“Why not? Do you have something there that you don’t want me to see?”
“Of course not. But getting anywhere near my boat could be dangerous. Stay away from it.”
She was wondering how he could keep her from going there, and she knew he caught that thought as well.
“I can’t stop you. I’m pleading with you to stay away. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
His obvious panic tugged at her.Like the same thing that happened to you?
The questions hung in the air. In the darkness, she turned to him. She knew she could go prowling through his thoughts, but she didn’t want to do it.
Calmer than she had been in days, she kept her silence and snuggled against him. She had gone through some kind of strange adjustment. When she’d first sensed him hovering around her, she’d been afraid of him. Tonight he had taken an important place in her life, and she accepted that new reality.
She would have sworn she heard him drag in a breath and let it out. Could he really do that?
“Well, I’m not exactly breathing, but I can...make it seem like I am.”
“Okay.”
She knew they were both avoiding a painful revelation.
Finally he said, “I remember more than my name. I know what happened to me.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s...brutal,” he warned.
“I need to know if we’re going to make whoever did this...pay.”
“Maybe we can’t.”
“We’re not just going to accept it.”
This time he was the one who answered, “Okay.”
She felt her heart start to pound as she waited.
“It started off like an ordinary overnight charter. Three men arranged for a fishing trip. I took them out past the bay to the ocean. When we were out there, they jumped me.”
“Who were they?”
The guy who seemed to be in charge said he was Andrew. Another was Pete. The third was Lambert.”
“What were their last names?”
“It probably doesn’t matter. I can’t believe they would turn out to be their real names. Maybe the first names they were using were even false.”
She wanted to ask more questions, but instead, a vivid picture leaped into her mind. She saw the trio coming down the dock, dressed in jeans and polo shirts, each carrying a gym bag, as though they were ready for an overnight fishing trip out on the ocean. Andrew and Pete were normal-sized men. Lambert looked like he could have been a linebacker for the NFL. They seemed to be in high spirits, but he had thought there was something “off” about them. Only when it was too late did he realize that the vibe came from nerves. They were tasked with pulling off a big charade, and they were worried about somehow screwing it up. It would have been easier if they could have just killed the target. But they’d been ordered to bring him in alive.
From Travis’s memory, she saw the scene play out in her mind. They’d all been trailing their fishing lines in the water. When Travis had started for the companionway to bring up some beers, they’d all dropped the fishing pretense. Lambert had snuck up behind him and grabbed his arms. Pete and Andrew approached from the front. Even taken by surprise, Travis put up a pretty good fight. His first response was to shake off Lambert, who had clamped on to his arms. Travis was strong, and he bent from the waist, ducking down so that he could raise the guy in the air and throw him over his head, slamming him onto the deck. He landed with a nasty thump, howling in pain. But the other two men moved in to intercept their target.
Even while he was fighting off the assault, Travis was still battling confusion. These guys had chartered his boat for a routine fishing trip, and now they were attacking him for no discernible reason. He didn’t know any of them. Had somebody with a beef against him sent them?
“What the hell’s going on?” he shouted.
The trio ignored his question as they went on the defensive.
“Watch out,” one of them warned. “He’s stronger than he looks.”
