“Of course I checked. I got nothing from the FBI—”

  “Unless they’re cheerleading the perps from the sidelines because let’s face it, they’re not my fans.”

  “There’s a new director. He doesn’t have a grudge.” Cap smiled. “In fact, he doesn’t even know who the hell Dane Blaise is.”

  The words knocked Dane sideways because he realized that he was now in the worst possible predicament he could be. He was so far out of the business that he’d lost his contacts and is no longer current in the doings of the underworld. At the same time he wasn't so far out of it that he didn’t still have enemies who wanted to do him harm.

  “Let’s assume the motive is revenge,” he said.

  “That narrows it down.”

  Cap’s sarcasm made Dane smile despite his growing tension.

  “I need to talk to Oscar. If I know him, he’s following the thread. Maybe he has more.”

  “If he had more he’d call me,” Cap said.

  Dane didn’t know if he wanted to smile or scowl at Cap's surliness. He bared his teeth in a half grin, half growl. Suitable for the still simmering turmoil about how he ought to feel about Cap.

  “Maybe I just want to hear the old reprobate’s voice.”

  “Use my phone.” Cap handed Dane his phone and Dane hit the speed dial icon labeled CIA Op.

  “Subtle,” he said as he put the phone to his ear and listened to the ringing. He knew Oscar well enough to exercise patience after four rings while he continued his stare down with Cap in silence. Cap stood with his arms folded across his chest again, as if he meant to barricade himself from whichever way Dane decided to come out, either for or against him.

  Dane wondered why, but the fact that Cap was here, standing in front of him, having his back when it was possible the shit was about to hit the fan, mattered. Did it matter enough? He couldn’t see that clearly.

  The phone stopped ringing and the line clicked. Then Oscar’s voice boomed.

  “Cap? Or is it Dane the legendary bane finally calling?”

  Dane laughed out loud. “You know who it is, you old bastard. Why did you call Cap instead of calling me directly?”

  “I called Cap because I knew you’d need someone on the ground on the Vineyard to help you. Helluva lot of good I could do from here.”

  “Where’s here?” He asked though he knew better, knew the cagey man would never give him a straight answer, especially since Dane was fairly certain the old fox was still on the CIA’s payroll whether he was one of them officially or a special off the books consultant.

  There was laughter on the other end of the call, but it quickly tempered to a long-suffering sigh and Dane lost his patience.

  "Tell me who the hell is after me and why?"

  “How about if I start with what I know? There are two perps, no names, but they were tracked to Logan and last I knew, they were headed to Martha’s Vineyard. No clear intel whether they’re coming by boat or air.”

  “How about your best guess on who they are and why they’re coming after me now?” Dane pressed his friend as he digested the intel and wondered how much time he had to disappear.

  “My best guess? Someone Russian and that’s the best I can do. You should talk to your friend Anatoly Ivanov if you can find him.”

  “As a matter of fact, good old Toly happens to be in the next room,” Dane said as he turned toward the door reflexively. There was a beat of silence on the other end of the call and Dane figured both of them were thinking the same thing. That it was not a coincidence.

  “How far do you trust him?” Oscar lowered his voice. “Be very careful. His compatriots could be on island now. I’ll shake more trees on my end and get back in touch with you.”

  Dane gave Oscar his secure mobile number and they ended the call. His adrenaline spiked to the point of no return. This party was no longer a fun night out to re-visit with old friends.

  The deadly game he’d played all his life was now back on. Only now the stakes were higher than ever. Because he was playing for more than his life, more than Shana’s life. This time his two children’s lives were at stake and the most important priority of all.

  CHAPTER 4

  “Time for a talk with Toly,” Dane said.

  “You’re not figuring he’s involved, are you?” Cap said.

  “No.” Dane went to the door and put his hand on the knob. “I figure Toly told the wrong person he was coming to the island, and he told them why—that I’d be here. There are more than a few of his associates who don’t like me very much.”

  “You think he told the wrong person by mistake? You sure?” Cap said.

  Dane nodded. Cap nodded back. They both knew Toly. He’d helped them in the past. Dane had saved his daughter Lara’s life when she got married on the island, and rescued her daughter, Toly’s granddaughter…

  Dane’s blood went cold. “I’ve got to go.” Dane couldn’t contain the jump in urgency. His nerves were strung out to the breaking point.

  Because his spidey sense was telling him his babies were in danger. Everything pointed to payback and it pointed to Toly’s ex-son-in-law, SergeyAgapov. Shit. He tossed Cap’s phone back to him and opened the door. Flinging it wide, he stormed back out to the entry hall. Cap followed him just like old times.

  His group of friends stood where he left them, talking quietly. No one held a drink. They all turned when he emerged from the library feeling like a guided missile about to be launched. He went straight to Shana.

  “We need to get the twins and leave,” he said, his eyes on Shana’s, communicating everything he felt, the edge of danger, the urgency and the need to protect all of them including her. She nodded.

  “What’s up?” Peter asked Cap, knowing better than to slow Dane down as he hammered up the stairs, trying not to look as wild as he felt. He headed straight for the room where they’d left their babies—who were technically toddlers now, but until the day he died they would be his babies.

  Cap, Acer, Peter and Ronnie followed Dane and Shana up the stairs as he took two steps at a time. The sound of the party faded behind him, but not before he heard the change in the atmosphere, from laughter, tinkling glasses and the movement of dancing to hushed concern and shifting stillness.

  When he reached the landing he headed left down a short hallway and reached the closed door to the blue room, the one where his babies would be sound asleep—or should be. He wrapped his hand around the door knob, his knuckles white, and sucked in a deep breath for one heartbeat, praying to the gods that he was wrong, that his paranoia had tricked him, that his precious twin babies would be there sleeping exactly as he left them.

  Then he pushed the door open and rushed inside the room with Shana at his back, holding his arm in a death grip as they went to the two cribs.

  The babies were gone. There was nothing in the cribs but blankets. He scanned the room in a quick sweep and saw that the baby bag and their coats were also missing. Fuck. Holy mother of fuck.

  “Oh my god… Dane.” Shana collapsed against him, her keening moan almost buckling his knees as much as the thunderclap of reality hitting him that their babies were gone. Kidnapped.

  Before the soul-splitting pain sunk him, anger rose and adrenaline tore through him as he gripped Shana in his arms. After a few beats of silent shock, everyone around them went into motion and spoke all at once.

  “Where’s Gable? Have him lock the exits,” Cap shouted to Ronnie. Ronnie ran out of the room and back down the stairs.

  Acer rushed to the windows and checked the locks. “The windows are locked from the inside. They didn’t get out this way.”

  “There’s a back staircase,” Dane said, still holding Shana even as she stirred to life in his arms as if she’d been knocked out. She may as well have been.

  “Dane,” her voice was strangled with grief. Her hands covered her face and he felt the anguished sob against his chest. He tightened his arms and searched for the strength to not collapse with her. This was his worst nightmare.

  She clutched his shirt and looked up at him. Tears blotched her face, but her fierceness shone in her eyes.

  “Let’s find the bastards who took our babies and…” He hear the strength fight through her heartache and had no doubt she would murder whoever the bastards were on sight.

  Her words were like a rallying cry, elevating his adrenaline to a height that erased the pain better than any drug ever invented by man.

  “Let’s go then.” He barked the words as a command to everyone in the room.

  CHAPTER 5

  When Shana threw herself into Dane’s arms and held on, trying not to fall apart, she couldn’t help the shaking. It had started deep inside her and threatened to shatter her very soul. Her whole body felt on the verge of shut down. Dane had kept her squeezed to his chest, with his strong arms wrapped around her, until she felt the strength of his hard body her up, held her together. Now she was done with crying. She and Dane would find their babies.

  And they would take care of whoever took them. Damn the law.

  Dane ran down the stairs and Shana tried to keep up with him, rage warring off the panic and horror and pushing the adrenaline through her veins.

  He got to the bottom of the stairs one step ahead of her and ran right into Anatoly Ivanov.

  “Do you know something about this?” Dane bodied up to Toly, grabbing him by the lapels and Acer and Peter crowded him, but they didn’t stop him or pull him off.

  “What is it? What’s going on?” Toly’s eyes shifted around past Dane’s and past hers and landed on Cap’s.

  “Shana’s babies are gone and according to intel there was a threat from some Russians.” Cap filled him in.

  “Shit.”

  “What do you know, Toly,” Shana clutched the man’s arms and wedged herself between Dane and him. He would help them if he could. She knew it.

  “I’m calling the police,” Cap said. Shana shot a glare at him. Dane grabbed his arm.

  “What the fuck for? We can handle this.”

  “Maybe not.” Cap pulled away from Dane’s grasp and talked into his phone while Dane let out a long list of expletives.

  Acer had hurtled through the ball room and came back with the Gables.

  “There was no sign of anyone outside. We locked the doors to the terrace,” Acer spoke through his panting.

  Dane nodded. “It had to be an inside job. The two Russians had help from someone here,” he said. He turned to Cap. “I don’t suppose you can get the current Police Chief on this dam island to do whatever I say when he gets here?”

  Cap shook his head. “I don’t know him, but I still know a few of the guys on the force.”

  Dane turned to their Russian friend, so far the only link they might have to intel on where their babies were taken. “Toly, think. This can’t be a coincidence. Who would have taken our babies and where would they go?”

  Shana’s body shook and she struggled to hold down the nausea that threatened, tried to keep her head. This was their forte, this is what she and Dane did. They could rescue their own children. They would do it.

  Toly shook his head and Dane re-focused on him, visibly calmer, taking deep breaths.

  “Who did you tell you were coming to the island?” Dane asked.

  “I told my daughter,” he said. “She’s no threat to you. You know that.”

  “No, but someone else found out. Who would she have told? Or… who would have gotten the information from her whether she knew it or not?”

  “Shit,” Toly said. “Her no good bastard ex-husband. He’s been giving her a hard time. I wouldn’t put it past him that he’s been listening to her phone.”

  “I won’t even ask how or why,” Dane said. He looked at Shana.

  “Toly,” Shana said, trying to keep the desperation from her voice, “think, where would they take our babies and why would they take them?”

  “I don’t know. I’m shocked and sorry for your suffering.” He held Shana’s hands and gave her a genuinely compassionate stare. “I’ll help however I can.”

  “You can start by calling your no-good bastard ex son-in-law,” Dane said.

  Toly nodded and fumbled his phone from his pocket. Dane took him by the arm and led him back into the library. Shana was reluctant to follow. She wanted to search the house and question the guests. She spotted Ronnie jogging toward her from the back of the house. Sassy was busy with Laura Gable corralling the guests into the ball room.

  Peter held his phone to his ear, his face drawn, his mouth tight. He was calling David Young who was attached to the Boston Police as a Scotland Yard consultant and whoever else he had for law enforcement contacts. Shana stood and watched as if she were in one of those nightmares where she was cemented I place.

  “Ronnie, did you see anything out front?” Dane said.

  “No, nothing. No boats coming or going, no sign of anything. I checked the security and there’s no sign of anyone entering the place except through the front door.”

  “Shit,” Gable said, breathing hard. “Does this mean a guest could be involved?”

  Shana pushed through her momentary paralysis and grabbed hold of Dane’s arm. A steel rod of determination knifed through her body and soul as she composed her face. In spite of all her fierce determination, the pain nearly robbed her of the ability to stand, so she leaned on him.

  He gritted his teeth until they looked like they might break, and he stood strong. She needed him to be strong, to not collapse under the weight of panic and loss because this is what they do. They always watched each other’s back, supported each other and found the bad guys. And rescued the victims.

  “We should call Oscar again and tell him what happened,” she said. Her quiet words shook. “We need to find out if there’s anything more, even the tiniest bit of detail that he hasn’t told us yet.”

  Dane nodded and pulled his phone from his pocket.

  Shana ripped the phone from his hand and he let her because she had murder in her eyes. She’d gotten past her horror and panic and was in badass mother bear mode now, the kind he knew made her ready to kill, the kind where bloody payback was on her mind—just as soon as she got our babies back.

  Dane knew all this because he was right there with her. He listened as she told Oscar that their babies were missing and heard Oscar’s expletive loud and clear, heard the anguished horror in his voice as he immediately tried to console her. But Shana was past needing consolation and she cut him off, getting straight to business.

  “Tell me everything you know,” Shana said, using her clipped, I-eat-nails-for-breakfast voice.

  “I made a call, a few calls, used some favors and ran down some intel since I spoke with Dane,” Oscar said. Shana knew that voice. It was grimmer and rattling than his usual gruff voice. She took a deep unsteady breath.

  “What did you find out? Don’t sugar coat it, Oscar.” There was a beat of silence on the line and she steeled herself. She would handle whatever it was. She and Dane would find their babies. They had to. A moan of agony nearly escaped, but a glance at Dane and the determined glint in his eyes steadied her tumultuous gut.

  “I don’t know who they are, but I’ve confirmed that there are two of them. And they have a place on the island.”

  “Jesus—Where?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe that rat bastard Ivanov knows. I’m leaving now. I can be there within twelve hours,” Oscar said. Dane took the phone from her. He’d been listening and somehow he knew she was done.

  “Don’t bother Oscar,” Dane said, his eyes hard and filled with terror at the same time. She squeezed his arm. “We’ll be finished before that.” She heard the unspoken one way or another and literally gulped a ball of dread down her throat. Dane stabbed the phone’s end call button with his thumb and before he could throw the phone against the wall, she grabbed it from him.

  “Take it easy on Toly,” she said. “I have a feeling he’s as much a target as we are.”

  He searched her eyes with that electric gaze and she felt bared down to nothing. But it didn’t matter because she had nothing to hide. Not from Dane.

  “Either way, we need to have a deeper conversation with him. See if he’s found out anything.” Dane lasered his gaze on the man sitting on a hallway chair just outside the ballroom.

  She held on tight to his arm as he stalked straight to the man in a few long strides.

  “I got to go,” Toly said in a quick tight voice as he lowered his phone and slid it into his jacket pocket as looked up at them.

  Dane grabbed Toly’s upper arms, encouraging him to a stand. Shana held her tongue and let Dane go, keeping her face schooled as much as possible though she felt like she stood on the thinnest of tight wires between needing to do damage and needing to collapse into a puddle.

  “What did you find out?” Dane spoke in a low voice as he backed Toly into a quiet corner. She went with them.

  “I spoke to my second in command and he’s going to pay a visit to my ex-son-in-law, Sergey Agapov to get information. He believes—and so do I—that the piece of shit bastard could be involved in this matter. The crazy idiot’s posturing and threats have escalated lately. My lieutenant will call me back when he has word.”

  “That’s all you got?” Dane’s voice lowered to an almost whisper of pained tension.

  “I’m going to call my daughter to see if she knows of anything. If Sergey is on the island she might be able to pinpoint a place.”

  “How would she do that?” Shana asked.

  “She has skills.”

  “What kind of skills?” Dane asked.

  “Internet.” Toly jutted his chin in Acer’s direction in the front hall where he stood watching them. In fact, Shana realized, all their friends were watching. Toly explained, “She could rival your friend Acer with her hacking skills. But don’t worry, she only uses them for good.”

  “Such as?” Shana clutched his shoulder, keeping her voice even in spite of the mad thumping of her heart.