Chapter 35 - Lilia
Despite the sun blazing on the water, goosebumps broke out all over my skin as Reuben shoved me ahead of him into the breaking surf. I kept the small backpack with a few days' worth of clothes high over my head as we moved as fast as we could through the waves that pushed us back, then dragged us forward.
After only a couple of minutes, the water was up to my chin, and at the next rolling wave, my feet no longer touched the sandy bottom. Panicking, my bag went under, and salty water splashed in my eyes. A rough hand gripped my upper arm, and Reuben, at least eight inches taller than me, kept me from being swept completely under.
With an irritated look, he grabbed my bag and hooked it over one shoulder as he continued to drag me parallel to the rocks that separated me from the freedom I had been longing for.
Standing on the sand, they were majestic and glossy in the sun and the ocean's glare. Now that they towered over my head and water kept splashing back on me from them, they were forbidding and dangerous. But it was more dangerous to try to climb over them, sharp as broken glass, with deep, narrow holes between them that would be certain death by drowning if we fell in.
If we tried to stroll off the grounds any other way, we would be spotted on the security cameras. Going into the water was the only way, and it hadn’t seemed such a huge feat when my feet weren’t paddling wildly, searching for solid ground. By now, I was in way over my head, and we still had at least twenty yards to go until we could round the outcropping.
Even Reuben had to swim now and had let go of my arm to keep himself afloat. With every new wave, we’d get tossed back several yards, then we’d paddle for all we were worth as it sucked back toward the deep again. We couldn’t have been in the water more than ten minutes, but it felt like hours. My arms and legs burned, and I regretted not forcing down a quick breakfast as I grew weaker with every thrash of the ocean. Fear of drowning began to overtake the fear of getting caught.
Getting caught was starting to seem the best option. But that would make three failed attempts. I had to keep going for my own pride if nothing else.
A huge splash sent me off course. Reuben was beyond reach, and I found myself being swept straight toward the nearest black crag, jutting three feet over my head. I screamed, my mouth filled at the same time I hit the rough surface. Fire lit up on my left side as salt water burned the fresh scrapes. I shoved off with my feet, only to jam into another rock with my back.
I barely heard the shouted curses and could hardly see through the continuous wash of water over my face, but once again, Reuben grabbed me and pulled me away from the rocks. I sputtered, reaching up to rub my tender shoulder. My hand came away with blood on it, quickly washed away in a swirl of red.
I met Reuben’s eyes, and he scowled, spit out a mouthful of water, and pulled me further toward our goal. He was moving faster now, so the flash of fear I saw there wasn’t my imagination. These Southern Florida waters were chock full of sharks, and I’d just become tasty bait with my torn skin ringing out a dinner bell. Suddenly, the ocean itself wasn’t my greatest foe, and I swam as if I could already see the dark shapes gathering below me.
We made it around to the other side, and by the time I could feel the bottom again, I was close to hysteria, still heaving myself toward shore. My bag was gone, ripped off Reuben’s shoulder when he had to turn back for me. Finally, I could relax a little and let the waves sweep me along until I was only knee deep. The rocks rose up in a mocking way, but I flipped them off and kept trudging until I collapsed in a heap on the sand, as far as I could get from the lapping water’s edge.
Reuben made it out before me and was bent over, catching his breath. “I hate swimming,” he said.
I could only nod. The sun warmed my back, but there was no time to relax and recover. He stomped over to me and hauled me to my feet.
We had to keep moving. Out on the small main road on the island, we ran along under the cover of thick trees and spiny bushes that seemed like a cross between cacti and squatty palm trees. Eventually, we came to a car that was half hidden in all the greenery, and Reuben switched directions.
“Finally,” he muttered, as if he had been looking for this all along.
Questions crowded into my mind. How did he manage to arrange for this car to be waiting for us? Perhaps it was a coincidence, and he’d been looking for one to steal as we ran toward the causeway leading off the island. But the door was unlocked and the keys in the ignition. This wasn’t one of the few residents’ vehicles. How long had he been planning this before he approached me last night?
The fact that we must have taken half an hour or more to get past the rocks and out of the sea had me too panicked to think about it for long. Unless I was willing to give up hope thatI could save my family from Gavril’s attack, we needed to get off the island.
I climbed into the backseat, sprawled out, and dripping salt water everywhere as the guard slid into the driver’s seat and took off, head down, eyes straight ahead.
“We need to get to the airport.” I popped up as soon as we merged into normal traffic once we were off the island. The draw of sleep was too tempting to lie down. I needed to keep my wits about me.
Reuben laughed. “We look like drowned rats, and neither of us has anything to change into. Do you think anyone would let us into the building, let alone on a plane?”
He was right, and my bag with fresh clothes would have been soaked too, if it didn’t already belong to Poseidon. The glimpse of myself in the rearview mirror showed my sopping wet hair pasted to the sides of my face. Fresh blood seeped through the torn shoulder of my t-shirt, and my leg was covered in scratches and scrapes. I had forgotten about them, but now that the adrenaline was fading, they started to sting all over again.
“So what do we do?” I asked, losing hope.
He shook his head. “Don’t panic. We’ll stop at a motel and figure it out. Get some new clothes somewhere.”
“And a phone,” I said. “I need a phone as soon as possible.”
With a grim laugh, he tugged his out of his cargo pocket and tossed it back to me. It was completely dead, and I didn’t share what he seemed to think was a pretty funny joke. Still, he had more to lose than I did if we got caught because we didn’t think things through. Gavril would be mad at me, but he’d never hurt me after my other escape attempts.
Reuben wouldn’t live to the end of the day.
I handed the useless phone back to him, and he chucked it out the window with a mild curse. I stayed quiet, watching as the city turned into swampland the longer we drove. I patted the hidden side pocket along the seam of my sports bra, certain the wallet I had stuck in there for safekeeping would no longer be there, but the small, flat lump made me sigh with relief. At least we still had money.
I didn’t feel great about stealing the wad of hundreds I found in one of the drawers Gavril was using, but at that point, it was the least of my worries. Every passing minute could be putting my family in danger, but a dark cloud of worry seemed to have descended over my accomplice, and I didn’t dare nag about when we’d stop.
Eventually, he pulled into an off-road motel, more of a convenience store with a single pump for gas and a narrow strip of rooms behind it. The sign was neon, but turned off in the bright daylight. Simply saying Motel as if no one could be bothered to show any creativity, this is far from civilization. How long had it been since we left? A little more than an hour?
