Page 83 of The Hacker
Her lungs began to burn and her vision began to blur, but she stayed down. She knew that Leland wouldn’t let her surface alone, and she wasn’t going to expose him to another bullet. They just needed to give Tully enough time to find them. It was hard, though, when the water pressed against her chest like it wanted to squeeze the air out of her. She let out a slow stream of bubbles to ease her bursting lungs.
Suddenly, Leland took off away from her, his long legs kicking powerfully. What the hell was he doing? When she saw him rotate and plant his feet on the bottom of the pool, she realized he knew she needed to breathe and was planning to surface first to draw Chad’s attention away from her.
No way was she going to let him be the only target. She twisted to get her sneakers down and pushed hard so she would shoot to the surface. Now Chad would have to figure out who he wanted to shoot more. Maybe making that decision would slow him down enough for them both to dive again.
As her head broke through the surface of the water, she braced herself, wondering how much being shot would hurt. While she sucked in a deep breath, she did a swift scan of the pool’s edge and nearly gulped water when she saw Chad, using a two-handed grip to aim his gun toward the spot where she knew Leland had come up.
“Hey, Chad, you asshole, I’m the one who screwed you!” she yelled before sucking in a fast breath and diving hard.
She struck off the bottom to launch herself in Leland’s direction, relieved to see that he was underwater again. Her lungs were already complaining because she’d used up precious air shouting and hadn’t had time to fully replenish it. As long as her distraction had kept Leland from getting shot again, she didn’t care.
And then she heard voices—commanding voices, the kind you heard on TV shows when the cavalry showed up and told the bad guys to drop their weapons. The water muffled the words so she couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like Tully had arrived.
She kept swimming toward Leland, just in case it wasn’t Tully or he needed more time to disarm Chad. She realized Leland was moving toward her too, his hair billowing around his head with each surge forward, that terrifying red ribbon still streaming from his arm.
He gave a final kick to reach her, grabbing one of her hands to pull her in against him before rocketing them both to the surface.
She gasped in air at the same time she saw Tully standing by the edge of the pool wearing a bulletproof vest and gripping a big black handgun. Two men were holding on to Chad, whose arms were wrenched behind his back. “Oh, thank God!” She pressed her face into Leland’s neck, his skin wet but warm against her cheek.
His arm tightened around her as the scissoring of his powerful legs kept them afloat. “Are you all right?” his voice rasped beside her ear.
She nodded against him, relief and the need for air making it hard to speak. Then she remembered thathewasn’t all right. “Tully,” she shouted. “Leland got shot. He needs a doctor.”
The curses that came out of Tully’s mouth were impressive before he yelled to his guys to call an ambulance. Then he placed his gun on the cement, shrugged out of his vest, and did a racing dive into the pool. He came up on Leland’s opposite side, his gaze already searching his partner’s body. “Where are you hit, buddy?”
“It’s just my arm,” Leland said, sounding irritated. “I don’t need an ambulance and you didn’t have to dive into the pool like some kind of superhero.”
Tully raised his eyebrows at Dawn. “He can’t be hurt too badly if he’s grousing at me. Which arm?”
“The left one,” Dawn said to forestall Leland’s refusal of attention.
“Okay, let’s get you out of the water so I can see what’s going on.” He looked at Dawn. “Will you be okay if I take his right arm?”
Leland still held her against his side with his good arm. It felt so wonderful that she hadn’t thought how hard it must be for him to keep them both up.
“I’m capable of swimming on my own,” Leland panted when Dawn tried to twist out of his grasp.
“Well, you can’t swim while you’re holding on to me,” she pointed out.
“If you don’t put your arm over my shoulders, I’ll put you in a headlock and tow you to the side,” Tully threatened his partner.
“Traitor,” Leland muttered at Dawn, but he let Tully sling his right arm over his shoulders and guide him to the ladder at the edge of the pool.
Dawn paddled along behind, hating the swirl of red in the water. At least it was only coming from Leland’s arm. Or so she kept repeating to herself to stave off the fear that squeezed her heart.
Leland hauled himself up the ladder one-handed, water cascading from his clothing. As Tully’s men grabbed Leland to help him, a loud screech sounded from behind them.
“What the fuck is going on in my pool?” Vicky’s voice was shrill. “Who the hell are you? This is private property. I’m calling the cops.”
“Vicky, shut up!” Chad snapped.
Tully vaulted out of the pool despite his soaking-wet clothes and positioned himself in front of Vicky, where she stood glaring in the glass-strewn doorway. “Ma’am, I’m Tully Gibson, here on behalf of the FBI. One of your employees”—he gestured toward Chad, who still stood between Tully’s two men—“attempted to shoot one of your clients as well as a trainer.”
Vicky spun to face Chad and shrieked, “You fucking moron, why’d you have to shoot at them? Now there’s blood in my beautiful pool and the health department’s probably going to make me drain it. Do you know how much it costs to fill this pool? Why didn’t you just take your goddamn guns and go, like we agreed?”
“Because your nosy little bitch of a trainer brought down whoever the hell these guys are on top of us,” Chad yelled back. “The blood in the pool is the least of your worries, you stupid cunt.”
“That’s enough,” Tully snapped.
