"Hey, Judson, have you seen Gabe in the last hour?" Mac asked entering the wheel house.

"No."

"I can't find him anywhere."

"Why don't we check on our guest," he said with his famous crooked smile, "just to make sure he's still in his room like a good little boy?"

"You don't think that he got out, do you?" she asked, almost out pacing Judson as they hurried down the corridor to Addison's holding cabin.

"Either that or Gabe went in." He stopped short of the door. His eyes quickly scanning the door he noted that it had been unlocked. Nodding silently, Mac pulled her gun, easing the safety off and chambering a round. Motioning for Judson to stay behind her she eased the door open.

Standing in the threshold she lowered her weapon. The room was empty. There was nowhere to hide in the small room, and there was no sign that there had been a struggle. Anger once again coursed through Mackenzie=s veins as she realized that Gabe had let the lion out of its cage.

****

The knife that was firmly pressed into his rib cage was the only thing keeping Gabriel from turning on Addison as the pair moved across the moonlit deck of the Vast Explorer. He was only half surprised when Callum released him from the choke hold he'd used to drag him down the corridor to the deck. The fresh night air offered him little relief or comfort as he allowed Addison to lead him to the small inflatable boat that they used for dives.

"They know that we're missing," Gabe said, turning his head slightly to see the look on Callum's face.

"They get too close, and they die." He pushed Gabe closer to the stair case leading to the boat.

Enough, Gabe thought as he heard the words that Addison was saying. The monster had threatened him enough. He hated that the man was so brazen to think that Mac and Judson couldn't stop him. A day earlier and he would've been glad to have Mac or Judson deal with the task of getting rid of Callum Addison, but now it was something he wanted, no needed, to do.

"You'll love Italy this time of year, Gabe," he said, moving the dagger from Gabe's side.

"No," he turned to face the man just as they got to the top of the stairs, "I won't enjoy Italy." He took several angry steps toward Callum. "I won't enjoy anything you have to offer me! You think that because you slept with my mother it earns you the mantel of father of the year?!" He couldn't stop. The anger was too much, surpassing his fear of the monster in a human costume standing before him. "You're just bad memory, Callum." Gabe lashed out with his right arm catching Addison's left, knocking the dagger from the older man's iron grasp. Despite himself, Gabe smiled with pride. Mac had only taught him that move once weeks ago, and he was able to use it to disarm the man he'd been afraid to face.

Lost in his momentary reverie, Gabe never saw that Addison wasn't smiling or that Addison's shock had worn off and there was now a tightly clenched fist aimed directly at his chest. With a satisfying grunt of shock and the low groan of the air being forced from Gabe's lungs, Callum laughed. Not allowing Gabe the chance to recover his breath Callum brought the back of his left hand hard across Gabe's face; jerking his head back and splitting his lip. Droplets of blood dripped down his chin as his breath began to find him again.

*****

"Where do you suppose he took Gabe?" Mac asked putting her weapon back into its hiding place. "Hello, earth to . . . " she turned to find the hall behind her empty. "Damn it!" She took off down the corridor in time to see Judson heading for the deck.

Would it kill him to say something to me? She walked quickly toward to the staircase.

****

"Hey!" Gabriel was vaguely aware that someone had shouted in the still silence of the night. The only thing he had been aware that Addison had found the dagger and that he was being held over the rail leading to the lower deck. "Didn't I tell you to stay in your room?" Judson moved closer to the pair.

"Judson," Gabe gasped against the choking hold Callum had against his throat.

"You know, Callum," he inched closer to the older man, "I'd be rather upset if you dropped my friend over that rail."

"Where's Ms Previn?" He asked taking his eyes from his captive and locking them on Judson's.

"Mac?" His eyes surveyed the ship=s deck. "I'm sure that she's here somewhere."

"She armed?" He pulled Gabe away from the rail and into his chest, resting the dagger point against the render skin of Gabriel's now bruised throat.

"What do you think?" He hoped that Mac had found a good spot to get a shot from. There was desperation in Addison's eyes that hadn't been there the day before. What did want with his young friend? Revenge was the obvious answer, but against whom? If it had been against the crew then why try to kidnap Gabe in the middle of the night while they were still at sea? Whatever Addison had planned had to be connected to what happened when Gabe was a kid.

He didn't answer. Suddenly feeling as though his plan were falling through Callum began to move back toward the rail over looking the vast darkened waters below. If his plan were to fail then he'd just simply take Gabe to hell with him.

"Why him?" Judson followed the crazed man and his dazed hostage. "He was just a kid last time he saw you. What could he have possibly done to you?"

"I never had anything against Gabriel." He stopped a few inches from the rail. "He should've been mine. She was pregnant when she left me to go back to that hack of a lawyer husband of hers." He pulled Gabe in closer to his chest, digging the dagger tip into Gabe's throat, causing the youth the cry out in pain as blood began to bead on the tip of the dagger. He laughed at the look of horror on Judson's face.

"How's hurting him now going to fix the past?"

"He was born three months after she would've been due. She killed my baby so that she could give that son of bitch husband his own kid. He'd always hated me and by forcing his wife to have an abortion so that they could have their own baby proved it. She led me to believe from the time that Gabe was born until he was ten that he was mine. But daddy wouldn't let me near him. And the fact that he was lawyer played well for him too. I took Gabe back then because I'm his father and it was my right!"

"All right," he said mulling over the rambling=s that had just streamed from Callum's mouth, "why don't ya just talk with Gabe? He's a grown up now. He can handle what you have to say, trust me."

"We tried, and Ms. Previn almost tossed be over board."

"Did ya ever think that beating on Gabe wasn't the right way to talk with him?" He wanted to move closer to Addison and Gabe, but fear that Addison would harm his young friend.

****

Stepping onto the deck just behind the wheel house Mac spied what was going on below. Pulling her weapon from the comfort of its hiding place, Mac watched for her chance to end what Addison had started. They were close enough that she could've fired and hit Addison right between the eyes, but the manner in which he had his arms wrapped around Gabe meant that killing Addison would either seriously wound Gabe or kill him. Details, she thought as she moved to another location with a hopefully better shot. She just hoped that Gabe would forgive her.

*****

"Just before he graduated from high school I tried to see him, but his father wouldn't let me. A month later he sent me the copy of a blood test he'd had done. Much as I wanted to be Gabe's dad, I wasn't. At first I thought that I could make him mine. But he proved to me tonight that I can't." He let his grip on Gabe slip slightly.

"So then why don't you let him go. I'll still drop ya off in Italy."

The shot seared through the momentary silence of the cool night like a hunters bullet through a November morning on opening day. Judson watched for five horrified seconds as Callum faltered in his step toward the rail. The smile etched on the dying man's face was more terrifying for Judson that the fact that the man was attempting to take Gabe over the rail with him. Lunging forward with as much force as he could muster, Judson grabbed a fist full of Gabe's shirt.

********

"Just before he graduated from high school I tried to see him, but his father wouldn't let me. A month later he sent me the copy of a blood test he'd had done. Much as I wanted to be Gabe's dad, I wasn't. At first I thought that I could make him mine. But he proved to me tonight that I can't." He let his grip on Gabe slip slightly.

That was it, the moment she'd been waiting for. She had to be perfect, there was no room for error. With a softer grip on Gabe, Judson stood a chance of grabbing Gabe before Addison could drag him over the edge. Steadying her aim, Mac eased her finger onto the trigger and gently pulled back on it releasing the bullet from its home in the chamber. With unobstructed ease it soared through the air and straight into the soft flesh of Addison's back.

Oh, God. She prayed as she saw her target stager toward the rail, pulling Gabe with him. No, her mind screamed when she saw Addison fall dying over the rail still holding Gabe in his clutches.

"Judson!" She ran from her hiding place, tucking her weapon back to where she kept it. Quickly she shot out a hand wrapping her fingers tightly around Gabe's arm just as the piece of shirt in Judson's hand ripped free of its source. Carefully she helped Judson to pull Gabe up and away from the rail.

"About time." He knelt at Gabe's side.

"He's bleeding, Judson." She pulled her hand away from his neck to show Judson that their friend was hurt.

"Lets get him inside." He grabbed hold of Gabe's shoulders.

*********

"How bad is it?" she asked grabbing gauze from the first aid kit she'd grabbed on their way in.

"He needs a hospital." He took the gauze from Mac and applied it to the wound just below Gabe's throat.

"I'll call for help."