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“Yeah, sure. Let’s go.”
Ten minutes later, Hollis pulled her Jeep Wrangler up Diamond’s driveway. She and Dylan got out, headed up the walkway and then stopped mid-step.
The front door stood ajar.
Oh, no.“Dylan-”
“Stay here,” he said. “I’ll check it out.”
Dylan pushed the door all the way open and stepped inside. “Diamond?”
There was no answer and he walked further into the house while Hollis waited in the entranceway, her heart thudding hard. “Diamond?” she called.
Then, Dylan spotted Diamond on the floor, slumped between the couch and the coffee table. “Hollis, over here,” he called, lowering himself down. He checked the old man’s pulse.
Hollis raced over and dropped to her knees. His forehead was crusted over with blood and she looked over at Dylan who pulled his hand back. “He’s alive,” Dylan confirmed.
A groan escaped Diamond and his eyes fluttered open. As they helped him sit up, Hollis frowned at the forehead wound. “I’m going to call 911,” she said.
“No, no. I’m fine,” he grumbled.
“Are you sure?” She grabbed a towel laying on the coffee table and wiped at the blood where he had split his forehead open when he fell.
Still dazed, Diamond touched his head, saw the blood on his fingertips. But, he nodded.
“Did you see who did it?”
“No, but-”
All at once, they noticed the chest was gone.
“I got it open. There were coins and a Rosary made of emeralds. The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. It’s worth a fortune.”
Shit.
Tony,she thought and her stomach sank. She knew they had to get out to the shipwreck right away before he began to plunder it. “We can’t wait til morning,” she said and Dylan nodded.
Diamond reached for Hollis’s hand and squeezed it. “I think it may have been Tony. He’s going to steal everything he can. Stop him. Don’t let him destroy more history.”
With a nod, she gave his hand a reassuring squeeze back. “We’ll go out there now. Make sure everything is okay.”
“Be careful,” Diamond said.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Hollis asked.
“I will be once you get out to that shipwreck.”
By the time Dylan and Hollis reached the Santa Lucia’s final resting place, an eerie fog surrounded them, rolling over the surface of the ocean.
The GPS led them directly to the spot where they dove down earlier. But now a boat was anchored there in the midst of the buoys that marked the spot.
“He’s here,” Hollis said.
“That bastard sure wastes no time,” Dylan said. He dropped anchor on theFortune & Glory. Then, they lowered a smaller dinghy and crossed the distance over to the other boat. Dylan tossed a rope around a hook at the rear of Tony’s boat and secured their small motorboat. Suddenly, they caught sight of a thug on deck.
“Stay here,” Dylan whispered. Then, he jumped over the side and onto the other deck, Ka-Bar in hand. Before the thug could pull out his gun and fire, Dylan sneaked up behind him and pressed his knife to the guy’s throat. Dylan pushed the blade into his thin skin just enough, and twisted his arm up behind him. “Drop it,” Dylan ordered.
The thug dropped the gun and Dylan kicked it.
