Could she get off the ship in Sudan and disappear again? Shit, she had no idea if the ship was even going to continue to Port Sudan anyway. She also hadn’t been able to see anything when they’d stopped outside her room, but the way Scott tensed made her think that it was bad. She wondered if her real identification papers and documents she’d hidden in an air duct had been found by the pirates. It was stupid of her to bring them, she realized now. Had Scott seen them? Is that why he’d tensed?
She had a feeling the SEALs didn’t miss much. She also knew she’d failed to respond to her name being called at least once. Did they suspect she wasn’t who she said she was? Would they blow her cover?
Maybe she’d be taken into custody when the Navy came onboard. Maybe they’d take all the surviving crew members off the ship and interrogate them. Elodie had no idea what would happen once all the pirates had been captured or killed. But she had a feeling her life was going to be upended once more.
Sighing, she rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes. It was hard to believe that less than a day ago, her biggest worries were what to make for dinner and trying to convince Valentino that she didn’t want to sleep with him.
She was so lost in her head that she wasn’t paying attention to what was going on around her. The hum of the machinery, the heat of the room and the stress were actually making her sleepy. Considering they’d all been woken up in the middle of the night to news that their ship was being taken over, then she’d been awake all day trying to stay hidden, and now it was nighttime again, it wasn’t any wonder she was exhausted and her eyes wouldn’t stay open.
But a noise nearby jolted her back into awareness quickly.
She scooted farther back behind the wall, then went so far as to back up slowly behind one of the large storage tanks. She peered out from behind it, holding the rifle at the ready. She tried to tell herself that it was probably Scott and Midas coming back from their patrol, but the hair on the back of her neck was standing up and she honestly didn’t think they’d be back so soon.
Trying to slow her breathing, Elodie’s eyes widened as she saw a dark figure creeping down the stairs she and Scott and Midas had come down not that long ago. He wasn’t one of the crew, she knew that immediately. He was in a black T-shirt and torn dark shorts. He was also wearing a pair of flip-flops. No one on the ship was allowed to wear anything other than closed-toe shoes when they were outside of their rooms.
She’d never seen this man before, and her adrenaline immediately spiked.
He turned in the direction Scott and Midas had gone, but instead of following them, he slunk behind the very half wall she’d been crouched against thirty seconds ago. If she hadn’t moved, he would’ve run right into her.
Elodie’s heart was beating a mile a minute, and she didn’t know what to do. Should she shoot him? The thought was repugnant. She’d never hurt anyone in her life before and didn’t want to start now. But when Scott came back, he’d go right to the spot where the pirate was crouched, thinking he’d find her there. He’d be ambushed and killed before he’d had a chance to defend himself.
Sweat dripped down her temple, but she didn’t dare move to wipe it away. The last thing she wanted was to bring any attention to herself. Elodie could smell the man’s body odor where she was hidden and it physically made her ill.
Several minutes passed, and Elodie thought she was going to have a heart attack.
Then the man shifted, bringing his rifle up.
Elodie looked where he was aiming and saw movement. Scott and Midas were returning—and they had no idea they were about to be gunned down.
Swallowing hard, Elodie moved without thinking. She went down onto her knees and raised her own rifle.
She must’ve made some noise that the man heard over the sound of the humming machinery, because his head turned…and they made eye contact.
His eyes widened, probably because he realized how close she’d been to him the whole time. He started to swing his rifle around to point it at her…
Elodie squeezed the trigger of her own weapon before he could complete the movement.
The sound of the rifle firing was surprisingly loud, and Elodie flinched, but she squeezed the trigger two more times almost without thinking.
The man who’d been waiting to ambush Scott and Midas looked down at his chest, then fell forward, flat on his face.
Elodie panted as if she’d just run the forty-meter dash and couldn’t take her eyes off the man she’d just shot. A small pool of blood began to spread around his body, making her gag.
“Rachel!”
Looking up, Elodie saw Scott kneeling next to her. She had no idea how long he’d been there or how many times he’d said her name before she realized he was talking to her. Her ears were ringing slightly. Midas was standing near the stairs with his weapon at the ready.
“We need to get out of here,” Scott told her urgently.
“He came from up there,” Elodie told him woodenly, looking at the stairs and the level above them.
“Shit, all right. He must’ve looped around and we missed him in our search,” Scott said.
“He was going to shoot you,” Elodie said.
“I know.”
“He was waiting for you.”
“You saved our lives. Thank you,” Scott said.
Elodie realized she was still gripping the rifle tightly. She wanted to be badass and indifferent about what she’d just done, but she couldn’t find it in her.
“Come on, we need to get you out of here,” Scott said, grabbing her elbow and pulling her to a standing position. “We found a group of the engineers. They’re ready to turn the electricity back on when we give them the go-ahead. But we need to wait until we’ve got backup, so we can protect the crew when they go to their stations to get the ship functional again.”
Elodie barely heard the words.
“Rachel? Are you listening?”
“Uh-huh.”
“She’s in shock,” Midas said from nearby.
“I know,” Scott told his friend. “I should’ve left her upstairs.”
Elodie focused on him then. “But then you would’ve gotten shot.”
“Maybe,” Scott said. “Come on, the engineers pointed out an emergency stairwell in the back of the room that we can use to get up to the front of the ship and then to the bridge.”
Something else occurred to Elodie. “If I wasn’t here, you wouldn’t have had to come back for me…and you wouldn’t have been in danger.”
Scott leaned down and framed her face with his gloved hands. He tilted her head up so she had no choice but to look at him. His face gleamed with sweat and she could more clearly see his beard and mustache. The beard touched his upper chest but wasn’t scraggly or unkempt.
She had the sudden urge to run her fingers over the hair to see if it was fine or coarse. She’d never been this close to anyone with a beard like he had. There was a deep wrinkle between Scott’s eyes as he frowned down at her.
Frankly, the man was gorgeous. It was a shock to realize that now, after she’d been talking to him all day and then following him around in the dark.
“You were right. The safest place for you was with us. The fact that this guy got behind us somehow and was lying in wait proves it. You might’ve run into him at some point on your way up to the bridge. I know shooting him was hard, but you saved us, and we’re forever in your debt. All right?”