He pulled the trigger.

The sound of gunfire in the small room was deafening, his ears immediately ringing. The room had changed somehow. It was already smoky. For him, it was the smell of death. The other change could be seen on the wall, just to the right of his target. Over Annica’s shoulder was a small black hole, the bullet burrowed into the wall.

He looked back for her, starting with that shoulder. She’d moved, a good few feet from the hole, hunched over. She was slumped back into the wall, her body quivering. Hands held together at her chest. Her breathing hard but shallow.

Cole holstered his weapon and took a good look at her. She was like a shell of her once lively, even cocky self. Finally, she was quiet—save for the gasping sounds. She looked pitiful, and he felt guilty about it already. But it had to be done.

“Hey,” he said softly. “You’re fine. You’re okay.”

She was still convulsing with terror, but with some words now, half-formed sentences, pleas rattling out of her. What was she trying to say?

“Hey,” Cole said again, walking toward her slowly like a hunter approaching a downed animal. What could he do? Should he try helping her up? “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.”

The downed animal suddenly raged back to life, springing to her feet and lunging into him, screaming, scratching, and finally, biting. She had the side of his hand in her teeth, her hands coming back again for his throat. Cole’s free hand shot out to her chest, hard at her sternum to block her away from doing any further damage. The ferocity of her attack was stunning.

“You fucker,” she cried through gritted teeth.

He finally got behind her, his arms wrapped around and holding her in place against his body. A bear hug. Not hard enough to squeeze the air out of her, but at least some of the fight.

Still, she struggled, her feet kicking back at him.

“Stop,” he whisper-yelled. “I’m trying to save you.” His head was clunked into hers, holding there. His mouth near her ear, whispering, “Please.”

“What?!” She sounded insane.

“Please, stop. I’m trying to help.”

Her struggle began to ease, slightly. “Help me how?”

She was still struggling, but slower, and quieter.

“I can get you out of here,” Cole said.

“How?”

“Through that door.”

Now it felt like she really had been shot, all of her efforts coming to a quick halt. “What?” she mumbled, her body went still and loose, her head turning in the direction of the room’s trap door.

“You see it,” Cole said. “That door right there.”

“What about it?” She was looking right at it, studying it.

Cole said, “It’s an escape.”

She wriggled against him and he forced his body not to react. This was so not the damn time!

“Can you let go of me? Please.”

He took a deep breath and let go of her, his captive spilling out of his arms and back into the middle of the room. She spun around to face him, tears glistening on her cheeks. She looked beaten up. Battered. Had he really been that rough with her?

“I’m sorry,” Cole said. She must be terrified, but fuck, it had been necessary. If she wanted to live. If they both wanted to live. It was a little funny to think about, the urge for self-preservation that he so badly lacked just moments ago. It was that lack that brought him over the rails of the cargo ship. What was it now? What was it about this woman that suddenly lit the spark in him to survive? For both of them to survive . . .

“What do you mean this fucking door? You want me to crawl though this door? What is it? Where does it go?” She kept going on and on, her face and voice growing more hysterical with each question.

“Hold on,” he said. “Can you just stop? Just stop and listen for a moment.”

“What?” she said, her chest heaving.

“You’re still not listening.”

“I am.”

“You’re not.”

He waited for at least some of the tension across her mouth to ease. For her breathing to relax. For the words to stop flowing out so thoughtlessly. He waited for her to listen, and listen carefully.

“They think I shot you,” Cole said. “Do you understand?”

She nodded, with hardly a change in expression. It was like she assumed it all along.

“That was how this was supposed to end in here,” he said. “That’s what this room is. People get shot, and their bodies get sent down that chute.”

She looked at the door again.

“They’re expecting me to dump you through there,” he said. “To get rid of your body.”

“Jesus,” she muttered, her hand and clawing up to her face, shakily covering her mouth.

“Now’s not the time to cry about it. Okay? We gotta act.”

“Yeah.”

Cole made his way to the door. “We’ll talk later. At least I hope we will.”

“What’s down there?” she asked, another flash of terror through her eyes. “What’s at the bottom?” It would be twice, just today, that she’d fallen through some mysterious chute.

“The garbage bin. One of those giant, industrial-sized bins.”

“What’s . . . What’s in it?”

“No bodies,” he said, opening the door. “Take a look.”

She crept over to the door, peering into the darkness. “How far down?”

“It’s not very steep.”

“How far?”

“You won’t go very fast,” Cole said. “I know it sounds bad, but it’s the only way. If we take any other option that doesn’t include you going out this chute, then both of us will probably wind up dead. Do you get me?”

She looked through the door again.

“If I didn’t care about you surviving, you’d already be dead.”

“Yeah,” she muttered, her voice sounding tired and weak, and aimed into the darkness down the chute.

“My ass is on the line, too,” Cole said. “For you.”

“Yeah,” she said, a little louder this time. She reached for the door, holding it open wider.

“I have to go,” Cole said. “Are you ready?”

She raised her leg, one foot stepping onto the lip of the chute. She turned back quickly to face him, and to say, “Thanks.”

Cole nodded. “Just make sure you get the hell out of Hawaii.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t go to the cops. Don’t tell anyone. Just leave.”

She crawled in, sitting with her legs pointing down like she was a kid atop a waterslide. And suddenly, as if she just remembered what the chute was used for, she took her hands off the metal bottom, holding them up in the air with a little groan. “Okay,” she said. “I’m going. But you’ll hear from me.”

The idea of her tracking him down again didn’t bother him as much as he’d thought. It meant they’d both be alive.

She gave one last nod to him. And then she pushed off and slipped quietly down out of sight.