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I kicked but my legs felt so heavy, so strangled in movement. My dress had bunched up around my thighs, restricting me. I didn’t have time to unravel them. I had to get to the surface. I put my arms over my head and did a mermaid stroke, wiggling my body upward.
I swam for what felt like hours within moments. Each second my lungs felt like exploding, the urge to open my mouth almost overwhelming. I fought it, knowing I’d swallow water and that’d be the end of it.
There was a tug around me as the current shifted, pushing me back down again.
Panic caused me to work harder, using more energy. I was caught in an undertow or something. I wasn’t making much headway with my legs wrapped up, my vision fading as my consciousness began to slip away.
Something collided with my body and I flailed, striking at it. All the creepy thoughts in my head of what lay within the ocean surfaced now. Fish. Sharks. Stingrays. Dead bodies floating around. Shipwrecks. Jellyfish.
I choked in my surprise. I strained, still trying to push myself up, but my mouth filled with water, my lungs opened up, letting it in. I gagged and tried to push the water back out, I was helpless, fading, drowning.
A pair of arms grabbed me by the waist. Strong legs kicked around me. I rose higher.
When we breached the surface, I coughed hard, spitting water out, gasping, trying to fill my lungs.
I hadn’t realized how cold the water had been until that point, my need for air being the only priority. As I coughed out my lungs, my frozen limbs began to seize up. The wind felt a hundred times worse and made every movement painful.
“Just try to float,” a voice said. I was coughing and there was water in my ears, the voice unfamiliar. He held on to my waist. “I’ll do the work. Just float. Relax your body.”
I had to clear out my lungs first. My body wasn’t going to give me a chance to float while I still had water in me. When the coughing finally stopped, and I had taken several long breaths, I looked around to try to figure out where we were. Everything was dark. I couldn’t see his face. Had Fancy jumped in after me? Or was it one of the guys? The voice was masculine, that’s all I knew.
He breathed hard next to me. The water lapped around our bodies. He pulled me toward something, but I couldn’t see where we were going. He was putting in a lot of effort to get us both moving.
I did my best to float, although after a while, when the air started to give me some energy and I wasn’t so helpless, I pulled myself out of his grasp, and just hung onto cloth from his clothes.
“Swim,” I said, choking as cold autumn air hit my still water coated lungs. “I’ll follow you.”
He released his hold on me, and at first kept one hand tightly wrapped around my arm.
I thought we’d swim back to the boat, and then I realized we were nowhere near it. I didn’t even see the thing anymore. Not that I could see much of anything. My eyes had adjusted and there were stars overhead, but I kept getting hit in the face with waves.
The man, whoever it was, was so close, that I saw his outline.
And then I noticed the deeper shadows in the distance. Land. We weren’t that far from it.
He was swimming toward it. I started kicking, and then he moved ahead faster and I lost my hold on him.
When I let go, he reached back and grabbed at my shoulder and I felt his whole hand on my skin. The dress around my legs had slipped away. The shoes were gone. I was naked except for the underwear.
After a while, I became overwhelmed with fatigue, and he was dragging me by the arm, I reached again for his shirt and held on. At this, he let go of me and worked harder, grunting with the effort. We went faster with him using both of his arms.
For a while, no matter how much we swam, it seemed like the shadowed landscape in the distance was never getting any closer. My body was numb, and I was losing the feeling in my arms and legs. I couldn’t move them as fast as before.
It felt like hours went by. We both concentrated on swimming, not wasting breath or energy on speaking. When I was sure we were never going to make it, I felt the swell of a wave below us. At first, it gently pushed us forward. Then the swells strengthened and they dragged us along.
“Let the water push you,” he said. “Save your energy.”
“Blake?” I cried out, suddenly recognizing his voice. I was so grateful. I could have kissed him right then. He’s alive. He was here.
“Hang in there,” he shouted to me. “Don’t give up on me, Kayli.”
It was easier to hold my body within the waves, letting them push us to shore.
Just as the surf was getting really strong, curling into itself, Blake pulled back, grabbing me. He stood, the water up to his chest. I put my feet down, the water up to my neck. We hopped and floated as the waves pushed us until we were waist high and then he pulled me up into his arms, carrying me the rest of the way.
I wanted him to put me down at first. He had to be more tired than I was. He’d been in the water longer and then had to drag me part of the way.
But he didn’t go far. He went up onto the beach until he was out of the risk of waves and the sand was dry. He bent down onto his knees, dropping me on the sand, and then bent over, coughing against my skin. At first he held himself up over me. Then he dropped, and rolled over onto his back. I wanted to help in some way, but I was too busy just trying to catch my breath. Then I was shivering. The sand was cool and when I moved, the sand below the surface was even colder.
“Ugh,” he said, coughing and gasping. Finally, when his breathing evened out, he rolled onto his side, pulling me into his body, tucking my head under his chin. It was cold at first and then he started to warm up. I snuggled into him, hoping our bodies would heat up enough.
After a few minutes, he muttered, “That’s probably the most romantic thing I’ve ever done in my life, but I’m going to leave it to the movies from now on.”
I smiled a little. “Where are we?”
“Probably in North Carolina,” he said. “Or maybe still in South Carolina, near the border. The ship was supposed to hug the coastline for a while before making a circle on the third day and heading back.”
I looked around us, only seeing trees and then out into the water. I didn’t see the ship anywhere. In the time it had taken for us to get to shore, it had moved on. Did anyone even know we were out here? Did Fancy see anything? She would notice pretty quickly I was missing, wouldn’t she?
I coughed. “Who threw you over?” I asked. “I didn’t see his face.”
“I didn’t either,” he said. “It was whoever was following me. I went into that observation deck to get away from him and see if he’d face me. He did, and then rushed me over the side. Might be the same person who knocked me out before or maybe someone new. It was too dark to get a good look at him.” He spit into the sand and then sucked in a breath. “How the hell did you get thrown over?”
“I heard you,” I said, “I heard something going on, something not right. Doyle helped me find you. Or at least your little black box. Fancy was nearby, looking around. Your tracking thing was still in the observatory. I found it and was trying to figure out what happened when someone came in. Next thing I knew, I was getting pushed over.” I coughed again and gripped him. Cold water and sand clung to my skin. It was dark, but with us holding onto each other, I was sure he knew I was naked now. The only light was stars over our heads. I checked my wrist, but remembered the band was gone. “He took mine. But I don’t suppose the band would track me off of the ship.”
“Whoever has them now can use them to make the others think we’re still on board, at least for a while,” he said. “Unless Fancy saw what happened, they’ll think we’re wandering around the ship. They’ll be in danger. They’ll come looking for you and whoever has them will know who’s on our team. If he knew enough to take your tracker, then he’s onto us.” He frowned. “Or...” He cut himself off with a shiver and then stopped talking, rubbing his arms.
“Or what?” I asked.
> “It’s just bugging me that someone was following me, knowing where I was. And then he threw you over, too, and if he took your band, he must know what they’re for. He took mine, too. Yours was brand new, and you hadn’t worn it before.”
“Do you think someone is listening in on us? Someone besides Doyle?”
“No, I’m starting to wonder if this was a mutiny. Only a handful of people knew about the bracelet you wore.”
I pressed my lips together, shivering, my teeth grinding together to prevent chattering. I curled into him, afraid to consider the possibilities. Would one of the boys do this? I didn’t want to believe that. Could they be so mad at Blake, and me, to simply throw us off the ship?
I could only assume that whoever it was, he or she was trying to kill us. Even if the guys were mad at me, would they do such a thing?
But then, I might have pissed them off. Brandon had been pretty upset. Would Marc? Or Raven? Or even Axel? He had enough time to follow me.
The doubt crept in but then trickled away. No. It had to be someone else, but that also meant they were in danger. Someone was willing to kill.
