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His panic drove my adrenaline. “I’m good, bud,” I promised though I was anything but.
What the fuck was happening to me…
Everything was hazy and tipping as though the whole world rested on the top of a wave. I tried to think—to process—but my body didn’t feel like my own. Infinitely heavier—exacerbated by the weight of the water. Something was wrong… every inhale felt like my chest strained against a thousand-pound weight.
Whatever this was needed to wait until I knew he was safe.
The next wave came behind us, and I thanked God as it pushed us forward, my feet stumbling in the sand as we made it out of the water.
“Jake?” I heard Kenzie’s voice, her figure approaching as a blob of blonde and pink. “Jake, are you—Zeke!”
I saw Jake reach her arms before I went down. My knees hit the sand first, and I felt myself start to sink down. In slow motion, the rest of my body tumbled forward, and my vision fizzled to darkness.
The sounds stayed, distant as though through a tunnel. Kenzie’s voice stayed. The way she said my name.It stood out above the rest. But even that started to fade.
“Zeke, stay with me.” Her hands felt so warm on my chest. “Please, Zeke. I love you.”
“Paramedic coming through!” The last thing I heard was the very last thing I wanted to hear. “Call 9-1-1. Tell them I’m administering Narcan.”
Stan.
CHAPTER18
KENZIE
Every direction I looked, it was as though I stared at a different funhouse mirror that distorted what the afternoon should’ve been into something twisted and sinister.
First, it was Jake and Zeke coming in from the water not long after they’d gone out. Jake looked scared, and I thought something had happened to him. Water up his nose. A jellyfish sting. But then I saw Zeke. The man who was always strong and steady, wavered like a ribbon in the wind. His skin pale. His eyes dilated.
And then he hit the ground, toppling like a sack of potatoes.
I pushed Jake back behind me and rushed to Zeke. I flipped him over and screamed for help, shaking him wildly. A crowd swarmed around us, and that was when I faced the next funhouse mirror.
Stan. He maneuvered through the crowd with his well-honed bravado, an emergency medical kit in his hand.
My world tipped on its axis. I wanted to stop him, but I couldn’t. Zeke’s life was in jeopardy and the only thing I could trust was Stan’s ego.
He wanted to be the savior so bad, he’d do anything—anything—to put himself in that position. And now, he wanted to be the one to save Zeke; the ultimate pump to his narcissism—being the one to aid my husband.
How could I trust the man who almost killed me to save the life of the man I loved?
Because I had to.
But if I thought that was the worst distortion of the situation, I was wrong. The worst came when Stan pulled out the Narcan and administered it to Zeke.
I reached for his arm to stop him—to protest that it would do nothing, butI wasn’t fast enough. Stan gave the shot, and I held my breath.
Seconds later, Zeke gasped back to life.
No.
I started to shake my head, past crashing headfirst into the present.God, no.
“Kenzie.” Addy gripped my shoulders. “What happened?”
“He overdosed,” Stan answered for me, and I swore there was a ghost of a smile on his lips.
Sirens blared closer, the ambulance pulling onto the beach.
