Page 37 of Beachcomber Enemy

Dane saw where he was going, straight to blaming him when they’d both agreed to be cautious. He cut Cap off. “Why am I just hearing this now?”

“You’re not on my staff last I heard. Joe said you had surveillance of your own.”

Dane tamped down on his flare of anger. Either Joe had been otherwise occupied or something went wrong with their camera.

“We’re coming in now. Both Shana and I. You ready?”

“You’ll both be covered like scales on a fish. Come in the back door.”

Dane was about to hang up when he got another call—from Joe.

“Hold on. Joe is on the other line.” He switched over.

“What is it?”

“Whitey’s partner is still at the house. He’s still watching Sassy.” Dane wanted to ask for more details, but something about Joe’s tone made him pause.

“I need you to back me up. ASAP.”

There was no mistaking the urgency of Joe’s words. Dane met Shana’s eyes as she registered the same message as he did.

“You need to go. Save Sassy,” she ordered.

* * *

“You’re not going into that church alone. Where you go, I go,” he said. She hadn’t needed to be told. She knew that would be what he said. Her chest tightened with unbearable anxiety, anger, frustration, and some love at the bottom of it all. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to keep the tears inside, the heartache from shaking her. But when he pulled her into a soft warm embrace, tender in its passion, she couldn’t hold it in, couldn’t tamp down the love and anger and fear welling all at once.

“Damn you,” she rasped through her tears. Breaking from his arms, she looked up at him as she swiped her tears away, got control of her emotions, got herself into battle mode. “You know I hate you as much as I love you in this moment?”

He stared at her and said nothing, but nodded and she saw the turmoil in his eyes, the longing, the determination, the love and the fear. That was okay. It was the fear that would keep them both rational and on their games.

Finally, she said, “Let’s do this.” It was impossible to be in two places at once and, deep down in her heart, she didn’t want Dane to go without her, wanted to be by his side wherever he went into danger. Needed to back him up as much as she needed him to back her up.

He nodded. “You know we have to go to Sassy’s to get her. We can rely on Cap and his men to take Whitey. They’ll arrest him and bring him into custody.”

“Then they’ll ship him back to Australia,” she whispered, not knowing how she could allow that. Not knowing how she could stop it.

“Maybe not. Peter has sway. Maybe we’ll keep him here to face kidnapping charges with intent to murder.”

“Tell him. Tell Cap before I change my mind,” she said. She turned away while Dane made the call.

“We’re going to Sassy’s to back up Joe and Ronnie. We’re on our way now. You arrest Nash now on kidnapping. We’ll swear out an affidavit as witnesses later. That should be enough to hold him.”

“You’re sure? Shana’s in agreement?”

She heard Cap’s disbelief and felt a twinge of shameful guilt, knowing how far she was from honorable right now, that she still plotted in her mind how she would bait Whitey into doing something so that she could kill him.

Shana wanted Whitey and it was the hardest professional decision she’d ever made to not run inside that church and gun him down. Not exactly professional.

Dane held the phone away from his ear so she could reassure Cap. “We’ll convince Whitey’s partner to turn on him. The kidnapping and attempted murder charges will stick.”

Cap signed off with his agreement and said he’d send police backup to Sassy’s as soon as they asked for it, as soon as it was safe enough to not endanger her life. He’d have someone in the neighborhood waiting in the meantime.

Dane held her hand as they trotted through the church parking lot toward the small rectory where the minister lived. “It’s too bad. I was kind of looking forward to hearing my eulogy,” he said.

She rolled her eyes because she couldn’t help herself, but she didn’t smile.

“How the hell are we going to get to Sassy’s? It’s too far to run.”