Page 11 of Finding Elodie
“Be careful. You can’t win a gunfight with a knife,” Scott told her.
Amazingly, Elodie chuckled. “Is that some ancient saying or something?”
“No, common sense,” he answered.
Elodie could hear the humor in his tone. And for just a second, she felt…normal. As if she and Scott were two people who’d met online or something and were getting to know each other. But then his next words snapped her back to reality.
“Do what you need to do to stay hidden,” Scott told her. “Do not let them find you, Rachel. Okay?”
“Okay,” she whispered.
“This is gonna be over soon.”
“I hope so.”
“I know so.”
“I’d always heard you guys were cocky, but I have to say, it’s kind of refreshing right about now.”
“It’s not being cocky if it’s true.” Then his voice lowered. “I’m sorry about your friends.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ll talk to you soon—and see you soon, as well. Just try not to shank me or anyone on my team, would ya?”
Amazingly, Elodie chuckled. “I’ll try.”
“Mustang out.”
Elodie put the radio back in her pocket and listened for any sign of the pirates coming down into her area. When she heard only that same eerie nothingness of the engines silenced, she headed back into the hallway with the storage rooms. She had the perfect hiding place. She’d thought of it a few weeks ago but had forgotten it until now.
She went into the smallest of the pantries and took a deep breath before reaching a hand toward the shelving units. She carefully climbed up to the top shelf, a good eight feet off the floor and at least three feet deep. She moved boxes from the back to the front and shimmied herself behind them. It was a good defensive position if she was spotted, although the wooden shelves wouldn’t stop a bullet. But hopefully the pirates would never know she was there, hiding in the dark, even if they searched the room.
Putting her head down on her hands, Elodie closed her eyes and prayed for the day to pass quickly. The sooner night fell, the better, because that meant help would arrive.
Chapter Three
Mustang reviewed the list of employees on the Asaka Express. Slate had marked those men he believed had been on the bridge, and thus had likely been killed, leaving just two officers and all of the engineers unaccounted for. Along with Rachel Walters.
They’d received a list of relatives of everyone onboard, as well as copies of the rudimentary background checks that had been done on everyone. Everything looked copasetic…except for Rachel’s.
“There’s nothing in her background beyond three years ago,” Pid said.
Mustang nodded.
Everything listed was pretty generic. Her college graduation year, the fact that her parents were both deceased and she had no siblings. She’d been working at a restaurant in Los Angeles before taking the job aboard the Asaka Express. There was a glowing letter of recommendation, supposedly from the owner of the restaurant where she’d worked, but when Pid had run that man’s name, he’d not been able to find any record of him owning any kind of restaurant anywhere in the country.
“Remember when we asked her name and she stumbled over it?” Midas asked.
“She’s not who she says she is.” Aleck pointed out.
“But does that make her an accomplice to what’s going on now?” Jag asked.
“Can we please stop talking about her as if she’s in cahoots with the damn pirates?” Mustang asked in frustration.
“Look, none of us really think she helped set this up,” Aleck said reasonably. “But everything we’ve found so far leads us to believe she’s keeping some big secrets.”
“It would make sense that she took a job on a cargo ship if she’s trying to hide from someone,” Slate said.
