Page 60 of The Sting of Love
It takes me a few minutes to right myself and calm down. I shuffle up to stand, readying myself for the next part of this mission. This was the part I feared because I couldn’t see the corners of the house. I hobble across the rock, and my damn heart sinks when I see that the section of the beach I saw was just a mere patch. I’d still have to swim for a good twenty meters before I could get to the next set of rocks.
Where the hell did Donny bring me?Fuck him.
He was definitely right. Nobody would find me here, and I can’t find my way back.Shit.This is all such fucking shit.
I take off my shoes. They’ll have to stay. With the waves coming in and out the way they are, I won’t be able to swim with my shoes on.
I immerse myself in the cold water and start swimming. It’s at that point I accept this was a bad idea.
It’s the current—it’s too strong. As soon as I get in, it pulls me in the rage of the sea and I try to swim against it. I propel myself forward, swimming with everything inside me. Kicking against the waves and the rain that starts to fall heavily. Suddenly, the storm is upon me. Wind rushes through the water and pushes me to and fro. I swim, and I can’t see anymore where I’m going.
It’s all too much, and I’m so weak. I manage to turn my body around and see a rock just ahead of me. That was supposed to be where I was going. Beyond the rock is the beach. At least I think so.
I swim now, no longer thinking of Lurlene. I’m swimming for survival because I don’t want to die here. I can’t separate my tears from the water. It all blends into one.
I kick against the current and manage to get to the rock. I try to reach for it, but it’s so slippery it takes me a few tries before I can get a firm grip to pull myself up.
I only just manage to, but as I get up there, I see I’m no better off than I was. In a few minutes, I’ll have no choice and will be back in the sea when the tide pushes the waters higher.
“Willow!” a panicked voice calls to me. The voice in my dreams from the man who holds me. The man I shouldn’t have been with. “Willow!”
It’s Donny.
I turn my head and see him running down a path, but it all looks like water to me.
I reach my hand out and lose my grip, slipping off into the sea. An angry wave crashes into me as I do. I scream as it takes me down, pulling me under. I just managed to see Donny dive in.
That’s all I saw. It’s probably the last thing I’ll see above water. My hands move, but the current is stronger and I’m deeper than I was before. I’m not used to swimming out to such deep, troubled waters. I hardly went in the sea when I was in LA, always opting for the pool.
I regret it now.
My body gives up, and I sink, deeper and deeper, until strong arms secure themselves around me and pull me up. I’m moving up and up, but I can’t focus beyond that part.
It’s not until I break through the water’s surface that I see him. His face is as troubled as the storm. It’s contorted in fear and worry, and the vein on the side of his head pulses as he swims forward with me secured in his arms, taking rough powerful strokes.
“Donny,” I whisper his name, but no real words come out. My voice is carried away with the wind.
My head lulls to the side as I hear his name being called. I see Armand ahead. He’s standing on the shore. I see now that I definitely wouldn’t have made it. I couldn’t see my surroundings well enough to plan the escape I was hoping to make. Armand stands on a thin strip of land. He tosses a rope to us, and Donny catches it. Armand pulls us in, reeling us to safety.
Donny continues to hold me as we go up, then he carries me onto the shore where I start coughing, sputtering up the water that went down my throat.
“Are you okay?” Armand cries.
I nod and embarrassment fills me, turning me crimson against the shiver of the cold water that’s seeped into my bones. I shift my gaze to Donny and gasp when I see blood running down the side of his head. He wipes it away but more comes.
“Donny—”
He cuts me off by reaching for me, lifting me up and himself too to stand.
With a savage growl he grabs my shoulders and scowls deeply. Beads of water run down his face mingling with the rain. I’ve never seen him look so angry and he’s well in his right to be so. I could have gotten us both killed.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he shouts. “You want to get yourself killed? You think I brought you all the fucking way here for you to jump out of the fucking window and into the sea? You could have died Willow.”
I start to tremble, feeling very foolish.
“I’m sorry. I know it was stupid,” I attempt, trembling as my wet clothes cling to my skin.
“Yes it was fucking stupid.” His eyes blaze and snap wider. The sharp movement makes the blood start coming faster in a stream down from the top of his eye to his cheek covering the whole side of his face. Guilt sweeps through me at the sight. I don’t know when he hit his head. I don’t know when he got hurt but he did and it’s because of me.
