“He’s dead. Someone put a bullet through him when I came up for air to look for you.”
“Okay.” Katie wouldn’t mourn the man who’d sent Jessie to her death. “Then let’s do this.”
“Please, Katie, we’ll find another way.”
She kissed him, giving him all the love she had inside her, telling him how much he meant to her.
“You have to let me do this.”
“I can’t.” His whisper was hoarse.
She heard the rotor blades start and then the helicopter started to rise.
“Let me go, Cubby; it’ll be the last time, I promise you.”
“I can’t lose you.”
“You won’t. I need you to cut my shoulder now. I’ll keep my hands bound and float out and up to the surface.”
He took out his knife and sliced the blade through his own palm he then smeared the blood over her white shirt. She bit her lip when he cut her shoulder.
“You are my life, Katie McBride, without you I am nothing, so you absolutely cannot leave me, do you understand?”
She nodded, sniffing back tears as he looked into her eyes.
Katie then eased his hand from her body and sank beneath the water, then swam out and let her body float to the surface. She was good at holding her breath, she had spent her youth doing that with her friends, but everything was harder with her hands tied behind her back and adrenalin flowing through her body.
She bobbed around on the surface, letting the water carry her wherever it wanted. She heard the helicopter circle, low enough that she was buffeted by the wash, and then a bullet hit the water beside her, but before she could move, she heard it rise and fly away. Katie waited as long as she could before turning her face sideways and hauling in a breath.
“I got you.” Cubby’s arms wrapped around her and she felt his fingers on the ties at her wrists. “Jesus, Katie,” he rasped, pushing the hair from her face. “Don’t ever put me through something like that again.”
“I won’t, I promise.”
“Katie!”
She looked to the shore and saw her father and Jake, along with his deputies. Katie saw they had been shooting at the helicopter and that was why it flew away. Lifting a hand, she waved, and they both sagged in relief. Ethan brought his helicopter down seconds later.
“I thought you were dead!” Annabelle was first out, tears streaming down her face. Ethan pulled Katie onto the landing pad and into his arms.
“You’re alive,” he muttered, squeezing her hard. “I saw blood.”
“We had to show them I was dead, so Cubby cut his hand and my shoulder.”
“Good plan, but it would have been nice to be forewarned.” Annabelle squeezed her next.
“I need to go to your father and the others, princess. You fly back with Tex,” Cubby said pulling himself up beside her.
“No.” Katie shook her head. “I’m not leaving you.”
“You’ve just run a race, had a terrifying experience, and now you want to walk back up that hill and down the other side?” His smile lit his blue eyes and Katie thought every day for the rest of her life wouldn’t be enough to see that look.
“Yes.”
“Must be love.” Annabelle sniffed. “Go then, and don’t ever scare us like that again.”
“I promise.” Katie kissed her friends before climbing into the boat and letting Cubby row her to shore.
“Brady killed Jilly and Melanie because they found him in the hut talking about handing me over to the Alessi brothers. They died because of me.”
