Page 13 of Secret Mission

“Allison! Can you hear me?”

Limp, half-submerged in the bloody water, Allison is face down. The sight stuns me. A fist squeezes around my chest as we are dragged along by the current.

“Ally!” My hand shakes violently as I grab her shoulder. “Come on.”

Pushing the dead weight of the six-foot croc away from us, I pull her closer with bile riding up my throat and my vision blurry with panic.

“Be okay. Be okay,goddammit.”

When I roll her over onto her back, she’s pale as chalk. Her eyes are open, and her lips are trembling.

Relief rockets through me, hot and unchained. “I’ve got you.”

“Is… is it gone?”

I pull her to my chest as my heart rips my ribcage to shreds. “It’s dead. Are you in pain?”

There’s so much blood in the water, I’m not sure if she’s even got all her limbs as I swim us the last few yards to shore.

“I don’t know.” She blinks at the sky, vision unfocused.

Shock.

I need to get her dry and stop the bleeding right fucking now.

“I’ve got you.” I try to feel her arm for wounds as I swim, but I’ve got my hands full holding her afloat and paddling.

The riverbank is all mud. Every damned inch. Slick as non-stick coating, and nearly impossible to climb.

It takes all of my strength to grip a nearby root. “Come on!”

My breath heaves.

My arms strain.

Finally, I manage to lever her up on to the bank.

“T-truck?”

“Yeah, little one?”

“Am I dead?”

This is the one thing I’m sure of. “No. Definitely not.”

“Why do you have a halo?”

I snort and pant for air as I pull her the last few feet up the incline. “It’s just mist from the river playing tricks.”

“Not an angel.” Her soft voice wraps around me like a velvet vine.

“Definitely not, because this motherfucker isn’t ever getting a halo.”

She sighs and closes her eyes.

The pale color of her cheeks, the slack expression shuts down all thoughts. Panic lights my blood on fire.

“No! Stay with me.” As my hands quickly move over her body, I jostle her. “Stay awake, Ally. I need you here.”

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