Evan smiled. “Stern of the boat, zero three hundred hours. Very clever.”
“I know.” Juliet grinned at him. “I’d forgotten how much I like this part. The thinking on my feet, figuring out ways around barriers.”
Evan brushed a strand of her now very wet hair behind her ear. “You’ve definitely got a natural talent. I hope you’ll think about that for cases in the future.”
She shrugged. “Maybe. I know I’m doing better. I’ll think about it, that’s all I can promise.”
“Sounds reasonable to me. Now let’s get back to our cabin. I think a hot shower would be in order to warm us up after all this rain.”
“Absolutely.” Juliet grabbed his arm. “And we definitely should take one together. I’d hate to be wasteful.”
Evan loved the heat building in Juliet’s eyes, but also the smile he saw in them. He picked up speed, leading them to their cabin. “Yes, let’s go do our part in saving the planet.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Juliet awoke to find someone’s hand over her mouth. Terror flooded her. Her eyes instantly flew open, but she couldn’t make out much in the dark room. One thing she knew for sure, Evan wasn’t in the bed next to her.
She immediately began fighting, grasping her assailant’s wrist and attempting to pull him closer so she could hit him. But she couldn’t get a good angle to strike, so began to claw at his face. Juliet heard a foul curse as her fingernails found skin.
It was so similar to her attack by the Avilo brothers. Juliet still couldn’t see who was in the room. Was it Heath Morel?
No matter who it was, she wasn’t going to allow it to happen again.
Juliet struggled against the hand that held her head pinned to the mattress. She attempted to pull her legs around to gain a better position.
And where was Evan? He’d been in bed with her when they’d gone to sleep a few hours ago. He wouldn’t have left without telling her.
Juliet scratched at the face again. The hand was removed for just a moment, but before she could make any sound, a fist crashed into her cheek. Blood filled her mouth.
Juliet fought to hold on to consciousness while the world spun and weaved. From across the room she heard a muffled ruckus, but couldn’t see what was going on. Was it Evan?
A crash and then silence. Had Evan been hurt? Juliet renewed her efforts against her attacker. She rolled quickly off the side of the bed, landing on her feet. She was able to get off two sharp kicks to the attacker’s midriff, but then the boat lurched and she lost her balance. Her opponent took advantage and Juliet received another blow to the jaw.
This time she couldn’t hang on to consciousness. She moaned as blackness closed in around her.
When she awoke she was being tied to a chair. They weren’t in the cabin any longer; it looked as if they were in the ship’s galley. Evan was tied to another chair, unconscious, still in his sweatpants and shirt, his head bleeding from a nasty gash near his temple.
And it wasn’t Heath Morel who had done this. It was the Ukrainians. One was tying Juliet, the other keeping watch at the galley door.
“Vince Cady isn’t going to stand for this, you know. His men will be here any second to break up this little party.” Juliet tried to make the words as clear as possible, but it was difficult with her swelling jaw.
“I don’t think Mr. Cady is going to know about this at all. At least not until it is too late.” The man’s accent was thick.
“Our room was bugged. Cady’s men are probably on their way right now.”
“You mean bugged with these?” He held out two transmitting devices in his hand. “I’m sure Mr. Cady’s security team will figure out there is a problem, but will most likely blame it on the storm.”
Juliet was afraid they were right.
“We want the drone codes,” the man said.
“Look, maybe we can talk about a sale. But Bob and I spent our buyer’s money to get the codes. We can’t just give them to you. Our reputation would be shot.” Juliet knew she needed to stall. To come up with a plan.
“More than just your reputation will be shot if you do not provide us with the codes. Or maybe not shot.” The man pulled out a knife, but instead of using it on Juliet, he walked over to Evan’s unconscious form. “Let’s see if we can get your husband to wake up.”
He began poking his knife into Evan’s shoulder. Not deep, but enough to cause the wounds to bleed through his shirt. Evan moaned and began to awaken.
“Look, fine, stop, okay?” Juliet struggled against the zip ties that held her to the chair, but there was no give. She saw Evan’s eyes open, glazed over in pain. The Ukrainian poked the knife into his shoulder again, twisting it. Evan’s lips clamped together and he sucked air through his nose.
“Stop! Okay? Just stop,” Juliet pleaded. She couldn’t stand to see Evan in that much pain, but she knew she couldn’t give the codes to the Ukrainians. “You need the briefcase Cady gave us.”
Juliet didn’t tell him that they’d already downloaded all the drone codes off the computer that was inside the briefcase and wiped the computer clean. She and Evan had put the codes on a hard drive in preparation to handing it off to Omega at 3:00 a.m. It now rested inside Juliet’s pillowcase.
What time was it now? Maybe she wouldn’t have to rely on Cady’s security team to get their act together. Maybe the Omega agents would soon be on board. When Juliet and Evan didn’t meet them at the rear of the ship, the agents would come looking for them, right? That’s what Juliet’s brothers would do. Although she knew Omega wouldn’t be sending Sawyer or Cameron.
