Then inched as far forward on the boat as she could, took a deep breath, and jumped.
“No!” she heard Steven shout as she fell through the air, then all she could hear was the whoosh of the water closing over her head.
Afraid Steven would shoot at her in the water, she stayed under and held her breath as long as she could as she frantically did her best to get as far away from the boat as possible.
When she finally had to come up for air, she turned to look at the boat. Unbelievably, she’d managed to get at least twenty-five meters away. Steven was still standing on the back deck. He hadn’t run up to the wheelhouse to try to steer the boat closer.
As she tread water, Elodie did her best to try to calm herself. Her heart was beating close to two hundred beats a minute, and she knew she’d pass out if she didn’t slow her breathing.
“What now?” Steven called out to her. “You do know how stupid that was, right? Look around, Elodie. You gonna swim back to shore?” He laughed. “Not hardly. You’ll never make it. Come back to the boat, and I’ll make a deal with you.”
Elodie didn’t bother to ask what kind of deal. He was lying, and she knew it. She wasn’t stupid; if she got back on that boat, he’d kill her. Slowly. Her only chance of getting out of this was for Scott to realize something was wrong when he came to pick her up, and she and the boat weren’t there.
“Bitch! I said get back here! Now!” Steven called out when she didn’t start moving toward him.
In response, Elodie kicked her legs and moved farther away.
She saw Steven pacing back and forth on the deck before he turned and went into the seating area. When he appeared in the wheelhouse, she tensed. He could easily run her over or get closer and shoot into the water.
She heard the engine start up and watched as the boat sputtered and spun in a few circles.
She would’ve laughed if the situation wasn’t so dire. It was obvious the man had never driven a boat before. She’d been given lessons by Kahoni when she’d first been hired, and he’d also explained the oddities of his boat. For some reason, when the steering had been installed, the mechanic had put it in backward. So if you wanted to go right, you had to turn the wheel to the left. It was confusing, but the owners had laughed and said it was a fun quirk. She’d gotten used to the awkward steering, but was glad she didn’t have to be in charge of driving very often.
She watched as the boat shot forward and Steven’s head disappeared from view above the helm.
Kahoni and Perry had also put in a very powerful engine. If you didn’t baby the throttle, it would jerk forward, as it had just done.
Steven managed to get the boat a little closer to where she was, despite his ineptitude, and despite her trying to swim away from the boat. He came back down to the back deck and raised the pistol, and even though she didn’t hear shots being fired, Elodie saw the water splash up in front of where she was treading water. The reason the barrel of the gun was so long was clear now…he had a silencer on the weapon.
Ducking underwater once more, Elodie did her best to swim what she hoped was out of range of the bullets.
When she came up for air again, Steven was leaning over the railing of the boat.
“You know what? This is better!” he shouted. “I was gonna make this quick and easy, but I like this. Paul will too. You can stay out there. You’ll eventually get tired…it’ll be harder and harder to stay afloat. You’ll get dehydrated, and with the sun beating down on you all day, you’ll fry like a bug on a hot sidewalk. Not to mention there’s a storm coming in this evening…if you make it that long. I’ve heard the riptides in Hawaii are pretty brutal too. And then there’re the sharks. And I’ve got a parting present for you…all the bait you planned to use to help me catch a fucking fish? I’m gonna chum the water. Maybe a shark will think those big toes of yours are fish and he’ll take a bite. Munch-munch!”
Elodie was crying now; she couldn’t help it. She was terrified. When she’d jumped into the water, she didn’t really have much of a plan, she just knew she needed to get away from Steven. But now reality was sinking in. She was in the middle of the ocean, way too far out to be able to swim to shore, and she was most likely going to die a long, slow death. Just like Steven and Paul wanted.
“I didn’t do anything!” she cried out.
“You said no to the most powerful mob boss in New York!” Steven screamed back. “No one says no to Paul Columbus!”
And with that, Steven turned and headed back inside. Seconds later, he was back and pouring buckets of bait into the water. He dumped some over each side and even off the back. She knew from experience how bloody and stinky those bait buckets were. Many a guest had complained about them, but she’d always patiently explained that the stinkier the bait, the more appealing it was to the creatures in the sea.
Looking around frantically as she tried to swim away from the boat—and the crazy man trying to kill her—Elodie didn’t see any fins, but she knew it was only a matter of time.
Steven lifted his weapon and shot off a few more rounds, but she was getting farther and farther away. Then there was silence for a moment before the engines of the Fish Tales fired up again and the boat lurched once more. It wobbled side to side as Steven did his best to control the powerful engine, then headed toward the island of Oahu, barely visible in the distance.
For a second, Elodie simply stared at the back end of the boat with a mixture of relief and horror. Then she panicked again. Steven had left her in the middle of the ocean; she was way too far out to swim all the way back to shore.
But then again, she was alive. He hadn’t managed to shoot her. So there was that.
“What now?” she mumbled as she continued to tread water.
But that was the thing—she had no idea what to do. Stay put? Swim toward Diamond Head, which she could just see on the horizon? Would Steven come back? For some reason, she didn’t think that was his plan. He’d been pissed he didn’t get to shoot her, but he’d also been pretty gleeful when he’d laid out all the ways she could die out here. The man was certifiably insane, but he hid it extremely well. She hadn’t thought he was anything but a married father of two, glad to get away for a little rest and relaxation while on vacation.
The tears came again, and this time they wouldn’t stop. Elodie thought about Scott. About how much she loved him and how lucky she’d been to find that kind of love, even if it was only for a short time.
Then she got mad. Then she cried again.
Her emotions were all over the place, and as time went on, and she bobbed up and down in the waves, she got more and more tired. And dehydrated. The Hawaiian sun was brutal, burning the top of her head, shoulders, and face. She had no idea how much time had gone by, but somehow she knew this suffering was only the beginning of the hell she was going to go through.
But Elodie wasn’t going to give up. She hadn’t lived through a hijacking and being pursued by a mob boss to die now. She was going to fight to live. If she made it out alive, she’d still have to worry about Paul coming after her again, or sending someone else. He knew where she was now, and there wouldn’t be any way to keep her survival out of the papers. People ate this kind of shit up.
Woman survives out in the ocean for days. Click here for story.