Page 20 of Two Hearts
“How many are in there, Grace?”Jack asked her.“Besides the leader,” he added with a nod at the guy on the ground.
“That wasn’t the leader,” she said.“Someone inside was giving him orders.I heard at least two other voices, but there could have been more.”
“Shh!”JW put his finger to his lips, tipped his head to one side.“What is that?”
Jack listened.There was watery noise.Lapping, a splash.Then suddenly a motor.
Swearing, Jack scrambled out of the bushes and raced around the house full-tilt.But he only got there in time to see the small boat’s lights vanishing steadily in the distance.
“No!”Grace cried.She stared at the open door to the shack, even went toward it, calling for Hope and Charlie.But it was no good.It was obvious they’d been taken.
And before they ever found the note left inside the house, Jack knew what it would demand.But he read it, anyway.
“‘If you want to see the women alive again, you will release Havilar—’” Jack looked up.“That must be the guy Grace kicked into oblivion.”Then he read on.“‘Release Havilar, and drop the investigation of Paulo K.Darius, officially.’”
Jack looked from the note to JW.He smiled, and Jack smiled back.
“What’s so damned funny?”Grace demanded.“That maniac has Hope and Charlie.”
“Yeah, but we have two bits of information that we didn’t have before.”
“Oh, well, in that case…” Grace tossed her head.
“First, we know our drug lord isn’t any too bright.And second—” JW nodded at the note “—we know his name.”
CHAPTER 7
Her husband—or, the stranger who looked like her husband—stared at Grace, sighed deeply and took her hand.“We’ll get them back, Grace.”
She studied him, his tanned face, his square jaw, the gray of his eyes, and she realized she didn’t know this man at all.She’d been married to him for all of two weeks, and she didn’t know the first thing about who he really was.“How?”she asked, without thinking first.
Jack held her eyes.“It’s what I do.I do it well.”
Confident, his tone.Strong.As strong as his hand around hers.She believed him.And that simple reassurance made her feel slightly less afraid.As little sense as that made…and she knew it made damn little.Still, she sensed he was being completely honest with her for the first time since she’d met him.“Okay.”
Jack started walking, still holding her hand, back down the dark path that passed for a road out here.“My car’s right here,” she said.
“I’ll send someone back for your car.I think you ought to ride with me.We can…talk.”
“Something we haven’t done enough of.”To her own ears, her voice was low, wary.And for a long time she searched his eyes, trying to see the man she’d seen before.The staid, reserved man who went to work every morning in a nice suit and carried a briefcase.But instead she saw only this stranger, his clothes rumpled, his hair uncombed, his strong jaw lined with stubble.And a big black gun that still smelled of hot sulphur clutched in his hand.
“JW?”Jack called.
Grace looked around, saw JW handcuffing the still-unconscious man, rolling him over.“We’ll get the cars and toss him in on the way back.He ain’t goin’ anywhere.”
Jack looked at her, and a grudging half smile tugged at one side of his mouth.“Where’d you learn all that, Grace?”
She shrugged, saying nothing.“Where’s your car, Jack?”
“Back here.”He led her onward, JW bringing up the rear.When she saw the two vehicles sitting on the little pull-off alongside the dirt road, she frowned.“That’s not your car.”
Jack sighed.“I couldn’t drive the Lexus on the job,” he said.“I’m supposed to be stopping crime, not volunteering to play the victim.”
She nodded slowly, thinking as he spoke.“You, um, must work in some pretty rough neighborhoods.”
He licked his lips, a little nervously, she thought.“Not for much longer, Grace.”Then he looked right into her eyes.“I promise you that.”
Tilting her head to one side, Grace asked, “Why?”
