“Still sucks,” Bullard said.
At that, Fallon’s phone rang, and this time it was Kano. Fallon put his phone on Speaker.
“Two boats are about four nautical miles away, and one and a half or two nautical miles out into the ocean,” he said. “I’ve flown over, but I can’t keep going back and forth, or I’ll make them nervous.”
“I’m not sure making them nervous is a bad thing,” Bullard said. “We’re already headed that way. Can you see us?”
“Yeah, I saw you before,” he said. “I’ll make another pass and make sure you’re on the right course,” he said, “then I have to get fuel.”
“Good enough,” he said. “Stay up as long as you can to make sure we’re getting there,” he said. “Then go fuel up and park it. Somebody will pick you up.”
“Yeah, I’ll be glad to set this tank down,” he said.
“It’s a tank?”
“It sure as hell is,” he said, with laugh. “But it flies, so I can’t complain.”
“Got it,” he said. “Let us know when you’re down.”
“You go find her,” he said. “By the way, Bullard. Glad to have you back.”
“Me too, thanks,” he said, with a big smile, then hung up the phone.
Chapter 12
“Wake up.”
A hand roughly grabbed Leia’s shoulder and gave her a hard shake. She groaned, and, startled, she scrambled backward on the makeshift bed, staring up at her captor. “What?” she said, brushing her hair off her face.
“It’s D-day,” he said. “Get yourself upstairs.” Looking around, he said, “I’ll be glad to be rid of this thing.”
“It served your purpose though,” she said, trying to stand up.
Grabbing her, he shoved her roughly ahead of him onto the stairs up to the deck. “It did,” he said, “but I’m used to much better than this.”
“Sorry,” she snapped. “I guess kidnappers can’t be too picky.”
He roared with laughter at that. “You know what? You’d almost be fun to hang around with. It’s just that I think women have better purposes, and that is making money,” he said, with a sneer.
“Of course you do because you don’t have a soul.”
“My soul died a long time ago,” he said, his voice hard, and she caught a glimpse of the truly sadistic male inside.
She shuddered when she realized that staying with him might be a whole lot worse than wherever she was going. “Is your third party here?” she asked.
“Yep, and I’m about to pass you over and get paid.”
“But you don’t get paid until the other party confirms I’m the right one he’s looking for.” He just glared at her. She shrugged and said, “Well, it only makes sense. Nobody wants to do a deal unless they’re confirmed on the product.”
“Well, they damn well better pay me,” he said.
She nodded, didn’t say anything for a moment, but then she spoke up again. “Then you have to get Bullard, huh?”
“Oh, I’m sure he’ll be along pretty quick. That’s what I’m counting on anyway.”
“You’ve got to get paid first,” she said.
“Yep, things will be a little bit dicey for a bit, and, if you do anything to screw this up,” he said, “you’re dead.”
And she believed him. He had it all laid out so he could take both prizes without getting caught himself. It was a big gamble on his part, but he obviously had enough confidence to believe he could pull it off. She wondered at men like that. So sure of their ability to get the job done, even in the face of the extreme difficulty he was up against.
Whether it was just confidence or sheer arrogance, she didn’t know. She had a lot of confidence in her ability to do her surgical job, but it wasn’t arrogance at all. She had worked hard to develop her technical skills, and she knew deep within that her purpose in life was to try her best to save the people who came under her care. But somewhere along the line, she’d lost that confidence to deliver that care.
Or maybe Bullard was right when he’d said she had only lost her way for a while. Did she really want to go back to that? She wanted to go back to helping people, but she didn’t necessarily want to go back to an operating room and the pressure she’d been under before. It had been different when her father was alive. She’d still been trying to please him and to follow in his footsteps.
She sighed, not wanting to be too depressed about the whole thing because, right now, she had bigger things on her plate. As soon as she got on deck, her eyes immediately screamed against the sunlight. She cried out, trying to cover up her eyes.
“Yeah, it’s bright out here,” he said. “Sorry, I don’t have a sun hat for you.”
Such a snarky tone was in his voice that she realized any pain she suffered would just make him happier. She stiffened and immediately walked over to the edge of the water.
“Go ahead and jump in,” he said. “I’ll just shoot you.” She glared at him, just as he pointed to a boat rapidly coming toward him. “That’s your ride.”
“Great,” she said, “now if only I could figure out how to get away from that bloody doctor.”
“Well, I wouldn’t worry about the bloody doctor so much,” he said. “These guys might decide to keep you themselves, and they’ll probably blackmail the doctor to make sure they get an extra payout.”
“Would they do that?” she asked in surprise.
“Hell yes,” he said. “You’re such an innocent.”
“I don’t live in the world you live in,” she said. “Is that so wrong?”
“Nope. If it works, then good for you,” he said. “It doesn’t work for most people.”
“What? Most people aren’t dealing with killers like this,” she said.
“Lucky them, but some of us were raised in the muck,” he snapped, “and it doesn’t matter what you say, there’s no getting out of it.”
“I get that,” she said, “but you also had choices in life.”
“Save the lesson,” he said. “My soul isn’t worth saving.”
“Glad to hear that,” she said. “Then I won’t feel guilty when you get taken out in this deal.”
“Oh, I won’t be taken out,” he said, turning to stare at her.
“Well, if you think you’ll actually survive this,” she said, “you’re wrong. These guys will stab you in the back in a heartbeat. And the doctor won’t want anybody left alive who knows what’s going on.”
“Maybe,” he said, “but neither do I.”
“You could just let me go.”
He snorted. “Like that’ll happen.”
The speedboat coming toward them left a huge white plume of spray behind it. She felt herself shivering inside. A whole new set of men and a whole different set of circumstances. None of it made her feel any better. “You should run,” she said suddenly. “I don’t feel very good about any of this.”