Alana Candler, Marked for Murder (33 page)

Alana’s heart pounded inside her throat. When she reached the round wooden post of the dock, she slipped and fell down on one knee. Crouched in a half-sitting position, she struggled to untie the mooring rope holding the boat to the dock. Her fingers, numb with fear, worked shakily as she glanced back at the car and saw Jaydn clicking in another cartridge. He ran toward her, firing more bullets as he ran. Finally, the rope loosened enough so she could lift it up over the top of the large post.

Jaydn ran to the second boat moored at the dock and pulled the key from inside. It made a plopping sound as he threw it into the lake. Just as he reached the boat, Alana felt a zing as a bullet flew past her and lodged in the lip of the boat.

Jaydn roughly pushed her over the side of the boat and jumped in behind her.

“Stay down!” he shouted as he pushed her further down onto the rough wooden floor.

Splinters pressed into her knees as she bent over double and tried to get as low as she could in the small motorboat. From the corner of her eye, she saw Jaydn wrestling with the key that started the motor.

Another pinging noise bounced off the side of the boat and sent wooden splinters in all directions.

The motor sputtered and then came to life. Jaydn pushed the gas handle as high as it would go. He steered the boat away from the dock—his body bent low but his hand gripping the steering wheel with a death grip as he turned them away from the cabin.

What Alana saw when she peeked over the blue-trimmed edge of the white boat made her heart jump into her throat. A man in camouflage stood several feet from the lake with a rifle raised to his shoulder. The other man jumped into the second boat moored at the dock.

“Good luck starting that boat without a key.” Jaydn’s voice was quiet but sang with a touch of victory.

As the boat inched further away from the shoreline, the shots grew less intense. She glanced upward and blew out a breath. Slowly, they were pulling away. Jaydn still crouched in the boat but turned to look into her frightened eyes.

“There’s a beach just around this strip of land—lots of people swimming. If we make it there, we should be safe. They wouldn’t dare do anything to us in front of so many witnesses.”

As they made a sharp turn around the rocky point jutting into the lake, Alana felt the motor give a sick shudder, then die.

“What happened?” she asked, turning toward Jaydn.

Still bent over in the boat, he turned toward the motor housing. “I think they got the gas line. We’re leaking fuel.”

Alana’s nose picked up the startling smell of gasoline. Jaydn rushed toward where she huddled in the boat.

“Jump, Alana! Jump!” He pushed her into the water before climbing onto the edge of the boat himself.

Panic consumed her as the dark water closed over her head. She tried to control her shaking limbs and reach the surface. Struggling to tread water, and gasping for a breath that was both ragged and unstable, she heard Jaydn shouting her name and glanced wildly around for him. Then, her hearing was shattered by a loud explosion that accompanied a blinding flash.

Alana felt as well as saw the shock waves of the explosion as the boat blew into large fragments. The air that rushed past her was filled with water and debris from the boat.

Frantically, she tried to see Jaydn in the middle of all the chaos. She ducked when a piece of the windshield flew past her, but she couldn’t avoid an aged piece of wood from the stern that slammed into her head with a blinding pain. Then, as if in a dream, the world around her slowly disappeared.

“Hey! Look at that!”

A crowd formed on the side of the popular sandy beach and watched pieces of Jaydn’s boat flying through the air. One young mother grabbed her two small children and tucked them protectively under her arms.

“Must’ve had a gas leak.” A tall thin man shook his head. “Better call 9-1-1.”

“Oh! Wait! I’ve got a phone,” yelled an elderly woman as she reached into her flowery beach bag and dialed the number.

A short man dressed in jeans and a casual shirt rounded the hill between the lake and the road, watching the crowd. He wasn’t dressed for the beach and seemed alarmed. Sunglasses covered the frown hidden in his eyes, but somehow his agitation was apparent in his gait and stance.

“Move back, please,” he said gruffly as he parted the crowd and stepped closer to the shore of the lake. “I’m with the police department.”

The crowd parted and watched with mouths open as he hurried to the scene of what they believed to be an accident.

SIXTY-NINE

ALANA FELT SOMETHING MOVE BESIDE
her. The gentle swaying movement of the water penetrated her dazed senses, and she felt something hard poking into her ribs. Without opening her eyes, panic made her grab for the floating object and hold on. The rough surface bit into the exposed flesh on her arms, and she grunted in pain.

Her shoulder felt like it was on fire, and she felt a trickle of something running down her face. She swiped it with her fingers. It felt warm and sticky. It took all the strength she could summon to make her brain respond. She tried to open her heavy lids to confirm it was blood traveling down the side of her face, but her lids felt weighted down.

When she finally forced her eyes open, her world spiraled downward in a matter of seconds. Everything around her was black. With shaky fingers, she touched her eyes to see if they were open. The stinging sensation confirmed her fears.

She was blind!

She drifted on the boat fragment, moving in and out of consciousness with her head barely above the lapping water. It seemed ages before she even cared where she was or why she was floating around the lake on a splintered piece of wood.

The image of a man’s face kept appearing before her darkened eyes as if beckoning her to remember. Then suddenly, the memory of what happened returned in a rush to her rattled brain.

Jaydn! What had happened to Jaydn?

She opened her mouth to call for him, but the memory of him flying through the air at the time of the explosion made her throat constrict, and no sound escaped her lips. Tears fell unheeded into the water. It was all her fault. Jaydn was either hurt or—she had to find him.

“Jaydn!” She tried to ignore the agonizing pain that shot through her head when she shouted. “Jaydn, where are you?” Her hands splashed the water around her in a feeble effort to find Jaydn’s body in the water.

She paddled around in weak circles, tremors wracking her cold body as she mourned his absence. Numbness from shock hindered her tired limbs from responding to the instructions her brain was giving them. She felt herself slipping away and couldn’t stop the detached sensation that was claiming her thoughts.

“Alana!”

The muffled sound unscrambled itself and made sense to her stunned senses. The sudden burst of happiness she experienced when she thought it was Jaydn calling her name was dashed immediately. These words were coming from a scratchy tenor voice, not Jaydn’s rich baritone. Without lifting her head, she waved in the direction of the voice.

“I’m here.”

“Alana! This way! Swim this way!”

She heard several voices calling her name as the beach crowd cheered to find that someone survived the horrible explosion. They all yelled at her and encouraged her to kick harder. Her tired limbs pushed with all the strength she could muster.

“Alana! Kick! I’m coming.”

She pushed and kicked until the voice seemed almost at arm’s length. She felt the water around her moving in waves.

“I’ve got you.” She felt someone tug on the wood she clung to. “I’ve got you now. Are you okay?”

“Kent? Is that you?”

The crowd cheered when she felt the sandy beach under her legs, and they knew she was safe.

Kent touched her face. “Alana?”

She shook her head and tremors wracked her body. “I can’t see, and Jaydn is out there somewhere. Please, Kent, can’t you find him?”

“It’s all right, Alana. We’ll look for him. Help is on the way.” Kent helped her out of the water and then picked her up and carried her to the road—it seemed like just a few feet.

“Kent, please. Find Jaydn. He must be hurt. He didn’t answer me.” Her mumbled words were lazy and sluggish. Inside her troubled thoughts, she hoped he could understand her.

“It’s okay, Alana. I’ll take care of you now.”

He carried her for a minute or two. Then he shifted her weight and stood her up until her wobbly feet touched the ground. She heard what sounded like a car door open. He helped her into the seat and called to someone down the road.

“Up here!” Through the heavy cloud that descended on Alana’s heart, she heard shoes make scraping sounds on the pavement as Kent walked away.

A few minutes later, she heard someone bark the order. “Let’s move her. Then help me find the other one.” She must be dreaming. In her dream, they moved her to another car. She rested her head on the back of the soft seat cushion and let her thoughts race. Jaydn might be dead. His tanned features danced before her sightless eyes, and tears welled up, threatening to fall. She felt as if a hand was squeezing her bruised heart to take all the life away.

At that moment, she knew she cared deeply for Jaydn Holbrook. No matter who he was or how much money he had, the rest of her life would have no meaning if she couldn’t share it with him.

Dear Lord, please let him be okay. Please help Kent find him.

The jackhammer in her head refused to go away and made her sleepy. She laid her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. The sense of awareness slowly slipped away, and her head slid sideways on the seat. Right before she lost consciousness, she heard a familiar voice.

“I’ve got him. Let’s go.”

SEVENTY

ALANA’S TONGUE FELT LIKE COTTON
, and her world was spinning in orbit. She forced her dry tongue to swallow and tried to remember where she was and what she was hearing. Muffled voices rumbled from somewhere behind her.

“I don’t like all this waiting around. Why can’t we take care of it here?”

“I told you! He has to make the call first, stupid. Then, after we get the money, we’ll make sure no one finds the bodies. You’re lucky you didn’t kill either one of them—you and your trigger-happy finger. We need ’em alive for now. All we have to do is keep ’em quiet for a couple of days. Then we’re outta here.”

Someone opened the door, and Alana felt the car dip as something heavy was placed beside her. She wanted to ask where she was, but the words got all tied up around her tongue. Confusion twisted her speech in knots, and her mouth stayed shut. Her head rocked back as the motion of the car jerked her in the seat.

She lay on the back seat in a daze, trying not to think about what she just heard. It didn’t matter anyway. Without Jaydn, life wasn’t worth living. He must have died, or he would be with her now.

When the car stopped, Alana remained still. Rough hands lifted her out of the car and carried her a short distance away. A coarse bed creaked under her, and she felt a tiny prick on the upper part of her arm. She lay still and listened to their conversation grow quieter as they walked away. Only snatches of conversation penetrated her already declining awareness.

“How come you didn’t tie her up too?”

“She’s blind, stupid. Didn’t you hear? She ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

“Well, I don’t like hanging around here. It’s dangerous. They’ll be looking for ’em both.”

“Look, they’re safe here. They can’t connect us with this warehouse, so we’re okay for now. Calm down. Do you wanna end up like Gene? Don’t make the boss angry. We’ll get the money tomorrow, and then we’ll take care of ’em both.”

Alana heard no more. The sounds and smells around her receded into the distance.

SEVENTY-ONE

JAYDN MOANED AND THEN WINCED
as the sound made his head throb. He wondered why his fingers and arms tingled but quickly discovered that his hands were tied behind his back. A wadded up piece of cloth filled his mouth and tasted like something dead. His stomach roiled as he fought the nausea.

His head felt like it was exploding!

Slowly, the faces of two men he’d never seen before emerged from his memory. They had taken him to a room with a phone and called his office. He remembered speaking to his manager before a swift, sharp pain in his head knocked him unconscious. The last thing he saw was circles rolling around in his head before everything went black.

Alana! What happened to Alana?

He glanced around the dark room, but the shadows were eerie and distorted. He waited until his vision cleared and then searched the room for Alana’s small form. He finally saw her heaped onto an old pile of bedding, but she wasn’t moving. The gag kept him from calling her name.

Lord, please let her be okay.

She must be alive, or she wouldn’t be here. He pushed at the wad of cloth in his mouth with his tongue. The fabric stretching around the back of his head tightened, but the gag wouldn’t budge. He grunted his frustration.