Armored Attraction

by Janie Crouch

  Karine was falling asleep on the plank. Both had long since stopped kicking.

  “Karine, let’s see if we can get our weights totally on the plank. See if it will support us both, okay? Then we can rest.”

  Karine nodded weakly then shifted her weight more onto the float. Almost immediately upon finding herself in a horizontal position, she closed her eyes, drawing her legs up to her chest for warmth.

  Vanessa pulled her weight onto the floating plank, too, but as soon as she did it began to sink. It wasn’t buoyant enough to hold both of them. She slid back off to keep Karine from going under.

  “Should I get off?” Karine murmured, barely lifting her head.

  Vanessa felt another sting. There was no way she would subject Karine to this; she’d been through enough. Vanessa could survive a few jellyfish stings. It would soon be morning. All Vanessa had to do was to hang on. Literally and figuratively. This wasn’t the Titanic. Vanessa wouldn’t freeze.

  She lost track of time as she was stung over and over. No one sting was unbearable but, taken altogether, her legs began to feel as if they were on fire. Tears rolled down her cheeks at first but eventually dried up, too.

  She just wanted to sleep yet knew she couldn’t. If she did, she would fall off the board and drown. She had to hang on.

  But it became harder, more agonizing. She whimpered as she tried to move her legs. They felt stiff and awkward. And incredibly painful.

  She laid her head to rest on the board, long past caring about the temperature of the water. She could see the subtle change of texture in the darkness furthest away.

  The sun was beginning to rise.

  Soon Vanessa would be able to get her bearings, to know which way to find the shore. Unfortunately she wasn’t going to be able to do anything once she knew. There was no way she could swim or kick. She could barely move at all. The stings were unbearable now.

  She kept her head where it lay, close to Karine in case the girl woke up. Vanessa just tried to hold on but didn’t know how long she would be able to.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Liam had never known fear like this. All-encompassing, wrapping him from head to toe.

  They couldn’t find Vanessa and Karine.

  Liam would be dead if it wasn’t for Joe. His tackle momentum had gotten them both off the boat before the detonation. And although the protective material from their specialty wet suits had shielded them from the worst of the blast, Joe had still been injured. He was on his way to the hospital right now with burns and a puncture wound. But he was conscious and had assured Liam he would be fine.

  Derek and the girls were all right—they were scared and wanted to see Karine—but none of them had been hurt in the blast. They, also, were on their way to the hospital, Derek in charge of their custody for the time being.

  Now Liam was out on the water, along with Webb and the Coast Guard, looking for Vanessa and Karine. This storm was making everything more complicated, especially since they couldn’t use helicopters for the search effort.

  “Sir, this will be much more effective during the day. The sun should be up in just a couple hours.”

  But Liam couldn’t stand the thought of them out here, maybe hurt, definitely scared, for even a minute longer than they had to be.

  “The water temperature, even with prolonged exposure, should not be life-threatening. Barring injury, of course,” the man continued.

  Liam set his jaw. “It’s still damn cold, I’m sure, especially with their lack of body mass. We keep looking.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Liam kept searching for anything that might catch his attention in the night. Any changes in texture in the darkness or items that might reflect light. Once every thirty seconds or so, they blew a whistle, although it was probably pretty muffled by the storm.

  “Do you know how far they were from the boat when the blast occurred?” another rescue team member asked.

  “They were far enough. They’re still alive.”

  “I’m sure that’s true,” the man muttered.

  “They were farther than Joe or I were.”

  Everyone was wise enough not to mention that Joe was currently in the hospital, despite the protective layer his wet suit had provided. Vanessa and Karine hadn’t had that protection.

  They hadn’t had Liam and Joe’s strength or their survival training.

  Liam refused to admit that at some point this might become a body recovery effort rather than a search and rescue mission.

  Vanessa Epperson was alive. Nothing else was acceptable. And when he found her, he wasn’t sure he was ever going to be able to let her out of his sight again.

  They began to make wider sweeps as the night went on. If Vanessa had swum in the right direction, where the boat had exploded was less than a mile off shore... But on a stormy night, in rough seas, finding that direction might have been difficult. If she had swum in the wrong direction, she could be headed out of the cove and toward the open water of the Atlantic. That could prove deadly.

  How long could they swim and which direction had they gone? Those were the questions everyone tried to answer to direct their attention in the search.

  The sun had just pinkened the sky the slightest bit when something caught Liam’s eye through his binoculars. He threw his focus to whatever it was he’d seen in the water.

  “Southwest about five hundred yards,” he called out. “I’m not sure it’s them, but there’s definitely something in the water.”

  Liam didn’t let his hopes get too high. They had found various pieces of wreckage in the water throughout the evening. But this was definitely a good-sized chunk.

  The boat operator turned and sped in the direction Liam had indicated. A few moments later Liam’s hands clenched on the binoculars.

  It was them.

  Karine was curled up on a plank of some sort—obviously a piece of the boat—mostly out of the water. Vanessa had evidently dragged the top half of her body over the plank when she’d become too exhausted to do anything else.

  But even from several yards away, he could see that their faces were out of the water. That was at least promising.

  Although their lack of movement was not.

  The Coast Guard’s boat was able to pull directly up beside them. Liam didn’t even wait for permission or instruction; he just lowered himself into the water so he could be directly beside Vanessa.

  “Vanessa?” He shook her softly but she didn’t move. “Vanessa, wake up, honey.”

  Nightmares from the other night when Vanessa hadn’t been breathing in the water flashed through Liam’s mind. He tried to find a pulse.

  “Mr. Liam?” Karine lifted her head weakly and looked at him.

  “Hey, Karine. Are you okay?” He asked the question while moving Vanessa’s thick hair out of the way so he could find her pulse.

  “Miss Vanessa hasn’t talked in a long time.”

  Liam swallowed his panic. There were a lot of reasons Vanessa might not have spoken. Exhaustion being one of them.

  When he couldn’t seem to find a pulse at her throat, he moved his hand to her wrist.

  C’mon, baby.

  It had been the same words he had used when he’d needed her to breathe before.

  And it seemed to work again. He found her pulse beating in her wrist. Thank God.

  “She’s still breathing, Karine. Okay? We need to get her on the boat and back to the hospital. You, too.”

  Karine nodded. Two more men from the rescue team had joined them in the water.

  “These guys are going to help you onto the boat. Is it okay if they touch you? I’ll be right here, but I’ve got to help Vanessa, too.”

  Karine nodded again, although Liam could see her stiffen.

  “Good
girl.”

  They hoisted Vanessa onto the vessel and Liam climbed up the ladder. The men assisted Karine but tried to touch her as little as possible, aware of her situation.

  They laid Vanessa on a small cot in the section of the boat that wasn’t exposed to the elements. One of the men wrapped a blanket around Karine as she sat on the floor.

  Liam turned all his attention toward Vanessa as the boat sped toward shore. She still hadn’t moved, hadn’t made a sound. He, along with the ship’s medic, peeled her out of her wet clothes, checking her for injuries while wrapping her in a blanket.

  Liam saw the tiny wounds on Vanessa’s legs at the same time the medic did. Dozens and dozens of tiny welts.

  “Sea nettle stings,” the medic said. “Sound is full of them this time of year.”

  Anybody growing up in the Outer Banks knew about this type of jellyfish. They were a nuisance but generally not life-threatening.

  Of course, Liam had never seen this many stings before. And he couldn’t imagine how painful sting after sting would be. “Is there anything we can do for her?”

  “She’s probably in a sort of toxic shock,” the man replied. “We’ll radio ahead to the ambulance and hospital to notify them of the situation. They’ll have a specialist standing by.”

  The man turned to go make the radio contact.

  “She’s still breathing. Still here,” he said, turning to look back from the steps leading up to the control room. “That’s the most important thing.”

  Liam nodded, then sat on the cot and gathered Vanessa up in his arms. Her body was cold to the touch.

  A few moments later Karine scurried over from her spot on the floor to a place on the floor closer to the cot. “Will she be okay?” Karine’s voice was hoarse.

  Liam didn’t know if it was from emotion or from what she’d been through. He reached down and touched the girl’s head. “Vanessa is strong. She’s a fighter.”

  He pulled Vanessa closer to him as if to will her to do just that. “Did you get stung by anything, Karine?”

  “No. I was on top of floating board.” Karine began to cry. “I should have let Vanessa up, too. I did not know fish were hurting her.”

  Liam stroked the girl’s head again. “I know, honey. Vanessa is sometimes too stubborn for her own good. But she wanted you to be safe. I’m so glad you’re safe.”

  “But Vanessa—”

  “Shh. Vanessa will be fine, you just watch.”

  Liam prayed it would be true. The longer she lay so still in his arms, the more he worried.

  “We got the other girls out, too,” he told Karine. “You’ll be able to see them as soon as we get to the hospital.”

  That at least helped clear up the tears. Liam moved his hand back to Vanessa to move strands of wet hair from her face and to wrap her more securely in the blanket.

  “C’mon, baby, wake up,” he whispered against her temple, bringing her closer to him. At least her skin wasn’t as cold now.

  Once they reached the dock, an ambulance was waiting to take them to the hospital. The EMT looked as if he was going to question Liam’s right to be in the ambulance, but quickly put his questions to rest with one look at Liam’s face. There was no way in hell Liam wasn’t riding in the vehicle with Vanessa.

  “She’s coming with us, too.” He pointed to Karine, who jumped in the ambulance with them. The EMT quickly closed the door before anyone else got in.

  Vanessa didn’t move the entire way, although her pulse and breathing remained steady.

  Liam stayed with her as long as he could once they got to the hospital before a doctor told him he would have to wait in the waiting room. They would provide an update as soon as they could.

  Liam let the nurse know where he could be found for the next few minutes in case anyone came out with an update about Vanessa, then took Karine to see the rest of the girls. They were all being kept together, guarded by Derek and a whole slew of kind-faced nurses and social workers.

  The girls were ecstatic to see Karine. They all hugged and sobbed and held on to each other. These girls were bonded together in ways that no one else would ever be able to completely understand.

  As Liam watched from the doorway, touched but anxious to get back to the waiting area in case Vanessa needed him, Derek joined him.

  “Vanessa?”

  “Unconscious. Multiple sea nettle stings, prolonged exposure to the elements...who knows what else? But she’s breathing. I’ll take that for now. I need to get back for when the doctor comes out with a report.”

  “I’ll stay here with the girls. I just want to double-check that everything is in order with them before I release them from my custody.”

  “Thanks, Derek. Does everything seem all right with them medically, all things considered?”

  “All are suffering from dehydration.” Derek grimaced. “And they’ve all been assaulted, except for the youngest one.”

  Liam looked over at the little girl who had clung to him while they swam. She was looking at him. Thank God she had been spared that trauma, at least. The rest was bad enough.

  “But it looks like all of them are going to be okay. We’ve already made contact with the Estonian embassy to figure out how we can make sure the girls are returned to their parents. If the parents aren’t the ones who sold them to the traffickers in the first place.”

  It was difficult to think of parents doing that to their own children, but Liam knew it happened more than people expected, especially in situations where the rest of the family was starving.

  Liam nodded. “Let’s stay on top of that. I want to make sure none of those girls is sent back if it’s just going to result in the same thing happening.”

  “Oh, believe me,” Derek said. “Molly would have my head if I sent even one of those girls home to a bad family situation. I just hope I’m not about to become the adoptive father to seven teenage girls.”

  Liam chuckled. “Nothing less than you deserve. Speaking of...how’s Joe?”

  “Fine. Already flirting with the nurses. I think they’ll release him tomorrow. Burns on his back and a puncture wound from some debris, but nothing serious.”

  “Thank God for the Kevlar wet suits.”

  “Absolutely. Would’ve been much worse otherwise.” Derek slapped him on the back. “Get back to Vanessa. I can tell that’s where you want to be. I’ve got everything covered here. I’ll keep you posted if something changes. You do the same about her.”

  Liam nodded and jogged out of the room and down the hall to the emergency waiting area. He checked with the nurse, just in case, but found he hadn’t missed any updates from the doctor. He settled in to wait, hoping it wouldn’t be too long.

  The longer he waited, the more worried he became. That many jellyfish stings...could they be toxic? Was she having an allergic reaction? Did she have a head trauma they didn’t know about?

  There were so many possibilities. Many of them terrifying.

  Vanessa’s parents were rushing through the Emergency entrance just as the doctor came through the waiting room door to provide an update.

  “What’s going on, Doctor?” George Epperson demanded. “What’s happening with our daughter?”

  “I’m Dr. Turner. Who are you?” the doctor asked Liam.

  “Her fiancé.” Liam told the lie without batting an eye. There was no way he was going to be kept out of information loop when it came to Vanessa.

  Both her parents turned to stare at him but neither said anything.

  “Is your name Liam?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good, I’m glad you’re here,” the doctor said. “Miss Epperson has been asking for you in her sleep. I think she will find your presence comforting.”

  “I’m going back there right now.”

  Th
e doctor touched his arm. “They’re moving her to a private room and need a little while. You can go back there in just a minute. Let me give you an update first.”

  Vanessa was calling for him. That was really the only update Liam needed. But he forced himself to listen. Maybe there was a complication he needed to know about.

  He turned back to the doctor. “Okay.”

  “Well, first...” the doctor said, “let me assure you that Vanessa is going to be fine. And at this point it does not look like her pregnancy was jeopardized by last night’s events.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Liam grabbed the counter next to him, trying not to be obvious in his need for support. Vanessa’s parents had no such reservations. Her mother, Rhonda, swayed into George, grabbing his arm.

  “Pregnancy?” Rhonda asked.

  “Did you know about this?” George asked Liam.

  “No. Not this time, either.” His eyes narrowed at the older man.

  George had the good grace to at least look away.

  Liam turned toward Dr. Turner. “Are you sure, Doctor? I don’t know much about pregnancy tests and hospitals, but if Vanessa’s pregnant, it would not be by much—only a few days.”

  “Interesting.” Dr. Turner looked at the chart again. “Vanessa definitely has traces of hCG—the pregnancy hormone—in her bloodstream, enough for a viable pregnancy. We had to test for it when deciding the best course for treating the stings. There’s no chance she could’ve been pregnant, say, roughly ten days?”

  Liam remembered what Vanessa had told him about not having any other lovers for so long. “Not a chance. Does that mean your test could be wrong and she’s not pregnant?”

  The doctor looked at his chart again. “No, the opposite, in fact.”

  What the hell did that even mean? The opposite of not pregnant was pregnant, right? But it was too early to tell that.

  “Let me make sure these hCG numbers are right and I’ll get back to you.”

  “What about her other injuries?” Liam asked. “Is she going to be okay?”

  “Yes. Although painful, the stings of the chrysaora quinquecirrha, or what we know around here as a sea nettle, aren’t fatal unless you have an allergic reaction. She shouldn’t have any permanent damage from the stings.”