Page 59 of Until We Break

I wished Margot was with me. I would have liked to have shown her this side of the island. A flock of herons were stalking through the marsh, picking through the vegetation for shrimp. The seagulls soared overhead. It was a gorgeous day on the water. I wondered if she had been out on the water other than the trip to the mainland for Lucas’s emergency. I drank from the to-go cup of coffee I had poured on base.

I needed to change that. I should take her out and give her a tour all the way around the island. She should see it from every angle. My favorite cove. The spot where the teenagers liked to smoke. The little inlet that was home to the turtles. All of it. I wanted her to see it so she knew there was more to Marshoak than the Blue Heron.

The boat slowed as I approached the first navigational beacon. I turned on the sonar and began to troll so I could keep an eye over the side of the boat. There was a lot of debris. A few schools of fish. I didn’t spot the vessel. I called in my first search back to base and moved on to the next site.

No one was having any luck finding the boat. The more time that passed, the greater the chance it was going to drift to the bottom and then it would be a lost cause.

I drifted, letting the sonar do its work and pick up anything below the surface that popped up. I should have brought bottles of water instead of coffee. The sun was intense. I wiped my brow. I heard a loud beep on the sonar. I moved to the device, shielding the screen so I could see what it was picking up. There was something large underneath my cutter. I put her in reverse and circled again. The same large object was on the screen. I leaned over the side of the boat, trying to make out what was underneath.

Damn. I grinned. I laughed. It was the missing boat. I lifted the receiver on my radio.

“Base, this is Cutter 21. Tell the team I found what we’ve been looking for.”

“Copy that, Cutter 21.”

I plugged in the exact coordinates in case I drifted far from the vessel. I waited for the extraction boat and tug to arrive. I couldn’t wait to give Gabe hell about this. He thought I was going to miss out by not going on the early patrol.

He was on the first Coast Guard boat to arrive at the site. He shook his head. “Fucker.”

I laughed. “What can I say?”

He peered into the water. “She’s really down there. You think they’ll be able to get her up?”

“I’m just glad that’s not my job.” I didn’t do wreck salvage or construction dives.

He pulled up next to me. We floated along, waiting for the larger boats that would pull the wreckage to the surface.

“Whose boat is it anyway?” I asked.

“You’re going to laugh when I tell you,” he called from his bow.

A list of island names ran through my head. I had no idea. “Whose?”

“Dean Waters.”

“What? This is his boat?” I couldn’t believe my fucking luck.

“Brand new. Right off the boat lot.”

It was the first time I regretted finding someone’s boat.

Ishowered back at my room after Dean’s boat was brought in. The water was still pouring out of it when they used the heavy crane to crank it out of the water and onto a trailer. We all knew he had spent a fortune on it. There was custom leather and expensive teak trim. From what I could tell, it was a total loss. We had done our job though, it wasn’t going to cause a hazard in the water to anyone else.

I called Margot when I docked at the base, but I got her voicemail. I had a bad feeling. A sinking feeling she wasn’t going to dinner. I fished in the back of the dresser drawer for Carrie’s check. I tucked it in my back pocket and sent Margot a text telling her I was about to leave. If she wanted a ride, I needed to know.

I saw the three little dots undulate and then disappear. My shoulders sank. I had my answer. She wasn’t going. I grabbed my keys and headed out.

Pointe Harbor was Marshoak Island’s older snobbier sister. As I ferried over, I thought about all the times the island school played the Harbor Pointe schools. The mainlanders were never short on names to call us. Most of us grew up with a chip on our shoulder against the bigger, cultured school. They had things we didn’t. It never seemed to matter until we matched up in a basketball game or at prom. There were those few couples who tried to bridge the differences, only to find out one prom wasn’t the same as the other.

I turned onto Carrie’s street. I didn’t know if she grew up in Pointe Harbor, but the more I thought about it, the more she fit the stereotype of a mainland girl. The check in my back pocket was proof she thought she could get what she wanted by pushing her influence around. I parked in the driveway.

Before I could step out from behind the wheel, Lucas barreled down the stairs and ran straight for me.

“You’re here!”

“Hey, buddy.” I rustled his hair. He looked healthy and strong. The dark circles under his eyes were gone and his complexionlooked tan and rosy. “You look better than the last time I saw you,” I teased.

“Mom said you were coming but I didn’t believe her.”

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