THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

at Zane. A shot ricocheted off a boat and splintered a wooden rafter.
     
    Chapter 57
     
    Angel ducked when she heard gunshots then lunged for the boat controls.
    She wrenched hard on the wheel. The boat bounced left, knocking her sideways, but she held on. She threw a look over her shoulder.
    Ten feet out from the boat, CK dove forward, angled for the rear corner.
    Released from being hung up, the heavy cabin cruiser lunged forward under full power. The boat wheel slipped from her grip. She turned to fight for control, to spin the boat away from two boats in the next dock over.
    Another gunshot and gargled shouts carried over the motor rumble, but she couldn’t let go of the wheel to look. She fought to get the boat to open water. Zane’s ark plowed around the small waterway between the two rows of docks like an out-of-control, wind-up toy. Every turn she made was over-steered, curving the boat around in a hard left, then a hard right.
    She missed a sleek yacht sticking out from the next dock over, but bounced a piling on a slip at the end. Comprehension struck as she exited the marina and her panic level lowered. Angel tugged the controls back halfway to neutral. The bow lowered in the water when the motors chugged down to an idle.
    With the boat under control, she jerked around to see what had happened to her pursuer, but by now other boats blocked her view.
    More gunfire popped.
     
    Chapter 58
     
    “ Hey, you! ” Zane shouted again, pounding down the dock to where his boat was fighting its way out of the slip.
    Heavy soles pounded the wooden boards behind him. A squeeze play was coming with him in the middle.
    Another shot blasted at him from up ahead. The bullet skipped against the piling next to his foot. The crazy bastard dove towards his boat.
    Zane leveled his Sig and fired at the bulky target stretched out in mid-air. When he reached the slip, his boat was gyrating its way out of the marina and blood spread across the water in the slip.
    He was a crack shot and he’d aimed for center of body mass. Anything it took to stop the threat to Angel.
    The man’s bald head bobbed along, face down on the surface. He thrashed a hand against the water.
    Zane shoved his weapon into the holster he’d tucked into the waistband at the small of his back, and picked up a rope to throw. “Hold on!” he shouted, intending to keep the enormous mass from drowning.
    The giant’s shiny head rolled back, baring a heinous smile. He raised his good arm from under water to point a Glock 45 at Zane.
    With both hands full of rope and no time to react, Zane flinched and turned sideways to present a smaller target.
    A shot fired from close by centered the kidnapper’s forehead. He disappeared beneath the surface, sinking like a lead ball.
    Who the hell had ...
    A baritone yelled, “Drop your weapon and show your hands.”
    Ah, shit. Zane’s weapon hit the wooden dock with a clatter. He lifted his hands as he jerked around to see who had killed the kidnapper.
    Two African American men in dark gray suits jogged up, both with guns drawn. The taller of the two kept coming and kicked Zane’s gun away.
    “Who the hell are you?” Zane demanded, but he could make a pretty good guess.
    “FBI. Are you Zane Jackson?”
    Well, hell. Just as he thought. This won’t go well. “Yes.”
    “Was that Angelina Farentino in the boat?”
    Angel. Zane spun away, all concern for his safety gone. His hands shook as he ran to the end of the dock.
    Mason had almost gotten her.
    One of the two FBI agents close behind Zane yelled, “She can’t go anywhere. We’ve got the entrance to the bay blocked. In another fifteen minutes, we’ll have her.”
    Zane’s mind raced. How was he going to protect Angel from the FBI? He couldn’t let them take her. She’d trusted him and he’d turned his back on her. She’d pleaded her innocence. He had to get to her first and tell her he believed her. Then he’d find a way to get her out of this mess.
    He reached the end of the dock, barely able to see his boat motoring slowly down the far side of the empty canal.
    Drawing in a breath to yell her name, he hoped against the odds of being heard.
    The cabin cruiser exploded into a fireball.
    Zane’s screams echoed across the calm water.
     
    Chapter 59
     
    Information flew around Zane’s head like angry, fluttering birds, some of it finding a way into his mind.
    Some of it passed by unnoticed with the end of the day. Twilight was overtaking the water.