“If I have to,” Abercrombie retorted, then glared at Raquelle. “Your sister will be the first to take a bullet if you fail to cooperate, Eddie. I have no qualms about killing her, trust me.”
“Just let her go,” Eddie pleaded with him. “It’s me that you want—and here I am.”
“Yeah, here you are.” Abercrombie regarded him with contempt. “Unfortunately, you don’t get to call the shots. We’re all going to leave the marina together. Once we get where we’re going and you give us what we want, only then can your sister—Professor Jernigan—walk away…” He shot her a cold stare. “The choice is yours, Eddie…”
Raquelle was under no illusion that Abercrombie had any intention of letting her—much less, Eddie—come out of this alive to talk about it. As she was now a victim of their abduction and witness to Abercrombie’s plans to murder her brother, there was no way Ivan Pimentel’s enforcer would ever leave her to implicate them in Eddie’s murder.
I have to try and buy some time, Raquelle told herself as she glanced at her brother, who had been put in an almost impossible situation that she was at least partially responsible for.
She fixed Abercrombie’s face and asked pointblank, “How did you find us anyway? Was it the GPS tracker that Fred Davenport—your hired assassin—put on my car…?” She watched as Abercrombie reacted with surprise as to her knowledge of this, thanks to Landon.
“You know about that, huh?” Abercrombie made no attempts to deny this. “Since it makes no difference at this stage—yeah, I took ownership of the tracking device in hoping to locate your brother—once Davenport’s services were no longer needed.”
“So, it was you who killed him with his own gun while trying to make it look like Fred Davenport died from a self-inflicted shot to the head?” Raquelle pressed and thought,Keep him talking.
Abercrombie laughed. “Guess the cat’s out of the bagnow—thanks to Agent Briscoe and his ties to both of you.” He kept the gun aimed at them. “Davenport’s repeated failures to do what he was paid to do—starting with taking out a stoolie by blowing up his boat—left me with no choice but to remove Fred from the picture—permanently. Now, enough of this chit-chat. Let’s go…”
As they proceeded down the walkway, Eddie was clearly hoping to find a way out of this. He said brusquely to their abductor, “Killing me—us—won’t change anything. The deed is already done. The FBI has more than enough to put you, Ivan, and others involved in art theft and forgery away for a long time. You’d be smart to just give yourself up.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Abercrombie chuckled wryly. “Not going to happen. The way I see it—and Ivan feels the same way—without your testimony, the case falls apart and we walk. Not too complicated.”
It’s complicated enough, given the multiple dead bodies they would leave in their wake, Raquelle thought, herself included among the casualties. She mused about the Witness Security Program possibility that had been mentioned for Eddie as a means to escape being prevented from ever testifying. Of course, it would never come to pass should Abercrombie get his wish to take her brother’s life beforehand.
“You’ll never get away with this!” Raquelle snorted at the man with the gun, wondering what move she should try to break his concentration should all else fail. She suspected Eddie was contemplating this as well, knowing that once they left the marina there would be no turning back for either of them.
Abercrombie replied confidently, “Watch me!”
She took that for what it was worth and, at the same time, caught some movement around the marina—people swiftly going this way and that—clearly indicating something was up. This clued Raquelle in on the assumption that law enforcement was on the scene—now catching sight of Landon, in particular—and determined to stop Abercrombie from carrying out his murderous plans.
* * *
LANDON SPOTTEDRAQUELLEand Eddie as they were being led by Yusef Abercrombie at gunpoint across the dock. Obviously operating on behalf of Ivan Pimentel, Abercrombie intended to kill both Eddie—as an FBI CHS with damaging intel on their criminal enterprise—and Raquelle, who could identify Abercrombie.
I’m not going to let that happen, Landon told himself. Raquelle wasn’t going to finally be reunited with her brother, only for the two of them to end up murdered.
Not to mention Landon had other plans for his ex-wife that required that they both lead a very long life—with a family thrown into the joyful mix for good measure. No one would take that away from them. Least of all the man who murdered Fred Davenport after the bomber of Eddie’s boat was unable to complete the assignment that would have ended Eddie’s life.
Landon scanned the marina, where he saw FBI snipers positioned with Rock River Arms LAR-15 assault rifles and ready to take out Abercrombie on orders to do so. Meanwhile, Katie and Zach were in the process of bringing in Pimentel for his various crimes of art theft and forging Native American art as well as orchestrating the plot to murder Eddie—on at least three different occasions—and Raquelle.
Having evacuated the marina or issued shelter-in-place orders for as many as possible under short notice, it was time to move in on Abercrombie. Landon could only hope that this ended without Raquelle or Eddie getting hurt.
With his own weapon drawn, Landon waited as the trio moved down the walkway. He then blurted out, “Yusef Abercrombie, I have a warrant for your arrest. Drop the weapon and put your hands up.”
Instead of doing that, Abercrombie suddenly grabbed Raquelle around her neck and put the barrel of his gun up to her temple and said defiantly, “No can do, Agent Briscoe. You and the other agents are going to let the three of us leave here. If anyone tries to stop us, your ex-wife’s brains will be splattered onto your CI’s face, and that’ll be on you—”
Eddie tried to intervene. “Leave her alone, Yusef. I’ll take Raquelle’s place, and you can do what you and Ivan have been planning to do all along.”
Abercrombie kept the gun on Raquelle and said, “Nice try, but something tells me I’m much better off at the moment with her than you—no offense.” He glared at Landon. “What’s it going to be, Agent Briscoe—deal or no deal…?”
Landon had no intention of risking Raquelle’s life by taking one good shot at Abercrombie, no matter if he hit the mark. The downside was far too great. On the other hand, from another vantage point, Matthew Ricci, a forty-five-year-old experienced sharpshooter for the FBI SWAT team was wholly reliable in eliminating the threat, if need be.
Just as Landon was about to give the go-ahead to take out Abercrombie, Eddie suddenly lunged toward him.This caught Abercrombie off guard, and he pointed the weapon at Eddie. Raquelle got in on the action when she slammed a solid fist in Abercrombie’s right eye.
He screamed in agony and while he was trying to decide who to shoot, Ricci beat him to the punch—firing a single shot that was deadly accurate—hitting Abercrombie squarely in the forehead. The suspect went down like a failed rocket after its launch, dead on arrival. The gun separated from Abercrombie’s grasp, landing harmlessly next to him.
Only then did Landon rush over to them, putting his own gun back inside the holster. He regarded his CI and said, “Good to see you again, Eddie.”
Looking a bit frazzled but clearly counting his blessings, Eddie responded tentatively, “Yeah, you too.”
