Someone was beside her.
Gideon. He was treading water, holding on to her and something else. Or was she dreaming? Her eyes wouldn’t focus.
“Zee.” He pulled her close. His body was shuddering convulsively like hers. “Thank God.”
“Gideon?” She clung to him, crying and laughing. “It’s you. You’re not ... I mean ... you’re here.”
“Yes, ma’am. We gotta stop meeting like this, huh?”
She squeezed him around the neck, then pressed her head to his chest to reassure herself she wasn’t dreaming. “What ... Where are we?”
“We’re in the top of a tree, near as I can figure.” Hesqueezed her close. “But the chopper made it out, Zee, and Jake saw what happened to us. If he can stand up and be a man, he’ll come back and get us or radio for help.”
Help? Escape? It was hard to fathom when she’d been absolutely without hope a minute before. “A big if. Bullseye threatened his wife.”
“He better come through. There’s nowhere to swim from here.” He paused.
“What ... happened to Bullseye?”
“I don’t think he made it to the helicopter.”
She silently agreed. He’d gotten washed over with the two of them. He was somewhere out here, maybe clinging to his own branch, which was a temporary reprieve. How did she feel about it? Prison was the destiny she’d have chosen for him, not drowning.
The water stretched around them in a vast, nebulous sprawl.
They were both too cold to get anywhere on their own, even if there was any place nearby above flood level. She saw nothing. Not even the roof of Frank Soliel’s expensive home was visible. It was as if it had never existed.
She felt the branches now, swaying and crackling around her legs, a submerged nest. Unbelievably strange that she and Gideon were stranded in a tree like two half-drowned birds. But he was alive, and all other thoughts ebbed away under that beautiful realization. They were still surviving. Together.
He stroked the wet hair from her forehead. “I’m proud of you, Zee.”
She leaned against him and felt like sobbing. “Proud,huh? Of the woman who got you stuck in a tree in the middle of a flood?”
“I got myself stuck, and don’t dis the tree because it’s keeping us from drowning.” He kissed her forehead, his mouth only a fraction warmer than the freezing water. “You made a choice back there with Frank. The right choice.”
She still didn’t know what to think about what she’d done. It was getting more difficult to form thoughts as the water stole away her remaining warmth.
“I couldn’t have imagined all that’s happened if I tried. To find out that Aaron had a child ...” The wonder of it stunned her afresh.
He squeezed her, his own teeth chattering. “Who would have thought? You’re Auntie Zee now.”
Auntie Zee ...“I hope my parents can meet their granddaughter someday. Maybe ...” Maybe it would take the sting out of losing both of their children. Because the longer they struggled to stay afloat, the more she understood that they weren’t going to escape. There was no sign of the chopper’s return. They would gradually become hypothermic until they drifted apart in the floodwaters. She gripped his hand tighter, resolved to keep them together for as many precious moments as she could. That was all she had left.
Survive, evade, resist, escape.
All for what? Now that Frank was likely dead, she had no hope that he’d ever pay for his crimes, not in the way she’d wanted. Her scheduled podcast would go live when the post date came and went, but it would be for nothing.
“My next vacation I’m going someplace warm, like the Sahara,” Gideon said.
She laughed, but it was weak. “Sounds like a dream.” He pulled her closer, and she began to cry, quiet sobs, barely audible.
He rubbed her shoulders. “It’s okay, Zee. I got you.”
She clung to him, the agony of cold beginning to wear off as hypothermia set in. He chafed her arms, but she couldn’t feel it any longer. He kissed her, but she didn’t feel that either. What had she done to them both? “I’m sorry.”
“I know. Me too.”
Wind-borne water peppered their faces. A low throb echoed over the surface. She didn’t understand what it was.
