His Captivating Confidante (Secret Sentinels) (20 page)

With no other option but to comply, they relinquished their guns.

“Very good, ladies. Now move ahead of me, and walk to the lighthouse. I’ll be right behind you, so don’t even think of trying anything. If you do, I’ll ensure your friend never wakes up.”

Grabbing hold of Damon’s unconscious form, Henderson herded the women into a tiny room at the back of the lighthouse, then dragged Damon in behind them.

“The good news is that now you know where the bomb is located,” Henderson taunted. “I didn’t place it in a building in the city, I set it right here, in the lantern room. And as tempting as it is to shoot you all—right now—I rather like the thought of you going out with a different sort of bang.”

“There is no bomb. You’re bluffing!” Vanessa exclaimed.

“Oh, there most certainly is a bomb,” he countered. “It’s set to detonate in twenty minutes. When it does go off, I’ll have the jump drive in my possession and I’ll be on my way back to Manhattan. I knew Frank wouldn’t come alone. This way, there are no loose ends to tie up.”

“Since you’re going to eliminate us anyways, you might as well tell us what’s on that drive that’s worth killing for,” Stephanie demanded, her eyes shooting daggers at him.

“I would have thought that was obvious. I’m going to take over Lawrence Mendacci’s business. The empire he built will be mine. Now tie those two up,” he barked at Stephanie, throwing a length of rope at her while keeping his gun trained on them.

As she tied Damon’s and Vanessa’s wrists, Stephanie left as much leeway with the knots as she thought she could get away with, hoping it would be enough to buy them a chance of escape.

“Tighter!” Henderson snarled at her, lifting a booted foot and kicking Damon in the side.

Damon moaned and stirred.

Stephanie and Vanessa exchanged worried glances.
But at least Damon was still alive.

“I’m so very disappointed in you, Damon,” Henderson chided. “I thought you had such potential. Imagine my disappointment to learn you were one of the good guys.”

Stephanie watched as Henderson double-checked the knots she’d fastened. When he was satisfied they were snug enough, he turned his attention back to her. “Now you and I are going for a little stroll.”

Though she’d hoped she’d have a chance to overtake Henderson if he broke focus for a second, he kept his gun trained steadily on her as they walked down to the beach where Frank was waiting.

“Stephanie!” Frank shouted when he spotted her walking toward him with Henderson. Before she could process what was happening Frank charged at Henderson, wrestling the man’s gun hand away from her direction and tackling him to the ground.

The two men wrestled furiously in a no-holds-barred power play, the gun between them. There was no way she could intervene without putting Frank in more danger.

The report of a gunshot rang through the air, and her heart plummeted to her toes. Terrified for Frank, she crumpled in relief when she registered the sight of Henderson lying motionless on the ground. Her relief was short-lived, however, when she saw a crimson stain spreading across Frank’s shirt.

She raced to him, sobbing.

Frank took her in his arms, hugging her tightly. “Hey. It’s okay,” he soothed gently. “I’m fine. I just reopened my shoulder wound in the struggle.”

“Thank God you’re okay!” she exclaimed. “You saved my life.”

“Now we’re even,” he winked, before moving to Henderson’s side to check his pulse.

“Is he dead?”

“Yeah. It’s over.”

“It’s not over quite yet, I’m afraid. Ever disarm a bomb before?”

“Once or twice. Are you saying the bomb is
here
?”

She nodded, quickly filling him in on what Henderson had told her.

“Sounds like we still have work to do,” he asserted. “Let’s go.”

When they reached the lighthouse, he turned toward the stairs leading to the lantern room. “I’ll take care of the bomb while you go and free Damon and Vanessa.

Terrified she might never see him again if things went south, she knew she had to share what was in her heart.

“I love you,” she told him, her voice shaking.

He drew her to him and hugged her tightly, his gaze filled with raw emotion. But instead of voicing the sentiment she so longed to hear him say, he handed her the gun he’d retrieved from Henderson. “Take this, just in case. I’ll meet you back here in five.”

Pushing aside her disappointment, she managed a half-hearted smile. “Be careful,” she urged.

He nodded, flashing a thumbs up as he headed for the stairs leading up to the lantern room. Ignoring the throbbing in her ankle and the pangs in her heart, Stephanie hurried to find Damon and Vanessa.

She was halfway across the hall when the sound of voices filtered down to her, freezing her in her tracks. Frank was talking to a woman.

It hit her then that Henderson hadn’t come alone after all. Pamela was here, too!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

“Not so fast, handsome.”

Frank paused on his way up the stairs as a woman he knew but no longer recognized stepped out in front of him, blocking his way.

“Pamela,” he spat out, his lip curling in disgust.

Her face fell in disappointment. “You recognized me. I didn’t think you would. I guess the plastic surgery wasn’t as dramatic a change as I thought it was. What gave me away, sweetheart?”

“You may have changed your features, but the birthmark on your arm is as distinctive as a fingerprint.”

“Clever, darling. I didn’t realize you’d paid such close attention. Regardless, I rather like my new look, don’t you?”

When he didn’t reply she jabbered on, unfazed. “As you’ve no doubt figured out, the shooting at the warehouse was staged. It’s amazing what you can do with a bulletproof vest, a rubber bullet, and a few gel packs filled with fake blood. The fire ensured there was no evidence was left behind. We simply substituted an unfortunate transient who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time to fill in as my remains.”

Her mouth pursed in a moue as she nodded at the blood soaking his shirt, “I see your shoulder wound has reopened. I’m so sorry about that, darling. When I shot you, I only meant to graze you. I wasn’t expecting there’d be another gunman there. It threw me off, and I miscalculated.”

Anger coursed through Frank’s blood like venom as he struggled to quell the fury her words ignited. But he needed to keep a cool head if he was going to extricate Stephanie, Vanessa, and Damon from this mess. He decided the best course of action was to keep her talking.

“You let me believe you’d died and you allowed me to be tortured to within an inch of my life. Why bother to set up such an elaborate ruse, when you could have simply eliminated me?”

“Ivan was convinced you had the jump drive,” she shrugged. “He didn’t believe me when I told him the stolen computers were trashed before you got to them and that you didn’t have the drive. He wanted proof.”

“And after?”

“While he wasn’t pleased you escaped the blaze at the warehouse, he decided you might not have the drive, after all, when you didn’t give up any information after his men staged my death. Your father put in a good word for you, and Ivan decided taking care of you wasn’t worth the risk. That all changed, of course, when he found out you were nosing around again even after our boss ordered you to drop your investigation. Ivan had you followed, and he was going to remove you from the picture permanently until he became convinced you really did have the jump drive.

“You should have let it drop, Frank. I didn’t want it to come to this. I really did like you, and I’m touched that you cared enough about me to want to avenge me. That was sweet of you. You always were idealistic and soft-hearted, though. Too bad you’ve left me with no choice but to deal with you on a more permanent basis.”

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Listening in undetected from her hiding spot around the corner, Stephanie knew she had to make her move.

She held the gun she’d retrieved from Henderson in her hand, and in one fluid motion she stepped out and trained it on Frank’s former partner.

“Drop your weapon!” she shouted.

Pamela’s head swiveled toward her, but she didn’t take her 9-millimeter off Frank. “I don’t think so, sweetheart. Drop your gun, or he dies.”

The derision blazing from the woman’s eyes would have a lesser woman trembling in her Louis Vuitton stilettos, but Stephanie wasn’t that woman. She held her ground.

“I said put the gun down,” Pamela intoned dangerously.

Stephanie saw Frank shake his head slightly, such a tiny move she wondered if she’d imagined it. Her gaze bounced between Pamela and Frank. If she miscalculated by even a tenth of a millimeter, her bullet would certainly strike him. And even if the round hit her intended target, there was the risk that Pamela’s gun would discharge in the firefight and hit Frank anyway. She’d been afraid for him before, but never as afraid as she was at that moment.

His almost imperceptible nod told her he had a plan. The look he sent her, in that moment, telegraphed his confidence in her. He wanted her to take the shot.

Her finger tightened on the trigger, the thud of her heart pounding in her ears. A second later, Frank made his move. Striking out with his leg in a razor-quick motion, he knocked Pamela off balance and away from him. Heart in her throat, Stephanie squeezed the trigger.

“Good job, Kitten,” Frank told her, racing to her side. “It looks as if I owe you again.” And then he turned to Pamela’s unmoving form. “She’s dead,” he told her.

“When I took that shot, I was so terrified something would go wrong. If I’d hurt you . . .” she faltered, her voice breaking.

He hugged her tightly with his good arm. “Hey, it’s okay. I had complete and utter confidence that you wouldn’t miss. Now go get Damon and Vanessa, and I’ll disarm the bomb.”

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

After Frank successfully defused the bomb, the next few hours passed in a blur of activity. Damon phoned his team to apprise them of the situation, and they descended on the scene. Medics tended to Frank’s shoulder, Damon’s head, and Stephanie’s ankle.

Once they’d given their statements to the authorities, Frank and Stephanie returned to their guesthouse.

Frank unlocked the door, pushing it open.

Beside him, he heard Stephanie draw in a surprised breath at the scene that greeted her. Candles were scattered around the living area, casting a soft, romantic glow. Delicious smells emanated from the dining room.

“What’s all this?” she asked in amazement.

“We’re celebrating. I got Damon’s permission to call his chef and request that he prepare a special meal for us.”

“Well, we definitely have cause for celebration. I’m so relieved my father’s name will be cleared. I have
you
to thank for that. I can’t tell you how very grateful I am.”

He waved a hand in dismissal, brushing off her effusive praise. “You were as much a part of vindicating your dad as I was. We did this together.”

“It’s too bad we weren’t able to bring Henderson in alive. He might have led us to Mendacci.”

“We’ll still get Mendacci. The jump drive is the key to luring him out into the open. Once Vanessa deciphers Chase’s message, we’ll retrieve the drive. And when we do, I have a feeling Mendacci will come to
us
. Now sit down and put that ankle up. It’s puffed up like a balloon, and you should be resting.”

“Are you coddling me again, Mr. Ireland?”

He hugged her to him, kissing her deeply. “Maybe a little. Humor me, okay?”

Stephanie sat down on the sofa and he joined her, drawing her into his embrace again. In that moment, Frank knew with stunning clarity that he held his future in his arms. A future he didn’t want to miss out on. A future he couldn’t let slip away from him.

“I’m also hoping we’ll have another reason to celebrate tonight,” he told her. “I’ve been giving a lot of thought to our relationship, and I’m wondering if you would consider being a part of my life as more than just a friend on a more permanent basis.”

Her face clouded, the look in her eyes wary, and his heart seized in his chest.

“I’m sorry, Frank,” she told him, shaking her head sadly. “I thought I could do this, but I was wrong. Eventually a fling won’t be enough. I’ll want more.”

Faced with the possibility that she might walk away from him, Frank’s entire world ground to a halt. There was no way he could lose her. She was his sunshine, the very air he breathed, his
everything
. He wanted to hold on to the woman who’d snuck into his heart. He needed to walk through life with his captivating confidante at his side. Since he obviously was doing a lousy job of communicating his intentions, he tried again.

“I’m not talking about a temporary fling, Kitten. I was scared of my feelings for you, but I’ve realized by running from them I’ve been cheating us both. Our friendship is special, but what I feel for you is even bigger than that. I want more, too. I want forever.”

She stared at him, the stunned expression on her face telling him she had no idea that she held his heart in the palm of her hand.

But then, how could she know when he’d never given voice to his feelings?

He decided to put them both out of their misery and spell it out for her.

“I love you, Kitten. I didn’t intend to fall for you, but I can’t pretend I haven’t. I can’t imagine my life without you in it. I was selfish and shortsighted. Tell me it’s not too late to build a future with you.”

Her face lit up with a smile of pure joy. “Oh, Frank! How could it possibly be too late? I’m crazy about you, and you’re the only man I want to share my life with.”

The love infusing her reply gave him the courage to go on. Dropping to one knee in front of her, he took her hand and held it to his heart. Pulling a ring box out of his blazer pocket with his free hand, he opened the lid to reveal a stunning emerald-cut diamond, flashing brilliantly.

A myriad of emotions flashed across her beautiful face as she squeezed his hand—shock, elation, and the one that kicked him in the gut the hardest.
Hope
.

“I was a fool not to realize what I feel for you is far more than friendship,” he told her tenderly. “You’re my best friend, but you’re so much more than that. You’re everything that matters to me, all wrapped up in one sexy and amazing package. My heart belongs to you, Stephanie Knight, and I don’t want to spend another second of my life without you. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Will you share a lifetime with me? I promise I’ll make every moment of it special.”