Christian.
Tobias is still pulling me back from jumping in, and it takes a moment for me to ignore the sudden itch to pull my gun and shoot him in the head right now for getting in my way.
Fifteen seconds.
I need to focus every pore in my body to look back at Tobias.
“There’s a life raft on the railing.” Every inch of space in my mind is noisy—cluttered—but I know Tobias can hear me clearly. “The moment you see me re-surface, you throw it to me, do you understand?”
Spanish falls off his tongue easily,“Reuben, I can’t let you—”
Seventeen seconds and my gun is pointed at his temple.
Seventeen seconds is too long.
Christian needs air.
“We can talk about my decisions later,”I snarl back, prepping the trigger, before switching to English. “If you don’t, then I’ll be happy to have the conversation with your fucking ghost. Do you understand me, Tobias?”
“Yes, sir,” Tobias replies immediately and I drop the gun.
“Life raft. Throw it to me.” It’s all the instructions I can think to give to him before I’m diving over the edge.
Twenty-one seconds and my shoulder dislocates on impact. The sound of my pain is lost to the cold sea, but I kick my feet and keep diving down, scanning the depths, illuminated by the lights of the hull.
All manner of fish are knocking into me—some misguided assumption thatI’m food that has unceremoniously fallen overboard—and the salt in my eyes stings.
Christian.
Twenty-five seconds and I’m barely spotting him.
He’s sinking like a fucking stone, out of range of the hull’s lights.
The only tell of it being him is the aura around him—
That ridiculously gorgeous hue fluttering in and out with his consciousness.
Christian.
I lose count of how long it takes to reach him. Every second feels like an eternity until I’ve finally grabbed hold of his hand in the dark. The pressure in my lungs is insurmountable. Still, I grit my teeth and hold him close to my chest with my good hand, kicking ferociously.
Breaking the surface of the water, drawing in air, is agony.
But I have him. I can barely feel his pulse.
A strange laugh is leaving my lips, “Hey now,estrellito,weren’t you going to show me the worth of the Adler Squad?”
There’s no answer, obviously.
“You’re not telling me they’d be taken out by a water slide, are you? That doesn’t sound right.”
Tobias had thrown the life raft. I see it now, some ways away, and it’s easy to reach for it.
But I’ll be honest, I didn’t plan any next steps.
And Christian needs CPR.
‘I need to show you why it was me.’
