A chill raced up her spine with the memory of his eyes staring at her. She had the baby now. He couldn’t hurt Ellie anymore. She closed her eyes and prayed for Cash and for her father and Gil, who were still in the line of fire.

  It killed her not to know what was happening on deck. But she couldn’t put Ellie in danger by leaving her here to check. What if something happened? Who would take care of the baby?

  And what about Gil? The very thought of losing him nearly broke her in two.

  Fear for her father and for the man she was falling in love with overwhelmed her. Hadn’t they all lost enough? Didn’t she and Gil deserve a chance to see where these feelings would take them?

  Gil had told her to get down in the cabin and pray. She curled herself up in a ball and hugged Ellie to her chest. And she prayed. She prayed for her father, her brothers and for Gil. She hoped that God would give them all another chance at happiness.

  Gil had radioed the Coast Guard their coordinates, telling them the catamaran was under attack by pirates. But waiting for reinforcements to arrive while trying to outrun Sanchez’s men was maddening. Sonny’s father steered the thirty-five foot catamaran, catching as much wind as he could with the sails while using the engine to give them maximum speed. He stood at the wheel using his binoculars to gauge the distance between the catamaran and the other boat.

  Gil didn’t need to use anything but his own eyes to see the boat was gaining on them. That last bullet was too close for comfort, Gil thought, looking at the way the railing on the boat dimpled before the bullet had ricocheted out to sea. They had a lot of sail up for Sanchez’s men to use as a target. One bullet hole could slice the sail in two, causing the boat to lose speed and have both Gil and Sonny’s dad reeling to control the damage.

  It’d be all over then.

  “How far out is the Coast Guard?”

  “About ten minutes.”

  At the helm, Sonny’s father grumbled. “They’re going to be ten minutes too late if we don’t pick up some speed. Come take the wheel. I’m getting the other rifle.”

  Gil got his first close glimpse of the approaching boat through the binoculars. Two rifles against the firepower he saw coming at them wasn’t going to be enough. But he wasn’t prepared to give up.

  “If there are more bullets, get them, too. We’re going to need them.”

  Deep sobs racked Sonny’s body as she listened to the gunfire above her. Her father’s shouts intermingled with Gil’s. She knew they were both exposed to bullets that were being fired at them from the other boat, and it was more than she could bear.

  The sound of a helicopter in the distance began to grow louder. Within minutes, the noise of it was so pronounced, it scared Ellie and she started to cry for the first time since the ordeal started. The helicopter wasn’t directly above the boat but it sounded as if it were circling them.

  “This is the United States Coast Guard,” Sonny heard loud and clear. “Heave to and prepare to be boarded.”

  A surge of relief consumed Sonny. The United States Coast Guard was here—finally.

  The command to heave to was repeated, followed by the cut of the engine. The catamaran lost its speed and instead of cutting through the water it was floating.

  “We’re almost home, Ellie! Almost home.”

  “You’re still in international waters,” the Coast Guard lieutenant said. “Our being here was enough to chase them off, but we can’t guarantee they won’t come back once we fly out of here. There’s a cutter patrolling the waters on the outskirts of Puerto Rico. I’ve radioed for them to come out and escort you the rest of the way. They should meet you by the end of the day. If you run into trouble before you rendezvous with the cutter, make sure you radio us again.”

  The lieutenant and a Coast Guard crewman had boarded the catamaran after the boat chasing them took flight in the opposite direction.

  “I appreciate your help. I thought we were done for,” Gil said.

  “You say you logged your trip when you left port,” the lieutenant asked Sonny’s father.

  “Yes, you’ll find it on file. I’m bringing three more passengers back with me. They all have their passports on board.”

  The lieutenant nodded. “I’ll make note of that for our log, but you’ll need to check in with Immigration and the Coast Guard office in Ponce as soon as you dock, Mr. Montgomery. You’ll need to file a report.”

  “Will do. Thank you again.”

  As the Coast Guard crew lifted to the helicopter and flew off, Gil turned to Sonny’s father. “You look tired, sir.”

  He was met with a scowl on the older man’s face. “Let’s cut it with the ‘sir,’ shall we? My name is Kelin. Kelly to my friends.”

  “So where does that leave me?”

  He heaved a sigh. “I’m still deciding. Seeing how my daughter has taken a liking to you despite the mess you put her in, I’m thinking Kelly would be okay. Unless you only mean to use her for your own profit. In which case, you won’t be calling me anything.”

  “I care a great deal for Sonny.”

  Kelly propped his hands on his hips. “And still you almost had her killed. And my granddaughter.”

  “I can’t change that. If I could, I would. But I didn’t do it entirely on my own. From what Sonny has told me, she put herself in this position willingly despite your reservations and Dylan’s.”

  Surprise registered on his face. “She told you about her brother, huh?”

  “She’s talked openly about them both. She loves them very much.”

  “That she does.” He paused a moment and looked hard at Gil. “You a praying man, Gil?”

  He could lie and say yes, but he didn’t really want to start his relationship with Sonny’s father on that note. “I wasn’t always. But it seems that’s all I’ve been doing lately.”

  Kelly nodded. “Worrying about loved ones can take a lot out of a man.”

  Gil had been the cause of Kelly’s worry for at least one of his loved ones, he decided. Judging by the worry lines on Kelly’s face, Gil figured he wasn’t going to let him off the hook easily. Even after the blow he’d delivered earlier.

  “How’s the jaw?” Kelly asked.

  “Sore, but I’ll survive.”

  “If I’d really wanted to hurt you I would have. And believe me, there were times over the past week when I wanted to.”

  Gil had no doubt. Despite the terse words from Kelly, he’d calmed some in the past few minutes, and then he surprised Gil by chuckling.

  “It wasn’t a very Christian way to behave, I’m afraid,” Kelly said, with a shake of his head. “My wife would be appalled. She can deliver her own left hook without even touching me, though, when she’s displeased by something I’ve done. And she’d be displeased about this, especially seeing the way Sonny feels about you.”

  Gil blinked. “I’m sorry, sir?”

  “Are we back to that already?” Kelly said, scowling.

  Gil shrugged.

  Kelly eyed him speculatively. “You be careful with Sonny. No matter how much she’s grown into a woman, she’s still my little girl and I’m not going to let you hurt her.”

  “I don’t think you have to worry. We’ve been at odds a fair amount of the time we’ve spent together.” Well, that wasn’t completely true, but they had argued.

  Kelly chuckled, lifting his eyes skyward. “Lord, I’m in trouble with this one. He’s clueless.”

  A frown pulled at Gil’s face.

  “You might not have had the opportunity to figure it out yet, but my little girl doesn’t pay much mind to men she doesn’t like. I don’t mean she’s impolite. That’s not Sonny’s way. But if you got her riled up, she’s seeing something in you.” Kelly pointed a finger at Gil. “Remember what I said, and watch yourself. I don’t want my little girl hurt.”

  Gil smiled. “You have my word.”

  Kelly made a grunt. “Well, you got her back to me. And with my grandbaby, too. That says something. I guess I can’t ask for more than that from the Lord.”

  Despite his initial reaction to Gil, it was easy to see where Sonny’s strong faith came from. More than a few times Gil had looked in Kelly’s direction while they were being chased. He talked openly to the Lord as if He were a passenger on this vessel along with the rest of them.

  But then, Gil supposed He was. He wasn’t going to question how Kelly had managed to reach them before Eduardo Sanchez did, or how the Coast Guard had found them just in time to scare off their pursuers.

  Kelly pointed to the captain’s wheel. “What do you know about navigating a catamaran?”

  Gil gave him a grin. “Enough to keep her true while you go introduce yourself to Ellie and have a real look. She’s a sweetheart.”

  That earned him a beaming smile from Kelly. “I hear she’s the spitting image of my wife, too.”

  “Sonny?”

  “Back here, Dad!” she called out. She’d found some baby supplies in one of the cabinets and changed Ellie’s diaper. Serena must have stocked the boat before her father set sail.

  Kelly poked his head into the berth. “There’re my girls.” His laugh of joy was loud; it startled Ellie and had her twisting around in Sonny’s arms to see the source of the noise.

  “Well, I’ll be. She does look like your mother,” her dad said, tears filling his eyes. “You’re a breath of fresh air, little one.”

  Sonny blinked back her own tears. “Here. Why don’t you hold her while I get her a bottle?”

  Ellie looked lost in her granddad’s big arms. But he turned her and easily fit her into the crook of his arm like a pro.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  In her search for diapers Sonny also found some ready-made bottles of formula. She heated one and brought it back to the berth where she’d left her father and Ellie.

  Her father was stretched out on the bunk. Ellie was sitting up, propped on his stomach, and he was making her laugh big belly laughs. The worry she’d seen on her dad’s face had been momentarily replaced with pure contentment.

  She hoped with all her heart that God would let them all have many more moments like this. She couldn’t wait to get home and see that same joy on her mother’s face. On Serena’s face. And God willing, on Cash’s face, if Dylan was successful in finding him and bringing him home.

  “Did you call Serena to tell her we were coming in?” her father asked.

  “You mean you didn’t hear the shriek? It was the first thing I did when you were talking to the Coast Guard.”

  Tears filled Sonny’s eyes as she watched her father holding Ellie. If it was in God’s plan, Cash would be holding her soon.

  “She and Mom are going to meet us at the Coast Guard station, in Ponce.”

  “Good. Any word from Dylan yet?”

  Sonny shook her head. “I talked to Tammie, too. She said it’s still too early.”

  Dylan’s fiancée had been in contact with Dylan only once since they’d left to rescue Cash. Although Tammie did say she was hopeful they’d hear something soon, she reminded Sonny that Dylan had warned them he would be unable to check in until he and his team had retrieved Cash and were on their way home.

  Still, Sonny could not ignore the worried lines that had reappeared on her father’s face. Now that they were out of danger, she got a good look at him and he appeared so much older than she remembered. It was as if he had aged ten years in a matter of weeks.

  “Worry over your kids will do it to you,” he said, reading her mind. “Go. You don’t have to babysit me. Ellie is fine.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “I wasn’t suggesting she wasn’t.”

  “I know. But you have that does-he-know-what-he’s-doing look about you. I may be a grandpa for the first time but I managed to raise three children to adulthood. I do know a thing or two about babies.”

  She offered him a smile. “Yeah, I guess you did a pretty good job at that.”

  He lifted his eyes toward the stairs leading up to the deck. “What’s going on, Sonny?”

  A slow rise of heat flushed her face. Never in her life had she talked about men with her father. Aside from the fact that she rarely dated, there really hadn’t ever been anyone worth bringing home to meet her parents.

  It had only been a few days since she met Gil, and already she was having a hard time remembering what life was like before him. What did she think about all day? Now, she seemed to be consumed with thoughts of Gil.

  If this trip to Colombia had proven one thing to her family—and to herself—it was that she wasn’t a little girl anymore. She wasn’t going to hide what she felt from her father.

  She cleared her throat. “If you’re asking me if I’m in love with Gil, the answer is…I don’t know. I just hope you don’t judge him based on what happened in Colombia.”

  “He almost got you killed. And Ellie. How am I supposed to feel about that?”

  “He had no idea what was going on when he stopped us at the airport. He got us out of Colombia. And he protected me when he could have been killed himself.”

  Her father considered her words for a minute. A sense of pride filled her as she realized he was seeing her in a new light.

  He finally chuckled and gave Ellie a big kiss on the cheek, making her laugh. “If I still had any kind of pull where you’re concerned, you never would’ve gone down to Colombia. But what an incredible mistake that would have been if we couldn’t have this precious little baby back with us. I guess sometimes your dad doesn’t always know what’s best for you, Sonny.”

  Her father’s face grew serious.

  “But I can’t ignore his possible reasons for being involved with you. He was after your brother. Just like those federal officers who wouldn’t listen to the evidence. How do you know he isn’t just going along for the ride to find Cash?”

  “He believes in Cash’s innocence.”

  “Is he still determined to interfere? To look for Cash? You know what that might do to both your brothers if he succeeds.”

  She knew full well that if Gil and his team managed to find Cash before Dylan got him out of Colombia that both her brothers—and Gil—could wind up dead.

  Sonny chose her words carefully. “He knows how serious this situation is. He won’t put Dylan and Cash in danger.”

  “I hope not. I hope whatever it is that you’re seeing in him is…” Kelly stopped himself and shook his head. “You’re well beyond the age where I can tell you what to do, Sonny.”

  “Thanks, Dad.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek and smiled at Ellie, who was wiggling happily in her grandfather’s arms.

  Then, with a weary heart, she climbed the stairs in search of Gil. She had no idea what would happen when Gil started searching for Cash again. But she thought she was falling in love. And that was possibly the scariest thing that had happened to her since she’d come to Colombia.

  FIFTEEN

  Gil sat at the helm, his bare feet propped up on a storage container, his shoes in a pile on the floor next to it. He was leaning back in the captain’s chair with his arms behind him and his hands entwined, resting at the nape of his neck.

  He’d been deep in thought and the look on his face told Sonny she’d startled him. But his expression quickly softened when he realized it was her.

  “Any word from Marco and Cooper?” Sonny asked.

  Gil nodded, rubbing his jaw, which probably ached after the punch her father had given him. “Safely back in the States.”

  “I’m sorry for the way my father treated you,” she said, settling in the chair on the other side of the deck.

  “That’s okay. It’s not like he didn’t have reason. I probably would have decked me, too, if I were him.”

  Sonny could relax a bit, knowing Ellie was downstairs with her father. He was enjoying some grandpa time with his first grandchild, giving Sonny her first opportunity since they’d met to let her guard down around Gil.

  She didn’t have to be in control anymore. There were two strong men on board that could take that lead for her.

  “How’s the jaw?” she asked. She winced inside—opening up a can of worms about her father hitting him might not be the wisest way to start.

  Gil moved his jaw back and forth as if to test it. “I’ll survive.”

  Sonny wondered if her heart would.

  “I’m sorry. My family is a bit overprotective of me.”

  With the sun setting behind him, he looked incredibly handsome.

  “You don’t have to apologize,” he said, frowning.

  “Yes, I kinda have to.”

  “You didn’t punch me.”

  “You’re not likely to get a warm reception from Dylan, either,” she said, biting her bottom lip. “So, it’s kind of an apology in advance.”

  His eyes widened for a fraction of a second and then he laughed. She could barely hear it over the sound of the water rushing against the side of the catamaran and the fluttering of the sails in the breeze.

  “I guess that’s to be expected. Good news is I just got word from the Coast Guard cutter that we should be reaching Ponce by midday tomorrow,” Gil said. “You’ll finally be on United States soil.”

  Tears that she had held back for so long finally surged to the surface. Instantly, she felt Gil beside her, his strong arms wrapped around her.

  “Are you always this much of a mess with good news?” he teased.

  Sonny laughed through her tears. “I guess it’s all just hitting me now.”

  “You mean it’s taken this long? It hit me pretty fierce back in the square when I saw those guns pointed at us.” He brushed her hair away from her face and leaned forward. “You’re driving me crazy, Sonny. And I want to kiss you again. Will your father shoot me if I do?”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t be silly. He won’t shoot you.” Then she chuckled. “He’ll just feel like shooting you.”

  “Then I guess I’m safe.”

  “As safe as we’re going to be until this is all over and Cash is home.”

  He tipped her chin up with his fingers so she was looking directly at him. He had the most extraordinary eyes and if she hadn’t been so terrified at the airport, it would’ve been the first thing she noticed about him.