"Sounds good," Reese said with a grin on his face. "I'll let you take the lead in case you run into any problems."
"Got it, Tiberia out."
Reese hung the mic back up on its stand. "Okay, you ready to step on the gas a little?"
Jo continued to stare through the binoculars. "Yeah, I reckon so." She pulled away from the binoculars and stared at Reese. "Mind you, let's keep it to a little, and not knock-Jo-off-the-bench speed, okay?"
Reese laughed. "You sure refer to yourself by your first name a lot."
"I think it's from falling off this bench so much," Jo said as she turned back and settled the binoculars in front of her eyes. "Musta hit my head one too many times."
Reese lashed the wheel to hold their course temporarily, then stepped forward to the mast and untied the straps that held the shorter than normal sail tight to the boom. Once the strings had been unbound and stowed, he pulled on the halyard and raised the sail one full section. They still had another section of sail reefed—the bottom, largest chunk remained strapped to the boom.
He glanced over at Tiberia as he tied the halyard around a winch. Byron was quick about his business, and the sail had already raised on Tiberia as she pulled ahead of Intrepid.
Reese clambered back to the cockpit, freed the wheel, and let the wind propel Intrepid forward. For the first time since they'd been shot at on Long Island, Intrepid didn't overtake Tiberia with the same amount of sail in the air. He smiled. The repair job must have worked—otherwise Intrepid would've easily overtaken the wounded Tiberia.
"She's fair and true," Byron reported over the radio.
Reese snatched it off the stand and replied. "Looking good from back here!"
"Take another look at that smoke on the horizon..." Byron suggested. "Let me know what you think."
"If you hold this dadgum thing steady for more than a few seconds, I'd be able to get a better picture of what's happening over there," Jo muttered with the binoculars still glued to her face.
"Okay, hang on, I'll cut through their wake and see if I can get you a clear patch," Reese said. He turned the wheel slightly and adjusted the boom to maintain speed. In response, Intrepid gracefully glided through Tiberia’s wake, which had smoothed out the water ahead of them.
"Perfect! Hold it right there," Jo said.
Reese grinned. "I don't think that's exactly how it works with a sailboat—"
"Holy smokes—there's a helicopter over there...two of them. I think there's a battle going on over there.”
As Reese watched the smoke grow closer on the horizon, a bright flash erupted over Ocean City. "What the heck was that?"
"I think one of the helicopters just exploded," Jo said as she turned from the binoculars and stared at him.
"I don't think we need to be going any closer to shore..." Byron muttered over the radio.
Reese nodded. "Yeah, I'll second that notion..."
As he stood there staring over the starboard bow at the battle raging over the ruins of Ocean City, the hairs on the back of Reese’s neck stood. He checked the mast, the rigging. He went through the sailor’s intuition emergency checklist: mast, rigging, sails, course, hull, surrounding ocean, sky.
"What is it...?” Reese muttered to himself. Everything appeared fine, so why did he have a tingling sensation down the back of his spine. It was like...like he was being watched.
Reese turned, half expecting to find of motorboat full of men with rifles right behind them like in Newport. The only thing he saw was Intrepid's wake gracefully spreading out over the empty expanse of the ocean. Then his eye caught movement up in the sky. A little black dot moved against the blue background like a fly on a TV.
"What is that?"
Jo turned and grinned immediately. "That there's an F-18E Superhornet," she said. She raised the binoculars to her eyes and grunted. "Yep. Loaded for bear, too. Ain't seen one of them carrying missiles like that in a long time."
Reese stared as the fighter jet rapidly grew larger in the sky. He brought the mic to his mouth. "Heads up, Tiberia, we got company coming up behind us. Close."
"I don't see anything, what's out there?"
"Not in the water—look up."
Byron cursed, a clear violation of FCC regulations, but it still brought a lopsided grin to Reese’s face. An F-18 tearing through the sky at top speed—fully armed with half a dozen missiles—was an impressive sight. When it dropped low and angled toward the ocean, then skimmed only a hundred yards in the air over the surface, it went from amazing to jaw-droppingly incredible.
In less than 30 seconds, the jet went from a speck in the air to so close Reese could almost tell if the pilot had shaved that morning. The jet banked hard off Intrepid's port bow and screamed across the water on a path straight to the coast.
Reese hunched his shoulders as the sound assaulted his ears. "I had no idea those things were so loud!"
Jo laughed. "Yeah, them Navy boys like to show off."
"You said you were from Texas! How the heck do you know anything about naval fighter jets," Reese demanded.
“Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base—it’s just northwest of Fort Worth. Those guys always came flying in right over the treetops. Used to scare the dickens out of me at first—I thought it was an earthquake...” She shrugged. “You get used to it. They're fun to watch."
And watch they did. The single fighter jet streaked toward the shore, then banked hard to the south and disappeared toward Ocean City. A few moments later several black plumes of smoke erupted from the embattled city and drifted up into the sky.
Reese swallowed. "I get the feeling that guy just bombed the snot out of Ocean City..."
Jo nodded. “Let’s not stop there.”
Chapter 24
Haslet Forest Preserve
Northwest of Charleston, South Carolina
Cami got to her feet and helped Amber get to hers. She looked around and found Rufus propped against an oak sapling. Blood streamed from the side of his head. He looked up and gave Cami a weak thumbs-up signal.
Cami pushed hair out of her face. "Where's your rifle?" she yelled. Rufus stared at her for a second, then looked around on the ground. Eventually he shrugged.
"Nevermind, come on—we have to go." The four of them picked their way carefully east for some time. Cami was a nervous wreck the entire time. With her hearing damage, she had no idea if Cisco’s men tracked them or not.
John did his best every minute or so to stop and scan the woods, but he’d injured his leg in the explosion and it slowed them down when he paused to check their trail. The only thing that mattered to Cami was the unrelenting drive to get Amber home. She kept pushing everyone to go faster, move quietly, and not look back.
Eventually, the ringing in Cami's ears slackened to the point that she could talk to John without yelling. "Rufus is hurt pretty bad," she said as she dropped back and watch the wounded man pick his way through the woods. Amber came up next to him, took his arm and tried to help them move faster.
John winced. "Yeah, I saw. Looks like he flew into a tree or something."
Cami frowned. “You’re not doing so hot yourself.”
“I’m sorry...it’s my knee...it just ain’t workin’ right. Slowin’ me down...”
Cami offered a tired smile. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take over back here. You keep moving.” Something tickled the edge of her hearing. “You hear that?”
John looked around. “No...” he whispered. “What was it?”
“Sounded like gunfire...but it sounds really far away...”
“Are your ears better?”
“I don’t know, everything still sounds like I have cotton in my ears.”
John frowned. “How do we know it’s not twenty yards away then?”
Cami sighed. “We don’t.” She heard the distinct pop of gunshots from…somewhere and frowned because she couldn’t tell where. "What about Flynt?"
John pulled the radio from his belt and handed it to Cami. "Here,
I haven’t been able to hear anything, anyway. No idea what's going on."
Cami nodded. “Go on, I’ll take the rear.”
“You sure?” asked John. “You don’t want to be by Amber?”
Cami smiled as she watched her daughter help Rufus forward. “As long as she gets home, that’s all I care about.” She put a hand on John’s shoulder and urged him forward. “I’ll be fine.” She put the radio to her mouth. “You there?”
She placed the radio to her ear, hoping that when Flynt replied she’d be able to hear it. Last thing she wanted to do was crank the volume all the way up and have the radio give away their position to any pursuers.
"Yeah,” his voice crackled over the little speaker. “Still moving—what the heck was that? Sounded like a bomb went off."
Cami pushed the transmit button and smiled. "It was Marty's parting gift to Cisco."
"Remind me never to get on that old man's bad side," Flynt replied as he panted for breath.
"Keep pushing east—we were caught in the blast, but we’re on the move again."
"You're a lot closer to them than you are to us,” Flynt observed. “Don't worry about us—just get back to the house."
"Got it," Cami replied. She clipped the radio to her empty holster and urged everyone forward. "We’re not going to stick around and pick off anybody from behind. Just keep going."
Rufus and Amber nodded as they went by, and Cami got the distinct odor of blood in the air. Rufus was bleeding more than he let on. She glanced down at the ground and saw a clear trail of blood that led back the way they had come.
John noticed her gaze and swore when he saw the blood. "If they got even a halfway decent tracker back there, they’ll know exactly where we went."
Cami shrugged. "They already know where we’re going..."
"But this leads them down the exact path that we went," John argued. "Somebody might ambush us before we reach Bee’s Landing."
Cami rubbed her face and groaned. “Okay, you keep them going. I’ll cover our tracks.” She pulled the radio from her belt and slapped it against John's chest. "Go. Keep Amber and Rufus moving up there."
John shook his head. "Cami, no," he began.
"My daughter is safe, and I intend to do everything in my power to keep her safe. How many rounds do you have left?"
John smirked. "I got a full magazine. You?"
"Plenty enough to do some damage, but I got a scope. I'll be able to pick anybody off from a longer distance. We’re coming up on the beaver pond in a little ways. I'll meet you there."
"Look, I don't like—"
"John,” Cami said firmly. She put her hand on his arm. "I need to do this. I have to make sure my daughter’s safe. I’ll slow them down long enough for you all to make it home. Now go—get her back to the house for me. Please."
John frowned, took a look in the distance the way they’d come, then narrowed his eyes. He glanced at Cami, nodded sharply, then turned and limped off through the undergrowth catch up with Amber and Rufus.
Cami turned off the path and moved parallel to their path through the bushes. She paused and listened. The birds and the forest animals had gone quiet since the firefight erupted along the creek, but Cami had thought they would've returned by now. Questioning whether the blast had scared the last animals from the area, Cami was about to turn when she saw movement in the distance.
Perhaps 20 yards away, a man in a rough beard and ragged clothing carefully picked his way through the woods. He followed the exact path that they had just come, his eyes intent on the ground.
Cami deliberately raised her rifle and brought her cheek to the stock. She lined up the crosshairs through the scope on the man's chest and slowed her breathing. She told herself it was no different from an elk. Just as she started to apply pressure to the trigger, something cold and hard pressed against the side of her head.
"Okay...let's just stop right there," a hard voice whispered in her ear.
Cami froze. She turned her head ever so slightly and saw a bearded man wearing shredded camouflage clothing standing next to the tree. "Where...?"
The man grinned, his teeth yellow and stained. "You didn't think y'all were the only ones that knew how to hunt, did you?" the man with a protruding bottom lip said. He spat vile tobacco juice at Cami's feet. "All right then, take her."
"What—" Cami began. Her vision exploded into white as the most intense pain of her life erupted from the back of her skull. Cami felt the sensation of falling, then everything went black. Her last conscious thought was that she hoped John and Rufus were able to get Amber home.
Chapter 25
Lavelle Homestead
Bee’s Landing Subdivision
Northwest of Charleston, South Carolina
As the sun dropped close to the horizon and long shadows spread out across the land, bathing the world in twilight's muted grays and greens, Darien Flynt trudged out of the forest preserve and into Cami Lavelle's backyard. He was bone weary, exhausted, and sweat dripped off his face in big, heavy drops. His breath came in ragged gasps, and his heart pounded a mile a minute. He couldn't remember the last time he'd pushed his body so hard, for so long.
He paused as his mismatched work boots brushed the thick grass behind Lavelle's house. The blisters that screamed in agony on his heels would likely force him to stay off his feet for the rest of the day and into tomorrow, but he’d survived the rescue mission.
He made sure he'd been the last one to exit the woods—the rest of his ragtag strike force had already gathered on Lavelle’s back deck and collapsed where they'd stopped. The rest of Lavelle's group emerged from the house and brought sun tea, water, and food.
He straightened his back and groaned at the pain it elicited in his legs. Darien looked over his shoulder and saw only the gathering darkness in the forest. There was no sign of Lavelle, Douglass, her daughter, or Rufus—one of Franks’ best men.
Darien sighed and slung his rifle over a shoulder then trudged one boot after another through the thick grass until he made it to the deck and sat on the edge with a heartfelt sigh.
"Here, would you like some water?" the brunette—Mia was her name, he remembered—in a flowing sundress asked. She knelt next to him on the deck and handed over a glass of crystal clear, cool water. Darien nodded his thanks, grasped the glass with a shaking, sweaty hand, and brought the refreshing liquid to his mouth. He drained the whole glass, gasped for air, and gave it back to her.
She looked at his face, her brow furrowed. "Is there anyone else?"
Darien shook his head. "I'm the last one. Has Cami come back yet?"
The woman shook her head. "No...”
"Darien!" Harriet called out from across the deck where she'd been bandaging a volunteer’s arm. She quickly made her way through the crowd and stepped over men who had simply collapsed on the deck and lay gasping for air. She rushed to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, practically falling into his lap.
"Well, as much as I like that kind of a welcome, that's not going to go over well with the snobs in this neighborhood," he muttered.
"Let them look," she whispered. She hugged him tight and pressed herself against him. "I'm so happy you're safe, I can hardly stand it. That was the longest day of my life!"
Darien grinned, but didn't have the strength to wrap his arms around her. He was worried she was going to have to hold him up if he didn't lay down. “Did the boy make it back?" he asked as he lowered himself to the deck. He stretched out and groaned, allowing the cedar planks to support his body.
Harriet frowned. "He's back—and his parents are overjoyed—but everyone’s still concerned about Cami and John Douglass,” she said with a frown.
Darien closed his eyes and sighed. "I would've thought Cami and the others would've made it back earlier than this.” He squinted at Harriet. “I stayed back with a couple stragglers to make sure they made it home. It took us forever to get through the forest—we got lost somewhere around 7:30."
Harr
iet frowned as she looked down at him. "No, after the first group of your people came back, there was nothing until the rest of them showed up just now." She looked up and stared at the forest. “Amber came back next, with that irritating man, Rufus,” she said, practically spitting his name.
“Where is he?”
Harriet waved off the question like a fly. “Oh, they took him inside—he looked hurt, but was still walking. I haven’t seen him since.”
Darien lay there for a moment and stared at the high thin clouds that scudded across the sky. He tried to remember the last time it had rained. Something felt…off…about the humid closeness of the air. It felt like the calm before a storm.
"Doesn't it feel...strange?" Harriet said aloud. "There's no wind, and all the birds and insects are quiet...it's like they know something bad is coming."
Darien exhaled, long and slow. "Feels like the calm before a storm."
Harriet slapped his chest playfully. "Exactly!"
Soft footfalls on the deck signaled the approach of another visitor. Darien twisted his head and let the sweat drip down to the thirsty wood beneath his head. Amber, Cami's daughter approached.
She squatted next to him, then tucked her legs under herself and sat. "Mr. Flynt," she began, "I just wanted to say thank you. You and everybody else risked your lives to come rescue me..." Her eyes began to glisten. "It's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me in my entire life...and I don't know how I'll ever be able to repay you."
Darien smiled, too tired to offer words of advice or witty comebacks. "Live a good life. Earn it," he whispered.
The girl nodded, then wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. "Have you...have you heard anything from my mom? Or Mr. Douglass?"
Flynt watched the girl for a moment. "I'm sorry, no. How’s Rufus?"
Broken Tide | Book 4 | Backflow Page 20