by Connie Mann
Sasha looked back at the truck, but the man had disappeared too. Where had he gone? She shifted position to get a better look, and as she did, Bella used her movement to break free and race toward the dock, barking and growling. Sasha had never heard her bark like this, and it raised goose bumps on her arms.
Behind the corner of the building, Sasha froze, terrified for Bella. If she ran after her, she’d make herself a target, too, and Bella an even bigger one. She couldn’t do that.
She heard a splash, then more barking.
A whistling sound sliced through the quiet, followed by a yelp. She couldn’t tell if it was from Bella or the man, but it didn’t matter. She couldn’t stay here. She had to get to Bella.
She broke free of her cover and raced toward the dock in a crouch, hoping the moon would stay behind the clouds long enough for her to take cover. Just as she crossed the open area, she heard that whistling sound again. Acting on instinct, she dropped to the dock just as an arrow zipped past her and embedded itself into the corner of the building where she’d been hiding.
Merciful heavens, he was shooting at her. She pushed up on her hands and knees, trying to catch her breath and figure out where her assailant was hiding. She crawled over to a supply box fastened to the dock and hid behind it.
Another arrow shot past her and lodged in a dock piling. Sasha tried to keep her breathing quiet, settle the shaking in her hands, but her heart pounded so loud she figured they’d hear it. Why were they shooting at her? And where was Bella?
She scrambled up on her knees to look around, and another arrow whizzed past her head. She ducked back down and tried to think. Forcing a calm she didn’t feel, she took several deep breaths, studying the arrow closest to her. Based on direction, the arrow came from over by the boat ramp. Which she already knew.
Another bark, this one muffled and frantic, propelled Sasha to her feet. When the bark was followed by splashing, she ducked down a row of boats, peering between them, trying to find Bella.
She didn’t have to go far before she heard another bark, more splashing, and then enraged cursing. Atta girl, Bella. Still in a crouch, she kept inching along, trying to pinpoint their location. Ripples below the dock let her know she was getting closer.
Suddenly she spotted movement in the water. A flash of yellow, together with the larger shape of a man. When Bella yelped, Sasha didn’t stop to think. She simply stepped off the dock, surfaced, and plowed through the water in that direction, using the dock as cover.
It took a minute for her eyes to adjust to even less light under the dock, but when she got closer, she realized the man was in the water with Bella, holding her head under the water.
Oh no, that wasn’t going to happen. Sasha surged out of the water and grabbed the man around the neck.
“What the—” He cursed and tried to shake her off, but Sasha hung on. He let go of Bella so he could reach for her, and Bella’s head popped out of the water. The man turned around and managed to get Sasha off his back, and now he had his hand around her throat and was trying to wrestle her head down.
“Go, Bella.” Sasha tried to say more, but the man cut off her air. Instead of swimming to safety, Bella lunged up and clamped her jaw on the man’s arm. He tried to shake her off, but she wouldn’t let go. And he wouldn’t let go of Sasha’s throat.
Who was this crazy person? Sasha tried to see, but he had something over his face that hid his features.
Her vision blurred as she tried to pry his hands from around her throat. He plunged her head down, and she instinctively took a breath and closed her mouth, just in time. He held her head underwater while her heart beat faster and faster as panic grew. Dear God, help me. She needed air. Right. Now.
She could feel her struggles getting weaker, the darkness closing in. She kept struggling, but she knew it wasn’t doing any good. She was going to die.
Everything inside her rebelled at the thought. No, she wasn’t. Not without fighting with everything she had.
She tried to grip his hands again, tried to pry them off, even as the darkness closed in and her lungs felt like they were going to burst from the pressure.
Suddenly she heard the man shout in pain, and the hands around her throat loosened. She felt Bella nudge her, then her head burst up into the night air.
Air. Thank you, Jesus. She gulped in air as Bella tugged on her arm. It took a moment to realize Bella was urging her under the dock. The man had disappeared. Where had he gone?
An arrow struck the water right where they’d been, and Sasha knew. She and Bella quickly moved farther away from the ramp, Sasha trying not to wheeze like a racehorse after the Kentucky Derby. They swam quietly, trying not to create any sound, but they still made ripples in the water.
Another arrow hit the water.
Sasha grabbed Bella’s collar and took a deep breath, and they swam underwater to the cover of the next dock. They popped up to take a breath, then headed for the next one. Then the next. All around them, arrows hit the water, but Sasha and Bella were getting farther away.
Sasha held on to Bella’s collar with one hand and treaded water. How were they going to get out of the water without being found? Or impaled by an arrow?
Beside her, Bella was tiring, starting to whimper. Sasha grabbed her around the middle to keep her afloat.
Maybe they could get to Pop’s old johnboat, they one he kept at the end of the marina, just in case. Except that was the opposite end of the marina from where they were hiding.
Footsteps sounded one dock over, and Sasha heard quiet talking.
“I lost them. They can’t be far, but we have to get out of here. We don’t need anyone showing up asking questions.”
Sasha moved slowly toward shallower water, Bella clutched in her arms, until finally her feet touched bottom. She stayed hidden under the dock, holding Bella, listening as the footsteps drifted away. Then came the sound of the truck engine and more ripples when the truck and trailer went into the water.
Sasha heard the low hum of an engine and peered around the pilings. Sure enough, they were loading the minisub onto the trailer. As soon as it was loaded, the truck pulled it out of the water.
Bella whimpered again. “I know, girl. Hang on. Just a little while longer.” If they did the same thing as last time, they would move to the darkest corner of the parking area and cover the sub before they left.
Sasha wanted to wait to get out of the water until she was sure they were gone, but Bella couldn’t wait that long. She was flailing and her whimpers had gotten louder. Sasha eased them quickly from the cover of one dock to the next until they were under the main dock, right by the bait shop. Keeping a tight grip on Bella’s collar, she walked out of the water in a crouch and ducked behind the marina building and out of sight.
Bella tried to shake the water off, so Sasha let go just long enough for that, then grabbed her collar again. Together they watched the far corner, but Sasha couldn’t see anything clearly in the dark. Finally the truck pulled down the drive and disappeared. They had no lights on inside or outside the truck or trailer, so Sasha wouldn’t have seen them if she hadn’t been watching the whole time.
When she was sure they were gone, Sasha led Bella into the marina store and grabbed an old towel to dry her off. She stopped when she saw blood on her snout. “What happened, girl?”
Bella just looked at her, big brown eyes full of pain. Sasha held her snout in her palm, but couldn’t find an injury there. She carefully ran the towel over Bella’s flanks and stopped when the Lab flinched. She parted her fur and found a two-inch gash in her flesh, but thankfully it didn’t look deep.
She went into Pop’s office to retrieve the first-aid kit and had Bella bandaged in no time, though it wasn’t easy, given her thick fur. She checked the old-fashioned clock above the counter. Two thirty in the morning. They both needed sleep. If she thought it would do a bit of good to call the police, she would. But given the chief’s attitude . . . she didn’t have the energy to deal with h
im tonight. She’d call Nick in the morning. Maybe he could help.
Quietly they walked up to the house and eased in through the porch. Bella tried to follow Sasha up the stairs, but her strength gave out. Sasha’s heart clenched, and she squatted beside her.
“You did good tonight, girl. I’m thinking that crazy person has a nice-sized gash in his arm, thanks to you. Get some sleep.”
Bella curled up beside the couch, so Sasha grabbed an afghan Mama Rosa had crocheted years ago and bedded down on the couch beside her. She didn’t have any reason to think the men would be back tonight, but if they did show up, she wanted to be ready.
It didn’t take five minutes before Bella snored quietly, but Sasha couldn’t settle down. Somebody was out on the water at night with a minisub. Strange, but OK. Maybe it was a prototype and they didn’t want anyone to see it yet. She could understand that. Maybe.
But they’d tried to kill her and Bella both. With a doggone bow and arrow, for Pete’s sake. That made no sense.
So now what? Whom to trust? The question replayed over and over in her mind with no answers until she finally drifted into a light sleep.
She woke to Bella nudging her hand. She cracked one eye open, surprised at the streaks of dawn lightening the sky. She rubbed her eyes and forced her brain to wake up. It felt like she fell asleep ten minutes ago. She tossed the afghan aside, then remembered to fold it neatly on the back of the sofa. She let Bella out before she stumbled to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee.
She had just let Bella back in and poured the first cup when Pop walked into the kitchen. She rose to kiss his cheek. “Morning, Pop. Coffee?”
He nodded, and she studied him over her shoulder while she grabbed a mug and poured him a cup. He looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept any more than she had. She opened her mouth to ask him if he’d heard anything around town about a minisub, but closed it again. Pop had enough to worry about. She wouldn’t add any more to his load.
He sipped his coffee in silence, head down. Sasha went over and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
“You OK, Pop? Another rough night?”
His glance flashed up to hers for just a moment, and in it she saw such anguish, such grief, she sucked in a breath.
“It is always a rough night these days, my Sasha.”
Her eyes widened. “Did something happen? Is Mama worse?”
He shook his head sadly. “It isn’t so much that she’s worse. It is that she is not getting better.”
Sasha plopped down in one of the old wooden chairs surrounding the table where they’d shared so much laughter over the years. Meals, game nights, homework.
“The treatment isn’t working?” She said the words quietly, afraid speaking them too loudly would give them more power.
“I do not think so, no. Your mama, though.” He shrugged and raised his mug in salute. “She is a fighter. And she decided that she will dance at the wedding of each of her daughters, so this must work. No matter what the doctors say.”
“She may be right,” Sasha said, trying to summon a smile. “Mama has always bent the world to suit her needs.”
Pop’s shoulders slumped, and she wanted to call the words back. “Not always, Sasha.”
She swallowed. She had no idea what to say.
“Can I make you some breakfast?”
He stood, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Then he reached past her and took a frozen breakfast sandwich from the freezer. He filled a travel mug and took his fisherman’s cap from the hook by the door. One hand on the screen, he looked over his shoulder.
“I love you, my girl, but cooking is not your gift.” He raised the sandwich. “I’ll nuke this at the store. It’s safer.” He said the last with a chuckle and left.
Sasha laughed, as he’d wanted her to, and went to pour another cup of coffee.
She spun to see Blaze glaring at her from the doorway, arms crossed over her middle. Did the teen have no other expression?
“Good morning, Blaze. Can I get you anything?”
“Yeah, you can pack your bags and leave already.”
“That seems a bit harsh at”—she glanced at the black-cat clock with the swishing rhinestone tail—“six forty-five in the morning. Did you want coffee?”
“You don’t get it, do you?” Blaze snapped, opening the refrigerator and taking out a gallon of milk. She reached into a cupboard for a cereal box and a bowl, then added milk to the sugary mess before she faced Sasha across the table.
“I guess I don’t. Will you tell me?” She kept her tone even, calm, trying to figure out what bee the prickly teen had lodged in her ball cap this morning.
“You’ve changed everything. This whole stupid quest. It’s making Mama Rosa cry more, and she and Pop are fighting more. I don’t want to hear them fight. You need to stop this stupid search and go away.”
Sasha sipped her coffee, choosing her words with care.
“But Mama asked me to do this, Blaze. Should I have told her no? Would you?”
Blaze jumped up from her chair. “You could have. She would have listened to you. But now you’re talking to the cops and getting old files and upsetting everybody. Mama has to get better. Don’t you get that?”
“I want her to get better, too. Of course.” She stopped. “Finding out what happened to Tony won’t change her health, Blaze. One way or the other.”
“I know that. I’m not an idiot. But it can’t be good for her to be so worried about it.”
“That’s true. I didn’t know she was worried, though. I thought she was OK with me trying to find answers, no matter what they turned out to be.”
Blaze dumped her cereal in the sink. “Shows what you know.”
Something Blaze said earlier caught Sasha’s attention. “Speaking of those old police files, they seem to have disappeared. You wouldn’t happen to know where they are, would you?”
“I didn’t take them.”
Sasha held her hands up, palms out. “I didn’t say you did. But do you know who might have taken them?”
“Maybe you just lost them in that mess you made upstairs.”
Interesting. So Blaze had been snooping in her room. She stifled a grin. Which is exactly what she would have done at Blaze’s age. Anyone who got shuffled around foster care learned to get information wherever and however they could. That way you weren’t blindsided.
“Help me out here, Blaze? Do you know anything?”
“Even if I did, why should I tell you?”
“Because ultimately, we’re on the same side, you and me. We both love Mama Rosa and Pop, and we both want them to be healthy and happy.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So who wants me to stop the search, besides you?”
“And besides Pop and every single person in this stupid town?” She tugged her ball cap farther down on her head. “He even—” She stopped herself and slammed out the door.
Sasha hurried outside and caught up with her halfway across the yard. “He what?”
Blaze ignored her and kept walking. Sasha reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her. Blaze shook her off, but wouldn’t look at her.
“Talk to me, Blaze. Please.”
“Pop asked you to stop and you won’t.”
Sasha waited as the silence lengthened. Finally she said, “Because Mama asked me to keep going.”
Blaze glanced her way, eyes full of the same pain and confusion Sasha saw in her own eyes when she peered in a mirror.
“Check the fire pit.” The words seemed like they were torn from somewhere deep inside. Then the teen spun on her heel and hurried away, earbuds already in her ears.
Sasha watched her, her own frustration boiling. Did Pop and Mama have any idea the impossible situation they’d put their daughters in?
She turned and marched over to the fire pit. In what passed for winter in Florida, when temps dropped enough to merit a sweatshirt, Sasha and her sisters used to light the fire pit and roast
marshmallows and hot dogs and tell ghost stories in the dark. The rest of the year, the fire pit was a handy place to burn branches and other yard debris.
She leaned over the rock-encircled pit and saw several charred tree branches and a big pile of ashes. She looked closer. After a quick glance over her shoulder, she crouched down and fished a yellowish object from the ashes, her heart knowing what it was before her brain completely registered it. She plopped down on her backside and brushed soot from the tiny remnant of the police file Nick had copied for her.
Goose bumps popped out on her skin. If what Blaze had hinted at were true, Pop had taken the file from her Jeep and burned it.
She knew he wanted her to stop the search.
But the familiar question wouldn’t go away. Was there more to it than simply not wanting to upset Mama?
How much more?
Chapter 16
When Jesse arrived at the marina the next morning, still hunched over like an old man, he stopped in the bait shop and was disappointed to see Sasha wasn’t behind the counter. “Morning, Sal. How’re things?”
Sal looked up from an order form and offered a weak smile. “Can’t complain. Nobody wants to hear it anyway, right?”
Jesse laughed as he was meant to, but he could see that worry and sleepless nights were taking a toll.
Sal eyed him and said, “You look like you’ve been keelhauled. Do you feel as bad as you look?”
Jesse nodded. Even that small movement proved painful. “It hurts no matter what I do, so I might as well get some work done.”
“You’re not still planning to race, are you?” Sal’s raised eyebrows left no doubt as to his opinion of that.
“We’ll see,” he said. “Mama Rosa holding her own?” He wasn’t sure how else to word the question.
Pop’s eyes darkened as he nodded. “She’s a tough one, my Rosa. If anyone can beat this thing, she can.”
“I have no doubt of that, Sal. None. Give her my love, would you?”
Sal nodded and rang up Jesse’s purchases. Jesse scooped up his bag and nodded to several captains in line behind him as he went out the door.