Page 101 of An Epic Voyage

“No, it’s Jackson.”

She jerked upright.“Jackson, we need to find Griffin.”

“I’m right here, babe.”Oops,that endearment had slipped out.He wouldn’t have noticed, but her boss gave him the stink eye over his shoulder.

She collapsed back down with a hiss.“What happened?”

“You were hit in the crossfire,” Griffin told her.“That was before you saved my life.”

Her eyes closed, and she smiled.“You owe me one.”

#

Finding Indigo alivelifted a massive weight from Jackson’s shoulders.He’d lost ten years off his life when the boat exploded.Flashbacks of when he’d learned that Celine and his unborn daughter had been killed assailed him.He wasn’t sure he could live with that pain again.Thankfully, he didn’t have to.

Indigo was hurt, but a small Asian man told him she should be okay if they could get her to a hospital immediately.The closest one was at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He turned to the Navy man and had him radio their plans to the pilot, instructing him to clear their arrival.Someone was already lowering a basket so they could get her in the chopper.Evie’s doing, no doubt.

He turned back to the big man guarding her like a junkyard dog.

“I take it you’re Griffin Decker?”

“I am.”

“How did Indigo get in the boat?”

“Griffin pulled her out of the water and brought her here,” a man he hadn’t yet met supplied.He had a blond mohawk and a face that had been on a fist’s receiving end.

Seemed as if Jackson owed Griffin Decker a debt of gratitude.

“We’re going to airlift her to the U.S.Naval Hospital at Guantanamo Bay.”

“Good,” Decker exhaled.“Also, we’ve got another victim.”

Decker opened one of the storage compartments to reveal what appeared to be a pile of bloody clothes.Jackson leaned closer.Nope, he was wrong.It was a badly beaten man.Jackson helped Decker lift him out and checked his vitals.He was alive, but his pulse was dangerously slow.

“We’ve also got the nuke.”

Jackson’s head jerked up.“You do?”

Decker pointed to the case resting on the deck.“Yes.”

That was fantastic news.Indigo had completed her mission successfully, which was not a surprise, given that he knew she would.“I’ll take possession of it.”Decker handed it to him.“What about Benedict Van Houten?”

“Deceased, along with Abdullahi.”

No tears would be shed over their demises.The world was better off without them.He glanced around the boat.“Where is Jinger Jenkins?”

“Van Houten killed her,” Decker told him.

“No kidding.”Jackson shook his head.“Our intel didn’t mention he was a murderer.”

“It was a perfect shot into her frontal lobe, so he was more than familiar with a weapon.”

“Mystery surrounds him and what he did before he amassed his fortune,” Jackson noted.

“Whatever it was, I’m betting it wasn’t legal,” Decker maintained.“He was also planning on double-crossing Abdullahi.This was to be his getaway boat.”