Heart of Gold - By Tami Hoag Page 0,62

The boat lurched, and he had to grab hold of the small freezer behind him with his free hand, but he kept his gun and his gaze leveled at Shane. “I mean to kill you both. You’ll watch her die little by little, then you’ll join her—one drop of blood at a time. And I will get away with it. You of all people should know I am capable of anything.”

“Too bad for you your abilities don’t live up to your ego,” Shane said with a sneer, inching another step closer as Strauss slipped again. “You were never anything more than a pathetic little hood with delusions of grandeur. I was never your friend. I loathed you and I pitied you.”

Strauss’s control snapped. A wild, inhuman cry erupted from his throat as he brought his gun up with both hands on the grip. At that same instant Faith freed the block and tackle and swung it with all her might. The heavy rope and pulley caught Strauss across the chest, knocking his arm aside just as the pistol bucked in his hand.

Shane pounced across the deck with the grace of a striking cougar, his big body slamming Strauss’s back into the freezer. Faith bolted for the ladder but froze on the third rung, her attention riveted to the life-and-death struggle in the cockpit.

The two rolled across the small deck of the cockpit, wrestling for control of the handgun Strauss had managed to hang onto. Shane knocked the pistol free by slamming Strauss’s arm against the deck. Strauss relinquished the weapon but gained the upper hand in the fight, rolling Shane beneath him and smashing a fist into his face. His second blow met nothing but the solid deck as Shane dodged sideways at the last instant.

As Strauss howled in pain, Shane threw him aside and struggled to his feet. He reached inside the loose sleeve of his sweatshirt and jerked a .25 caliber pistol free of the small holster that was strapped to his forearm, raising it just as Strauss rushed him with a knife.

Faith’s scream split the air an instant before the Crack! Crack! of the gunshots.

The expression on Strauss’s face as the bullets slammed into his chest was one of utter surprise. Dropping the knife, he stopped in his tracks and looked down at the dark stain spreading across his silk shirt. His legs buckled beneath him.

With the smoking pistol in his hand, Shane stared down at the man who lay sprawled on the deck with his head cocked at an unnatural angle.

“And you thought you knew all of my secrets,” he said softly, unable to call up a single ounce of remorse. This man had threatened Faith’s life and would certainly have killed her. She would have been only one of many to die by Strauss’s hand. Now Adam Strauss would never kill again. “You were wrong, pal. Dead wrong.”

Faith eased herself down the ladder, her heart pounding so, she thought it would explode. In her mind’s eye she could still see Strauss lunging at Shane, his knife gleaming in the light from the cabin as the blade slashed through the air. Shane could have been killed. But he was still standing, and Faith had never needed anything the way she needed to put her arms around him. On legs that were as wobbly as noodles, she made her way across the short stretch of deck.

“Shane?”

Her voice seemed nothing more than a whisper, but he heard her. He turned and caught her as she threw herself into his arms, burying her face against his chest.

“It’s all right,” he said in a rough voice as he clutched her to him, relishing the feel of her, soft and alive against him. “You’re all right, honey. He can’t hurt you now. No one will ever hurt you again.”

Faith hugged him with what little strength she had left. “He wanted to kill you. I was so afraid he was going to kill you.”

She had been afraid for him. Guilt lashed out inside him. Faith could have lost her life because of him, because of his past, but she had been afraid for him.

“Faith,” he said as he stood her away from him.

Whatever else he had meant to say was lost in the next horrible split second.

The faint glint of light on metal caught Faith’s eye. As Adam Strauss lifted the gun that had been dropped on the deck during the struggle, she shrieked Shane’s name and shoved him aside. The pistol