Page 18 of Turn the Tide
She couldn’t do it. Couldn’t jump hundreds of feet into the black ocean.
But if she didn’t, they’d both die.
Her legs ate up the distance to twenty feet. Eric’s hand landed on her back—not pushing her, just warm. Something sparked off the handrail to the right of the gap. Her bare soles pounded down the last few feet, the edge rushed up at her, and though she wanted to hesitate with every cell in her body, she sucked in a last breath, shut her eyes—
“JUMP!”
She flew.
Oh no, I can’t! I can’t!
But already she was airborne, barreling into the yawning void with nothing to anchor her but the presence of a man who yelled orders as if he’d been born to it. Who’d appeared from nowhere, pulled her out of hell in the nick of time, and saved her life.
On instinct, she gasped in a hurried breath as her feet smacked water, and they were under, engulfed by the abyss, in a roaring undertow of their own making.
A hard kick brought her to the surface, where she gasped for a few seconds, wiped the salt water from her eyes, and searched the shimmering ripples for signs of Eric.
It was too calm, after the scramble above. Panic surged through her.
“Eric?” she hissed.
No answer. She spun. “ERIC!”
“Here.” He was beside her without a sound. A ghost in the water. She went limp with relief and barely held back from throwing her arms around him. “Can you swim?”
“Yeah.”
“Boat’s by the southern leg. Come on.” Southern leg? How could he tell where they were? She set off after him.
It was cold as hell, but at least here she was in her element. She may not have run for years, but swimming was something she did every day. And the water felt safe, like shelter.
Stroke, stroke, breathe, stroke, stroke, breathe.She could do this all day. To San Elias Island if she had to.
A faint pop disrupted her rhythm, followed by a splash. Small, but—
Another splash…and another. More shots?
“Go right!”
She swerved, got beneath the rig, and cut through to his boat seconds behind him. With a movement like liquid, Eric was up and over. She followed more slowly, head suddenly pounding, and threw herself to the deck while he started the engine and set off toward the mainland.
Another shot rang out, sending her shoulders up to her ears. She wanted to make herself small, curl up into a ball, and hide.Why won’t they let us go?What could those people possibly be doing up there that they were so desperate to hide?
“Safer up here, Zoe.”
She cast a look toward the front of the boat, where Eric navigated the dark waters as if he knew exactly where he was. As if nothing scared him. Who on earth was this man? Not the unambitious fisherman she’d taken him for. She cast a quick look over her shoulder. Definitely not one of them.
Any doubt she’d had about what he was doing there became secondary to the fact that the man had saved her life. Whatever happened from here on out, whatever had brought him to the rig tonight, that man up there was her pillar. They were a team.
She crawled to his feet and sat, back pressed to the side of the boat, shoulder against his leg.
Soaking wet, freezing, sucking in air as though she’d never catch her breath, she wanted nothing more than to wrap herself around him. Instead, she yelled. “What. The hell. Is going on?”
“No idea.”
“You’re not here to…spy on them or something?”
“What?” In the light coming off the rig, she saw him glance down at her. Not his eyes, but his silhouette. “No. Just luck that I happened to be around.”
