Sticking to the shadows, Madrid followed the men. He tried to catch what they were saying, thought he heard the words security breach, but he was too far away to be sure. They took him past the wheelhouse, up a short flight of stairs. Ahead, he heard more voices. Drawing his weapon, he slinked up the steps, in plain sight if any of the men had had a notion to turn around. In the near distance he saw the silhouettes of two large lifeboats suspended by ropes and massive pulleys.
His heart stopped in his chest when he spotted them. Two women and a child. Jess. Her silhouette was unmistakable. He could tell by her body language that she was frightened. Yet she kept herself squarely between the gunmen and Nicolas.
The need to protect what was his slammed through him. But Madrid had enough experience to know better than to rush into a situation where he was outmanned and outgunned eight to one. Recklessness was the fastest way to getting killed.
He looked down at his weapon and silently cursed its inadequacy. He had a knife strapped to his belt, too. But not even the combination of the two would be enough to stop eight armed men desperate enough to murder women and children. He thought of Vanderpol and wondered if the other man had made it on board.
The only way Madrid was going to get to Jess was if he could come up with some kind of distraction. But for the life of him he couldn’t think of a way to stop what he knew would happen next.
His worst nightmare became a reality when he saw the familiar silhouette of a man who was stepping toward Jess. Mummert. Horror flashed inside him when Mummert raised a pistol and leveled it at her. The people he’d loved and lost in his life flashed in his mind’s eye. He couldn’t believe fate would steal another.
“You’ve become quite a thorn in my side,” Mummert said.
“Go to hell.”
If he hadn’t been so terrified, Madrid might have smiled at Jess’s response. But while her words were strong, he heard the quiver of terror in her voice.
Mummert ran the muzzle of the pistol from her cheek to her breast. “Though I’m sure you would have made our voyage much more interesting, I’m afraid I have no more time for delays.”
In one smooth motion he grasped Nicolas’s arm. Jess launched herself at him, but two men moved quickly forward and forced her back.
“Let him go!” she screamed. “He’s just a little boy.”
Easy, Madrid thought. Don’t push him too hard.
“Ah, but children make for excellent leverage.” Mummert set the pistol against the boy’s temple. “Don’t you agree?”
“What do you want?” Jess screamed.
He gave her an evil smile. “I want you to jump overboard.” He pulled back the slide on the gun. “Or I’ll kill him where he stands.”
JESS COULDN’T BELIEVE it had come to this. She was standing on the lifeboat platform. Twenty feet down, the ocean taunted her with three-foot whitecaps and the promise of a cold and terrible death.
“Do it,” Mummert said.
Terror twisted inside her like barbed wire. Her body screamed with tension as she weighed her options. But there were none. If she refused, Mummert would kill Nicolas. If she jumped, she might live long enough to hear the bullets that would end Chin Lee’s and Nicolas’s lives. An unfathomable dilemma…
“I’ll do it,” she said after a moment.
“Of course you will.”
“On one condition.”
Every nerve in her body jumped when he fired a shot. The hot zing of the bullet whizzed by inches from her ear.
“Stop wasting time,” he said.
“Let the boy go. Do what you like with me.” Despite her best efforts, a sob squeezed from her throat. “I’ll do anything.”
“Tempting.” Mummert’s gaze raked over her. “You certainly have your charms. But the time for play is over. Your time is up. So is the boy’s. Now, jump or I’ll put a bullet in his head.”
Jess stood facing them with the water to her back. Eight men, all of them willing to murder an innocent child for the likes of whatever money their illegal cargo would bring them once they reached their destination.
In the back of her mind she wondered if Madrid had gotten her message. If he was trying to reach her. Considering she had mere minutes left, she accepted the reality that he wasn’t going to arrive in time.
“You coldhearted bastard,” she choked.
Mummert gave her an odd half smile. “That would be true if I had a heart. Make no mistake, my beauty— I do not.” He shifted the gun to Nicolas again.
“Don’t,” she pleaded.
“Jump or I’ll make sure you see him die.”
Jess wanted to take at least one of them with her. For a crazy instant she considered charging Mummert, tackling him, taking him over the side and into the water. But she knew he would shoot her down before she got close enough.
Her only consolation was that her hands weren’t bound. She would be able to swim. But judging by the lights back at the shipyard, the vessel was already half a mile out. She would succumb to hypothermia long before she reached the shore.
She looked at Nicolas and couldn’t hold back the rush of tears. “Everything’s going to be okay,” she choked.
It was a lie. They were going to die.