Chapter 7

Ian's grip tightened around Nina's wrist like a vise. He jerked her toward him so violently that she stumbled, lost her footing, and slammed her knee against the edge of the bed. Pain shot through her leg, making her gasp.

"I don't know where she is," Nina managed.

But Ian wasn't listening. He hauled her out of the bedroom, through the living room, and toward the front door. Still in her pajamas and barefoot, Nina struggled to keep up as he dragged her into the elevator and all the way to his car.

The passenger door slammed shut, and Ian got behind the wheel, started the engine, and floored the accelerator.

Nina sat silently beside him, watching the streetlights streak past her window. An angry red mark encircled her wrist, the skin still burning where he'd gripped her.

They were heading toward the coast.

Ian finally slammed on the brakes at a deserted pier. He got out, rounded the hood, and yanked open her door, pulling her roughly onto the ground.

"Move!"

The gravel and sharp weeds dug painfully into Nina's bare feet as he dragged her toward the water. An abandoned fishing boat lay moored near the shore, its weathered mast rising above the deck. A woman was tied to it, suspended precariously over the side of the boat.

It was Willa.

The wind sent her swaying above the water as she sobbed and screamed for help, her cries breaking apart in the gusts.

"Ian! Help me!"

Ian lunged toward the boat, but two men emerged from behind it and blocked his path.

He stopped, breathing hard. Then, without warning, he turned, grabbed Nina, and shoved her toward them.

"She's the Shaw family's only daughter," he said. "I'll trade her for Willa."

Nina stumbled forward before turning to stare at him in disbelief. The sea breeze whipped her hair into her face and billowed her pajamas around her body. Beneath her bare feet, the sharp stones had already broken her skin, leaving her soles bleeding.

"How dare you?"

Ian gave a cold laugh. "They're your accomplices. They're not actually going to hurt you, so quit the act."

One of the kidnappers seized Nina before she could respond. He bound her wrists with rope and dragged her aboard, securing her to the mast in the exact spot where Willa had been hanging moments earlier.

Ian didn't look back.

He was too busy helping Willa away from the boat. She was still crying so hard that she could barely support her own weight, forcing him to half carry her to the car. Once he'd settled her inside, he shut the door and started the engine.

The headlights briefly illuminated a patch of the deserted pier before the car pulled away, its taillights shrinking into the darkness until they disappeared.

Nina was left hanging from the mast, swaying helplessly in the fierce sea wind. The ropes dug into her wrists as she looked down at one of the kidnappers standing on the deck.

"Who hired you?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he approached the mast with a pair of scissors in his hand.

"Was it the Grays? The Zellers?" Nina demanded. "My father has plenty of business rivals. The least you can do is tell me who's behind this."

The man raised the scissors and cut through the rope.

Nina dropped from the mast, plunging toward the dark water below.

Wind roared past her ears, mingling with the crash of waves against the boat. Then she hit the sea, and icy salt water rushed into her ears, her nose, and her mouth.

The bitter, briny taste filled her senses as the cold engulfed her. She sank deeper and deeper, struggling desperately against the water, but no matter how hard she fought, she couldn't stop herself from sinking.

As the last of her air ran out, memories began flashing through her mind.

She was twenty-four again, sitting in the front row of a theater, watching Ian make snow fall from the ceiling.

She remembered walking backstage and telling him, "I'm Nina Shaw, and I've got my eye on you."

She remembered him riding his scooter for an hour and a half just to buy her favorite sausage biscuits.

She remembered those two seconds when he'd hesitated beside the water tank, deciding whether to save her.

And she remembered him shoving her toward the kidnappers, offering her life in exchange for Willa's.

Nina closed her eyes.

She'd never known the ocean could be this cold.