Not wanting to tempt fate, Lindsey popped her hands into the air. She tried to shield her eyes from the glare as she yelled, “It’s me, Lindsey!”

Abruptly, the light was lowered. “Damn it, Lindsey, what the hell is going on?”

It was Emma and she sounded highly stressed.

“There were three of them,” Lindsey shouted. “Two men and a woman, did you get them all?”

“No, we’re missing a man,” Emma said. “Sully, double back.”

It was then that Lindsey looked over at the driver. Sully was manning the controls, and the look he gave her was one of pure and utter relief.

“You all right?” he shouted.

“Never better,” she said. Then she smiled at him to try and validate the lie. The truth was her hands were shaking and she felt a bit like vomiting, but she didn’t want to let it show and cause him to worry.

“Get the boat to the dock,” Emma ordered. “And try not to touch anything.”

She was curt and dismissive and Lindsey couldn’t blame her. Her case had blown wide open and she had been out of the loop. Lindsey imagined this was going to impact their friendship and not for the better.

Lindsey puttered past the police boat while they did a search for the missing man. When she neared the dock, Robbie grabbed the boat and steadied it, tying it up with the line Lindsey tossed to him.

Jack, looking the worse for wear, grabbed her and squeezed her tight. When Lindsey gave him the pat on the back that indicated it was time to let go, he didn’t. In fact, after three reassuring pats, he still clung, making her worry that he’d hit his head or something.

“Jack, you’re strangling me,” she croaked. Jack stepped back and then he grabbed her arms and studied her face with an intensity usually only seen on their mother’s face when they broke curfew and didn’t call.

“Are you crazy, Linds?” he cried. “That had to be the dumbest, most lamebrained stunt I’ve ever seen anyone pull. What the hell were you thinking?”

Then he hugged her again. He was hugging her so tight, Lindsey’s face was smashed into his shirt front and she couldn’t answer.

“Just wait until I stop hugging you,” he said. “I’ll shake you until your teeth rattle.”

“Get in line, mate,” Robbie said. “Me and sailor boy have dibs.”

“Jack, you need someone to look at you,” Lindsey said. She pushed out of his arms and shrugged off her sweater. She draped it around his shoulders and rubbed his arms in an attempt to warm him up. “The black, swollen eyes and lumpy nose look you’ve got going is not attractive.”

“Oh, I don’t know, I think he looks pretty badass,” Stella said as she hurried down the ramp from the pier above to join them.

“Stella!” Jack cried. He stepped away from Lindsey and grabbed Stella then he planted a kiss on her that, judging by the way she twined her arms around him, was not unwelcome. Lindsey wondered if Stella was as much of an ex of Jack’s as she’d thought.

“Hey, a little help over here,” a voice cried.

Beth and Mary had arrived in their kayaks. Lindsey grabbed one while Robbie grabbed the other. Beth glanced at Jack and Stella still in their clinch and sighed.

“Always a runner-up,” she said to Lindsey.

“Not to me,” Lindsey said. “Besides, you don’t want to date Jack. He’s an economist, for Pete’s sake.”

“Yeah, whatever was I thinking?” Beth asked. She looked Lindsey in the eye and asked, “Are you okay?”

“Bumps and bruises but otherwise fine,” she said. “Thanks to you and Mary.”

“Can you believe we pulled it off?” Beth asked.

“Honestly, no,” Lindsey said. “I feel like most of it was sheer dumb luck.”

“I’ll say,” Emma said. The police boat, which was Sully’s water taxi with a blue light slapped on the front, pulled up to the dock.

Emma hopped out and Lindsey noted that behind her were three soaking wet people, who were handcuffed and miserable looking. Antonia raised her head and glared at Lindsey. As Tom Jarvis helped her out of the boat, she spat at Lindsey, who had the quick reflexes to dodge.

“Now, now, Antonia, is that any way to behave?” a man asked from the pier above.

Lindsey knew that voice. She grabbed her brother’s arm, pulling him away from Stella. “That’s him!”

“Who?” he asked.

“The man who called me looking for you,” she said. “I’d recognize his voice anywhere.”

“He’s—”

“I’ll nab him,” Robbie said, and he dashed up the ramp to the pier above.

“No!” Jack cried. “Lindsey, he’s the man I’m working for.”

“What?” she asked. “I thought you were working for Antonia.”

“It’s a long story,” Jack said.

“And you’ll have plenty of time to tell it at the station,” Emma said.

“But you have no evidence,” Antonia snapped. “Your little micro card was lost in the sea.”

“Good thing I e-mailed all of the data to myself then,” Lindsey said.

Antonia’s face tightened and turned a vibrant shade of red.

“That’s my brilliant librarian sister,” Jack said. His battered face looked gruesome when he smiled, but Lindsey couldn’t help but smile in return.

“Got him!” a shout sounded from up above.

They all glanced up to see Robbie wrestling the older gentleman in a sort of bear hug.

“Robbie, it’s okay,” Lindsey cried.

“What?” he asked.

“You can let him go!” she yelled.

“No, I—” Robbie’s next words were cut off by a solid clip on the jaw from the older man.

Lindsey watched in horror as Robbie went down like a sack of cement. Mercifully, Detective Trimble caught him by the collar and eased his fall.

“Oh, he’s going to have a nasty bruise tomorrow,” Sully said as he stepped out of the boat and came to stand beside them.

“What did he grab me for?” the older man asked as he shook out his hand.

“I’m getting a headache,” Emma said. “Trimble, take them to the station. We’ll follow with this group.”

Lindsey and the others waited for the officers to escort their suspects up the ramp before falling in line behind them. When they reached the pier above, it was to find Nancy, Violet and Charlene waiting along with a very unhappy-looking Ian.

He glowered at his wife. “Since when have you taken to kayaking in the middle of the dinner shift?”

“It was a spur-of-the-moment idea,” she said. “Beth and I felt the need for some fresh air.”

“Really?” he asked. “And it had nothing to do with chasing bad guys or any other dumb ideas?”

“Dumb?” she asked. Her temper snapped in her blue eyes. “I’ll have you know it was brilliant. Beth and I rigged a line across the channel markers, and sure enough, when they came speeding through, it clotheslined them, bam, dumping them right into the water. It was awesome!”

“You could have been killed!” Ian roared.

Never in all the time she’d known him had Lindsey heard Ian raise his voice. He was always quick with a joke and had an easy can-do attitude.

“Oh, quit being so dramatic,” Mary said. Ian scowled and Mary cupped his face with her hands. “I would never take a risk that would take me away from you.”

The anger went out of Ian like a puff of smoke. He wrapped his arms around his wife and pressed his forehead to hers.

“Do me a favor,” he said. “Next time, tell me you’re going to scare five years off of my life, would you?”

“I will keep you duly informed,” she said.

Arm in arm, they made their way back to their restaurant.

Lindsey saw her brother shaking hands with the man that Robbie had tried to subdue. He was a distinguished-looking man with a thick head of gray hair and a neatly trimmed goatee.

“Vincent, it’s good to see you,” Jack said.

The man clapped Jack on the shoulder and said, “Not as good as it is to see you, I promise you.”

He and Jack exchanged uneasy smiles, and Lindsey got the feeling that Jack had been involved in something even more dangerous than she had supposed.

“Vincent Carrego, I’d like to introduce my sister, Lindsey Norris,” he said.

“Carrego?” Emma spun around with her hands on her hips, gun at the ready. “The same Carrego who employed Juan Veracruz?”

“That’s me,” Vincent said.

“Hands in the air,” Emma said. In a blink, Emma had her gun pointed at Carrego’s head.

“Whoa!” Jack cried. “Everyone calm down. I can explain everything.”

“I certainly hope so,” Trimble said. “In the meantime, Mr. Carrego, we’ll be taking the necessary precautions.”

He moved behind Carrego and cuffed his wrists. Antonia glanced over her shoulder, and sent Vincent a malicious grin.

“Who’s laughing now?” she asked.

He gave a careless shrug. “Now doesn’t matter, since I will be . . . in the end.”