Page 60 of Vanished in the Mist
A figure appeared, the mist swirling around her. A woman near the tree line. But she was too short to be Shanna. Red hair glinted in the sunlight. What the… Was thatTanya?
She jumped up and down, waving her arms. “Help! Help! He’s going to kill her. Help!”
Kaden’s shock at seeing the young girl alive quickly gave way to dread. He shoved a lever, revving the engine again, rapidly closing the distance. The mist thinned, revealing he was much closer to the shoreline than he’d realized. He turned hard to starboard just in time to turn the boat and avoid grounding it, then returned the engine to idle, bobbing up and down in his own wake.
He stepped out of the wheelhouse and leaned against the railing. “Tanya Jericho?”
“Yes, yes. Please, you have to help her. Shanna. He’s got her. I tried to go find help. But he got there too fast. I had to hide. I saw him take her out of the rock.”
Rock? He had no idea what she meant. “Where is she?” he yelled across to her.
“There. Over there. He said he was taking her for a swim.” She pointed off to her left, Kaden’s right.
A swim? Oh, God, no.
“How far?” he yelled.
“Around the next curve.”
“Hide, Tanya. Don’t come out until you see the police.”
She waved in understanding and sprinted into the trees.
Kaden jumped back in the wheel house and gunned the engine again, sending the boat in a full out frenzy parallel to the shoretoward the next bend. Another debris marker appeared out of the mist directly in front of him. He swore and jerked the wheel away from the shore. Something hard made a sickening scrape against the hull, but it didn’t catch. The boat shot out past it into deeper, safer water.
He quickly turned, powering down again and heading around the next curve where Tanya had said Shanna would be. So where was she?
He scanned the area, swearing as the mist rose thick again, covering the surface of the water. Then he heard it. Splashing.
The mist suddenly opened in front of him like a red carpet rolling out to guide his way. And there, to his horror, in the shallow strip of land at the lake’s edge was Shanna with her captor. He had her by the hair and was shoving her under the water.
The gun Dawson had given Kaden was useless. He’d likely hit Shanna if he tried shooting the Phantom. But Kaden had another weapon.Discovery.He throttled up, hurtling the boat directly toward shore.
The Phantom looked up, as if just noticing him. He stared at Kaden, smiling as he held a thrashing Shanna under, seemingly convinced Kaden wouldn’t hit him.
Kaden gave the engine another burst of speed.
The Phantom shoved Shanna completely under water and scrambled to his feet, desperately trying to get out of Kaden’s way.
Kaden jerked the wheel hard to starboard to miss where he’d last seen Shanna. He ran to the port side, grabbing his handheld sonar as he dove into the water. A loud explosion sounded overhead as his boat ran aground and struck the trees. A concussion of power slammed against his body, tossing him against something hard and unyielding. The impact knocked thebreath out of him but he managed to maintain his grip on the sonar device.
He struggled against the urge to suck in water as his lungs screamed for air. Pieces of his boat fell into the water, like a hard rain. Then he was kicking for the surface.
He sucked in a lungful of air, then dove back down, immediately sweeping the sonar back and forth. In what felt like minutes, but was probably only a few seconds, one of the lights came on, pointing him toward a shadow several feet below.
Shanna.
Diving straight down, he found her. Her eyes were open and staring. But she didn’t see him. His heart seemed to stop in his chest. He tossed the device aside, grabbed her and swam for the surface, but pulled up short. Her hair was wrapped around an old wooden railing of a submerged house.
He savagely kicked the railing, smashing it in two, freeing her. Cradling her lifeless body against him, he headed for the surface as fast as he could go. Once he reached the shore, he laid her on her side and worked to pump the water out of her lungs. A rush of water came out but she didn’t cough or start breathing. He rolled her onto her back and began CPR.
“Come on, Shanna. Don’t you leave me now, not after becoming everything to me. Don’t you dare. Breathe, damn it. Breathe.”
He blew two quick hard breaths, watching her chest rise as her lungs filled with air. But just like with Jessica, she didn’t breathe on her own. And this time, there wasn’t an external defibrillator to help him. He desperately pressed his clasped hands over her heart, pumping it for her, and praying harder than he’d ever prayed in his life.
Please, God. Please. Don’t take her. Let her live. Please.
An angry shout was his only warning. He threw up his arm to deflect the blow as the Phantom swung a piece of broken woodfrom his boat down toward his head. Kaden kicked out at the other man, catching him in the groin.
