The Water Keeper(97)

I ran up the lit walkway where Angel lay fighting against zip ties that bound her hands and ankles. She had pulled off her blindfold, but that did little to help her recognize me in the darkness. I tried to cut her bands and she kicked me in the face. I rolled onto the man who was screaming and bleeding beneath me. When I climbed off him, I got a good look at his face. Only then did I realize he wasn’t the driver of the demon boat.

I started to ask myself where he could be when he spoke behind me. “Figures.”

I turned slowly. He stood like a cat. Holding a knife. I waved my hand across the island. “Pickup only.”

He smiled but said nothing.

I pointed at the lighthouse. “I bet if I open that door, I’ll find ten girls just like this one.”

He smiled again. But there was no humor in it.

Given my condition and the fact that he was faster than me, I had a pretty good idea I couldn’t beat him in a fight. So I tried to appeal to his greedy side. “You’re a businessman. What if I offer you more money?”

He paused. His accent surfaced when he spoke. European. “You can’t afford them.”

“I might surprise you.”

“What will you pay?”

I paused. I figured we were finished talking about money. “Whatever it costs.”

He understood. “I gave my word.”

“An honorable thief.”

Another smile. “Thief, yes. Honorable, not so much.” He pointed at me. “I’ve heard of you.” He motioned toward his back. “You’re the guy with the names.”

I nodded.

“You’ve cost us some money.” He waved the knife at me. Circling. “Why you do that?”

“Because I know what it is to love someone and lose them.” I paused for effect. “’Course, a maggot like you wouldn’t understand that.”

He shook his head and laughed, his eyes flashing red. “Flesh. A place to put something. That’s all.” He switched the knife to his other hand. “We have a nickname for you.”

“Yeah?”

“Mercury.”

Mercury was the fabled messenger of the gods, sent to rescue prisoners from Hades. “Fitting.”

He smiled again. Mirthless.

He was older than me but faster. And given the holes in my shoulder and leg, plus what was probably a broken rib, he was currently stronger. The most I could hope for was to slow him down. Hope I got lucky. He crossed the distance between us in a blur and rolled head over heels. I reached but he was gone. Before I could turn, he stabbed that knife into my thigh. The searing heat and pain brought my attention to the fact that he was on top of me. His hands were paws and his forehead a sledgehammer. His grip crushed down on my esophagus.

I struggled but I was played out. He was too much. I made one last attempt but he blocked it. As if he could read my mind. He knew what he was doing. As the walls closed in, he leaned in, laughing. The vessels of his eyes were red and bulging. He rammed a fist into the hole in my shoulder that Summer had just sewn shut and sent a pain-train to my brain.

Next to me, Angel screamed, kicked at him, and pounded his back with her fist. He swung a powerful arm and sent her rolling. Watching my world come to an end, I felt an odd calm rain down over me. I tried to pry his hand off me, but it was no use. It was a vise. Just before the world went dark, a shadow passed through the air behind him. A snarling, growling, angry shadow. The man screamed, let go of me, and turned his attention to the thing that was threatening to rip off his leg.

Having escaped Summer’s grasp, three-legged Gunner had run across the beach, up the sidewalk, and launched himself at my executioner. He landed on the man’s back and sank his teeth into his hamstring. The man immediately let go of me and swung violently with his knife, catching Gunner in the same shoulder where the bullet had entered. The dog whined, winced, rolled, and didn’t move while blood poured from his shoulder and mouth.

The man rose, glanced at the steady stream of blood draining out of the back of his leg, and took one step toward me with his knife before a boat paddle crashed down across his head. The paddle snapped and he staggered, turning his attention to Summer, who stood holding what was left of the paddle.

The man took a swipe at Summer but she dodged it, distracting him just long enough for me to climb to my feet. I sent one fist down through the man’s face, feeling something break. But I knew I couldn’t manage a second swing. If he came at me again, Summer and Angel would watch me die.

For some reason, he did not. He staggered, dropped his knife, wiped one hand across the back of his thigh, assessed his own wound, and then stared at me. Spitting, he smiled and said one word: “Ellie.” Then he began shuffling toward his boat. Unable to chase, the three of us watched him leave.

When he reached the end of the dock, he threw the lines off the seaplane, climbed inside, cranked the engine, and throttled into the wind. When he’d turned ninety degrees, putting the wind in his face, he revved the engine, skimmed across the face of the water, then lifted heavenward, circling eastward. In less than two minutes, he was gone from sight and sound.

While Summer sobbed and held her daughter, I stared at the end of the dock. The demon boat. I turned to Angel and directed her attention to the lighthouse. “They in there?”

She was clinging to her mom. Crying, but no sound came. She nodded and loosed the dam that held back the sound. The cry echoed out across the island. I shined my light into the base of the lighthouse and saw ten beautiful young girls, each blindfolded and zip-tied. I began lifting blindfolds. “Can you walk?” They were young. Not yet sixteen. “Come on. We’re going home.” Each nodded. With the knife from the sidewalk, I cut them loose, then knelt next to Gunner. His breathing was labored, gurgling. His heavy eyes were having trouble focusing on me. “Easy, boy.”