“I don’t know,” Caitlyn said. “This is all just…unfathomable. I was supposed to be running your anniversary party. We should’ve been slicing the cake now and having a champagne toast. I never thought any of this could happen—it’s something straight out of a nightmare.”
“I’m so sorry you and everyone else got dragged into this. We had NCIS agents guarding us, and they assured us things were under control. Believe me, my husband never would’ve agreed to this party if we thought there was danger. Damn it,” she said, growing frustrated as she worked at the knot. “We can’t just sit here helpless though.”
“Maybe they forgot about us,” Caitlyn hedged.
“Yeah. Right. I think this is finally starting to loosen a bit.” She froze and quickly shifted away from Caitlyn as they heard footsteps approaching. Caitlyn wished like hell that she’d simply jumped off the yacht earlier when the armed men first boarded it. After they’d pulled her from the dining room, they’d frisked her, taken her cell phone, and then tied her up. She’d been shocked when they’d brought Evelyn into the cabin shortly afterward but had to admit, she was relieved not to be alone.
A man she hadn’t seen before burst into the cabin, cursing. “Your husband is wearing on my patience,” he seethed, storming over toward Evelyn. “The information he told us was wrong. A lie! You’re coming with me so he knows I’m not messing around.”
Evelyn gasped as the man yanked her to her feet. She couldn’t very well walk with her ankles bound together, and she cowered back as the man pulled out a knife. “I’ll cut the rope so we can take you to him. And then I’ll start cutting clothes from your body. Let’s see how uncooperative he is when his wife is threatened.”
Caitlyn jumped when he sliced through the ropes binding Evelyn’s ankles. The woman was shaking but hadn’t been hurt. Yet. Her eyes darted to Caitlyn’s as the man sheathed his knife. They were filled with terror when she’d seemed so stoic only moments ago. The guy grabbed Evelyn’s arm, yanking her along with him as they moved toward the door. He looked back at Caitlyn, his eyes blazing. “You’re next,” he threatened. “Fucking giving us bad intel,” he muttered. “Admiral Rice is a dead man.”
The door shut behind them, and Caitlyn couldn’t hold back the small sob that escaped her throat. Evelyn hadn’t gotten anywhere with untying her ropes, and Caitlyn was still sitting beside the bed, unable to move. She looked down at her wrists in dismay.
Had Harper gotten her text earlier? Were the police or Navy or anyone else coming up with a plan right now to rescue them? How long was she going to have to sit in this damn cabin?
Her skin was raw from where the ropes bound her. She shifted, trying to swipe a stray tear from her cheek with her shoulder. She was not going to sit here crying. No way. No how. Caitlyn was an event planner. She dealt with unpredictable situations all the time. She improvised. She wouldn’t let some crazed assholes kill her on a damn yacht. This should’ve been one of the biggest moments of her career. San Diego was filled with Navy personnel, and if she started planning events for their family celebrations, she’d have a client list a mile long. She’d worked too hard to let them finish her off here.
Closing her eyes, she leaned her head back against the mattress. It had to be at least ten o’clock at night now. Maybe later. “Think,” she muttered to herself. “Where could I hide?” She tried to recall all the nooks and crannies of the boat. There’d been some storage type benches on the deck. But if she somehow escaped and crawled into one of those, she wouldn’t have air for very long. Besides, if someone put anything on top of the bench, she’d be trapped.
There were other small storage areas on the yacht. Again, it would be easy to trap her there though. There were other cabins. The dining area. The kitchen. The wheeled cart that the cake had been on. She was a petite woman, but it would be cramped as hell hiding on that cart or underneath any of the tables.
All of that was assuming she could escape.
Shifting her legs, she awkwardly reached down, trying to pick at the knots tying the rope at her ankles. Her wrists might’ve been bound together, but she could still use her fingers. And maybe she could pull at the rope around her wrists with her teeth. They’d be back for her after they argued with the admiral some more. Would they really hurt Evelyn?
She couldn’t worry about that right now. First, she needed to get free. To get out of this cabin and hide. Everything else would have to come later.
Chapter 10
Troy looked out across the inky black ocean, the boat they were on smoothly cutting through the water. The full moon provided some light, and the lights from San Diego shone in the distance. The team all had on night-vision goggles, but when they dove in, they’d rely on their instruments to accurately
