CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Dylan’s screams echoed throughout the hull of the yacht, the agony in his voice contrasting eerily with the picture perfect day as the cabin cruiser glided into the wide open sea beneath a clear skies and the golden glow of the sun. Chloe pressed her hands tightly over her ears, unable to bear the sounds of Dylan’s torment.

“Tell me who DeMarco’s informant was,” she heard Jared bark through the thin walls separating her cabin from the one that he and Dylan were in.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dylan grunted through gritted teeth. Jared had literally poured salt into the open wound where DeMarco’s bullet had pierced his shoulder all the way through. It was a primitive form of torture but highly effective as he felt as if his entire arm had been set on fire. “I was just doing my job. DeMarco’s guy was going for his gun.”

“The hell he was. I had my eye on him the whole time. I know that you deliberately triggered that shoot out back at the construction site in order to keep DeMarco from telling me who his informant was. The only thing I don’t know is if you are the informant or if you’re protecting someone else.”

Guilt ratcheted through Chloe’s body at Jared’s words. Dylan had already gotten himself shot trying to keep her safe. She couldn’t just stand by and let him get tortured in order to protect her. She had to put an end to Jared’s sadistic tormenting of Dylan, but how?

Looking down in frustration at the useless cell phone in her hand, she shoved it back into her pocket. Having retreated into the privacy of her cabin, she had tried dialing Donovan’s number again but found that her battery was dead. Had it been dead when she dialed him the first time? Chloe had been counting on Donovan hearing her conversation with Jared and figuring out their location based on the clues that she had dropped but now she had no way of knowing if she had even managed to connect with him at all which meant that she couldn’t count on him riding to his brother’s rescue. If Dylan was going to be saved, she would have to be the one to do it.

The ringing of a cell phone in the next room distracted her from the plan brewing in her mind. Pressing her ear against the wall, she heard Jared answer it. A few seconds later she heard the door in the adjacent cabin close as Jared exited and made his way down the hall, his heavy footsteps moving past her door. Chloe cautiously peaked out of her door as she watched Jared ascend the narrow stairway leading to the upper deck, apparently deciding to take his phone call in private. Once the coast was clear, she made her way to Dylan’s room. Once again, she rushed to his side.

“You shouldn’t be in here,” Dylan reprimanded as Chloe wrapped her arms around his neck. “It’s too dangerous.”

“I’m in danger whether I’m in here or not,” Chloe said as she pulled away to look Dylan in the eyes. This time when he looked at her his eyes were clear and focused despite the brutality that he had been enduring for the past few hours. “You seem more coherent then you were earlier.”

“The antibiotics that Jared had the yacht's medic give me broke the fever. Apparently, it wasn’t much fun for Jared to torture a man who kept losing consciousness.”

“You wouldn’t even be in this situation if it weren’t for me,” Chloe said as she brought Dylan’s hand to her face and pressed it against her cheek.

“There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do for you,” Dylan said as he gently stroked the side of her face with the back of his hand. Even though he still felt as if his arm was being slowly consumed by acid, just seeing Chloe’s face took some of the edge off of the pain.

Chloe shook her head resolutely. “I can’t let you do this.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’m going to tell Jared that I was DeMarco’s informant.”

“No, you’re not,” Dylan said firmly as he bolted up into a sitting position on the bed, leaning back against the headboard.

“I know Jared,” Chloe explained calmly. “He’s not going to stop until you either tell him who the informant is or you’re dead. I can’t let you sacrifice your life to protect me from my long line of bad choices.”

“You can’t stop me.”

“Yes, I can,” Chloe replied confidently, kissing Dylan on the lightly on the lips before rising to her feet as she heard the sound of footsteps coming down the hall, this time belonging to more than one person.

“I think it’s time for us to get a little more creative,” Jared declared as he entered the room with Brad who was wielding a very sharp, very ominous looking straight razor in one hand in preview of what was to come.

“That won’t be necessary,” Dylan announced, quickly cutting off Chloe before she had a chance to confess. “I’ve had enough. You were right. I was DeMarco’s informant.”

Chloe’s eyes flicked over to Dylan in disbelief. She opened her mouth to speak but the warning look he gave her caused her to quickly shut it. Licking her lips nervously, she quietly gauged Jared’s reaction, bracing herself for the explosion that was sure to come.

A smirk of satisfaction spread across Jared’s face. “I knew it.”

“You stinkin’ rat,” Brad grumbled as he fixed Dylan with a look of pure hatred mixed with sudden, underlying fear. “I swear Mr. Halifax, I had no idea. All of his references checked out.”

“Which means that our Mr. Coty is very well connected. Not to mention very determined.”

“More like driven,” Dylan clarified as he glared openly at Jared, no longer needing to hide his overwhelming hatred for the man.

“By what?” Jared asked, watching Dylan closely as if trying to decipher the source of his now obvious hatred.

“The desire for justice,” Dylan explained, his voice cold as ice. “Long overdue justice for Elizabeth Chance.”

Jared’s eyes darkened noticeably as his gaze became more intense, scrutinizing Dylan’s face as if he were truly seeing him for the first time. “Did Donovan Chance send you after me as payback for his mother’s death.”

“Yes, he did. For his mother’s death and for mine.”

Jared’s intense glare faded as, at long last recognition, registered in his eyes. “Jaimie.” His voice was completely devoid of emotion as he said his youngest son’s name.

Walking over to Dylan, he roughly pushed him over to his side and scanned his back, his eyes landing on the crescent shaped birthmark. “So it really is you.”

“Try to contain your enthusiasm.”

“You and your damn brothers,” Jared muttered angrily as he began pacing the cabin in obvious agitation. “I should have gotten rid of all of you when I bumped off that whore of a mother of yours.”

Dylan stiffened at Jared’s words, righteous fury causing adrenalin to pump through his body, numbing it to the pain emanating from the hole in his shoulder and urging him into action. If Chloe hadn’t been in the room, he would have lunged for Jared’s throat, the consequences to himself be damned, but he didn’t want to set anything off with her in such close proximity so he kept his cool.

“But you didn’t get rid of us, old man. That was your fatal mistake,” Dylan said with a coldness that belied the white-hot hatred that coursed through him. “Elizabeth Chance has three fully grown sons in the world to avenge her death which means that even after you kill me there will still be two more out there hell bent on taking you down. And they won’t stop coming after you until they succeed.”

“If Donovan and Ethan really had what it takes to take me out they wouldn’t have sent a boy to do a man’s job.”

Despite the bravado in his words, Chloe saw something she had never seen before in his soulless eyes manifest itself for the first time.

Fear.

And in the weakness that that fear and his current state of agitation created in him, she also saw opportunity.

“Dylan is way more of a man than you are. I can personally testify to that fact,” Chloe said, meeting Jared’s shocked and furious gaze with open defiance. She could practically see the wheels turning in his mind as he shifted his eyes suspiciously between her and Dylan and then uncomfortably over at Brad.

“Leave us alone.” Jared issued the command to Brad curtly. Chloe smiled inwardly at his predictability. Knowing Jared as well as she did, there was no way that he would want Brad or any other employee to know about his impotence, even if it meant putting himself in a position where he was outnumbered two to one. Chloe and Dylan exchanged glances, a moment of mutual understanding silently passing between them.

“Why did you send him away?” Chloe asked mockingly, carefully backing away from Jared, subtly luring both his rage and attention away from Dylan. “Is it that you didn’t want him to hear about what a magnificent lover your son is or that you didn’t want him to know how laughably inadequate you are in that area?”

“You worthless bitch!” Jared sniped viciously as he quickly pivoted his body around to face her angrily, turning his back on Dylan in the process.

That brief opening was all that Dylan needed.

With lightning quick reflexes cultivated during his years with The Navy Seals, Dylan leapt at Jared with the speed and ferocity of a striking tiger, knocking him violently to the ground. Before Jared even knew what had hit him, Dylan had quickly and efficiently relieved him of his gun and was pointing it down at his face as he towered over him with murder in his eyes.

As Jared looked up at Dylan with a look of abject terror on his face, Dylan realized that the moment that he had waited a lifetime for had arrived. He was just one quick pull of the trigger away from avenging his mother’s death and his index finger literally itched with anticipation. Unfortunately, Dylan also realized that he needed Jared alive in order to get himself and Chloe safely off the boat.

“Get up!” Dylan hissed. Wrapping his good arm around Jared’s neck in a tight choke-hold, he used the hand of his wounded left arm to jam Jared’s gun firmly into his rib cage, ignoring the intense pain this movement caused. “We’re going for a walk.”

“Wait a minute,” Chloe said positioning her body in front of the door to stop Dylan from taking Jared through it. “Tell me where Emma is?”

“Emma’s missing?” Dylan asked with dismay, hearing the news for the first time.

“This sick bastard took her,” Chloe explained as she moved in closer to Jared, “Where is she?” she demanded, glaring at him with undisguised hatred.

Even from within the prison of Dylan’s choke-hold, Jared managed a cruel smile, refusing to answer her question. Dylan tightened his hold around Jared’s neck in response. “Where is she?”

“Emma’s whereabouts are none of your business,” Jared said shooting a mocking glance at Chloe. “After all, she is my daughter.”

Something inside Chloe suddenly snapped at his words. Clenching her hands into tight little fists, she suddenly flung herself at Jared, wildly striking him in the face over and over again.

“She’s my daughter you twisted freak!” she yelled as she continued to wail away on him. “Tell me where she is!”

“You’re never going to see her again you stupid bitch!” Jared yelled back through her barrage of blows, a thin trickle of blood flowing from his bottom lip. “I’m going to make damn sure of that!”

Dylan tightened his grip around Jared’s neck even further, ruthlessly squeezing his wind pipe between his forearm and bicep in a way that effectively cut off his air supply. Jared began flailing wildly within Dylan’s violent embrace, his eyes bulging and his face turning blue. Expertly gauging his physical reactions, Dylan slightly loosened his grip on Jared’s throat a moment before he would have passed out. “Tell us where she is or I swear I will snap your neck like a twig.”

“If you do that… you two will…never get off of this boat… alive,” Jared’s words came out haltingly, punctuated by wheezing noises as he desperately gasped for air. “I... promise you that.”

Both Dylan and Chloe immediately recognized the truth in his words. Jared was their only way off of the boat and, therefore, keeping him alive was ironically, the only chance they had of rescuing Emma.

Reigning in the emotions that had slipped out of her control moments earlier, Chloe fixed Jared with a withering glare, suddenly conveying a strength and determination that was almost palpable. “I’m going to get my daughter back. And you are never going to have control over either of us ever again. I promise you that.”

Looking up at Dylan, Chloe sucked in a deep, fortifying breath of air. “Let’s get out of here.”

Dylan roughly shoved Jared out of the door of the cabin and down the empty hallway with Chloe trailing closely behind him. Crossing through the luxuriously appointed salon, he pressed the barrel of Jared’s gun even more firmly into his back as he forced him up the stairs leading to the upper deck.

“Step back or I’ll put a bullet right through his fucking head,” Dylan warned Brad and the handful of Jared’s other men who were gathered on the deck, ignoring the searing pain that shot throughout his left arm as he raised the gun to Jared’s head and pressed it firmly against his temple.

“Do as he says,” Jared ordered irritably. His men obeyed his tersely issued command, dutifully stepping back.

“Good boys,” Dylan said. “Jared has trained you well. Now, I want you to carefully take out your guns and toss them overboard. Cell phones too. And don’t even think of trying any heroics because I guarantee you that the only bonus in it for you will be the privilege of getting to wipe Jared’s brains off the deck.”

Dylan watched the group of four men with laser-like focus as they retrieved their guns and cell phones and tossed them into the ocean. His eyes locked on Brad. “I mean the one you keep strapped to your leg, too, Brad.”

Brad scowled as he reached down and removed the snub nosed pistol holstered to his left ankle and tossed it overboard with an angry flick of his wrist.

“Now come along children,” Dylan said directing the group of men towards the bridge with a nod of his head. “We’re going on a little field trip.”

Slowly, the tense little group made their way to the boat’s control room, startling the yacht's captain as they entered.

“Launch the speed boat,” Dylan ordered the terrified looking man, referring to the sleek little Baja Outlaw that he had briefly glimpsed poised at the aft of the boat when he had arrived onboard.

The captain followed his command without hesitation, using a lever to lower the power boat into the water.

“Now step away from the control panel,” Dylan ordered.

Once again the man obeyed without hesitation. Removing the gun from Jared’s head just long enough to aim it at the collection of displays, switches and levers that controlled both the navigation and communication systems of the yacht, Dylan fired three bullets into the panel, effectively disabling the boat and cutting it off from contact with the rest of the world. Still using Jared as a shield, he and Chloe backed their way out of the control room and towards the back of the yacht, keeping Jared’s men where they could see them.

“Get in the boat and start it up,” Dylan instructed Chloe when they reached the back railing of the yacht.

In response, Chloe quickly scrambled down the narrow ladder leading to the speedboat and switched on the engine.

“This isn’t over,” Jared warned Dylan ominously. “I still have Emma.”

“Not for long,” Dylan promised before abruptly shoving Jared forward with enough force to send him barreling in to his men, knocking them over.

At lightening speed, Dylan climbed over the rail and jumped into the speed boat. As soon as Dylan was safely in the boat, Chloe gunned the engine and threw forward the throttle, sending the boat careening away from the yacht. Reaching into a nearby compartment housing life preservers, Brad pulled out one of several high powered rifles strategically hidden around the yacht, firing at the speedboat before it could completely get out of range. Chloe and Dylan both ducked down as the bullets shattered the windshield of the boat, sending broken glass raining down on their heads. Dylan reached up and grabbed the wheel of the boat attempting to turn it around so that its fuel tanks faced away from the onslaught of bullets.

Above the sound of gunfire and shattering glass, the sound of a helicopter’s blades slicing through the air could just be heard, becoming louder and louder as the aircraft approached. Dylan looked up and exhaled in relief as he saw the familiar interlocking gold “GOC” emblem emblazoned on the sleek black body of the helicopter, signifying it as the property of Games Of Chance Industries, the holding company created by his brother Donovan, silently acknowledging with gratitude that Ethan had been right. No matter how much of a pain in the ass Donovan was, his big brother always came through in the clutch.

From the open door of the helicopter, Donovan and Kyle fired several rounds from a pair of machine guns onto the deck of the yacht, forcing Brad back from his shooting position on the rail of the boat, giving Dylan enough time to gun the engine and speed away from the cruiser.

Ethan maneuvered the helicopter in the same direction that Dylan sped off in as Brad began firing up at the chopper. Once both the chopper and speed boat were safely out of the range of Brad’s gun, he hovered the helicopter over the boat as Donovan and Kyle lowered a rope ladder down for Dylan and Chloe who quickly climbed it and scrambled into the aircraft.

“It sure as hell took you long enough,” Dylan said gruffly, wrapping an arm protectively around Chloe’s waist once they both were safely inside the helicopter.

“You’re welcome,” Donovan replied with a wide grin, giving Dylan an affectionate slap on the back as the helicopter glided through the clear blue skies at top speed.