Chapter 11 Delilah
ELEVEN
DELILAH
“Delilah, wake up. Wake up!” Cherri shook my arm, startling me as I snapped into consciousness.
“Cherri?” I tried to focus, my eyes still struggling to wake up. “What’s wrong?”
She stared at me, her chocolate eyes glistening as she spoke the words. “It’s your dad.”
Cherri and I rushed to Dale’s fishing shack, the wheels of our skates burning with speed. After Cherri told me of my father’s plan to personally go after the shark, I knew I had to stop him. Otherwise, it would be Reef hunting my dad.
The two of us burst through the front door of Dale’s shack, instantly taken back by the overwhelming amount of nautical macabre.
Every inch of the walls were plastered with all shapes and sizes of shark jaws, reaching from the floor to the ceiling as if they were prizes to be mounted.
It made me sick to look at, my fingers gripping Reef’s shark tooth, wondering how many had been just like him.
Cherri scrunched her nose as she made a face, asking what the horrid stench was. “Chum,” I answered. We skated through the tiny wooden structure, stepping out back as my dad tossed a rope to Dale perched on the ledge of his boat. “Dad!” I yelled, rushing to him along the small wooden pier.
“Delilah?” He turned. “What the hell are you two doing here?”
“Trespassing,” Dale snapped, grimacing from the boat.
My father gave him a look, turning to face me as Cherri joined my side. “I heard you were going out to hunt the shark. Is that true?” He nodded.
“Look, someone has to stop this. Too many people have died.” He turned, walking towards Dale’s boat.
“What about the Angel of Death?” I yelled, trying to coax him back. “I heard they killed two more coasties during the festival.”
Dale glared at me with an odd expression as my father stopped, turning to address me.
“I've got my men on it. Look, the Angel of Death has murdered fewer people these past few weeks than he has since he first started killing on the West Coast. If anything, now is the perfect time to handle this. Now, go home, Delilah. Let the men handle this.” Dale helped him onto the boat.
Cherri and I stood there, helplessly watching as Dale started the engine. The boat slowly idled away from the dock and out into the ocean. “Now what?” Cherri asked, rubbing her arm.
I needed to find Reef.
“Reef!” I yelled, stumbling down towards his private cove. “Reef!” I quickly rushed to the water’s edge, dropping my skates. The blue water was crystal clear, absent of any sharks. Shit, where are you? And how do I find you?
An idea clicked in my brain.
I quickly removed my red athletic shorts and sheer lingerie with a pad stuck to my panties. I tossed the pile onto the sandy beach and slowly waded into the water, continuing until it reached my chest. “Reef?”