Page 48 of Adrift

I can barely hear her. The wind howls. She stumbles into the wall, but I grab her with my free arm.

“You good?” I hold her blue eyes for a moment.

She nods. I’m hoping I can look back on this as the most ridiculous thing I ever said to anyone. I hope to hell I’m not carrying a dead man. We’re swaying more and more.Rock Candyis taking on water, but we’re still floating. It’s hard to tell what’s going to happen—Rock Candymight still be afloat in the morning, or a wave could have her on her side. Captain made the right call.

“Can you catch this one, Swimmer Boy?”

“I’m ready.”

Haley helps me, and we pass Dante to them. They lay the unconscious man onto the raft floor.

“Haley, get in,” Zane says, reaching for her.

“Not without Captain.” She takes off running, and damn, she’s fast. She scurries up the outside steps, holding on to the rope.

I don’t catch her before she wrenches open the side door. And then Captain Sam is there. He’s saying something to her, but it’s lost in the wind. “Go,” he shouts.

She shakes her head. “No.”

He glares at her and kisses her cheek. “Don’t let this one come back,” he says to me. “Keep her safe.”

“Yes.” The storm rages in my ears.

Captain pulls the door closed. He must have locked it, because Haley is yanking on it with all her might. She’s screaming and furious. Her fists are clenched around the handle as she pulls.

“Haley, we need to go,” I yell into her ear.

The boat lists, and she sways, her feet lifting off the deck. I grab her around her waist and hoist her over my shoulder. She’s wailing, her fists slapping at my back.

But I’m off, pulling away from the wheelhouse, leaving the captain to his doom. To our doom. I want to be positive and say he’s going to make the beacon work, but it’s a long shot.

I’ve turned and am making my way back to the aft. Haley stops struggling. She’s limper than Dante, but I can feel her chest heaving. And the water on my shoulder isn’t sea spray.

“Put me down, Calvin.” The way she says it, I know she won’t run, and the stairs are safer with two hands on the railing.

I ease her to the ground. “Let me go first.” If she falls, I can catch us both. The stairs are a lot steeper than normal.

The life raft is waiting. Swimmer Boy is doing something to Dante. We need to get out of here, launch the raft. If the boat tips while we’re still tethered, it won’t end well. The other raft is away, its reflective lights showing when it tips toward swells. But the tender, I can’t see. I’m holding on to the side of Haley’s lifejacket. If she slides and I can’t stop it, we’re going together.

But Zane is standing on the rail of the boat. “Come on, Haley. Get in,” he shouts into the wind, beckoning to her. This time she takes his hand, and he helps her into the raft. The sea is really churning. The raft and boat slam together before moving apart.

She climbs in and immediately slides over to Dante. I’ve been through some shit in my time on the ocean: pirates twice, a dumb fuck captain who ran us onto a sandbar and had us stuck for a week while news helicopters circled. But this? I’m a positive guy, and when we get out of this... I’m going to find a nice girl and become a landlubber.

I step into the raft and turn to give Zane a hand, but he’s gone. A second later, he tosses a load of three beach towels into the raft, a half dozen bottles of water, and two cushions from the back deck.

“Get in the damn raft, Zane,” I growl.

He’s already untied us and slides off the deck into the raft.

I glare at the cushions. But the raft’s designed for nine and there’s only five of us. It won’t hurt the weight.

Haley is helping Swimmer Boy do something. That’s when I see she’s not clipped in. “Hale—” I’m about to read her the riot act for not attaching herself to the raft.

“What?” She turns. She’s holding a bloody towel to Dante’s head. I reach around her to clip her into the raft. There are ropes on the bottom of the raft to tuck your feet under and ropes on the side. Using those is actually safer; if the raft flips, you aren’t trapped under it. But it’s only safer if you’re paying attention, which she isn’t. The heavy-duty plastic carabiner clicks into the side of her life vest. She can take it off if she wants to. I’m not some prick who will tell her what she has to do.

Zane is attaching the cover to the side wall across from me. The sides and bottom of the raft are triple-lined inflated plastic. The floor has ropes and clip-in rings to keep us from sliding around. And the sidewalls have clips for the roof to hook into and a rope for us to hold on to. There’s a hand pump in the kit to top it off as needed, along with other supplies.

“Zane, let’s paddle to the other raft. Then we can put the sides up.” Water sloshes in on rogue waves, but not enough to sink us. We need to get on our way before we lose the other raft. There’s safety in numbers.

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