Halli!
The magnitude of what’d just happened rocked him to the core. Anguish made it impossible to breathe.
Oh, God…Halli
.
A desperate gasping sound broke through his shock. His father thrashed behind him, struggling to stay afloat. Two powerful strokes brought them together and Trent held his father’s head above water with an arm across his chest. He swam for the rental that’d floated far enough away, relatively undamaged from the explosion.
Trent secured his father’s grip on the boat and ruthlessly suppressed the crippling emotions coursing through his body. Blame. Guilt. Grief. Grabbing the side, he heaved himself up into the boat. A jagged gouge in the metal railing raked down his bare chest and stomach. Blood welled from the torn flesh as he turned to drag his father aboard, but he felt nothing.
The moment he fell into the boat, his father’s rough voice commanded, “Go, go! We have to catch them.”
Grief and rage collided inside Trent. “I don’t care about the money!”
His father frowned with his usual disapproval. “They’ve got Halli.”
Trent froze. He didn’t dare trust the flare of hope that suddenly burned in his chest. “You mean she wasn’t…?” He couldn’t even say it.
“
No
—they took her with the money.”
An instant flashback of the little speed boat left him dizzy. He shook it off and lunged for the driver’s seat. Fighting for every second, he started the rental and throttled to full speed the moment they cleared the sinking remains of the
Scappare
.
His father joined him at the windshield and they both searched frantically for the blue speed boat. Trent’s heart raced unbearably fast. The roaring wind stung his eyes as he prayed they wouldn’t be too late.
Chapter 25
Halli watched the
Scappare
grow smaller and smaller, yet across the bow, she saw Trent’s rental boat approach the cruiser. She debated standing to wave her arms, but the gun pointed at her chest was a compelling deterrent. With her heart pounding in her chest, she slid her hand into her pocket and pressed the send button on Greg Tomlin’s phone. Then she prayed Trent would figure out what was going on.
Lorenzo Roselli, the man Trent had described as a friend, also noticed Trent’s approach and spoke in Italian to the driver. Luca. Halli didn’t think it was a coincidence
Luca
was also the name of the
Carabinieri
officer Simone had recommended. She couldn’t believe the woman was in on this whole scam, just like Lorenzo. Worry ate her up inside for Rachel at the same time indignation simmered on Trent’s behalf.
Luca glanced back with a smug smirk. Halli quickly pulled her hand from her pocket before either of them saw what she was doing, but Lorenzo caught the sudden movement and frowned.
“Where are we going?” she shouted above the wind and whine of the motor.
Please, God, let him hear me.
“Do as you’re told and you’ll be fine.” Lorenzo’s fluent English and mildly comforting tone was contradicted by Luca’s stone-cold expression.
“Why are you doing this? Trent considered you a friend.”
Guilt crossed Lorenzo’s face, but it was Luca who answered. “The man has more money than he knows what to do with, while we work and serve…for what? We barely make enough to survive, let alone retire with. Believe me,
carina
, Renzo’s friend will not miss a measly million.”
It always boiled down to the money, didn’t it? God, she hated it. She drew a huge breath, set her jaw, and went over the facts in her mind. Rachel lay injured, in the hands of a conspirator. By all appearances, Ben had been shot, and she had no clue if he was alive or dead. Trent had no clue she was on this boat, and they were drawing farther and farther from sight.
Despair threatened, but she beat it back. Trent might not see her yet, but she trusted him to come after—
A sudden explosion from the
Scappare
eclipsed the brilliance of the setting sun. Trent’s cabin cruiser erupted into a ball of fire topped by black smoke. Halli gasped in shock as the sound of the destruction echoed across the water.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
Trent!
Tears blurred her vision and were instantly whipped away by the wind. The sight of him, even from a distance, had given her strength to not give up. In the blink of an eye, the last visible sure thing that mattered to her in this world was gone.
Lorenzo gaped at the inferno before shouting at Luca in Italian. The man shrugged and laughed. The sadistic sound registered through the hopeless haze Halli had descended into.
Lorenzo spoke again and Luca glanced in her direction. He slowed the boat some, his mouth going tight with obvious anger as he faced forward again. Lorenzo continued to gesture heatedly between the fire and Luca.
A sudden realization pounded through Halli. She was one hundred percent, completely on her own.
Every other emotion was filed away to deal with later as survival mode kicked into gear. She’d been fending for herself for years, but never in such an extreme life and death situation. Before now, the thought would’ve scared her senseless. It still did, but each passing second solidified her determination that these men would not win. If it was the last thing she did, in any way possible, she’d make them pay for all they’d stolen from everyone.
While Lorenzo was distracted arguing with Luca, Halli lunged for the money. The moment her fingers closed around the handles of the duffle, she pivoted, swinging the bag in a wide arc. Lorenzo raised a hand to deflect the blow and his gun flew from his grasp. Luca’s jerk on the steering wheel took them out of the path of an oncoming boat, and Lorenzo toppled over the side with the bag.
Luca erupted in Italian and wrenched the boat around. Halli lost her own footing and slammed up against the motor before sliding down. Pain lanced through her back, stealing her breath. She shook her head to clear a multitude of sparkling stars.
Get up. Get up!
She braced a palm for leverage. Something hard bit into her flesh. Instead of the rough, water-tolerant carpeting of the boat’s floor, she encountered the cool steel of Lorenzo’s gun.
Halli shot a glance at Luca. She fumbled for the grip as he stretched his arm back toward her. Time distended. She stared into the deadly eye of his pistol, prayed that her family would at least be saved, and finally located the handle of the gun beneath her hand.
A deafening roar filled her ears. Luca’s aim waivered as he glanced toward the noise, then did a double take. Halli raised her gun, finger curled around the trigger.
One second of moral hesitation after she aimed resulted in a large body leaping between her and her target.
Shock jerked the gun skyward before she squeezed the trigger. The kick of the gun vibrated violently through her arms, but she hardly noticed as Trent wrestled with Luca for his weapon.
He’s alive!
She struggled to her feet. Trent’s shoulder hit the steering wheel, making the boat veer sharply to the left. The gun in Halli’s hand flew overboard when she was thrown back to the floor.
The boat’s throttle remained at half-speed without a driver as the two men fought. Halli pulled herself back up and climbed over Trent and Luca to the controls. She swerved to avoid a police vessel and quickly brought their boat to a stop.
As suddenly as everything had begun four days earlier when Trent threw her into his car, it was all over.
Trent—shirtless—kept Luca subdued until the blond man from the café at the consulate who introduced himself as
Agente
Tony Butelli boarded the boat. Tony handcuffed Luca and transferred him to the police vessel. Lorenzo sat wet and brooding under the watchful eye of another officer, and Greg Tomlin stood at the helm of Trent’s rental boat.
Still completely stunned, with residual adrenalin seeping from her muscles, Halli hadn’t looked at Trent yet. At his face. Was afraid if she did she’d fall apart. They were the only two left on their boat. The weight of his hand fell on her shoulder and her entire body trembled. Even her knees wobbled. A soft squeeze of his fingers released the choked sob caught in her throat.
When he turned her around, the first thing she saw was the bloody gash down the length of his bare chest. He pulled her into his arms, his hold so tight she could barely breathe. But she didn’t care. He was so warm; she was chilled to the bone. She forgot about the blood and didn’t say a word until moments later, when he framed her face with his hands and ran his gaze over her.
“Are you okay?”
Moisture in his eyes deepened the ache in her chest. Tears ran unchecked down her cheeks. “I almost shot you.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.”
“I thought you were dead,” she whispered. “The boat blew up.”
His eyes told her he’d thought the same about her. Then his lips captured hers in a rough, consuming kiss full of desperation, fear, and relief. Numbed, she sought to absorb as much of his heat as possible. Salt from her tears mixed with the kiss, coating her lips and her tongue.
The enormity of everything began to sink in; how close she’d come to shooting a man, how close she’d come to losing Trent, how close she’d come to her own death.
She broke the kiss, buried her face in his neck, and hung on for dear life. She was probably strangling him, but letting go wasn’t quite possible at the moment.
From one of the other boats, someone cleared their throat. “I’m sorry, but we must return.”
Trent drew in a breath, his chest expanding against hers. He reached up and gently removed her arms since she couldn’t seem to do it herself. After a soft kiss and a shaky grin, he shifted around her to the helm.
“What do you say we go see your brother?”
Unwilling to lose contact, Halli anchored one hand against his back and pressed close as Trent started the boat and Tony joined them on board. She watched the blond man, still a bit dazed to realize he was an undercover agent. “Is Ben…?”
“Eva—Officer Gallo—called a few minutes ago from the
ospedale
in Menaggio,” Tony said. “Your brother is in surgery to remove the bullet, but the doctor did not foresee any problems. He should be fine.”
Halli’s relief was short-lived when another bit of information bobbed to the surface of her mind. “Oh, my God, Trent, Rachel is still with Simone! She—”
“Moved Rachel to a friend’s house after Lorenzo called her this morning.”
“But …Luca is Lorenzo’s cousin Simone mentioned…isn’t she in on it?”
Trent shook his head and explained how Simone got scared after Lorenzo’s call that morning, so she and Rachel left the house, and then she tried to call in the afternoon to warn them.
“I can send someone to pick up your sister and meet us at the hospital,” Tony offered.
The tears on Halli’s face dried in the wind as Trent followed the other boats. By the time they reached land and were transported to the hospital, she’d talked to her sister, arrangements had been set in motion, and Rachel was on her way to Menaggio by police escort.
Halli tried to relax, tried to convince herself it was truly over, but until she saw them both for herself, she couldn’t quite believe it. Trent remained by her side; Greg Tomlin in the background. Though she knew she should start to distance herself and prepare for when they went their separate ways, she couldn’t help leaning on Trent’s strength.
At the hospital, when told Ben’s surgery went well and he’d been transferred to recovery, she sagged in Trent’s arms with relief. The doctor then took one look at Trent and his father and insisted they all get treated while waiting for her brother to wake up. Greg was ushered into one room, but Trent insisted he and Halli stay together.
The shock of everything that’d happened began to fade. She could breathe again. Rationalize. Take stock of the situation and figure out where to go from here.
The female doctor who gave them their physicals spent twice as much time examining Trent. Halli moved to the window, out of the way. Given the obvious physical injuries he’d endured, the attention didn’t strike Halli as strange until she noticed the doctor had three attractive, earnest female assistants to help bandage his chest and check his injured arm. Two other nurses bustled in to stock the already overflowing medical cabinet.
Trent offered appreciation to each one with that famous smile of his, and Halli found herself fighting a wry grin as she crossed her arms over her chest. He requested a shirt of some sort, and the doctor spoke in Italian to one of the nurses. The woman, at least twice Halli’s age, nodded, but Halli saw a look of comical regret pass between her and one of the other assistants.
In a brief moment alone, Halli shook her head in mock disapproval at Trent. “You just dashed the fantasies of all the women on this floor.”
He twisted around on the edge of the hospital bed, wearing both a frown and smile. “What?”