“Forgive me, Brogan,” Samantha cried weakly. “Please forgive me.”

“It’s not your fault, Samantha, I promise, I don’t blame you,” he managed to say through the awful buzzing that filled his mind.

“Samantha. Samantha, sweetie.” Dawg knelt beside them as he tore his own shirt from his back, folded it, and pressed it to her head wound. “Did Kraig say anything?”

“He said you and Brogan would know why.” She stared back at Brogan painfully. “He said I would be dead, but you would know why.”

“No, Samantha.” He held her to him, cradling her against his chest as Dawg fought to stem the flow of blood from her wounds. “You’ve never failed me, sweetheart.” Brogan stared at Dawg, feeling nothing inside him, not even desperation.

Dawg blew out a hard breath. “I should have known—she told me DHS was watching Judge Kiser’s home and suspected him of being part of the Freedom League with Dayle Mackay, before Dayle’s death. I should have checked into it immediately.”

“When did she tell you this?” Brogan narrowed his eyes on Dawg. “DHS has not had Judge Kiser under surveillance.”

Dawg frowned back at him. “Eve overheard Jed talking about watching Kiser’s house. She told me about it the other day at the family reunion.”

The ambulance screamed into the marina followed by Zeke, Alex, and John Walker’s vehicles. Immediately the EMTs surrounded Samantha and the dead Kraig still in the car.

“Find her, Brogan,” Samantha cried as the EMTs lifted her carefully to a gurney. “They’re going to kill her.”

Agony threatened the ice that had his emotions in deep freeze, saving his sanity. As Brogan rose to his feet, Donny and Sandi pushed through the crowd surrounding them, and went straight to Dawg and pulled his attention to them as Donny hurriedly whispered something quickly in Dawg’s ear.

“Brogan, the office,” Dawg ordered, staring around at the crowd. They moved quickly to the marina office, closing the door behind them as Dawg turned to Donny as Brogan glared at them. Donny shocked him, though, Donny and Sandi. They flashed their badges and identifications declaring them FBI Special Agents Clarke. Hell, they were married.

“We know where she’s at,” Sandi said in a coolly authoritative tone.

Brogan glared at Donny. “What the fuck is going on here?” “Sorry, Brogan,” Donny sighed. “We had to hold our cover even with you. Though it was damned hard to hold the part the night you visited.”

“Where is she?” he rasped again, his fists clenching furiously.

“Kiser’s not involved with this,” Sandi said quickly. “His foreman is another story. He was one of Chandler Mackay’s partners. He believes Brogan has the coordinates of the stolen gold. He’s holding Eve for the gold.”

“Where is she?” he rasped again, his fists clenching furiously.

“You’re not going in alone,” Donny stated firmly, coolly. Before Brogan could stop himself he had a handful of the agent’s shirt as he hauled him nearly off his feet, dragging him nose-to-nose with him.

“I will kill you,” he stated with an icy calm. “Where is she?”

“They stole the Nauti Buoy.” Donny grimaced. “It’s currently anchored in the middle of the left fork of Lake Cumberland. Kiser’s foreman, Kai Maynard, is a former Special Forces and one of his cohorts is a formerly dishonorably discharged Ranger named Joel Keller.”

Brogan turned to a fuming Rowdy, the owner of the Nauti Buoy. “How do I get to that boat and how do I get on it?”

“Getting on it is easy,” Rowdy answered. “Getting to her is another thing, according to where they’re holding her.”

“According to our information she is on the first level, tied to one of the bunk beds on the right, in the hall,” Donny stated.

“Where are you getting your information?” Brogan snarled.

“Poppa Bear’s with them,” Donny admitted. “He’s been part of Kai’s group for several years. Before that he was with Chandler Mackay. But he’s always been a federal agent and informant.” He gave Dawg and Brogan a hard look. “We don’t have much time. Now do we get onto that fucking houseboat?”

Brogan’s gaze sharpened on the other man. “Kai has more than just Eve,” he guessed in a dangerous voice. “What does he have that the FBI is after?”

Donny’s lips tightened as Sandi whispered something to him. His gaze shifted to Brogan furiously as he gave a tight nod. Sandi stepped back. “One of the files Kai Maynard stole had a list of agent code names assigned to several subversive Homeland Security groups. If he gets away with that file, a lot of agents are going to die.”

“He’s definitely a dead man,” Brogan declared as he turned to Dawg. “You ready to go?”

Dawg nodded, his smile savage. “Let’s go.”

TWENTY

Eve sat on the bunk, her arms stretched above her and secured to the bottom of the metal bunk frame with a pair of handcuffs. Her fingers bit into the metal slats above her as she held onto them in an attempt to keep the pressure of the cuffs from tightening around her wrists each time her arms got tired and slipped. Not that holding them up by her fingertips tucked beneath the slats was really helping a lot.

“Here you go, cutie pie.” Poppa Bear gripped her shoulder and pulled her forward to tuck another pillow behind her without asking if that would make her more comfortable.

She glared at him, taking in the Santa look of the full head of gray hair and the well-trimmed beard and mustache of the same color.

“Why are you doing this?” she whispered, staring up into the dark brown eyes that held a twinkle of a smile.

“Because it makes me happy,” he laughed jovially.

He may look like that jolly little elf, but she couldn’t remember a single story where Santa took hostages or where he threatened to kill them. Unless that was fun and games in his off hours, she thought half hysterically.

This was just wonderful. She was definitely living on a much shorter time line than she had ever imagined and here she was worrying about Santa.

“Too bad we lost Kraig,” Kai grumbled as Poppa Bear moved back to his seat just inside the hall where he could keep an eye on her. “He’d make a hell of a scapegoat.”

“Once we get the gold we’ll just take care of both of them.” Poppa Bear shrugged as he looked back at Eve, grinned and winked merrily. “Don’t worry, sweetie, I’ll make sure it don’t hurt.”

She sneered back at him.

Yeah, that was a comforting thought. It just wouldn’t hurt.

Kai laughed at the other man’s comment as Eve glimpsed him prowling about the other side of the kitchen.

“How long do you think it should take?” Kai asked. “I have to call them soon. I don’t want anyone getting any ideas if they figure out we have the boat and where we are.”

“It’s all depending on where that gold is.” Poppa Bear shrugged. “It will take them a while to load it, though. Chandler never got it all transported after he stole it. Though, I’d say Dawg can get it all in one haul in that heavy-duty delivery truck he has for the store if he can get it to wherever his daddy hid it.”

“Too bad it wasn’t hidden in the house.” Kai grimaced.

“I spent three nights searching that house after Chandler died.” Poppa Bear sighed. “If it was there, it was hid so damned good that even my electronics couldn’t find the shit.”

What gold?

God, she hated this. If she ever got out of it alive and Brogan kept so much as one damned secret from her then she was going to end up shooting him.

Besides the fact she was way too damned nosy and hated, absolutely hated, not knowing what was going on, she had also not been prepared for Kai Maynard. Perhaps if she had known what was going on, she would have been prepared.