Her Very Strict Captain by Carpenter, Maggie (best book club books of all time TXT) 📗

back. “I shouldn’t be here. All the odds were against me.”

* * *

Scott had been drawn to Elizabeth from the moment he’d laid eyes on her when she’d first chartered his boat. The chemistry between them had been white hot, and that hadn’t changed. But after hearing her story, his respect and admiration for her spiked off the charts.

“Come back and sit down,” he said, keeping his arm around her as they returned to the desk. “Tell me about the raid. How did you get out?”

“I’m a platform diver. Manny and I were in Conchello’s office and it has a terrace overlooking the pool.”

“Holy crap.”

“Conchello’s men had set up an ambush for the agents, and the gunfire had started. We were trapped up there. Manny was trying to shove me out the French doors when the bullets started coming in. He… he…”

“He was hit?”

“Yeah, from bullets coming through the door, and I could hear Dan screaming, though I couldn’t make out what he was saying. Scott, I was terrified, and that’s when Manny got hit a second time. His last words were, dive, Lizzy, get out while you can, then he collapsed. There were two more shots, and that’s when I dashed out to the patio and ripped off my dress,” she continued, forcing back the tears. “I climbed on top of the rail and dove off, but when I surfaced all I could feel was overwhelming guilt for leaving him.”

“Dying beside Manny would have achieved nothing, you know that.”

“Logically, but abandoning him felt wrong. We’d been through so much. We weren’t lovers,” she added quickly. “It wasn’t like that.”

“You don’t need to explain. How did you get away?”

“We’d found this rickety old gate behind some bushes at the side of the house. Jim, our handler, left a motorcycle there in case we needed to escape.”

“Thank God,” Scott muttered. “The money? Was that in the office?”

“No, that was just weird. Manny discovered the sports bag in the gym the day before. We couldn’t believe it. He wrapped the wads of cash in cling film to preserve any fingerprints and DNA, then stuffed them in the bike’s saddlebags. We just didn’t have a chance to contact Jim and let him know before the raid.”

“Wait. You said the sports bag. What did you mean by that?”

“Oh, right, sorry. Everyone knew Conchello kept a shitload of cash in a sports bag locked in his safe. He boasted about it, but I don’t know how it ended up in the gym, or why there was only a small amount of money in it. At the time we assumed someone had taken it down there and was transferring the cash into another bag, but was interrupted and had to bolt.”

“I don’t think so,” Scott said thoughtfully. “Keep going.”

“I got to the bike no problem, but I was drenched, and bear in mind, all I was wearing was my underwear. We had a safehouse about fifteen minutes from the mansion. Obviously I made it.”

“That’s a helluva story, Elizabeth. You’re a born survivor.”

“So far, but with Dan down here on my trail…” she murmured, her voice trailing off as she thought about the man who had caused her so much heartache.

“You’ve got me now, remember?” Scott said reassuringly. “Looking back, do you have any theories about how the sports bag ended up unattended in the gym like that?”

“It must have been some kind of setup.”

“I agree, probably placed there for someone specific. Your partner was in the wrong place at the wrong time, depending on how you look at it.”

“It couldn’t have been left for him or me. We hardly ever went down there, but why am I still alive? Why didn’t the tracker lead Dan directly to me from the beginning? Come to think of it, why didn’t anyone show up at the safehouse near the mansion?”

Scott paused. “Elizabeth, how many times have you set a trap, then surveilled the perps when they took the bait?”

“All the time.”

“I suspect that’s what Conchello did, and is doing. For reasons I still haven’t figured out, he’s steering Dan toward you, but not giving him your exact whereabouts.”

“It’s so unnerving,” she said, shaking her head. “At least I’ll be able to breathe for a few days. Okay, Scott, I’ve told you who I am, now it’s your turn. What’s with this house? Come on, out with it.”

“I’m not quite finished. What prompted your visit here six months ago?”

“Sorry, I haven’t told you. Conchello sent me to scout out secluded coves and beaches. He wanted to use this area for trafficking, which he’s doing, by the way.”

“And why did you choose to come back here? Besides seeing me, of course,” he added with the hint of a grin.

“Well, there are several reasons. I was hoping to disappear on your catamaran. It had my tracker on the hull, and Jim would know where I was. I had my phone too, but you pulled out the sim card. Now both the tracker is gone and my phone is offline. He has no idea where I am. I’m sure he’s worried sick.”

“You can email him from here. What else?”

“I knew Conchello had set up a base on one of those islands you showed me, and I’m pretty sure he’s laundering money down here. I had this crazy idea I might be able to nab the bastard. I sure as hell didn’t expect Dan to show up. I’d taken that beach house because you were off sailing and I had to wait until you got back. As soon as you did, I hightailed it to the dock.”

“That all makes sense,” he muttered. “One last question. Why did your boss want you to bring the money?”

“I was going to use it to suss out Conchello’s laundering activities, though it was a long shot. Is that it?”

“That’s it.”

“Great, now tell me about you.”

“I was in the Navy, played around in special ops for a while, and now I’m working against organized crime.”

“And this place?”

“It’s