to swim harder and faster against one of the strongest forces of nature, and likewise Sadie swam toward him, her strength fading, her desperation warring against her biology. The swell crested and buried her again, sucking her down and under.
Gage dove beneath it, a calculated risk on his part, and gave one last thrusting lunge for her. He felt the tug of his tender line—the Kraken crew members trying to tow him back to safety.
“No, no!” He yanked the line, hoping someone would get his message, give him the slack he needed.
He tried again...
And touched something. A hand? He grabbed it, lunged forward and wrapped his arms around her body as he held on to the rescue buoy. Rescuing a drowning person was a dangerous task—that person was reduced to their basest survival instincts and would often drown their rescuers in the process.
Sadie had already turned into that drowning person.
And she fought him. Dragged him under. Instinctually. Nothing she could control. Her survival instincts had taken over. The right thing to do, and what protocol demanded, was that he hit her hard enough to knock her out and save them both. But since when had he gone with protocol? He grabbed her arms and willed her to be still, to trust him, and she relaxed.
Now. It was now or they would both be lost.
He felt the tug of his tender line, and he held on to her. His pulse shot up even higher, if that were possible. They breached the surface. When he looked in her face he saw why she’d relaxed. She was unconscious. Unresponsive. Drowned already?
Oh, no! No, God, please, let her live.
Suddenly, she coughed up water, even as a wave crashed over them, but he held tight. The Kraken crew wouldn’t let him down.
“We’re going to make it. You’re going to be okay.” He stared into the familiar crystal-blue eyes, which widened with recognition, while the tender line tugged them back and the smaller Coast Guard inflatable made its way toward them in the dangerous waters. “I’ve got you and I won’t let go. You’re safe now.”
She shook her head. Her teeth chattered as she struggled to speak. “Not. Safe. Someone. Tried...to kill me.”
In the hospital room being treated for hypothermia, Sadie counted her blessings and watched Aunt Debby pace the small space. The woman had raised Sadie and her three siblings when their parents died over a decade ago.
“Jonna called to say she would come see you later today,” Aunt Debby said.
Sadie’s sister Jonna ran a lodge on the coast. It would take her an hour to get here if she could even get away.
“Why did you call her?” Sadie repositioned her pillow. “I don’t want anyone to worry about me. I’m okay. I didn’t die out there.”
Aunt Debby started wringing her hands. Sadie wished she would sit down and relax.
“No, but you came close.” Aunt Debby probably still grieved her sister and brother-in-law’s deaths, even after fifteen years. “I tried to contact Cora, but she works on that research vessel and all I could do was leave a message.”
A marine archaeologist, Sadie’s sister Cora explored shipwrecks. Admittedly, that made Sadie envious at times. And her DEA agent brother Quinn... Aunt Debby didn’t even mention him. Nobody had heard from him in far too long. He preferred it that way.
Regardless, Sadie definitely didn’t want her siblings involved because that could put them in danger, as well.
Though she hated causing her aunt more distress, the woman needed to know.
“Someone tried to kill me,” she said.
Concern rippled over Aunt Debby’s features and she slowly sat on the bed. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“Because I didn’t want you to worry.” Not yet. Not until she spoke again with Gage Sessions. She still struggled to grasp he’d been the one to rescue her. Save her life.
On the Coast Guard cutter that brought her to safety and the Coldwater Bay Hospital, Gage had been more than reassuring when he’d wrapped the blanket around her. Then at the hospital, he’d suggested she rest. She might remember more about what happened so she could answer the questions when someone came to investigate.
Sadie had last seen Gage in college over seven years ago. They’d been close friends then. He’d cared about her as more than a friend, she’d known, but she hadn’t felt the same because she had been in love with someone else. Would the outcome have been different today if it had been a stranger rather than Gage risking his life to save hers?
Aunt Debby pressed her hand on Sadie’s forehead as though checking her temperature, unease still evident in her eyes. “And you’ve told the sheriff?”
“I told the Coast Guard and someone is letting the sheriff’s department know for me.”
“Good. You’ve been through a lot. Just get some rest and once your core temperature is back up, they’ll release you. I’ll take you home and take care of you. Remember, you’re not in this alone, Sadie.”
“I know.” And Sadie thanked God for her family.
She closed her eyes and rested on the pillow. She wished she could remember everything that had happened. One minute she was at Karon’s house. The next she was on that boat fighting to survive. Who did the boat belong to, anyway? With it hidden in the depths of the Pacific, would she ever find out?
If only she could remember more. Was hypothermia messing with her memories? When she’d woken up on the boat, she’d been extremely groggy with the world’s worst headache. That hadn’t been hypothermia. No—she’d been drugged.
A flash of a memory zinged back to her.
Sadie glanced down at her hospital gown. “Aunt Debby?”
“Yes, sweetie?”
“Where are my clothes?”
Her aunt chuckled. “It’s customary to wear a hospital gown in the hospital. Don’t you remember changing?”
Vaguely. “No, I mean, what happened to them after I changed into this?”
“Oh, I took them home to wash and dry them.”
Oh, no. “Could you do me a favor? I need you to go through the pockets of my hoodie. I found something on the boat. It could be important.” The pendant was a link, the proof she needed that Karon had been on that same boat. Possibly evidence that Karon’s killer was now after Sadie.
A chill crawled over her that had nothing to do with her recovery from hypothermia.
Aunt Debby agreed to search her pockets back at the house and left Sadie alone with her thoughts, which turned out to be a bad idea. She couldn’t exactly rest like everyone insisted when someone had gone to such trouble to attempt to kill her.
She
