His cell phone vibrated in his breast pocket, and he removed it and saw Jug’s number on the screen. After connecting to his headset via Bluetooth, he answered the call. “Hey, Jug, I’m on my way.”

“Colt?” There was a brief pause. “Where are you calling from?”

He looked through his window at the dark blue waters beneath them. “About a half mile off the coast.”

“On a boat?”

He grinned. “In my plane. Flying up to Camarillo right now.”

“When will you get here?”

Colt glanced at his navigation display and saw that they had a favorable tailwind and were cruising comfortably at just over one hundred miles per hour over the ground. “If we don’t get slowed down going through Los Angeles, we should be there in an hour and a half.”

“We?”

Colt turned and looked over his shoulder at Punky, who was effortlessly flying the plane while staring out over the water, lost in her own thoughts. She couldn’t hear his conversation and probably didn’t even know he was on the phone. “I’ve got an NCIS agent with me,” he said. Then quickly added, “Long story.”

“Roger that,” Jug said. “Listen, you might be waiting awhile. I need to go flying to sanitize the range for a missile test tonight, so I’ll be gone for a few hours.”

The news made Colt slump in his seat. The car accident and shootout were still fresh in his mind, and he didn’t want to think it had all been for nothing. “Okay,” he said at last. “Give me a call when you get back.”

“Will do.”

After Jug ended the call, Colt selected the intercom system and spoke to his copilot. “Looks like we have a few hours to kill. Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t… I don’t know.”

Colt turned and saw her staring back at him with a lost look in her eyes. “Can you figure out where Rick was when he called?” he asked.

The lost look disappeared.

* * *

Colt showed her how to connect her phone to her headset, and she scrolled through her contacts until she found the number for Rick’s supervisor at the San Diego Field Office. She took a calming breath, then placed the call.

A deep baritone voice answered. “Special Agent Deacon.”

“John, it’s Special Agent King from NCIS—”

“Punky! What can I do for you?”

She squinted at the nickname. Of course he told them. Though she had always liked it, the nickname had new meaning now. Rick had used his final breath to let TANDY know Punky hunted her, and she wanted to look the bitch in the eyes when she realized Punky had found her. “Rick is conducting a solo vehicle surveillance, and I’m moving to join him. But I don’t have the beacon ID code for the tracker on the subject’s car.”

“Ahhh,” John said. “Let me see if I can find the requisition form.”

“Thanks, John.”

They were nearing Long Beach, and she could see the brewery where she and Rick had shared a few beers the night before. She could see his playful smile and his obnoxiously bright Hawaiian shirt, and she struggled to accept that her Uncle Rick was really gone.

“Punky?”

“Go ahead.”

“Okay, the beacon ID code is Romeo Sierra Zero Three Zero Five.”

“Got it,” she said, tapping the code into the application on her phone that allowed her to home in on the tracker Rick had placed on TANDY’s vehicle. She watched the map zoom in on a location another one hundred and fifty miles up the coast.

“Have Rick call me—”

She hung up without replying and switched over to the intercom. “Santa Maria. Do we have the gas for that?”

Colt zoomed out on his map. “Sure. It’ll take another hour to get there…”

“Good, it’s settled.”

Colt looked as if he were about to argue, but in the end, he gave a little shake of his head, took control of the plane, and banked left to put the Santa Monica Mountains on their nose. Punky turned and looked through the left window at Catalina Island rising up out of the water like a green sea monster.

I’m coming for you.

30

Smuggler’s Cove

Santa Cruz Island, California

Cassidy opened her eyes and peered over the edge of the hammock at the waves crashing against the shore. It had been a long time since she’d felt this much peace, and she understood now why Jenny and Carrie liked to get out of the city and into nature. She hadn’t wanted to come, but she was thankful they talked her into it.

She flopped back down into the hammock, letting it rock gently with the ocean breeze. She had strung her blue-and-gold ENO hammock between two trees, one a eucalyptus and the other she couldn’t recognize. Maybe one of the other girls could.

Where are they, anyway?

She closed her eyes again, reveling in the absolute absence of stress. No cell phone service. No internet. No demanding boss ruining a perfectly good three-day weekend.

Cassidy took a deep breath of the fragrant air, then slid her body up into a reclined position and let her legs dangle over the sides. She looked at her watch and scrunched up her forehead when she saw the time.

They should be back by now.