Page 113 of The Garden Girls

He clutched Josiah as he worked to stand, but water pushed against him and his son.

Help me stand.

A definitive prayer.

He rose to his feet, and they fought against the powerful flow toward the hallway. “I lied to keep you alive. You understand?” He needed Josiah to know the truth before he couldn’t tell him himself. He had more words but no strength to share them. Every second it became harder to breathe.

Water funneled in faster than they could move. The women left in cages screeched and gripped the bars. “Owen. Owen! Stop. You can’t. You can’t.” The water raged too fast. He’d be swept out and drowned if he tried to rescue the remaining women. But they were doomed to die without rescue. He shook off Josiah and Bexley. “Get Josiah to higher ground. I have to help O.”

He pushed into the swirling water, furniture and debris floating away. He didn’t feel the agony anymore. Numb but cold now. So cold.

He fell into the water, and it dragged him toward the rip in the side of the house.

“Tiberius!” Bexley hollered.

A firm hand grabbed him by the waist and hauled him upright. “What are you doing?” Owen screamed over the roaring. “Get out of here.”

“You can’t do it alone. You won’t make it. We both know it.”

“So we both die? Because you surely will. Listen to me.” Owen framed his face, water and blood running down his cheeks and seeping through his shirt where he’d been hit in the shoulder. “I was supposed to be a preacher, and I didn’t do it. But I preached to you when it counted. I’m okay with that. Your boy needs you.”

“You’re talking out of your head.” Ty’s lungs squeezed and his throat tightened. “Let’s go.”

“No. Take your family to safety. I’ll get these women out. I promise.” He tapped his chest with his fist.

Ty shook his head. He hadn’t promised to get himself out. O knew in order to rescue them he wouldn’t be able to rescue himself. “No.”

“Yes. Live in light, brother.”

Ty grabbed his arm to hold him in place but he was too weak. And Owen, bloody and bruised and beaten, was still stronger. Ty’s wet grasp was slippery, and his fingers couldn’t hold on. Owen shoved him backward. “Josiah, help your daddy. Go. I got this.”

But he didn’t. The water tugged him, insatiable.

“Owen.” Ty’s heart stuttered.

Josiah and Bexley wrangled him, forcing him to put distance between himself and his best friend.

Owen unlocked the first cage closest to him and struggled to help the woman find her footing, but she made it. The other two women had already entered the hallway, but Ty needed to watch. Needed to make sure Owen made it to safety.

The house convulsed.

Iris Benington touched his shoulder again. “You’re going to die if you don’t let me help you.”

The water sucked Owen under but he surfaced and unlocked another cage. “Go, hon! Go!”

Engulfed in the sea, he struggled but clutched another cage, setting free another captive and pushing her toward cover.

Pieces of solar panel and glass were ripped from above. Flood waters continued to rise. Up or down. It was a toss-up which was safer, but either way, they needed to go somewhere fast. Yet Ty balked.

One last cage.

Owen clung to it with one hand while unlocking it with the other. Susan Mayer swept out, but he snagged her before she could be carried away.

He did it.

Owen did it.

Ty allowed the nurse and Bexley to aid him through the water into the hallway, which was engulfed in about three feet of water and rising.

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