Page 6 of Crash Over Us

“I’ll check the hull,” Gabe volunteered. He stepped one foot on the railing and hopped over. “Coast Guard!” he hollered. “Anyone onboard? We’re here to help. Hello?”

I continued to communicate with base. Something was off. It didn’t feel right that we had reached the emergency call, but no one was here.

Gabe shook his head at me once he emerged from the hull. “No one here.”

“Fuck,” I grumbled. I started to suit up to start a dive and search status.

“Maybe another boat called it in?” he suggested. “Maybe they just thought someone had gone overboard.”

I shook my head. “Not according to base. The call came from a passenger on the boat.” I attached a deflated inflatable life jacket to the hook on my suit. Next, I positioned goggles on my head. If we needed, we’d return and get the tanks for a full dive. To start, we needed to assess what we were dealing with.

“They probably went in the water to help, and now they’re both under.”

“Someone tripped a signal from this boat,” Gabe reported. He surveyed the dash controls. A red light blinked every few seconds.

“We can hope that maybe they were picked up by another boat nearby?” It was the best-case scenario. Otherwise, we were dealing with multiple drowning victims.

“Hold on. Before we go in, let me call in again.” I checked with base. “Base, this is Cutter 21. That distress call from the fishing boat… anyone call back an all-safe report? Another boat? Over.”

“Coast Guard Cutter 21. It’s still a distress call. It has not been canceled. Over.”

I shook my head and cut the engine. “Base, we’re going to do a swim search. Over.”

“This is base. Copy that, Cutter 21. Over.”

I dropped the anchor to the cutter while Gabe tied the two boats together. The water made a hollow sound as it sloshed up against one hull and then the other. I unlocked the gun safe beneath the wheel hatch. We disarmed and mounted our pistols in the cargo holsters. As soon as I punched in the code to lock the guns, I turned around.

“Ready?” I motioned to Gabe.

He nodded and moved to the stern of the abandoned boat. He peered into the water. The sun was too bright for us to see below the surface. I knew my best friend was thinking the same thing I was—we didn’t want the passengers to be dead.

“See you back up top, O’Connor.”

“See you up top, Axton,” I replied.

We gave each other a thumbs up, counted to three, and jumped.

FOUR

Margot

Ethan leaned into the couch. We had moved to the living room, where all the furniture touched because it was tucked into the small room.

I bit my lip. It felt like an interrogation. Maybe it was. I wanted to know why Caleb had spoken to Ethan, and I didn’t know about it. I felt rattled and unwilling to be open about any of it with Ethan. He didn’t deserve to know what was going on in my life now. He had pushed me out of his.

“He didn’t mention any of it to you? You didn’t send him?”

I stared at Ethan. “What was your conversation about?”

“He wanted me to leave you alone, Margot. He made it clear that he didn’t want me here. Honestly, he was an asshole about it. You sure you should be dating that guy?”

“Excuse me?”

“Has he ever…you know…are you scared of him?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not, but it sounds like maybe you are.”

“I just want to know you’re okay. I can’t help it if I’m still looking out for you. The guy knocked on my door and told me to leave the island. Like a threat.”

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