Page 34 of The Deadly Shallows

“Dude, how can you chew that stuff?” the second man asked.

Grape bubble gum. That was the smacking she heard off and on.

“It’s better than that dip you and Dw—”

“Shut up!” the second man roared.

“What? She’s going to be dead and buried in the marsh soon enough.”

So she was right. She was in a marsh, and not a deep one. Her oars kept meeting resistance every few feet—seagrass. She submerged the oar as far as she could, praying they didn’t notice. Was it deep enough for her to swim? It would be her only way out, but how?

She gripped the oar handle tighter in her bleeding hand, the lacerations burning. Please, Father, give me a way.

“That’s your problem,” the second man bit out.

“My problem?” Saul said with another smack of his gum.

“Yeah, you talk too much.”

“What the—”

A shot fired, the blast reverberating in her ears.

She stiffened as the boat rocked.

“He sent you to kill me!” Saul hollered, the boat rocking harder. One of the men fell back on her, and the boat wobbled as he righted himself.

She pushed her blindfold up enough to see the two of them wrestling. A gun in one man’s hand. Another beneath the front bench.

They stood, the gunman trying to get a shot off, their arms entangled.

She looked to the water. She might be able to make it to shore if she swam long enough and kept to the bottom. She might be able to lose them. Lifting the oar, she swung with all her might, whacking both of them.

They fell into the boat, and she lurched out of it into the water.

The men’s hollering grew more muffled the deeper into the dark water she swam, her arms and legs crushed with agonizing pain as she maneuvered around the clumps of seagrass tangling around her arms.

She pushed free and kicked forward. She had to keep going.

Bullets whizzed by her. She fought to hold her breath. No way she could surface.

Cold water rose from below. Deeper water. She dove, bullets straying farther from her. Please, Lord. Carry me. Her breath nearly bursting in her lungs, she swam as fast as she could toward shore.

“What’s the latest, Em?” Noah asked, his throat tight, his nerves taut. But this is what he did. He saved people. The fact that he loved the victim was a first, but he had to keep his head on straight, had to focus on the search.

“Copters are sweeping the warehouse district and abandoned buildings, but it covers a ten-square-mile area. So far, no sign of a white van or any cars down there, but Mason and Caleb are forming search teams with local police and starting to go through them one by one.”

Noah raked a hand through his hair. That could take time they didn’t have. But it was the right move. “Keep me posted.”

“Will do.”

“And no further sightings of the van on the traffic cams?” he asked, hoping to close in on a more defined area.

“No,” Em said, the ache he felt in his heart echoing in her voice.

Noah laid the map across the dash. “There are a few state parks in the area. Very few visitors this time of year, especially the ones out by the warehouse district. Let’s start searching those.”

“On it,” Gabby said.