CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN #2
A tremor shook through the deck beneath her, followed by another loud crash somewhere deeper in the platform, and Nova knew she couldn’t wait much longer.
She grabbed the back of Snow’s shirt and tried to drag him.
He barely moved.
“Oh, come on,” she muttered through clenched teeth, shifting her grip and pulling again. “Couldn’t you have skipped that protein bar earlier?”
Even unconscious, the man was making her life difficult.
Nova planted her feet, tightened both hands in his shirt, and pulled with everything she had, refusing to look toward the smoke or think about how little time they might have left.
She had gotten them out of one room. She had taken down Brett. And somehow, one way or another, she was getting Snow off this platform too.
Nova shoved Snow’s pistol back into its holster and looked toward the stairs.
She grabbed Gabe beneath his arms and pulled. He moved, but barely, and pain immediately shot through the cut on her upper arm. She gritted her teeth and pulled again, managing to drag him several feet toward the stairs before stopping to adjust her grip.
If he woke up, she was absolutely giving him shit about this.
She managed to get him to the top of the stairs, but one look down made her realize that it wasn’t going to be pretty. She hated the thought of his body bouncing off the metal steps, but she hated the thought of leaving him there a hell of a lot more.
“Sorry, babe.”
She hooked her arms beneath his shoulders and worked her way backward, lowering him one step at a time while using her own body to control his descent.
His weight nearly took her down twice, and by the time they reached the bottom, her injured arm was bleeding worse, and every muscle in her body felt like it was on fire.
They had made it, though. That was all that mattered.
The lower level was more open, and the fresh air coming off the Gulf helped clear some of the smoke from her lungs.
She quickly searched the area, knowing she needed some way to keep Snow afloat once she got him into the water. When she spotted an emergency cabinet mounted against one of the support columns, she hurried over and yanked it open. Life jackets.
“Thank God.”
She grabbed two and returned to Snow, wrestling it around his upper body before securing the straps as tightly as she could.
It wasn’t until she finished that the next problem occurred to her.
Getting him into the water was one thing.
Keeping hold of an unconscious two-hundred-something-pound man while trying to swim away from a burning platform was something else entirely.
Nova scanned the area again and spotted a coil of rope hanging nearby.
For the first time in several minutes, she felt like maybe luck hadn’t completely abandoned her.
She tied one end securely to Snow’s life jacket and looped the other around her jacket, leaving enough slack that they wouldn’t be on top of each other in the water.
It wasn’t exactly a professionally designed rescue system, and she was sure Snow could point out a dozen things wrong with it if he were awake, but since he wasn’t currently contributing to the discussion, her plan won by default.
“Don’t you dare complain about my knots when you wake up.”
A louder explosion sounded somewhere above them, and Nova flinched as pieces of metal crashed onto the deck. Whatever Brett had done, it was spreading quickly.
She dragged Snow toward the edge and looked down at the water below. The Gulf was still rolling, but compared to what she had seen earlier that morning, it had settled considerably. That didn’t make the drop look any more inviting.
Nova carefully maneuvered Snow toward the edge and eased him over, holding onto the rope until his weight became too much. She let go and watched him hit the water below, her heart jumping into her throat until the life jacket brought him back to the surface.
His face stayed above the water. That was enough for her. Then she jumped.
The impact drove the breath from her lungs, and cold water swallowed her before the life jacket did its job and brought her back to the surface.
She emerged coughing, wiped the water from her eyes, and immediately searched for Snow.
The rope between them pulled tight, and she followed it until she spotted him floating several yards away.
“Okay,” she gasped. “We’re good.”
They were nowhere close to good, but she would take what she could get.
Nova started swimming away from the platform, using her good arm as much as possible while kicking hard enough to compensate for the injured one.
The Gulf fought her with every swell, and towing Snow made progress painfully slow, but she refused to look back.
All she cared about was putting as much water as possible between them and the platform.
She had no idea how far they had made it when the explosion came.
The sound was so violent that Nova felt it before her mind registered what it was. She turned just in time to see fire rip through the center of the platform, followed by a massive cloud of black smoke as part of the structure blew outward.
“Oh, shit.”
The concussion rolled across the water and slammed into them.
The force spun her around, and for several terrifying seconds she couldn’t tell which direction would take her back to the surface.
Then the rope around her waist pulled, reminding her that Snow was still attached to her, and panic gave way to instinct.
She kicked until her head finally broke through the water.
She dragged in a breath and immediately looked for him. She found him still floating.
Relief hit her so hard she almost cried, but pieces of debris were already splashing into the Gulf around them, forcing her to move again.
Nova grabbed the rope and swam, putting whatever strength she had left into getting them farther away while bits of metal and burning wreckage rained into the water behind them.
Her body was reaching its limit. Her injured arm had gone almost numb, her lungs burned, and she wasn’t entirely sure her legs were still kicking so much as moving out of habit. She kept going anyway, because stopping meant drifting back toward the burning remains of the platform.
Then she heard an engine.
Nova lifted her head and turned toward the sound, unsure at first whether exhaustion was making her imagine it. A second engine joined the first, and moments later two boats came into view, cutting quickly across the water toward them.
She squinted through the spray.
Someone stood near the bow of the first boat, waving.
It was Bear, and behind him were Joker and Nails.
Nova had never been so happy to see any of them in her life.
“Over here!”
She raised an arm, although judging by how quickly the boats changed direction, they had already spotted them.
The first boat pulled alongside, and Bear immediately leaned over the side while Joker and Nails moved into position beside him.
“Take Gabe first!” Nova yelled. “He’s unconscious!”
“We’ve got him.”
Joker reached down for Snow while Bear grabbed the back of his life jacket. Between the three of them, they hauled him over the side and lowered him onto the deck. Nova tried to help until Bear looked back at her.
“Let go, Nova. We’ve got him.”
She released the rope.
For the first time since she had watched Brett hit him, Snow wasn’t her responsibility alone anymore. The realization nearly broke her.
Hands reached down for her next, and Nova barely had enough strength left to help as they pulled her aboard. She landed awkwardly against Bear, who caught her before she could fall and helped her onto the deck.
Her attention immediately went to Snow.
Nails was already beside him.
“Is he—”
“He’s breathing,” Nails said. “Pulse is strong.”
Nova closed her eyes briefly as relief washed through her.
Bear crouched beside her. “Nova, what happened over there?”
She looked at him, trying to figure out how to explain the last twenty minutes when she wasn’t entirely sure she had processed them herself.
“Brett found us. He locked us inside the room with the prototype and set the platform on fire. We got out, but when we were trying to reach the stairs, he came out of nowhere and hit Gabe with a pipe.”
Bear’s expression hardened. “Where’s Brett?”
Nova hesitated, and suddenly she could see him charging toward her again. She could feel the gun in her hands and hear those shots echoing through the steel structure.
“He’s dead.”
Bear studied her. “What happened?”
“I killed him.” The words felt strange coming out of her mouth. “He came after me after he hit Gabe. We fought, and I knocked him down the stairs, but he got back up and charged me. I had Gabe’s gun and...” She swallowed as her voice started to shake. “I shot him.”
Bear’s expression softened. “Okay. We’ll deal with all of that later.”
Nova nodded, grateful because she didn’t think she had anything left to give him.
The adrenaline that had carried her through the fight, the fire, dragging Snow down the stairs, and swimming away from the explosion seemed to disappear all at once.
Her body suddenly felt impossibly heavy, and the sounds around her began fading together until she couldn’t tell who was speaking anymore.
She looked toward Snow one more time. Nails was still beside him, and Joker had knelt on his other side. Duke was there now, working on him. He was surrounded by his team now. He was safe.
“Nova?”
She looked toward Bear, but his face had started to blur.
“I think I’m going to pass out.”
Bear reached for her just as her body gave up. For once, Nova didn’t fight it.