Zero Escape by Kendall Talbot

Author:Kendall Talbot
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2020-05-27T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Marshall kept one eye on the digital clock on Miss B Hayve’s console and one eye on the Cuban navy men who were busy hauling a bunch of refugees off a boat that looked as big as and as seaworthy as a Cadillac. When he’d first spotted the Cuban cutter flying toward him, Marshall had almost shit his pants as he’d thought they’d somehow seen him, even with his lights off.

That’d been forty minutes ago. It’d been his lucky night. Not so lucky for the people in the other boat, though. Marshall had cut the engines, and he rode the swell as he watched the action through his binoculars. They were taking their time too. Time he didn’t have. He promised Charlene he’d be back at midnight. That was twenty minutes away. He was going to be late.

He didn’t do late.

The failure of the refugees’ escape, although it was shit luck for them, was actually good news for Marshall. It meant the Cuban navy would be occupied for the next couple of hours. And given that he was running late, he was going to need that distraction.

It was ten past midnight when the patrol boat fired its engines again and headed off. Marshall had been ready for this moment. The second he decided it was safe, he pulled the rip cord on his runabout and aimed full-tilt for the shore.

The whole time he bounced over the waves, his thoughts were on Charlene. She’d probably be thinking he’d abandoned her. God knows what she’d do with that thought. He didn’t dial back the speed as he neared the marina. Instead, he shot straight into the cove and continued full power right up to Rusian’s dinky jetty.

He tied up the boat, jumped ashore, and, using his flashlight, raced up the path to the house. The second he burst through the clearing, he knew something wasn’t right. All the lanterns were lit, and it seemed the entire family was in the kitchen.

He raced into the house, and everyone turned to him with alarm flaring across their faces.

“She’s gone.” Aleyna’s first words sliced him like a machete.

“What?” He strode through the crowd to the kitchen bench.

“She’s disappeared. I took her to Legendarios del Guajirito like you asked. But she no came out. I look for her but she gone.”

“How could she disappear?”

“I don’t know.” Panic flashed in Aleyna’s eyes.

“Jesus Christ.” Marshall threw his hands up. “Did you ask around?”

“Yes. Nobody see her. She just vanish.”

“Fuck.” Marshall’s training was based on a lifetime of choices involving risk assessment, often done at breakneck speed. But that was in war zones and involved good guys and bad guys. He had no idea what Charlene had gotten herself into. But his gut told him he was about to meet a whole new round of bad guys.

In a split second, he made a decision that would be forever categorized as fucking stupid. “Where’s José?”

“He still in Havana. He looking for her.”

Marshall turned to the oldest of the brothers. “Maceo, todavía tienes tu moto?”

“Sí, come, come.

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