Pete looked between their confused expressions. “I’ll jump in,” he explained. “They’ll stop and pick me up. I’ll distract them, keep them from following. Give them false directions. I’ll figure something out. You three must continue without me.”
“They won’t be nice,” Xander warned.
“Don’t worry about me. Just get to the island. Stop Al-Rashid.”
Leila’s mind whirled. There had to be a different way. They couldn’t just leave Pete to fend for himself. Knowing what Jones had done to her, he would be even nastier to Pete.
“We will stop him,” Montu said and held out his hand. Pete handed over his gun.
Leila could only watch helplessly, unable to come up with a better plan. She, Xander, and Montu working together? This wouldn’t go well at all. Pete was the only person Montu would listen to. And what would the SIS do to Pete once they captured him? They weren’t going to take him on a picnic, that was for sure. This could be the last time she ever saw Pete.
She caught Xander’s gaze. “It’s worth a shot,” he said, though he sounded unconvinced. He turned to Pete. “Just do what they ask. Answer their questions as convincingly as possible. Cooperate, and you’ll be fine.”
“Yes, of course,” Pete assured him, patting him on the shoulder. “Leave it to me.” With that, he casually saluted each of them in turn, then faced the sea and the speedboat behind them. He positioned himself to dive. Then came a blast at Leila’s side.
She jumped, her breath catching in her throat. Then she looked up to see the red hole in the side of Pete’s head. He plunged into the water like a sack of rocks.
Shock coursed through her, freezing her in place. Pete was gone. But the gunshot… It had been so close… like right next to her. She turned to gape at Montu. He stood stiff, his mouth in a firm line, his arm outstretched, gun in hand.
Before Leila realized what was happening, Montu aimed at Xander and fired.
Xander’s torso jerked to the side. He took a step back, shock etched over his face. Then he flipped over the rail and disappeared.
CHAPTER 29
It was as if her entire body had been dropped head-first into ice water. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t speak. It wasn’t until she saw Xander’s body, unmoving in the water, that she finally found her voice. Her hair whipped around her face, the motor roared beneath her, and waves crashed against the boat. Her scream was lost in the wind.
Xander’s form grew smaller and smaller as they sped away. Gasping in shaky breaths, Leila gripped the railing, her knees on the deck. All she could do was watch as the speedboat slowed and circled the dark speck.
This can’t be happening.
Footsteps reminded her she wasn’t alone. She pivoted to face Montu. He watched her, gun in one hand and a dagger in the other.
Kill him! Kill him now!
Her gaze locked on his gun. She would shoot him and feed him to the sharks. He lunged at her, and she raised her arm, aiming her elbow at his chin. Something swung at her face. A loud blast filled her ears as the world went black.
• • •
A splash of warm sea water woke Leila up. The fishing vessel continued to pound across the Aegean, hitting the water with loud bangs, the waves bursting upward on both sides of the boat. It was all a blur as she forced her eyes open.
She immediately snapped her eyes shut against the brightness. Her head pounded and her stomach lurched like she would be sick.
Then, her memory swept over her like a frozen wave. Xander. She’d last seen him floating in the water, face-down, motionless, surrounded by a cloud of red.
Why?
Why would Montu do this? She needed Xander. Without him, the emptiness would swallow her whole. Montu had ripped away the most important thing in her life.
Tears burned her eyes as she slowly opened them again. Ignoring the way it felt like her brain was being squeezed, she lifted her head, her heart thundering against her rib cage.
Montu’s dark form was visible through the salted wheelhouse windows, his focus on the sea ahead of them.
The world spun.
Cursing silently, she lowered her head. She waited for the dizziness to pass and tried to move her arms but could only move them in unison as her hands had been tied together.
It didn’t matter. She would kill him somehow. She had to. And she could. After all, she’d killed two men before. She’d shot one and impaled another with a spear. It would be her first time planning a killing, but this was still self-defense. Montu certainly didn’t intend to let her off this boat alive. He’d killed Pete and he’d killed Xander. He deserved the same.
Rage and grief boiled in her veins. She had to get her hands on a gun. But how without him shooting her first? She lay for a moment on the soaked deck, watching her rib cage rise and fall. The nausea eased, though the headache raged. Shouldn’t he have already killed her? Why knock her out and tie her up? A nagging thought drifted into her mind. Montu could be working for Faris. This is what Faris had said would happen. He said he would have Xander killed if she didn’t deliver what he wanted.
And now Montu was taking her to him. That was it. That had to be his plan. Or his orders.
Not wanting to alert Montu just yet, she remained still on the floor for a few moments. She needed to reorient herself. Where were they? The waters were calm, the sea stretching to the horizon in all directions. The SIS speedboat was nowhere in sight. They must have picked up Xander and Pete.
She swallowed against the painful lump in her throat. She would never see him again. And if Faris had his way, she would be joining him soon. She glanced back at the wheelhouse where Montu sat behind the steering wheel, his hands resting on the handles, firmly guiding the boat through the waves. If she could just sneak up on him…
He looked over his shoulder and froze.
Curses. He’d seen her.
While she squirmed to free herself from the ropes around her wrists, he locked the steering wheel and strode out of the wheelhouse. He stopped in front of her and dragged her into a sitting position. Her head swam, throbbing with dizziness.
“Why he wants you alive, I don’t know,” Montu snarled. “You’ve been nothing but trouble.”
“Who wants me alive?”
Montu didn’t answer. Instead, he checked the rope around her wrists, then pulled her to her feet. “Move. To the wheelhouse.”
