“Thank Christ.” Austin flipped Chloe onto her stomach and began swimming back to shore.
I prayed for a chance; my body coiled, ready to jump, but like she knew, Belinda kept her gaze fixed on me. Or maybe she just wanted to see my reaction as my mother drowned in front of me.
I focused on Chloe instead, willing her to move. To save herself. To dosomething.
But she didn’t move. She didn’t fight.
She lay face down in the water, bobbing slightly with the current as Austin paddled away.
Five seconds. Six. Seven. Ten.
I stared, stunned, horrified, willing this to stop. To be nothing but a fucking nightmare. Praying that Mads would understand. That he’d forgive me.
Goddammit! Wake up and fight, Mum!
One of her legs dipped below the water.
Mum!
Then the other.
Belinda turned to watch Chloe’s last few seconds.
And something inside of me roared.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
NICK
I explodedoff the tarp and ran straight for Belinda. She spun at the first crinkle of the tarp and her eyes blew wide. She brought the gun up, aiming for my head, but I was too close, ramming her arm with my good shoulder before she could make the shot.
The gun flew to the ground and skittered over the rocks toward the water. Belinda ran for it, but I got there first, kicking it into the lake and cursing the fucking cuffs that kept me from picking it up. Belinda chased it, but I slid to the ground, the stones carving into my skin, and swept her feet from under her.
She crumpled and hit the ground with a wail, her knee buckling under her. I ran to where she was already scrambling to her feet and sent my boot into the side of her head. She fell back with a quiet grunt, and I added a second kick to her ribs.
She wasn’t out, but she wasn’t exactly mobile either, and I had no time to lose. I sprinted for the lake, scanning for Austin as I ran. He was wading onto the stoney bank about twenty metres away. His head flicked from right to left, searching for Belinda, going still when he saw her lying on the ground. Thenhe caught sight of me heading into the water and turned tail, running into the bush.
Shouts rang out, and the sound of a dog barking circled the quarry, but I’d lost too many precious seconds as it was. I slicked my hands and tried once again to step through my cuffs. My shoulder screamed with the effort and I was all but peeling the skin from my wrists, but I still couldn’t shift them.
I gave up and waded out, rolling to my back when I hit enough depth so I could kick my way to Chloe. The freezing black water clutched my heart like a vice, snatching the breath from my lungs. My pulse thundered in my throat and everything in my brain screamed,Get out.
But all I could see in my mind’s eye was Chloe, sinking in the distance.
My mother.
Drowning.
And I was having none of it.
I checked over my shoulder, adjusted my course, and kicked harder.
Just a few more metres.
With my hands cuffed, exactly what the hell I was going to do when I reached Chloe, I hadn’t quite figured out. Get her on her back, for a start.
The top of my head connected with her soft body and simply pushed it away. I rolled over and dived beneath, kicking as far down as I could before coming up fast, head butting the side of her torso to flip her.
Three times I tried, but all she did was float away, bobbing in the water like a scene from a horror movie.
