Page 107 of Hidden Depths

She turned to find Tom’s boat, but the waves were too high around her, so she kicked hard to move in the direction she thought she saw it in last but got a mouth full of water as a wave smacked her in the face. She sputtered, desperate for breath, but she’d dipped under the surface.

Thrashing desperately with one numb arm, she struggled to figure out which way was up until a flash of lightning lit the way, and she surged forward, breaking the surface and sucking in a mixture of oxygen and salt water.

She searched again for the boat, but all she could see was walls of waves, barely contrasting the sky with its muddy grayness.

“Help!” she yelled before water filled her mouth again.

She wanted to cry but knew, if she panicked, that would be the end. “Help!” she tried again before a wave crashed on top of her, sending her tumbling underwater again.

Something tightened around her waist, and she tore at it. In this monstrous storm, who knew what lurked beneath the water?

But the weight that held her brought her back to the surface.

“I’ve got you,” said a voice in her ear.

“Tom.”

“Hang on.”

She wanted to help him save her for fear she would drag him under the water with her, but she couldn’t make her body move the way she needed it to.

Then strong hands pulled at her arms, sending a searing heat into her shoulder and down her back.

When she lay sucking in breath on the floor of the boat, those same rough hands wouldn’t leave her alone.

“She’s been shot.” A woman’s voice that she knew, but she couldn’t place it.

“You look after her. I’ll get us back to shore.”

“You know which way to go?”

“You worry about your job. I’ll worry about mine.”

Sara grunted when the boat lolled, and a weight came down on her.

“Sorry about that,” the woman said. “It’s hard to stay upright out here. You’ve lost some blood and probably swallowed a bathtub’s worth of seawater, so I’m going to wrap you up as best as I can until we get back to land.”

“Thank you,” Sara croaked

“Don’t thank me yet. We’re not out of danger.”

* * *

Lansky’s boat had drifted farther away when Tom dove into the water to find Sara. He knew that God had intervened in the whole experience, but in his panic to save her, he wasn’t sure if jumping into the ocean had been the best idea. In reality, they both should have drowned, and yet here they were.

The only loose end was that he knew he hadn’t hit Lansky anywhere vital after Sara had pitched over the side of the boat. But leaving the man injured in a storm like this with a boat that was inoperative was as close as he was going to get to ensuring Lansky didn’t go free. It wasn’t as close to a guarantee as he would like, but he wasn’t going back. He was done risking any more for that man. All he cared about now was getting Sara safely back to land.

He had to work hard to keep the boat from tipping as the storm increased in intensity. Lightning filled the air with unceasing strikes, but a moment later, the sky filled with a bright orange when an explosion ripped the air apart.

Tom looked back only long enough to see a flash of Lansky’s boat engulfed in flame before it dipped out of sight again.

“Did you do that?” he asked Isla.

She held Sara’s arm, keeping pressure on the wound, but her head had poked up like a meerkat, wide-eyed, looking back the way they came’d come. “I don’t know why that happened. Do you think he was still on the boat?”

“He wouldn’t have risked jumping ship.”

“Wouldn’t he? He might if he wanted to make it look like he died.”

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