“Mrs. Weatherby, the sun catches your blond hair like a beacon,” the husky man called as he and the albino stepped onto the end of the dock. It rocked and swayed gently with their weight.
Libby gasped and placed her hands over her hair. Tony pulled his gun from his boot with one hand, and with the other hand he drew her closer to his side.
“Mr. Maxwell was most helpful in providing us with the information that you were meeting people here this morning,” the dark-haired man continued. “Of course, it took considerable persuasion to get him to part with this information.” Libby moaned, thinking of Jonathon Maxwell’s intelligent, soft brown eyes, wondering if the lab assistant was now dead. Tears misted her vision at the thought. “You have provided us with some pleasant diversions, but this is where the game ends.” The light amusement in the man’s voice changed to harsh demand. “You will please come out and give us the necklace now.”
“Go to hell,” Tony answered, his voice filled with a deceptive laziness.
“Ah, Mr. Pandolinni, let’s all be reasonable. You have no place to run, no place to hide. You have one gun, we have many. We will eventually get the necklace. You may as well cooperate with us now.” He took a step forward on the dock, jerking back as Tony fired a shot, the bullet whizzing harmlessly over the man’s head.
“It looks like a stalemate to me,” Tony yelled. “If anyone steps another foot on the dock, I’ll shoot them.” Tony stalled for time. Where the hell was Cliff?
Hawk signaled and a man appeared from the woods. The new man advanced cautiously, passing where Hawk and the albino stood. Tony’s muscles tightened as the man stepped up on the dock. He heard Libby’s swift intake of breath as she realized they were challenging his threat.
The man advanced another two steps down the dock. Libby knew Tony was going to have to shoot him. Her sensibilities fought against her sense of survival. She didn’t want him to shoot anyone, yet she knew it would make the difference between life and death for them. She closed her eyes as Tony’s gun exploded. She heard the agonized cry of the man and opened her eyes to see him grabbing his leg, blood spilling over his fingertips.
With the groans of a wild, hurt animal, he pulled himself off the dock and back up the bank. Once there, two more men ran out of the woods and helped the wounded man back to the safety of the brush. Hawk signaled and another man took his place at the end of the dock.
“Son of a bitch,” Tony hissed as the second man took two steps toward where he and Libby were hidden behind the gas pumps. “He’s going to sacrifice his men until I’m out of bullets,” Tony said, a sense of despair washing over him. How could they win against someone who would consciously allow his men to be shot like sitting ducks, killed for the sake of forcing Tony to use all his bullets? The man had no soul.
“What…what are we going to do?” Libby tried to keep the fear out of her trembling voice.
“The first thing I’m going to do is this—” He raised his gun and shot the second man, hitting him in the shoulder. As the man fell to the dock in an agony of wails and cries, Tony grabbed the bottom of his T-shirt and with a vicious yank, he tore half the bottom off.
“What…what are you doing?” she gasped, staring at him incredulously.
“Wait a minute,” he muttered, pulling his cigarette lighter from his pocket. She watched silently as he took the material and stuffed it into the nozzle of the gas pump.
He turned and looked at her, his eyes so black it was impossible to discern the pupil from the iris. “When I tell you to jump, I want you to run and jump off the dock and swim like hell for the opposite shore.”
“No.” She stared at him with widened eyes. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to blow this dock to kingdom come,” he said tersely. “If you can get to the other shore, you should be safe there until Cliff gets here.”
“But…but what about you?” She stared at him painfully. “Tony, isn’t there some other way?”
He reached out and touched her face softly. “Libby, I’ve got three bullets left, and those guys are just going to send out three more men for me to shoot, then they’ll be down here for us. This is our only chance. The necklace is what’s important. You’ve got to swim for your life.”
“But, Tony, I don’t want to leave you….” She heard a slight edge of hysteria in her own voice.
“Libby, when I say jump, damn it, you jump and you swim,” he exploded angrily, turning his attention to the men on the shore. They had managed to remove the second injured man from the edge of the dock.
“Mr. Pandolinni, must we continue to waste more of my men before you come to your senses and surrender?” Hawk yelled. “I must admit, I am losing patience.”
“Get ready,” Tony said to Libby, lighting the edge of the material that hung out of the gas nozzle. As the material began to flame, Tony stood up and fired the last of his bullets. “Now,” he yelled.
In one quick movement, Libby ran and dove off the end of the dock, the shock of the icy-cold lake water stealing her breath away. She swam for some distance beneath the water, then broke the surface with a gasp for breath. Immediately, there was a loud explosion behind her. A wave of heat hit her as scattering debris plopped in the water around her. In horror she turned around to look at the dock. The place where she and Tony had been hiding was in flames. There was no sign of the two gas pumps, and no sign of Tony.
“Tony?” The name was a mere whisper on her lips as she tread water and stared at the place where he had been when she had last seen him. Had he jumped in time? Had he managed to get away before the explosion?
She stared at the dark water between her and the dock, waiting breathlessly for his dark head to pop up out of the water, watching anxiously for some sign that he had made it and was alive. Seconds passed…minutes…too long for anyone to hold their breath beneath the surface of the water.
“Tony.” This time his name tore from her throat as a wave of agony washed over her. He couldn’t be gone. He couldn’t be. A sob caught in her throat. Still, there was no sign of him anywhere. She sobbed again and turned around. The opposite shore looked distant, too far for her to reach. “But you have to,” she gasped aloud, knowing that if she didn’t make it to the other shore and wait for Cliff and the proper authorities, then all of this had been for nothing.
She squeezed her eyes tightly closed for a moment, fighting against the desire just to give up and sink to the bottom of the lake. She touched the necklace that hung heavily around her neck, then began to swim for the opposite shoreline.
She’d gone only a few yards when one of her legs was grasped in a viselike grip. As she screamed, her head plunged beneath the surface of the water. She kicked out and surfaced, coughing and choking on the mouthful of water she’d swallowed. She shoved her hair off her face and opened her eyes to find herself staring into the cold, colorless eyes of the albino.
“You’re mine, bitch,” he snarled, reaching out to grab her once again.
