THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

fly down. I can be there tonight. Call me as soon as she’s secure.” 
    Even if Angelina had hidden the coins, Mason knew how to make her talk.
    “She might not be alone when I get to her. What about your orders to not draw attention?”
    Mason weighed the prospect of getting his hands on Angelina quickly against the problem of doing it in a way that might annoy Czarion. The need to find those coins before Czarion’s Sunday deadline ended all debate. “Things have changed. We don’t have time to waste. I need this done now. I’ll put my resources at your disposal.”
    “What about the pilot?” CK asked.
    “If you can’t grab her without involving him, I don’t care what you do with him. Just don’t leave a trail.”
    “I never do.”
     
    Chapter 32
     
    Wind lifted whitecaps over the waves where the canal to the Gulf Winds Marina met the bay. Zane hurried down the dock to secure the boat so he could get to the airfield and take off ahead of the coming storm. Just another headache he didn’t need this morning.
    The lines had slackened during the night. After making quick work of tightening the ropes and checking the bilge pump that removed water from the hull, he climbed down into the cabin.
    Under the front bunk, he lifted the lid to access a lower compartment and reached deep inside to drag out the new side curtains he’d stored there. He’d been surprised they were ready when he’d come through Raleigh. After replacing the lid and cushion, he tore the brown paper packaging away, smiling over the smell of new canvas and plastic. It reminded him of opening the package on a rubber pool floatie.
    The first upgrade to his boat.
    He carried the four curtain sections onto the deck to sort them. Zane picked one up, decided it was for the starboard side then tossed it to his right.
    Thunk!
    Curious, he lifted the section back up. The bottom hemmed pocket bulged. He squeezed two fingers into the pocket, and felt something hard surrounded by plastic. He retrieved a pair of needle-nose pliers from the dash – one of the better gets from the junk left onboard by the previous owner. Pinching the corner of the plastic carefully with the pliers, he wiggled the clear sleeve out far enough to see a coin.
    A gold coin. He carried the canvas to the captain’s chair in the open cockpit and carefully pulled the rest of the snaking plastic length out.
    Eight gold coins ranging in dates from 1922 through 1933 were embellished with a maiden in a long gown running with a torch on the front. The flip side had an eagle. He knew nothing about coin collecting, but it didn’t take an expert to realize he held something extremely rare.
    How had they gotten into his canvas curtains? Zane retraced the package’s path in his mind. He’d picked them up from the custom shop on his last trip to Raleigh, and carried them around until he’d loaded them into the Titan. They were with him all the way until he unloaded them when he landed.
    Raleigh. Where Angel had stowed away.
    His skin chilled at his next thought. Had she stolen these? Was that why someone chased her? This must have been what she’d been searching for in the storage room and when he’d found her going through the cabin of the boat.
    Disappointment sickened him. He’d believed he could help her out of whatever she’d gotten into, but this was not a warrant for unpaid parking tickets. If she’d stolen these coins, he’d face his greatest challenge – turning the woman he loved over to the authorities.
    He couldn’t harbor a fugitive.
    Angel said she’d taken something from the guy chasing her, but it didn’t belong to him.
    But these coins belonged to someone.
    If confronted with the coins, would she admit the truth? Or, refuse to share her secrets until she absolutely had to give them up?
    He left all the individually wrapped twenty-dollar gold pieces on the seat and went in search of three plastic Ziploc bags from a drawer under the sink where he’d stashed a few supplies in anticipation of a first outing this weekend. Fat chance of that happening now. Using his knife he slit the side of one sleeve. With the pliers, he lifted the package over one open Ziploc bag, shaking it carefully until the coin dropped into the bag.
    He held the empty plastic sleeve up to the light. She hadn’t wiped these clean. Zane dropped the sleeve into the other Ziploc, then placed the remaining coins, in their sleeves, in the last bag.
    In the cabin, he pulled the cushions