“Copy,” came the reply.
Drew looked over the marina, waiting. He still had a hand on the woman’s arm. He could feel her trembling violently. Distracted, Drew looked over at her.
She was pale, had her eyes closed, might be hyperventilating and looked ready to faint. “I think I need to get off the boat.”
“Not an option,” Drew grimaced. She wanted on and now she wanted off? He knew women changed their minds a lot, but this was excessive. “Here, sit down.”
Bethany let him direct her into a seat. Her teeth were chattering as she put her head between her legs. “I ttthink I might ttthrow up.”
Great, Drew looked around for a container. “What’s your name?”
“Bethany,” she replied.
“Here,” he shoved a grocery bag into her hands.
“What’s your nnname?” Bethany asked.
“Andrew,” he supplied. “Most people call me Drew.”
“Nice to meet you,” Bethany said from her knees.
“Colborne, did they just pass you?” Colby asked through the police radio.
Drew berated himself for getting distracted by the gorgeous female beside him. He scanned the windows. “Targets approaching. Count five.”
“What ddoes that mean?” Bethany asked worriedly.
“I got five bad guys going into our trap,” he spared her a glance. “What is wrong with you?”
“I don’t like boats,” she hugged herself.
Drew was about to ask her why she would ask to come on this one then, but he was distracted as he saw one of the men split off from the group. “Stay here.”
“What?” she asked.
Drew ignored her as he left the boat, unholstering his gun.
She was going to die. She was going to expire from not being able to breathe properly and no one was going to save her because some cop who looked like Max Ramesly but was handsomer, had just run away from her.
Bethany huddled on the floor, her eyes tightly shut. It was safer than sitting in the chair, waiting to take a nose-dive if she fainted. She tried not to cry.
What if the criminals he was chasing came and found her on the boat? What was she going to do?
Her eyes snapped open. She knew she wasn’t going to be able to get from the boat to the dock. Crossing that span of water was as impossible as crossing the Grand Canyon right now. She simply couldn’t do it.
Hide. She could hide.
Slowly, Bethany looked around. There had to be somewhere she could squeeze herself into where they wouldn’t find her. She uncurled herself, crawling, breath coming in gasps as she tried to find a good place to hide. Bethany reached up and opened a door. It was a cabin. She opened another door in the small hall and found a bathroom with a tiny shower in it. She pulled herself into the shower, shutting the curtain.
Too late, Bethany realized that she’d left her purse behind. Shaking and huddled on the shower floor, she was not going to go back for it. She couldn’t move if her life depended on her, which it very well might.
Why, oh why had she decided to go on a boat this morning? Bethany sobbed, hugging her knees to her chest. She was going to die on this stupid boat. They were going to find her, dead in the shower because she’d left her purse out for any half intelligent criminal to find.
Suddenly, the shower curtain opened, and Bethany screamed.
“Whoa!” Drew backed up a pace, putting both hands palm up in the universal sign of surrender. “It’s just me.”
He waited for her to calm down, but she just kept shaking, sobbing and laying on the shower stall floor. Drew crouched down beside her, reaching a cautious hand out to rub her back. “Hey, you’re safe. We can get off the boat. Everything’s going to be fine.”
