Unless…there was that little cove not far from the Clydes’ place where they used to dive off the rocks at high tide.
“What’s the tide right now?” he asked Sparrow.
“High tide’s in two hours.”
That might be enough. “Go around to the southwest side. There’s a cove where you can drop us. If you can’t get close enough, we can swim. We’re both good swimmers.”
By the time they reached the cove, the deep blue of twilight was painting the shoreline in ominous shadows. At Jack’s request, Captain Sparrow kept the lights off. He and Jessie would have to make their way by the last light of day, and hope the moon rose soon. Hey, if the smugglers from days of yore could do it, so could they.
As Jessie steeled herself for their jump into the water, Jack shook Captain Sparrow’s hand and asked him to keep their arrival to himself, unless he saw Tina. If he did run into Tina, tell her everything.
“You sure you’re good here? Want me to stick around?”
“No, you’ll just draw attention. I’m sure you don’t want to be in the middle of this mess.”
“Maybe not, but you have my number. I’ll be on standby. I wish you guys the best. You and Officer Badass.”
Jack’s heart twisted at the thought of his badass Tina. He’d still gotten no word from her, and his gut told him something had gone wrong. Would his phone survive another immersion in the saltwater? What if she needed him and couldn’t reach him?
Tina’s strong and resourceful, he told himself. He’d seen her vulnerable side too. He knew she wasn’t just a badass. But the badass part was real too, always there for her to call on.
In the misty darkening gray, he and Jessie climbed down the ladder, one by one, and dropped into the water of the cove. The shock of the cold acted like a shot of system-wide adrenaline. He heard Jessie’s gasp, and the rattle of her teeth, but didn’t take time to stop. He swam with one arm, hauling her along with him, until she tugged her hand away to swim by herself.
Once they’d climbed onto the rocks, he heard her laugh out loud, and turned to see her squeezing water from her hair, looking so much like her old self that he wanted to cry. “We’ll never get used to it, will we? That cold.”
“Are you okay? Are you?—”
“Am I normal? No. But I can think for myself. So that’s a plus.” She peeled her sweater off her body and wrung the water out of it. “I’m so fucking mad right now. I want to hit someone but I don’t want it to be you. So just give me a second.”
He stayed quiet while she rose to her feet and let out a bloodcurdling yell.
Maybe not the best thing to do, this close to the Clydes, but he couldn’t begrudge her the release. Besides, they probably made sounds like that all the time.
“What’s going on? How much do you know?” he asked when she finally looked his way, still shaking from the combination of cold water and withdrawal and anger.
“I know everything. That’s why they put me in that house and fed me Night Light until I nearly forgot who I was. I didn’t even recognize you at first! I saw you in the car and had this vague feeling that I knew you, but then it vanished. My own brother! God! I guess I should be glad they didn’t just kill me. But Seth wouldn’t let them.”
“Night Light…that’s the drug? Do you know what it is?”
“Okay, I guess I don’t know everything. I know it’s some kind of medical research gone wrong. Like a cure for schizophrenia or something like that. It affects your cognitive function and your ability to prefer one thing to another thing. When you’re on it, everything is pleasant and feels like a dream. You can’t remember anything painful at all. It erases suffering and trauma. That was what Seth kept saying, that I’d be happier this way. Sometimes I knew what was going on around me but sometimes I just didn’t. I’d phase in and out of some other reality. When I was thinking clearly, I tried to drop clues for you. At least Seth didn’t let anything too bad happen to me.”
“You’re excusing that bastard?” Jack wished he could strangle the guy himself.
“It could have been worse, that’s all I’m saying. If you can take away someone’s independent will? That’s so dangerous.”
“Stepford Wives territory,” he agreed.
“Yes, sort of. But the Stepford wives were robots, right? I was still me. I still had feelings, in fact, I felt good. Let’s get out of sight. Come on.” Jessie beckoned him to follow her off the rocks toward the protection of the woods. They ducked under the shelter of the pines, where the familiar island scent enveloped them. Earthy moss mingled with salt air and that particular sun-warmed sweetness. She filled her lungs with the air and closed her eyes, savoring it. “I couldn’t sense things the same when I was on Night Light. Nothing smelled right, nothing tasted right.” She turned to him, her eyes somber. “Honestly, Jack, you probably saved my life. I don’t know what would have happened if I’d taken much more of it. And I don’t know—you should be careful. It comes and goes. I can’t promise?—”
“Hey.” He put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I got you. You’re okay now. How many times did you throw up on the boat? I think you’re clear.”
“I hope so. We have to stop them. They’re pulling out of Sea Smoke Island tonight because of some investigation. I don’t know where they’re going next. Benny wasn’t happy that the Clydes were going to get cut out. And now there’s some uber-billionaire involved. If we don’t stop them now, there might not be another chance.”
She stepped away from him, her hands fisting. Another wave of anger hitting her?
He reached for her and she threw herself into his arms. As he held her, she sobbed against his chest. Then he felt her hand against his hip, and realized she was reaching for his pocket, the one with all the Night Light tabs.
Horrified, he jumped back away from her. She held a sodden wad of paper in her hand—ruined by the saltwater—and wailed like a child.
