Operation Swift Mercy (28 page)

Mercy untied the rope hold
ing the boat against the jetty, swiftly, glancing
over her shoulder, nervously
as she did so,
but there was no movement from the house yet. She threw in the rope and Willow reached across to help Mercy
in but
instead, Mercy kicked hard against the side of the boat to shove it away from jetty.

“What are you doing?” Willow
hissed, mindful of noise travelling
.

“I’m going to create a diversion...there’s no way you guys will outrun them in this. Now go!”

“No, we can’t leave you here.” Summer stared at her in horror.

“Summer, you need to take care of your kids, now go—I’ll keep them busy. And you need to make sure she goes,” Mercy said turning her gaze on Willow. “Send back help once you’re safe. I’ll be okay, I know a place I can hide—quick, get out of here,”  she didn’t wait to hear any more protests, there wasn’t time, any minute Nikkos would discover they were missing and then it would be too late. She ran back along the path, and heard the first sounds of shouting from inside the main building.
A moment
of panic
coursed
through her body and she froze, but then she thought of Summer
a
nd the kids and knew she had to push past her fear and get on with it.

She needed to keep them from heading to the jetty for as long as possible to give Willow time to get the little craft away from the island. How she was going to do that though, she wasn’t entirely sure.

She crept around the back to the equipment shed and swore under her breath as she saw the empty spot where the jeep was usually parked. In the corner of the shed, s
he spotted an old quad
bike and rushed towards it. With a grateful prayer of thanks she saw the keys were in the ignition, making a note to take back her safety and security lecture she’d been giving everyone since day one.

She hoped she could do this. All she knew was she needed to draw them away from the beach and somehow try not to get caught by them at the same time. Taking a deep breath, she started the bike and could have cried with relief when it did so on the first go. There was no style or
finesse
about her driving—she aimed at the doorway and gunned the
accelerator
, holding on for dear life and trying not to close her eyes so she could see where she was going.

Roaring past the corner of the main building she saw two figures running towards her, but didn’t bother looking back—she didn’t care
,
she was just happy the first part of her
p
lan was working.

The track was bumpy in a jeep, but on a bike—it was a nightmare to navigate
and she couldn’t go as fast as she’d have liked because of the rough terrain
. Branches of overhanging
vegetation
whipped against her face and
bear
arms, making her eyes sting and water, but she  kept going, there was no way she could afford to stop now—not when she had more than just herself to worry about
now.
No
! Don’t go there—don’t think about the baby.

It was hard to work out exactly where she was in the dark—with only a narrow beam of light to guide her, the darkness
seemed to
encompass everything around her, giving no clue as to landmarks and position ahead of time.

She pulled up in front of Chase’s house and ran inside the back door to the utility room. Searching the shelves she quickly found what she was looking for and
grabbed
the lethal
looking spear gun down from where it was stored. There were no guns laying around and she had no idea how to use one even if there had been—but
thanks to Chase’s improvised training session,
the spear gun she at least knew the basics—never in her wildest imagination would she have thought she’d be willingly taking this evil looking thing, l
et alone
contemplat
e
using it to protect herself. She raced back outside and climbed on the quad, in the back of her mind knowing the men would have gained precious time on her, while she’d stopped.

She remembered
vaguely
where she was going, and hoped somehow she’d spot something that would help her remember the way.
When she eventually got close enough, s
he parked the bike and pushed it into
the bushes
. She didn’t have time to hide it
completely
. Once she cut the
engine she heard yelling and shouts coming from somewhere behind her. She ignored the track ahead, instead ducking through the low hanging branches and shrubbery and moving as fast as she could, with only the occasional beam of moonlight to guide her.

The voices were getting closer, the fact she could now
hear them
over the pounding of her
heart indicated
just how close behind her they must be. Pushing herself to move faster, she ignored the now familiar nausea and stumbled her way with almost relief towards the cave. This had to work—it just had to...she couldn’t let him kill
her;
she wanted this baby more than she’d ever wanted anything in her entire life.

****

“We need to move—now!”

“We need to calm down and think this through,” Tate had said.

“You can sit here
and
think, I’ll think while I’m on the way back. There’s
at least
five armed men over there with her—how long do you think she’ll last alone?”

“You can’t just run in there
,
guns blazing
.
Stop thinking like a love struck sap and start thinking like an operator.
You can’t help her if you lose it now,” Tupper snapped.

Maloney ignored his friends, continuing to throw his gun and
ammunition into a pack. “Y
ou do what you want. I’m leaving now.”

He heard the men murmur quickly between themselves, hastily forming some kind of plan, and was quietly relieved when they fol
l
owed him
in
to the big speed boat.

Word had come over the radio
that a fishing boat had picked up a group of women and children
in a small tender
. Instantly the men had breathed a sigh of relief
,
which was to be short lived
, the moment
Willow’s voice came over the radio a few moments later
and filled them in on what had happened
.

The captain of the boat had roused his brother-in-law
, who lived
on the island closest to Las Cavernas
,
and organised to get his speed boat out to their position to take the men back to the island.
It all took time—time that Mercy was left alone and defenceless with a bunch of armed men
.

Never had the boat trip across felt so damn long
,
he thought now as they sped towards the island, finally.
He’d never forget the empty, devastating feeling that had filled him as soon as h
e’d heard Mercy had stayed behind
. Anger, desperation and then fear
,
all battled inside him at once before his training kicked in and he began assessing his options
; t
he fastest way to get over there. What he’d need to do. Where he’d find her.

They cut the motor to glide into the beach a few
kilometres
from the jetty
and slid
from the boat
, jogging
up into the
vegetation
to hide their progress.
A
quick search of the main house
, found
it empty.

“We’ll head to your place first,” Tate said, already moving toward the door, his gaze scoping his
environment
as he went. “Willow said she told them she knew a place she could hide in—any idea where she’d be thinking?”

“My place would be too obvious, not many places to hide there,” Chase said, his mind already sorting through
places she
could be thinking about. Then suddenly, he knew. “The caves. She’s hiding in the caves.” He didn’t bother waiting to discuss it further, there was no time. Not only was Mercy being stalked by hired killers—she was potentially risking her life in
a
dangerously unstable cave system. How did everything go from so good to shithouse in less than 12 hours
?
If anything happened to her, he would never forgive himself.
Damn it—he should have been here!
What was he thinking? Why would he have risked her safety like that?
Damn it
.

****

Mercy
pulled the boards away from the small entrance and
wiggled her way in through the opening
.
Damn it
—she wished she’d thought ahead to bring a stupid torch!
I
t was dark…darker than dark, actually it was pitch black and she couldn’t see a thing. She knew from the last time she came in here that there was a bit of a cleared area, before the rock fall blocked a larger section ahead. There’d been no way to move the boards back into place behind her, but there was still a chance that they’d miss it completely and look instead at the old bunk house further along the track. It was dark outside and unless they were looking for the caves they wouldn’t know that it was there unless they had time to do a thorough search of the area
.

It was cold inside the cave and the only sound she could hear was the drip of water
echoing loudly
further into the cave somewhere
.
Slowly she inched her way along the floor, she didn’t trust herself to walk blindly in such darkness. At least on her knees she didn’t have as far to fall if she tripped over rocks and other debris hidden in the dark. She reached a
dead-end
, and had to back track, feeling her way like a blind person along the rock face to find
a
way further into
the cave.

Chase had said this had once been an escape route that lead to the mouth of the ocean. They hadn’t cleared the rock fall the whole way, but maybe if she went as deep into the cave as she could, anyone following her in would possibly give up thinking she wouldn’t have come into such a cold, dark place and stop looking.

  
Mercy reached the end of the path, once more coming to a dead
-
end of roughly stacked rock and slumped against it in defeat. She’d gone as far as she could. There was
nowhere
else to go. If they came in here to look for her—she had
nowhere
to run. Dropping her head to her knees, she hugged herself tightly into a ball and preyed fervently she was safe here and that
this dank, dark hole
didn’t become her tomb.

****

Nikkos followed his men through the dark trails of the island and cursed Mercy once again for becoming such a tremendous pain in his arse. He’d underestimated her—drastically so, it seemed. Who would have thought she’d have managed to outrun him all the way to this remote island in the pacific? Now, he’d spent too much time and money on tracking her down to leave here empty handed.

There was far too much at stake and with the journalist woman now also missing, he was beginning to feel as though everything he once thought he had under control was beginning to unravel. It was unacceptable. He always had control over his life—always.
This is why he always maintained strict control—he couldn’t abide the weakness he felt when he did not have everything under his control. Weakness was not something he ever wanted to live through again.

Weakness was watching his mother stand by and allow
ing
her son to be beaten and brutalised by her boyfriends and anyone willing to throw some drugs
her way. He loathed weakness, but in his women he liked—needed them to be submissive in order to maintain absolute control over his life.

He’d misjudged Mercy. She’d surprised him with her increasingly frequent test of his authority. He should have gotten rid of her as soon as she began demanding too much of him—asking too many questions—becoming too outspoken. He had been hurt that she felt a need to want more from him—from their arrangement. He’d given her everything and still she’d wanted more
. U
nfortunately, the things she’d wanted were not things he was willing to give—he could buy her anything but the relationship she’d wanted was not something he was able to give. He would never give up his control for something as weak and pathetic as love.

A glint of something in the bushes caught his eye up ahead and he paused to see what it was. Finding the quad bike she’d used to escape the house on, a slow smile began to spread across his face. She was nearby and soon he would once again take back his control. Soon, she would be dead.