“If the cops find the bodies, won’t they think the weights are a little strange?”
“Smith said the outer shell will dissolve after a few hours in water, and the heavy part will sink away.”
Somebody lifted her up and slung her over his shoulder like a side of beef. Then he began to climb a short flight of stairs, wavering as he balanced her weight. In a few moments, she was on deck. She caught a glimpse of Gabe, who looked to be in similar condition.
An island. They were supposed to be heading for an island. She caught no sight of land and remembered that it had been Smith’s lie.
But there was something else. It looked like a ghost boat, not quite solid but somehow visible.
She had no time to puzzle that out. No time to say anything to Gabe. In the next moment, she was lofted into the air before crashing down into the water hard enough to sting. The moment she hit, she began to sink. She was a good swimmer, but she simply couldn’t keep her head above the surface.
Oh Lord. Suddenly, she flashed back to a terrible memory, the nightmare that had seized her by the throat before she had met Travis. The horrible scene when Smith’s men had flung him overboard into the sea. Back then, she had told herself it was only a bad dream, but she had felt it with him. Now it was all happening again. Only this time, she was the one drowning, sinking into the water with no hope of escape.
Desperately, she tried to tread water, but her legs felt like lead. Then she realized the problem. The weights wrapped around her ankles were pulling her down.
* * *
Rachel caught her breath.I see Olivia and Gabe now. The men hauled them up on deck. Oh God, they threw her over—then him.
At that moment, she saw Travis, a vague man shape that certainly wasn’t visible to the thugs who had just pitched their victims into the bay. Travis ran to the side of the boat and executed a perfect dive into the water.
As Rachel watched, she keyed into the frantic exchange between her husband, Jake Harper, and Craig Branson:
They’re sinking.
And the boat is speeding away.
You go after Olivia, and I’ll try to get Gabe,Jake said.
Another water rescue.
It’s a lot deeper out here than any bayou.
* * *
Olivia flailedand kicked in despair, trying to force herself upward through the murky water. Somewhere above her, she thought there was sunlight and air. But it might as well have been on the far side of the moon. In her condition, there was no way she could fight the drag of the ankle weights.
Travis was with her, talking to her, ordering her to hold on, saying that help was coming. But it was no good. She was too far down in the watery depths. Cold and darkness closed in around her. Regret tore at her. She remembered people saying that your life flashed before your eyes when you were dying. Something like that happened to her, not all the details, but the sadness of being alone. And then the miracle of Travis finding her. She had basked in the feeling of connection. Oh Lord, if she’d only met him earlier. If they’d only had more time together. But fate had kept them apart for too long and then snatched them away again. Could they find each other in the afterlife? Or was her death the end of everything for them?
She longed to fight for her life, but there was no exit from this final act of her existence. She tried to hold her breath, but then suddenly everything changed. Somehow, there was no more drag on her legs, and a man was lifting her to the surface. She kept trying to hold her breath, but it was no good. Because her lungs were desperate for air, she inhaled—only to drag in seawater.
The choking pain hit her as someone lifted her to the surface, where more hands reached out and grasped her. That was the last she remembered until she began to gasp and choke.
“She’s coming around,” somebody shouted.
“Thank God. What about the other one?”
The answer came in somber tones. “I’ve done everything I could, but I’m afraid we’ve lost him.”
Who was speaking? Where was she? On a boat? The same one?
Other people clustered around, but they were all in the background as Travis hovered over her. Even when she’d been unconscious, she’d never lost the connection with him.
A man was talking. Somehow, she knew he was a doctor. “It’s too late. He was down too long.”
Travis spoke frantically in her mind.I think I can save him.
Do it.
