Page 137 of Deep Tide

“Breathe, Leyla!”

He adjusted her weight, pushing her chest and head above the surface as the swells rose and sank around them. Then her fingers dug into his arm, and he felt a blinding rush of relief.

“Hold on! I got you.”

He scanned the water, searching for the boat. Something splashed behind them, and suddenly a rescue diver was next to him, wrestling Leyla out of his grip.

“Let go!” the diver yelled. “I have her.”

“She’s choking. We gotta get her out!”

Then he saw the bow of a boat and arms reaching down. A yellow sling appeared, and Sean helped the diver position it around Leyla’s body. An instant later, she was being lifted aboard the boat.

Someone hooked a ladder over the side, and Sean grabbed hold of it and started climbing as the vessel pitched and lurched in the waves. Joel and Owen helped pull him into the boat.

Leyla was on her side on the floor, coughing and sputtering.

Sean scrambled to her and scraped the wet hair away from her face. “Cough it out!”

She looked up, her face pale and splotchy.

“Sean,” she gasped, reaching for him.

He pulled her up and dragged her against him. “Can you breathe? Leyla?”

She gripped his arm.

“Say something! Can you breathe?”

She gripped harder. “Yes.”

CHAPTER

TWENTY-EIGHT

Nicole scooped up her keys and took a last look around the bullpen before heading out. The mountain of paperwork she had to deal with would still be here tomorrow, and she desperately needed some food and a shower. She walked past the reception desk as Sean Moran strode into the police station.

“Hey,” she said. “I thought you were in Brownsville?”

“I was.” He glanced past her at the sea of cubicles, which were empty except for one lone patrol officer tapping away at a computer. “Is Brady still around?”

“He left at midnight.”

Sean mumbled a curse and ran a hand through his hair, mussing it even more. He looked better than he had earlier—but not by much. He’d gotten hold of some dry clothes, at least, but his eyes were bloodshot and he looked to be in dire need of some sleep. Or failing that, a stiff drink.

“How’s it going in B-ville?” she asked him.

“It’s a zoo there.”

“Yeah, I figured.”

After the Coast Guard had boarded the drilling platform, Luc Gagnon and his pilot had been taken into custody. Gagnon had been handed over to the FBI, who had transported him to the Brownsville field office for questioning.

The last time Nicole had seen Sean, he’d been helping Leyla into a police SUV so her brothers could take her to the hospital on the mainland to get checked out.

“What’s that?” Nicole asked, nodding at the file folder in Sean’s hand.

He glanced at the empty bullpen again and then looked at her. He seemed to be debating something.

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