Page 64 of One Night Years Ago

God, please don’t let them drown.

She looked at her watch. It’d been thirty minutes since Hunter jumped into the water. Too long for two people to tread water in the middle of a storm.

She scanned the foaming water all around them.

“You look a bit green around the gills, Rob. I thought you were a born sailor,” she said, trying to lighten the mood.

“I guess that’s just my expression when I’m doing something that I know is crazy,” he huffed, but he was smiling. “Now seriously, Natalie, this isn’t safe. The current is pulling us towards the rocks.”

Natalie looked to where he was pointing. At that very moment, she heard it, soft enough that at first she thought she might be imagining it.

“Shh, do you hear that, Rob?”

“I don’t hear anything.”

Natalie strained her ears. She couldn’t hear anything anymore. She was about to turn away when the waves sank for a moment and her eyes were drawn to movement on the rocks. And then she heard it. It was Emma’s voice.

“They’re in the Buccaneer’s Den!”

“How the hell did they make it all the way there?”

“The current must have pushed them! Come on, you need to get us closer to the cave.”

“Closer to the cave is closer to the rocks, boss,” Rob explained, using the tone of voice one might use to reason with a three-year-old. “In case you haven’t noticed, this isn’t the Queen Mary. Those rocks will crack us like an egg.”

“Just a little bit, Rob, please, so we can check if they’re okay.”

Rob huffed. “Okay then, but you’ll be explaining it to the mayor if I do end up sinking his boat.”

Natalie nodded impatiently.

Finally, they were close enough that she could see the two figures sitting at the mouth of the cave. The smaller figure stood up and waved.

Emma.

Natalie let go of the breath she’d been holding.

Sitting beside Emma, Hunter covered his face with his right arm, protecting his eyes from the boat’s search lights. His left arm hung loose by his side.

“Emma! Hunter! We’re going to get you guys out of there!” Natalie shouted. She lowered her voice so only Rob could hear, still having to speak loudly to compete with the roaring wind. “How the hell are we going to get them out, Rob? They might be hurt. I don’t want to have to come find them when the storm dies down, if that’s what you’re going to suggest.”

Rob shrugged his powerful shoulders. “I might have suggested that, Sheriff, except it’ll be too late then.”

“Too late? What do you mean?”

“They’re on dry land now, but the tide is rising. In a few minutes the cave they’re standing in will be underwater.

Shit. Just our luck.

Rob knew these waters like a gardener knew his flowers. If he said the cave would be underwater, then they had a problem ahead of them.

“Well then, we need to get them out before that happens. We’ll throw them a rope and reel them in.”

Rob shook his head. “That’s going to be one mighty throw, boss.”

“Stop telling me what we can’t do and help me, please,” she begged. Her eyes threatened to fill with tears, but she willed them back. She couldn’t afford to go soft now. Hunter and Emma needed her to be stronger than that.

Rob sighed. His large hands looked almost dainty as they fought against the storm. He didn’t look away from the wheel but shrugged his left shoulder. “There’s a life preserver there. If we tie it to the rope, it will make it heavier. Then we just hope they can both hold on to it as we reel them in, like a mackerel.”