Page 93 of Austen

And weirdly, a breath, a freshness, the taste of hope broke from a terrible coil she hadn’t realized was caught her chest.She breathed in the salty sea air.

“Be still...and know.”

Yes.

Across the sea, a horn sounded.

She scrambled to the side and unzipped the door.

A boat.Not as large as Declan’s yacht, but bright and white, coming right for her.

She waved, and again, the horn sounded.Then, from the back of the vessel, a skiff deployed and skimmed over the waves toward her.

The memory swept in of Declan standing at the bow, the wind blowing back his dark hair as he pulled her from the ocean.

Not this time.

No, this time it was a sailor in his early twenties.

He wore a white uniform and held a life preserver and reached out for her lifeboat as he pulled up alongside it.“Ma’am?Are you Austen Kingston?”

What?“Yes.”

“Good thing your EPIRB is still working.Sorry it took so long for us to get to you.”

She climbed over into the boat, and he snapped a vest onto her.They towed the life raft behind them.The boat sped toward the larger cutter, and now she read the words on its side.

A Royal Bahamas Defense Force boat.

“I don’t understand.Who sent you?”

“We got an alert that said you were missing.Could be that your EPIRB activated and alerted our station.That’s all I know.”They pulled alongside the stern, and the back opened.They drove right up into the ramp area, and hands reached out to grab her.

And then she was aboard, a towel over her shoulders, someone handing her water.

“Are you okay, ma’am?”This from an officer who looked like a medic.

“Amazing love!How can it be that you, my God, should die for me?”Should rescue me?

He did.And He always would.

Time to stop running.

* * *

Declan didn’t know how long he’d lain in the bottom of the raft staring at the stars as they waned, the ocean casting him one way, then the next.

How was he supposed to tell Austen that he’d lost her brother?

He closed his eyes, the weight of it all clogging his chest, turning his body to rock.

Everything.Everythinghe’d done—and now Austen was out there in the darkness, and Steinbeck...

For a moment—no,longer—he wished Austen’s words were true.“I can guarantee you that God does rescue us.Not always in the way that we want, but definitely according to His great plan for us.”

Oh, Declan was tired of his own plans.He was suffocating, really, because the more he struggled to find the right way out, the tighter the noose entangled.

“Grace, son.And mercy.We don’t realize it, but they surround us every day.”

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