The man glanced at the steely-eyed woman. The woman’s gaze didn’t shift off of Kathy for a moment. “I’m sure your boyfriend is fine,” he responded calmly and tapped a paper that sat on the table before him. “My men report that the sailboat left the harbor almost immediately after they cleared the obstruction.”

Kathy’s hopes rose. But as she opened her mouth to ask a question, the man continued.

“But I have no idea where the boat was off to.”

The world seemed to stop as cold fingers of dread raked through her insides.

Brad would never have left without her, or without letting her know where he was going. He would have made sure she was okay; she had no doubt about it.

This man was lying.

Which probably meant… Brad was dead.

And nobody in the world knew where she was.

A chill ran up the middle of her back. She was at these people’s mercy.

Glancing at the corner of the conference room, Kathy was reminded of the presence of that steely-eyed woman. She had been watching Kathy’s every move. For some reason, she made Kathy more nervous than anyone else she’d encountered.

The man slid a stack of papers toward her. “Miss O’Reilly, you’ve trespassed on our property, but the company has chosen to overlook this and will not press charges. In fact, we feel terrible about the experience you’ve been through, and would like to make a generous offer of compensation. We ask only that you sign this non-disclosure agreement.”

Kathy skimmed the first page.

The man’s voice took on a warm, almost paternal tone. “It’s a fairly standard agreement. You agree to remain silent about what you’ve encountered, and we’ll give you $200,000. As to the details of the agreement…”

He continued, but Kathy wasn’t listening. She’d never dreamed that someone would offer her that much money for anything, much less simply staying silent about something.

Of course, she recognized it for what it was: a payoff. But she also realized that she didn’t have a choice.

She shuddered to think what they might do if she refused.

Without even waiting for the man to stop talking, she grabbed a pen and signed the papers.

###

“The company” put Kathy on a flight back home to Alaska. But once she got there, she didn’t know what to do with herself. She’d been working at Cape Cheerful in Dutch Harbor, but that place now held too many memories. It was where she’d met Brad.

She needed to know what had happened to him.

He hadn’t returned home, and the slip where he normally moored his sailboat remained unoccupied. She sought out his friends and crewmates, to see if he’d reached out to any of them. He hadn’t.