Page 129 of Deep Tide

“Sean.”

He turned around to see Nicole striding across the bullpen toward him. The grim look on her face filled him with terror.

“I’ll call you back,” Sean said, and hung up.

“Did you hear about dispatch?” Nicole asked.

“No. What?” Sean braced himself.

“We just got a call from some woman who was buying shrimp at Sam’s Fish Market. That’s down by the docks, right across from the headquarters of DL Offshore Drilling.”

Sean pictured Leyla being forced onto one of those shrimp boats.

“This lady claims she saw a dark-haired woman with two men on the landing pad there beside the drilling company.”

Sean’s stomach dropped. “Landing pad?”

“She said this woman was being forced into a helicopter.”

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SIX

Leyla was dizzy. And nauseous. A lack of food and sleep, along with two-plus hours of adrenaline overload was playing hell with her system.

Not to mention, she’d never liked heights.

Swallowing the bile in the back of her throat, she looked across the helicopter at Luc Gagnon. He was texting on his phone and had been for the last five minutes.

The chopper lurched down, and Leyla’s stomach lurched, too. She leaned as far forward as the harness would let her.

“I’m going to puke.”

Gagnon’s head snapped up. “What?” he yelled over the noise.

“I think I’m going to puke,” she said louder. “I’m dehydrated.”

He pulled his fancy leather shoes closer to his seat. Then he tucked his phone into his jeans pocket, grabbed a water bottle from the cup holder, and held it out to her.

She just looked at him.

He took out a key chain with a mini Swiss Army knife attached. He reached over and she turned in her seat so he could use the blade to cut through the zip ties.

Pain pulsed through her shoulders as she pulled her hands in front of her for the first time in hours. She accepted the water bottle from him.

“Thank you.” She took a sip.

He stared at her with an irritated look as she took another sip, rinsing the sour taste from her mouth. She wiped her lips with a trembling hand and gave the bottle back.

Leyla’s wrists were raw and caked with dried blood. She settled her hands in her lap as she peered through the window at the ocean below. The setting sun reflected off the water, making the waves shimmer with gold. Tears burned her eyes as she thought about how much time had elapsed. With every minute, her hopes of someone coming for her faded.

She cleared her throat. “Where are we going?”

Gagnon ignored her and looked out his window.

Were they going anywhere? Or was it just him?

Since the instant she’d seen the helicopter, she’d been fixated on the idea of someone pushing her out of it. She was a strong swimmer, but this far from shore she didn’t stand a chance.

---