Page 98 of The Meaning Of You

I’d barely made it twenty metres when I heard the sound of running feet coming up fast. Whoever it was, they were gaining on me.Definitely buying some gym equipment.

Another shot detonated into a boat somewhere to my right, and I jolted at the crack, almost losing my balance, arms windmilling as I stumbled in an effort to keep moving.

Somehow I did, lurching back up to speed. Nick Fisher had some explaining to do, dragging all this shit into my nice orderly life. I was a book conservator, for fuck’s sake, not Jack fucking Ryan.

A man appeared on the deck of a boat as I passed, and I yelled at him to get below and call the police.

Seconds later, I hit the end of the first section of the jetty and made a hard right onto the second, but I was starting to flag, the adrenaline draining, my legs threatening to give way.

Another bullet whizzed over my shoulder and someone started yelling. A rubber dinghy zipped between the lines of moored boats and I saw Tobin’s angry face staring at me, lit up by the marina lights seconds before he pulled ahead. He was planning to cut me off. With a man behind and a man in front, I’d have nowhere to go but in the water, which wouldn’t hide me for long.

The truth was a sucker punch to the gut.

I wasn’t going to make it.

The dinghy’s motor cut off and a shape leaped onto a pontoon about thirty metres ahead and then up onto the jetty, blocking my way. I slowed, lungs on fire, gasping for breath, my hands on my knees as I took a look behind. The second man was walking with his gun at his side, looking around, checking to see who might be watching.

I looked between them. Left, then right. Slowly inching their way toward me. There was nowhere to go but in the water. It was all I had.

Sirens rang out in the distance, loud shouts along the jetty, an engine gunning, the roar of blades, a bright light making me squint.

The man with the gun raised his arm.

My name split the night, but I couldn’t look.

I gathered every last remaining scrap of energy I had and ran for the edge of the jetty. I hit it at speed and leaped.

Thunder rattled my head.

Liquid fire split my shoulder.

The sharp crack of water over hot skin.

Pain exploding in my ear.

Sinking.

Sinking.

Blessed cool.

Drifting into black.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Nick

We’d walkedthe piers and jetties of Phillip Bay Marina looking for any sign of Madigan or the men who’d taken him. Some of the jetties were public, some had security gates. We talked to as many boat owners as we could before the light faded and the car park emptied but got nowhere. Gazza even borrowed a pair of binoculars from a bartender at the marina pub to check out the boats we couldn’t get close to, but still no luck.

The only thing keeping our hopes alive was the dark blue Ford Explorer parked in a far corner of the marina car park. We saw nothing inside to indicate whether it was our vehicle or not, but it was hard not to believe it was. I’d have believed almost anything by then if it meant we had a chance of finding Mads alive.

Under pressure from Jerry, I relented and called Samuel. He was pissed as all hell that we’d gone off on our own and threatened to fuck me up when he saw me again. I figured I could live with that. He told me they had people going through the marina booking lists and that they’d applied for a search warrant for the marina itself. Police cars were apparently on theway, and he made me promise not to go off half-cocked on our own if we saw anything.

I lied and told him what he wanted to hear.

The truth was, I couldn’t sit still. I couldn’t think. I paced the car park and public boardwalk back and forth, furious that I hadn’t done more to stop this all from happening. To stop Mads from being taken.

This wasn’t his problem. It never had been. It had been Davis who’d unknowingly got me into this mess and then I’d dragged it all the way to Mads’ door. Because I wanted his help. Because I... liked the guy. If I’d just gone to Samuel instead, none of this would’ve happened. It was my fault Mads had been taken. My fault and no one else’s.

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