Chapter 18 #2
Sparks of pain burned inside him, and he swallowed a mouthful of water as he struggled upright, gasping for breath.
His vision was blurry, and he fought to keep from collapsing again.
As he dashed the water from his eyes, he saw that Mackenzie had desperately clutched Frank around the legs. Furiously, Frank kicked out.
One of his heels caught her in the cheekbone and rocketed her head backward, but she didn’t release her grip.
Jake lifted the skids from the roof, rotors spraying foam. Taking off or trying to dislodge Frank?
Gideon threw himself at Frank’s torso, pulling on his shoulders, adding his weight to Mackenzie’s. Cordelia screamed.
He jerked to see what she was reacting to as a wave the size of a building engulfed the rooftop. The chopper lifted off inches above the liquid frenzy just as a wall of water blasted into them.
He was tumbled over, twisted, and turned until he lost sight of everything. He felt himself picked up like a dried leaf, helpless against the roiling surge.
The raging tumult made it impossible to orient himself, but he felt the scrape of cement as he was dragged along. Something, the edge of the roof perhaps, caught him in the stomach as he was swept over. The breath was expelled from him by the unexpected punch.
His fingers clawed for a way to save himself, to return to Mackenzie. There was nothing to hold on to. The sound of the cacophony changed, and he realized he’d been swept over the roof and deposited into the middle of the maelstrom.
Mackenzie? Frank? Had they been washed over too? He fought for breath, the freezing waves dousing him again and again. Something whipped against his forehead, but he had no idea what it was.
The cold was crushing, the force of the rush irresistible. His strength was all but gone. Another wave picked him up and dumped him deep below the surface.
From underwater, he saw the faint lights of the helicopter as Jake took the bird into the sky, carrying Cordelia and Katie away from the deadly flood. The mother and child had been saved.
But not Mackenzie.
She hadn’t made it aboard.
His howl was lost to the waves.
****
Mackenzie could no longer feel anything except the bone-crushing cold. Was she in the water or out? She couldn’t tell. Possibly she was in the process of dying—or maybe dead already.
She prayed for her parents, that God would eventually soothe the anguish they would feel at losing their remaining child.
How thoughtless she’d been of their feelings, ignoring their needs in favor of her own.
She prayed that Jake would get Cordelia and Katie to safety.
They’d already lost so much at the hands of her father.
Why should their futures be denied them like Aaron’s had?
She prayed for Gideon.
There were so many things she wanted to tell him, regrets that she’d not spoken of.
All around was darkness and noise and the intermittent glimmer of blurry objects jetting across her field of vision. Everywhere was an inconceivably vast void. Bottomless water, excruciating cold. No help. No hope.
No Gideon.
The only emotion that penetrated her deadened senses was grief. He was lost out here somewhere, if he was even still alive, because of her. He’d suffered and died, because of her.
Survive, evade, resist, and escape. He’d sacrificed everything for her to do all four.
If the chopper had managed to lift off, he’d made it possible for Jake, Cordelia, and Katie to survive.
Because of her choices, she was alone out here and dying by inches, separated from him.
She hoped it would at least be fast for both of them.
She caught a tiny glimmer of starlight between the clouds. Was it worth it? Her life for vengeance? No, but the price was hers to pay.
Not his.
Not Gideon’s.
She thought of his easy smile, the way one eyebrow lifted when she was confounding him, how his family would feel when he didn’t return, his parents, his brothers and cousin.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered to him and to God. Her vision blurred as she twirled helplessly.
The sky, or what she thought was the sky, was a black sprawl of nothing, and she looked in vain for the chopper.
Another wave slapped against her face and she held on to the one positive thought she could muster.
Cordelia had hopefully gotten her child away from her murderous grandfather.
Aaron’s daughter would have a future. It was some solace, though it didn’t penetrate the agony at what she’d done to Gideon.
Would Cordelia tell Mackenzie’s parents what had transpired?
That at the last moment she’d turned away from her vendetta as they’d begged her to?
Her chin sagged. She had no energy left to fight.
She abandoned herself to the tug of the water.
When the next wave pulled her under, she didn’t have the strength to battle back to the surface again.
What a way to die, to be slowly inundated and overwhelmed.
Would it stop being so cold as her heart ceased to beat?
Something caught her, yanked her head free from the watery grip.
She gagged, trying to expel the water from her lungs and suck in oxygen at the same time. The night was impenetrable, smothering, and she saw nothing but darkness.
Her name . . . Someone was saying her name over and over.
Her mind slowly broke free from its stupor.
Someone was beside her.
Gideon. He was treading water, holding on to her and something else. Or was she dreaming? Her eyes wouldn’t focus.
“Zee.” He pulled her close. His body was shuddering convulsively like hers. “Thank God.”
“Gideon?” She clung to him, crying and laughing. “It’s you. You’re not . . . I mean . . . you’re here.”
“Yes, ma’am. We gotta stop meeting like this, huh?”
She squeezed him around the neck, then pressed her head to his chest to reassure herself she wasn’t dreaming. “What . . . Where are we?”
“We’re in the top of a tree, near as I can figure.” He squeezed her close. “But the chopper made it out, Zee, and Jake saw what happened to us. If he can stand up and be a man, he’ll come back and get us or radio for help.”
Help? Escape? It was hard to fathom when she’d been absolutely without hope a minute before. “A big if. Bullseye threatened his wife.”
“He better come through. There’s nowhere to swim from here.” He paused.
“What . . . happened to Bullseye?”
“I don’t think he made it to the helicopter.”
She silently agreed. He’d gotten washed over with the two of them. He was somewhere out here, maybe clinging to his own branch, which was a temporary reprieve. How did she feel about it? Prison was the destiny she’d have chosen for him, not drowning.
The water stretched around them in a vast, nebulous sprawl.
They were both too cold to get anywhere on their own, even if there was any place nearby above flood level. She saw nothing. Not even the roof of Frank Soliel’s expensive home was visible. It was as if it had never existed.
She felt the branches now, swaying and crackling around her legs, a submerged nest. Unbelievably strange that she and Gideon were stranded in a tree like two half-drowned birds.
But he was alive, and all other thoughts ebbed away under that beautiful realization. They were still surviving. Together.
He stroked the wet hair from her forehead. “I’m proud of you, Zee.”
She leaned against him and felt like sobbing. “Proud, huh? Of the woman who got you stuck in a tree in the middle of a flood?”
“I got myself stuck, and don’t dis the tree because it’s keeping us from drowning.” He kissed her forehead, his mouth only a fraction warmer than the freezing water. “You made a choice back there with Frank. The right choice.”
She still didn’t know what to think about what she’d done. It was getting more difficult to form thoughts as the water stole away her remaining warmth.
“I couldn’t have imagined all that’s happened if I tried. To find out that Aaron had a child . . .” The wonder of it stunned her afresh.
He squeezed her, his own teeth chattering. “Who would have thought? You’re Auntie Zee now.”
Auntie Zee . . . “I hope my parents can meet their granddaughter someday. Maybe . . .” Maybe it would take the sting out of losing both of their children.
Because the longer they struggled to stay afloat, the more she understood that they weren’t going to escape.
There was no sign of the chopper’s return.
They would gradually become hypothermic until they drifted apart in the floodwaters.
She gripped his hand tighter, resolved to keep them together for as many precious moments as she could. That was all she had left.
Survive, evade, resist, escape.
All for what? Now that Frank was likely dead, she had no hope that he’d ever pay for his crimes, not in the way she’d wanted. Her scheduled podcast would go live when the post date came and went, but it would be for nothing.
“My next vacation I’m going someplace warm, like the Sahara,” Gideon said.
She laughed, but it was weak. “Sounds like a dream.” He pulled her closer, and she began to cry, quiet sobs, barely audible.
He rubbed her shoulders. “It’s okay, Zee. I got you.”
She clung to him, the agony of cold beginning to wear off as hypothermia set in. He chafed her arms, but she couldn’t feel it any longer. He kissed her, but she didn’t feel that either. What had she done to them both? “I’m sorry.”
“I know. Me too.”
Wind-borne water peppered their faces. A low throb echoed over the surface. She didn’t understand what it was.
“Chopper,” Gideon said suddenly.
Chopper? She thought she’d imagined him speaking until a light shone down, roving the darkness, blinding them. Gideon waved his arms and she did the same, as much as she could.
“It’s Jake all right,” Gideon said, his tone ecstatic. “He’s dropping a line.”
A line. Survival. Escape. A dream? A last-minute reprieve?
It took several passes before Gideon grasped a nylon rope from the helicopter and six tries before he got it tied around them.
“Ready for a wild ride, Zee?”
It could not possibly be wilder than what they’d experienced since the moment she crashed his wilderness class.
“Why not?” she whispered, her strength almost gone.
She clung to him as they were hauled upward and flown out over the raging waters.