Chapter 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Evie lay in the center of the bed and stared up at the low-lying ceiling. The entire left side of her face throbbed to the beat of her heart, and the corners of her eyes felt uncomfortably tight from the dried-up tears her earlier pity party had created.

But she was done with that now. Done with the tears and cursing her spectacularly crappy luck. Feeling sorry for herself hadn’t helped her when she’d been holed up in that Godforsaken cave, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to help her escape this freaking boat.

Actually, she’d put an end to her self-wallowing sob session several hours before. Since then, Evie had spent the passing of time trying her best to think of a way out.

There was no way for her to know what dangers lay waiting behind that closed door. But just as she had before, Evie knew she had to at least try. Step one was to convince the next person who came into this room to cut the ties holding her captive.

Several minutes passed by, and for a moment, Evie started to think no one would come. But then she heard a shuffling noise from just outside the room. A beat later, the door opened, and the man who’d brought her food earlier appeared.

In one hand was a plate holding a slice of pepperoni pizza. And in the other was a glass with ice and what appeared to be some sort of clear soda.

“You spit in my face again, and you and I are going to have a problem,” the man warned.

“I won’t,” Evie promised. “I promise.”

His suspicious black gaze met hers. With a quick nod of his big head, he set the plate and glass down onto the nightstand, but Evie spoke up just as he started to reach for the pizza.

“But first!” She caught his attention, giving him the best puppy-dog eyes she could muster. “Please, I really need to use the restroom.”

Thanks to her achingly full bladder, she didn’t have to pretend to be ready to burst.

“I don’t have permission to?—”

“I’m not kidding,” Evie spoke the truth. “I’m seriously about to pee all over this bed.” When he continued to hesitate, she let her tears of desperation break through. “Please,” she whispered, not bothering to fight the genuine quivering in her chin. “I promise I’ll be good. I just need to use the bathroom.”

While grumbling something under his breath, the man reached for a small knife sheathed at one side of his waist. Evie felt a hopeful spike in her rising pulse because…

It worked! He’s really going to cut me loose!

Keeping her excitement under wraps was much harder than she’d have ever imagined, but she managed to school her expression so he wouldn’t suspect her of having ulterior motives.

He held her left wrist steady with one hand and the knife with the other. The man’s upper body hovered directly over her face, his cologne unable to fully mask the scent of sweat as he slid the blade of the knife between her skin and the plastic tie.

Evie held her breath and waited, the anticipation enough to drive her certifiably mad. She was so busy trying to think three steps ahead that she hadn’t expected the sudden rush of pain that immediately filled both arms the second she was freed.

A small whimper escaped before she could stop it, and she cursed the show of weakness. Then she remembered guys like him probably viewed every woman as inferior, and she pushed the useless thought out of her head.

It didn’t matter what this man thought about her. The only thing she needed to focus on was getting the hell out of here and back home.

To Beckett.

Please, God. Please, help me find a way back to the man I love.

“Come on.” The man grabbed hold of Evie’s arm and pulled her to her feet. “Make it quick.”

“Okay, okay.” She stumbled the first few steps. “Please. I haven’t walked for several hours, and my legs need a moment to adjust.”

A deep, frustrated sigh filled the room, but he granted her request and stopped moving long enough for her to regain her footing.

“Thank you,” Evie offered sincerely, even going as far as to look up at the man and smile.

The only response she got was a deep grunt and another tug on her arm, but at least he didn’t get angry or strike out at her, so that was progress…right?

“Stay here,” he ordered when they got to the bathroom door. “You move, I tie you back up, and you can lay in your own filth.”

“I won’t move.” She shook her head. “Promise.”

Evie kept that promise, staying stalk still as the man gave the bathroom a cursory glance. Checking for anything she could use as a weapon, she assumed. Unfortunately for her, there didn’t seem to be any.

“Go.” The man returned. “I’ll be right outside this door.”

In other words, even if she thought about trying to run, she’d have to get past him to escape.

Good thing my plan doesn’t include trying to sneak past you at the door.

No, she had another plan. One that was simplistically desperate and probably the worst Hail Mary she’d ever seen. But Evie was desperate, and after hours of wracking her brain to come up with something better, in the end…it came down to this.

Here goes nothing.

“I’ll try to hurry,” she promised as she stepped past him on her way into the other room.

Elegant in its design, the spacious restroom was one more bit of proof that this yacht was definitely high end. A full-size garden tub faced her from the wall opposite the door. To Evie’s left were his and hers sinks fitted with expensive fixtures and elaborate mirrors.

A stand-up shower filled the space between the end of the long vanity and the edge of the curved tub. And snuggled all the way back behind a small, partial wall was?—

The toilet!

As if her body somehow knew relief was mere feet from where she stood, Evie’s need to pee grew exponentially urgent, and she raced across the room. Once she was finished taking care of business, muscle memory had her automatically reaching for the toilet’s knob.

Thankfully she stopped herself just in time, otherwise her entire plan would have been blown clear out of the water.

Water? Really?

Evie mentally slapped her inner voice for pointing out the poorly executed pun. But yeah, if she’d flushed the toilet like a normal human being, the one idea she had to get herself out of this mess would have been ruined.

She stood, returning her panties and jeans to their rightful place as quietly as she could. Moving with what she prayed was the same kind of stealth Beckett and his team used in the field, Evie carefully lifted the tank’s porcelain lid.

Her eyes immediately looked to the locked door before gently setting the lid down onto the top of the bowl. After making sure it wasn’t going to fall, she then raced to unhook the tiny chain connecting the refill tube to the round, rubber flapper.

Evie watched as the string of metal links sank to the bottom of the tank. She smiled to herself, but then shook the celebratory moment away. She wasn’t out of the woods yet.

Not even freaking close.

Using the same slow, quiet movements as before, she returned the heavy lid to its rightful place atop the shiny white tank. When she was finished, Evie went to the sink and washed her hands with the small bar of soap next to the faucet before taking a moment to soak in her alarming appearance.

Curls sprang from every direction, and her shirt was full of wrinkles. The skin beneath her eyes had grown puffy and shadowed, and there was a sizeable bruise forming on her tender, swollen cheek.

Tears threatened to form, but this time, Evie forced every one of them away. She had a plan, and by God, she was going to stick to it. Even if it meant dying while trying to escape.

I love you, Beckett. With every single beat of my heart, I love you. Please know, I did this for us.

She didn’t let herself think about the fact that he couldn’t hear her. Because in Evie’s mind…in that moment…she needed to believe that he could.

Her feet carried her back to the frosted bathroom door. Evie unlocked it and turned the knob but stole just a second to draw in a deep, steeling breath. She opened the door, and as promised, her bulldog of a guard was standing in the very same spot as before.

“We have a problem,” she announced with a very serious tone.

“If you’re on your period, use some fucking toilet paper.”

Asshole.

“It’s not that. It’s the toilet.” She glanced behind her. “It won’t flush.”

“And?”

“How long is your boss planning on keeping me here? Another hour? Two? Twelve? A few days?” She did her best to get through to him.

“What’s your point?”

“My point is, if we don’t get it to flush, it won’t take long for this entire room to start smelling really bad. I’m assuming you probably don’t want to have to face that every time you come in here…do you?”

The twisting of his upper lip was the first sign Evie had that her plan might actually work.

“Fine. But you’re going to come into the bathroom with me and stand right the fuck next to me while I take a look.”

That’s the only way my plan will work, big guy.

“Of course.” Evie gave a dutiful nod.

She followed the angry man back into the bathroom and over to the awaiting toilet. Unlike her, he was rough and loud, pulling the tank’s lid off with a grumble, letting it clang loudly against the bowl’s closed lid.

“It’s just the fucking chain.” He reached into the reserved water to reattach what she’d recently undone.

Now!

With his dominant hand submerged, Evie took full advantage of the moment and reached for the asshole’s gun. She yanked as hard as she could, nearly stumbling back in the process, but even as the man’s startled form swung around to stop her?—

“Freeze!” Evie shouted, taking several steps backward to widen the space between them. The gun was much heavier than she’d imagined, and it was impossible to conceal the trembling in her hands.

She’d only shot a gun a few times, and that was back when Preston and his so-called friends had fancied themselves future marksmen. She’d accompanied them to the range, and that’s where she’d learned the basics of firing a pistol.

“That was very, very stupid.” The man’s deep voice sounded as he held out a hand. “Give me back the gun before you hurt yourself.”

“I don’t plan on hurting myself,” Evie warned. “I only plan on hurting you.”

She didn’t. Not really. She only wanted to be free.

“You have no idea what you’re doing, little girl.”

“Maybe not, but I am the one with the gun.”

Anger flourished behind his deadly gaze, and she could tell he wanted nothing more than to kill her. But unless he somehow managed to get the gun from her, that wasn’t going to happen.

“What do you want?” he asked, as if he actually cared.

“I want you to stay right where you are and don’t even think about following me.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“If you don’t, I will shoot you.”

Please, don’t make me shoot you.

“You’re not going to shoot.” He scoffed. “Look at how shaky you are. In fact…” He started walking her way. “I bet I could walk right up to you, and take that gun from your poor little han?—”

A deafening blast filled the small room as he reached for the gun with the intent of taking it away. Evie didn’t even remember pulling the trigger, but she must have, because with her very next breath, the man stumbled back and fell to the floor.

Bright red blood began to seep onto the tiled floor beneath him as he lay still with his eyes closed. There was a growing stain in his shirt surrounding a singed hole in the man’s upper right shoulder, and…

Holy shit!

She’d just shot him. Actually freaking shot him! His chest still moved with slow, shallow breaths, so he wasn’t dead. Yet. Still, Evie hadn’t planned on shooting anyone in her attempts to escape.

What did I just do?

Another thought forced its way through the massive shock of what she’d done. The gunshot had to have alerted others, which meant Evie needed to get as far away from this room as she could.

Or a bleeding man was going to be the least of her worries.

She spun on her heels and ran out the door. She closed the bathroom door behind her, hoping to deter the discovery of the carnage being left behind.

Her footfalls were silent as she made her way to the cabin door. The gun in her right hand shook as she opened the door with her left. Evie’s knees nearly buckled with relief when she found the hallway empty, and after a quick back and forth about which direction to go, she decided to go right.

She moved quickly along the narrow corridor leading to a set of stairs several yards away. As she jogged closer and closer to what she hoped was her freedom, Evie passed by a handful of other cabins on the way.

A noise sounded from somewhere behind, and she turned her head to check over her shoulder. Evie’s heart leaped into her throat when she spotted the man she’d shot, the wound in his shoulder still bleeding as he ran toward her with a murderous expression.

“You fucking bitch!” He sprinted as fast as his heavy muscles would take him.

No!

Evie turned back around and sprinted toward the stairs. The gun in her hand felt even heavier than before, but she didn’t dare drop it. It was her only means of defense, and if she lost it?—

A wall of muscle slammed into her from behind less than three feet from the bottom of the stairs. Evie hit the floor with a bone-jarring thud, pain radiating throughout her entire body.

The gun she’d been so determined never to let go flew from her hand and skidded across the floor.

“No!” she cried out, reaching for it with every ounce of strength she possessed.

She twisted and turned beneath the man’s massive form, scrambling with all her might to get free. But the sheer weight of his body kept her from moving even a single inch, and before Evie knew what was happening, he was sliding himself up her back, moving himself closer to…

The gun!

If he got to it before she did, Evie knew she’d end up dead. So the second his body cleared hers enough to reposition, she took off in a fitful rage.

The base of her throat burned with an animalistic growl as she jumped onto the man’s broad back. They both went for the fallen gun, his meaty fingers reached the pistol at the exact same time as hers.

A fight to the death ensued, and Evie knew deep down this was it. There could only be one winner in this deadly game, and unless she was the one who got the gun first?—

The pistol was ripped from her hand, and she was spun roughly onto her back. The man she’d been fighting stood at her feet, the gun’s barrel pointed straight at her head.

“Please, don’t!” She raised a useless palm in front of her face, as if flesh and bone could stop a bullet’s penetration.

Truth was, there wasn’t anything she could do now that would prevent her impending death. All she could do was lay there and wait.

The man stared down at her, looking her square in the eyes. And without so much as a hint of humanity or remorse, he started to pull the trigger.

“No!”

Evie turned her head away and squeezed her eyes shut. A loud blast filled the entire hallway. The sound eerily similar to the one she herself had created mere moments before.

She waited for the pain to strike. To feel the white hot fire she’d read about in stories where victims had been shot.

But there was no fire. There was no pain. There was only?—

The man who’d been a hair’s breadth away from ending her life fell dead to the floor beside her. Evie gasped when she saw the gaping exit wound that had decimated the front of the man’s throat.

And as she remained where she was, still frozen with fear, she realized the eyes that had once been filled with anger and hate were now completely void of sight. Because the man they belonged to was dead, killed not by Evie’s hand, but by?—

“Landy?” Her eyes grew wide with shock as she turned to see the person responsible for saving her life.

“Evelynn, I?—”

“Oh, thank God!” She rolled to her side to push herself to her feet.

The dead man’s knife came into view.

Evie thought about the size of the boat they were on, and others who may be on board. So as she moved into a standing position, she grabbed the sharp weapon at the last minute, carefully slipping it between her waistband and her lower belly. With the hem of her shirt concealing it from plain sight, Evie got herself back onto her feet and started running straight for her family’s friend.

She didn’t bother asking Landy how he’d found her. All Evie cared about was that he was here, and he’d just saved her when she’d been seconds away from?—

“I’m going to need you to stop right there.” Landy lifted the gun still clutched in his hand, a look of resignation falling over the man’s face.

She stumbled to a stop in the middle of the narrow hallway, nearly tripping over herself in the process. “Landy, what are you…It’s me, Landy! It’s Evie! Now, put down the gun, and let’s get the hell out of here!”

“I’m sorry.” He shook his head with a nervous lick of his lips. “It wasn’t…it wasn’t supposed to end up this way. You were never supposed to get hurt.”

She was never supposed to get…

“Landy, what are you talking about? You know what? It doesn’t even matter. Just put the gun away, and you and I can just walk away from whatever all this is.”

“We can’t.” He stared back at her, his voice wooden and free of emotion. “It’s too late for that now.”

“No, it’s not! Whatever this is…whatever you’re involved with…I can help you! My dad and I can?—”

“You and I both know Phillip’s not your father,” he revealed surprising knowledge of her secret. “I just wish I’d known sooner.”

There were so many thoughts swirling through her overwhelmed mind, Evie was having a hard time trying to remain focused on her top priority, which was getting the hell off this yacht.

“You’re right,” she acknowledged what the man had just said. “Phillip’s not my real dad, but he is your best friend. So whatever trouble you’re in, I know he’ll do whatever he can to help you.”

“He can’t help me!” Landy shouted, becoming more agitated than Evie had ever seen him.

With the gun held tightly in his hand, the man she’d known nearly her entire life began pacing the short distance between the hallway’s long, narrow walls. She watched, trying to follow his ramblings as he began muttering about owed money and deals with what she gathered were some very unsavory characters.

“No one can help.” He gave several jerky shakes of his head. “Not anymore.”

“Landy—”

“You weren’t supposed to get hurt. You were never supposed to get hurt! And those guys in that cave…they weren’t really going to kill you and those girls. They were just trying to scare you, so you’d get Phillip to?—”

“What did you just say?”

Evie’s question was little more than a whisper, because she was too stunned in that moment to muster anything more. She had to have heard the man wrong. Landy was like an uncle to her.

No way was he involved in what happened to her and her students in Afghanistan. After all, he was her father’s oldest and most trusted friend.

Surely, he wasn’t saying what it sounded like he was…

“I’m sorry.” He stared back at her, a broken reflection of the man she used to know and finally confessed his full truth. “I got into trouble. Financial trouble. So I did what everyone in my circle does.”

“You borrowed the money you needed.”

Landy nodded. “Eight million dollars.”

“Landy…”

“I don’t need your pity, Evelynn,” he spat. “I didn’t want anyone’s fucking pity. That’s why I went to the men I did to get what I needed. I couldn’t let anyone in our world know I’d messed up the way I had.”

“Did my…” She cleared the near-miss from her throat. “Did Phillip know?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I made sure to keep him out of it.”

“Except the part where you tried extorting ten million dollars by way of terrorists demanding a ransom, though…right?”

Because those horrifying pieces were finally falling into place.

“The men I owe money to have connections all over the world.”

“Including within the Taliban.” Evie surmised.

Her stomach retched, and if there’d been even an ounce of food in her system, she would’ve vomited right where she stood. Not only was the man she considered family behind the first abduction, but he was also the reason she was here?

“When I found out about your trip, I saw a way out. The people I owe said they’d take care of things on their end…but then I got a call that Phillip had refused to pay the ransom. The next phone call after that was to tell me the men they’d hired to take you had been killed, and you and the girls had been rescued.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, Landy.” Anger quickly replaced Evie’s shock from the man’s betrayal. “Let me guess…the guys you owe money to told you to try again. But here’s the thing…if Phillip didn’t pay the first time, what makes you think he’ll give a shit about saving me now?”

“That’s just it.” Landy shrugged one of his shoulders. “He won’t be paying me to save you. He’s going to pay me, so I don’t tell the world the truth about the kind of man he is.”

“You’d do that?” She shifted her stance slightly. “You’d expose the fact that I’m not really his daughter?”

“That, and the fact that he was ready to willingly let you die, rather than lose a penny of his precious fucking money.”

Evie huffed out a humorless laugh. “Look at where you are, Landy. You act as if you’re not just as bad as him.”

“I’m not!” The man yelled his denial. “I’m only doing this because I have to! If he’d paid the ransom from the get-go, if he hadn’t refused to pay those terrorist assholes, we wouldn’t even be here!”

“We’re only here because you borrowed money from a bunch of well-connected criminals! ”

The hallway grew silent as the two continued standing off with one another. But it wasn’t much of a standoff, really. Not when he was the one holding the gun.

Only a fool brings a knife to a gunfight.

“It doesn’t matter,” Landy spoke up again. “What’s done is done.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I have no choice but to see this through. And since the team that rescued you killed the men working for those I owe money to, they’re asking for the full ten million for themselves.”

“And if you don’t find a way to get them their money?—”

“I’m dead.”

Tears fell from the corners of Evie’s eyes as she realized she’d been nothing more than a pawn in everyone else’s games…

The man she’d once thought was her father had taken the resentment he felt toward her mother’s affair out on Evie. As a child. As an adult.

Landy had used her in his first attempt to extort money from Phillip to pay off his ill-gotten debts. And when that didn’t work, he arranged for her to be kidnapped a second time with the intent of blackmailing his partner and friend into paying for Landy’s silence.

But there was part of what she’d learned that didn’t make sense. And with nothing left to lose, Evie went for broke and asked the man holding the gun?—

“Why am I really here?”

“I just told you why you are here. I need you to get Phillip to pay?—”

“Actually, you don’t.” Evie stared back at him. “You said you were going to force him to buy your silence, and then use the money he pays you to pay off the debt you owe. So I’ll ask you again…” She took a daring step closer. “Why am I here?”

Guilt clouded the man’s weary gaze as he uttered the final part of his plan. “Paying off the people I owe still leaves me with nothing. I need…” He cleared what sounded like real emotion from his throat before telling her, “I’ll still need money to live on after that.”

Money to live on…money to live on…money to…

“Oh, my god.”

“Evie, I’m so sorry. I told you, I have no?—”

“You had a fucking choice, Landy!” she screamed the uncharacteristic profanity. “You always have a choice! And you’ve already made yours, haven’t you?”

“Evelynn, please?—”

“Haven’t you?”

Landy’s silver head moved in a slow, shameful nod. “Yes,” he whispered, still meeting her furious gaze. “A man has already agreed to buy you. He’s scheduled to arrive tomorrow night.”