Save Me

by Jenny Elliott

  * * *

  “I’m guessing you were with David?” her mom asked, blocking Cara’s entrance into the house when she got home just before ten.

  “You guessed correctly.”

  Her mom dragged her by the arm to the family room and dumped her in the armchair. “I told you I don’t want you to see him. And I warned you I would punish you if you didn’t obey me.”

  Cara counted to five in her head, willing herself not to lash out. “I still think you should respect my decision.”

  “I can’t do that. I’m going to have to ask you to stay home when you’re not in school. When I’m not here, I’ll call the home phone to check on you.”

  Cara had no intention of letting her mom lock her away from David. But she’d already done and said enough to make her mom angry. “I’ll stay home, if you’ll agree to have dinner with David and me this Friday.”

  Her mom dropped down on the love seat. “Fine. We’ll have him over for dinner so I can talk to him.”

  “No. David and I will cook dinner at his place.”

  Her mom’s eyes blazed. “On one condition.”

  Cara waited.

  “You drive there with me and come home with me.”

  Cara was quick to nod. Her mom could just as easily have said “no.”

  “Until then,” her mom said, lips twitching, “I want you home.”

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Cara followed her mom’s orders and drove straight home after school on Wednesday. David remained unaware of her imprisonment. She invited him to come over to her house during the evening hours while her mom was teaching a night class.

  When he arrived, Cara led him upstairs to her bedroom and held the door open. He took a peek inside, then stepped back into the hallway.

  She placed a hand on her hip. “Scared of something?”

  He snickered and slipped through the door, then moved over to the wall covered with blown-up whale photos. “Crossback and Bobbi?”

  “Mostly.”

  He turned to study the framed pictures of her and Rachel that topped her dresser. Then he peered out the window at the whitecaps reflecting in the darkness. “You have a pretty nice view.”

  “It’s not as close-up as yours, but I’m not complaining. To be honest, though, I spend most of my time looking at a computer screen.”

  His gaze fell to her laptop. “Me, too.”

  Stepping over to her desk, he sniffed the roses Garren had given her, then scanned the assortment of books and CDs lined up on the hutch. “You have diverse taste.”

  “Thanks.” Her top picks were on display for him. Mounds of other books and CDs were stacked in boxes in her closet.

  He looked up at her one framed painting and asked, “Is that the beach by Surfseekers?”

  “Yep—my favorite.”

  “Mine, too, if you remember.”

  “Of course I do.”

  He flashed her his lopsided smile before he moved over to her bed and sat on the edge, facing the window. A tendon in his jaw popped. His gaze had returned to the eighteen white roses in the vase on her desk. She’d replaced the water in the vase twice, but the flowers were still in immaculate condition, nearly a month after she’d received them.

  “Let me guess,” he said. “Those are from Garren.”

  The roses from Garren weren’t something she meant to hide from David. She just didn’t know how to tell him they were a birthday gift without sounding like she was lying, or loony. Her mom had questioned her about the fresh flowers a few days before and gave Cara a distrustful sideways gaze when she’d told her they were the same roses Garren had given her for her birthday. Her mom understandably suspected they were from David.

  David’s attention shifted to the photo of the two of them at the Anchor she’d printed, framed, and displayed on her nightstand. His expression brightened.

  She walked over to where he sat on the bed. “Yes, the roses are from Garren. I know they seem like a romantic gift. But it’s not like that.” Her fingers played in his soft, dark hair. “At first, even I couldn’t believe I wasn’t attracted to Garren. But we’re honestly only friends.”

  David looked over at the roses again. “It’s not natural for a guy who’s just friends with a girl to treat her the way Garren treats you.”

  “I promise, you have nothing to be jealous about. Really, Garren seems strangely asexual.”

  David huffed out a chuckle.

  She tilted his chin up with her fingers, so he’d look her in the eye. “You trust that I don’t have the same feelings for Garren that I have for you, don’t you?”

  He paused until warmth pulsed through the tether between them.

  When he nodded, she kissed him deeply on the mouth, then lightly on the forehead. “Then please believe that Garren isn’t after me.”

  David shook his head, sure she was being gullible.

  “The only guy I’ve had feelings for other than you was Chris, the guy Amber and I both dated. But I didn’t feel anywhere near as strongly for him as I do for you.” She continued to lightly run her fingers through David’s short hair. “I’m glad I was never intimate with him. He was a jerk. And I was a fool.”

  David pulled her down with him as he lay back on the bed. He rested her on top of him. “You weren’t a fool.”

  Too quickly, he set her on her side. They faced each other with their heads propped on their hands. He placed his other hand on her hip and she stroked his arm through the smooth cotton of his shirt.

  “It’s hard to know who you can trust. We all get it wrong sometimes.” He brushed her cheek with his fingers. “And then sometimes we get it right.”

  “Speaking of getting it wrong,” she said, her gaze dropping to his chest. “Is Amber still bugging you?”

  “She calls and she came over a few times, but I’ve been able to get rid of her.”

  “It’s my fault she’s after you.”

  “It’s not your fault. But I don’t like it that she’s upset with you for reasons I can’t control. I wish you’d told me about Chris sooner.”

  “Chris isn’t a happy memory.”

  He smoothed her hair out of her face. “I understand that, but after Amber showed up at the school and your car got vandalized, even though I knew she was dangerous, I didn’t know she was after you personally.”

  “Amber doesn’t scare me.” Much.

  “She damaged your car. And she threatened you at her Halloween party. Also, Seaside’s administrative assistant quit—suddenly—and Principal Roberts told me that Amber had something to do with that. He wouldn’t give me specifics and he wouldn’t tell me why he didn’t hire Amber. But I could tell he was worried about what she’s capable of. I’m worried, too. About you.”

  It wouldn’t be a surprise if Amber had a record. She was a stalker. No doubt she’d earned a restraining order or two. “Tell me how you and Amber met.”

  A teasing grin touched his lips. “You started it.”

  “Me? What did I do?”

  “After I met you, I couldn’t get you off my mind. When I found out you were a high school student, I did my best to try to forget you, but I couldn’t.” He stared at a strand of her hair as he ran his fingers through it. “I got lonely. One night I went out to try to meet someone else. I went to the Hollow, but there were only couples in the bar. Then Amber walked in. It seemed like fate that she showed up.”

  “Only now you know better.”

  “I knew better then, too, really. We talked and she wanted to come to my place or have me over to hers. I didn’t want that, so I told her I’d take her out another time.”

  “And you kept your word.”

  “Yes.” He pulled her closer to him. “But I went home and thought of you.”

  She resisted the urge to move even closer. “Did you tell her you’d see her again after the last time you took her out?”

  “No. She said she sensed something was bothering me, and I told her I was trying to get over feelings for someone else an
d that it wouldn’t be fair to pretend I was interested in her.”

  “What did she say to that?”

  “She said she’d wait for me to get over it.”

  Cara couldn’t help thinking that Amber could visit the Hollow any time she wanted when David was working there. “Did you tell her not to bother?”

  “I should have told her that from the start. But I didn’t flat-out tell her to leave me alone until that night she showed up at the school before our layout session.”

  At least he’d finally gotten around to telling Amber to forget it. Not that she’d listened.

  “When you went to the Cove and had the chowder again, were you with Amber?” That unanswered question had been haunting her since the day she’d interviewed him.

  “No, I went alone. I knew it would remind me of you.”

  Heat flushed through her.

  Things were going too well with David to let Amber interfere anymore. “Can we talk about something else?”

  He placed his hand back on her hip. “Just promise me you’ll stay away from Amber, especially when I’m gone for Thanksgiving.”

  “You say that like I want to hang out with her or something.”

  His bicep bulged under her hand. “Is it just going to be you and your mom celebrating here on Thanksgiving?”

  “No. Garren’s coming over.”

  David propped himself up higher and looked down at her.

  She sighed. “As a friend.”

  “Doesn’t the guy have a family of his own?”

  “I’m not sure, actually. He insists on keeping everything about his life private.”

  David fell onto his back. “That seems odd. And convenient.”

  “He might have a sad life.” She rubbed David’s arm. “Let’s be nice.”

  “We can consider the dinner we have with your mom this Friday a pre-Thanksgiving meal.”

  She laid her head on his chest. “There you go. That would be nice.”

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  When Cara came home from school on Thursday, she avoided her mom by locking herself in her room. Rather than telling David she’d been forbidden to see him, she said she had plans. In truth, the only plan she had was to play Scrabble in her jail cell. Her mom called up to her, asking her to come down to help cook dinner. She yelled back that she didn’t feel well.

  The next day, Cara didn’t ask her mom’s permission before she headed to David’s place after school. She and David prepared dinner in silence. He put potatoes in the oven to bake and seasoned steaks to broil. She prepared her favorite avocado salad. When she finished, she left without a word between them, just a short kiss. He had to be at least as nervous as she was about her mom coming over.

  At home, Cara found her mom on the love seat, still in the skirt suit she’d worn to teach that morning.

  “Where have you been?” her mom asked with a stern sideways gaze.

  “I told you David and I were going to cook dinner for the three of us tonight. It’s almost done. Are you ready to go?”

  Her mom pushed up from the love seat, grabbed her purse, and left Cara to follow her to the door. “I’m driving.”

  The silence in the Outback was heavier than the silence had been in David’s kitchen. At David’s place, Cara and her mom climbed his front steps, and Cara rang the doorbell. David welcomed them in and took their coats. He invited her mom to sit on the couch to take in the view while he brought her a cup of coffee.

  Cara and David set the table. When they’d filled three plates with food, David laid them out. Cara called her mom over.

  Her mom didn’t touch her food and turned to David with a tight-lipped smile. “I’m going to be frank when I say that I expect you to do the right thing and end your involvement with my daughter.”

  David stopped slicing his steak and met her mom’s gaze. “I’ve been careful to avoid doing the wrong thing.”

  Her mom shook her head. “You might not be Cara’s teacher anymore, but an imbalance of power still exists between you two, even if it’s only on a subconscious level.”

  Her mom paused, then continued when David’s gaze dropped to his plate. “Cara is too young to handle a mature relationship. And you must know she’s leaving this summer. Which leads me to believe you’re less than serious about a relationship with her anyway. I hope you’ll spare her feelings.”

  David didn’t comment. He looked to Cara, whose heart dropped to her stomach. She’d expected her mom to observe her and David and see that they related well. Instead, her mom had unleashed harsh words that Cara couldn’t take back. Worse, before now, Cara had never really considered the possibility that David might think of their relationship as short term.

  Her mom stood from the table. “Thank you for inviting me over.”

  David stood to face her mom with a stiff smile. “You’re welcome. I respect your opinions.”

  David’s forced smile fell into a frown when Cara stood. He didn’t look her in the eye.

  She was still too stunned by her mom’s blunt comments to say anything other than, “I’m sorry, David.”

  Her mom took her by the arm and led her out the door.

  * * *

  On Saturday, Cara fought an urge to head to David’s place. She worried her mom had succeeded in turning him off to their relationship. Or that he truly only planned to date her until she moved away.

  A breakup like that would be too much to take. It would almost be better not to date him at all. But she couldn’t bear that thought. She told herself she was being paranoid again. David would call her later.

  She waited until she heard the drone of the garage door opening and closing before she went downstairs. Never again would she obey her mom’s command to stay cooped up at home. Not after last night.

  Half a banana was all she could stomach for breakfast. She climbed into her Fit and drove to Liberty Charters under a drizzling, gray sky.

  Captain Rick’s truck was the only vehicle in the lot. Cara was glad to see his shiny new rear bumper. He’d insisted on replacing it at his own cost, saying he didn’t want her insurance premiums to go up. Her real father might have abandoned her, but Rick was a first-rate substitute.

  The bell above the office door jingled as she stepped inside the office. Her mind carried back to when she’d first met David. She recalled his deep, soft voice, his lopsided smile, his intent green eyes as they’d searched hers when they’d both touched Crossback, his urgent tone in the water when he’d told her to hold on to him and not let go. The memories made her want to cry at the same time that they made her smile.

  Sherry sat at her desk, her lips pressed together and down in the kind of frown you’d see on a child whose dog had died. Rick stood behind her with a hand on her shoulder.

  “What’s wrong?” Cara asked.

  Rick squeezed the bill of his hat. “I called off the rest of the tours for today, kiddo. Those transient orcas went after Bobbi.”

  It felt as though something cold and hard had struck Cara’s chest. In her mind’s eye, giant white teeth flashed beneath a shiny black snout.

  “Those transients are still here?” Cara asked.

  Rick nodded.

  Cara looked pointedly at Sherry. “Is Bobbi hurt?”

  “We’re not sure,” Sherry said. “We’ve been communicating with other boats that are still out there, but the attack has been going on for over an hour now.”

  “Over an hour?”

  “It takes time for the transients to exhaust the grays,” Rick said.

  “And to drown the babies,” Sherry added, her frown deepening.

  This additional tsunami of worry built up within Cara and rolled out in a flood of tears.

  Rick came to her side and patted her back. “Don’t cry. I’m sure Crossback’s fighting hard to keep Bobbi safe and to guide him to shallow water.”

  Cara blotted the tears away from the corners of her eyes and sniffed. “Can we help stop the attack?”

  “Not unless you want to
become a part of it,” Sherry said.

  “We can’t just sit here and do nothing. Maybe being out there to support Crossback and Bobbi would help?”

  “I know you love those grays,” Rick said. “But after what happened with the transients and the zodiac, I’m not keen on going out there when they’re being aggressive.”

  Cara pouted.

  “All right,” he said, and groaned. “If you really want to be there for them, I’ll take you out.”

  She didn’t let on that she was still paralyzed with fear at the thought of being on the water with the transients and that her fear quadrupled when she imagined them in attack mode. She tacked on a semismile.

  “But if those transients so much as look at the boat, we’re getting out of there,” Rick told her.

  That was good to hear. “There’s hope that Crossback and Bobbi will both be fine, right?”

  Rick’s attempt at a smile failed. “There’s always hope.”

  * * *

  The Lookout jetted across the water, slapping against the waves beneath it. Cara pulled her hood over her head. Tiny drops of rain pricked at her face until Rick slowed the boat.

  They’d reached a spot over a mile offshore, where a patch of frothing seawater came into view. The glistening black-and-white bodies of two transients stirred up the water as they rammed into Crossback’s side. Cara froze at the sight of the tall, triangular dorsal fins.

  Rick brought the zodiac as close as he safely could to the edge of the scene. He positioned the boat within the semicircle formed by other observers. His face remained drawn as he snapped several pictures. Cara fell to her knees and gripped the side tube.

  The killers retreated and their dorsals submerged, then broke the surface again as they rushed back toward Crossback’s gray-and-white, mottled body. Guarding Bobbi, whose shorter, darker length hugged close behind his mother, the large, gray whale remained where she was. The two transients struck Crossback’s side, headfirst, so hard that her giant body partially lifted out of the water.

  As the killers charged again, Crossback slapped at them with her tail flukes. Her third blow connected with the head of the transient that nearly reached Bobbi. The killer backed away, but the second transient lunged at Crossback. Its enormous, pointed teeth clamped onto her flipper and pulled her away from her baby. The first transient joined in the effort, sinking its teeth into Crossback’s other flipper. Red streams flowed from the tips of both Crossback’s fins when the killers left her where they’d towed her, several yards from Bobbi.