And let go of the rope.
I sank under the water for only a second before something fixed around my waist and slammed me into something hard. I felt a crushing blow to my ribs, but I was so tired and so defeated that I did little more than jerk reflexively.
And I wasn’t really able to figure out what was happening to me, although I was aware of moving against the current. Slowly, methodically, I was traveling upstream.
And then that instinctual reaction we have to breathe kicked in, and I got my head above water again and gasped for air. “Hold on to me!” someone shouted.
I was too exhausted to speak, and even though my eyes were open, I couldn’t get them to focus. And I was certainly too exhausted to hold on to anything. My arms and legs were like rubber and I was now fully aware that the water was cold and I was freezing. Odd how I hadn’t noticed that before.
“You have to try! Come on, ma’am! Put your arms around my neck and hold on!”
Was he kidding?
“I can’t move us to the shore if you don’t help me!”
Nope. Not kidding.
I closed my eyes again and wished to be anywhere else in the world except here. Where could a girl get a pair of ruby slippers when she needed them?
That arm acting like a vise grip around my waist shook me, and my eyes opened. Lazily I stared up and managed to focus my gaze. Antoine LaSalle’s fierce expression did a lot to revive me. “I am not letting go of you!” he shouted so loud I winced. “You are
not
drowning today—do you hear me?”
I managed a tiny nod.
“So put your arms around my neck so we can get out of this river!”
Tears welled in my eyes. How the heck was I going to manage that? I could barely stay conscious. Still, I decided to try.
Slowly and with a great deal of difficulty, I managed to cup my hands behind Antoine’s neck. He then shifted his weight so that my legs looped around his waist and I was pinned to him by the force of the river.
“Don’t let go!” he shouted in my ear.
I winced again and thought he didn’t have to yell at me. I was doing my best after all.
I placed my head against his chest. He was so nice and warm compared with the water. I watched it race past us, and felt it against my back. I thought it was a good thing that Antoine was so tall. He could touch the bottom here. I could feel him taking slow, methodical steps through the water. I could also see the strain on his neck muscles as he gripped a rope attached to something onshore and slowly, step by step he pulled us forward.
And then, my back cleared the water. A few moments later, my hips were above the waterline too, and just another couple of steps and Antoine had us out of the raging river.
He sank to his knees, breathing hard, and laid me gently on the ground. I closed my eyes, grateful for having met this man that I’d obviously misjudged, and waited for feeling to return to my limbs. Around us I heard crashing sounds and I opened my eyes to see a bunch of firemen charging through the woods to get to us.
Antoine unfastened the harness that was tied around his waist, and tossed it to the side. Rescue workers swarmed around us and I was eased onto a backboard, then bundled by a blanket and told not to move.
A penlight was flashed into my eyes, and the paramedic hovering over me made a comment about a head wound. I reached up and felt the top of my head, realizing it was throbbing. Sure enough, when I pulled my hand away, it was smeared with red.
“Easy there,” said the paramedic, laying my hand by my side. “Just try to lie still.”
“Abby!” shouted a familiar voice.
“Candice?” I said, my voice no louder than a whisper.
“Ohmigod!” she replied from just off to my right. “Abby!”
Out the corner of my eye I could see her, soaked to the skin and bundled in her own blanket, as she tried to push through two rescue workers to get to me. “Ma’am!” one of them yelled at her as she shoved her way forward. “Let our men work on her for now. You can see her in a moment.”
“Is she all right?” Candice asked, her voice pitchy and panicked.
I managed to lift my hand and wave at her. “I’m okay,” I croaked.
Candice’s knees gave out from under her and she would have sunk to the ground if the rescue workers hadn’t been holding her. They helped her back over to high ground, and my backboard was picked up by four rescue workers who then carried me up a slope to a waiting ambulance. Before I could even protest, I was loaded into the back, and after Candice was helped up to sit next to me, we were whisked off to the hospital.
Later that afternoon the atmosphere got
really
chilly. A cold front in the form of our significant others blew into south Dallas and greeted the both of us with some mighty frigid air.
Candice and I had both agreed that, upon reaching the hospital, we would do our best to cover our tracks and not tell Dutch and Brice what had actually happened, and we were well on our way to inventing plausible scenarios for how we’d managed to get so banged up when we saw a CNN broadcast on one of the hospital TVs, featuring an overhead shot of Candice perched precariously on top of her yellow Porsche while the river raged around her. In the next scene, the helicopter news crew captured my rather dramatic rescue as Antoine waded the last few feet to shore with me clinging to his chest.
And just two hours later the cold front blew in.
“What the hell were you two
thinking
?” Brice demanded, pacing the floor in front of my gurney.
“The water didn’t look that deep,” I said, trying to defend Candice from the earful I figured she was about to get.
“Don’t you know not to drive through running water?” Brice snapped. I noticed he was not directly addressing Candice. Instead he kept his comments focused on the floor while he paced angrily back and forth.
“I’ve driven through way deeper water than that,” I replied. “It rains in Michigan all the time, and I’ve never had a problem crossing water back home.”
“There’s a difference between moving water and still water,” Brice growled, looking up to lock eyes with me. “It only takes a few inches of running water to carry a car off a road.”
“Oh,” I said. I glanced at Candice, who looked terribly guilt-ridden while she sat in a nearby chair, wearing a pair of scrubs and a thick blanket. “I should have known better,” she admitted. Glancing up at me with pitifully sad eyes, she said, “I am so,
so
sorry, Abby.”
I tried to shrug, but I was too stiff and sore to pull it off. “It’s okay,” I told her. “We both made it.”
Dutch had not said a word. Instead he wore his cop face, but his lips were pressed together so tightly that I knew he was super pissed.
“What the hell are you two doing this far north anyway?” Brice asked. Clearly he wasn’t through giving us a tongue-lashing.
“Investigating a case,” Candice told him.
Brice stopped his pacing abruptly and his head finally snapped in Candice’s direction. “What case?”
“A little girl went missing and I was hired to look into it. Abby’s been helping me out with some of the legwork.”
At that moment Antoine LaSalle popped his head into my room. “Oh, sorry,” he said, seeing it full of people. “The nurse said I could come see you.”
I almost laughed at Dutch and Brice’s reaction when they took in the six- foot-five man of steel in the doorway. “Lieutenant!” I said, happy to change the subject. Belatedly I noticed the thick bandages on his hands, wrists, and arms. “God! What happened?”
LaSalle waved off my concern. “Rope burns,” he said. “Nothing major.”
But as he took a step, I could see that he favored his left leg, and like me, he had scratches all along his cheeks, upper arms, and forehead.
Dutch stepped toward him and offered his hand. “Special Agent Dutch Rivers,” he said formally.
“Lieutenant Antoine LaSalle,” my savior replied, holding up his bandaged hand sheepishly. Dutch lowered his immediately.
“Sorry,” he said.
“Don’t sweat it, sir,” Antoine told him.
“I take it you were one of the rescuers?” Dutch asked.
“I helped Ms. Cooper out of the river.”
“Helped me out of the river,” I repeated with a smile. “It’s like he’s talking about giving me a hand out of the pool. The lieutenant here saved my life, although I’m still not sure how you managed to get that rope across the river in time.”
Antoine seemed amused. “Crossbow,” he said, holding his arms the way he would if he were shooting one. “I got a rope attached to the end of the arrow and shot it into a tree on the far side of the river. I then had to hope you could hold on long enough for me to get to you, using my climbing harness and another line.”
“You’re a regular G.I. Joe,” I said, thoroughly impressed.
“How did you even find us?” Candice asked.
Antoine cleared his throat and almost didn’t answer, but as we all waited for him to say something, he finally admitted, “I followed you after you left my house.”
Dutch moved away from LaSalle to stand next to me. The move was subtle, but I knew it was meant to let LaSalle know that I had protection.
“Followed them?” Brice said, his eyes narrowing. “Why were you following them, exactly?”
The lieutenant seemed to take the question in stride. “Ms. Cooper and Ms. Fusco came to my house to ask about my little sister, and I wasn’t sure if they were legit or not.”
“I don’t understand,” Candice pressed. “Why wouldn’t we be legit?”
“The state of Texas has no record of your PI license, ma’am.”
Candice’s cheeks flushed bright red and Brice gave her a look like, “Told you so.”
There was an awkward silence before I said, “Well, I’m certainly not going to hold it against you, Lieutenant. Thank you very, very much for checking up on us. And thank you double for risking your own life to save mine.”
Antoine nodded knowingly. “Maybe you’ll give me a call and let me know how your investigation is progressing?”
My eyes swiveled to Candice. We both knew that he’d more than earned that with his heroics. “Sure,” she said, but her eyes and tone suggested otherwise. “We’ll make sure to loop you in the moment we have new intel.”
LaSalle studied Candice for a brief moment; he saw right through her words. But he didn’t press it. Instead he bowed his head formally, wished me a speedy recovery, and departed.
After he left, Brice turned on Candice. “I can’t believe you’re walking around conducting investigations without a PI license!”
It was obvious that Candice had officially had enough of being yelled at because her eyebrows lowered dangerously and she replied, “Really? Given the extensive search you’ve personally conducted into my background,
you
can’t believe it?”
“I’m serious, Candice,” Brice said.
“I never said you weren’t.”
“All it takes is one complaint to the state licensing board and your request for PI status is denied.”
“Do I look stupid to you?” Candice snapped. “Seriously, Brice! Sometimes you act like you’re the only one who’s aware of the consequences. Some of us are also educated enough to fully understand the risks involved and are still prepared to assume them.”
Brice folded his arms across his chest and glared hard at her. “Yes. We’ve all seen firsthand today what you’re willing to risk, and the consequences that follow.”
Candice’s eyes grew huge and her mouth fell open.
I sucked in a breath and held a hand to my mouth.
Even Dutch cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Sir,” he said softly, but Brice held his stance and continued to glare hard at Candice, who glared hard right back. Dutch left my side and walked over to Harrison. Laying a hand on his arm, he said, “Sir, come on. Let’s get some air.”
But before they could leave, Candice lost it and yelled, “I want you out of my condo,
tonight
!”
Brice appeared taken aback, but quickly recovered. “No problem!”
“Good!”
“Great!”
“Stop it!” I shouted as the nurse came running into the room.
“
What
is going on in here?” she demanded.
Candice pointed to Brice, who pointed back at her, and together they both insisted that the other one started it. In any other situation, the scene would have been comical, but here in the hospital after what I’d been through that afternoon, it was really upsetting.
I started to cry as Dutch worked to calm both Harrison and Candice down, and the nurse told them all to leave until the doctor could bring me the results of the CT scan.
Candice got up and shuffled out of the room and Harrison followed. Dutch was about to go as well when he looked back at me and saw that the floodgates had opened. He and the nurse exchanged a look, and she nodded at him that it was okay to stay with me before she also left the room.
Dutch came over and surprised me by climbing right into bed and wrapping his arms tight around me, which only made the crying worse.
“Shhh,” he whispered, kissing my temple. “It’s okay, dollface. You’re okay. You’re safe and I won’t let anything bad happen to you ever again.”
After a bit I was able to collect myself. “Sorry,” I said, feeling a little embarrassed that I’d dissolved into tears. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“You’ve got a screw loose.”
I pulled my head back to look up at him. “What?”
Dutch touched the side of my head. “In here,” he explained. “Loose screw.” I just blinked at him, trying to understand how he could say something like that to me. “I’ve heard it rattling around, you know,” he added. “Every time you get yourself into some big mess, I hear it clinking around inside your skull.” He then cupped the side of my head and tilted it slightly to the right, then to the left. “Hear that?” he asked. “Clink, clink, clink. Loose screw.” And then he broke into a grin.