Today’s excerpt is from Dog
Pound, Book #3 of the nine-book Janitors Series. After putting the kidnapped Billy Jo ashore,
the kidnappers have a major problem.
Steve, who know nothing about the kidnapping, sees their problem and
heads in their direction to lend a hand.
Enjoy and have a great day.
m.j.
Henry was fighting the storm to keep on course
as wave after wave rolled over the boat. Finally, through the pouring rain, he
saw the island and shouted to Oscar.
“Get ready, we’re almost there.”
As he
predicted, the sea was only slightly better in close to the island than it had been
further out to sea. As Henry tried to
steady the boat, Oscar worked his way to the stern and, after making sure the
line was well secured, tossed the duffel bag full of Meals Ready to Eat that
Jerry had purchased into the dinghy.
Then he went after Billie Jo.
After opening the lock on the chain holding her in place, he dragged her
toward the dinghy with the chain still attached to her ankle. It took three tries to get her into it
without dropping her overboard into the churning sea. Then he jumped in after her. As he was about to loosen the knot to the
line leading from the dinghy, Henry shouted, “You forgot her clothes.”
“Screw
her clothes,” Oscar shouted back as he freed the dinghy and started its
outboard motor. He did his best to steer
a straight line toward the beach, but the wind and heavy seas were no
help. Finally they reached the
beach. He jumped out and pulled the
dinghy up onto the sand a few feet.
Then
he gave Billie Jo’s chain a jerk and growled, “Out,” as he grabbed the duffel
bag of food. He led her in the direction
where the fresh water was supposed to be.
When he came to it, he found a tree about ten feet from it, looped the
chain around the tree, and used the padlock to secure it. The chain was nearly fifteen feet long, so he
knew there would be plenty of length for her to reach the water. He looked down at her ashen face and
shivering body. “So long, Miss Famous
Actress.”
As he
walked off, Billie Jo shouted, “You can’t leave me here like this.”
Oscar
ignored her and returned to the dinghy, which he was soon steering back toward
the Freedom Express. After what
seemed like hours of fighting the sea, he reached the boat. Henry saw him coming and tossed him a
line. The two men struggled mightily to
get a slipping and sliding Oscar back onboard.
When they succeeded, Oscar muttered, “Shit,” and headed for the galley
to get a cup of coffee that he planned to lace with a liberal dose of whiskey.
The
coffee was cold, so Oscar got out a saucepan and turned on the small gas
stove—even though he knew better than to turn on the stove in heavy seas. He poured the coffee into the pan, put the
pan in tight-fitting brackets on the stove and waited for it to heat up. As he waited, he got out a bottle of whiskey
and took a long swallow. Just at that
moment, disaster struck. A giant wave
nearly capsized the boat and Oscar lost his footing. He slammed into the stove as he fell, the
bottle of whiskey sailing in a high arc that ended on the stove and
shattering. Oscar never knew that the whiskey
quickly caught on fire, or that the blaze spread rapidly through the
galley. He was unconscious.
In a
matter of minutes the boat was ablaze.
Henry stood dumbfounded as he tried to steer the boat. He had no idea what to do as he hollered,
“Oscar, the boat’s on fire. Do
something!”
Of
course, Oscar did nothing because he couldn’t.
Henry did nothing because he didn’t know what to do.
Steve,
aboard the Dog Pound, was less than a mile away. Since he had long ago checked his charts and
realized that the island Henry had intended to reach offered the best hope for
safe haven from the ravages of the storm, he was on an almost identical course
to that of the Freedom Express.
Even
through the heavy rain, he saw the blaze in the distance. He knew at once that somebody was in serious
trouble, so without even taking time to think, he steered in the direction of
the blaze. Steve simply wasn’t the kind
of man to walk away from someone else’s distress if there was any chance
to be of assistance.
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