Black Jack Point by Jeff Abbott Read Free Book Online Page B

was still there. He picked up the whiskey and noticed, for the first time,
     the tag entwined with a thin gold ribbon along the bottle’s neck. Handwritten.
To celebrate days of old. Stoney.
    Whit tucked the bottle back into the bar. Seeing Suzanne Gilbert wasn’t going to be pleasant now, and he decided he might
     as well get it over with.
    I love you,
Lucy had said. He felt a little shiver of happiness, of nervousness, of new possibility opening before him.
    Lucy stood in the doorway. Pale again, the flush from their kiss gone. ‘The sheriff’s office called while I was getting off
     the phone with one of Patch’s army buddies. They want me to come in. For questioning.’

9
    The kidnappers slipped over Claudia’s eyes a blindfold, heavy chamois cloth, reeking of boat polish. Hands clamped on her
     arms and yanked her to her feet, steered her belowdecks. She heard Ben stumbling, gasping next to her.
    The air in the cabin lay hot and still against her skin. Hands pushed her to the main salon’s carpet. They tied Claudia’s
     hands in front of her, the rope laced down to her feet and bound again. The knots were thick as doughnuts. She heard Ben’s
     wet breathing, like that of a tired, heavy dog.
    ‘You’re going to be so busted,’ Ben said.
    ‘Doubtful,’ Danny answered, a decided coldness in his voice that hadn’t been there when he spoke to Claudia. She heard him
     pacing back and forth near their heads, perhaps inspecting them like prize tarpon.
    ‘Where’s the journal?’ Danny asked. ‘Where’s the emerald?’
    ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Ben said.
    ‘Let me cut the bitch,’ Gar said, his mouth close to Claudia’s ear. ‘Maybe an inch at a time, start with the ring finger.’
    ‘Why don’t you just calm down?’ Danny said, tension edging his voice. ‘We’re not at that stage quite yet. Search the boat.’
    They ransacked
Jupiter.
Cabinets torn open, leather cushions ripped, mattresses gutted. This went on for at least a half hour, the boat searched
     from stem to stern.
    Claudia pegged their positions from their voices. She had already labeled them: Danny, Redhead (a throaty, giggling tenor),and Gar (a low baritone.) She heard fabric rustle as one of the men dropped to his knees between her and Ben. Then fingertips,
     gentle, against her shoulder.
    ‘The wrong place. The wrong time.’ Danny touched her gently. ‘I want to be a better person than that. Truly. I’m sorry for
     you, miss …’
    ‘Leave her alone, asshole! You touch her I’ll kill you!’ Ben screamed.
    ‘Shut up, brother. I’m not like some people I could name who slaughter the innocent. We are gentlemen here, aren’t we?’
    His partners made no answer. Lips smacked to her left, juicy-kissy, and the taste of copper tinged her mouth.
    ‘Listen, we’ll be expected back within a couple of hours,’ Ben said. ‘We go missing, my brother will have the coast guard
     looking for us. They’ll hunt you down.’
    ‘Texas is a long swim away. Let me tell you what you’re going to do,’ Redhead said. His voice held the hard brightness of
     a game show host. ‘You’re going to get onto the lovely, fancy onboard phone system here, call your brother. He wants to see
     you again, he’s going to transfer five million dollars into a series of offshore numbered accounts. In the Cayman Islands.
     The Bahamas. Anguilla. When all that’s done, we’re going to let you and your girl go home to your families. Sound good?’ He
     laughed.
    ‘You’re fucking nuts,’ Ben said.
    ‘Five million’s not a lot to him,’ Danny said. ‘We could get greedy. Take all of it.’
    ‘Kill you if we wanted,’ Gar said.
    ‘Don’t be rude,’ Danny said.
    ‘Stoney doesn’t have a liquid five million just hanging around. Hell, it’s in stocks, funds, real estate.’
    ‘It’s happening, baby,
hap-pa-NING!
The redhead, giddy with putting the screws to people.
    ‘Ben,’ Danny said. ‘It’s easy. I want three