Tami Hoag - Heart of Gold

A chill went through her at his calm dismissal of murder, and another shot through her at the thought that she had been used as bait to get to Shane. “You never had anything to do with DataTech or William?”

His lips curled upward as he shook his head.

Faith’s eyes strayed to the window. She would have given anything to feel Shane’s arms around her now. At the same time she had to hope she wouldn’t see him, because the man in the corner was planning to kill him, and she didn’t think she could survive watching that happen.

“Rest assured, Ms. Kincaid. He’ll arrive presently.”

Setting his brandy aside, Strauss rose from his chair only to settle beside Faith on the cushioned bench. She couldn’t suppress a shudder of revulsion as he coiled one arm around her shoulders.

“You see,” he said in his lazy voice, “I know Shane very well. His strengths, his weaknesses. His likes and dislikes. For a time we were nearly as close as brothers.” He brought his pistol up to caress the silencer against her temple almost lovingly, and his voice turned as cold as the steel of the gun. “Then he betrayed me.”

Bile rose in Faith’s throat as tears stung her eyes.

“Ah, but alas,” Strauss said, his voice heavy with mock regret as he glanced at his gold Rolex, “we have no time to discuss such things.” With his arm still around her, he stood and drew Faith along with him. “Our hero should be arriving any minute now. Let’s go out on the deck to greet him, shall we?”

Raw fury surged through Shane as he approached the Brutus, his gaze focused on Faith and the man who held a gun to her head. Close on fury’s heels was fear. He tried to will both emotions away. A clear head was essential in a situation as deadly as this one. Emotions got in the way; they clouded judgment and slowed the thinking process. But it was impossible for Shane to look at Adam Strauss-one arm around Faith’s shoulders and a pistol pressed to her temple-and not have a riot of feeling tear loose inside him.

His hand tightened on the grip of his gun as the dark desire to kill snaked through him. He may have been raised in an upper-class home. He may have been educated in one of the finest schools in the country. But primitive instinct easily cut through generations of civilized behavior. Beneath the cop, the scholar, the musician, he was a man, and Faith Kincaid was his woman. If Strauss had hurt her…

Hell, Shane thought, he wanted to kill the man for touching her. Despite all she’d been through, Faith was an innocent. Adam Strauss represented everything evil. The two didn’t belong on the same planet, let alone on the same boat.

“Hello, Shane, my old friend,” Strauss said in a silky tone that raised Shane’s hackles. “How do like my little boat? Brutus. I named it after you.”

“I’m flattered all to hell,” Shane remarked dryly as he crossed the gangplank and stepped aboard.

“I knew you would be. Drop the gun overboard, Irish.”

Reluctantly Shane tossed the Smith and Wesson over the side. Strauss smiled at the soft splash that sounded as the gun hit the water.

“Now the little surprise you have tucked into the back of your trousers.”

Scowling in the pale glow of the security light, Shane reached behind him and gently eased a small pistol out of his waistband. It joined its companion on the bottom of the Anastasia marina.

“And that little darling you’re wearing for a sock garter.” Strauss’s laughter floated eerily on the damp night air as Shane muttered a stream of curses. “Ah, yes, my friend. I know all your secrets.”

“Yeah, you’re a regular genius,” Shane commented. His expression a blank, stony mask, he turned to Faith. “Are you all right, Ms. Kincaid?”

Faith winced a bit at his cool, businesslike tone. This was not the same man who had held her and loved her fears away. This was Shane the cop, the man who leashed his emotions and instinctively lived in the shadows.

She prayed she would get the chance to see that other Shane again. The one who was so patient with her daughter, who was a tender lover full of sad, sweet music, the one who sometimes looked at her as if he couldn’t quite believe she was real. She told herself she would see that man again. All they had to do was get through this nightmare.

Finding her voice with some difficulty, she managed to stutter, “I-I’m f-fine, Agent Callan.”

She was terrified, Shane knew, but as she had so many times over the last few weeks, Faith managed to dredge up a little more strength from that well that ran so deep inside her. He watched her swallow down her fear and stick out her little chin. How one woman who seemed so ordinary could have so much heart and courage was a mystery to him, but he loved her for it.

He loved her, and now she could die because of him. The knowledge twisted in his gut like a knife.

“Shane, you cut me to the quick,” Strauss said, pouting like a petulant lover. “I’ve been a perfect gentleman.”

“Gentlemen don’t kidnap innocent women and hold guns to their heads,” Shane pointed out, his voice low and smoky.

Strauss grinned. “Point taken. Let’s call it a temporary breach of conduct-rather like your seduction of a federal witness.”

The bastard. He knew. He’d been watching them. A muscle jumped in Shane’s jaw. His hands clenched at the thought of wrapping them around Strauss’s throat. The idea that this piece of scum had any knowledge of the tender, loving relationship that had blossomed between himself and Faith made him sick. But the wisest course would be to ignore the remark as if it meant nothing to him.

“Let her go, Strauss. Your argument is with me.”

Strauss’s eyes narrowed as if in consideration, but his hold only tightened on Faith’s shoulders. “I think not. I know you, Irish. I know your weaknesses, few though they may be. I know your flaws-melancholy, gallantry, and good Irish whiskey. I mean to take advantage of your gallantry. You won’t try anything as long as I hold the lovely lassie. Never make an enemy of a friend, my dear Lancelot,” he advised. “That enemy will slay you with your own sword.”

Shane heaved a sigh and hitched his hands to his lean hips. “You’re boring me, Strauss. If you want to kill me, then kill me and be done with it.”

“Oh, no.” A thread of rage tangled with the madness in his cultured voice. “I won’t make it that easy for you, I mean to see you suffer.” Jerking his head in the direction of the dock, he ordered, “Cast off. We’re going to take a little midnight cruise. Revenge should be a very private thing, I think.”

Shane weighed the odds. He couldn’t rush Strauss now, Faith would never have a chance. For the moment the deck was stacked in the killer’s favor. Obviously Strauss didn’t realize it, but sea would take some of his advantage away. So Shane went about the task of setting the Brutus free, skills he had learned as a boy surfacing without effort. The Atlantic had been a second home to him when he’d been growing up. He could only hope the Pacific would prove to be as good a friend.

Keeping a firm grip on Faith, Strauss motioned Shane toward the ladder that led to the navigation bridge. “You’re driving, Captain Callan.” He flashed a wicked grin in the dim yellow light that spilled out of the cabin. “As you can see, I have my hands full.”

The muscles in Shane’s jaw tightened against the snarl that threatened to curl his lip as he turned and hauled himself up the ladder. He didn’t care if he died trying-his life hadn’t seemed worth much for a long time-but Adam Strauss was going to pay for putting his hands on Faith.

Faith wasn’t sure if the wave of nausea that sloshed through her stomach was seasickness or fear or both. The Brutus had been under way for ten or fifteen minutes, bucking through choppy water, when Strauss ordered Shane to cut the engine. Now it bobbed like a cork on the black water, dipping and swaying beneath their feet as the three of them stood in the cockpit behind the cabin.