I SUCKED IN A BREATH.

Then another.

Pain radiated from my jaw and bile rose in my throat.

Groggy and confused, I blinked, but all I saw was darkness. Darkness and the drone of an engine were the only two things I could process as I took another deep breath and smelled brine.

Then it all came rushing back.

Marius, Chuck, the bodyguard, outside the club, my father’s text, the nine-one-one call, the man who hit me….

Tears welled, but I fought them down and focused on what my father had taught me. Stay calm, take stock, keep quiet, and don’t look any captors in the eyes. Everything was dark, but it was already too late for his last piece of advice.

The face of the man who’d hit me replayed in my head on repeat.

Nausea churned, and my stomach lurched. I brought a hand to my mouth, but both hands came, a handcuff chain clinking as metal bit into my wrists.

Oh God.

Stay calm.

Sucking in a deep breath, desperately trying not to throw up, my jaw throbbing, I lifted my head and looked around, but it was literally pitch-dark.

Okay. I could handle this.

I took another deep breath.

All right, I was alive, I could breathe, and I didn’t feel too closed in like I was buried or something else horrific. I could deal. I just had to take stock. Deep breath, don’t panic, I could do this.

I sucked in another breath and let it out slow, then I sat up, measured and deliberate.

That’s when I noticed it.

The sway.

The sway combined with the engine noise.

I wasn’t in a car. I was on a boat.

I looked around, but I couldn’t see anything, so I felt with my hands. Soft, bedding, pillows behind me.

I was below deck.

Swinging my legs around, my hands in front of me, I scooted to the edge of the bunk and began to feel my way around. Handcuffed, unarmed and no phone, I didn’t know what I could do, but I had to at least try.

Just as my feet landed on a solid surface, the boat thumped into something and the sway stopped. The engine cut, and before I could get my wits about me, a galley door flew open.

Bright sunlight filtered in, blinding me.

“Get up,” a deep voice barked.