Chapter 73 MICELI

Later, I will realize this all happened in a few seconds, but in the present, everything happens in excruciating slow motion.

Men in black diving gear have my woman. She's fighting, but there are three fucking assailants in the water that is supposed to be safe.

A gunshot rings out and the dock near Róise explodes.

"Hold fire," I shout as loud as I can.

Some idiot is going to kill my fiancée in his attempt to rescue her. If that happens, I will cut off his hands and feed him to the sharks.

Terror I have never felt before runs through my veins like corrosive acid.

My men converge on the water.

Too late.

I know, it's too late.

But I don't order them not to dive. I'm almost there.

Allessio pops up to the surface and shakes his head. An enraged shout erupts from my throat, but I force myself not to dive into the bay.

I know what he's going to say before he says it.

"They had DPV's boss," Allessio shouts from the water. "No way to catch them."

"She's got an oxygen tank," the other man who went into the water shouts.

Like that's supposed to make me feel better.

The two soldiers who were furthest away, patrolling the north and south perimeters, reach me.

"With me," I bark before pivoting and sprinting to the boathouse.

Brogan has a speedboat as well as a yacht .

I type in the code I saw Róise use and open the door. Ollie and one of Brogan's other men are already untying the speedboat from its mooring. I jump on board. My men are right behind me, crowding one of Brogan's guys out. But Ollie manages to get on board too.

"Is this thing equipped with sonar?" I don't bother looking at my phone for Róise's location.

Deep water is one of nature's signal blockers.

"No. The yacht is, but that would take too long to get in the water."

"Let's go."

Ollie's body is rigid with the need for action, but he says, "Waiting for the boss."

I make the choice easy for him.

Pulling my gun, I point at his head. "Get this fucking boat moving."

I don't bother to threaten to shoot him. If he isn't smart enough to figure out I will, Ollie shouldn't be the one driving in pursuit.

Róise's bodyguard shows the smarts I expect and pushes the throttle forward, pulling slowly out of the boathouse.

As soon as we clear the mooring, he asks, "Which way?"

Straining my eyes to see even the smallest ripple to indicate the DPVs' progress, I see nothing.

Dannazione!

We have no fucking way to know which way they went. Three yachts are out in the bay. Any one of them could be the destination.

Or those fottuto stronzos could be planning to use the DPVs to get all the way across the bay. It would be dangerous, but that doesn't mean they won't try it.

Most likely, they have a helicopter waiting and plan to surface under the cover of another boathouse. But that could be anywhere along the shore in either direction.

I think about the man my gut tells me is responsible for this kidnapping. What would Gabriel Lion do? And I have no fucking clue.

If it were me, I would get to shore as quickly as possible and head for a helipad.

I call Brogan.

He answers on the first ring. "You left without me, you son of a bitch. That's my niece out there."

"She is my woman." My fucking beating heart. "Yacht or helicopter? Which are Gabriel's people likely to use?"

"If Gabriel planned the op, they'll rely on reaching the shore undetected and use a vehicle."

"No fucking way. These men are not that stupid. "

"Gabriel doesn't have a yacht or a helicopter. He's got a jet he's really proud of, but that requires filing a flight plan."

"A helicopter doesn't."

"The AOG are all about self-sufficiency. He's not going to borrow a helicopter from an ally."

Trusting Brogan's take on this, I tap Ollie's shoulder. "Head southeast."

The man opens the throttle and we sail across the water. Even if they're using the fastest DPVs on the market, Róise's kidnappers are going to max out at about 9 mph. The speedboat can go ten times that on calm water.

The problem isn't catching up, but overshooting them.

There's the mumble of another voice near Brogan and then he says, "They cut through the net."

That tells me something. These guys are professional. Not that I expected anything else from the military trained AOG.

It tells me something else too. Brogan has a fucking rat working for him. Someone ignored the alarms that would have been set off by the sonar at the three-man team's approach.

"Put the men you have stationed on sonar watch duty on lockdown," I order.

We'll question them after. After I get my fiancée back and gut the men who tried to take her.

"Already done. You can sit in on the interrogation."

Ignoring his oblique order to stay out of it, I say, "They have a plan for getting across Long Island without pursuit."

What that fucking plan is, I don't know. Except they are bound to ditch Róise's phone. Good thing I don't have to rely on the phone's tracker.

They could have a signal jammer, but that also stops them from communicating with their backup.

"Keep in mind, they might be military trained, but they're also arrogant as hell," Brogan says. "They believe in their supremacy over everyone that isn't part of their cult. That can translate into stupid mistakes."

"I'm not relying on someone else's mistakes to get mi dolce fiore back. I will find her."

"I'm putting the house on lockdown. Do you want your two men to stay here or to come after you? We can provide them with dry clothing and weapons."

Their guns went swimming with them. We use weapons unlikely to be affected by submersion, but when it comes to Róise's protection, I'm not settling for unlikely.

"Get them weapons and tell them to head southeast along the shoreline." I have to go on my instinct with the direction they are taking her. "Have the other two vehicles from our envoy delivered to the helipad."

"Will do."

I hang up without saying another word.

My gut says Róise's kidnappers are heading back toward New York, with a plan to drive straight through to Pennsylvania. If they are as determinedly self-sufficient and arrogant as Brogan says they are, that's their only option.

I will get Róise back, no matter what it takes. But I do not want her to fucking leave this island with those assholes.

After instructing Ollie to slow down for a visual inspection of every boathouse we encounter, I call Sev.

"That son of a bitch, Gabriel took Róise."

"How many people do you need and where do you want me to send them?"

"Send the cargo helo. It will carry ten with a full arsenal. They can land on the helipad near Brogan's place. Two of our vehicles will be waiting."

"Done."

"Tell the helicopter pilot to remain on standby. Brogan says Gabriel doesn't have a helicopter, but I'm not taking any chances."

"I'll get Catalina and Domenico's team looking into potential access to one. "

"Good. There are three yachts in the nearby vicinity, get our smaller passenger helo in the air to do recon on them."

"Done. Are you sure it's Gabriel?"

"Brogan told me that Gabriel demanded he get Róise away from me and turn her over to him."

"And they call me a psychopath."

"It's almost a requirement for the job. But that guy makes the rest of us psychopaths look bad."

"We'll get her back." There's no doubt in Sev's tone.

"We will and then I'm going to kill Gabriel and Jed."

"Agreed. We don't leave threats to our family free to come after us again."