Page 57 of In Dangerous Water

I surrendered to the water and trusted that it would wash me safely away from my attacker. Rolling with the current, I found myself free, on my hands and knees, dripping at the edge of the pool deck. Meanwhile my attacker was being thrown around, imprisoned within a swirling tower of water.

I heard more than I saw the door give way at last. Someone had shot through the glass. Quickly I bent over the edge of the nearly empty pool and saw that Danielle was sitting on the bottom, waist deep in the water. She was coughing and crying; but she was breathing.

“Give me your hand!” I called to her and leaned way over the edge of the pool.

Danielle got to her feet and staggered her way over to me. Dangling over the side as far as I could, I bent at the waist and managed to touch her fingers. A second later, a pair of familiar male hands grabbed my waist to secure me.

“I’ve got you,” Tim said.

I reached down farther with Tim holding me, and I managed to grasp her wrist. Immediately, Tim—with the help of Charlie—pulled the both of us up and neatly over the edge of the pool.

I ended up sitting in Tim’s lap, holding onto a coughing and crying Danielle, while Tim held the both of us.

“It’s going to be okay,” I told Danielle and pressed a kiss to her hair. “I’ve got you.”

“Ihatethat swimming pool,” Danielle said with a shudder.

“You need to call Gabriella and Philippe,” I said to Charlie, “and let them know Danielle is safe.”

Charlie nodded to me. “I will. I’ll call them.”

“Cordelia,” Tim said gently. “The water.”

“Oh.” I glanced back and saw that Zak Parker and the sheriff were staring slack-mouthed at the tower of water that still held Maryanne. “Sorry. Forgot about that.”

I centered myself and silently called again to my element, asking it to stop and to return to its source. With my right hand I gestured, and Maryanne Jackson’s body thudded to the floor, while the water rushed back toward the pool in a high glittering arc, filling it up once more.

A heartbeat later, the water had all leveled out. The pool was perfectly glossy and smooth as if it had never been displaced.

Beside me Charlie Smythe, the ex-Navy SEAL, flinched. The man looked from me and back to the swimming pool. “Someday,” he said, “somebody is going to need to explain all this to me.”

***

My attacker was arrested. Right after she coughed up a large amount of pool water, she was taken into custody by the sheriff of Ames Crossing. Danielle was reunited with her parents, and the child and I both earned ourselves a trip to the hospital in Ames Crossing sheriff’s cars.

Chauncey, Estella, Dru and her husband, Garrett Rivers—and the security team—managed to run interference for us. The sheriff’s department kept the masquerade attendees away from the pool area; and the event continued on that night without the majority of the partygoers being any wiser.

While sitting in the ER treatment room, Tim and I learned how Danielle had snuck down alone to the main level. She, Archer, and Celeste had thought that hiding would be a great prank to play on their sitter.

Danielle had gone past the security gate on the family stairs, figuring that no one would think to look for her downstairs. Then she became curious after hearing the music and had decided that she wanted to see the ball and all of the costumes for herself. Using her family’s key card, she had opened the locked door to the hotel side of the building—intending to peek out—and had unfortunately come face-to-face with Maryanne Jackson.

I overheard Philippe tell Gabriella that he was going to completely change the security set up, so that none of their children would be able to go from the family wing into the public side of the mansion so easily, ever again.

When all was said and done, I’d only needed a few Steri-Strips and surgical glue on my shoulder. The knife cut hadn’t been too deep. Danielle had some bruises and a sore throat from being choked, but besides being shaken, she was well. The doctors and police said we’d both been incredibly lucky. I simply nodded and kept my mouth shut.

It was magick that had saved us. Not luck.

It took a few days to get everything sorted, but Maryanne Jackson was being held in the county jail without bail. She was charged with several crimes: First there was the stalking. Second, assault—from her bashing Ryder Desroches over thehead and shoving him in the pool, back at the aquatic center. Third, vehicular assault with intent to kill from when she ran Kenna off the road. The fourth charge was the abduction of Danielle Marquette, and they also slapped child endangerment on that for good measure...and of course the stabbing of yours truly.

Austin and Detective Williams later informed me that they researched Maryanne’s background, and indeed she had been one of the swimmers that I’d beaten in the final race at the Olympic trials.

Turns out that she’d also been booted from her collegiate swim team the following season, for failing a drug test. Austin theorized that instead of taking responsibility for her own actions, she decided to blame me. Then she became fixated.

Now that it was safe to do so, the aquatic center reopened the second week of November. The swim teams returned to practice for the upcoming season, and I was able to resume my position as coach. Which meant that my time in Ames Crossing had come to a close. I could safely return to my life and move back to my family home on the hill.

Tim helped me pack my things at the carriage house. He kept fussing at me not to overwork my injured arm, and by the time I had Skye’s car all packed, the Marquettes—Philippe, Gabriella and their kids, plus Estella, Chauncey, and baby Isabella—were all lined up and waiting to say goodbye.

Gabriella held on tightly. “Thank you,” she whispered, her voice breaking.

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