“You’re not in the position to make demands,” the voice yelled back.
Kenzie took a deep breath and raised the knife she’d grabbed on the way out the door to her throat. “I’m the only way for you to get to Ryker. If you kill me, he won’t negotiate and you’ll never find him. Take me and leave Shadows Landing, or I’ll kill myself right here and you’ll lose any chance to get him.”
“Prove it,” the man yelled back, but he was starting to sound a little less sure of himself.
“I’m reaching for my phone,” Kenzie called out as she grabbed her phone from her back pocket and called Ryker. As the phone rang, she stepped closer to the art gallery.
“Angel, are you hurt?” Ryker’s voice yelled into the phone.
“You’re on speaker phone with the men who want you. Tell them your name.”
“I’m Ryker Faulkner. If you hurt Kenzie, I’ll kill you.” Ryker’s voice was flat and emotionless. It scared her more than the men in front of her did.
“Satisfied?” Kenzie yelled to them. “Now, agree to leave the town without hurting anyone and I’ll come with you.”
“You will not—” she hung up the phone on Ryker’s yell.
“Agreed,” the man said as Kenzie sealed her fate. She may not make it out of this alive, but at least her friends would be safe.
28
Ryker’s heart kicked back to life. Fear unlike anything he’d ever felt before coursed through him. “Get Gage on the phone,” Ryker ordered.
Paxton was already dialing as he hooked the phone into the shared coms so they could all hear the conversation through their headphones.
“Yeah?” Gage whispered as he answered the phone.
“It’s Ryker. They’re taking Kenzie. I’m two minutes out. Stop them.”
“We’re almost there. I have a plan,” Gage whispered back. “It might take a minute, though.”
“You don’t have a minute. Stop them now!” Ryker yelled.
“Ryker,” Peter said calmly. “They’ll do what they can.”
“We’ll try to save her,” Gage said in reply.
“Be safe,” Paxton told him and hung up. “Ryker, you’re asking the Bell family—”
“I know what I’m asking them,” Ryker said tightly. He wasn’t taking it lightly either. The Bells were great shots—Olympians, in fact—but they’d never shot anything with a heartbeat. He was asking them to put their lives on the line to save the woman he loved and he’d never forgive himself if something happened to them. But he’d also never forgive himself if something happened to Kenzie and he wasn’t able to protect her.
“What’s the game plan?” Peter asked.
“Do whatever it takes to keep everyone safe,” Ryker said as Shadows Landing came into view. Ryker made one more phone call as he headed toward Main Street. The phone rang once and then his cousin in Keeneston answered.
“Hey, Ryker.”
“Dylan, I need your help.”
Kenzie took a deep breath. It was strange knowing you were going to die. The only regret she had was not having a future with Ryker. Kenzie regretted not marrying him, even though he’d never asked. She regretted not having a family of their own with him. She regretted not being able to tell him she loved him one more time.
Kenzie remembered the dancing at her reunion and smiled as tears began to stream down her face. She raised her hands and stepped slowly forward as an SUV came around from the back of the bar. Kenzie heard it, but didn’t turn around. It stopped to her right so they could escape out of town easily.
Men leapt from the SUV and a second later she was grabbed. Hands roughly yanked the knife from her hand and then they were patting her down.
“Provide cover,” the man from the gallery yelled out.
A gun was shoved against her temple as she was turned to face the bar. Kenzie stared into the bar and saw Kord’s face in the window. He was on the phone, but his eyes never left hers. Would this be the last thing she saw?
Suddenly the church bells rang. The loud noise echoed down the silent, fog-filled street and gave an eerie feel that sent a shiver down Kenzie’s spine. The men looked back at the church, but didn’t move. In the silence between each peal of the bell, Kenzie’s body felt as if it were full of static electricity. She was jumpy, her heart was pounding, and her body was tingling.
“What the—” the man holding the gun to her head muttered as he stared into the now thick fog.
“What is that?” another man yelled.
Kenzie looked toward the marina. From the slow rolling, low-lying fog that seemed to be stretching up in thin wisps toward the night sky came a creature from the past. Bubba emerged from the misty shadows, low guttural sounds vibrating from his throat as if he were straight out of prehistoric times.
The bells suddenly fell quiet. In the distance, the wind began to blow. She could hear it making its way up Main Street until her hair blew back from her face. The sound of metal scraping the pavement mixed with Bubba’s hissing. Bubba opened his mouth and bellowed.
“What the hell?” the man holding the gun to her whispered as all the men turned around nervously.
Movement in the upper window caught Kenzie’s attention. Maggie motioned with her hand to get down. Then she held up her hand with her fingers spread wide and began a countdown on her hand. Five, four, three, two . . . Kenzie shook her head warning her not to go forward with the plan, but then the countdown was at one.
The sound of the metal scraping against metal stopped and everyone around Kenzie froze. She felt the gun waver as the man holding it looked around. There was a pffft sound and suddenly the second SUV exploded.
Kenzie didn’t know if she was screaming as the blast sent her and the man holding her hostage flying backward. She landed hard on the pavement, which drove the air from her lungs. Her hip and shoulder cried out in pain from the impact and she might have gotten a flash burn on her face because she’d never felt so hot before.
The church doors creaked slowly open and out stepped . . . a pirate?
Kenzie thought she might have hit her head too hard because standing in the doorway of the church, backlit with candlelight, was a giant pirate with a black beard, a billowy white shirt, a red sash around his waist, and black pirate pants on. His long hair was wild around his face and a raggedy old black hat sat on his head.
He looked down at them and slowly raised the largest cutlass Kenzie had ever seen. “What scallywag dares bring harm to my town?” the pirate boomed.
A hand slipped over Kenzie’s mouth and suddenly she was being yanked up and tossed over a shoulder—a shoulder belonging to Kord. He ran into the fog behind him as the pirate ghost leveled threats of gutting to anyone who hurt the town founded by him and his pirate friends. “The pirate ghosts are here and have summoned a curse to those who hurt Shadows Landing!” the pirate with a familiar-sounding voice yelled from the church doors.
“Stop or I’ll kill you both.”
Kenzie looked up from the view of Kord’s behind to see the man who had pressed the gun to her head standing there, leveling the gun at her.