Chapter 11

Jennifer flung her Colt to the ground and jumped into the water so quickly she hit with a belly flop that knocked her breathless. Gasping, her mouth full of foul-tasting water, she swam toward Sadie. Behind her she could hear Kyle yelling, but the harsh rasp of her own breath and the terrified thunk-thunk of her heart made it impossible to understand him. Ahead she saw Sadie bobbing around, blood forming a dark cloud in the water where a low-angled ray of the setting sun punched through the trees.

“Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry. I never meant to hit you.”

Sadie’s head lolled to one side, her muzzle below the surface of the water. If the shot hadn’t mortally wounded her, the dog would drown.

“Sadie! Sadie!” she called, attempting to get Sadie to lift her nose out of the water as she closed the distance between them, but the dog didn’t respond.

Jennifer reached Sadie and treaded water while she gently raised the bloodhound’s head out of the water. Eyes closed, Sadie coughed up water.

“Kyle! She’s still alive,” Jennifer cried with a surge of hope.

Nearby the dead alligator floated upside down, its silvery underbelly red with blood. She tried to tow Sadie to shore, but the dog was still ensnared in the underwater vines.

Jennifer’s heart slammed against her chest so hard it hurt as she kept Sadie’s head above water while she used the other hand to pull her knife from her equipment belt. She slashed under the water at the reedy vine around Sadie’s back leg. An image of a small pup sucking from the bottle Jennifer was holding flashed through her mind.

How could she have shot that sweet little puppy—all ears and soulful eyes?

Because she’d been arrogant. She’d put other skills before the ability to accurately hit a target. As much as she hated to admit it, Kyle had been right. Her inability to shoot would cost lives. In this case, she’d been so shaken; trying to kill the alligator, she’d hit her beloved dog.

“Let me do it. You just keep Sadie’s head out of the water.”

Jennifer had been so absorbed she hadn’t heard Kyle swim up. Sadie whimpered, a weak, gurgling sound. The dog’s soulful eyes opened, glazed with pain, silently condemning her.

“She’s free,” Kyle told her. “Let me take her. You get back to Holly.”

Jennifer swam toward shore, telling herself to be professional. As much as she might want to help Sadie herself, Kyle was stronger. It would be easier for him to lift her onto shore where they could see how bad the wound was.

She stood up near the shore where the channel was shallow, realizing water had seeped into the Kevlar jumpsuit. Her clothes were soaked, weighting her down like a load of cement. She slogged out of the water onto the mossy embankment where Holly was sitting, sobbing.

“It’s okay,” Jennifer said as her twisted ankle gave out and she fell to her knees on the slick moss.

“D-d-dog-gie, doggie, doggie,” cried the little girl.

Jennifer looked over her shoulder. Kyle was wading toward them carrying Sadie. Dusk had fallen, making it difficult to see, but Jennifer had the sickening feeling the wide, dark streak on his jumpsuit meant Sadie was bleeding to death.

“Don’t worry,” she tried to reassure the child and herself, “the doggie will be all right.”

Please, God. Don’t let Sadie die.

She put her arm around Holly and gave her a hug. The little girl snuggled up against her. The tears had stopped, but Holly was trembling.

“Why … shoot doggie?” Holly asked, wide-eyed.

“I made a mistake. I was aiming at the bad alligator.”

Kyle reached them with Sadie cradled in his arms. He gently placed the dog on the embankment.

“Get out your flashlight. Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

Jennifer pulled the flashlight from the Alice clip on her belt and turned it on. The rod of light hit Sadie’s motionless form. The dog’s rich mahogany fur was so wet and soaked with blood that it looked black. The blood seemed to be coming from her neck area, not her head as Jennifer had feared.

“Is the doggie dead?” asked Holly.

“No, honey. She’s just hurt. See, her sides are moving. That means she’s breathing,” she told the child.

Sadie was still alive, but for how long? Kyle was examining her without saying anything, which she took as a very bad sign. The only thing she could do was get out the waterproof pouch with the gauze and tape to stop the bleeding.

“What do you think?” she finally asked.

His eyes met hers over the tunnel of light, concern etching the masculine planes of his face. He took a packet of gauze from her, saying, “I don’t know. The sooner we get her to a vet, the better.”

Holly leaned over and put her little hand on the dog’s haunch. “Wake up. Wake up.”

“Honey, she can’t. She’ll wake up later, and you can thank her for finding you,” Jennifer said, watching Kyle bandage Sadie’s neck. “Should I radio the sheriff and see if that helicopter can get us out of here somehow?”

“There’s nowhere it can land.” He finished wrapping the gauze, and she handed him the tape to secure it. “Grab my cell phone.”

It was attached to the equipment belt on his waist. She leaned over, taking care not to bump Sadie. Protected by a waterproof case, the telephone hung next to his hard, muscled thigh. She took the tiny cell phone out of the case.

“Dial star 7,” he told her as he applied the tape.

“That’s all?” she asked, and he nodded. This had to be some special military telephone.

“Blackwatch 7,” answered a man in a brusque voice.

She handed the phone to Kyle, then leaned over Sadie, whispering, “Hang in there, girl. Hang in there.”

She ran a loving hand over the soft, damp fur along Sadie’s back. Her sides were moving slightly. Thank God she was still breathing.

Holly moved closer and petted Sadie’s rump with surprising tenderness for such a young child. “Hang in dare. Hang in dare.”

Dare not there. How cute, Jennifer thought. A rush of happiness elated her. She was unbelievably thankful they’d found the child before something terrible happened to her. Between the coral snake and the alligator, Holly Block would never have made it home alive.

If it weren’t for Sadie.

The hot sting of tears behind her eyelids threatened to become the real thing. History wasn’t repeating itself. She had found this little girl … alive. Now she had to get her back to her mother. She couldn’t help being extremely proud of what Sadie had accomplished.

She realized Kyle had hung up and put away his telephone. All she’d heard him say was: “Code 21.”

“What’s a Code 21?” she asked.

“It means the Navy will send a helicopter with a SEAL team on it. They’ll lower a Special Forces inflatable to us.”

“You didn’t give them our coordinates. How will they find us?”

Kyle held up his watch and pulled out a thin, foot-long antenna. It was difficult to imagine how it fit inside such a small space.

“This is an emergency positioning beacon. They’ll home in on the signal it’s sending.”

Her eyes on Sadie, she nodded. She knew Brietling manufactured watches for the Special Forces teams as well as pilots and astronauts. She had often wished she had one, but they weren’t available to civilians.

“I should call Holly’s mother—”

“Don’t contact anyone until the SEALs are out of here. Technically, they’re not supposed to be involved in civilian operations. That chopper was flying low, looking for us. Sheriff Prichett must have had second thoughts and is hedging his bets. We don’t want him to spot the SEALs.”

“How do you know it wasn’t a Navy helicopter? They’re always out on maneuvers up and down the keys.”

“Trust me. Military choppers make a different sound.”

Strangely, she did trust him. No matter that he had let her down in the past. Kyle was a highly trained professional now. What was she? A nitwit who’d shot her own dog.

“You don’t want to deal with the sheriff right now,” he said, his tone surprisingly gentle.

“You’re right. I need to return Holly to her mother and take Sadie to a vet.”

“To her mother and father,” Kyle corrected her.

“Where’s Mommy?” Holly asked.

The little girl was just beyond the rim of light cast by the flashlight, but Jennifer could see enough of her face to realize the novelty of the situation had worn off. The child was tired and hungry and she wanted her mother.

“We’re taking you right to your mommy,” she promised. “Then we’re going to get Sadie to a veterinarian. Do you know what a veterinarian is?”

She distracted Holly by encouraging the child to tell them all about her dog, Redd, and the time they took him to the vet for his shots. For a moment, Kyle watched in silence, his expression impossible to decipher. No doubt he thought she was an idiot for shooting Sadie, but nothing he said or thought could make her feel any worse than she already did.

Kyle stood up and unzipped the Kevlar jumpsuit. Under it, he was all taut skin and firm muscle. He’d taken off the T-shirt he’d had on this morning. His low-riding cut-off jeans were soaked the way hers were.

He spread out the jumpsuit on the ground, then went to lift Sadie.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“The Thermalscan should stabilize her body temperature and help with shock.”

He gently picked up the dog and put her in the center of the suit. There was something tender in the way he secured the jumpsuit around Sadie, leaving just a small opening for her nose.

“Great idea,” she said, unzipping her jumpsuit. “Holly’s going to be eaten alive by bugs and mosquitoes. I’m putting her in my jumpsuit.” She turned to the little girl whose pink romper was caked with mud and ripped in places. “Come on, sweetie, let’s get you into this.”

Kyle watched her change Holly, a strange expression on his face. She wondered if he suspected how important rescuing this child was to her. She knew she’d let her emotions show more than she should have. Sometimes she couldn’t quite keep the past where it belonged.

Cocking his head, he told her, “Here comes the chopper.”

She didn’t hear a thing, but trusted him enough to tell Holly, “Hands on our ears. Here comes a really big bird out of the sky.”

Holly giggled and did what Jennifer did. Within seconds of putting her hands on her ears, Jennifer heard the low drone of a helicopter. Kyle was right. This engine had a deeper sound, and even without seeing it, she could tell it was larger than the other helicopter.

Kyle waded out toward the middle of the channel, but it was too dark to see if the alligator was still floating there. He stopped in water up to his chest and waited. The chopper was closer now, the sound nearly deafening. She saw the little girl’s mouth had dropped open, so she put her arm around her.

“Isn’t this fun?” Jennifer asked, but Holly sat there, wide-eyed.

Evidently, the instruments on the helicopter had picked up the Brietling’s signal. The chopper hovered above the trees arching over the channel. The wind created by the huge rotor blades whipped the branches aside and gave them a good view.

She pointed to the big black underbelly, saying, “Holly, the big bird will drop a boat to us. We’ll take that boat to your mommy.”

The chopper’s door slid open and out flew something black and about the size of a small television. The second it was out the door, the chopper zoomed away. The package hit the channel with a splash a few feet from Kyle, who grabbed it, then headed toward shore.

“That’s the boat?” she cried.

“What don’t you understand about inflatable?”

For Holly’s sake, she kept her tone calm. “You blow it up. But it’ll take forever. We might as well walk out.”

“We don’t have a choice.” Kyle had reached the bank and was opening the package. “We could contact the sheriff, but I’m not sure how he’d find us.”

She knew this was their only choice, but it would take up precious time. Time Sadie didn’t have. A suffocating sensation tightened her throat as she gazed at Sadie’s nose peeking out of the jumpsuit.

“Are you going to watch, or are you going to help?” Kyle asked.

“Holly, you keep your eye on the doggie. If she moves, call me. Okay?”

She hurried to where Kyle had spread out the inflatable. It had been packed so that it was folded around a motor and collapsible oars. He set the motor and oars aside.

“Start blowing,” he told her, pointing to a nozzle on one side of the small rubber boat.

She blew and blew and blew until her lungs burned, then caught fire. She stopped to catch her breath. Her side was about one-third inflated. Kyle’s was fully inflated. She was thankful the flashlight was too far away to see his expression when he walked to her side. Without commenting, he bent down and blew hard to inflate her side of the boat.

His powerful torso expanded as he drew a deep, deep breath, then blew hard. Even in the dim light, she could see moisture pebbled across the back of his shoulders and running down his spine. Wet, dark hair clung to his temples in clumps.

The high-tech Thermalscan had kept her amazingly cool. Despite night having fallen, this was the subtropics. The air around them was like a hot, wet blanket. In seconds, perspiration gushed from every inch of her body, running into her eyes and bringing with it the sting of the salt on her skin and blurring her vision.

He knew exactly what he was doing, moving around the inflatable, snapping the oars together, and preparing the boat without using a flashlight. She imagined him halfway around the world on some hostile shore doing the same thing in pitch dark.

“Thanks for blowing up my side,” she said when he turned and caught her watching him.

“I’ll put on the engine. You get Holly.”

He lifted the engine onto the back of the rubber boat, and she called to Holly, “Come here. We’re ready to take you to your mommy.”

Holly toddled across the few feet to where she was standing at the water’s edge. “The doggie dinna wake up.”

Jennifer prayed Sadie was still alive. She lifted Holly into her arms, then waded out the short distance to where Kyle had the boat ready to go, its motor idling.

“Put her up front and get her in a life jacket. You put on one, too.”

As quickly as she could, she did what she’d been told. Before she could put on her own life jacket, Kyle carried Sadie up to the boat and placed her on the floor at the back.

“Is Sadie still breathing?” she asked.

“Yes.” Kyle swung one long leg over the side into the boat, then the other. He reached back and put the motor into gear.

“How do you know where you’re going without the computer?”

“It’s in my head.” One hand on the tiller, he pulled a pair of what she assumed were the latest in night-vision goggles out of a pouch. They looked like ordinary wraparound sunglasses. “We’re going to circle this key, then motor up to the campground. I’ll leave you off at the back. You take Holly to her mother while I take Sadie to Paws N Claws.”

“I’m staying with Sadie.” She put her hand down and touched the dog’s nose. It was alarmingly warm. “You take Holly.”

“You want to carry Sadie the four blocks from the water to the vet’s?”

She’d only been to the veterinary hospital once to check in with them just in case she needed a vet. Jennifer had come by car and didn’t realize it was so far from where this boat would dock.

“You’re right. I could barely carry her to the channel,” she reluctantly conceded. “I’ll get Holly to her parents, then meet you at the vet’s.”

They glided through the dark water in silence. Little Holly fell asleep, lulled by the gentle rocking of the boat, her head in Kyle’s lap. Jennifer sat on the floor in the back and kept her hand on Sadie’s chest. The dog was still breathing, but her breath was much shallower now, her lungs barely functioning.

“Come on, girl, be strong,” she whispered. “Don’t give up.”

In her mind, Jennifer went over the countless searches, some of them real, some training exercises. Once the choke chain was on—her signal to search—Sadie would pull so hard, Jennifer’s arm would have popped out of the socket if she hadn’t restrained her with a leash.

Oh, how Sadie loved to search. Even better, she lived to find her quarry and reward herself with a round of lusty baying worthy of a pack of bloodhounds, not just one. Sadie was a strong, proud dog who loved her work.

Please, please, don’t let her die. She could help so many people the way she had helped Holly Block.

“Don’t let me be responsible for killing my best friend,” she whispered to herself.

She tried to imagine life without Sadie. And couldn’t.

Jennifer had picked Sadie out of her stepfather’s last litter. Her stepfather, Hiram Whitmore, had been on his deathbed with lung cancer, and Jennifer had come home to take care of him. Low on money, she’d been forced to sell the other puppies as well as the bitch.

She’d kept Sadie and trained her during those final months of her stepfather’s life. They’d been close, and Hiram had given her a home and kept her even after the woman he loved killed herself over another man. While Jennifer struggled to keep up a dying man’s spirits, Sadie buoyed hers.

Sadie had been incredibly smart and easy to train. Even her stepfather, who’d raised dozens of bloodhounds during his lifetime, claimed he’d never seen one with a better nose than Sadie’s.

“I could buy another dog,” she whispered to Sadie, “but it would never be the same without you.”

Lights and the sound of voices brought her head up. Somehow Kyle had found his way through the group of keys too small to have a name and was pulling close to the back of the Big Pine Campground where Holly’s mother was waiting. And father, she corrected herself. This time there was a father involved.

He lifted the motor out of the water so it wouldn’t bang into a rock and be damaged; then he used the oars to paddle to shore.

No one was nearby to help them. Kyle jumped out and beached the boat in the soft sand. Holly was awake, but disoriented, yawning and rubbing her eyes, the Kevlar jumpsuit wrapped around her like a blanket. Kyle lifted her out and set her on the shore.

Jennifer bent down to Sadie and lifted one long, soft ear. “Listen to me. If something happens and you don’t make it, please know how much I love you. You’re my best friend, you know.

“If God calls you, wait for me on the Rainbow Bridge. Someday, he’ll send for me, too, and I’ll meet you on the bridge. You can bay for all you’re worth when you see me. We’ll both be so happy to be together again.”

Kyle touched her back, a gentle brush of his fingertips. “The sooner I get her to the vet’s …”

“I know.” She hopped out of the boat. “Take good care of Sadie. She’s all I have.”

He cupped her chin with his big hand. “Don’t blame yourself.”

But she did blame herself. She hated herself so much she could hardly listen to Kyle’s instructions.

And his stern warning.

She nodded when he finished telling her what to do, then took one final look at the dog she loved. “God bless you and keep you, Sadie.”