19. Indiana
The shockwave of the deafening boom slammed into my body like a freight train. Tyler’s hand was ripped from my grip and my mask twisted on my face. I tumbled over twice before I regained my power over the force.
Tyler! Flaming fuel on the surface provided plenty of light as I clawed at the water, searching for him.
I spun around, scanning up and down, praying that I wasn’t about to find his lifeless body.
“Tyler!” Yelling through my breather, I banged my torch against my tank, and the high-pitched clang rang through the water like a tolling bell. Adrenaline surged through me as sharp and as cold as the ocean depths. My pulse pounded in my ears. Splinters of wood, shards of metal, and a pile of other debris drifted past me, sinking to the bottom.
I peered up to the flaming surface, and through the debris, Tyler finally emerged.
Bubbles spewed from the side of his mouth and his mask was askew.
Oh fuck, he’s right below Rhino.
Kicking like I had a shark on my ass, I scraped through the water, screaming through my breather.
Shoving bits and pieces of charred wreckage aside, I yelled at Tyler to swim toward me. His panicked movements showed his confusion.
I snapped my hand around his wrist and dragged him away from certain death. His frantic kicks confirmed he understood my panic, and it was several deadly seconds before we reached safety.
I squeezed his shoulders and yelled, “Keep calm.”
He inhaled a deep breath and as he released bubbles in a slow and steady stream, I helped him reposition his mask. His wild, darting eyes met mine, and as he nodded, he squeezed our hands together.
Rhinoreleased a mournful moan as the bow section, which had been keeping her above the water, was sucked into the ocean.
My ears still rang from the thunderous explosion that had torn my boat apart.
Rhino, my sturdy salvage vessel, which had weathered many destructive storms, drifted past us, casting bits and pieces from her body as she was sucked toward the bottom. Sections of weathered timber decking peeled away. Tangles of wires twisted and turned. Dad’s favorite cushion popped free and drifted away. Each fragment was like a piece of my heart sinking into the darkness.
Peering through the debris soup, I tried to see the equipment room, praying that Dad’s body was safe inside. But Rhino sank too quickly, and her battered hull hit the bottom like a mammoth doing a belly flop. A massive cloud of sand stole her from my view.
Tears fogged my mask, and closing my eyes, I said a silent prayer for Dad.
Dad had taught me everything about the ocean and the weather, and how the moon affects the waves and currents.
We are just a tiny speck on this vast, beautiful planet, he would say, never forget that Mother Nature is always in charge.
Dad also taught me how to fight for my beliefs and how to enjoy the simple things in life, like a silvery moon or a soaring eagle.
I released a shaky breath and let the bubbles carry away words that my father would never hear.
Go to Mom now, Dad. You are free of your demons. I love you. You are my hero.
Tyler’s hands found mine, and I blinked my eyes open. The flaming fuel still lighting up the surface added another depth to the sadness in his eyes. He gave my hands a squeeze, then signaled for us to surface.
We swam away from the fiery deathtrap on the surface and aimed for fresh air.
At ten feet below the surface, the hard drive inside Tyler’s wetsuit started beeping again. The fucking thing was a maddening pulse, counting down the seconds in our world that was suddenly dependent on time. We didn’t have water or food, and that meant our hours were numbered. Not many people survived for long once they became lost at sea.
It would be a fucked-up way to go.
We kicked through to the surface, and as I studied the water around us, Tyler scanned the sky.
“You see it?” Tyler whispered.
Inhaling the vile smoke-filled air, I searched for a red dot hovering over the ocean.
“Why are you whispering?” I asked.
“Just in case that drone has audio.”
“You’re kidding, right? That fucking beeping in your wetsuit is how it found us the first time around. Get rid of that damn thing!”
Tyler shook his head, and flames dancing on the surface of the ocean several feet away shimmered in his blue eyes. “I can’t. It’s evidence. It could be the key to everything.”
Anger boiled through me. “I’ve just lost fucking everything, and all you care about is your stupid case.”
“That’s not true.” He swam to me and gripped my wrist. “You are much more important to me.”
I yanked my hand free.
He captured my wrist once more. “I promise I’ll do everything I can to save you. And I’m going to catch the bastards who did this to you and your father. I’ll make them pay, Indy. I promise you that.”
“Yeah, well, your promises are pointless. We’ll probably die out here.”
His grip hardened on my flesh. “We can’t give up now.”
His words were meant to anchor me, but they slipped through my mind like sand. Determination filled his eyes with that unwavering sense of duty that fueled him. But what did I have left to fuel me? The jagged scar on my forehead throbbed like a cruel reminder of the worst day of my life. Today was equal to that. Maybe worse because when Mom was murdered, I still had Dad and Rhino. Now, I had nobody and absolutely nothing.
“Hey, listen to me.” Tyler cupped my cheek. “We’re fighters, you and me. We don’t quit.”
Fighters. The word echoed in my mind, but the fight in me had drowned along with my shattered life below us. I was nothing without Rhino and my salvage career. Dad was the only person I cared about. I didn’t even have a best friend. My dreams were haunted by my mother’s ghost and what I should have done differently before she was murdered. Dad’s murder would add to those nightmares. I would forever live with what I should have done differently to save him, too. I didn’t know if I could take any more.
Tyler brushed wet hair away from my temple. “Talk to me.”
The incessant beeping was driving me nuts. “There’s nothing to talk about. We’re fucked.”
“Indy.” His tone was bruised with failure. “We’re not dying. We just need to get through the night. Aria and the others will come looking for us.”
“Or the bastards who want that fucking beeping hard drive.”
Tyler’s arms sliced through the water, creating a small swell, and he searched the sky again.
“You need to ditch it, Tyler.”
“What about if we lowered it on a rope to ten feet below?” he asked.
“It will float in that plastic bag.”
The moon shimmered off the ocean as if it were a beacon mocking us.
“If we scuba dived down to eleven feet, how long can we stay underwater?”
“I’m not hovering underwater like a fucking fool, Tyler. If those bastards show up again, then we’ll dive.” I smacked my lips together, trying to remember when I’d last had a drink of water.
“You have to live, Indy. I promised your father.”
“You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“And I told you—you don’t know me. I’ll keep that promise.”
I squinted at him. “We’re floating in the middle of nowhere. There’s no chance of being rescued.”
He growled. “I thought you were a fighter.”
“Yeah, well, that was when I had something to fight for.”
“Then do it for your father. You know he’d want you to live. Do it for me. For justice.” He leveled his gaze at me. “For us.”
“Us?” I chuckled.
He swam closer and cupped my cheek again. “When you kissed me, you said there was more of that when we could breathe again. We’re breathing now.”
I leaned into his warm palm.
“We’re not dying out here, Indy. We’re going to be rescued.”
“The odds of a rescue are minuscule.”
“I’ve had worse odds before.” His voice had that cop edge to it that he’d used on me before. and his tone confirmed he was taking charge, whether I liked it or not.
I was too exhausted to fight him into acknowledging the gravity of our predicament. Heaving a sigh, I settled my gaze on the flames across the water, which were gradually petering out. Soon, it would be just us and the celestial bodies above again.
“Okay, Officer Fancy Pants, what do we do?”
His shoulders settled like he’d overcome one massive obstacle. “You know this ocean better than anyone. What can we do to improve our chances of survival?”
“What can we do?” I scoffed. “Well, we aren’t near any shipping lanes. We don’t have an EPURB. We didn’t release a mayday. We have no water, no food. Oh . . . we have our flashlights though.” I turned mine on and waggled the beam in the air. “We can signal?—”
Tyler grabbed my arm. “Turn that off.”
I turned off the light, returning us to the heavenly glow from above.
“There’s nothing out here, Tyler. Nothing but miles of ocean and sky. The sheer expanse of this ocean means we’re invisible, like ghosts on the water.”
His fierce expression told me he had no intention of accepting defeat, but this wasn’t a battle he could win with sheer willpower. This was the ocean, and Mother Nature didn’t care about our stubbornness.
“Then we’ll wait,” he said.
“Wait for what? A miracle?”
The annoying beeps filled the silence between us.
“They exist, you know. Miracles.”
“Huh. I didn’t peg you as a believer in divine intervention.”
“Like I said, you don’t?—”
“Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know you.”
The last of the flames snuffed out, and the darkness of night settled over us.
Tyler rolled onto his back, staring at the Milky Way above. “Do you believe there’s something out there?”
“Nope. And there’s certainly nothing out here but . . .”
He rolled upright. “But what?”
“There is a tiny island about ten miles away. It’s nothing but a chunk of rock in the middle of nowhere. Nobody lives on it.”
“Then that’s our miracle. We’ll swim to it.”
“Swim?” I laughed. “Are you crazy? We’d need more than a fucking miracle to swim that far.”
“It’s better than just floating here. Our fins will make us faster. We’ll go right through the night if we have to.”
“Did you hear me say ten miles?”
“Yep.” Gasping, he clicked his fingers. “What about your scooter?”
I blinked at him. “The scooter?”
“Yes. We’ll keep below the surface to stop this damn beeping and go as far as we can on that scooter.”
I did the math in my head. “With both of us on the scooter as well as our spare tanks, it will slow it down.”
“It’s better than nothing. We’ll go down to Rhino, get the scooter, find those additional tanks, and keep going.” His hand brushed the back of my hand. “Come on, Indy. I need you to take the lead on this.”
“Jesus, I take back my offer of more kisses.”
He cupped my cheeks and crushed his lips to mine.
I shoved him away, laughing. “Hey.”
“There’s more of that when we reach dry land.”
I was torn between drowning him and believing in him. But one thing was certain: if we got through tonight, I wanted to spend more time with Officer Fancy Pants.
That was one hell of an if, though.
I huffed. “Okay, but you need to follow my instructions to the T.”
He nodded, all serious.
“I want you to concentrate on your breathing. Slow and steady will use less air. We’ll keep at around eleven feet below to stop that beeping, and that will help prolong our dive time. We can descend fast. I’m talking kicking like crazy. Then let me handle our ascent, okay?” I heaved a massive breath, hoping I didn’t regret this. “Let’s go.”
We put our breathers in and lowered beneath the surface. I turned on my flashlight, and swimming beside me, Tyler added his light beam to mine. The water grew colder as we sank into the darkness. Finally, the beeping stopped, and an eerie silence surrounded us like the ocean, too, was mourning the loss of one of its connections between man and nature.
Rhino’sbroken form loomed beneath us. My boat was never pretty like Kane Devlin’s, or fast like Ryder’s patrol boats. But she had beauty in her strength, and my heart nearly cracked in two seeing her so broken. Rhino’s torn metal skin had a gaping hole through the middle of it, exposing the innards that made her my family home.
I was so glad Dad wouldn’t see our boat like this. It would have ruined him all over again.
Floating scrap hovered around the wreck as if it, too, couldn’t let go.
We reached the equipment room doors, and a weight as heavy as life itself crushed my chest. A sob burst from my throat, and a rush of bubbles released from my mouth.
Tyler turned to me, his eyes questioning in our lights.
Panic clawed at my insides. I shook my head. Pressure gripped my chest, and my grief took over me, thick and suffocating.
Tyler wrapped his arms around me.
I didn’t want to cry, but my tears came, fogging my mask and obscuring the broken images of Rhino from me. Despite the barrier of our wetsuits, Tyler’s warmth was the embrace I needed to settle the chill in my bones.
Tyler eased back, and I let water into my mask to clear the fog. There was no clearing the tears swimming in my eyes.
He squeezed my wrist and indicated that I should swim away.
I didn’t argue. I couldn’t go into Dad’s final resting place.
Casting my gaze over the ruined deck timber, I swam along the side deck.
This wouldn’t be the last time I would see Rhino. I would come down and salvage—I gasped.
Mom’s locket!
Scooping my hands through the water, I swam to the trap doors that concealed our secret room. The doors were still intact. Bracing my feet on the deck, I pulled the door upward, and dozens of bubbles were released as it opened.
I swam down the steps with my heart in my throat. The room was a mess. Everything that had been on the shelves had catapulted across the room when Rhino hit the bottom. I kicked across the room to the corner cabinet.
No. No. No. The shelves were empty.
I scanned my light beam over the chaos, searching for the antique box. My heart hammered as I pulled away copper trinkets and ancient glass bottles. All the items we’d taken from Chui’s yacht were bunched at the opposite wall. I snatched a compass from the floor. We would need that. As I shoved it into my pocket, a silver streak flared in my light beam.
Oh, thank God.
I swam to a weathered wooden figurehead, pulled it off the antique silver box, and opened the lid. A knot formed in my throat as I wrapped my fingers around the golden locket Mom had found in the hours before she was killed.
Losing that would have been like losing Mom all over again.
Tyler’s light beam preceded him, and I shone my light up through the hatch door so he knew where I was.
He swam down the stairs and hovered at my side.
My lips quivered around my breather as I dangled the locket from my fingers.
As if knowing the significance of this special piece, he squeezed his hand over mine, and his eyes filled with so much warmth my heart wept.
He allowed me that moment, and I will be forever grateful to him for that.
I pushed the locket into a zippered pocket on my wetsuit and indicated ‘swim’ to Tyler.
At the top of the stairs, he helped me shut the trap door, and once again, my secret room was perfectly concealed.
After we gathered the additional air tanks, we returned to the scooter that Tyler had set outside the wreckage. With Tyler hanging on behind me, I set a course for the jagged rock formation that I hoped would be our salvation.
We had a long swim ahead of us, but at least we had a direction and a purpose.
But as my scooter headlight lit up the black ocean ahead of us, I knew we were still in a hell of a lot of trouble.