Page 140 of Salvaged Hearts

I would know. Somehow, I’d know if she was gone.

Would have felt the universe dull in her absence.

No.

But theyweregone—the taillights vanished, swallowed by depthless inky black. My fingers flexed at my side—once, twice,threetimes—and I pictured Alice’s smile, the warmth of her body on mine, the unforgiving heat of that Caribbean sun I’d said my vows beneath, and dove.

Muscle memory took over—slow, deliberate breaths and precise strokes—as I fought to keep my back from seizing from the shock of it.

Not today.

Today, I would be what she needed me to be.

Today, I would breathe through it.

Alice strong.

That was the mantra I clung to.

It was wild that in all those brutal training sessions, my body had never been more numb than it was in that bay. Never been as ruthless as I cut through the water in disciplined strokes.

Alice strong. Alice strong.

With each pump of my heart, each rotation of my arms, the words repeated.

Her laugh. The way she rolled her eyes when I pushed her buttons. Her body shattering beneath me…the look of wide-eyed panic on that beach after I sealed our marriage with the kiss to end them all. All three of them piled on the couch, watching movies with the dogs. With every pull of my arms, pieces of us flashed in my mind. Hell, I even saw all the beautiful moments with Leighton as my heart begged a god who’d forgotten me to save them.

Never in my life had the sound of a scream been so sweet. I reared out of the water as that piercing cry broke the air, eyes stinging as I spotted Mattie in a life vest, bobbing in the water.

I think I yelled her name, changing my trajectory toward her a beat before Leighton broke the surface. She immediately orientated herself and latched onto the vest’s strap, hauling my niece toward shore.

I decided I fucking loved the feral one.

“Alice!” I bellowed, treading water and frantically doing a one-eighty, searching the depths. But she wasn’t there. She wasn’t bobbing to the surface like her sister. My stomach sank. “Leighton!” I barked. Her wide eyes found mine as she pinned Mattie to her side, hauling her along in a side stroke. “Where is my wife?!”

“She was…” Leighton’s eyes went frantic with terror as she flipped her gaze back over her shoulder. “She was right there. She wasright there!” The last words were a hysterical scream, her focus now split between her sister and my niece. But Ollie was cutting through the water, not twenty yards behind us. And Mattie was shaking her head when our eyes locked.

“I’m okay!” she sobbed as shivers wracked her tiny body. “Go,Uncle Grey!”

With that, I dove toward the place where the car had just vanished. I didn’t swim for long before bright yellow caught my stinging vision in the blur of depthless black. Diving deeper, I wrapped my hands around the vest and powered upward. A sound of absolute desperation left my lips as I blinked away the water to find Alice, towed behind the vest clipped around Jax. He coughed, eyes fluttering open as he hacked up water, only to drift closed again.

Alice cleared the water from her lungs, but waved me off, flipping onto her back to let the bay hold her up.

“Jesus Christ,” I croaked. Tears cut through the icy water clinging to my skin. “Are you hurt?” I barked, staring at the rapidly blooming red that spread on her face. She shook her head.

Alive. They were alive.

More blood was spreading over Jax’s vest, and my brain drifted to secondary concerns in the water. “We have to get to shore!”

She nodded, but said nothing as she sucked down air as she tried to catch her breath. Thank god. Thank fucking god. Thank any power that brought her back to me.

My relief was short-lived, as Jax’s quick inhales caught my attention—too fucking shallow.

When I reached for her, she shook her head, rotating onto her belly. “I’m okay,” she panted. “But he’s not.”

30

A Family Matter

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