“We know where she’s at,” Sandi said in a coolly authoritative tone.
Brogan glared at Donny. “What the fuck is going on here?” “Sorry, Brogan,” Donny sighed. “We had to hold our cover even with you. Though it was damned hard to hold the part the night you visited.”
“Where is she?” he rasped again, his fists clenching furiously.
“Kiser’s not involved with this,” Sandi said quickly. “His foreman is another story. He was one of Chandler Mackay’s partners. He believes Brogan has the coordinates of the stolen gold. He’s holding Eve for the gold.”
“Where is she?” he rasped again, his fists clenching furiously.
“You’re not going in alone,” Donny stated firmly, coolly. Before Brogan could stop himself he had a handful of the agent’s shirt as he hauled him nearly off his feet, dragging him nose-to-nose with him.
“I will kill you,” he stated with an icy calm. “Where is she?”
“They stole the Nauti Buoy.” Donny grimaced. “It’s currently anchored in the middle of the left fork of Lake Cumberland. Kiser’s foreman, Kai Maynard, is a former Special Forces and one of his cohorts is a formerly dishonorably discharged Ranger named Joel Keller.”
Brogan turned to a fuming Rowdy, the owner of the Nauti Buoy. “How do I get to that boat and how do I get on it?”
“Getting on it is easy,” Rowdy answered. “Getting to her is another thing, according to where they’re holding her.”
“According to our information she is o
n the first level, tied to one of the bunk beds on the right, in the hall,” Donny stated.
“Where are you getting your information?” Brogan snarled.
“Poppa Bear’s with them,” Donny admitted. “He’s been part of Kai’s group for several years. Before that he was with Chandler Mackay. But he’s always been a federal agent and informant.” He gave Dawg and Brogan a hard look. “We don’t have much time. Now do we get onto that fucking houseboat?”
Brogan’s gaze sharpened on the other man. “Kai has more than just Eve,” he guessed in a dangerous voice. “What does he have that the FBI is after?”
Donny’s lips tightened as Sandi whispered something to him. His gaze shifted to Brogan furiously as he gave a tight nod. Sandi stepped back. “One of the files Kai Maynard stole had a list of agent code names assigned to several subversive Homeland Security groups. If he gets away with that file, a lot of agents are going to die.”
“He’s definitely a dead man,” Brogan declared as he turned to Dawg. “You ready to go?”
Dawg nodded, his smile savage. “Let’s go.”
TWENTY
Eve sat on the bunk, her arms stretched above her and secured to the bottom of the metal bunk frame with a pair of handcuffs. Her fingers bit into the metal slats above her as she held onto them in an attempt to keep the pressure of the cuffs from tightening around her wrists each time her arms got tired and slipped. Not that holding them up by her fingertips tucked beneath the slats was really helping a lot.
“Here you go, cutie pie.” Poppa Bear gripped her shoulder and pulled her forward to tuck another pillow behind her without asking if that would make her more comfortable.
She glared at him, taking in the Santa look of the full head of gray hair and the well-trimmed beard and mustache of the same color.
“Why are you doing this?” she whispered, staring up into the dark brown eyes that held a twinkle of a smile.
“Because it makes me happy,” he laughed jovially.
He may look like that jolly little elf, but she couldn’t remember a single story where Santa took hostages or where he threatened to kill them. Unless that was fun and games in his off hours, she thought half hysterically.
This was just wonderful. She was definitely living on a much shorter time line than she had ever imagined and here she was worrying about Santa.
“Too bad we lost Kraig,” Kai grumbled as Poppa Bear moved back to his seat just inside the hall where he could keep an eye on her. “He’d make a hell of a scapegoat.”
“Once we get the gold we’ll just take care of both of them.” Poppa Bear shrugged as he looked back at Eve, grinned and winked merrily. “Don’t worry, sweetie, I’ll make sure it don’t hurt.”
She sneered back at him.
Yeah, that was a comforting thought. It just wouldn’t hurt.