Rogue (Phoenix Rising)

by Brynley Blake

  “It looks like the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz,” the little girl says, paddling up next to McKenzie. McKenzie has told me her name, but I can’t remember it. She seems to have latched on to McKenzie, who chats with her like they’re best friends.

  We explore several more small caves as we travel to Miniloc Island, where we paddle through a narrow channel aptly called the Tunnel of Love, pushing off the limestone walls like we’re on a flume ride at an amusement park, before emerging into Big Lagoon, a marine lake. Jake, the tour guide, tries to convince the girl’s family to stay and snorkel in the lake while he takes McKenzie and me to one more cave, but at the last minute, the father and the girl end up coming along.

  The scenery is much the same as what we’ve seen so far, and Jake waves us on as he stops with the girl and her father, who has somehow managed to capsize his kayak.

  “There’s an amazing cave around the rocks ahead,” Jake says to me. “You two go ahead and explore. We’ll catch up with you in a few minutes.” I nod, and McKenzie and I continue on. We’re joined a few minutes later by the girl.

  “Can I come with you?” she asks, slightly out of breath from paddling furiously to catch up with us.

  “You’d better go back and wait with your dad.”

  “Please,” she says cajolingly. “They’ve been talking about fishing the whole time, and I’m bored to tears.” She rolls her eyes. “I won’t be any trouble, I promise. I’ve kayaked a lot in Maryland. And I’m almost twelve.”

  My heart squeezes. I can’t help but think about Maggie. It’s why I try not to spend too much time with kids; it’s just too damn painful.

  “She can come with us, right?” McKenzie says, adding her pleading blue eyes to the girl’s hazel ones.

  “Fine.” I relent, glancing back at the men. They shouldn’t be too much longer anyway. I point to the girl and give them a thumb’s up to indicate we’ve got her, and we turn the corner out of sight.

  The water’s calm as we guide our kayaks around the karsts that look just like the dozens we’ve passed today. McKenzie spots the cavern opening in the wall first.

  “There it is.” She starts to paddle toward the cave, the girl close behind her.

  “Let’s wait for Jake and the girl’s dad before we go in,” I warn.

  “Her name is Paige.”

  “Whatever. Just wait.”

  She flashes me a smile. “Yes, sir.” Her eyes are dancing. “We’re just going to peek in from the outside.”

  It all happens in slow motion. One minute she’s sitting in her kayak, the sun glinting off her blonde hair, and the next her kayak is being sucked into the opening of the cave, with the girl’s right behind. There’s a sharp crack, a scream, and suddenly, I’m reliving my worst nightmare.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Noah

  Without hesitating, I dive into the water. I can get to her faster swimming than in the kayak. I am not going to let anything happen to her. I repeat it like a mantra as I swim into the cave. The entrance is narrow, but the cave itself seems to be quite big, as there’s a black gaping hole beyond the dimly lit area I’ve swum into. There’s no sign of McKenzie or Paige.

  “McKenzie!”

  Nothing. There’s not a sound except for the waves hitting the jagged walls of the cavern.

  The girls are clearly not here, and there’s only one direction they could have gone. I dive underwater and start swimming deeper into the cave. The current catches me off guard, drawing me into the cave with a force that’s impossible to fight. It’s unbelievably strong. Fucking hell; now I can see exactly what happened. McKenzie’s and Paige’s kayaks must have gotten caught in this weird current, and they were sucked into the cave. I send up a quick plea to God-knows-who, praying that they didn’t capsize. If they can stay afloat, the tide will eventually circle them back around again. But where the hell are they? I have no idea how deep the cave is, or how far in they got carried. I wish to hell I had a flashlight.

  The current is too strong to swim against, so I tread water, conserving my strength as I let it carry me deeper into the cave, constantly yelling McKenzie’s name. If I can find them, we can try to make our way back to the entrance. Or if that’s impossible, we could just stay afloat and wait for help. Jake and the girl’s father shouldn’t be too far behind us.

  It’s getting darker the farther the current carries me, but I can barely make out something floating ahead in the dim light coming from the entrance, which is now far back in the distance. It’s McKenzie’s bright yellow kayak, bobbing, empty, on the water. My heart feels like there’s a vise around it. I yell McKenzie’s name again. Where the hell is she? She’s a pretty decent swimmer, but this current is strong, and most swimmers panic when they’re caught in one, which makes it even more dangerous. Or deadly.

  Without her kayak, McKenzie could have been sucked under, or hit her head when she capsized, or been slammed against the rocks. God. She could have drowned by now. And then there’s the girl.

  Shit. Not again. I am not going to lose her.

  “No!” It’s a war cry, a fuck-you to the gods for trying to take what’s mine again. “Not again, dammit!”

  “Noah.”

  Her voice is faint, but it’s McKenzie.

  “McKenzie! Where are you?”

  She shouts again, and using the strength and sheer tenacity gained from years of SEAL training, I break out of the current and find my way to her in the dark, guided by her voice. The cave is pitch-black now, and I can’t see her, but I can feel her, and her sweet familiar curves assure me she’s alive. She’s clinging to the craggy rocks, and I hold on next to her, dragging her to me.

  “Are you hurt?” My hands roam over her body, feeling for lacerations or broken bones, touching her face as I desperately try to reassure myself she’s alive. She turns her head into my hand, and my heart aches.

  “I’m just banged up. The current slammed my kayak into the wall and capsized it. I held on to it for a while, but Paige got carried past me and she was crying, so I let go of the kayak and tried to swim after her.”

  Of all the stupid-ass ideas.

  “Where is she?” I ask gruffly. I want to throttle McKenzie for being stupid enough to let go of the kayak and put her own life in danger, violating every rule of water safety, but there’s time for that later. Hopefully. Right now, I have to figure out if the girl is still alive, and how to keep us all afloat until help comes.

  “Paige.” McKenzie’s voice echoes in the cave.

  “I’m here.” The voice is small and scared, but it’s there. “I…I can’t hold on much longer.”

  “She hurt her arm,” McKenzie says quietly to me. “It sounds like it’s broken.”

  Old memories that I thought I’d buried surface to mock me. Once again, it’s up to me to save the woman I care about with the odds stacked against me, and once again, if I fail, it may cost her her life. Three and a half years ago, I was forced to choose between working for a drug lord or watching my family die. I tried to save them, but they died anyway. This time, I have an even more impossible choice—to choose between a defenseless little girl I don’t know or the woman who has given me everything. But images of Maggie, with her innocent trusting eyes, leave me no choice. At least McKenzie stands a chance on her own.

  “I’ve got to go get her,” I say quietly to McKenzie. I’m glad it’s too dark to see her eyes begging me not to leave her, pleading with me to do the impossible.

  “I’m coming with you.”

  I didn’t expect that. “Like hell you are. The current is too strong. Stay here.” I’d tell her that I’ll get Paige and swim back to her, but we both know that will be impossible with Paige hurt and the force of the current. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to make it to Paige, although if I don’t, I’m sure as hell going to die trying. But there’s no point in all of us drowning.

  “I’m coming with you,” she repeats stubbornly.

  “No!” It comes out harsher than I’d inten
ded. “You’ll at least have a chance if you stay here and wait for help,” I add more gently. “I can’t let you put yourself in danger.”

  “I’m already in danger. I’ve been in danger since I found Liam’s bucket list. I’m starting to learn that being in danger isn’t the worst thing that can happen to you; failing to live is. You know, you don’t have to singlehandedly save the world. Maybe I can help. I was a lifeguard in high school, and I’m a pretty strong swimmer. We can use this to keep us all together.” She presses a length of rope into my hand.

  “Where did you get this?” I ask incredulously.

  “I untied it from my kayak before I let it go.”

  She’s nothing short of amazing.

  “You’d make a damn good Navy SEAL.” I swear I can feel the warmth of her smile. “But you’re still staying here.”

  “Like hell I am,” she says, her words echoing mine. “I’m coming whether you want me to or not. You can punish me for disobeying you later.”

  “Oh, believe me, I will,” I growl. I can tell it’s pointless to waste any more time arguing with her, but I’m going to stay alive just to make good on that promise.

  I tie the rope around both of our waists so the current doesn’t separate us, but I show McKenzie how to free herself quickly if something happens to me so I don’t drag her down. I call out to Paige and tell her to keep yelling so we can find her, and on the count of three, McKenzie and I push off the rocky wall and into the deadly current.

  She was right; she’s a strong swimmer, although I’m not taking any chances. When I begin to feel the tow of the current that pulled us into the cave, I grab her firmly by the waist and haul her along with me until we’re on the other side of it. After a few minutes, we find Paige holding on to the cave wall.

  She’s trying to be brave, but she catapults herself into my arms and clings to me while I feel her arm to see if it’s broken, and I feel a tiny piece of my heart thaw. With her little body in my arms, I can’t help but think about Maggie. Would we have gone on kayak adventures? Would her arms have felt like this when she hugged me each night before she went to bed? Would she have held on to me like I was her rock in the storm? I shake my head. Of course not. I wasn’t her rock. I couldn’t even save her. There’s no point in wasting time thinking about things that can never be.

  I quickly untie the rope from McKenzie’s waist and tie it around Paige. There’s no doubt her arm is broken. I’m surprised she was able to hang on to the craggy wall as long as she did.

  “Your dad and Jake will have noticed we’re gone,” I explain. “I’m sure Jake knows his way around these caves and can guess what happened. We’ll just hang tight here until help arrives.”

  “It’s better not being alone,” Paige says.

  She’s right, but the price of not being alone means being vulnerable and losing those you care about. But she’s too young to know that.

  The minutes tick by, and I’m starting to realize something is seriously wrong. Someone should have come by now. McKenzie’s trying not to alarm Paige, but I can tell she’s getting concerned, too.

  “What time do you think it is?” she asks casually.

  “Probably close to five,” I guess. Which means we only have about another hour of daylight. And the tide has been rising steadily since we’ve been in the cave.

  I frown. I have no doubt that the fact that it was almost high tide is what caused McKenzie and Paige to get sucked into the cave. When you have a small entrance and big cave, the tide current will produce a much faster flow because of the constriction of the narrow channel into the cave. I’ve observed that the tidal range here in the Philippines is pretty low, so some caves, such as this one, will have a faster flow than others. As a local and a cave tour guide, Jake should have known this and warned us that this cave was potentially dangerous. Instead, he had encouraged us to go on our own. But I blame myself. Even the best tour guides make mistakes, and as a Navy SEAL, I know better than to trust someone else with my safety without doing my own due diligence and assessing the situation.

  I run through the options in my head. The smart thing to do would be to wait out the tide, even though that means we’ll be stuck here for another twelve hours. But this part of the cave has a low ceiling, and as I feel my way around the slick rocks that are worn by water, I realize that at high tide, the entire cavern is going to be underwater. If we don’t get out of here soon, we’re going to drown.

  “We’re going to be fine,” I lie. “But we’re going to have to try to get out of here on our own. They may not be able to find us.”

  McKenzie tenses imperceptibly. Funny how I can read her body even when I can’t see her. She’s not buying my bullshit for a second. Luckily, Paige is. She clings to me with trusting arms as I tell McKenzie the plan, which is to make our way back to the entrance by crawling along the wall, which will mean working against the current, but not swimming in it. There’s no way McKenzie could swim the distance against the current, or that I could with Paige in tow for that matter.

  “Let’s go,” McKenzie says without hesitation.

  It takes forty-five minutes before we see daylight in the distance, although daylight is a misnomer. The sun is close to setting. Forty-five grueling minutes of clawing our way inch by inch along the jagged walls of the cave as the current pushes against us. I’m trying to figure out how we’re going to go back through the narrow channel of the cave with the rush of water from high tide coming in when I spot a bangka bobbing just outside the cave entrance.

  “Someone’s out there!” I tell the girls. “Start yelling.”

  We scream and yell as loud as we can, and after a few minutes, someone shouts back, “We hear you. Stay where you are.”

  A few minutes later, a man in a two-seater kayak that’s tied to a rope connecting him to the boat appears. I have never been so glad to see someone in my life. We talk briefly, knowing we must work quickly if we’re all going to make it out of here. I quickly lift Paige into the kayak, and the boat slowly tows them out of the cave. A few minutes later he’s back, and I help McKenzie into the kayak.

  “Don’t try to come back for me,” I say tersely to the rescuer. “The tide is getting too high for you to safely make it back into the cave. I’ll be fine here until morning when the tide is low.” It will be a long and cold night, but I’ve spent worse.

  The man nods curtly. “We’ll be back to get you as soon as we can,” he assures me.

  McKenzie’s eyes are wild as the kayak starts to move. She clutches my hand with a death grip.

  “Noah!”

  Her voice quavers, and there are unshed tears in her eyes. She’s been the epitome of grace under pressure since this whole fiasco began, and seeing her composure finally crack only when she’s leaving me cuts me to the quick.

  “I’ll be fine,” I promise, kissing her hard. She reluctantly lets go of my hand at the last possible minute, but she doesn’t take her eyes off me as she’s towed farther and farther away from me, finally disappearing out of sight. I’m considering the best way to wait out the tide when the kayak appears again, hastily paddling toward me.

  “What are you doing?” I yell as he pulls up alongside me, holding out his hand to pull me into the kayak. “Are you fucking crazy?”

  “Your girlfriend wouldn’t let me leave you,” he says. “She offered to pay for my son to go to university if I’d try to come back for you. She wasn’t taking no for an answer.”

  Crazy, stupid, wonderful girl.

  Getting out of the cave is difficult, but we’re both strong and experienced kayakers and can paddle against the current while managing to stay afloat as the bangka tows us, and we finally emerge from the cave.

  McKenzie launches herself into my arms the moment I step foot on the boat.

  “I thought I was going to lose you,” she sobs into my chest. I hold her close, my chin resting on her head for several long minutes while she cries. Someone has created a simple sling for Paige’s arm, and she’s sit
ting on the bench of the boat, her father’s arm protectively curved around her. Our eyes meet.

  “Thank you for saving her,” he says. “I owe you everything. Anything. I’m not sure anyone else could have done what you did.”

  I wave away the compliment as McKenzie finally unburies her face from my chest.

  “Sorry I got you all wet.” I look down at my bare chest, the salt water of her tears indistinguishable from the salt water of the ocean.

  “Don’t apologize. It’s been a while since I’ve had someone care about losing me, and I’m humbled by your concern, sweetheart.” I grab a towel and McKenzie’s hand, and pull her down onto the bench seat with me across from Paige and her father. I’m as reluctant to let her go as she is me.

  “What took so long?” I ask as I roughly dry myself off. “And where’s Jake?”

  “Jake wasn’t in any hurry to follow you,” Paige’s father said. “Even after I was back in my kayak, he was pointing out fish and talking to me, almost like he was stalling. When we finally got to the cave and there was no sign of you, he said the cave could be dangerous and we should go for help instead of going inside.” He scrapes a hand across his face at the memory. “I was sick with worry. I started to go in for Paige while he went for help, but the current was so strong I knew I’d just add another person to the list to save. And I’d watched you handle yourself and your kayak; I knew she’d be safe with you. I asked him why he’d told you and McKenzie to go ahead to the cave without him, and he said he’d never intended for you to go in it.” He shakes his head, still clearly flummoxed.

  “We kayaked over to El Nido, although it seemed to take forever. He told me to go up to the hotel and tell them I needed a rescue group; he said he was going to alert the authorities. I never saw him again.

  “When I came back down to the beach, he was gone. Probably worried about liability. I capsized when he accidentally rammed into me, and he probably thought we’d blame him for what happened. No one knew who he was or where to find him. I was too worried about Paige to spend any more time looking for him. I couldn’t find anyone to help me at first, but eventually, when they realized I was willing to pay, some guy at the hotel said he had a friend who could help.” He gestures at the man who’d rescued us in the kayak. “This guy said his brother had a boat. I wasn’t in any position to turn them down or even check their credentials. Thank God they could get into the cave. I’ve never felt so helpless or desperate in my life.” He hugs Paige to him. “I will never be able to thank you enough for saving my daughter.”