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Back Deception Cove Save as PDF
Chapters (78)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Prologue
  7. One
  8. Two
  9. Three
  10. Four
  11. Five
  12. Six
  13. Seven
  14. Eight
  15. Nine
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Twelve
  19. Thirteen
  20. Fourteen
  21. Fifteen
  22. Sixteen
  23. Seventeen
  24. Eighteen
  25. Nineteen
  26. Twenty
  27. Twenty-One
  28. Twenty-Two
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. Thirty-Nine
  46. Forty
  47. Forty-One
  48. Forty-Two
  49. Forty-Three
  50. Forty-Four
  51. Forty-Five
  52. Forty-Six
  53. Forty-Seven
  54. Forty-Eight
  55. Forty-Nine
  56. Fifty
  57. Fifty-One
  58. Fifty-Two
  59. Fifty-Three
  60. Fifty-Four
  61. Fifty-Five
  62. Fifty-Six
  63. Fifty-Seven
  64. Fifty-Eight
  65. Fifty-Nine
  66. Sixty
  67. Sixty-One
  68. Sixty-Two
  69. Sixty-Three
  70. Sixty-Four
  71. Sixty-Five
  72. Sixty-Six
  73. Sixty-Seven
  74. Sixty-Eight
  75. Acknowledgments
  76. Discover More
  77. About the Author
  78. Also by Owen Laukkanen

“I don’t need much,” he said.

“I’m glad to hear it,” she replied. “Because we don’t have much. Get a couple hours in you, and then we’ll rig up the dinghy and go looking for trouble.”

She disappeared belowdecks again, and Mason watched her go, listened to her move around the fo’c’sle of the boat. Then he turned his attention to the galley table, managed to get the legs off, turn it into a bed. He spread the cushions over the hard surface, saved a cushion for his head, climbed aboard and lay there and stared up at the ceiling. It was a funny feeling, lying there, the boat rocking gently on the water, the sun outside and nothing but nature all around him. He couldn’t hear Jess anymore, figured she’d fallen asleep.

He stared out the window, at the thin patch of trees to the west, the blue sky and open sea beyond, the treetops swaying with a wind that didn’t make it down into the lagoon. He thought about Kirby Harwood and the other men with him, thought about Shelby Walker and the gunshots he’d heard from inside that house. He and Jess had probably bought themselves some time, heading out in the boat, but now that it was daylight, Kirby and his buddies were going to find the Suburban at the pier and notice the boat missing, and they weren’t so stupid as to miss what that meant.

Mason thought about this, and he thought about the strange man with Harwood. He thought about what came next, and what remained to be done before this whole miserable saga was over.

He lay there and stared up at the ceiling and thought about it, and after a while he stood and went out to the afterdeck and came back inside with Jess’s shotgun. He laid the shotgun down on the bed beside him and closed his eyes, and slept for a while.

Forty-Four

Forty-Four

Jess couldn’t sleep.

Not down here, in the tiny fo’c’sle of the boat, two bunks angled along the curve of the hull to the point of the bow. Not with the waves lapping in her ears, the anchor chain groaning. Not here, where everything smelled like Ty.

It was dark and the air was still; there was nothing to do but lie alone and think, nobody to chase and nobody to run from, no one to shoot and no car to drive. No plan to refine, even; they would take the dinghy ashore, and they would search for the package. And if Kirby and his buddies showed up, she and Burke would deal with that. There was no sense worrying about it now. They would handle Kirby when Kirby needed handling.