The man looked remorseful, and Mustang’s heart just about stopped beating. A stretcher was being pushed down the dock toward them, and he couldn’t tear his eyes from it. The officer lifted the yellow police tape and the paramedics pushed the gurney under the barrier.
Mustang looked down and saw a man lying on the stretcher. Kai. He was both relieved and freaked the fuck out at the same time. “Kai!” he called, but the police officers held him back from getting too close.
Kai’s head turned, and he said something.
The paramedics immediately stopped pushing the stretcher toward the ambulance and motioned for the officers to let Mustang move closer.
“Where’s Elodie?” he asked, not remembering to use her fake name.
“Jumped,” Kai said weakly. “Steven shot me in the back. I pretended to be dead…heard him taunting her. Said he was gonna kill her. She jumped overboard. I passed out before I found out what happened though. I’m so sorry…”
Mustang put his hand on Kai’s shoulder. “I’m gonna find her,” he told the man. It was a miracle Kai had survived a point-blank gunshot to the back, and he prayed they’d get another miracle and find Elodie was still alive as well.
The paramedics decided he’d had enough time to talk to their patient and wheeled him away.
“Sir? We’re gonna need some information on your girlfriend,” one of the officers said, but Mustang was done with them. His blood ran cold thinking about Elodie jumping overboard to try to escape the man sent to kill her. Had he succeeded? The likelihood of her being able to get away from a man with a gun, in a boat like the Fish Tales, while she was swimming in the ocean was unlikely. But he wasn’t going to rest until he knew the truth.
Elodie hated the ocean. She’d joked about it often enough. How she was scared of sharks and killer whales, and the most she’d do was walk in the water on the beach. Hell, she wouldn’t even go in past her knees, no matter how much Mustang cajoled.
But he couldn’t think about that now. He had to concentrate on finding her. Then he’d deal with the man or men who’d dared try to take what was his. And there was no doubt in his mind, Elodie was fucking his.
The police officers were calling after him, trying to get him to stay and answer their questions, but Mustang had spotted Midas and the rest of the team arriving.
He didn’t waste any time in letting them know what he’d learned. “Kai was shot in the back, ambushed. But he’s alive. He told me Elodie jumped overboard to try to get away from the guy. That’s all I know.”
Jag looked up and nodded. “Surveillance cameras. I’ll work with the staff to access them and see who got off the boat.”
“I’ll call my friend who took us fishing and see if his boat’s available for us to use,” Aleck said.
“I’m calling Tex,” Slate said in a low, hard voice.
“What’s he gonna do?” Midas asked.
“He’s gonna find a way to end this Paul Columbus guy once and for all,” Slate said. “We all know he knows people who will be able to make sure that once we find Elodie, this shit doesn’t happen again. Should’ve done it before now and this wouldn’t have happened.”
Mustang agreed with his friend. He’d been lax with Elodie’s safety. It wasn’t that he hadn’t believed she was in danger, he’d just thought that after so much time had passed and when nothing seemed amiss, that maybe the mob had given up on her.
He should’ve known better. It wasn’t a mistake he’d make twice.
But then, he might not have a chance to make a mistake like that again. If Columbus’s goon had managed to kill her, he’d have lost the best thing that had ever happened to him.
Mustang’s phone rang, and he looked down and saw it was Perry calling. He didn’t want to talk to him right now. He needed to be doing something other than standing in a parking lot with his thumb up his ass. He needed to be looking for Elodie, but he also knew the other man was worried about his boat, Kai, and Elodie as well, and had a right to know what was happening.
“Did you find them?” Perry asked as soon as Mustang answered.
He summed up the situation as best he could, and ended with, “But from what I can see, the boat is fine.”
“Fuck the boat,” Perry spat. “I can’t believe that asshole shot Kai—and that Melody jumped overboard! What do you need from me?”
“What do you mean?”
“Kahoni and I aren’t idiots. We know you’re in the Navy, and Kai let it slip that you’re SEALs. I know you’re on this. What can we do to help?”
Mustang couldn’t help but be impressed with the man.
“Ask him about the GPS,” Pid said.
Mustang put the phone on speaker and held it out as the team gathered around. “Go ahead,” he told Pid.
“Does the Fish Tales have a GPS system onboard?” Pid asked.
“Of course. There’s one system that tracks the boat itself, that’s how I knew where it was, and another that’s used when we’re on the water to keep us oriented. We mark the points where we find fish and where other boats have said they’ve had success.”
“Does it run nonstop? Will there be a record of where the boat’s been?”
“Definitely,” Perry said. “I can look it up and send you the track.”
“Perfect. The sooner the better,” Mustang told him.
“I’m also gonna make some calls to other boat owners and see if they’ll go out and help look for Melody. You need anything, and I mean anything, you call me or Kahoni. We know a lot of people on this island. She may not have been here long, but she’s like family to us.”
“Thanks,” Mustang said. He was trying to keep his composure, but it was getting more and more difficult.
He hung up and turned to his team. He was at a loss as to what they should do next.
“I’m gonna call the commander and see if we can get a chopper up. He’ll also contact the Coast Guard and get them on this too. We’re gonna find her, Mustang. I swear to fucking God, we’ll find her,” Jag swore.
Mustang nodded and turned to stare out at the ocean. Before, he’d always been calmed by looking at the waves, but now they seemed to mock him. Elodie was out there. Somewhere. He knew it. He had no idea if she was alive or dead, but she was out there—and he needed to find her.
Elodie was used to being by herself. It had been hard to make friends with her intense schedule as a chef, and after she’d fled New York, she hadn’t dared reach out to many people. She didn’t mind her own company and had no problem entertaining herself with a book or mindless TV.
But the feeling of being alone while bobbing in the waves in the middle of the ocean was something completely different. It was as if she was the only person left in the world, and it was terrifying.
She’d been in the water all day and the sun had finally begun to fall from the sky, giving her a bit of reprieve from its scorching rays, but she didn’t like the look of the storm clouds gathering behind her. She’d been able to keep Diamond Head in view all day, which was somewhat comforting, although it didn’t seem to be getting any nearer, no matter how hard or long she swam toward it.