by Lena North
“People like you and me, we keep it together,” Jamie continued. “We don’t fall apart or do crazy things that will get us hurt, or dead. We stay strong, don’t we?”
He was so wrong about me that it was almost ridiculous, but how would he know that? I’d never shared, and looking at his kind face, I knew that I couldn’t. If he needed to believe that I was strong, then I’d let him.
“We do,” I said, but my bird interrupted me.
“Motorboat in front of you. Unloading.”
“Unloading what?” I murmured and shifted the boat a little to go further away from the island.
“Boxes,” she said.
“Okay,” I replied, guessing that it was boxes of fish, similar to what I’d seen Joao and the other cousins bring into Croxier Harbor the other night.
To my surprise, they seemed to be unloading huge wooden crates straight into the ocean. They didn’t expect us and everyone on the boat froze as we swept around the cliffs. I realized immediately that their cargo wasn’t fish, and that they were supremely unhappy being caught doing whatever the hell they were doing. As we passed the boat, I stared straight into the eyes of the man at the steering wheel, and then his mouth moved. He must have given an order because the men suddenly sprang into action.
“Danger, Snow. Guns!” the bird called out, but I’d seen them, so I was already moving too.
I immediately started shifting the boat around toward Croxier, cursing myself for not going along with Jamie’s original suggestion to go around the other side of the main island where there were long stretches of sandy beaches. It would have meant a lot of other boats around us, and I knew Jamie would have wanted us to go ashore. I hadn’t felt like spending the day on a beach so I’d suggested the rocky north side of the Island instead, and he’d agreed with a shrug.
We’d turned around completely, and started to pick up speed when the sound of a boat approaching, fast, carried across the water, and we both turned.
The large motor boat was following us, and with the speed they had, it looked like they would crash right into our small catamaran. I worked frantically to keep us out of their way. They swept past us, made a big turn and started moving back toward us again, and I called out to Jamie.
“Do you know them?”
He shouted something back, but I couldn’t hear him. His grave face and the shake of his head told me what I needed to know and I turned the cat again, looking around to find the best way out of there. The motorboat was clearly faster than our small cat, though, and when they came closer, I could see two men standing on the side, facing us. Then one of them raised a rifle and took aim.
“Shit,” I barked, and turned our boat abruptly again.
The shots rang out, and I heard my bird shriek high above.
“Over the reef, Snow. Keep straight and go over the reef,” she told me.
I was suddenly calm. It felt like ice pumped slowly through my veins, and my vision had narrowed to focus on the water in front of me. I slid my feet under the straps on the deck and hiked out over one of the hulls as I pushed the boat to go faster, and started looking for the reef my bird had talked about.
“Trapeze, Snow!”
Jamie was holding on to the deck with one hand, but he was stretching the harness toward me. I shook my head, and ignored him, thinking that he surely must be out of his mind. It was sweet that he worried about my safety, but was he expecting me to take the time to put on a harness and hook up to the trapeze when we had a fast motorboat full of men with guns on our tail?
“Keep going straight ahead. Reef comes soon.”
The osprey was calm too, and I could see her racing ahead in front of us.
“Is it deep enough?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “Slide over. Motorboat can’t go. Have to turn back.”
Okay. So, her plan was for me to crash into a reef, with the hope that we would slide over it. I could do that.
“Around the cliffs, to the left.”
We were moving along the island as fast as I could make the small boat go, and the cliffs were rising sharply, straight out of the water to our left side. The sound of the motorboat was louder, and I knew the crazy plan my bird had come up with was our best chance of getting away from them. When the cliffs veered off to the left, I followed them and then I saw white lines in the water straight ahead of us, showing clearly where the waves were breaking. I scanned the area, but further along the reef, the waves grew bigger, and I wouldn’t get our cat over them.
A shot rang out, and I heard a loud ping when the bullet hit the hull I was hanging out over. There was no other way out of the situation we had stumbled into. I would have to try to pass the reef. Aiming to go as close to the cliffs as I dared, I leaned further back and pushed the boat to go faster, hoping that raising it as much as I could on one hull would ease the way over the rocks ahead of us.
Then we hit the reef.
Jamie had not been prepared, so he shouted loudly as the boat jerked violently. There was a loud, scraping sound, but we kept going. Then there was another grinding sound, and suddenly the whole boat seemed to fly in the air. I felt how my feet slipped out of the hiking straps and then I was flying too. I let go of the ropes I was holding, and prepared for landing in the water, hoping that it was deep enough to cushion me from any sharp edges waiting for me just beneath the surface.
The water was cold. I raised my arms to shield my head and braced for the pain I expected, but it didn’t come. When I looked around I saw the reef clearly, but by sheer luck, I’d landed where it started to rise from below, and the water was deeper. I got to the surface and found the cat some distance away. Jamie was crawling around on it, and it looked like he was trying to sort out the lines which were crisscrossing the deck.
Another shot rang out, and the bullets went into the water not far away from me. The motorboat was approaching slowly, and when I turned, I could see that Jamie was trying to get the catamaran toward me.
“Go to the beach, Jamie. The beach!” I called out. “Get help!”
We were on the main island, and he had our phones, so if he got out of harm’s way, he could call for help. He seemed to hesitate, but I raised a hand and pointed toward the pale, yellow strip and shouted again, “Get help!”
When the next bullet splashed into the water next to me, I took a deep breath and dove, hoping that Jamie wouldn’t try to be heroic and come for me. I’d been free diving for years and knew I could stay under water several minutes, so hopefully, I’d be able to swim far enough away from the reef and the men with the rifles.
I swam with strong strokes away from the reef, but not toward the beach. I aimed for the cliffs, hoping that I’d find somewhere to take cover. My bird suddenly dove into the water next to me, and I heard her laugh.
“Crazy.”
“Yeah,” I laughed back at her, realizing what an utterly insane thing I’d pulled off.
I could easily have hurt or killed, both myself and Jamie.
Our eyes met, and as our gazes held, her eyes suddenly widened, and she turned abruptly, starting to move upward quickly, shouting wildly at me, “Current! Danger, Snow! Go!”
Before I had time to react, the under-current started pulling me down, and toward the cliffs. I tried to swim out of it sideways, but it didn’t let go of me as I got dragged down. I looked around frantically, wondering how the hell such a strong current could move straight toward the cliff-side, and then I saw it. There was an opening among the rocks, leading into a cave, or maybe a tunnel. I knew that if I got sucked into that hole, I’d probably be stuck in there, and I would die. Pushing with everything that I had in me, I swam upward, and for a brief moment I thought I’d make it, but then another surge pulled me along again. I realized that the currents were amplified by the waves crashing toward the steep cliffs, so I let myself float along until it seemed to ease up a little, and then I made another attempt.
I kept trying, and the current
brought me closer and closer to the opening until I was so close I could brace myself against the cliff. The water shifted me around and then I was suddenly floating into the tunnel, holding on with my hands around a rock at the opening. I needed air desperately, my arms burned and then suddenly the current seemed to wrap itself around my waist. It felt like a strong arm yanked me loose from my hold and pulled me into the tunnel. My vision was becoming blurry, there was darkness all around me suddenly, and I started to slip away. I’d thought for so many years that I wanted an accident and that it would be welcome to leave everything behind, but I’d been wrong. At that moment, when I knew that I was on the brink of death, I also knew that I wanted to live. I wanted to put my hands on Dante’s face again, eat my grandmother’s food and goof around with my friends in Prosper. I wanted to argue with Hawker Johns and get to know his daughter better. I wanted to sit down with my uncle and talk about Da, and I needed to understand my mother. I wanted to laugh with Nick. I wanted to live.
Turning weakly and trying to look at where the current was moving me along, I fought for my life. My arms were of no use, the current had slowed down, and I was barely moving anymore, but I wasn’t going to give up, so I kicked again with my legs, and then I felt them.
There were dolphins in the tunnel with me. One of them came close, and I felt the big shape nudging my side, almost as if it wanted me to keep fighting. When it nudged me again, I understood, so I raised my hand and let it slide along the side of the animal until I felt the top fin. As soon as my fingers curled around the fin, the dolphin moved. Another one came up on my other side, and I immediately took hold of its fin. They moved me along, so quickly I had a hard time holding on, and then there was light again.
When my head breached the surface, I sucked in the fresh air, and it slid into me like a blessing. I was going under again, but the dolphins nudged me upward, and I took another breath. Then I rolled over to rest on my back, breathing deeply, inhaling and exhaling as I lay there, looking at the roof of a cave.
It took me a few minutes to catch my breath, and I surveyed my options as I lay there. To the side, there were a few rocks where I possibly could crawl up, but apart from that, there was nothing but a huge open cave. The light came from several smaller openings in the roof of the cave, but I couldn’t find any other way out of it.
“Bird?” I called out.
“Snow! Alive!” she responded immediately. “Thought you were gone. You slipped away and were gone.”
“I’m alive,” I said. “Dolphins helped me. I’m in a cave, can you find me?”
“Sing.”
“What?”
“Sing for me, and I’ll hear you.”
I almost died, had barely gotten my breath back, and she wanted me to sing. Okay, I thought. I could do that.
“What do you want to hear?” I said, laughing a little, from the ridiculousness of her request but also from adrenaline pumping through my system.
“I’m so excited.”
“Wh –”
“You sing that with your friends when you party and drink the wine. When you’re happy.”
Oh God, we did. When we were getting ready for a party, that was the one song we always played, more than once.
“Tonight's the night we're gonna make it happen…”
My voice echoed a little in the vast cave.
“Tonight we'll put all other things aside…”
As I kept singing, the osprey suddenly shouted that she heard me and that I should continue. I did, louder and louder until she suddenly was there, circling me as I belted out the chorus.
“I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it, and I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I want you, I want –”
“Snow?”
The voice changed my song into a surprised scream, and the bird swayed a little as if she’d been stunned too. When I turned around, a small boat came around the rocks to the side. The engine was shut off, but Nick was pushing it along with a paddle and Joao was at the rear, drying his hair with a towel.
“You!” I shouted, ending the song appropriately in my shock to see them.
How the heck had they found me so quickly?
“Did you lead them here?” I asked the bird.
“Nope. Was going to but they didn’t need me.”
“Snow, Jesus,” Nick murmured, as Joao let go of the towel and picked up another paddle.
Then I was hauled into the boat and into Nick’s lap as he sank down, holding me tight.
“Jesus,” he whispered again.
His voice was hoarse, and I could feel his arms shaking a little.
“I don’t want to die,” I said into his neck.
I’d not told him about why I did all the crazy things I did, but I anyway needed him to know that I wanted to live. He exhaled and leaned back to look at me. His eyes had that focused look again, and he seemed to take in every piece of me, surveying me for injuries. Then our eyes met, and I repeated my words quietly, “I don’t want to die.”
His smile was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. It wasn’t his usual cocky, lazy grin. It was soft and sweet, and his eyes seemed to melt into a pale, blueish green so tender my chest felt tight. Then his brows went up a little, and laughter crept into his eyes.
“I’m so excited?” he asked.
“What can I say, the bird asked for it.”
Joao made a small sound, and I turned to him. He was grinning widely and gave my shoulder a gentle caress as he murmured, “Good to see you, Snow.”
The opening behind the rocks was big enough for us to sit up in the boat, and as soon as we were through the short tunnel, they started the engine, and we sped along to the beach. Nick carried me from the boat and did another body scan with his eyes. Then he pulled me into his arms again.
“What the hell was the geek thinking?” he muttered.
“Jamie!” I said and leaned back. “Is he –”
My question was interrupted by the sound of several cars, then voices, and then running feet. Jamie stopped abruptly and stared at me.
“Snow…” he said hoarsely. Then he turned to Nick and shouted, “What the hell were you thinking? Why do you want everyone around you to die?”
I blinked, wondering why he seemed so furious.
“Hello there, cousin,” Nick said.
Chapter Ten
Domenico
My whole body froze, and I turned my face up slowly to look at Nick because I suddenly suspected that I knew who he was.
He was called Dee, but not from d’Izia. From Domenico. I’d seen that name in the lists with Jamie’s relatives, and I knew what it meant. It meant that Nick was the cousin who had been in that hospital, in the research program, with the Jamieson brothers as he grew up. I should have known, or at least suspected, but he had never seemed like Jamie or Jinx, the two geniuses I knew quite well.
“Nick?” I whispered, needing him to confirm it.
His arms squeezed me slightly, and then he looked at me. I couldn’t interpret the look on his face, but he must have read mine like an open book because he murmured, “Yeah, babe. I’m Domenico. The one who was in the program.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It’s part of what doesn’t count. Was planning on explaining all of it tomorrow.”
He had said that I knew the parts of him that counted and that we’d talk about the rest, but he could be making all of that up. Having been part of a horrible program where they did experiments on the kids because of their talents would be a huge part of who he was, wouldn’t it? Jamie rarely talked about it either, though, and Jinx hadn’t told anyone but her parents until recently. I wasn’t sure what to think, and it must have shown on my face because he squeezed me gently again.
“Can we talk about that later? When it’s just you and –”
“Asshole!”
Jamie’s voice was suddenly closer, and then he put an arm around me to pull me toward
him. I stumbled and cried out.
“Careful,” Nick warned.
“You’re never careful, so why should I be?” Jamie sneered.
“Jamie, stop it,” I urged, but he ignored me and kept glaring at Nick.
Joao pulled me back a little and pushed until I was almost behind him, walking us backward slowly, as he murmured, “This’ll get ugly, Snow. It’s been a long time coming, and it needs to be done, but you won’t like it.”
“What?”
“I’ll take you home,” Joao added quietly.
I stopped moving immediately, and he walked into me. My legs were wobbly from my near brush with death and from finding out that Nick was the cousin I thought I’d find dirt on to clear Jamie from suspicions, so I fell and landed with a surprised cry on my behind.
Nick turned immediately and took a few steps toward us, but Jamie stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
“You have to stay away from her,” he barked.
“What?”
Both Nick and I said the same word, but where my voice was surprised, Nick’s was angry.
“You’ll just destroy her too, Domenico,” Jamie sneered, drawling out Nick’s full name in a way that sounded like an insult.
Nick promptly exploded, furious in a way I’d never seen him before.
“That bird of hers and I are the only thing between her and certain death, James. Do not talk to me about destroying Snow when I’ve had her back on so many occasions you wouldn’t know how to count them.”
What? I opened my mouth, but Jamie didn’t give me any chance to interrupt.
“You destroy everything you touch.”
“Jamie –” Joao tried to cut in, but Jamie wouldn’t have it.
“What about Tommy?”
“What about Tommy?” Nick asked right back.
“You killed him.”
“Tommy was like a brother to me, I didn’t –”
“You were the one who got Tommy hooked on that shit. Doesn’t sound like much of a brother to me,” Jamie bellowed.
My throat suddenly felt tight when I realized the implications of what he was saying. I was on the Islands to find a genius who had lost a brother, and who was likely connected to smuggling drugs. The men in the motorboat must have been smugglers, maybe from the drug cartel, and Nick had been there so quickly to save me. He must have been close by with Joao, and they could have been there because they were waiting for the shipment.
