Page 98 of Hold Your Breath
At that realization, she kicked forward toward the pair, plowing into his shoulder and knocking him away from Cal.
As she glanced back to check on Callum, she saw he was swimming toward them, shouting something into his regulator. Distracted, she didn’t see the stranger’s swing until her head was jarred to the side, knocking her face mask askew.
The shockingly cold water hit her eyes as her mask filled, paralyzing her for a frozen second. Lou couldn’t see, blinded by the twisted mask and the rush of water. Squinting, she barely caught a blurry black-and-green arm swinging toward her, and she threw her left arm up to block the anticipated blow. His bellow of pain reverberated through the water, amplifying the sound, and she realized she still held her dive knife in her hand.
Callum’s blurry form darted between her and the other diver. Fumbling, her heart pounding in her ears, Lou managed to straighten her mask and partially clear it by pressing on the top with her non-knife-holding hand and exhaling through her nose. Air filled the top two-thirds of her mask, allowing her to see the other two divers were locked together, struggling. The water and sediment churned around the fighting pair, turning them into hazy shapes. Frantically, Lou swam around them, knife clutched in her fist. Her heartbeat thundered in her water-blocked ears as she tried to figure out how to help Cal. She jerked back as a fin almost connected with her face.
Diluted blood turned the water light red, and Lou felt a sob creep into her throat. As the two divers flipped and turned, a green-and-black target would open to her before disappearing again. She darted toward them but pulled away as the fighters rolled. Her fingers gripped the knife so tightly they cramped, but she didn’t strike, not wanting to hit Callum by mistake.
The other diver’s fist slammed into the side of Cal’s face, snapping his head back. As the aggressor pulled his arm away, it caught his regulator hose, ripping Cal’s mouthpiece from him. The regulator bobbed, bubbles floating uselessly toward the surface. As Cal swept his arm through the water, trying to retrieve his air supply, the second diver wrapped gloved hands around his neck and forced his back against the reservoir bottom. Callum’s struggles were losing power.
No!Lou lunged toward the person trying to kill Cal—herCallum. Releasing his hold, the diver turned and kicked, his fin hitting her in the stomach. She folded, breath knocked from her lungs, caught by the physical memory of another kick to the stomach, into fire rather than ice water that time. Fear turned her body to useless rubber for a second, but she forced herself to push back the terror. Callum didn’t have any air. She needed to save him. Scrambling upright, she saw the other diver barreling directly toward her.
Screaming into her regulator, her hands extended defensively, Lou fell backward in slow motion. The other diver followed her down, and she pulled her knees to her chest before kicking her fins toward his belly.
Let’s see how you like it, she thought viciously. The ends curled under, muffling some of the impact of the kick, but it got him off her. She scrambled upright and pushed off the bottom with both feet, tackling him. The water robbed her of much of her power, but the knife sank into his side. As she pulled it free, her light illuminated a cloud of red as his blood mixed with the already-murky water. Lou felt a bloodthirsty thrill of satisfaction.
He reached for her again, but pulled back when she slashed at him, this time aiming for his regulator hose. His eyes widened as he saw her intent, those crazily familiar brown eyes she’d looked into so many times in the past. A sense of unreality washed through her. This was Brent, ex-boyfriend Brent, who was trying to kill her and Cal in the freezing depths of Mission Reservoir. At the thought of Callum’s weakening form, she shook off her distraction and fought with renewed ferocity, aiming her knife at the hose supplying Brent’s life-preserving air.
The blade sliced through the hose, and he immediately dropped his regulator and reached for his alternate air supply. Her brain flashed to Callum, inhaling water behind them, each second increasing his chances of brain damage and death. The fight felt like it had gone on forever, and desperation tightened her throat.
As his arm lifted to fumble for the second air supply, it exposed the right side of his chest. She plunged in the dive knife, feeling it scrape against something hard and then slide in deep. Brent stared at her, eyes wide behind the mask, his hand frozen, before he folded like a lifeless rag doll.
Yanking the knife free, she turned toward Callum, panicking in the few seconds it took to locate his limp form. Relief flushed through her as she finally spotted him, and she half ran, half swam the short distance to his side. Cursing her gloves, she fumbled for his regulator, which was still burbling oxygen. She pressed it to his mouth, clearing it of water and inserting it between his slack lips, but it fell free the instant she released it.
She cut the fabric of his weight belt and then dropped her knife, not wanting to accidentally stab Callum as she worked over him. Unhooking the carabiner attached to the safety line from her own harness, she hooked it to his. After she inflated his BCD, he began to float upward, and she scrambled to stay with him.
She noticed they were passing her exhaled bubbles, and every dive-safety lecture she’d ever heard about ascending slowly—no more than thirty feet per minute—ran through her head. What if she thought she was saving his life, when actually she killed him from the nitrogen building up in his system? But Lou didn’t slow their ascent. Oxygen was the priority. They didn’t have time for a three- to five-minute safety stop on their way to the surface.
When the slab of ice appeared above them, she almost sobbed with relief. A rush of panic quickly followed, since the hole where they’d entered was nowhere in sight. Although nightmare visions of being trapped under the ice as Callum died and she slowly ran out of air flashed through her mind, she shoved the images into a dark closet in her brain and slammed the door. She could have bad dreams about it later. Right now, she needed tothink.
Grabbing her safety line just past where it connected to her harness, she started pulling in the slack. It was a hundred-foot line, and she had no idea how far from the hole she’d drifted in her search for Callum. She pulled in the rope, hand over hand. When she hit tension, it took several tugs for her to realize she’d removed all the slack. Once she did, it took another moment for her to feel someone on the other end of the rope was tugging back.
This time, she did give a sob of relief into her regulator. She gave two answering pulls and wrapped her arms around Callum. Whatever guardian angels were on the other end of the rope hauled them both through the water until the dark shape of the opening came into view. Lou actually laughed in relief. She never thought she’d be so glad to see a hole in the ice. With a squeeze around Cal’s middle, she allowed herself to hope he’d make it.
It was just in time, since Lou could feel the increased tightness of each breath that indicated her tank was getting low on oxygen. She kicked her fins, helping to move them through the water toward the opening.Hold on, Cal,she thought.Almost there.
Something closed around her left calf and yanked. Her heartbeat stopped as she plunged back into the deep. Startled, Lou opened her mouth, releasing the regulator and sucking in a mouthful of reservoir water. Her arms flailed, releasing Callum to churn at the water. Looking down, she saw Brent, his fingers wrapped around her lower leg as he towed her deeper.
She kicked and fought, terror ripping through her as she struggled, but she was pulled deeper and deeper. With a desperate upward glance, she saw Callum’s body floating away from her, his limbs outstretched like a starfish, until he disappeared into the murky darkness above her.
Another jerk on her leg made her renew her fight, kicking out at Brent uselessly. His hold on her dragged her farther down even as the fin on her free leg just bumped against him harmlessly. Her lungs started to burn with the need to expel the water she’d inhaled, and she swung an arm out to the side, hooking the regulator hose and sweeping it back in front of her.
Jamming the regulator into her mouth, she pushed the button to clear it as she coughed into the mouthpiece.
The image of Cal’s limp form getting farther and farther from her burned in her mind, igniting a rage like she’d never felt before. Twisting her body, she reached for Brent. She grabbed for him, but her gloved fingers slid uselessly against the slick material of his hood. Knocking away her grasping hands, Brent yanked her down so they were mask to mask.
Desperately wishing that she hadn’t dropped her knife, Lou thrust her hands toward his chest, attempting to shove him back. His fingers gripped her arms, pulling her closer to him, and she swung her fists, trying to strike him where she’d buried the blade beneath the skin. The resistance of the water robbed her blows of any power, however, and his hold on her didn’t lighten.
Their sides bumped something, and Lou realized they’d hit bottom. She wanted to wail and cry at the unfairness of it. She’d been so close to the surface, and now Brent had ruined her chance at survival. She inhaled, feeling the squeezing pinch of an almost-empty tank. She had nothing—no weapon, no air, no way of freeing herself from Brent’s hold.
Their faces were so close that she could see his expression. He looked smug. Brent thought he’d won, that she’d accepted the inevitability of her death, just as she’d come so close to resigning herself to marrying him. He was going to have her, even if that meant they both drowned.
Oh,hellno. He wasn’t going to win. Lou had a new life now, a good life, and she was going to keep it. Remembering the shock of cold after he’d hit her the first time, she grabbed his mask and pulled. He reared back as the water made contact with his face, stretching the band that had held the mask in place. Lou twisted in his grip, fighting to get free with everything inside her. The image of Callum filled her mind until there was no room for panic. She hammered at Brent’s chest, trying to break his hold, but he was already recovering from the cold-water shock—and he was furious.
He shoved her against the bottom, his hands wrapping around her throat in the same way he’d choked Cal. Still she fought, trying to hold on to her fury. Each of her breaths was getting tighter, harder to suck into her lungs. Her arms flailed to the side, hitting against the rocks scattered over the bottom with bruising force. That new pain brought her out of her frantic haze for a second, just long enough to close her fingers around a fist-sized stone. With the last of her strength, she brought her arm up in an arc. When the rock connected with his temple, she saw his moment of startled shock. His hands didn’t loosen, so she struck again, and then a third time. Finally,finally, his grip eased as his eyes rolled back, and she managed to shove free. Choking and coughing into her regulator, she scrambled away from him, knowing at any second he could lunge for her again. His body was completely still, though. As she stared, his regulator floated free of his mouth. No bubbles emerged from his mouth or nose, but she still watched him carefully as she pushed off the bottom and swam upward. She couldn’t resist turning her light toward Brent one last time, but the clouded water showed only the bare outline of his lifeless form.
She turned away. Kicking her fins, she moved toward the surface—and Callum.
