Ball & Chain (Page 82)

Park stood and walked away from him. He took his sunglasses off and rubbed his hand over his eyes, revealing one that was milky white and another that was dark as obsidian. Then he put the glasses back on.

English shoved the gun harder into Frost’s face. “What else?”

“That’s all I know!”

“Who hired you?” Zane shouted at him. “Was it Richard Burns?”

“No! That was the name we were instructed to give, to cause chaos because he was on the island. The locals all thought he was the guy, okay? He was being set up. We were supposed to take him out at the end, but I swear I didn’t do it! It had to have been Kline or that f**king gardener!”

“Give us a name!” English demanded, digging the gun under Frost’s cheekbone.

“He was South American! The guy who hired me. De la Vega, okay? I never saw his face!”

Zane’s entire body flooded with ice. He lowered his weapon, blinking as the edges of his vision began to darken. De la Vega. The head of the Vega cartel, the man who’d tried to kill them in New Orleans. He’d come after Zane through Ty, and when that hadn’t worked, he’d come through Deuce’s in-laws.

Zane turned to meet Ty’s eyes. Ty shook his head.

“Is that the guy from NOLA?” Kelly asked.

“Yes,” Ty whispered.

“The guy who got Kelly shot?” Nick asked through gritted teeth. He had finally climbed to his feet.

“The locals, they all thought this was about money, about getting their island back. But that was just because we needed a smoke screen. It wasn’t even about the stuff on the flash drive! Our job was to retrieve the information, then plant it in Garrett’s computer so he’d go down for the theft,” Frost admitted. “All de la Vega wanted was for Garrett to go down. That’s it. I asked him, why not just kill the guy? And he said he wanted Garrett to suffer. That’s all he said.”

Nick and Kelly were both staring at Zane, but Zane’s world was narrowing as he listened. Ty’s hand came to rest on his back.

Frost’s voice was going higher, pleading as he explained. “But when the flash drive scrambled his laptop, the mission should have been aborted. I swear to God, Boss, that’s when I retreated. These f**king island hicks don’t know when to stop or we’d have just walked away!”

Zane sat heavily, his heart and head throbbing. “This was never really about Stanton’s company. This was about me.”

Chapter 14

They stood on the edge of the cliff, staring out at the moon sparkling on the waves.

The boat bobbed in the distance, its emergency beacon blinking and reflecting on the water like Christmas lights. It made Nick miss his boat. He always lined the vessel with strings of lights for Christmas.

“Do we try for it?” English asked.

“I want to go home,” Kelly grunted. “I say we swim for that bitch, f**k waiting for the ferry.”

Ty, Nick, and Zane murmured in agreement. Park merely nodded.

“Who’s physically capable of making that swim?” Nick asked, looking down the line at all of them.

Ty shook his head. Kelly had put his shoulder back in joint, to the tune of much squabbling and name-calling and Ty screaming in the end.

Zane wasn’t injured at all, but he looked dubious. “I can try for it,” he said, “but I’m not a very strong swimmer.”

“I’m good for it,” English said with a nod.

Nick looked him up and down. “Dude, is there a wet suit that will fit you?”

English laughed. “Probably not on this island.”

Nick shook his head. The sea was far too cold to swim without a wet suit. He’d die before he got halfway there.

“I can swim,” Park said. His arms were crossed, and he was still wearing his sunglasses even in the dark of night. “But perhaps we should use that canoe on the beach instead.”

“The what?” Ty and Zane blurted at the same time.

Park nodded toward the beach below. None of them could see what he was seeing, so Nick lay out on the edge of the cliff and shined his light down there. A battered red canoe reflected back at them.

“How the hell?” Nick asked over his shoulder.

“His sunglasses have night vision,” English answered, deadpan.

“Seriously?” Ty and Kelly both said.

“No.”

Both their shoulders slumped in disappointment, and Nick laughed. He wasn’t sure if it was really that funny or if he was just at the end of his sanity. He didn’t really care either. He stood and brushed himself off, then patted English on the chest and jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the beach below. “It’s all you, buddy.”

English nodded, gesturing to Park.

“Wait, we can’t send them alone. What if they leave us here?” Kelly asked.

Nick raised an eyebrow at his lover, but it was a valid question. He glanced at English, who was nodding.

“Fair enough. Who wants to go with me?”

“I will,” Zane offered. He and Ty exchanged a glance, communicating silently for a few seconds. Then Zane checked the ammunition in his gun. Nick handed him his knife with a nod.

They turned to English to see if he’d object. The big man shook his head. “He’s already told me he can’t swim. If I want to kill him, I’ll just tip the canoe.” He gave them all a cheeky grin, then turned to make his way down to the beach.

“Oh,” Ty said. “Oh, hell no.”

Zane laughed and patted him on the shoulder. “It’ll be okay.” He followed after English, leaving the four of them up top to watch their progress through the real set of night vision goggles they’d found in the stash of weapons Frost had cleared from the mansion’s stalking room.

Park turned to them, frowning. “Garrett know how to drive a boat like that?”

“No, why?” Ty answered.

Park shrugged. “Neither does John.”

Nick rolled his eyes and shoved the night vision goggles at Kelly, then began to strip himself of any unnecessary accessories.

“What kind of Green Beret doesn’t know how to handle a boat?” Ty asked.

“He thinks he does,” Park said, beginning to grin. “That’s the problem.”

“Wait up!” Nick called to the two men, jogging to catch up to them on the beach path.

The sun was rising when the boat neared the shoreline. The dock was the only place even remotely capable of taking a vessel the size of the craft they’d retrieved, but there was too much damage and debris to get close. They had to ferry people two and three at a time, using the canoe and the lifeboat they’d found on board. Ty wasn’t even able to help do that because of his throbbing shoulder. He sat aside and watched despondently.