Ransom Read online

  The tightness in Blake’s chest eased at the sight of Liz unharmed. He’d arrived in time, with seconds to spare. Undoubtedly Santini would have ordered his thugs to shoot the two women the moment he had what he wanted. The thought grabbed Blake by the throat. He needed to get the women out of there. They still weren’t completely safe.

  Liz struggled to untie the thin piece of rope keeping Jillian’s hands together. Jillian whimpered again. “I know, honey,” Liz said. “Let me get you untied and you can take the tape off your mouth.”

  “Show me your hand,” Nathanial shouted at Santini who still had one hand shoved into his coat pocket while his other hand held the necklace.

  The man’s mouth stretched into an evil smile. A shudder of distaste washed over Blake. This was the first face-to-face encounter with the criminal he’d been chasing to avenge his partner’s death, and Blake couldn’t wait to slap cuffs on the man. “You heard him. Take your hand out of your pocket.”

  “With pleasure.” Santini withdrew his hand from his coat pocket holding a small device.

  Blake’s gut clenched. A detonator. Was it a dead man’s switch? A suicide vest? He hadn’t pegged Santini as the type who would rather die than go to jail.

  “Did you think I’d come unprepared?” Santini taunted. “You federal boys keep underestimating me.”

  Anger ticked through Blake, but he kept his focus on the detonator in Santini’s hand. “We know exactly what you are. A criminal. A killer.”

  Santini shrugged. “I do what I have to. Not my fault when one of you feds—” he squinted at Nathanial and Drew “—or Canucks, get in my way and end up on a slab in the morgue.”

  “Lizzie, listen to me,” Jillian said once Liz had the tape off her mouth.

  “Lizzie,” Santini mimicked. “I’m so sick of hearing about Lizzie. Lizzie will save me. Lizzie won’t let you hurt me. I’ve half a mind to blow you to bits just because. But I want to leave with my diamonds, and if you don’t let me...boom.” His beady eyes twinkled with maniacal amusement.

  “What are you talking about?” Nathanial asked, as he edged closer.

  “Go on, Jillian, show them,” Santini said.

  Fat tears rolled down Jillian’s cheeks. She carefully unbuttoned her coat to reveal an improvised explosive belt wrapped around her waist.

  Liz’s gasp ricocheted off the walls.

  Jillian sniffled.

  Liz put her arm around her sister and cooed soft soothing words. “It’ll be okay. You’ll see.”

  He couldn’t fail Liz. Not when they were so close to gaining justice for his friend Liam and freeing Jillian. Not when his feelings about Liz were a hot, confused knot in his heart. His hand tightened on the grip of his gun, his finger hovering over the trigger.

  “You’d blow yourself and your men up, too,” Drew pointed out. “You know that, right?”

  Santini’s expression showed nothing, no regret or sympathy for his two thugs who stared at their boss with horror.

  Blake calculated the distance between Nathanial and Santini. How quickly could Nathanial dive for the detonator if Blake put a bullet in Santini?

  Blake glanced at Nathanial. He shook his head, indicating he didn’t see an option. They were too far away from Santini. Frustration fueled Blake’s brain to work the angles and find a solution. He stepped closer to Liz.

  The only bargaining chip they had was in Santini’s hand. Blake lifted the barrel of his gun so it was no longer trained on Santini. “Just set the detonator on the ground and walk away,” Blake said. “You have what you wanted.”

  He was confident that the Niagara Regional Police would apprehend Santini the second he stepped outside. And if he managed to slip past them, the tracker on the necklace would allow them to follow him and capture him.

  Santini arched an eyebrow. His brown eyes blazed with mockery. “How about we all walk out of here nice and easy, then I’ll relinquish the detonator.”

  Really? Santini was crafty and wily. There was no way he couldn’t suspect there were more officers on the other side of the tunnel door. He had something up his sleeve, but Blake’s priority was to get everyone out of the tunnel alive. He’d have to trust the others to swoop in and disarm Santini before he had an opportunity to press the button and blow them all to smithereens.

  “Okay, we all walk out of here,” Blake said. “Keep your hands in the air where we can see them.”

  At the elevator, Nathanial screwed the bulb back in before they crammed inside. Blake put an arm around Liz, drawing her up against his chest. He ignored the curious glances from the others. He couldn’t explain even if he wanted to. All he knew was he needed to feel her close. It was so weird to be in the tight confines of the elevator with the man he’d been hunting for months and knowing that with one wrong twitch, Santini could blow them all to bits.

  When they reached the entry point, they filed out. Drew, Sami and the Cantrell sisters brought up the rear.

  “I was afraid I’d die down there,” Jillian said with a visible shiver.

  They weren’t out of the woods yet. They still needed to get the detonator and disarm the explosive device strapped to Jillian’s middle.

  Once they were outside, Santini said, “You tell your people to back off.” He gestured to the dozen officers now pointing their weapons at him. “Unless you want me to blow us all to kingdom come? You do realize the explosion will cause catastrophic damage to the falls and the city.”

  Blake motioned for everyone to lower their weapons. “Satisfied?” He stepped toward him. “Now hand it over.”

  “Send Liz over. She and I will walk away and then I’ll hand her the detonator.”

  “No way,” Blake said. “You give it to me.”

  “No. I want to give it to Lizzie.” Santini gestured to Liz.

  “Not happening,” Blake repeated and took another step forward. “Come on, Santini, work with me here.”

  “Don’t come any closer.” Santini’s thumb grazed over the detonator’s red button.

  Blake clenched his jaw. He seriously wanted to do the man bodily harm.

  Liz touched Blake’s arm, diverting his concentration. “I’ll do it,” she said, her voice whisper soft.

  He captured her hand. A fierce protectiveness swept through him. “No. I won’t allow it.”

  “Blake, it’s a small price to pay for everyone else’s safety.”

  An odd burn of emotion gripped his chest and clogged his throat. He forced out the words, “I don’t trust him.”

  Her blue-green gaze softened and she squeezed his arm. “But I trust you.” Her voice dropped even lower, so that only he could hear. “You’ll find me.”

  Her words speared clean through him to the core of his being. Not so many days ago he’d told her she had no choice but to trust him. But that hadn’t been true.

  He’d wanted her to trust him because he needed her to, but she did have a choice. And now she freely gave her trust to him.

  She believed in him. He’d never felt so humbled.

  Everything inside of him raged against letting her sacrifice herself. But the ICE agent in him knew he had to let her go. They’d put a tracking device on the necklace. They would follow and wait until she was safe before swooping in and arresting Santini.

  “Lizzie, no,” Jillian pleaded. “He’s evil.”

  Without breaking her hold on Blake’s arm, Liz turned to her sister. “I love you, Jillian. But I have to do this.”

  Jillian wept. Blake sympathized with her. He wanted to weep, to howl, to ram his fist into Santini’s smug face. The muscles in Blake’s neck and shoulders stiffened to an unbearable pain that matched the searing burn in his heart.

  When Liz refocused her attention on Blake, he saw the love in her eyes directed at him. His mouth turned to cotton. Seeing that tend
er look scared him nearly as much as letting her go with a madman.

  Liz squared her shoulders and released his arm. As she walked toward Santini, it took every ounce of self-control Blake had not to grab her and haul her back to his side.

  Santini’s grin turned Blake’s stomach.

  When Liz reached Santini, he snatched her hand and yanked her to him. Blake lunged forward. Nathanial held him back as Santini wrapped one thick arm around her throat while still holding the explosive trigger in his hand.

  “Everyone move back,” Santini yelled. “Let us pass, and then I’ll release your friend.”

  Fury erupted in Blake’s chest and mushroomed into a dark cloud over his head. His hands curled into fists at his sides. As he watched Santini drag Liz away, Blake threw up a prayer and plea for God to keep her safe.

  * * *

  The arm snaked around Liz’s shoulders pressed hard on her throat, cutting off her air supply. She clawed at his arm to no avail. He smelled of menthol, a scent she associated with death. The hospice care nurse had used a menthol cream on her mother to help soothe the pain of the cancer that had ravished her body. Liz’s stomach heaved, and she gagged, which only made breathing more difficult.

  To keep her panic at bay, she kept her eyes trained on Blake, who followed them at a distance as Santini dragged her away. She memorized each line in his handsome face, each angle and plane of his cheeks and jaw.

  Blake’s voice sounded in her head. “It’s going to be okay. I won’t lose you.”

  Her heart ached with fear and longing. She’d wanted so badly to tell Blake that somewhere along the way she’d fallen in love with him. Even though she knew doing so wasn’t smart.

  There was no future for them.

  She belonged on Hilton Head Island, belonged at the store that her father had started and left to her and Jillian. And now that Jillian’s husband was in jail, she would need Liz to help her pick up the pieces of her broken heart.

  Whereas Blake would move on to his next mission, as he should. He protected both the United States and Canada in ways she’d never imagined from threats large and small. He was a hero.

  And she knew deep inside if she let herself, she could easily lose herself in him and become just like her father with no identity outside of the person she loved.

  One half of a whole that couldn’t survive alone.

  That was something she couldn’t allow, despite how proud and in awe she was of Blake. She knew how hard it had been for him to let her go. He’d wanted to retain control of the situation, but life didn’t always allow that. Only God was in control.

  With both Blake and God on her side, she would survive this ordeal. But that knowledge didn’t keep the fear from clawing through her.

  Santini hauled her toward a dark SUV waiting at the curb just outside the festival boundary. His thugs hustled in front of him. Taking shallow breaths, Liz kept her gaze locked on Blake, who remained far enough away to not spook Santini into following through with his threat.

  Santini popped open the driver’s-side door and commanded, “Get in!”

  Terror lanced through her. She struggled against his surprisingly strong arm. “You said you’d give me the detonator and release me.”

  “Get in,” Santini repeated. “Or I blow your sister and everyone else into bits.”

  Where would he take her? What would he do with her? She calmed herself with the knowledge that Blake would be able to hear her through the wire in her coat pocket and see through the camera attached to her button.

  But what about the explosives attached to her sister? Liz searched for Jillian, but she couldn’t see her among the crowd gathering to watch the spectacle of Santini forcing Liz into his SUV.

  From the crazy gleam in Santini’s eyes, she knew with a deep gut certainty he wasn’t bluffing. She scrambled into the driver’s seat of the vehicle.

  “Keep going,” he said, shoving at her as he crawled inside behind her.

  Clambering over the middle console, she landed in the passenger seat in a heap. Behind her, one of the thugs snickered at her ungainly entrance. As she righted herself and shot the big lug a vehement glare, Santini locked the doors and then started the engine. Still holding on to the detonator with one hand, he pressed on the gas and the SUV shot forward. He cranked the wheel, barely avoiding pedestrians who’d stopped to gawk.

  “Where are you taking me?” Liz grappled with the seat belt and buckled herself in.

  “Shut up!” He sped through stoplights, swerving around cars, drifting into the oncoming traffic lane. Horns blared. Liz braced herself, sure that any second they’d be struck. But they managed to leave the city limits unscathed.

  “Liz, I’m here,” Blake’s voice entered her head. “We’re following you. We have an explosives specialist working on the bomb strapped to Jillian.”

  She nearly wept with relief. But she knew she couldn’t rejoice yet. The specialist could miscalculate, or Santini could have rigged the explosives with a secondary trigger that could explode if tampered with.

  “Please, give me the detonator,” she implored.

  Without answering, he rolled the window down and chucked the detonator out.

  Liz’s mouth dropped open. “You threw the detonator out the window,” she said for Blake’s benefit. That was unexpected. But she wouldn’t complain.

  He cackled. “Are you sure that was the detonator?”

  Her fingers curled into fists. He was toying with her, enjoying her suffering. “You have what you want. You said you’d let me go.”

  “No way, sweetheart, you’re my insurance policy.” He exited the main highway onto a side street without any streetlights. He brought the vehicle to an abrupt halt on the shoulder.

  Not sure what to think, anxiety snaked through Liz. She grabbed the handle to open the door, but it was locked. She tried the lock mechanism. It didn’t work. He must have it on parental control. “Why have you stopped?”

  He snorted “Do you think I’m stupid? Do you think I don’t know the way the law operates? I haven’t been able to evade capture this long without anticipating my opponents’ moves.”

  He reached across her to open the glove box. He grabbed a pistol and what looked to Liz like a walkie-talkie. He slammed the glove compartment closed. Then he fiddled with controls on the walkie-talkie.

  Red lights glowed from the device, filling in the shadows and distorting Santini’s face. Liz shrank back as he lifted the thing and waved it over her. It let out long, shrill beeps.

  Santini’s lips thinned. “I knew you were bugged.”

  Her stomach sank. So the device wasn’t a walkie-talkie but an electronic detector. “It’s okay, Liz. Keep calm,” Blake said into her ear. “We’re not that far behind you.”

  “Take off your coat,” Santini demanded, drawing her attention.

  She shrugged out of the jacket. He grabbed it, rolled down the window and threw it out. Then he waved the handheld detector over her again. It remained silent until he brought it near her ear. The shrill alarm reverberated through Liz’s head. Santini grabbed her by the hair and yanked her close. His thick fingers plucked at her ear.

  She swatted his hand away and fished the small communication link from her ear and held it out to him. “There. Are you satisfied? Now will you let me go?”

  He tossed the earpiece out the window, then without comment, restarted the engine and continued driving deeper into the woods.

  Liz said a silent prayer of thanksgiving that Santini hadn’t thought to swipe his device over the necklace. The tracker attached to the backside of one of the stones was now her only hope of rescue.

  TEN

  Liz hid her surprise when Santini turned the SUV down a snow-rutted road leading to an airport. Huge lights illuminated the runway and glistened off the snow piled h
igh on the edges of the long runway.

  A large gate blocked their path. Santini slowed to a stop and rolled down the window. He removed his wallet from the inside pocket of his coat and slipped an electronic key card out and swiped it against the box right outside the driver’s-side door. The gate opened.

  Obviously he’d been here before and apparently planned on executing his escape via airplane. She noticed a dark helicopter off to the side. Maybe not a plane. A shiver of apprehension tripped over her skin. She’d never been in a helicopter and certainly didn’t want to experience it now.

  He brought the vehicle to a halt outside of a huge blue metal building on the far side of a short, squat air traffic control tower. Tall red-tipped antennas grew out of the top of the tower. Dark-tinted windows concealed the control personnel inside. But would they be able to see her? There had to be a way to signal to them that she was in distress.

  Killing the engine, Santini turned to her with the gun aimed at her heart. “No funny business, you hear me? We’re going to get out nice and easy, then we’re going to make our way inside the hangar. I’ve got a plane waiting.”

  Wariness threaded through her. “I’m not going with you.”

  He shoved the gun closer to her face. “Yes, you are. Now move.”

  She swallowed back the tide of terror rising up to scorch her throat. She’d switched places with Jillian. Would she end up with an explosive wrapped around her? Or would Santini just shoot her? Deciding it was better to comply than argue with him, she opened the door and stepped out.

  The frigid air seeped through her clothes to chill her all the way to her marrow. She’d never liked winter but now she positively detested it. She contemplated running for the tower, but feared he’d blast a hole in her back if she tried. She had to be patient and wait for an opportunity. She prayed God would orchestrate a moment when she could escape unharmed.

  Santini rounded the front end of the SUV, snagged her arm and forced her to walk toward the large rectangular building. His two thugs climbed out and trudged along behind them like lap dogs. High square windows marched across the building and glowed from within.