Chapters (78)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
- Sixty-Seven
- Sixty-Eight
- Acknowledgments
- Discover More
- About the Author
- Also by Owen Laukkanen
“Yeah, we’re going to wait,” she said. “They’re going to regroup and come back in a boat, and they’re going to try to kill us for that heroin, and I’m going to try to kill them all first. No civilians to get caught in the crossfire, no police to break it up. Just me against Harwood and his friends, and then that’ll be the end of it.”
He stared at her. “We could just leave the heroin out for them,” he said. “Let them take the package and they’ll leave us alone. Hell, Hank Moss knows we’re out here. He’ll—”
“We’re not getting rescued,” Jess said. “You need to understand that right now, Burke. We’re not getting rescued, and we’re not leaving them the package and hoping for a truce. That’s not how this works.”
She started through the forest again, hollering for the dog. Mason kept pace. “You want to think this thing over,” he said. “That was a grenade launcher they just pulled out back there. These guys—”
“Aren’t fucking marines,” Jess said. “End of discussion.”
She sped up a bit, called “Lucy” again. Came up around another rock face to where the forest cleared out, and the dogleg at the pass spread out beneath them. A ways down the rocks Mason could see the end of the pass, and the open ocean stretching back east toward Deception Cove. But Jess wasn’t looking that far. At the edge of the rocks, hemmed in between the forest and the edge of the cliff, Lucy stood, cowering, tail between her legs, looking for all the world like she was just about convinced she’d be better off jumping.
“Lucy.” Jess hurried over, wrapped her arms around the dog, who wagged her tail, once, and gave Jess’s face a cursory sniff. “I’m sorry, girl. Those assholes are going to pay for it, I promise.”
The dog looked about as unconvinced as Mason felt inside, and all the hugging in the world wasn’t going to change that—for Lucy or for Mason.
But shit, neither one of them was about to tell Jess.
* * *
It was a bad situation, but it wasn’t the worst.
If Jess knew Kirby Harwood like she thought she did, there wasn’t a chance in hell he would try an assault on the island before high slack water. That meant he would come either tonight after dark or tomorrow morning. Jess expected Kirby wasn’t fool enough to try to run the pass at night. His friend with the fancy toys was a wild card, but anything other than high slack in the daylight would probably mean disaster for the deputies, and Jess figured she was better off preparing to fend off an attack than expecting to watch Kirby drown in the channel.