| |
––––––––
“North side of Sheltered Cove. Get there as fast as you can and get us a boat,” Brandon said into his phone to Travis, his legs shaky as hell as he raced for his rental car.
He had to get the hell out of here before the cops arrived, because he couldn’t afford any delays. “Alert Noah too, tell him what happened.”
Travis could tell him about the body in the woods. Brandon was way too keyed up to deal with any of that shit right now. His only concern was finding Jaia as soon as humanly possible and getting her out of there.
“I’m on it. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just hurry. He said they put her in a sea cave. She can’t swim.”
His heart clenched at the thought of her trapped there, alone and scared, confronted with one of her worst fears. He didn’t even know if she was still alive, whether that guy had been lying, but she had to be. He couldn’t accept anything else.
“We’ll find her and get her out,” Travis vowed. “How far away are you?”
“I dunno.” He tried to slow his racing mind, the wild rush of adrenaline from the shootout still coursing through his body. “Less than ten miles, I think. I’m on my way now. Hurry.” He jumped in the car and took off, frantic to get to Jaia.
The people living in the neighborhood would have heard the gunshots, and the cops would likely be here any minute. He had to get away. Jaia’s life was in danger.
He sped his way through the neighborhood, racing back to the highway he’d turned off of earlier. There was no sign of the other shooter, but that didn’t mean someone else wasn’t gunning for him.
Brandon wasn’t sure how badly he’d wounded the other guy, but it wasn’t bad enough that he hadn’t been able to get to the SUV and drive away. There was a chance he would be waiting to head Brandon off somewhere up ahead and try to take him out.
Bring it on. Brandon would smash straight through him and anyone else who tried to stop him from getting to Jaia.
The fog was lifting slightly as he headed back toward the water. He drove as fast as he could, darting in and out of slower moving traffic, desperate to get to Sheltered Cove.
To his right the sea was a deep, gray-green, the wind kicking up a steady chop of white caps and sending big rollers crashing onto shore. This section of coastline was especially rugged, the constant wear of waves and tides carving tall sea stacks out of the rock. Along each little bay and cove, inlets and cave structures had been cut into the shoreline.
Had that asshole really dumped Jaia in one of them?
Sheltered Cove was a sleepy little tourist town half the size of Crimson Point. He whipped down the main street bordering the water and turned in to the marina parking lot, spotting Travis’s SUV right away.
He jumped out and ran over just as Travis and Groz both got out of the SUV. “You talk to Noah?” he called out.
“Just got off the phone with him,” said Travis. “He’s coordinating a search with the Coast Guard.”
Good. They needed all the help they could get. “We can’t wait for the cops or Coast Guard. We need a boat now.”
“Callum and my dad are taking care of it,” Travis said, nodding over his shoulder.
Brandon followed his gaze, and sure enough, there were Callum and Boyd talking with someone on the dock. “What’s your dad doing here?” He was still recovering from his gunshot wound.
“You wanna tell him no?” Travis said with a pointed look.
No. He couldn’t imagine him or anyone else telling Boyd Masterson no, except maybe Ember.
Boyd glanced up, waved them over while Callum continued talking to the other guy. Brandon ran toward them, desperate to get out on the water to search for where Jaia was trapped. “The guy said Jaia is in a cave on the north side of the cove. That’s all I know,” he said to the others as they raced for the dock.
Boyd and Callum were waiting for them next to a Zodiac. “There’s some dive equipment on board,” Callum said.
“You’re amazing,” Brandon said, jumping aboard. “Are you sure you’re up to this?” he asked Boyd.
Boyd cut him a hard look and moved to the helm, with Callum taking a spot near the middle. “Yeah. Just don’t tell Ember.”
“I won’t.” She would find out, but not from him. He pointed to the north side of the cove as Travis and Groz moved to the bow and began sorting through the dive equipment there. “Head for the north side,” he said to Boyd. “Is the tide going out or in?”
“In,” Boyd answered, firing up the engine.
Shit. “She can’t swim,” he said over the noise, staring out at the far shoreline. Travis and Groz both cut him worried looks. “She can’t swim, and she’s trapped over there in a goddamn cave.”
“We’ll find her in time, man,” Groz said, holding out a wetsuit. “This is the only one that’ll fit any of us, but it’s too small for me. It’ll have to be either you or Trav—”
Brandon took it. “I’ll go in after her. You guys assist and be my eyes and ears.”
Boyd expertly maneuvered them away from the dock and shot away from the marina. Brandon sat on the floor, stripped off his boots, socks and jeans and began tugging on the wetsuit. It was small, but it was better than nothing when he went into the cold water.
The moment they were clear of the main harbor and any other boaters, Boyd opened up the throttle. The Zodiac’s bow pitched upward, bouncing along the ridges of the waves as they raced over the water. Icy spray spattered them while they hunkered inside the inflatable gunwales.
Brandon squinted through the spray, his gaze locked on the northern shore. From here he could see the dark openings of several caves, five at least, maybe more. Was Jaia in one of them? He had to find her and get her out, fast. If she was conscious, she would be scared out of her mind.
“This one’s full,” Callum called out, leaning over to hand him a scuba tank, a dive headlamp and a pair of fins.
Brandon shrugged into the tank harness, opened the valve and double-checked the regulator. Good to go.
He gathered some gloves and a dive mask and got them on too with the headlamp, urgency humming inside him like a cable pulled too tight. Come on, come on...
It took a few minutes more before they were close enough to get a good view of the caves. Three of them were large, one was medium-sized, and one small. So small he didn’t think he would be able to get through the opening at the waterline.
“Where to first?” Boyd asked.
“Start in the middle,” he answered. Boyd turned the bow and aimed directly for the one in the center.
The rough chop was hitting them broadside now, occasional waves sluicing them with freezing blasts of water. From their position she might be able to hear the sound of the engine if she was inside one of these things.
Boyd brought them even closer and dropped the engine to an idle, turning the boat parallel with the rocky shore. The shift allowed them all a good look and positioned them so that the waves broke against the bow and pushed outward instead of coming over the port side.
Brandon leaned over the side and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Jaia! Jaia, can you hear me?” He waited a beat. “Jaia! Answer if you can hear me!”
Nothing.
Groz stuck his fingers in his mouth and gave a long, shrill whistle that cut through everything. “Jaia! You in there?”
No sound answered except the idling engine and the waves hitting the rocks.
Brandon couldn’t wait any longer. The mouth of the cave in front of him was the medium one, the larger ones to the left of that, and the smallest to the right. With the tide coming in, there was no time to lose.
“I’m going in,” he said, tugging his mask into place and putting the regulator into his mouth.
Travis and Groz crouched on either side of him as he lowered himself to the starboard inflatable with his back to the caves and put on his fins. “We’ll keep searching from here and coordinate with Noah and the Coast Guard,” Travis said, giving his shoulder a squeeze.
Brandon nodded once, trusting them completely to do everything they could to help, and leaned back to drop into the water. He hit the surface with a splash, and it closed over his head in an instant. He turned over and started swimming for the opening of the medium cave.
The gray-green water was murky around him, the visibility less than a few feet. Waves buffeted him as he made for the mouth, the swells making the timing of the entrance tricky. Head through the narrow opening at the wrong time, and a wave could smash him against the roof arch.
He swam close enough to the entrance to see inside, peering through the gloom into the darkness beyond, and stopped to tread water. The wetsuit wasn’t waterproof, its purpose was to help keep someone warm in the water, and already he could feel the chill seeping through the neoprene.
He took the regulator out of his mouth. “Jaia!” She had to be in one of these. She had to still be alive. Because he just couldn’t handle the alternative—
No. He couldn’t even think it.
He swam a little closer, staying just outside of the mouth, fighting the waves and current pushing him toward the wall of rock in front of him. “Jaia!”
A shrill whistle from behind made him whip around. All three men in the boat were standing and pointing to Travis’s left. Groz pulled his fingers from his mouth just as Travis cupped his hands around his and shouted, “Heard something from in there.”
Brandon turned back around and stared at the cave mouth to the right. The smallest one.
He put the regulator back in, dove down and swam for it as fast as he could, the current pushing him closer to the rocks with every stroke. Behind him the zodiac engine started up, Boyd following him.
Brandon surfaced, and when he got a good look at the cave close up, his heart sank like a rock. The opening was already too small to see into, and with the visibility underwater so bad even the headlamp wouldn’t help.
He’d have to dive his way in blind, feel around in the darkness and hope he made it through to whatever was on the other side. The asshole who’d left Jaia here must have managed to get in here by boat when the tide was still low.
He waited until he was directly in front of the tight opening to call out again. “Jaia! Can you hear me?”
The response was faint, but he definitely heard something. He moved closer, planting both hands against the rock, bracing against the waves pushing at his back, straining to hear.
“I’m here! Help me!”
Jaia.
The stark terror lacing her voice ripped through him like a gunshot. “Hang on! I’m coming!” He shoved the regulator back into his mouth, switched on the headlamp and dove beneath the surface.
Even with the light, within seconds he was engulfed in a murky fog. He reached out in front with his hands, feeling his way around.
His gloved hand touched a wall of rock, then a wave shot him upward, slamming him into the roof with a bone-jarring thud of the tank that rattled his teeth.
Jaia needs you. Hurry.
He planted both hands against the ceiling and pushed against it with all his strength. Finally, the wave ebbed, and he dropped. Immediately he stretched out on his stomach and put on a burst of speed, kicking hard to get through the opening.
More rock barred his way.
Mentally cursing, he stopped, tried to feel around him. The water had completely filled this chamber, giving him no room to surface to look around. He was surrounded by rock on all sides. Trapped in a narrow tunnel.
The sudden, immobile restriction triggered his claustrophobia. His muscles went rigid, heart constricting as pure raw terror gripped him. The fear told his subconscious he was trapped, that there was no way out.
Jaia. Have to get to her.
He wrestled the fear aside, forced himself to calm down and slow his breathing even as his heart galloped like a wild mustang beneath his too-tight ribcage. He had to get through this tunnel.
He would get through it. Because Jaia was on the other side, and he would fucking die to get her out if that’s what it took.
