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The weight of the entire ocean bore down on him. Dropping to his knees, he uttered a cry that would rip the wings clean off an angel.
Maya rushed down the steps. “What the hell?”
A baffled looking Lann peered over the bridge. Bono came running.
Joss jumped back to his feet. “Stop the boat,” he yelled. “Cut the engine.”
Lann disappeared to execute the command.
Catching the look that passed between Maya and Cain, Joss shook his head. “No. I won’t accept it. Bono, get the fucking lifebuoy.”
Bono glanced at Maya, who nodded. The boat came to a slow halt. Joss ran up the steps to the bridge for a better view. The water was quiet except for the swell caused by the boat. Fuck. He couldn’t breathe.
He went back down, pulling off his shoes in the run. “Maya, I need you. Clear a fucking path like Moses if you have to.”
Maya looked at Cain, who shook his head. She walked to Joss and laid a hand on his arm. “It won’t help.”
“Don’t fucking tell me no.”
She gave him a pitiful look. “I’m sorry.”
I’m sorry, the most dreadful words in the universe.
He turned his back on his team members.
Sorry wasn’t going to cut it.
Not now. Not ever.
He didn’t fucking think so.Chapter 21Near Île aux Moines, the reef parted around a narrow sand bed that ran to the beach. Clelia had dived for oysters off the coast of the island enough times with Erwan to know where the rocks gave way to sand. She knew the momentum would carry her to the back of the boat past the engines. Normally, she’d be pulled down and under the blades, chopped to pulp, but she also knew where the currents crossed.
This part of the Gulf was the most dangerous. Slipstreams of ten knots crisscrossed the bay. She jumped where the current was the strongest so that it carried her away from the yacht. There, the rocky bottom dropped to an underwater cave. Free diving had developed her lung capacity. She could easily hold her breath until the yacht was well past. She held onto the rock by the cave entrance until the slipstream caused by the boat weakened enough for her to swim back up.
When she broke the surface, she dragged much needed air into her lungs. The noise of the engine was quiet. They would’ve cut the engine to look for her. She searched the water until she spotted the yacht in the distance. The engine started up again and then the yacht turned back, but she was already through the reef and making her way with strong breaststrokes to the beach. For some, the water was much too cold, but she was accustomed to swimming in the icy sea, even in winter, and she was swim fit. She reached the island before they had a visual on her.
The beach wasn’t populated. The coast was rocky and the currents too dangerous for bathing. The private stretch of land where she came ashore belonged to a foreigner. The ruins of a once glorious chateau stood next to a giant pine tree.
Panting, she rested her hands on her knees to catch her breath. Her mouth tasted of salt and her limbs ached from exertion, but she only paused for a few seconds before running for the shelter of the dilapidated building.
Joss wasn’t a fool. He’d search the islands, starting with this one since it was closest to where she’d gone overboard. Bono was probably on his way to the helicopter as she was digging around the protruding roots for the box Erwan had mentioned.
A patch of disturbed earth between two roots caught her attention. She found a flat rock and started digging until she hit something hard. The box wasn’t deep. Erwan had left it in a hurry. She pulled it out, brushed off the soil, and lifted the metal lid. Inside was a plastic zip lock bag. Its contents included a passport, money, and a letter from Erwan.
With the worst of her fatigue wearing off, she started feeling the cold, shivering in her wet clothes. She removed the passport with trembling fingers. The name, Cléane de Villiers, was printed next to her photo.
How did Erwan manage to get a false passport? When did he plan all of this? His letter didn’t provide the answers she wanted. It contained a schedule of the trawlers that would pass during the next few weeks, and a message of love, saying he was praying for their safe reunion.
Huddling behind a collapsed wall, Clelia studied the ship roster. The next one passing through the Gulf was on its way to South Africa.Chapter 22Despite what Maya and Lann said, Clelia was alive. Joss felt it. Their lives were tied together by an invisible string. Her heartbeat pulsed in his chest as he lay in foreign hotel beds, recalling her face, her voice, and the way her body had felt underneath his as he clutched the quartz pendant with the broken chain in his fist.
