Jack Merchant and Sarah Ballard

Ex-DEA agent Jack Merchant is living out his precarious retirement on the docks of Charlestown, Massachusetts, surrounded by the revenge-minded dealers and punks he used to put away. All he's got is his sloop, LILA, but soon enough he gets a visit from the repo man. Except the repo man's a woman, Sarah Ballard. Her proposition: They've got a week to track down a rich couple who've disappeared with their yacht. Find it, and Merchant can keep his boat. The trouble is they're not the only ones looking.

No one believes Matt Coulter's story of his foundered sailboat, a life raft adrift at night, and a rescue turned kidnapping - least of all, the police. Jack and Sarah don't either, at first. But they reluctantly take the case, and the further they follow its twists and turns, the more convinced they become that the missing children are still alive. At least for now.