Not Again!

ZANE

We all split up, combing the ship from stem to stern for him. Conner kept his eyes glued to the security feeds, tracking his movements after he left our room.

Luca had taken the elevator down to the ship’s lowest deck. We watched as he stepped out into a camera-less zone.

We raced down to that part of the ship, only to find it deserted. But it did have a direct route to the sea. Far off, a speedboat was making a beeline for a massive yacht about half a mile away.

I turned to Conner, urgency in my voice. “I need that helicopter now! He’s taken her and we need to follow. She doesn’t have a tracker this time.”

“Calm down, boss. She does. The trackers were slipped into your bands when we got here. Noah handled it before giving them to you.

“We’ll know her exact location at all times.”

Eventually, the helicopter arrived. The ship had come to a standstill due to engine failure. The engines had given out right after he’d taken her.

That’s how they’d managed to get her out through the loading door and onto the boat—the ship had stopped moving. I took Noah, Conner, Forest, Brandon, and Max with me.

The rest of our men stayed on the ship, instructing the captain to inform the helicopter when the engines were fixed so we could return and salvage what was left of our trip.

“Damn him, that bastard was on the ship the whole time. He struck when he knew Max was the only one in the room with her,” I said, hitting the side of the helicopter in frustration.

Conner was furiously typing on his laptop, pulling up her tracker. We saw it in the middle of the ocean, moving with the boat.

“Don’t worry, boss, he’s not escaping us this time. The helicopter is flying high enough that he won’t spot us. As soon as they dock, we’ll get her back.”

“But what if he doesn’t dock? He’s on a yacht, they can stay at sea as long as they have fuel.” I buried my face in my hands, trying not to imagine what he might be doing to her.

“Conner, get my yacht with the helipad out here now. Tell the captain he has five minutes to get here.”

Noah pulled out his phone and made the call. He nodded and relayed our location.

The yacht’s frequency was given to the helicopter so they could communicate and we could land when the time came. We followed them for about an hour until my yacht came into view.

The pilot landed swiftly and we rushed to the bridge, urging the captain to catch up with Luca as quickly as possible.

According to the tracker, his boat was about twenty minutes ahead of us.

“This ends now. If she wasn’t on that boat, I’d blow it out of the water in a heartbeat. We’ll get close enough to board it with the speedboats.

“Forest, your job is to find her and get her back on the speedboat as quickly as possible. Max, are you up for helping me hunt this bastard down?”

“Yeah, man. They got me pretty good, but not so bad that I don’t want to kick some ass. Those guys are dead meat for what they did.”

I smiled at him as he cracked his knuckles and we set off toward the yacht. When it came into view, we all made for the speedboats.

The captain was instructed to stay a safe distance behind us, so when Forest got Shay, he could bring her straight back. The rest of those bastards were about to meet their end, Luca included.

I was sick of him spoiling our fun when we needed it most. This was his final move, and now the devil was going to finish him off for good.

We reached his yacht in no time, with two men hanging back. We threw ropes over the railing and climbed up, dropping onto the deck as quietly as possible to avoid alerting them.

As we rounded a corner, two men were standing there, their backs to us, smoking. Conner and I took them out, slitting their throats and dumping them overboard.

We moved through the ship, silently taking out men while trying to locate Luca and Shay.

I heard her crying behind a closed door. I signaled the others and we prepared to make our move.

“Come on now, Shay, it wasn’t that bad, was it?” Luca’s voice filtered through the door.

“Fuck you! Just wait until he gets here. I’ll enjoy watching you die slowly at his hands.”

“Ha! I’d love to see him try to get you out of this. I had a boat waiting for me; he had nothing that could keep up with us.

“Those cameras were so helpful, letting me watch his every move. When he left you in that room with just one person, I couldn’t believe my luck.

“He went to all that trouble to bring all those men onto the ship and he still couldn’t protect you from me.”

“How did you know we were on that ship?” she asked, her voice choked with tears.

“Please, if he thought that name would throw me off, he’s a fool. She told Mateo that she hated when Zane called her ~Mein Rosa~. It would upset her so much, she’d run to him crying about it.”

“What does that mean?” she asked through her tears.

“It means ‘my beautiful rose’ in German. Rosa was her middle name, and he would call her that, but she hated that name with a passion.”

Damn her; she said he was never told about that name. I looked at my men and we prepared to launch the attack that would end this once and for all.