Love Inspired Suspense December 2013 Bundle: Christmas Cover-Up\Force of Nature\Yuletide Jeopardy\Wilderness Peril (33 page)

The skimmer edged along behind.

“Faster, little mermaid,” Leland sang out.

With one more look behind at Isla and one more anguished thought of Reuben and his friends, she struck out for the ocean.

FIFTEEN

R
euben did not feel the flames licking at his shirt. He could not feel anything but anguish ripping through him, white hot and spreading. Then Silvio was there, knocking him down, rolling him over into the wet ground and smothering his smoldering shirtsleeve.

Silvio hauled him to his feet. Reuben breathed hard, tearing away the sleeve that was hot to the touch, the smell of singed flesh assaulting his nostrils.

Silvio was still coughing so hard he could not speak, so he settled for a gesture, jabbing his finger toward a pile of debris caught by the palms some fifteen feet away from the shelter. Something moved there; someone peeked from behind the pile. He wiped his stinging eyes and looked again. It was Paula, face terribly white.

Reuben ran, Silvio staggering after.

Rounding the wall of ruins, he found Paula tucked beneath a dripping screen of shrubs, tears running down her face, and Gavin sitting upright propped against a broken board. As Paula embraced him, he felt her shuddering sobs. He held her close, thanking God that she was unharmed, until his senses began to function again.

“Antonia?” he gasped.

Paula gripped his arms. “She wasn't inside.”

The relief left him dizzy for a moment. She was alive. Antonia was alive.

Gavin shook his head. “Your brother runs with a mean crowd. Leland left us there to burn to death. Paula tried to smother the flames, but they were too much. We half crawled, half walked out of that trap only by the grace of God.”

Reuben looked at Silvio. “And what happened to you?”

“Leland and his guy found me at the shore and came after me, but I'm quick for an old-timer and I know this island better than any man alive. Hid out in the mangroves till they got tired of waiting.”

Paula gave him a withering look. “And then my hero had to go back in to the shelter again even though I begged him not to.”

“Not once, but twice,” Gavin added.

Reuben ogled. “What in the world did you do that for?”

Silvio glared at them. “In case you ain't noticed, we're about to get slammed by Hurricane Tony part two, and now we got no shelter.” He unloaded a package of bread and a bottle of water. “I figured we at least got to have something to eat and those couple of blankets I saved, if we're going to stay alive.”

Reuben let out a breath. “You're right. Practical to the end. So Leland's gone. Where's Antonia?” He watched their faces grow dead serious in the space of a second. Paula looked at her husband. “Where is she?” he repeated.

“Son—” Silvio started, then broke off.

Reuben tried to catch his eyes, but Silvio looked at his feet.

“Somebody tell me what's going on right now,” he said, nerves whip taut.

“Leland took her,” Gavin said softly. “Just before he set the fire.”

Reuben's heart stuttered to a stop. “Where?”

“I didn't see,” Paula said. “I tried to get to her, but the fire...”

Silvio put an arm on her narrow shoulders. “You couldn't have done anything 'bout it.”

“I got one look before the place caught,” Gavin said. “He headed toward the lagoon.” He added quietly, “They bound her hands.”

Bound her hands.
He closed his eyes against the image, trying to piece together what he should do. Swallowing hard, he looked at them. “Get to the Anchor. It's the only place that might withstand the storm wall. Hector was there a while ago, but it's our only choice now. I'm going to get Antonia.”

Gavin hauled himself to his feet. “I'm going with you.”

“You can't keep up.”

“I'm tougher than I look,” he said with a tight smile.

“You need to stay with them. I don't know where Leland is and exactly how many guys he's got.”

Gavin's eyes narrowed. “And your brother? Which side is he on exactly? Yours or Leland's?”

Reuben took a deep breath. “He's on his own side, always has been. Get to the Anchor and close it up. We don't have much time now.”

Even as he took off, the moist air rippling through his burned shirt, he could see the storm eating up the sunrise, the columns of angry clouds gobbling the horizon. Hurricane Tony was ready again for battle. Paula grasped him in another hug, and he pressed her close. She was trembling now, struggling to contain the emotion, determined to hold back her sobs.

“It will be okay,” he whispered to her, leaning to kiss the top of her head. “I need you to take care of these good-for-nothing men,” he added with a smile.

She sniffed and took a deep, shuddering breath. “Reuben Sandoval, don't you get yourself killed, do you hear me? Or you're in big trouble, mister, and I mean it.”

He smiled. Silvio gave him a gruff nod, which he understood to mean that he echoed his wife's sentiment. Gavin offered his good hand for a shake.

“I gotta say, for an orange grower, you're one tough dude.”

Reuben shook his hand. “And for a gardener, you got some guts, too.”

Gavin gripped his palm. “I'll get reinforcements here the minute I can get a call through. Take care, man. Bad folks with nothing to lose are ruthless. Remember that.”

Guys with everything to lose can be ruthless, too.
He left them with a silent prayer and headed to detour around the pockets of debris and the overflowing creek. As he ran, the rain started up again, just a sprinkle, the first quiet warning that things were about to change. Far away over the mainland, lightning sizzled through the blackened sky.

With the storm building around him, and the ruined hotel behind, Reuben felt the slap of truth hit home. He wanted nothing in that moment but to save Antonia. She would never be his and he would live with that pain, but she had to survive these perfect twin storms of Tony and Leland.

Scrambling across a fallen tree, he remembered a long-ago day and the three beige speckled plover's eggs lying ruined in a scattered nest on the beach, pecked apart by a hungry gull. Antonia shooed away the gull, but it was too late to save the plover's eggs. He recalled how she'd crouched there for a long while, staring at the gummy bits of broken shell, her eyes filled with tears. He'd tried to comfort her.

“They weren't chicks yet, just eggs,” he'd offered clumsily.

She turned wet eyes on him, filled with some emotion that was deeper and richer than any he experienced then. “They won't ever become what they were meant to be.”

It was what he felt now. Antonia was a vibrant woman, filled with compassion, love and an ability to see things that others couldn't. He loved her. He'd always love her and probably always had, and though he could not save her for himself, he would not give up trying to keep her alive until the last breath was hammered out of him.

Lord, I've been blind, and I've tried to do things my way, to save Hector by my own actions. I forgot that You are the only One who saves. Please, Lord. Please save Antonia.
He could not manage any more as he slid down the hill through the rain toward the swollen lagoon.

* * *

Antonia swam only about ten yards before she felt the change in the ocean. All around her the waves began to grow restless, driven by the wind that blew out of nowhere to lash her face. The storm wall rose in the distance like a massive creature come to devour her. Looking back, she saw Leland and Martin behind her, heard them ramping up the engine. A few more yards and the ocean would suck her away. They would race the hurricane back to the mainland, hoping to be just ahead of the storm wall, and leave her there alone to die.

Something slid next to her and she nearly screamed. Alligators. Her throat closed up in fear until she saw the ungainly lines of an enormous manatee. The creature was longer than she was; the blunt, whiskered snout poked through the surface, snuffling air not six inches from her face. With long, graceful flippers the mother guided a plump baby along as they slowly meandered by on their way toward the lagoon. Antonia knew the animal was heading for the grass beds in the sheltered water where she and her baby could wait out the storm. She wished she could do the same.

Waves stung her eyes and she blinked, the air rumbling around her as the manatees departed. She tried to guess how much longer it would be before the hurricane hit full force. If she could dally, Leland might have to leave before she was properly drowned. Then again, he might lose patience and shoot her, leaving her to the alligators.

The sound of thwacking rotors electrified her. Overhead in the distance was an orange-and-white helicopter, hovering low, as if searching for something. Her heart leaped.

Gavin's report or Reuben's phone call to the authorities had worked. The coast guard chopper droned closer.

“Hey,” Antonia screamed, waving her hands as much as she could while still staying afloat. “I'm here! Here!”

The helicopter was close enough now that she could make out the white stripe on the tail and a glimpse of the wheels. She waved more furiously, darting a glance behind her, and saw the skimmer reverse course, returning to the screen of the lagoon where they would not be spotted.

Never mind Leland for now. She had to get the coast guard's attention and tell them there were people trapped on the island, innocent people who desperately needed help.

She hollered again, trying to lift herself above the cresting waves.

The helicopter moved closer and she swam a few strokes, spitting out water and hollering again until her throat burned. “Here, please, please,” she shouted.

For one more moment the helicopter moved closer, the shadow nearly touching Antonia where she struggled to stay afloat while still wildly waving her arms. Then it turned and headed the other direction, no doubt deciding conditions were too dangerous for the aircraft.

“No!” She slammed the water in frustration. “Don't leave us,” she screamed into an ocean that swallowed up the sound. In a matter of minutes, the helicopter had disappeared from sight.

Her spirit seemed to break within her. Arms heavy, legs like lead weights, she began to sink. She did not have the strength to make it back to the lagoon, and Leland would make sure she would not receive shelter there anyway. Ahead of her, the mainland stretched an impossibly far distance away, blotted out by the advancing storm that now buffeted the water around her into a frenzy. Too far. Impossible.

There seemed no other choice but to give up and stop fighting, let herself be pulled out to the ocean without battling the inevitable. Profound fatigue soaked into every muscle fiber, every pore.

No,
came the very small whisper into her mind. She grabbed hold of it and started to chastise herself.
You will not give up. You will not leave those people behind. You will not leave your sister and Gracie.

And Reuben.

She turned on her back, face to the rain, and rested as much as she could, trying to steady her breathing against the panic that nibbled away at the edges of her mind.

You will not give up.

She chanted it over and over in her head.
Will not.
She flipped over and tried again to discern which direction would get her to shore away from Leland. A flash of lightning illuminated the water for a split second, time enough for her to realize she was about a half mile away from a long spit of land that jutted out just past the Anchor. If she could make it there, bypassing the lagoon where Leland lay waiting, she might reach shore.

This time the storm would be her advantage, she decided. The rain was pummeling down so hard it would be difficult for Leland to spot her, a tiny speck amongst so much chaos. Sucking in a deep breath she allowed herself to be driven on the waves for a while, fighting the constant deluge of salt water and rain. By her rough estimation, she should tread water every few feet and reconnoiter. There was only one chance for success. If she let the waves carry her too far, she'd be swept past the spit and there would be no chance of fighting her way back. If she tarried too long treading water, she might not have the strength to claw her way onto the land.

Fatigue was rapidly overcoming her mental reserves. Her shoulder muscles burned from the effort of keeping her afloat. It was impossible to avoid swallowing mouthfuls of seawater, and her eyes began to blur from the stinging rain.
You will not give up.

Just a little longer, she told herself, but she realized she was barely resisting the sucking tide. Body cold, thoughts becoming fuzzy, vision blurred. A wave crashed over her head and she was pushed down. Emerging a moment later spluttering and coughing, she went under again when the next wave caught her.

Terror rippling her body, she made it to the surface again. Something bumped her shoulder. She recoiled in terror, her mind spinning with thoughts of alligators or the great white sharks, which she and Reuben had seen out in the deeper water. Had they come in close, disoriented by the storm like she was? Or had she drifted so far out that she was now fair game for the big predators? Her breathing was coming in pants now. Whatever it was bumped her again, and this time she screamed.

Dashing the water from her eyes she realized it was a plastic seat cushion, torn and muddied, probably blown loose from a boat. She grabbed on to it, dismayed when her clumsy fingers could not grip and the cushion slipped from her grasp. With her last supply of strength she heaved herself at it. This time her fingers cooperated and she wrapped her arms around tight. The cushion held, keeping her torso mostly above the water. Panting hard, she clung to the foam, grateful that one small thing had gone right, feeling the exquisite comfort of having something support her in the endless expanse of ocean. Cheek pressed to the sodden fabric, she rested until she felt the strength to raise her head again.

She saw no sign of Leland. The conditions would prohibit her from making them out anyway. Perhaps he and Martin had decided to make a last-ditch effort to reach the mainland, though with the storm raging she did not see how they could have completed the trip.