29. If You Get Us Killed, I Will Beat You to Death
29
If You Get Us Killed, I Will Beat You to Death
ALICE
“Baby, I need you to breathe, okay?”
Radiant pain tugged me into consciousness, my mind scrambling to make sense of what I was hearing.
Leighton . That was Leighton’s voice beyond the sobs. Beyond the steady trickle of water and radio. All of the stimulus was contained behind a sponge—some bizarre absorbent buffer between the world and the steadily throbbing pain in my head. My neck and chest. Ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom , it echoed with each rapid thump of my heart.
Fuck me, it was hard to breathe.
Searing agony crept from my spine to my skull, needling at the back of my eyes.
“I can’t!” A hysterical, childlike voice cried. What the hell was the water? Where was it coming from?
“Listen to me. I’m going to get us out of here. But you have to stop screaming and let me think. Can you do that for me?”
“Mm-hmm,” came a shaky reply.
The pieces started to filter back into my mind as Leighton’s forced calm permeated the fog filling it. Copper saturated my tastebuds and I winced, blinking my eyes open to find myself suspended crookedly in the SUV, the pain in my chest actually a thick belt across my sternum.
Seatbelt .
Oh, god. No!
Mattie .
Mattie was going home with us.
Choking on some combination of blood, panic, and saliva, I startled upright, bringing a hand to my hammering head and finding my skin warm and sticky. Ouch .
We’d crashed off the bridge.
We’d crashed off the Emerald Bay bridge.
Blood splatters were everywhere as my eyes scanned ahead, where both Jax and Royce were unconscious or dead; I wasn’t sure which.
“Jax,” I croaked, throat aching.
“Thank fuck,” Leighton gasped, the first hint of panic slicing through her facade of calm. “Jesus Christ, can you move?”
Blinking away the spots in my vision, I shifted my hands…wiggled my toes. “Yeah.”
“Can you unbuckle? Mine is jammed.”
I pulled—tugging against that pressure on my chest, and found the belt tightly locked into place. When I pressed against the band of fabric, panic latched around my windpipe when it wouldn’t release. Again and again, I jammed against the red button, but it wouldn’t give.
“No,” I panted. Wincing, I shifted my weight, trying to keep the belt extended but ease the weight off the mechanism.
Breathe, Alice.
Think, dammit.
My vision was slightly blurred, making me blink as if that could clear the film.
Concussion? Probably.
There was light in the cab, but not what I expected.
We were nose down in the water—dark navy creeping up the windshield. So, we hadn’t submerged entirely. Not yet. Which meant I hadn’t been out long—just got my bell rung. The source of water was obvious: a steady stream pouring through the vents and around the front doors.
The urge to hyperventilate was overwhelming, and I forced myself to fight it, to suck down long, steady breaths of air despite the protest in my ribs.
Breathe. Control your mind. Learning control will keep you alive, baby. Naturally, Greyson’s voice would be the anchor my mind would cast. Breathe. Control. I could do this. Had to do this.
“Jax,” I croaked again. “ Jackson !”
Nothing. Not a stir of movement. Eyes burning, I forced myself to breathe and looked around. How in the hell did you get out of a belt like this?
Jax .
He always carried an assortment of blades. “Mattie?”
“I’m here,” she squeaked, voice warbling.
“Hi, sweet girl. We’re going to figure this out, okay?”
“Okay,” she breathed back bravely.
“That’s my girl. Are you in your belt, or did yours release?”
“I’m out,” she said, seeming to steady as I talked to her. But the water was climbing, more than halfway up the windshield, my heart rate along with it.
“Good,” I rasped, the strain in my voice arguing with the certainty I put into that word. “That’s good. Listen to me and do exactly what Leigh and I say, okay?”
“Okay,” she squeaked.
“I need you to climb down to Jax. He has knives in his pockets. I need you to get them for us.”
“I can’t,” she breathed, the tremor in that word breaking my heart.
“You can,” Leigh whispered. There was a moment of silence—just the rush of water through the vents and the crackle of the radio dying as my mind sprinted, panic creeping through my aching bones as I tried to calculate how long we had before this behemoth of a vehicle submerged entirely. A minute, maybe two at best. The windshield was cracked but seemed to be holding steady. Incredible for now, but breaking the glass to get out would be another issue…
One thing at a time, or my impending meltdown would win. I huffed out a breath in an attempt to stay centered.
“Quickly, Mattie,” I encouraged, holding my hand out so she could grab it. The angle wasn’t too severe, but she was just a peanut. A very smart, very shy little peanut. I was a grown woman, and my heart was racing so frantically it was almost impossible to steady my breathing. Mattie had to be losing it. And god, I had no idea what she’d see if she got down there. If I had any other option, I’d take it.
Her warm little fingers landed in mine, and a breath of relief whooshed out of me as she scampered down the center between the captain’s chairs.
“Good, Mattie, just like that, sweetie,” Leighton encouraged. I could hear her shifting—no doubt assessing our best escape routes just as frenetically as I was. The water was steadily soaking Royce’s still lap.
“I don’t want you looking around up there, okay? Stay focused. Eyes on the middle console and then Jax’s pockets—no detours, alright? We just need the knives. Nothing else.”
“But Captain Reynolds?—”
“I’ll take care of him, okay? Just get us out of these so we can get us all out of here.”
Nodding, she blew out a shaky breath and did as I’d asked, keeping her eyes down, although her breathing grew concerningly shallow as she crept over the console and fumbled for the blades as the water poured over his seat, hitting my ankles like a wall of ice. My eyes flicked up to Royce, where he slumped against the corner of the window and dash.
“Got ‘em,” she breathed, rushing to scramble back to me and hand me the first of two prizes.
“Good, Mattie. Now I need you to carefully climb to the back, okay?”
“But—”
“No buts. I need you to climb to the back of the car.”
“ Now , Tillie,” Leighton ordered, tone firm. Reluctantly, Matilda scrambled back and over the third row of seats.
That would buy her the most time. Buy us the most time.
To my relief, Jax’s knives were meticulously cared for. Even so, it took considerable effort to saw through the damn seatbelt, eyes flicking between my task and the encroaching water as it crept higher. If that cold wasn’t waking Jax…
“Jax, I swear to god,” I snarled, not finishing the empty threat, though it hung in the air to the grunts of Leighton and I both fighting the serrated edges through thick fabric.
God damn you, Royce. Bile climbed up my throat, a rush of saliva filling my mouth as my head pounded. I forced it back. Forced the panic back as a sudden surge of water rushed inside, the last hum of the engine flickering out. Oh god, ohgodohgod .
I needed to move faster.
Needed to think faster.
Needed to see Greyson, just one more time. Tell him I loved him. That it was wholehearted and unconditional. That one person in his life loved him, not for what he could give me, but for the courageous, self-sacrificing hero that he was and would always be.
My hand was screaming by the time the threads finally snapped free, a rush of relief filling my lungs.
I caught myself on the driver’s seat, turning to see Leighton snapping out of hers. Thank fuck. She turned immediately for her seat, freeing the headrest in one adrenaline-charged motion before handing it to Mattie. Eyes on me, she yelled, “ What now ?”
“Jax,” I breathed, scrambling forward. Hands trembling, I eased onto the center console, somehow warring with the idea that my movement would send us sinking faster. Unsteady breaths miraculously got me close enough to see the blood across his chest.
Royce shot him. Shot the man keeping me safe. The only friend Greyson truly had.
One of his four.
First, they put Cap in the hospital, and now three of those four were trapped with a traitor in a sinking car.
Biting back the sob bubbling in my throat, I reached up to his pale neck, pressing my fingers against his pulse point and raptly watching the subtle rise and fall of his chest.
“Is he…” Leighton hedged, unwilling to finish the thought.
“Alive,” I said. “He’s alive.” But my relief was short-lived because we were sinking faster. Too much air was being displaced. Which is why it was a damn miracle when I plunged my hand into the icy water and Jax’s buckle clicked open on my first damn try. “Jax!” I barked, smacking my cold, wet hands on his cheeks. “Jax! You have to wake up. Please ,” I croaked. The man was six-two and at least two hundred pounds of muscle. There was no way I could move him. But I couldn’t leave him either. “ Jax !”
“ Sissy ,” Leighton warned, and I looked down to see the water pouring in more aggressively now, about to reach my feet on the center console.
“God dammit. Jackson !” Nothing. Not a god damned flutter of lashes or twitch of a muscle.
“These will help!” If it was any other ten-year-old, I probably wouldn’t have looked, but it was Matilda’s little voice snapping my attention up. She was waving two yellow life vests in her hands. We’d used them on the boat this week, and never in my life had I been so grateful some wonderful idiot failed to do their job and left them in the car.
“Yes!” I cried, holding a hand out for one. Leighton tossed one my way, and then immediately busied herself strapping Mattie into the other.
By the time I’d heaved Jax’s muscled limbs through the damn thing, the water was hitting his chest, my knees soaked, and tears were burning down my cheeks. As I surveyed the navy, climbing up the window, a memory tugged like a thread pulled tight.
Window breakers in every car . That’s what Greyson said during his endless security briefing. I must’ve said it aloud because Leighton gasped, “ Yes !”
I whirled, lunging for the keys and yanking them from the ignition. My shaky movements sent them flying, and I cried out as they splashed into the rising water. “No!”
“ Sissy ,” Leighton screeched as the back windows started leaking in a steady stream. Panic clawed up my throat. Hands trembling, breaths serrating, I threw myself down, water soaking my shirt, and reached into the icy water, trying not to panic, not to let the cold send my logic soaring. “ Alice ,” she said, her voice shaking now. She started slamming the metal tips of the headrest bars into the window. Again and again, she swung with every ounce of her strength.
“I know!” I snapped, fishing through the dark water with frantic fingers. “I love you. I love you, Leigh.”
“Stop that bullshit right the fuck now—” slam , “and find the goddamn keys—” slam , “so help me if you get us killed, I will beat you to death?—”
A morbid laugh caught in my throat right as my fingers hit the familiar handful of keys and pepper gel. Yanking them back, I rotated, cursing my shaking hands as I found the damn tool. “Thank you, Greyson. Leigh ,” I barked. “I can’t get him up there on my own.” It wasn’t supposed to come out so hysterical. I wasn’t supposed to sound like I was being crushed. But the water was climbing, the cold inching onto my belly, and fear was beginning to riddle away any sense left in my head.
I assure you; you can breathe through it . Inhale-exhale, inhale-exhale. Like the desperate flutter of a caged bird, my lungs fought for air. For control.
With an unceremonious whoosh, Leighton flipped the back seat down flat, sending the water parting, and scrambled over it before doing the same to the one I’d occupied a moment ago. Together, we hauled a bleeding Jax over one hurdle after the other, dragging his body through the dark water, both sucking down gulps of air between whimpers of pain.
“He’s going to bleed out,” she brokenly sobbed as we pulled him into the damn trunk.
“Can’t leave him,” I panted, too terrified to argue but too broken not to try.
“Sinking now,” she noted, tears in her eyes. I nodded as Mattie started to cry, the water reaching us in the back.
“No tears, Mattie. Save your breath, baby girl,” I instructed, nodding as she did the same. “I need you to focus.”
“Breathe,” Leighton coached, grabbing both of Mattie’s arms. “ Breathe .”
“We’re all going to take one big breath together, right before I break the window, okay?”
Nodding frantically, Mattie said, “‘Kay.”
“The water is going to rush in. It’s going to be really fucking cold. No matter what, you hang on to me unless I’m pulling you down, understand?” Leighton instructed. This time Mattie just gave a nod, her eyes flicking to the blackness filling the cab, only Royce’s head bobbing above the water.
God dammit, Royce. I unconsciously shifted back toward his motionless form in the front seat. His beautiful babies and Miranda’s bright smile flashed through my mind. He said they’d taken her . The image of his bloodless face collided with his words. When we didn’t turn you over…
When those men failed on the beach, and Miranda showed up hysterical…were their children at risk then ? Was he innocent in this? Forced into it with his family on the line?
Leighton’s words yanked me back to the task at hand as she grabbed Mattie’s face in her palms and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Eyes on me. I’ve got you.” When they wound their hands together, Mattie gripped on so tight her knuckles bleached white. Our breaths reduced to rapid-fire pants as the water hit our ribs.
“Ready?” I asked, looping my hand through Jax’s vest strap. It would be a damn miracle if I could haul Jax to shore. Two grown men ? I’d just die trying. And if that icy water climbing up his chest hadn’t jolted Royce awake, perhaps there wasn’t a man left to save.
Leighton’s only response was a curt dip of her chin.
“On the count of three.” They both nodded, and I gripped the window breaker in my fist, praying the thing worked. “One,” I breathed, positioning the device against the top corner, where the glass would be weakest. “Two.” Leighton shifted her body so her feet were braced against the seat instead of the floor. “Three.” With a press of the button, the thing punched a hole through the glass, sending a stream of water pouring in as vicious cracks spiderwebbed across the broad panel. “Big breath,” I instructed, forcing my shallow, panicked gulps of air to deepen.
With one last glance at Leighton, we both raised our arms to break it free, and the water rushed in.
Greyson
“Jesus Christ,” Ollie cried as he came up beside me, hands gripping his hair as tears welled in his eyes.
It was the gaping wound at the end of the bridge that had my heart slamming against my rib cage as we sped across the bay and down to the bank below.
No.
It wasn’t possible. Wasn’t… couldn’t be…
My brother seemed to be in shock. His mouth was unhinged, disbelief prying his eyes open wide.
I was frantic. Eyes scraping from one horrible thing to another.
Red and blue lights tore right past the wreck.
The hole in the wall of the bridge.
The taillights of a black SUV bobbing out of the water, nose, and windows already swallowed by the darkness. Fifty yards out. Maybe more.
I was waist-deep in freezing water before a familiar voice barked, “Hart!” I didn’t turn, eyes prodding the rippling waves for any sign of life. Of survivors. “Let first responders do their job. You’ll get yourself killed.”
Luke’s voice sent my eyes slamming closed. By the time those cops and EMTs reached the bank, the girls would be out of air if they weren’t already. Fuck that. If the option was going home alone or not at all, I’d take the latter.
“You won’t make it out there in time,” he warned, voice closer. “They’re gone, man.”
No .
Not my Mattie.
Not my wife.
I would know. Somehow, I’d know if she was gone.
Would have felt the universe dull in her absence.
No.
But they were gone—the taillights vanished, swallowed by depthless inky black. My fingers flexed at my side—once, twice, three times—and I pictured Alice’s smile, the warmth of her body on mine, the unforgiving heat of that Caribbean sun I’d said my vows beneath, and dove.
Muscle memory took over—slow, deliberate breaths and precise strokes—as I fought to keep my back from seizing from the shock of it.
Not today.
Today, I would be what she needed me to be.
Today, I would breathe through it.
Alice strong.
That was the mantra I clung to.
It was wild that in all those brutal training sessions, my body had never been more numb than it was in that bay. Never been as ruthless as I cut through the water in disciplined strokes.
Alice strong. Alice strong.
With each pump of my heart, each rotation of my arms, the words repeated.
Her laugh. The way she rolled her eyes when I pushed her buttons. Her body shattering beneath me…the look of wide-eyed panic on that beach after I sealed our marriage with the kiss to end them all. All three of them piled on the couch, watching movies with the dogs. With every pull of my arms, pieces of us flashed in my mind. Hell, I even saw all the beautiful moments with Leighton as my heart begged a god who’d forgotten me to save them.
Never in my life had the sound of a scream been so sweet. I reared out of the water as that piercing cry broke the air, eyes stinging as I spotted Mattie in a life vest, bobbing in the water.
I think I yelled her name, changing my trajectory toward her a beat before Leighton broke the surface. She immediately orientated herself and latched onto the vest’s strap, hauling my niece toward shore.
I decided I fucking loved the feral one.
“Alice!” I bellowed, treading water and frantically doing a one-eighty, searching the depths. But she wasn’t there. She wasn’t bobbing to the surface like her sister. My stomach sank. “Leighton!” I barked. Her wide eyes found mine as she pinned Mattie to her side, hauling her along in a side stroke. “Where is my wife?!”
“She was…” Leighton’s eyes went frantic with terror as she flipped her gaze back over her shoulder. “She was right there. She was right there !” The last words were a hysterical scream, her focus now split between her sister and my niece. But Ollie was cutting through the water, not twenty yards behind us. And Mattie was shaking her head when our eyes locked.
“I’m okay!” she sobbed as shivers wracked her tiny body. “ Go, Uncle Grey!”
With that, I dove toward the place where the car had just vanished. I didn’t swim for long before bright yellow caught my stinging vision in the blur of depthless black. Diving deeper, I wrapped my hands around the vest and powered upward. A sound of absolute desperation left my lips as I blinked away the water to find Alice, towed behind the vest clipped around Jax. He coughed, eyes fluttering open as he hacked up water, only to drift closed again.
Alice cleared the water from her lungs, but waved me off, flipping onto her back to let the bay hold her up.
“Jesus Christ,” I croaked. Tears cut through the icy water clinging to my skin. “Are you hurt?” I barked, staring at the rapidly blooming red that spread on her face. She shook her head.
Alive . They were alive.
More blood was spreading over Jax’s vest, and my brain drifted to secondary concerns in the water. “We have to get to shore!”
She nodded, but said nothing as she sucked down air as she tried to catch her breath. Thank god. Thank fucking god. Thank any power that brought her back to me.
My relief was short-lived, as Jax’s quick inhales caught my attention—too fucking shallow.
When I reached for her, she shook her head, rotating onto her belly. “I’m okay,” she panted. “But he’s not.”