Chapter 23
—Life is tough, but so are you.—
“Damn it,” Leighton muttered to no one in particular. Hazel wasn’t answering her phone—it wasn’t even ringing. Which meant she’d definitely gone dark and the op was in play. Well, if Marco was right, the Feds were at the wrong place.
When his phone rang, he answered it immediately. “Yeah?”
“There’s a team of Feds here,” Gage said quietly. “They must know about his yachts.”
“Get out of there. I’ll let you know what we find,” he said as Nova made another turn. He just hoped there were Feds at Redwood Wharf too. Then they wouldn’t have to deal with Kuznetsov and he could get Lucy somewhere safe and take care of her.
“What happened with the house this morning?” Lucy asked quietly.
That was when he realized he hadn’t told her anything. He’d been so consumed with getting to her, then stopping Marco. It was a miracle he hadn’t killed him. When he’d walked into that room and seen—
Nope.
He had to lock that down now. God, she must think he was a monster. He barely remembered what had happened. But he knew he’d been ready to kill Marco with his bare hands. He flexed his fingers at that. His hands were sore from earlier and little flecks of blood had dried on his knuckles. He filed that under shit he’d deal with later. “The women are safe. The men who’d been watching them are contained.” He left out the part about two of them being killed. “And an anonymous call was made to the FBI. Last I heard, they moved in and are doing what they do.”
“Good,” she whispered, turning away from him again.
He wanted to reach out to her, to comfort her, but he wasn’t sure if she’d welcome his touch. And right now wasn’t the time to push her. She’d just been through a hell of a lot.
“This place looks deserted,” Nova murmured as she steered them into a gravel parking lot.
He leaned forward, scanning the parking lot. There were a total of ten vehicles and a bunch of slips. This wasn’t a marina so much as a few rows of boat slips.
And the yacht was hard to miss. Huge and sleek with darkly tinted windows. And it was fast. That much Leighton knew. All Kuznetsov would have to do was get to international waters.
“They’re close to leaving,” Senior said, nodding at a uniformed man running to the boat with a bag in hand.
“Nova, let the others know the Feds aren’t here.” It was likely that Lucy had only known about this place because of her relationship with her uncle.
There was no way the Feds would have left this place unwatched if they’d known about it.
She was already on her phone as he turned around and grabbed a duffel bag from the back. “Senior, you up for some action?” he asked, unzipping it and pulling out a few extra pistols. Leighton hoped so because he wasn’t going in alone. And even though Nova had some training, he couldn’t take her along for this one. He simply couldn’t.
“You don’t even need to ask,” the retired Marine said.
“What are you doing?” Lucy asked, staring at them. Eyes wide, she continued before he could think about answering. “He’s going to have men with him. And guns! And…just wait for the FBI. This is too dangerous and he’s not worth it.” She reached for him, and in that moment he knew that he hadn’t screwed things up.
Reaching out, he cupped her cheek gently. “I’ve got to do this. If he gets away, he could switch vessels. Or find any number of ways to evade law enforcement. You’ll never be safe if that happens.” He leaned forward and kissed her once, gently. “Stay here and keep this.” He laid a small pistol on the seat. “Just flip the safety off and fire.”
It looked as if she wanted to say more, but she simply nodded. “Be safe,” she whispered as he slid out of the vehicle.
“I’ll head down the far left dock and loop back up and around to the boat,” Senior said. “There’s no way to really sneak up on it. We’re just going to have to act like we belong here then find a way to board.”
“Yeah.” And Leighton did not like those odds. “At least this place is pretty empty.” There was a thirty-foot catamaran docked a few slips from the yacht and a fishing charter directly across from it. “I’ll approach the charter boat, act like I want to rent it.”
Senior looked him up and down, frowned. “You look a little rough but it’s as good a plan as any.”
* * *
“I don’t like sitting here,” Lucy said as she slid into the front seat next to Nova. She’d kept her wig and the awful sweater on. Mainly because she didn’t have anything else to change into.
“Yeah, me neither,” Nova muttered, watching the boats just as Lucy was.
“What did Gage say?” Lucy frowned when Leighton moved out of her line of vision for a moment. Then she saw him talking to an older man wearing cargo pants and a T-shirt despite the cooler weather.
Nova tapped her finger against the center console in a staccato pattern. “They’re on their way, and they let the Feds know about this place.”
Lucy wasn’t sure if that made her feel worse or better. It was good the Feds were on the way but what if Leighton got hurt before they arrived? What if Senior did? What if they got more than hurt? She understood exactly how quickly life could change.
God, she couldn’t imagine a world without Leighton in it. Since she’d gotten to know him…his haunted eyes had changed. And when he smiled at her? It was as if literal fireworks detonated inside her.
Leighton continued talking to the guy, nodded, then…sort of disappeared. What the hell? It looked as if he’d gone into the guy’s boat but now she couldn’t see him.
Nova grabbed a pair of binoculars and frowned.
“What do you see?” Lucy asked.
“Nothing. And I don’t like this.” She kept the binoculars up, sweeping them slowly around.
Each second that ticked by felt like an eternity. Her heart beat loudly in her ears, the thump thump overpowering and making her jumpy. Seconds turned into a couple minutes and that felt like an entire eon.
Pop. Pop.
Lucy shifted slightly in her seat at the distant popping sound. “Did you hear that?”
Nova frowned, glancing behind them, then back at the water. “Yeah.”
“Was that gunfire?”
A pause. “Maybe.”
Lucy jumped out of the vehicle and tucked the small pistol into the back of her jeans. She’d been assaulted and nearly raped today. And Leighton had saved her. She wasn’t going to sit on her ass now. Maybe running into this thing made her stupid but she gave exactly zero fucks.
Leighton had changed her life. He was worth this. And it wasn’t like she was unarmed.
“Lucy,” Nova hissed loudly from behind her right before she heard the door close.
She didn’t turn around, just walked quickly to the dock. It was interconnected, linking all the boat slips in different rows. As she headed for the row her uncle’s yacht was on, she nearly tripped when she saw him jump off the boat onto the dock.
With nowhere to hide, she kept walking, keeping her head down as she pretended to look at her phone. With the wig, she should be disguised enough to get closer.
She watched as he pulled out his own phone and headed in her direction.
Oh, God. This was it. Now or never. She hoped Leighton was okay. And she really hoped Nova stayed back, but she couldn’t afford to turn around and look for the other woman.
Reaching behind her, she pulled out the gun and whipped it up.
Uncle Alexei froze, wide-eyed as he registered who she was. “Lucy?” He started to move his free hand behind him.
She flicked the safety off. “Don’t do it. I will shoot you.”
“Why would you do that?” His voice was deceptively calm, his eyes icy with rage. Not fear, she noted.
But rage.
Well screw him. “How about because you killed my parents?”
He lifted an eyebrow, then simply nodded in a sort of resignation. “Your father was weak. I had no choice. And I gave you a good life. You had everything you could ever want. You should thank me.”
Red blurred her vision for a moment as she stared at this man. This stranger she’d never known who talked so coldly about killing her parents. “I should thank you for letting me grow up without the two people I loved more than anything? Thank you for killing my mama, who never did anything to you?”
Her uncle shook his head slowly, as if in regret. “I didn’t want to kill her. But your father had already told her what he was doing, that he’d gone to the Feds. She never would have believed he’d killed himself. I didn’t need all the attention that would bring.” His words were so matter-of-fact, so devoid of emotion.
“You’re a monster!”
He lifted a shoulder. “Some will say that. So, you turned on me? Turned me over to the Feds?”
“You’re not as smart as you think,” she spat, not willing to tell him anything about the people who’d told her the truth. She desperately wanted to ask about the men inside his yacht, if they’d been hurt, but didn’t want to show any weakness. She just needed to keep him here long enough for the Feds to show up. “Where’s your security? Because I know Marco isn’t coming.”
His head tilted to the side slightly. “I’m traveling light for this trip. You killed Marco?”
She swallowed hard.
He snorted. “Of course you didn’t. So he must be in jail? He’ll never turn on me.”
“We’ll see.”
Sirens sounded far in the distance. They could be a minute away or ten. Sound traveled weird over the water and it was impossible to tell. Sweat beaded down her spine, her hand wavering.
His jaw tightened slightly. “Get out of my way and I won’t kill you.”
“I’m the one with the gun.” Though she could admit she was terrified of using it.
Maybe he saw her fear or maybe he just knew her. He took a step back. Then another one. Then another. “That’s what I thought,” he murmured. “Too weak.”
She moved after him, but she couldn’t make herself pull the trigger. He wasn’t armed. And…she wasn’t sure if she could kill another person even after all he’d done. Her body trembled as he stepped back again, this time toward the other boat. She realized what he must mean to do. Steal the fishing charter.
“Put your fucking gun down now!” A voice boomed through the air as a bleeding, disheveled Leighton jumped down from the yacht.
Her uncle moved fast, whipping out his gun, aiming at the man she was certain she loved.
She didn’t think. She pulled the trigger.
And kept firing even as her uncle fell back on the dock, his body splayed at an odd angle.
Blood pooled everywhere as she stared down at him.
Then Leighton was there, taking the gun from her. He said something, but she didn’t hear the words. She could see his lips moving, but didn’t actually understand him.
“Lucy!” He shook her shoulders once.
She blinked. “Is he…”
“He’s dead. Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I thought you were…” She couldn’t even say it.
“I shot the controls, took away his method of transportation. Why the hell did you get out of the car?”
Before she could answer, the sound of sirens pierced the air even louder than before. Tires skidded over gravel and then there were voices. So many voices. And people in uniforms rushing toward the docks.
“Stay close to me. We stick together and we don’t say a word without our attorney present,” Leighton murmured.
“Okay. Where’s Nova?”
“Gone. Don’t mention her. They’re going to cuff us and take us into custody until they can figure things out. Just keep your mouth shut. My friend will make sure we get out of this okay. And our lawyer won’t let anything happen to you. No matter what they say. If they tell you I turned on you or some other bullshit, don’t talk until your lawyer is present.”
Lucy simply nodded and held her hands up as an armed FBI agent rushed at them. She felt numb as she was handcuffed and taken to a vehicle.
Were they going to charge her with her uncle’s murder? She wasn’t sorry she’d killed him. The only thing she was sorry about was that her cousin would think she’d killed Uncle Alexei without knowing the details. Sweet Liliana would lose both of them if things went south the way Lucy was unfortunately sure they were going to.
Leighton seemed so certain that things would be all right. But…she’d just killed a man.