Liz Johnson - Christmas Captive

Well, patiently was a subjective word.

He paced the confines of the little room. The security guard manning the office, who had identified himself as Paul Cortero, had called Michael Torres and then leaned back in his big black chair, his hands resting over his stomach. He didn’t look terribly disturbed or concerned that a man carrying a heavy-duty handgun with a silencer had just attacked a woman and an eight-year-old girl. In fact, his eyes were closed as he rocked in his seat.

Incompetent fool.

Those were the kindest words Jordan had for a man like Cortero, who showed so little concern for the people whose safety was in his care.

But calling him every name in the book wasn’t going to locate the other man Amy had mentioned or resolve this issue.

So he kept on marching because movement helped him think.

Suddenly the metal door flew open, and a short, thin man barreled into the room, followed by a much larger shadow of a guard. Michael Torres usually had a big, commanding presence, despite being several inches shy of six feet. But right now his eyes were filled with panic as he surveyed the room.

Elaina jumped from her chair and flung herself into her father’s arms. “I was so scared, Daddy. He was chasing us, and he said he had to find me.” The words were muffled, but the terror in them was real.

“It’s okay, honey. It’s going to be okay.”

Except a gnawing feeling in his stomach told Jordan that they couldn’t be so sure of that. This situation wasn’t something they could control. At least not yet. Not with at least one more man out there.

When Elaina pulled back with tearstained cheeks, she grasped for Amy’s arm. “Aunt Amy was so great. She saved me.”

Torres hugged his sister-in-law and mouthed a thank-you.

She nodded, but there was no accompanying smile. And a tick at the corner of her eye suggested that she had news. News that no one was going to want to hear.

And Jordan was entirely sure it had to do with what Elaina had just said. The man chasing them had been after the little girl.

His stomach took a nosedive, but before he could analyze the situation further, Torres turned toward him.

“Somerton.” He gave a curt nod, his eyebrows pulled together. “How did you get involved in this?”

Jordan cringed, wishing he’d had a second to remind Torres that, as far as the rest of the world was concerned, they’d had no reason to ever meet.

Amy cut in, “Wait. How do you know each other?”

Torres turned back to Amy but was spared finding an explanation when the door to the office opened again and the captain marched in. His white jacket shone under the sterile lights as he reached to shake the ambassador’s hand.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you again tonight.”

“I wasn’t, either.” Torres’s face was pinched as he looked down at Elaina, her arms still wrapped around his waist. “It seems my daughter and her aunt ran into some trouble outside our cabin tonight.”

The captain motioned toward the chairs to indicate they should sit down while Cortero scrambled to give his seat to the ship’s senior officer.

As the captain introduced himself, Jordan forced himself to stop pacing and slid into the chair beside Amy, who shot him a look that said she wasn’t going to let her question drop.

“I’m Captain Robertson.” He directed his introduction to Elaina, who was perched on her father’s leg. He barely looked at Jordan and Amy and ignored Torres’s bodyguard standing in the corner. “I heard you had quite an evening. Can you tell me about it?”

Elaina nodded, her dark hair slipping over her shoulders. “I was with Aunt Amy. We were at the party for Neesha.”

“And then what happened?”

She looked at Amy, who gave her a gentle smile, before continuing. “We were almost to my room, and then we heard some men. They were talking. About me. Said they had to find me. Aunt Amy and I tried to get away but one of them followed us. He yelled for us to stop, but we didn’t. Then there was a high-pitched whistling sound. It was weird, but we got to the stairs.”

Even though he’d seen the gun, Jordan cringed as Elaina gave her trembling account of being shot at. It didn’t sound like she even knew what that whistle had been, but he did. And it was enough to make him sick.

Two thugs looking for a little girl when her father and his bodyguard were away from the room. Armed and dangerous and willing to use violence to get their way.

That wasn’t coincidence.

“How do you know they were looking for you specifically?” Robertson asked.

Amy filled in the gaps Elaina had left. “The two men were talking loud enough that we could hear them from around the corner.” She met Jordan’s gaze and held it, the anxiety there present and accounted for. “One asked the other where ‘the girl’ was. They called her the ambassador’s daughter.” Amy nodded toward Torres. “When they didn’t find her, they radioed someone they called ‘the boss.’ Then they split up and one headed right for us, so we made a run for it.”

Leaning forward, Jordan tried to put the scene together in his mind’s eye. “Did they say anything else? Or indicate who was in charge?”

Amy chewed on her lower lip, turning it pink and plump. But it was Elaina who added, “The man said they had to have me before they arrive.”

Jordan sucked in a sharp breath but held it because he couldn’t risk cutting her off if there was more to the story.

Torres didn’t hesitate. “They? Who’s they?”

“He never said.” Amy wrapped her arms around her stomach, as though she could ward off the chill from this conversation.

But Jordan was lost somewhere in the simple words Elaina had repeated. Everyone else had focused on the who. But he was stumped on the how. His forehead puckering as he tried to work it out, he wondered if maybe the girl had simply gotten the words wrong. “Arrive? They said arrive?”

Amy’s deep brown doe eyes grew even larger, and he could tell the emphasis hadn’t been lost on her. “Yes. That’s exactly what he said.”

“How exactly does someone arrive on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean?”

THREE

No matter how many ways Jordan flipped the questions over in his mind, there was no answer for them and no rhyme or reason to what the men had said—or what they’d tried to do.

Someone had attempted to kidnap the daughter of the ambassador to Lybania. On a cruise ship. In the middle of the Caribbean. But why try to abduct the girl on a ship where there were a finite number of places to hide her once they captured her? Why choose a ship with equally limited ways for them to escape from the people who would be searching for Elaina until they pulled into port? They weren’t even scheduled to arrive in St. Thomas for two more days.

Even more puzzling was the imminent arrival of the illusive they. He had no idea who that could be. And even less where or when their arrival might take place. The arrival that had been mentioned would have to come by helicopter or boat. But either would draw significant attention. Is that what they wanted?

His only clue was soon. Because the men Amy had overheard had been in a rush to get their hands on Elaina.

But that left a whole lot of holes in his intel.

What he needed was information from the man in the black suit, who had finally begun to wake up and was holding his arm like he’d received a lethal blow. Bah. It had barely been a tap. Just enough to bring him down. If he didn’t like it, well, then he shouldn’t shoot at women and children.

Which brought Jordan right back to another question. How’d he get a gun on board the ship? Had he snuck it through security? Had it been stashed in his suite waiting for him? And why would he shoot at Elaina if his goal was to kidnap her?