‘Point that fucking thing somewhere else,’ Eddie warned her. ‘Or you’ll regret it.’
De Klerx turned away from Spencer and Axelos to jab his own weapon at the Yorkshireman. ‘If you threaten her again, I will kill you!’
‘It’s okay, Rutger,’ said Anastasia. ‘Nina, I don’t want to do anything drastic. But we are not leaving Greece without the Cru—’
A gunshot — and De Klerx’s man at the lounge’s aft doorway fell, blood spouting from a ragged bullet hole in his back. Anastasia flinched away in shock, while Petra screamed.
Two of the yacht’s crew rushed down the passageway and darted into the cover of rooms to each side, the cook covering them with her smoking gun from the stairs to the lower deck. ‘Let Mr Trakas go!’ she shouted.
The Dutchman flattened himself against the bulkhead beside the entrance. The other man who had followed Anastasia into the lounge brought up his gun to shoot down the passage—
The tycoon’s hand whipped under the table and snatched out a revolver that had been taped beneath it. He fired without hesitation at the hijacker, the round ripping into the side of his chest. The man flopped to the carpet like a rubber bag full of water. Lonmore yelped in horror.
De Klerx spun to face the unexpected danger — and Axelos burst into action, hurling himself bodily at the Dutchman. His gun arm was knocked away from its new target as he fired, the bullet blowing out one of the large windows. A great waterfall of shattered safety glass fell to the floor behind Nina and Eddie.
Axelos slammed De Klerx against the bulkhead. But even with the wind knocked from him, the brown-haired man kept fighting, grappling with the bodyguard. Trakas aimed his revolver at a new target: Anastasia. She stiffened as the gun swung at her. ‘Ana! Tell your man to stand down.’
‘Rutger, stop,’ Anastasia said with angry reluctance. De Klerx gave Trakas a rage-filled glare, then ceased fighting. Axelos shoved him face-first against the wall before stripping him of his other weapons and equipment.
‘This is not the first time I have been threatened on my own ship,’ said Trakas. ‘Now, Ana. Drop your gun.’ Her pistol clunked to the carpeted deck. ‘Good.’ He moved to her and kicked the fallen weapon clear, then shifted position to cover his guests. ‘Greece is a seafaring nation. We do not like pirates.’
‘Augustine, I swear I had nothing to do with this,’ said Lonmore, hands spread in entreaty as he stepped closer to his friend. ‘This wasn’t—’
He moved between Trakas and Eddie — and the Englishman responded instantly. ‘Nina!’ he yelled, grabbing the table and flipping it over. It hit Lonmore, sending him reeling into Trakas and Anastasia. Before either Greek could react, the couple had leapt through the broken window and run aft down the port-side walkway.
‘Where are we going?’ Nina shouted.
‘Off this fucking boat!’ Eddie looked towards the stern. The launch that had brought them aboard was still moored at the dock—
An armed crewman rounded the rear of the superstructure. The Englishman swerved, pulling his wife with him through a hatch. A narrow passageway lay before them, but he suspected it would lead back to the central corridor, and Trakas’s people. ‘Up here,’ he said instead, scaling a steep ladder to the deck above.
Nina followed him up into what turned out to be the bridge. It was unmanned, an autopilot apparently steering the yacht. ‘Ghost ship,’ she said.
‘Sounds like there’ll be more ghosts aboard soon,’ replied Eddie as gunfire erupted from the decks below. The crew were retaking the vessel. He looked around. The only other exit was a sliding door at the wheelhouse’s rear that led on to a long sun deck running the length of the superstructure, the mainmast rising from it like a gleaming redwood. ‘There’s a ladder at the far end — or worst comes to the worst, we can jump down.’ He threw open the door.
More crewmen rushed into the lounge, aiming at anyone unfamiliar. ‘Mr Trakas!’ one shouted. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Yes, I’m fine,’ Trakas replied. ‘Watch her.’ Even in the midst of a tense situation, he still gave Anastasia’s athletic wetsuited body a look of leering appreciation, which she did not fail to notice. Nor did De Klerx, whose lips curled into a snarl. ‘What’s happening? How many others are there?’
‘We saw seven as well as these two, but there might be more.’
‘Two less now.’ Trakas gave the dead men a dismissive glance. ‘Where’s Rouphos?’
‘On his way to the bridge.’
‘Good. We need to—’ He broke off as another exchange of gunfire from the deck below was accompanied by a detonation that rattled the floor. The shrill clamour of a fire alarm echoed through the ship.
‘What was that?’ gasped Lonmore.
‘The gas tanks!’ Trakas replied, concerned. ‘One of your idiots must have shot them.’
‘They’re not my idiots!’ the American insisted. ‘I’m telling you, I came here to negotiate as a friend, not—’
The Greek waved him to silence. ‘Later. Much later!’
‘We’ve got to get you off the ship,’ Axelos told his boss.
Trakas’s reluctance at abandoning his yacht was clear, but he nodded. ‘Okay. Bring them with us.’ He gestured at the four prisoners. ‘There are two more, a bald man and a woman,’ he told his crew. ‘Find them!’
Nina and Eddie raced along the upper deck. The mainsail’s long boom extended out over the water off the starboard side, the great canvas triangle pushed firm by the wind. ‘Christ, now what?’ said Eddie as a strident alarm sounded.
‘Great, the ship’s on fire!’ replied Nina. ‘Just what we need.’
‘At least there’s plenty of water to put it out— Shit!’ A crewman was scaling the ladder in the deck’s aft corner.
A rack holding several life vests was mounted on the side railings. Eddie snatched one up and hurled it at the crewman. The man instinctively raised an arm to protect his head. The impact of the flotation device knocked his gun from his hand, sending it clanging to the deck below. He cursed, glancing after it before realising that the approaching intruders were unarmed.
‘Get to the boat!’ Eddie called to Nina as the crewman reached the deck and rushed at them. She swerved clear as the two men collided. The Greek had hoped his charge alone would be enough to knock the other man down, but Eddie was prepared for it, dropping and twisting to take the impact on his shoulder while simultaneously driving a punch into his attacker’s stomach. ‘Go on, go!’
She hesitated, but while the man was much younger than her husband, he was also obviously a far less experienced fighter. Winded, he swung a couple of flailing blows at Eddie’s head, neither of which landed more than a glancing impact as the Yorkshireman drove him backwards. Now confident that the brawl would end quickly, she ran to the end of the deck.
The launch had been joined at the floating dock by the speedboat that had towed the parasailing Trakas. A choice of two — and no one else in sight. She hurriedly descended the ladder. ‘Eddie, come on!’
Above, Eddie whipped up his arm to deflect another blow before snapping a punch at the crewman’s face. The younger man reeled back, but didn’t fall.
He had to put the Greek down before he and Nina could escape. Fists raised, he advanced—
The crewman glanced past him — then shouted. Eddie was sure nobody could yet have caught up from behind, but the flash of hope in the other man’s eyes hadn’t been faked. He risked a split-second look back at the wheelhouse. A figure was visible inside. Rouphos. If he had a gun, the situation was about to get a lot worse.