I snuck a look behind me. As I looked at the monitor, I turned my left arm, the one holding the bag, just so. Their boat appeared on the monitor, but the rolling of the waves made it hard to maintain a steady shot.
“McKnight, did you hear me? Take the anchor off!”
I swallowed hard. It was time to do something truly stupid. Across the water, I looked at Jackie, into his eyes.
“You better smile, Blondie,” I said. I had to keep my voice natural, like there was nothing to it, like I wasn’t scared out of my skull. “You want to make a good impression on Mr. Isabella, don’t you?”
That one got to him. He couldn’t hide it. His brother looked up from the rifle barrel.
“McKnight, what are you talking about?”
“You’re on a live feed right now,” I said. “Look at this monitor, Blondie. Mr. Isabella is watching everything you do.”
It was hard for him to see from twenty feet away, but he looked at the monitor with wide eyes, like it was something out of his worst nightmare. “What the fuck…”
“You made a mistake, Blondie. You took the wrong guy. You didn’t realize how tight these two men are. Jackie and Mr. Isabella, they’re like brothers. Isn’t that right, Jackie?”
Come on, Jackie, I thought. Play along.
Jackie nodded. Blondie wrapped his arm around Jackie’s neck and pressed the gun right against his temple.
“I’m not buying any of this, McKnight. Now throw that bag over. Right now.”
A sound. In the distance, a motor.
“Who is that?” Blondie yelled. His face was bright red now. “I told you, anybody else shows up, your friend dies!”
“It’s just a few of Mr. Isabella’s men,” I said. “They’d like to have a word with you.”
Blondie and his brother looked at each other. For an instant I was tempted to go for my gun.
No, not yet, Alex. Not yet.
“I know you’re not an idiot,” I said. “You know what’s gonna happen when Isabella’s men get here. No matter what you do to us, these guys are gonna kill you. Give us Jackie and we’ll give you the money. You’ve got a head start, you can be long gone by the time they get here.”
Blondie’s brother was pointing the rifle at my chest again.
“Take the money,” I said. I was about to put my free hand into the bag, to grab some bills and show them to him.
Bad idea, Alex. They’ll think you’re going for a gun.
Blondie squeezed his arm hard around Jackie’s neck. He kept looking out at the open water.
“Don’t be a fool!” Bennett said. “Take the goddamned money!”
No, Bennett, no. This we do not need right now.
“Those guys are gonna cut you into a million pieces!”
Shut up, Bennett. Shut up shut up shut up.
“It’s seven hundred thousand dollars, you stupid fuckheads! Take the money and run! While you still can!”
“Throw the bag over,” Blondie said.
“Give us Jackie first,” I said.
“Throw the bag over!”
“Jackie first.”
The boat was coming closer. I didn’t dare look. But I was sure they had all four men standing at the rails-Leon, Jonathan, Ham, and Gill, with Vargas at the wheel. I could only imagine what it looked like, four men in black, with huge black guns. I hoped it was enough.
“Holy fuck,” Blondie said.
His brother didn’t look up. He kept his rifle leveled at my chest. “We’re not running,” he said.
“Look at them,” Blondie said.
“We’re not running,” the brother said. “I think it’s a trick.”
I hung the bag a little further out over the water. The weight of the anchor was making my forearm muscles burn. But I knew if I pulled it in for a second, a bullet would rip right through me.
Then, a voice from behind me. “Put the guns down!” It sounded like Leon, yelling into a megaphone.
The brother didn’t even blink. “You’re gonna die, McKnight.”
Blondie pushed Jackie out from under the awning. “Stay back!” he yelled. “I’ll put a bullet in his head if you get any closer!”
“Put the guns down now! ”
I knew Vargas’s boat couldn’t come too close, or they’d see right through everything. The tape on the guns, the cheap windbreakers. It would all fall apart.
“You’re blowing your chance,” I said. “If you give us Jackie right now, you still might make it out of this alive.”
“I’ll kill him, McKnight. I swear to God.”
I looked at Jackie. His eyes were closed.
“You’re dead!” Bennett said. “Give him up now or you’re dead!”
“Shut up,” I said. “Bennett, just shut up.”
“Those are Isabella’s men and you are fucking dead!”
“Those aren’t his men,” Blondie’s brother said, without even looking up at them. “There’s no way.”
“No matter what,” I said, “you’re still outnumbered. That you can see. You’ll never get out of this alive.”
“So be it,” Blondie said. “I guess that’s the way it goes down.”
Everything froze. Seconds ticked by. This is it, I thought. I waited for the first blast.
Instead, a voice.
“Hey, Marcus! Derrick!” I turned and saw Vargas standing at the rail of his boat. He was holding up the transmitter from his radio. “It’s Mr. Isabella. He wants to talk to both of you.”
That broke the spell. At the sound of his name, Blondie’s brother turned and fired his rifle, knocking Vargas right off his feet. As I dove to the deck, I caught a flash of Blondie’s gun coming away from Jackie’s head, and pointing right at me. I heard glass exploding behind me, Bennett crying out and then going down hard on the deck. There were more gunshots, from Blondie’s boat, from Vargas’s boat. And in the middle of all of it, a splash in the water.
I grabbed my revolver from the gunwale shelf and came back up with both hands wrapped around it. I didn’t see Jackie. Where the fuck was Jackie? Blondie’s brother came out from under the railing, firing at Vargas’s boat. I put him in my sights and pulled the trigger. There was an explosion right next to my ear, sending a spray of wood into my face. I went down again. I saw Bennett lying on the deck. He was bleeding from the forehead, but his eyes were open. “Stay down,” I said.
“Jackie’s in the water,” he said. “I saw him dive in.”
I heard two more shots, and then the sound of a boat’s propeller churning the water. Somebody was moving.
I looked over the gunwale. Blondie was at the wheel. The boat was moving away from us, and moving fast. Vargas’s boat kicked up, and came our way.
“Look out for Jackie!” I yelled. “Where is he?”
I scanned the water. I couldn’t see him.
“Where are you, Jackie? Where the fuck are you?”
There!
I dove in, felt the sudden icy shock of the water. I swam to where I had seen him, struggling against the waves and the brutal cold. When I finally got to him, he was fighting hard to keep his head above the water. With his hands tied behind his back, and his mouth taped shut, it was a losing battle.
“I got you, Jackie! I got you!”
I grabbed onto him, tilted his head back, and tried to do the lifeguard’s crawl. My body was already numb. Even in the middle of July, the lake is so damned cold. You’ve got a few minutes and then you’re done.
Vargas’s boat got to us first. Ham came down the side ladder, one leg in the water, and grabbed Jackie. He lifted him like a rag doll, and passed him over the side. Then he came back for me, put one of those long arms around me, and pulled me out of the water.
I landed on the deck, pulled myself up to my hands and knees. I tried to breathe. When I looked up, Jonathan and Gill had already pulled the tape off of Jackie’s mouth. They were busy untying his hands.
Vargas lay on the deck behind them.
Oh God no. It came back to me. Blondie’s brother hitting him point-blank, knocking him right over.
Vargas picked his head up. He looked at me and then put his head back down.
“Vargas!” I crawled over to him.
“Don’t touch me, McKnight. Just let me catch my breath.”
“What happened? I saw you go down.”