Page 81 of Rescuing Micah
They were going to do something about it, which meant she had to as well.
While she hadn't been able to draw a proper breath before they went under the surface, the doctor obviously had, because her arms were still wrapped tightly around Teresa’s chest, and she was actively pushing them both deeper and further away from the boat.
She couldn’t let that happen.
The boat was safety.
Everything else was wide open, empty ocean.
Or not so empty.
Now was not the time to worry about sharks coming to get her. Honestly, they were the least of her worries right now. The deranged doctor trying to kill her was topping that list.
From the way her lungs burned, and her brain tried to convince her to open her mouth and take a breath even thoughshe knew there was nothing but water for her to inhale, Teresa knew that the doctor wasn't actually all that far away from succeeding in her goal.
It was now or never.
She’d lost her grip on the scalpel somewhere along the way, either on the deck as she was falling, or as her body hit the water, so she no longer had a weapon. Her arms were pinned by her sides, but that didn't mean there weren't parts of the woman she couldn’t reach.
Groin. Teresa had taken enough self-defense classes at Prey to know it was a great area to aim for if you were being attacked by a man. It was how she’d almost escaped those two men who tried to snatch her outside the deli that day she’d been saved by Micah.
That strategy worked on a man, but there was no reason it couldn’t work on a woman, too. No guy wanted to be hit there, but it was a sensitive spot for a woman, too.
Curling her fingers into a fist, she rammed them between the woman’s legs.
Underwater or not, she heard that howl of pain, and the arms around her suddenly loosened.
Shoving away from them, desperate to get back to the surface and take a breath, Teresa thought she was in the clear when something, a fist, a foot, a head, she wasn't quite sure what, rammed into her stomach. The blow to her partially healed wound that had then been cut open again had her seeing stars, the edges of her vision going black.
No.
Can't pass out now.
Unconscious means drowning.
Refusing to give up, Teresa kicked and swung at the hands that tried to claw at her. She wasn't going to die down therewhen Micah was somewhere close by. Maybe he was even in the water with her, trying to find her beneath the surface.
She had no idea how long it had been since she went overboard, it felt like many minutes, but it was probably mere seconds since she’d hit the water and been taken under. After all, she was still holding her breath, and she wasn't experienced at doing that for long periods of time like Micah would be.
Her fist connected with something, and the presence beside her disappeared.
Thinking she was in the clear, she began to kick her legs with everything she had, needing to get to the surface so she could breathe in oxygen instead of water before her body’s instincts took over and tried to make her take that breath where there was no air to be found.
When something snapped around her arm, she didn't hesitate to lash out all over again. She wasn't dying down there. She had too much left to live for.
May7th
12:34 P.M.
By the timeMicah reached the edge of the boat, Teresa had already gone under.
Tossing his weapon onto the deck, he swung a leg over at the same time Rex came up beside him and did the same.
“You're being daring,” he said as he swung his other leg over and held onto the railing with his hands, surprised he could make any kind of joke at the moment. But he had to do something to try to break through the terror threatening to clog his mind and body and render him useless.
“I know, right?” Rex replied, shooting him a huge grin before they both let go.
This drop into the water was so much shorter than the one jumping from the helo had been, and a couple of seconds later, he plunged beneath the water. It was still pretty calm, the waves small, but Teresa had been caught by surprise, and it seemed like whoever had knocked her over had done so with the purpose of killing her.
