“Holy fuck,” Blondie said.
His brother didn’t look up. He kept his rifle leveled at my chest. “We’re not running,” he said.
“Look at them,” Blondie said.
“We’re not running,” the brother said. “I think it’s a trick.”
I hung the bag a little further out over the water. The weight of the anchor was making my forearm muscles burn. But I knew if I pulled it in for a second, a bullet would rip right through me.
Then, a voice from behind me. “Put the guns down!” It sounded like Leon, yelling into a megaphone.
The brother didn’t even blink. “You’re gonna die, McKnight.”
Blondie pushed Jackie out from under the awning. “Stay back!” he yelled. “I’ll put a bullet in his head if you get any closer!”
“Put the guns down now! ”
I knew Vargas’s boat couldn’t come too close, or they’d see right through everything. The tape on the guns, the cheap windbreakers. It would all fall apart.
“You’re blowing your chance,” I said. “If you give us Jackie right now, you still might make it out of this alive.”
“I’ll kill him, McKnight. I swear to God.”
I looked at Jackie. His eyes were closed.
“You’re dead!” Bennett said. “Give him up now or you’re dead!”
“Shut up,” I said. “Bennett, just shut up.”
“Those are Isabella’s men and you are fucking dead!”
“Those aren’t his men,” Blondie’s brother said, without even looking up at them. “There’s no way.”
“No matter what,” I said, “you’re still outnumbered. That you can see. You’ll never get out of this alive.”
“So be it,” Blondie said. “I guess that’s the way it goes down.”
Everything froze. Seconds ticked by. This is it, I thought. I waited for the first blast.
Instead, a voice.
“Hey, Marcus! Derrick!” I turned and saw Vargas standing at the rail of his boat. He was holding up the transmitter from his radio. “It’s Mr. Isabella. He wants to talk to both of you.”
That broke the spell. At the sound of his name, Blondie’s brother turned and fired his rifle, knocking Vargas right off his feet. As I dove to the deck, I caught a flash of Blondie’s gun coming away from Jackie’s head, and pointing right at me. I heard glass exploding behind me, Bennett crying out and then going down hard on the deck. There were more gunshots, from Blondie’s boat, from Vargas’s boat. And in the middle of all of it, a splash in the water.
I grabbed my revolver from the gunwale shelf and came back up with both hands wrapped around it. I didn’t see Jackie. Where the fuck was Jackie? Blondie’s brother came out from under the railing, firing at Vargas’s boat. I put him in my sights and pulled the trigger. There was an explosion right next to my ear, sending a spray of wood into my face. I went down again. I saw Bennett lying on the deck. He was bleeding from the forehead, but his eyes were open. “Stay down,” I said.
“Jackie’s in the water,” he said. “I saw him dive in.”
I heard two more shots, and then the sound of a boat’s propeller churning the water. Somebody was moving.
I looked over the gunwale. Blondie was at the wheel. The boat was moving away from us, and moving fast. Vargas’s boat kicked up, and came our way.
“Look out for Jackie!” I yelled. “Where is he?”
I scanned the water. I couldn’t see him.
“Where are you, Jackie? Where the fuck are you?”
There!
I dove in, felt the sudden icy shock of the water. I swam to where I had seen him, struggling against the waves and the brutal cold. When I finally got to him, he was fighting hard to keep his head above the water. With his hands tied behind his back, and his mouth taped shut, it was a losing battle.
“I got you, Jackie! I got you!”
I grabbed onto him, tilted his head back, and tried to do the lifeguard’s crawl. My body was already numb. Even in the middle of July, the lake is so damned cold. You’ve got a few minutes and then you’re done.
Vargas’s boat got to us first. Ham came down the side ladder, one leg in the water, and grabbed Jackie. He lifted him like a rag doll, and passed him over the side. Then he came back for me, put one of those long arms around me, and pulled me out of the water.
I landed on the deck, pulled myself up to my hands and knees. I tried to breathe. When I looked up, Jonathan and Gill had already pulled the tape off of Jackie’s mouth. They were busy untying his hands.
Vargas lay on the deck behind them.
Oh God no. It came back to me. Blondie’s brother hitting him point-blank, knocking him right over.
Vargas picked his head up. He looked at me and then put his head back down.
“Vargas!” I crawled over to him.
“Don’t touch me, McKnight. Just let me catch my breath.”
“What happened? I saw you go down.”
“He got me right in the chest,” he said. “Son of a bitch.”
“What? How are you-”
“You think I’d come out here with you clowns without my vest? What do you think I am, crazy?”
I looked down at his body. The big black vest was so obvious, but I hadn’t even noticed it. “You’re wearing Kevlar?”
“You think Kevlar would have stopped that bullet? From an assault weapon? This is ceramic.” He winced as he reached up to give it a little tap. “I had it in the cabin. But I only had one. Sorry, I was selfish.”
“What were you doing on the radio?” I said. “You said their names.”
“Marcus and Derrick. The Forsythe brothers. I called Isabella and found out their real names.”
“You really called him?”
“Things didn’t look good,” he said. “I figured I had no choice.” He pushed himself up to a sitting position. “Oh God, that hurts. I’m gonna have a hell of a bruise tomorrow.”
“Alex.”
I turned and saw Jackie’s face. He looked like a drowned rat. It was a beautiful sight.
“Are you okay?” I said.
“I need a drink.”
“You’re shivering,” I said. “We got to get you warmed up.”
“I don’t see my father,” Ham said. “Where the fuck is my father?”
“Oh God,” I said. “He’s still on the boat.” I stood up on shaky legs and looked out over the rail. The boat was fifty feet away, but I couldn’t see Bennett. “Let’s get over there.”
“I’m on it,” Vargas said, slowly sitting himself down into his captain’s chair. He turned the boat.
Bennett was still lying on the deck, his forehead bleeding. The blood had run into his eyes, and down his nose. Ham jumped over the rail and landed with a great thud on the other boat’s deck. Leon’s monitor fell off the chair.
“Be careful, goddamn it!” Bennett said. “You’re gonna kill yourself!”
“You’re bleeding,” Ham said. “Did you get hit?”
“Of course I got hit. By about fifty pieces of flying glass.”
“We’ve got to stop this bleeding.”
“Never mind that,” Bennett said. “Where’s Jackie? Is he all right?”
“He’s fine,” Ham said. “Everybody’s fine.”
Bennett closed his eyes. “How the fuck did we get away with that?”
“Come on,” Vargas said. “We have to catch that boat.”
“Why?” I said.
“Do I even have to tell you? If he gets away, you know he’s gonna come back for us.”
“I think I killed his brother,” I said. “I’m not sure.”
“All the more reason,” Vargas said. “Come on, he’s gonna lose us.”
