She’d barely opened her eyes when she saw the oar coming toward her. She screamed and jerked to the side, wood splintering off the oar as it hit the floor of the boat. The entire vessel rocked so violently it almost tipped.
As Nel tried to swing again, Maggie kicked her in the shin, making her fall forward.
When Maggie attempted to push herself up, a wave of dizziness overtook her entire body, hazing her vision.
This time she knew—it was the drugs. They were kicking in.
She scrunched her eyes, trying to make the boat stop swirling. The rocking didn’t help.
When she finally managed to sit up, Nel screamed as she lunged, wrapping her fingers around Maggie’s neck as they both fell backward. This time, the movement was too severe. The boat capsized.
Another scream pierced the air, and she wasn’t sure if it was hers or Nel’s. Then cold water enveloped her body.
For a single second, the world silenced. And her body was so tired that she almost wanted to stay there, in the stillness, where it felt safe.
Then her lungs started to burn and a voice in her head shouted,screamed, at her to swim.
She did. She clawed her way to the surface. Her head popped out of the water and she gasped for air. She got one breath before a growl reached her ears and hands pushed her back down.
She punched at the body on top of her, but her movements were slow and sluggish, giving her none of the force she needed.
Long seconds passed. The burn grew in her lungs, the fogginess in her head stealing a bit more of that fight.
No. She had to get free. She wasnotdying in this water like her mother.
She reached up and dug her nails into Nel’s skin before clawing downward. She wasn’t sure if it was her arm or her stomach or another part of Nel’s body. She didn’t care.
The grip on her head loosened, and Maggie broke the surface again. But she was so tired she could barely swim. The trees at the bank blurred, her eyelids heavy.
She got just a few more strokes in before Nel dove onto her head.
“You…are…going…to…die!”
They were the last words Maggie heard before her head was pushed beneath the surface one last time.
She fought the woman. God, she fought, but Nel felt like an impossible weight on her head, pushing her down, and she had no energy left. None. She just wanted to sleep.
When she could no longer fight off the burn in her lungs, water filled her mouth, choking her.
Nel was tryingto kill Maggie. The words had been repeating in Ethan’s head since they’d left her house. He didn’t need any proof to know that.
“One minute out,” Ryan said quietly, as he took a hard right.
One minute. It could be the difference between life and death. Between seeing Maggie again, hearing her voice, and?—
“Stop.” Ryan shot a look at him from behind the wheel. “We willnotbe too late.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I’m choosing to believe it. Connor’s behind us. The other guys will be there soon too. We’re not going to fail her. Remember, one team, one fight.”
Ethan’s jaw locked. One team, one fight—they’d said that to one another before every mission. A way of saying they had one another’s backs no matter what. That they were stronger together than apart.
This wasn’t a military mission though. They weren’t in a foreign country, extracting strangers Ethan had never met before. This was Maggie. In the water. In Deep River.
His fingers tightened around the Glock in his hand.
“I’ll park at the point closest to where her mother was found.”
