Someone grabbed Marisa from behind. She turned to look, but a man pulled her close, wrapped his arms around her, and covered her head with a heavy coat. He yanked her toward him, and she lost her footing and crashed against his chest. Her nose filled with the scent of body odor and raw power.

She fought to get away, but his arms squeezed her like a vice. He pulled her with him, and she stumbled along, trying to fight, unable to do anything.

She screamed. The sound was muffled inside his heavy coat. They'd gone just a few feet when she heard Nate's voice. "Let her go!"

The man did, yanking his heavy coat with him.

Marisa gasped in fresh air, stumbled, and banged her shoulder into the stone face of the market. She turned just as Nate reached her.

The pounding of the man's footsteps faded as he rounded a corner in the market and disappeared.

Nate gripped her arms and looked into her eyes. "Are you okay?"

Marisa nodded and turned to check if Ana had seen. She hoped she hadn't. How it would scare her to watch her mother accosted.

But her daughter wasn't there.

"Leslie and Ana." Marisa peered down the stairs. She peered at the crosswalk. She peered at the sidewalk. Her sister and her daughter had been there just a moment before. They should have been staring back up at her, waving, smiling.

But the place they'd stood was empty.

Chapter 7

NATE SCANNED THE AREA. Leslie and Ana had to be close by. They had to be.

Only seconds had passed since he'd seen them.

His heart still raced after seeing that man grab Marisa. What had his endgame been? If his plan had been to kidnap her, it had been flawed, considering that without going down the many stairs to the street, he wasn't going to get far with her. Maybe he'd planned to drag her into a dark room. Nate didn't want to think about what might have happened next.

He glanced at Marisa, whose gaze was still darting around. "Where are they?" The pitch of her voice rose to near-panic mode.

He stepped closer and placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down. "They have to be here somewhere. Maybe they..." He tried to come up with a plausible explanation. But beyond the street was just the sand, and beyond the sand was just the water. He studied the beach in the fading light, but none of the silhouettes looked like them.

"What?" Marisa stepped away and turned to him. "Maybe they what? Where could they be?"

"Maybe they forgot something on the beach."

She started walking down the steps. "We should go over there."

He took her elbow. "We have a great vantage point right here."