Page 96 of Finding Elodie
Her instincts kicked in, and she spun and bolted for the stairs that led up to the wheelhouse.
She knew the door wouldn’t stop Steven for long, and she was literally in the middle of nowhere. There was no place to hide on the small boat, not like when she was on the Asaka Express and had endless places to hide from the pirates.
“Elodie!” Steven called out, and she shivered again…
Then realized he’d used her real name. He hadn’t called her Melody.
Her heart sank.
Fuck. Paul Columbus had found her. Steven wasn’t him, of course, but he was obviously a trusted member of the family.
Adrenaline coursed through her body as she looked around the wheelhouse. There was no way she could get back to shore before Steven, or whatever his name was, burst into the small space. He was going to kill her. She knew that as easily as she knew her name.
He confirmed it with his next taunting words.
“You can’t get away, Elodie. This is it. You’ve had a good run, but your time is up. You knew you’d never get away from us.”
Elodie looked at the small side window in the wheelhouse and reached for the latch. She wasn’t going down without a fight. She had too much to live for. She had Scott. And friends. A life. A few months ago, she might’ve given in, but not now.
She wiggled her upper body out the window and managed to get her feet out and under her without falling off the side of the boat. There was a narrow ledge around the upper part of the boat, and she shimmied around it, frantically trying to come up with a plan. It was only then that she remembered the emergency location beacon Kahoni and Perry had installed on the boat, just in case. It would automatically be triggered to transmit their location if the ship sank, but it could also be manually activated from the wheelhouse.
But it was too late to go back. She saw Steven’s head pop through the window she’d just climbed out of. He laughed at her.
“Where are you gonna go, Elodie? There’s nowhere to go. Look around you, you’re not gonna survive this. Come back inside and I’ll make your death quick and painless.”
Elodie inched farther away from him until she was overlooking the back deck. Looking down, she once again saw Kai lying on the deck, blood pooling under him. She wanted to cry. This was exactly what she didn’t want to happen. Someone else getting hurt or dying because of her.
Panic began to set in. What was she going to do? She had very few options here. She had no weapon, and Steven could easily overpower her. She didn’t believe for a second that he’d kill her quickly. The nasty gleam in his eyes belied his words.
“Hey, girl.”
She jerked in surprise and saw Steven looking up at her from the lower deck. He’d moved fast, getting from the wheelhouse to the deck seemingly in seconds.
She scooted around the ledge once again, so Steven wouldn’t have a direct line of fire if he decided to shoot her while she was up here.
She looked out across the water and could barely make out Diamond Head. Kai had played right into his hands, bringing them out even farther on the water. And since it was Sunday, there weren’t nearly the amount of fishing boats running today. Quickly glancing around, Elodie realized she couldn’t see even one. They were literally the only boat out this far, this early.
“You’re making this so much harder than it needs to be,” Steven mocked. “Come down before I’m forced to shoot you while you’re up there. You know your body will just fall into the sea and sink to the bottom where you’ll be eaten by fish and sharks.”
And just like that, she knew that was his plan all along. He was going to dump her body into the ocean and no one would ever know what happened to her. Scott would forever wonder if she’d ran off on him or if something had happened.
No, he’d know she would never up and leave without a word. But even knowing that, her disappearance would devastate him.
Her mind was racing, trying to come up with a solution to her predicament. A way to come out of this alive.
And then, just like that, Elodie knew what she had to do.
Everything within her rebelled, but she knew it was the only way. The one chance she had of making it out of this alive. It was a slim chance, and so many things could go wrong, but she literally had no other choice.
She turned her head and saw Steven leaning against the back railing of the boat, staring at her. He could’ve shot her at any time, but instead he was enjoying her panic. The evilness in his eyes was as clear as day now, and Elodie knew without a doubt if he got his hands on her, she was in for a world of hurt.
“I’m sorry, Kai,” she whispered.
Then inched as far forward on the boat as she could, took a deep breath, and jumped.
“No!” she heard Steven shout as she fell through the air, then all she could hear was the whoosh of the water closing over her head.
Afraid Steven would shoot at her in the water, she stayed under and held her breath as long as she could as she frantically did her best to get as far away from the boat as possible.
