wonder how many people owe their love story to a ghost,” he murmured, plucking at her lips.

His words brought back Tess’s reason for being in the room in the first place. “Look at this,” she said, turning to point at the computer screen.

It’s time to weigh anchor. May your winds always be fair,

and may you find your way to a safe harbor.

“Does that mean what I think it does?” she asked.

Nate nodded. “I think he’s gone.”

Tess sighed, surprised to be a bit saddened at losing her great-great-grandfather just when she’d begun to get used to the idea of him. “Do you suppose he’s with Isabella?”