Chapter 27
27
Gunfire echoed in her ears. Her heart jumped to her throat.
“Hawk!”
He dropped behind the desk, and she couldn’t see him.
“Hawk!” Her screams went unanswered. Had he been shot? Was he okay? She tried to break away from Cole and disarm him, but all muscle and ultra-skilled, he easily outmaneuvered her and pulled her closer to him to haul her out of the office. How could she have been so focused on John’s words that Cole had slipped into the room and grabbed her?
My mistake could cost everything! It could have already cost John and Hawk their lives. Anguish engulfed her. “Let me go! Did you just shoot your brother? Are you crazy?”
She wasn’t going to let him get away with it. Get away with her. She’d fought this guy before. He dragged her down the hallway, because no, she was not going willingly. Her chest tightened with grief that threatened to paralyze her. Strength tried to drain from her limbs.
Cole was winning this fight, but she wouldn’t give up. Remi tried to twist her arm out of his ironclad grip as he marched her out the door and into the tumultuous weather. She angled her face to look at him. Take in his features. He’d dropped the whole mask thing because maybe at this point, it was worthless to hide his identity.
“Did you kill him? Your own brother? How could you?” She seethed the words.
Her whole body shook. Tears choked in her throat. She couldn’t afford to be weak.
Hawk could still be alive. I can save him if I can get free.
“Let me go. I don’t remember anything, so all of this is for nothing. You hear me? I don’t know what happened to you, but you broke Hawk’s heart.” She refused to let the sob caught in her throat break free.
Cole continued to urge her along the pier, and she couldn’t forget that he also aimed a handgun at her. He was a skilled assassin, and Remi couldn’t fight him and win at this moment. But like Hawk had said, she would live to fight another day, or maybe later this same day. She’d just have to watch for her chance.
“Tie your ankles,” he said.
“What?”
“Put the plastic ties around your ankles.”
He rested his handgun against his chest. Now wasn’t the moment for her to make an escape, but plastic ties now would mean a tougher escape later. He then tied her wrists, never once looking her in the eyes. Then lifted her over his shoulder. He climbed onto the boat with ease as if Remi was a ten-pound bag of russets. Then he set her in a chair inside the pilothouse.
He stared down at her. “Are you going to give me any trouble? Because I don’t need you awake for this ride.”
What did that mean? “No trouble.” At least not yet.
He untied the boat and then hopped on, started the engine, and steered away from the pier. She refused to let tears surge, so instead gave him her best deadly look, which he couldn’t see with his back to her—as if he would be intimidated by her if he could see.
“Why are you doing this?”
But Cole was focused on getting away from the island and apparently the police. In the distance, she spotted the harbor police finally responding to the calls for help and closing in on the island.
Too little. Too late.
She glanced behind her. Please, please, see this boat. Come after this boat. But no one was following yet.
Rain and wind picked up.
Closing her eyes, she prayed.
Lord, help me! Save Hawk and John. Please make this situation right. Too much is going wrong.
Remi realized she had felt abandoned for a good long while. She tried to ignore it, but deep in her heart she was alone. No, that wasn’t true. God was with her. He would never leave her. But right now, he felt far away in all of this.
How has it all come to this?
How had the bad guy gotten her? Okay, so maybe those tears would come now. But they were angry tears. She closed her eyes and thought of her favorite Scripture passage, the one she had on the wall in her office. She had no doubt that God had sent her to Cedar Trails Lodge because, while there, she’d gotten closer to him. She’d taken the amazing photographs and come to love the ocean. But at the same time, fear had blocked her memories. Even though she was drawn to the ocean, something dark lurked there, waiting for her.
Maybe ... maybe that’s why, when Hawk had pulled her up from falling, she’d had the sudden image in her head of a desert. Her memory had been wrong. That had to be it. Her mind could not go to the ocean, so instead it produced a desert, but a hand reaching for her as she climbed a ladder had been correct if she could believe anything.
Cole accelerated and she held on for dear life. Sea spray slapped her in the face, adding to the chill factor. Remi focused again on the Scripture.
“The waves roar, O L ORD , the waves roar, the waves roar and crash. Above the sound of the surging water, and the mighty waves of the sea, the L ORD sits enthroned in majesty.” Psalm 93:3–4.
God, you are still on your throne. Please help me.
Cole sped across the choppy water that jolted and bounced the vessel. The boat slammed into a bigger wave, and Remi was thrown from the seat.
She grimaced in pain but didn’t yelp.
Surprisingly, Cole turned and glanced at her. “Are you all right?”
A strange question coming from him. She was too stunned to think of the right response. No. I’m not okay, you jerk! I’m tied up. You abducted me. It’s cold. I don’t have a coat. Let me go , you murderer.
She said nothing at all, to give him a taste of his own medicine.
He glanced back again, his expression one of concern. “You’re cold. We’re almost there and I can’t stop.”
Where was he taking her?
Then another glance. “You have to remember before it’s too late.”
Wasn’t it already too late? She couldn’t make her brain comply.
Having fallen out of the chair, she was still on the deck. He hadn’t left the helm to put her back and instead remained focused on escape. With her arms and legs tied, where was she going to go?
Maybe he wouldn’t notice if she inched away. Remi half slid, half crawled away. The rain and wind lashed her once she was out from under the protection of the partially enclosed pilothouse. Then she crawled up onto a bench next to the rail. With the bouncing vessel, she feared at any moment she might be thrown into Puget Sound. Cautiously, she peered over the rail, hoping to see another boat that she could somehow signal for rescue.
She tried the trick she’d read about to free herself, but she couldn’t pop the plastic ties off. She should crawl back into the wheelhouse before she froze to death or Cole caught her out here. Cole glanced over his shoulder. He’d caught her, but he didn’t leave the helm to move her back closer to him. He was trusting those plastic ties to keep her close. She took the opportunity to glare at him. He returned his focus to the rough waters and continued speeding north. Where was he taking her?
To Charles Whitman? The name wasn’t jogging anything in her memory. What was it going to take for her mind to free the information? Maybe she had no memories that pertained to this situation, none that were important anyway.
Remi shifted to peer over the rail again.
Another boat chased them.
Hawk! Hawk was alive, he’d survived. The gunshot had merely been meant to send him into hiding. Cole couldn’t lose the guy. Hawk wouldn’t give up. His determination infused her with hope.
And neither would Remi. She might have been haunted by her past, attacked and abducted, but now she was more determined than ever. She doubted Cole realized that his relentless pursuit, his psychological games, only made her stronger.
Remi carefully balanced and stood on the deck, hoping that Hawk would see her. She was counting on him to watch her make a risky move.
The boat hit a wave and flew up into the air, tossing her up as well, then suddenly swerved, cutting to the left so that she landed in the water. The shock of cold rolled through her. Heart pounding, she sucked in a breath before her body sank. While jumping out of the boat had been her plan, she’d wanted to make the choice of when and how. She kicked her bound legs, but it wasn’t enough to keep her above the rippling waves that pounded her down and under.