Dark And Dangerous (25 page)

 
Kayley had to force herself to relax her
hands as she listened to Joe.

 
"Then I remembered that he once invited
me out on his yacht when he wanted privacy to discuss some business."

 
"We don't know about any boat registered
in his name," Klein cut in.

 
"No, you wouldn't. It's registered under
an alias." Joe smiled knowing he had surprised them. "So I gave it a
little visit and after a lot of searching I found what I was looking for."

 
"Where is it?" Brown stalked
restlessly around the room.

 
"It's still at his yacht, seemingly
untouched. It wouldn't do you much good if he knew someone else had it. He
would blow off the shipment," Joe pointed out. "But if you'll release
me I'll give you what you want."

Klein gestured to Brown to
release him. "That's good work, Joe."

 
"We don't know that yet," Brown
commented skeptically, and unlocked the cuffs.

Kayley bit her lip and
waited as Joe drew some kind of small microchip out of his pocket, and handed
it over to Brown.

 
"That should satisfy you." Joe
leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out comfortably.

 
"We'll see," Brown said coolly. He
pulled a laptop out of a bag and set it on the table, turning it on.

 
Kayley watched closely as he slid the
microchip into another machine. There was an intense silence as Klein and Brown
studied the screen like their life's depended on it. She was afraid to ask what
it was, and couldn't see the screen from where she was sitting.

 
"These just look like a random line of
numbers," Brown said looking up at Joe. His voice said he wasn't happy.
"And there's nothing here to indicate when they're going to hit
where."

 
"There is if you know how to read
it." Joe rose and leaned down to point at the screen.

 
"See those numbers?"

Klein and Brown leaned
closer.

 
"Every number sequence has its own
meaning. Together they spell out the month and day." Joe pointed at the
screen as he spoke. "The last number sequence spell out the
location."

 
"So what day are we looking for?"
Klein asked pointing skeptically at the screen. "And how do you know the
code?"

 
"This is code for tomorrow," Joe
told them pointing at one of the letter formations. "And I figured out the
code when I wondered why
Schnyder
was always carrying
the English dictionary with him. His English is excellent, so it only made
sense that it somehow played an important part of the code. From there it
didn't take me long to figure out the system." Joe gestured to the screen.
"Each pair of numbers indicate which page to look up in the dictionary.
Then you simply note down the first letter from each page, and it spells out
the date."

 
"It doesn't say what time the exchange
will take place," Brown commented.

 
"The time is always the same.
Midnight," Joe explained. "So that should give you enough time to
stake out the place."

 
"
Schnyder
doesn't have people watching it?" Brown asked.

 
"No. He doesn't want anyone to know
about the spot until it's too late for them to set him up."

 
"He's cautious," Brown commented.
He might hate
Schnyder
, but that didn't mean he
didn't respect him.

 
"We'll be there at the first
light." Klein looked up. "As for you," he looked at each of them
in turn, "you haven't heard any of this."

 
"Heard what?" Damian asked, making
Klein smile.

 
"I want you to stay out of the way,
someplace safe," Klein continued.

 
"We'll be staying at the resort."
Nathan rose. "When it's done I would like to be informed."

 
"Of course. Once we've got them in
custody we'll let you know." Klein smiled a comforting smile at Kayley.
"It will be over by tomorrow."

 
Kayley nodded and rose with a sinking
feeling. Yes, it would be over, and that meant Nathan would be out of her life.

 
"Tom will drive you home." Klein
gestured to the man that was still sitting at the table reading his newspaper.
He was up in a flash and headed for the door.

 
"Go ahead." Nathan waved Damian and
Kayley past him. "I'll be out in a moment."

Kayley glanced up at him,
unsure of what to do, and decided it would be best just to do what he said, and
followed Damian out.

 
"Joe." Nathan gave him a hard look.
"I need a word." He walked into the hall, leaving Joe to follow while
Klein and Brown raised their brows and looked at each other.

In the hall, Nathan turned
and leaned down a little until his eyes were level with Joe's.

 
"Don't ever do anything like that to
Kayley ever again." His voice was low and dangerous, his eyes hard and
cold. There was no doubt he meant what he said. "If you do, you'll be
lucky to be able to breathe once I'm done with you." He waited a beat to
let it sink in fully. "And believe me it would bring me great
satisfaction."

 
"Why do you care?" Joe asked
calmly.

 
"She deserves better and I'm going to
make sure she gets it." Nathan straightened and walked out of the house
without another word.

Chapter 27

 
It was
nearly three by the time they were finally back at the resort. Kayley lay stiff
in bed, her back turned to Nathan, and stared into the empty dark. It had been
so awkward and tense after they had returned. He hadn't spoken at all during
their drive back, except to tell their driver to take them back to her cottage
to pick up his car. Nor had he said a word when she and Damian followed him
through the resort.

 
She had expected him to tell her she could
sleep in another room. He certainly didn't seem to be very eager to be around
her, and he had nearly gone out of his way not to touch her. She hadn't dared
to say anything until they were alone in his suite and he was pulling off his
shirt to go to bed. When she had finally asked him, wringing her hands
nervously, where he wanted her to sleep, he had spun around, giving her such a
furious look that she had backed up a step before she caught herself.

 
Then he had simply told her to go to bed
before he stalked out of the suite.

Alone, she had crawled
into bed and struggled to ignore the scent of him on the sheets. To her
surprise, he had returned twenty minutes later, sliding into bed beside her.
Her heart had leaped with hope when she heard him, but he had simply and
dismissively turned his back on her, careful not to touch her.

 
She didn't know why he did this. If he was
trying to hurt her, or if he was just afraid to leave her alone in case she
tried to run off again.

 
She knew with painful certainty that it
wasn't because he wanted her close.

Kayley bit her lip to
prevent herself from crying, and blinked back tears that burned her eyes. This
was exactly why she had sworn to herself that she would never fall in love, she
scolded herself. She had thought she had guarded herself against it, and now
she was paying the price for her own failure.

 
She had known it would happen, she reminded
herself. Had feared it the first time Nathan had kissed her. She had tried then
to pull back, but he hadn't let her.

Kayley stared into the
dark and wished it was all over now, and she was alone with her broken heart.

Suddenly a bell rang, loud
and shrilly, a metallic sound that cut her to her bones.

 
"Fire," Nathan barked and was out
of the bed in a heartbeat, pulling on clothes.

Stumbling out of bed,
Kayley fumbled in the dark for her jeans and drew them on in a rush. She was
glad she had chosen to sleep in her T-shirt.

 
"What about the guests?" she asked,
hurrying after him out of the suite, barely noticing that her feet were bare as
adrenaline pumped through her.

 
"We'll get them out."

They hurried towards the
emergency staircase, where Damian caught up with them.

 
"Heard anything yet?" Damian
hurried after them through the secured door and down the stairs.

 
"No. But it's probably just a false
alarm." Nathan shoved another door open.

 
"Probably just a guest that smoked too
close to a fire alarm," Damian commented dryly. Kayley hurried after
Nathan through the door, and found herself in the parking lot. She was glad the
resort wasn't comprised of too many floors as she breathed in the crisp night
air. "I can't smell any smoke."

 
"No." Nathan took a deep breath,
scenting the air. "Stay here and I'll go see what's happening."

 
"I'll go with you." Damian took a
step forward.

 
"No. I want you to stay here with
Kayley, and look out for her. It might be a setup." Nathan turned and
headed for the front entrance, while guests started milling out of the resort.

 
"Do you think it could be a setup?"
she asked Damian concerned.

 
"I'm sure it's just a clumsy
guest," he reassured her.

 
"Don't move."

Kayley stiffened as a gun
pressed into her back.

 
"If you try anything he will shoot
her."

Kayley turned her head
slowly and saw another man, short and sturdy, pressing a gun into Damian's
back. His teeth gleamed in the dark when he grinned.

 
"And the same goes." The man behind
her grabbed her by her arm, and shoved a gun into her side.

 
"My partner is going to take the bitch
with him and you're going to keep quiet," the short man told Damian,
"or I will shoot you."

 
"Do as he says," Kayley said
pleadingly to Damian. There was no doubt they would be happy to put a bullet
into them if they just got the chance. She looked around for someone else to
help, but none of the guests were close enough to hear what was happening. They
were too busy staring mesmerized at the building.

 
"Come on." Kayley was pulled
roughly away from the resort and her only chance of escape. She followed,
thinking frantically, just waiting for an opportunity to break free. It didn't
come. The muzzle of the gun never left her side, until she was shoved hard into
the back of an open van. She stumbled, falling head-first into the van, and
threw her arms out wildly to break her fall.
 

 
The door shut firmly behind her before she
managed to catch her balance, plunging her into complete darkness.

 
Damian stood poised and ready to strike out
at first chance, as Kayley was led away. But the gun didn't waver from his
back, before he was suddenly struck violently on the back of his head.

 
Stars exploded in front of his eyes and he
dropped to his knees. Far away, he heard a car speed away.

 
Blood ran warmly down the back of his head,
trickling down his neck. On a burst of strength and adrenaline, he was up and
running towards the front entrance of the resort, before his vision had a
chance to clear.

 
He spotted Nathan standing in the middle of
the lobby, trying to calm down the guests and guide them safely outside.

 
"Nathan!"

He turned at the sound of
Damian's voice, and saw the blood immediately. His own blood froze.

 
"Kayley?" was all Nathan could
force past his suddenly stiff lips. He had already seen the answer in Damian's
eyes.

 
"They took her."

Nathan was running outside
before Damian had finished his sentence, leaving guests gaping stunned after
him. Damian caught up with him just as Nathan wrung his car door open.

 
"It's too late." Damian had to jump
into the car. It was that or be left behind. "You'll never catch up with
them. We don't even know what direction they took."

 
Tires screeched when Nathan plummeted the car
through the night. He reached the main road before reality finally set in, and
he realized it was too late. The car came to a screaming halt, and he slammed
his hands once against the steering wheel in frustration.

 
"Damn it."

 
"I'm sorry, Nathan." Damian watched
him pull his hands through his hair and drop his forehead to the steering
wheel.

 
"How did it happen?" His voice was
raw and vibrated with anger.

 
"Two guys came up from behind us. I
didn't see them until I felt a gun press into my back. One led Kayley away,
while the other held me back. A car pulled up behind us, and I was knocked
down."

 
"Shit." He had to think, Nathan
told himself. Keep his cool and focus on saving Kayley. "I have to get her
back."

 
"I know." Damian's jaw clenched as
he thought quickly. "You have to call Klein."

 
"Yeah. You're right." He drew out
his phone and punched in the number. Klein answered immediately.

 
"Yeah."

 
"
Schnyder's
got Kayley."

.....

 
Nathan stalked restlessly around the room at
Klein's make-shift headquarters. They had just finished explaining everything
that had happened.

 
"Where was the fire?" Klein asked.

 
"The firemen discovered that the front
of the air condition system outside had been ripped off. A burning rag had been
thrown into it," Damian explained. He had called the resort while they
drove.

 
"Definitely a setup," Brown
commented.

 
"What the hell are we going to do?"
Nathan demanded. He hadn't come here to talk. He had come to find solutions,
and if he didn't find them soon, he was going to rip
someones
head off.

 
"We're going to have to think about
it." Klein scratched his chin. "
Schnyder
is
going to bring her to San Diego."

 
"The boat," Joe cut in. He had been
sitting unmoving on the couch until now. "He doesn't think you know
anything about it. But he knows you're watching the warehouse and his
home."

 
"That means he might be here in
Monterey. It would be the easiest way for him to transport her back."
Nathan's blood pounded fiercely.

 
"He could do it completely unnoticed.
And she has no chance of escape on the water," Brown stated.

 
"We can't risk taking him on the water.
He would use her to get away, and then kill her when he didn't need her
anymore," Klein commented.

 
"We can't let him keep her," Nathan
said outraged. "He might kill her instantly."

 
"No, he
wont
,"
Joe interrupted. "
Schnyder
likes the power it
gives him. And he's probably going to try to use her to get back the package I
sent her."

 
"She doesn't have it." Nathan paced
the floor.

 
"No, but he's not above using her to get
it. When he realizes she doesn't have it, he'll probably think you do. And if
Kayley is smart enough to go along with it, he'll likely offer her as a trade
for it," Joe explained. He more than anyone understood exactly how
Schnyder's
mind worked. "Only he will kill both of you
once you've given him what he wants."

 
"So we'll set him up so he thinks it's a
trade-off, and catch him off guard." Damian jumped up from his chair.

 
"No." Joe considered for a moment.
"I think the best thing to do is to wait until his shipment comes in.
Schnyder
is so paranoid that he's always there at every
shipment. He doesn't trust anyone else to handle it for him."

 
"That's the reason we haven't been able
to nail him for so long," Brown commented.

 
"You're sure about that?" Nathan
stopped pacing to look at Joe.

 
"Yeah. He's going to have to leave her
at the boat while he's gone," Joe said. "I'm sure he
wont
try a trade-off before then.
And he can't use her as an out if he isn't there. It will be the safest time to
save her."

 
"I doubt he'll leave her on the boat
unsupervised," Damian commented.

 
"He won't. But he'll leave his two least
capable men with her. Ham and fist as I like to call them." Joe smiled
ironically. "Their IQ is less
then
a three year
old's, but they follow orders like robots, and can be mean as hell if they have
the chance."

 
"What's to stop them from hurting
her?" Nathan asked frustrated.

 
"
Schnyder
will
give
them
orders not to. She's worth more to him if
she's unharmed.

Besides,
Schnyder
has a special room on his yacht built to keep
prisoners. So they won't even be in the same room as her," Joe told them.

 
"Where will they be on the yacht?"
Klein asked.

 
"If you have a paper I can draw it for
you."

Brown shot out of his
chair, and dug a sketch pad out of his rucksack. He always had one with him, in
case he had to draw up a crime scene. He handed it to Joe without a word.

 
"It's a big yacht," Joe explained
as he drew. "But not so big it stands out beside the other yachts in the
harbor."