The gate was rising up to meet him, but it was his father that Jake watched, his heart stuttering in his chest as Walt rolled Annie’s limp body over the edge of the boards and into the water.
Jake floored the gas and smashed through the gate. Free from its hinges, it flew end over end through the air.
Walt’s head whipped toward him, and Jake slammed on the brakes, watching in horror as his father kicked the heavy propane tank he had tied to Annie’s ankle over the edge of the dock and into the water, dragging her body down beneath the surface with it.
Jake jammed the cruiser into park, leapt out, and charged.
“Get down!” he shouted.
Walt turned and jumped easily off the dock, striding across the clearing with his eyes on his son.
“Put that gun away, Jake,” he called, lifting a hand in front of him.
“I said get down!”
Walt did not break stride, and a part of Jake seemed to float up and away, looking down with mild surprise as he aimed the gun and fired.
Walt jerked backward, spinning on his feet before he fell to the ground. A rosebud of blood blossomed at his shoulder, and he clawed at it as Jake sprinted past and threw himself into the water in a splashing dive.
The lake swallowed him whole, and for a moment, he could see nothing, only pale green water and translucent bubbles as he kicked downward, and downward again, in what he hoped was the right direction.
He was certain he had less than a minute to reach Annie before she drowned, but where was she? The shore fell off steeply behind the dock, a natural shelf, and the water around him grew dark as he descended, lungs already begging for breath.
Please,he prayed.Please!
In the corner of his eye, there was a glint of copper where a lance of sunlight caught floating hair, and Jake kicked toward it furiously.
Annie was floating beneath the water as though standing upright, her face serene as her hair swirled around it, eyes closed, lips parted, and Jake prayed with everything in him that she was just unconscious, not dead.Please, God, not dead.
The rope joining her to the sunken propane tank was knotted tightly around her ankle. Lungs burning, Jake swam down to untie it.
He tore at it with his fingers, but couldn’t loosen it fast enough. The thin rope was triple knotted, and it slid beneath his fingers as every alarm bell in his head went off at the same time. Second by second, he fought against the growing urge to kick to the surface for air as he struggled with the rope.
The first knot gave, and the second, and his body began to convulse.
Come on!he screamed inside his head.
The third knot slipped beneath his fingers, his vision darkening at the edges.
No!
And then he had it, Annie was free, and he kicked upward with what little strength he had left, wrapping his arm tightly around her waist and dragging her with him as he moved toward the light.
For a desperate moment, it seemed he would never breach the surface, and then air broke against his face at last and he took a great, heaving gasp of it as he swam toward the shore, encumbered by the weight of the woman in his arms.
He dragged her up onto the dirt, still gasping, and spared his father a half-second glance to find that Walt had lost consciousness. The sleeve of his shirt was soaked through with blood, but Jake had seen worse. He’d live.
Quickly, Jake tilted Annie’s head back and covered her mouth with his, giving her the breath in his lungs, once, twice. He placed the heels of his hands on her sternum and pushed hard, counting thirty compressions.
“Come on, Annie,” he rasped. “Breathe… Breathe!”
He pinched her nose and blew into her mouth twice more, but she stayed motionless, utterly still.
“Come on!” Tears blurred his vision as he jammed the heels of his hands into her sternum and pumped over and over. “Come on, Annie!”
Water, cold and violent, shot out of her mouth and into his face as she coughed. Her eyes flew open, locking on his with raw terror, and Jake gathered her into his arms.
“You’re okay,” he said into her wet hair. “You’re okay now.”
