The bullet had caught the outside of my arm, and that was only because of the way Ella had been pulled away from me. Had I not had a hold of her, I would have taken it right to the heart.

Before I could get to my feet, they were both over the side. Jumping overboard after them was an option, but only if I wanted to call the sharks to us like some sort of plasma dinner bell. My only option was to get to the captain and have him turn the yacht around while I made a mad dash for our room to get the gun. With any luck, I’d be able to get a shot off at Trent and get Ella out of the water before all hell broke loose.

It hadn’t worked out like that at all.

By the time I made it to the wheelhouse, the first mate took one look at me and about shit himself. I shouted for him to get the captain because nobody would listen to me when I’d said that Ella had gone overboard. They were all too busy freaking out about the blood dripping on the floor in a puddle by my feet.

No one was doing anything to help. I shoved the first mate out of my way and lunged for the phone, punching in Oliver’s number, blinking back the colorful dots that swam in my vision. Fighting to stay on my feet, a sob slipped from me when Oliver answered.

“What happened?” he asked, knowing without me saying that something was wrong.

“Trent has Ella.”

“How?”

“He boarded the boat, shot me, and then went over the side with her.”

“Coordinates,” Oliver demanded.

“As soon as they went overboard, the boat started moving. Our coordinates are different than when we were anchored.”

“They should be logged. Get them and call me back,” Oliver said, hanging up the phone.

I pulled the phone from my ear, blinking stupidly at it as the captain came skidding to a stop beside me. “What the hell is going on here? Bodies overboard? Then I find out someone is bleeding all over my wheelhouse?” His eyes bulged seeing the blood dripping down my elbow, and then he dragged his hand over his face. “Where the hell is the doctor?” He turned, bellowing the question at the crew.

“Sir, I need the coordinates from when we were anchored,” I said, feeling more than a little lightheaded.

“You need to sit down. I’ll contact the Coast Guard and circle back,” the captain said, turning to his crew and barking out orders.

“I need the coordinates,” I repeated through clenched teeth.

“I don’t have time for this. Go sit down,” the captain said, nodding at someone behind him.

I latched onto the sleeve of his shirt, forcing his attention on me. “You’re not dismissing me. I want those coordinates, or it’ll be your ass if I can’t find my operative,” I shouted back at him.

He yanked away from me. “You’re raving. Get him out of here!”

I was jerked back and hauled out of the wheelhouse by one of the crew. The door slammed behind me and locked.

I went into a blind rage, alternately kicking the door and then slamming my good shoulder into it, shoving the pain to the darkest recesses of my mind. Nothing mattered if I couldn’t save Ella.

“Josh?” Alex said, grabbing my arm and spinning me to face him.

White-hot pain surged through me. “Let go!”

Alex looked down and jerked his hand back. “What happened? Did you see who took Allyson and Summer?”

“Who took Allyson and Summer?” The nightmare went two-fold. Had Trent taken all three of them? And how could he when he was busy abducting Ella and shooting me? Had he been hired by whoever had sent the threats to Garett Baron?

“That’s what I just asked you! Move, I want to see the captain,” he said. Pushing by me, he grabbed the door handle and tried to open it.

“It’s locked,” I said, feeling the world slipping and sliding around me.

Alex growled and then slammed the side of his fist over and over again, but no one came to let him in.

I went to my knees, praying as I swayed side to side that I wouldn’t pass out. I couldn’t pass out. I had to call Oliver back and tell him the captain refused to give me the coordinates. That Allyson and Summer had been taken off the boat as well.

“Alex!”

He wasn’t listening. Couldn’t hear me past his own rage.

Go figure, the guy with the bullet hole in his arm had to be the one who kept his composure. “Alex.” I called his name again, reaching out to grab his arm. “I need you to help me get to my room.”

He snatched his arm away, eyes distant with panic. “I’m not going anywhere unless it’s inside that wheelhouse.” He gave the door two good kicks, but it did no good. The door, hell, the ship was solidly made. The wheelhouse had to have been constructed to keep the captain and crew safe in case there was an issue onboard.

Alex had worked himself up into a fine state of rage.

“The captain isn’t going to help us,” I shouted over the string of profanities Alex spewed at the steel door. “He isn’t going to help us!” I yelled again, but it was no use.

“I’ll have his license for this! Do you hear me? You’ll never captain a ship again if you don’t let me in,” Alex bellowed.

I forced myself to my feet, holding my arm to my side as I clenched my teeth. “Alex, listen to me,” I commanded with enough grit in my tone to get his attention. “I can help you, but you have to help me get to my room.”

His eyes turned into slits. “And what the hell are you going to do?”

I took a step forward, knowing what I was about to do was risky… maybe even wrong, but time was escaping me and I had run out of options.

“Well, for starters, I’m going to call in backup, and then I’m going on a manhunt,” I answered slowly, carefully keeping eye contact.

I watched as he tossed what I said around in his head, the pieces slowly clicking into place as his chest heaved in and out. As everything he thought he knew moved further and further away from him.

His eyebrows nearly touched when his gaze met mine again. “Wait a minute… Backup? Who the hell are you, Josh?”

I had his attention then.

“I’ll explain everything when you get me back to my room. We’re wasting time standing here. Every minute counts right now,” I answered, not waiting for him to follow as I turned and bee-lined for my room.

A few minutes later, with the door shut firmly behind me and Alex right on my heels, I gestured to the phone and said, “You need to call Garett and let him know what’s happened. And I need to make a call as well.” I grabbed the cell phone and called Oliver.

“Did you get them?” he asked, picking up halfway through the first ring.

“No,” I said, my chest tight. “The captain booted me out of the wheelhouse. Listen… we have another problem. Allyson and her sister Summer were taken from the boat as well.”

I glanced over to Alex who was stalking back and forth, holding the phone to his ear as Oliver hissed. “Was there anyone else with Trent?”

“No. It was just him.”

“Any witnesses?”

“Yes. Allyson’s husband but I don’t think he knows who it was.”

“It couldn’t have been Trent,” Oliver said.

“What makes you think that?” I asked, tucking the phone between my ear and shoulder so I could wrap my arm in a towel to keep the blood from dripping all over the floor.

“He shot you to take Ella off the ship. Don’t you think that if he was willing to kill you that he would have done the same thing to Allyson’s husband?”

“Maybe he had more reason to shoot me? If it wasn’t him… who the hell could it have been? Oh, and I’m fine, by the way,” I huffed, wincing when I put pressure against the wound to staunch the bleeding.

“I know you are, otherwise you wouldn’t have called me,” he snorted and then continued, “I have tech going through the last twenty-four hours of surveillance footage. That’s our only lead other than Allyson’s husband. Let’s get him on the phone so we can get as much information as possible.”

Alex was still on the phone, arguing with the person on the other end. “I don’t care if he’s in a meeting. Put me through to him immediately. This is his son-in-law, and if you don’t put me through, you won’t have a job when he finds out.”

He pulled the phone back, blinked at it, and then turned the air blue.

I put the phone on speaker and called Alex’s name. “We’ll get a hold of him, but right now, I have someone on the line who needs to ask you some questions.”