Читать книгу Deep Cover Detective - Lena Diaz - Страница 11

Chapter Four

In spite of Buddy’s promise to ensure that Silver and Colton could sit together on one of the three boats, Silver did her best to thwart that plan. Since the boat that Danny Thompson was captaining was the most full, she hopped on it and almost squealed with triumph when she got a seat without any empty ones close by. But, at the last minute, the man beside her got up and hurried to a different boat. And who should plop down in his place but Colton Graham.

As he settled beside her, his broad shoulders rubbing against hers, she glanced toward the man who’d just left and saw him shoving one of his hands into his pocket. The flash of green paper left no question as to what had just happened.

“You bribed that man to let you sit here,” she accused.

His very blue eyes widened innocently. “Why would I do something like that?”

Since she couldn’t answer that without voicing her suspicions about the vase and Eddie, she didn’t bother to reply. Instead, she looked out over the glades as the boat pushed away from the dock, and she did her best to ignore her unwanted neighbor.

Once out in the middle of the waterway, the giant fan on the back of the boat kicked on. Any questions Colton might have planned on asking her would be difficult at best to ask now. She gave him a smug smile before turning away.

When they reached an intersection of canals, the boats split up, each going down a different waterway. Buddy grinned and waved at her from one of the other boats and she returned his wave, unable to fault or even resent him for pressuring her into this trip.

He’d been asking her all summer to take one of the tours so she could recommend them when her B and B guests asked about the airboat rides. Today really was the last realistic chance this season for her to take the tour. And without him bringing a boat of B and B guests every morning as agreed, the chance of her inn flourishing, or even surviving, was practically zero. She owed Buddy a debt of gratitude that he’d come up with the idea once she mentioned her desire to start the B and B.

She glanced at Colton, who was studying the passengers rather than the twisted, knobby-kneed cypress trees they were passing. Everything about him seemed...off. He wasn’t acting like a tourist. A feeling of alarm spread through her every time he looked at another one of the handful of men and women on their boat, as if he was memorizing their faces or looking for something. Or someone.

Who was he? An insurance investigator trying to save his company money by finding that vase? A family friend of the vase’s rightful owner? Or, worse, one of Eddie’s so-called friends who was looking to settle some kind of debt? Her fingers curled around the edge of the seat cushion beneath her as her mind swirled with even worse possibilities, including the very worst—that he might be a cop.

That would ruin everything.

He turned and caught her staring at him. And just then, Danny cut the engine, dramatically dropping the decibel level as the loud fan sputtered and slowed and then fell silent. Great. Just great.

“We’ll drift here for a few minutes so you can catch some gator action or maybe see some cranes fishing for an early lunch,” Danny announced. “We’ll tour the salt marsh after that.”

A low buzz of excited conversation started up around them as the others took out their cameras and phones and began pointing and clicking.

“About that vase—” Colton began.

“Don’t you want to take some pictures?” she interrupted. “There’s a gator sunning himself on the bank over there. You’ll probably never get another chance to take a picture this close without getting your arm bitten off.”

“Seen one gator, you’ve seen them all.”

“I thought you’ve never been to the Everglades before.”

“There’s this thing called a zoo,” he said drily.

“Don’t you live in Georgia?”

“I do.”

“Atlanta, right? Like your sister?”

He frowned at her. “I’m pretty sure that I already told you that. Why?”

“I’ve been to Zoo Atlanta. They don’t have gators.”

He gave her a smug smile. “Then you haven’t been there lately. They brought in four from Saint Augustine this past year.”

She had no clue whether he’d made that up or not. But she had a feeling he was telling the truth. Which meant...what? That he really was from Atlanta?

“About the vase—”

“Where in Atlanta? I have friends there. Which subdivision?”

He let out an impatient breath. “No subdivision, just some land outside town.”

“Where?”

One of his eyelids drooped. “Where what?”

“Where’s your land?”

He cleared his throat. “Peachtree. Can we get back to my question about—”

“Peachtree.” She laughed. “Seriously? Everything in Atlanta is on Peachtree. Which Peachtree?”

He stared at her, his dark, brooding eyes and serious expression making no secret that he was frustrated with her evasion of his questions. Finally, he let out a deep breath and opened his mouth to say something else.

Silver quickly turned to the woman sitting on the other side of her and tapped her shoulder. “Look.” She pointed toward the bank. “There’s a snowy egret. Ever seen one of those before?”

The woman’s eyes widened and she grabbed her camera. “It’s so pretty!”

As the woman snapped pictures, Silver told her everything she knew about egrets, which turned out to be a lot, since she’d grown up in the area. On her other side, she heard another one of Colton’s deep sighs, and when she carefully turned ever so slightly a few minutes later to see what he was doing, he was staring out at the bank on his side of the boat. Good, maybe he’d finally give up trying to ask her questions. She could keep up her conversation with the other woman and maybe even some of the other tourists if she had to in order to survive the boat ride. But what was she going to do once they got back to the inn?

She’d figure something out.

Maybe she should invent some kind of disaster—like a burst pipe in a wall—to get him to leave. No, that would cause real harm to the inn and she couldn’t afford that. The air conditioner? She could take a fuse out or something to get it to quit cooling. That would make the place miserably hot as the sun got higher in the sky this afternoon. Yes, maybe that would work.

Danny used a long paddle to edge them closer to the bank on Colton’s side and pointed out several different species of plants to his picture-snapping audience.

“What the...” Suddenly Colton raised his left arm in front of her and angled his body so that his back was to her.

“Stop the boat against the bank,” someone yelled. The voice sounded as though it came from the shore. And it sounded...familiar.

Someone in the boat screamed.

Silver leaned over to see what was happening.

On the bank about ten feet away, beneath a twisted cypress tree, a man stood with a bandanna tied across his face with holes cut out for the eyes. On his head was a Miami Marlins baseball cap. And in his hand, pointed directly at Danny, was a gun.

Excited chattering erupted all around as the tourists began to realize what was going on. Danny did as he was told, poking his guide pole beneath the water into the mud to push the boat toward the bank. A low grinding noise sounded as the bottom of the hull scraped across weeds and mud, then stuck and held.

The gunman rushed over to the boat but didn’t try to board. He aimed his pistol at Danny and pitched a large burlap bag into the boat. “Jewelry and cash,” he said. “Fill it up. Hurry.”

Oh, no. She suddenly recognized the voice. Eddie, what are you doing? She groaned and shook her head.

Colton moved his left hand down between them, the back of his fingers skimming her calf as he slid the leg of his jeans up his boot.

Silver blinked with horror when she saw why. He had a gun. It was strapped in a holster against the side of his boot.

She grabbed his arm just as his fingers closed around the gun. “What are you doing?” she whispered.

He jerked his head around and frowned at her. “I’m a cop,” he whispered. “I’m an undercover detective with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. Don’t worry. It’s okay.”

A cop? Her stomach sank. Everything had just gotten a whole lot more complicated. And dangerous. He was about to ruin everything. She had to stop him. She shook her head back and forth. “Too dangerous,” she whispered back. “Someone could get hurt.”

“Someone could get hurt or killed by that kid holding the pistol. Now stay down.” He pushed her hand off his arm.

Silver clenched her fists. Danny was passing around the burlap bag while Colton slowly pulled his gun out of the holster, his gaze never leaving Eddie.

This was a disaster waiting to happen. She had to protect Eddie. The gun in Eddie’s hand was shaking so hard Silver was afraid he was going to shoot someone by accident. And Colton had his gun completely out of the holster now.

Silver leaned back and raised her right hand as if swatting away a bug. The movement caught Eddie’s attention, as intended. His head swiveled her way, and his eyes widened. Silver made a gun signal with her pointer finger and thumb and pointed at Colton’s back. It didn’t seem possible, but the gun in Eddie’s hand started to shake even more. He nodded, and Colton snapped his head around to look at her suspiciously.

She dropped her hand from behind his back and gave him a nervous smile.

His eyebrows slashed down and he whipped his head back toward Eddie.

“Your jewelry, Silver,” Danny said, pushing the bag toward her.

She hesitated, glancing from Colton to Eddie. They were staring at each other like two gunmen about to have a shoot-out.

Do something. You have to stop this before someone gets hurt.

Silver started to pull her necklace over her head.

Eddie turned his gun away from Danny and toward Colton.

Colton started to bring his gun up.

Silver dropped her necklace and it clattered against the floor of the boat in front of Colton. “Oh, darn it. Sorry.” She braced her right hand on his shoulder and leaned across him.

“Out of the way,” he snapped.

“Sorry, sorry, oops.” She fell across his lap, slamming her right arm on top of his gun arm and trapping it between her breasts and his lap.

She jerked her head up and looked at Eddie. Go, she silently mouthed to him.

He whipped around and ran for the trees.

Colton swore and tried to yank his gun out from beneath her, but she clung to him like pine sap on a brand-new paint job. He looked toward the bank, then shook his head and looked back at her. His glare was so fierce she was surprised she didn’t turn into a human torch on the spot.

“I should arrest you right now,” he growled. “You let him get away on purpose.”

“I fell.” She blinked innocently and braced her hands on his thighs, pushing herself upright.

He swore viciously and let his gun slide back into the holster, then yanked his pants leg down over it. No one seemed to have even noticed his gun. The rest of the passengers were all chattering excitedly. And Danny had turned away to try to comfort a loudly crying woman.

Colton leaned down toward Silver, his face a menacing mask of anger. “Until I figure out my next step, you keep quiet. Not a word to anyone about me being a cop or I will arrest you. Got that?”

Bristling at his tone but understanding his anger, she decided to comply—for now—and gave him a curt nod.

He crossed his arms and looked away, as if he couldn’t stand the sight of her anymore.

A hand touched her left shoulder. The woman who’d been so excited by the egrets earlier looked ready to pass out. Her eyes were like round moons brimming with tears about to spill down her cheeks.

Her lips trembled as she whispered, “I can’t believe we were almost robbed. We could have been killed.”

Silver’s heart tugged at the poor woman’s fear. Her own anger at Eddie probably rivaled Colton’s anger with her. Thank God, no one had gotten shot, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t been hurt. This poor woman, and others, would probably have nightmares and no telling what other lasting effects because of Eddie’s stupid stunt. Silver squeezed the woman’s hand and pulled her into a hug, rocking her and patting her back as she tried to soothe her.

“You’ll want to take the boat to the main dock where everyone’s cars are parked.” Colton’s deep voice cut through the conversations around them as he addressed Danny. “We’ll have cell phone coverage there and can call the police to report the gunman.”

Danny hesitated, then nodded. “Right. Of course. Um, ladies and gentlemen, my apologies for the fright you just had. The tour is over. We’re returning to the south dock.” He gave Colton another curious look before using the pole to push the boat off the mud.