He walked to the rail and looked out on the sea, then down at the lower terrace where Little Jorge and Stick were laughing and drinking beer. They were grilling steaks beside the infinity pool with some reggae music bopping out of a speaker beside the grill.

“There you are,” Ruby said, coming out onto the deck behind him.

“How do I look?” she said, showing him her new long-sleeved T-shirt and capri pants.

“Are these sneakers okay for a boat?” she said, showing off her pink Converse low tops. “I never went deep-sea fishing at night. Or actually during the day either, to be honest.”

“You look marvelous, Lieutenant,” Gannon said. “Especially the sneakers.”

“How’s your son? You called him, right?”

“He’s doing fine,” Gannon said. “The Brewers turned him down, but he got another tryout with the Mets in Port St. Lucie. Fingers crossed.”

“That’s awesome,” Ruby said, holding up her crossed fingers on both hands. “The Messerly information drop just happened, by the way.”

“He’s back on his feet?” Gannon said.

“Uh-huh. It happened half an hour ago. The internet is going insane. It’s all unredacted. Thousands and thousands of pages. Emails. Videos. Swiss bank account numbers. These intel people must be beside themselves.”

“Intel people?” Gannon said. “Global mafia, you mean. Enough of those fools. Time to head to the dock. You ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Ruby said.

“Good,” Gannon said, walking over to the steel bucket by the door he’d already filled with ice and beer. “Grab the other end of this, would you?”

“Come on, guys. Time to catch us some fish,” Gannon said excitedly as they came out on the lower deck by the pool.

“Actually, Mick, we’re calling a mutiny,” Stick said. “After a few more cervezas, me and little Jorge here are heading down to a club nearby. He’s going to introduce me to some las chicas bonitas he knows.”

“Las what?” Gannon cried. “The blues are biting, Stick. The blues! And Little Jorge. How could you? You’re going to let me and Ruby here go out on that fine vessel we rented without a first mate?”

They heard the honk of their taxi sound as Little Jorge sat there giggling.

“It’s okay, Mike,” Ruby said. “I think we’ll be okay by ourselves.”

“Just you and me?” Gannon said, squinting at her.

Ruby looked up at the stars that were just now starting to show themselves in the darkening sky.

“Just you and me,” Ruby finally said with a nod. “I think we’ll be just fine.”

Keep reading for a sneak peek at the next installment in Michael Ledwidge’s pulse-pounding Gannon series!

RUN FOR COVER

PROLOGUE

MOUNTAIN RETREAT

1

When they turned the vehicle in off the blacktop at the trailhead, all the land still lay in shadow, and the coming sun was just a faint ribbon of paleness in the dark of the open sky.

With its big all-terrain tires, the Tahoe made steady progress at first. But as the grade of the slope increased, even at a crawl, it began to buck and spin and bottom out off the deep pits in the trail-like dirt road.