Page 92 of Forged in Secrets

“What? What is it?” Katie snapped, meeting Jade’s amused expression with a rage-filled one of her own.

“I got the money,” she said with a shrug of her slender shoulders. “Not as much as I want, but enough to get out of this mess and start over somewhere else.”

“No,” Ben said, shaking his head. “You’re lying. There’s no way the Hintons paid the ransom money. Not possible.”

She held up the phone. Sure enough, Grace could read a one, an eight, and just enough zeroes that she didn’t have time to count them before Jade stuck the device back into her pocket.

Grace felt goosebumps tickling at the back of her neck. That ransom money had been their final bargaining chip. And now it was gone.

She glanced over at Ben. She expected him to yell at Jade, but instead, he took a few steps toward her, taking her hand before she could pull away. His touch felt warm and safe, and all she wanted was for him to be there beside her. But she couldn’t let him get that close, not with the lethal weapon Jade still had pointed in her direction.

“Ben, don’t touch me,” Grace said firmly.

She watched as Katie shifted in her chair, looking around the room, probably looking for some sort of weapon she could use if Jade turned on her. There waslittle in the room save for some wired keyboards, a few thin binders, and a plastic cup of ballpoint pens.

After a couple of seconds, Ben let go of Grace’s hand, and raised both of his palms to shoulder height.

“Listen,” he started, trying to sound meek but unable to completely hide his gruff timbre. “You got the money, like you said. You can start over. You can let Grace–and Katie–go.”

Grace pressed her eyes shut for a moment, not wanting to see the disturbing, blank look that washed over Jade’s face.

Ben must realize that this was not the sort of criminal who surrendered. But she supposed he had to try.

“No, I can’t,” Jade said flippantly, giving the gun another tap with her fingernails. “Anyway, I think I’ve done enough explaining. Time to go. We’re going to take the first leg of our trip together, just in case you guys brought along some followers that I need to shake. Though it doesn’t look like my friend here figured out how to work the radio.”

“I’m starting to think you were never my friend in the first place,” Katie spat. “I cared about you. But you clearly don’t have a heart.”

Jade ignored her.

“Now, Grace, I figure you’re a little more familiar with how to operate this sort of watercraft? Or do you just stick to your little toys?”

Grace’s cheeks burned with anger. Not that she cared what this awful girl thought of her hobbies, but she hated that Jade had been digging deeper into her background than she’d realized.

“Even I can see that this ship is not meant to be manned by a single person,” Ben interrupted before shecould answer. “You might have been able to make it just puttering down the coast, but if you want to get out into the open ocean, you’ll want a crew.”

“Did I ask for your opinion?” Jade snapped, aiming the gun toward him. Grace’s heart hammered in her chest, guilty for the slight sensation of relief she felt now that the gun was pointed at someone else. Even though that someone else happened to be the man she loved.

“No crew,” Jade said firmly. “Modern autonav is a beautiful thing. My dad didn’t have to do too much to keep this thing floating.”

She pointed the gun back toward Grace, stepping closer so that she had a nice view down the barrel. “Do you know how to drive this boat?”

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Ben’s face. It wasn’t very difficult for her to read the thoughts hidden behind his stormy eyes. She doubted they differed much from her own.

If they could stay near shore, they might have a fighting chance. Her parents were close by. Surely, they’d realize before long that the ransom swap had gone south, and they’d call in backup.

Not to mention the fact that Asher was still on board. She hated to think that Craig might die–scumbag though he was–but if he did, Ben’s twin might be able to make it off the boat without being detected and swim for help.

But Jade still had the gun, and for the time being, Grace, Katie, and Ben were at her mercy.

“Can you drive this boat, Grace?” the woman asked again, her voice dripping with scorn as she drew out each word longer than necessary.

“I know the basics, yes,” Grace said, swallowing hard.

She didn’t bother to explain to Jade that she used tospend time on the Hinton Logistics company yacht, learning from the crew that her father had employed for over a decade. The Lumeneer wasn’t the exact same model of boat, of course, but it was close enough.

She doubted that she was equipped to handle any malfunctions or major changes to the automatically controlled settings, but she had no plans to stick around long enough to find out.

No. There had to be a way out of this. Maybe if she did as Jade asked, an opportunity would present itself.

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