She prayed that Meg was reading her mind as she suddenly slammed herself as hard as she could against Blackwood’s gun arm.
The gun went flying, and she and Meg threw themselves over the rail into the water.
They went deep...deeper...
She saw bullets whizz by in the water, close...so close...
* * *
There were dozens of boats out on the water. Brett tried to think of what kind Grant Blackwood would have chosen.
Nothing obviously expensive. Something very fast, though. He looked out and dismissed several right off the bat.
“We’re looking for something the average boating enthusiast could afford,” Matt said, a pair of binoculars trained in the distance. “They must be holding them inside,” he murmured, a strained expression on his face. He looked at Brett. “I don’t know how the hell he disarmed Meg.”
“Threatened her with someone else’s life,” Brett said flatly. He let out an oath of utter frustration. “I don’t know which damned boat to follow. That’s been his strategy all along. Kill the forgotten. Blend in with the everyman. Where the hell...?”
His voice trailed off as the water beside them suddenly burst upward in a majestic display.
It was Cocoa. She was soaring in front of them, surging ahead.
She was guiding them.
Showing them which way to go.
“She’s right—just ahead!” Matt said. “There! There’s a man shooting into the water. Hell yes, it’s Blackwood.” He turned to Brett, who had hit the throttle hard.
“The guy next to him is the man who came to my house with Anthony Barillo.”
“Tomas,” Matt said. “It’s Tomas Barillo. Faster! They’re shooting. They’ll hit one of them soon if...”
If they haven’t already.
The words hung unspoken between them.
* * *
There was no way out of it.
Lara was a good swimmer. Not the strongest ever, but good enough. So was Meg.
But even if they’d been Olympic athletes, there was a point when a human being had to breathe. They had both kicked down deep—thirty feet, at least—but they were still close to the boat.
But now her lungs were burning as if they were about to burst, simply explode.
She had to have air. And she knew that when she surfaced, she would be seen, and for Grant Blackwood it would be like shooting ducks in a carnival gallery.
She was at the point when a bullet seemed better than drowning when something huge whisked by her in the water. It took her a second to realize that it was Cocoa.
As the dolphin swerved back toward her, Lara turned and saw Meg about ten feet away, about to shoot back toward the surface, too.
Lara didn’t know if Cocoa could possibly understand what was needed.
But she did.
Lara grasped the dolphin’s dorsal fin and motioned toward Meg. She didn’t know if it was the correct hand signal; she simply didn’t know what else to do.
But Cocoa did.
She whisked her elegant, long body through the water to Meg’s side. The second Meg had also clasped Cocoa’s fin, the animal thrust her powerful body forward.
They were rising and drawing away from the boat at the same time.
* * *
The two men aboard the boat were so busy looking into the water and shooting that they didn’t realize anything else was going on until the captain shouted something and immediately threw himself over the side of the boat.
Brett didn’t think twice about ramming the vessel; he knew that Grady would readily sacrifice his Donzi, and he didn’t give a rat’s ass about the other boat.
“We could give a warning— Oh, fuck it!” Matt said, bracing for the impact.
He jerked the wheel, and the Donzi slammed sideways into the other boat with bone-jarring force, but Brett barely felt it. As the two boats splintered, he felt a bullet graze his shoulder.
Blackwood had turned and was already shooting again, hiding behind the wall of the small cabin. Brett saw Matt leap onto the other boat’s deck and head for Barillo; meanwhile, another bullet soared past his head as he followed Matt’s lead and boarded the other boat. He had to find cover.
At least now the men were firing at him and Matt, two people who could fire back.
Brett rolled and got to his feet, sloshing in water as he made his way toward the cabin. Blackwood was still firing in the direction where he’d been. All he had to do was circle around behind Blackwood and take him by surprise.
The boat was listing heavily. Brett had nearly made it all the way around the cabin when a wave sloshed over the side and the boat began to capsize. He tried to catch himself, but he was thrown into the water, and his Glock went flying.
He pitched downward and instinctively scissored his legs hard to head back to the surface.
Blackwood had been thrown into the salty waves just as he had—but Blackwood still had his gun.
The man smiled at him and aimed.
He never fired.
It was as if a gray torpedo rammed the man, hard and sure. Blackwood seemed to fly through the water, his mouth opened in a scream of pain.
A dolphin!
Cocoa was there, saving his life.
He shot up to the surface for a breath. Twenty feet away, he saw Blackwood surface, gurgling and screaming in pain, thrashing desperately to stay afloat.
He would go after Blackwood. But not until...
“Brett!”
It was Lara, just a few feet away, swimming strongly toward him. He drove toward her and threw his arms around her, and they both began to sink as he caught her to him for a fierce, salty kiss, then kicked hard, propelling them both back up.
“Meg?” he asked anxiously.
“Fine,” she assured him. “Blackwood?”
“Still alive. I’ll go get him,” Brett said. “I’d like to kill him.”
“Don’t do that,” Lara said. “He got involved because he’s dying from something neurological, too. Let him rot away with it. Serves him right for thinking he could kill others to cure himself.”
He left Lara treading water by the ruins of the two boats and made his way to Blackwood. The man bellowed and tried to move away, but he was clearly in pain and finding it hard to breathe; Cocoa had evidently broken several of his ribs.
As Brett shook his head and closed in on the man, he saw that the Coast Guard cutter, with Diego and Lieutenant Gunderson at the bow, had nearly reached them.
“Grant Blackwood, you are under arrest,” he said, and gripped the man in a lifesaving hold.
Blackwood truly deserved to live until he met the agony of his natural end.
Epilogue
Brett had never really thought of his house as a home, but in the weeks since the arrests of Blackwood and Tomas Barillo, Lara had taken to staying at his place.
And since Grady had insisted that she take a short break from work, she had been able to make it something like her own home, too.
Little things changed the place.
Like the flowers she liked to have in the house, the pictures of the parents she’d lost and the aunt who had raised her, pictures of her and Meg and more. There was also the scent of her soap and shampoo and perfume, lingering lightly and teasingly on the air.
And major things changed it.
Like waking up to find that she was beside him. And realizing why he’d cared so much about Miguel and Maria. They’d had what he’d always wanted: the knowledge that you wanted to wake up that way every single day for the rest of your life.
Because his house had become a home, he had Grady, Rick and Adrianna over, along with Diego, Meg and Matt, on the day that Adrianna and Dr. Amory were released from the hospital. He felt
they deserved the best explanation he and his fellow agents could give.
They had a barbecue with fish and meat, salads, corn on the cob and key lime pie for dessert. And afterward they sat in the back and watched the sun set and the moon rise as they talked.
Grady shook his head in puzzlement. “How on earth did Grant Blackwood meet up with Tomas Barillo?”
“At the hospital,” Brett said. “Grant was in the process of discovering that he was going to rot away for the next few years and then die. Tomas Barillo was there with Anthony, learning that his brother might not have long to live and stewing in the knowledge that he himself didn’t command enough respect from the rank and file to take control once his brother was dead. It would be nice to think that Tomas just wanted his brother to live. He didn’t. He was afraid that when Anthony died, the ‘family’ would fall apart, leaving him with nothing.
“Blackwood knew about experiments that had been going on, using monkeys, in which researchers were working on cures for Parkinson’s, MS and other neurological diseases. They’d had some success making use of the body’s own chemicals to at least ameliorate some of the symptoms.”
“Tomas Barillo had hired chemists and biologists to look into uses for puffer fish toxin,” Matt said. “They’re all under arrest now, but most of them were kept pretty much in the dark. They must have suspected that some of their work was being used in less than legitimate ways, but they were being paid—and they were afraid. Their motto was pretty much ‘act stupid, receive a nice income and live.’ It’s self-defense when you see people being killed all around you.”
“Just how many people did Tomas and Blackwood kill?” Adrianna asked.
“We’ll never know for sure,” Brett said.
“Because they won’t tell you?” Grady asked.
Brett sighed. “No, Blackwood is silent and mean as a snake. But Tomas Barillo is talking away—dealing for his life. He’s implicated just about everyone. They arrested Anthony Barillo today with what his brother gave us. His empire is going to crumble to dust. But those bastards have been at it awhile. They don’t even know how many people they’ve experimented on—and killed—since they started.”
“But why make zombies out of people and then program them to kill?” Rick asked, shaking his head.
“It turned out to be a byproduct. One of the concoctions they put together killed, but slowly. And it wiped out the portion of the brain that had to do with rational function. They were basically programmed. I think that having them go after their own loved ones was an attempt to see how much of the original personality remained, and given that all the ‘zombies’ seemed willing to kill their nearest and dearest, the answer seems to be ‘not very much.’ So in the end, they still didn’t find the cures they were looking for,” Brett said.
“I’ll never be able to understand how anyone could be that cold and that cruel,” Grady said.
“They put two powers—money and the urge to rule—together and ended up with a force that was truly terrifying,” Diego said.
“My heart breaks for all the victims who will never be properly mourned,” Lara said. “We should say a little prayer for the forgotten.”
They were all silent for a minute, paying tribute in their own ways.
Grady sighed. “And the man was a sponsor at Sea Life. I hope what he did doesn’t overshadow everything we’re trying to do.”
Brett looked at Lara, and she shrugged and said, “Blackwood had convinced Taggerly to form a new company to focus on neurological research. He knew about relevant research Dr. Amory had done in the past and convinced Taggerly to try to lure him away. But neither Taggerly nor Dr. Amory knew what was going on.”
“Of course not! Not that I would have left under any circumstances,” Dr. Amory said.
Grady looked grim for a minute, but then he brightened. “We’re going to be okay,” he said. “We have a famous lifesaving dolphin after all. With the wonderful way Lara has written about her and handled everything with the media, we’re going to be golden. And,” he added, “thank God we didn’t lose anyone at Sea Life.”
“Well, technically. But that snake Myles won’t be darkening our doors again,” Dr. Amory said.
“Sea Life is like a family,” Adrianna said. She looked over at Meg and Lara and smiled. “I can attest to that. You two risked your lives for me.”
Lara smiled back at her. “My life wouldn’t be worth much to me if I’d hadn’t at least tried.”
“Ditto,” Meg said. “And I’m not just saying that because it’s my job.”
For a minute they were all silent again.
Then Grady let out another sigh. “I’m heading out, folks. Long day tomorrow.” He turned to Lara. “You’ll be back after your break?” he asked.
Lara nodded. “I’ll be back,” she promised. “I love Sea Life.”
Rick, Adrianna and Dr. Amory followed Grady’s lead. Good-nights were said. They were awkward and a little emotional, but nice.
Diego hovered by the door. “I need to get going, too,” he said. He grinned at Brett and Lara. “Apparently only one of us gets to go to the Caribbean for a week.”
“You’re off the week after,” Brett reminded him.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Diego said.
“Don’t go yet,” Lara said, taking his arm. “We want you to see something.”
Together with Meg and Matt, they returned to the backyard.
There was a tiled bench that looked over the yard. The moon was full and the night was warm, without a hint of the rain that so frequently plagued the South Florida summers.
There, on the bench, together at last, were the ghosts of Miguel and Maria Gomez.
Arm in arm, they sat together, content to watch the moonlight.
“I see them,” Diego said softly. “And I’m glad they got their happy ending.”
When just the four of them remained, Matt told Brett, “You know, there’s a place for you in the Krewe, if you’re interested in moving up to DC.”
Brett looked at Lara, and she smiled. “Well, my best friend is a Krewe agent. It looks like a really good job. Right now, though, I still have a dolphin who deserves a lot of fish.”
Brett turned to Matt and shook his head.
“The offer remains open,” Matt said. A few minutes later he and Meg went up to bed.
Lara started to pick up the few remaining glasses, but Brett went over and stopped her by slipping his arms around her.
“It really is beautiful to see Miguel and Maria together that way,” Lara said. “I just wonder...will they leave? And go—I hope—to heaven?”
“I don’t know. I know that if they stay, it will be together. I believe, though, that they will go on, and that they’ll stay together.”
“I believe that, too.”
“It’s a forever kind of a thing,” he said.
“Kind of what I feel for you,” she told him.
He smiled. “Same here. So I guess tonight begins our forever, don’t you think?”
She nodded gravely, and then a fiery light touched the blue-green beauty of her eyes. “Forever should be fun and really sexy, huh?”
“Absolutely.”
She nodded, turned and headed up the stairs.
He watched her and thought of Miguel and what he’d once told Brett.
I knew—I just knew. And it didn’t matter how long we’d been together or what others thought. I knew that I would love her forever.
“Thank you, Miguel,” Brett said softly.
And then he followed Lara up the stairs.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from THE HIDDEN by Heather Graham.
“Graham does a great job of blending just a bit of paranormal with real, human evil.”
—Miami Herald
on Unhallowed Ground
Looking for more bone-chilling mysteries starring the FBI’s paranormal investigations unit, the Krewe of Hunters?
Don’t miss the next heart-pounding installment in this incredible series from New York Times bestselling author and queen of romantic suspense Heather Graham:
The Hidden (October 2015)
Packed with deadly intrigue and spine-tingling suspense, catch up on the complete Krewe of Hunters series today!
Phantom Evil
Heart of Evil
Sacred Evil
The Evil Inside
The Unseen
The Unholy
The Unspoken
The Uninvited
The Night is Watching
The Night is Alive
The Night is Forever
The Cursed
The Hexed
The Betrayed
The Silenced
Complete your collection!
If you love the Krewe of Hunters, then you won’t want to miss a moment of page-turning romantic suspense in New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham’s
Cafferty & Quinn novels.
Let the Dead Sleep
Waking the Dead
The Dead Play On
“Dark, dangerous and deadly!
Graham has the uncanny ability to bring her books to life.”
—RT Book Reviews on Waking the Dead
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The Hidden
by Heather Graham
1
A majestic elk stood stock-still on the hill, long neck arched to the sky in the sunset, antlers large and proud. Scattered wildflowers nestled within the long grass, and the colors of the horizon were almost whimsical in their beauty.
Scarlet Barlow kept her distance, though the animal didn’t seem to be the least bit afraid of her. The elk in the area were accustomed to people who came to hike the mountainous country, the crests and valleys and little plateau where the one-time Conway Ranch was now a bed-and-breakfast, complete with a gift shop and museum. No one disturbed the elk that came here to graze the lush meadows, and the elk apparently knew that. The B and B was a mere stone’s throw from the eastern entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, so those who came to admire the animal life there meant it no harm.