Page 49 of Beachcomber Danger

“Except we don’t have her partner.” Preston folded his arms again. The partners had faced each other as they spoke, still standing in front of her.

“We will. He’ll come for her. We’ll leave him some breadcrumbs. Then we’ll have our perfect patsies.”

“And with a little luck, we can collect their fee too.”

Shana thought they’d forgotten about her, they were so keyed to each other, so in tune. She knew they were lovers. A true couple, not merely partners. They gave off all the vibes. She ought to know.

Without giving Shana another look, Preston Chambers marched past her, presumably to start leaving those breadcrumbs to catch Dane.

Good luck with that.

Emeline stood there studying her. Silent. Shana was careful to not stare past her at Sassy, but tracked Sassy with her peripheral vision. She was still and kept her hands hidden behind her back as if they were bound.

After they stared each other down for several beats, Emeline spoke.

“I’m hungry. I bet you are too.” She laughed. “Too bad.” She walked away, disappearing behind Shana. She heard the woman running up the stairs.

“Don’t move yet,” Shana whispered.

Sassy nodded, tape still covering her mouth. Shana wondered how the girl had gotten her hands free and thanked her lucky charms that Sassy had been smart enough not to show that she’d been freed.

Turning her head as far as it would go, Shana looked around behind her to see that nothing was there. The stairway was dark where the couple had retreated. She listened hard until she heard the sound of a cabinet door opening and a pan clanking. She had no idea what the pair had in mind for the assassination attempt, or what they had in mind for her and Sassy, but there was no way in hell she intended to stick around and find out.

Shana needed to get Sassy out of there.

She turned back and nodded to Sassy. The girl immediately ripped the tape from her mouth, grimacing in pain, and stood. She darted to Shana and began working on the tape binding her hands.

“How long have we been here? How long was I out?”

“Only a few minutes, maybe ten.” Sassy was breathless. “I pretended to be passed out. I knew you or Dane would come.”

“We need to get out of here—is there another way out besides those stairs?”

Sassy shook her head as she cut through the tape on Shana’s hands with a pair of scissors.

Damn. That didn’t leave much choice. Shana didn’t want to chance a fight with two armed assassins with Sassy in the line of fire. She might be able to take one of them by surprise, but it was too risky going against two of them.

“Where did you get those scissors? You have anything else we can use down here?”

Sassy nodded and stood. The smile forming on her face was the kind a girl would get if she’d just discovered a secret stash of diamonds.

Once Shana got her hands unwrapped, Sassy showed her to the secret stash, which turned out to be an old phone and, under the circumstances, far better than a bucket of diamonds. The landline was under a pile of papers in the makeshift office in the back corner of the cluttered basement. Shana quickly dialed Dane. Of course, he didn’t answer. She’d known he wouldn’t, but it was hard to fight the disappointment fogging her mind and settling like a stone in her gut.

She left a message, ruthlessly schooling her voice to sound like the professional she ought to be. The kind of partner—and wife—Dane would be proud of.

But after only a few words, she was cut off by the gloved hand of Preston Chambers sweeping the phone from her hand and tossing it onto the floor.

“Did you think we didn’t know about the phone? The only thing that surprises me is how quickly you managed to get free to use it.” He smiled at her and grabbed her by the hair to haul her back to her chair.

“Looks like the bread crumbs have been laid,” Emeline said as she took Sassy by the arm.