Arresting Developments (16 page)

Chapter Seventeen

Amber struggled to untie the ropes that held Derek to the post. Her hands kept slipping in the brackish water. “Hold on, Derek. Just hold on.”

His mouth went under water and again Amber grabbed him and yanked him higher. He coughed out some brackish water and drew a shaky breath. His arms were shaking from the effort of trying to keep his elbows bent to hold himself above the water, but it was a losing battle. He was exhausted.

“If I can just get this knot free.” She pulled and plucked at the knot. Derek didn’t respond and she didn’t expect him to. His eyes were closed. He was using every ounce of strength he had just trying not to drown. He must have been struggling out here for hours and there was nothing left. He seemed ready to pass out from exhaustion. And from the bruises already beginning to form near his temple, she suspected that Mitchell might have hit him. A head injury and exhaustion could be a lethal combination right now. She looked past him to the porch and froze. Where were Mitchell and Dex?

Derek went under again.

Amber grabbed his chin and pulled him up. “Come on, cough it out.”

Derek’s head lolled back toward the water.

“Derek, Derek, wake up. Cough out the water.” She let go of the post and cupped his face with both hands. The current tried to drag her away from the building. She was forced to grab the post again and wrapped her legs around it before reaching for Derek, who’d dropped his face back beneath the water.

“Come on,” she yelled. She slapped his cheeks, again and again.

He flinched and opened his eyes. Then he started violently coughing. Water and vomit rolled out of his mouth.

Amber tilted his head so he wouldn’t choke. “There you go, that’s it. We’ll get you out of here. You just have to hang on a little longer.”

Water splashed beside her. She gasped and whirled around. A dark shadow rose from below the surface. Gator! No! She grabbed Derek and kicked out with her feet, hitting the reptile under the water.

It broke the surface, coughing and spitting water. Amber’s jaw dropped open. This was no gator.

“Dex? Dex! How did you get here? Are you okay?”

He grabbed the post beside her and rubbed his chest. “You have a mean kick. I’m not sure you needed my help, after all.” Impossibly, he grinned. And winked.

She sputtered. “I can’t believe you’re smiling at a time like this.”

His smile faded. “Me, either.” He looked back to the house. “I don’t know where Mitchell went. I knocked the gun loose but he disappeared beneath the water. He could be anywhere.” He looked at Derek and the ropes holding him to the post. “Hold on. I’ll be right back.”

“Dex, don’t leave me, don’t...”

He disappeared beneath the surface again. Where had he gone? What was he doing? She focused on keeping Derek’s chin above the water, cradling his head against her chest as she kept an eye on their surroundings. She didn’t know if she was more worried about gators or Mitchell. Both were deadly.

Metal creaked behind her somewhere. She jerked around. “Dex?” Nothing.

Derek coughed up more brackish water.

“It’s okay,” she soothed, keeping his chin up. “It’s okay. Dex wouldn’t really leave us. He’ll come back.”

“Damn straight.”

She whirled around. “Dex!”

He smiled again and pulled a machete up from beneath the water. “I remembered this from before, from inside the building.” He pulled himself to the backside of the post and held the machete with both hands as he hacked down against the wood. The ropes split and fell away.

Derek slipped from Amber’s hands into the water. “No, no!”

Dex dove under and came up seconds later with his friend, holding his head up. “Come on, Amber. Let’s get him back to the house and get out of this swamp.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.”

They swam on both sides of Derek, wrestling against the current and to keep him from going under. He’d completely lost consciousness now and was deadweight, threatening to drag them away or under. Something splashed not far from them.

“Keep swimming,” Dex yelled. “Hurry.”

His urgency had her putting everything she had into her strokes as she kicked her legs behind her. They reached the porch and she grabbed the post to pull herself up. Dex gave her and Derek a mighty shove forward, which propelled them all the way to the kitchen doorway. She wrestled Derek inside and propped his arms up on a countertop to keep his head above the water.

She turned back to see where Dex was and saw him raise the machete above his head at the edge of the porch and bring it slashing down. An enormous gator snapped its jaws inches from his face, then disappeared beneath the water.

“Dex!” Amber screamed.

He dropped the machete and dove toward the doorway. He pulled himself inside and shoved the door closed. A loud thump shook the door but it held. The gator must have given up because it didn’t try again. Dex turned around, his face pale and his eyes wide. “Tell me that did not just happen.”

Amber’s hands shook as Dex rose to stand in the hip-deep water and helped her hold on to Derek.

“I can’t believe you just fought an alligator,” she said, her voice hoarse. “And that was a big gator.”

He grinned. “Something to brag about later.” His smile faded and he glanced around. “If we survive this, that is. I’m not going to assume that Mitchell drowned. We need to get out of here. We’re too exposed.” He pressed his hand against Derek’s chest, then felt the side of his neck. “He’s breathing, and his pulse is good. Let’s get him upstairs with the others.”

“How will we—”

In answer, he lifted Derek and draped him over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold. “Let’s go. Hurry.”

They waded through the kitchen to the great room. Some of the furniture was floating and they had to maneuver around it.

A guttural roar and a splash sounded behind them. They whirled around. Mitchell pointed his gun toward Dex. He dove out of the way. Shots boomed. The front windows exploded in a hail of glass.

Amber grabbed Derek, who was floating facedown, and turned him faceup in the water. Mitchell whirled around, not seeming to notice her. He was too busy looking for Dex. She took advantage of his preoccupation and floated Derek to one of the chairs that was bobbing in the water. She wrestled Derek’s arms and upper body into the chair and made sure his face was well above the waterline before she let go.

Mitchell turned toward her, as if just realizing she might be a threat. She dove down below the water. A concussion of movement burst just past her head in the water as a bullet shot at her. She couldn’t see, but she swam toward where she remembered the nearest wall to be. When she reached the wall, she used her arms and legs to kick the water to stay below the surface until her lungs were burning. Unable to stay there any longer, she stood up and drew a deep breath as she looked around for Dex or Mitchell.

Mitchell stood ten feet away, his back to her. But he must have heard her as she’d broken the surface. He whirled toward her, gun in hand. Water splashed on his other side as Dex rose above the water with something in his hand. The poker from the fireplace! He brought it crashing down as Mitchell brought his gun around. The gun went off as the poker slammed into the side of Mitchell’s head. He cried out and fell back into the water. He raised the gun again, but Dex brought the poker down and knocked it out of his hands. Mitchell sank below the surface.

Dex held the poker at the ready, watching the water all around him. When Mitchell didn’t reappear, Dex swore and dropped the poker. He disappeared beneath the water.

Amber pushed off the wall to help him. She’d just reached where she’d last seen Dex when he stood up, pulling Mitchell with him. Mitchell’s head lolled against his chest, blood running from the nasty gash in his scalp where the poker had hit him. His eyes were closed.

“Is he...is he dead?”

Dex pressed his hand against Mitchell’s neck. “No.” He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. “But I hit him hard, too damn hard.”

Amber was shocked at the anguish in Dex’s voice. “Dex, you did what you had to do. You saved us.”

He nodded, but she didn’t think he was necessarily agreeing with her. “Derek?”

She pointed to the chair. “He’s okay.”

He nodded again and started pulling Mitchell toward another chair floating beside that one. He’d just propped Mitchell up when bright lights shone through the hole where the front windows had been shattered.

“Get behind me,” Dex ordered. He reached for her just as the front door burst open. Then he grinned and let out a relieved laugh as a man whom Amber had never seen before led a rescue crew of a half dozen Collier County firemen into the house.

“If you’re here to save us,” Dex said, “you’re a little late.”

The man in front of the others splashed toward them. His brow was lined with worry as he took in the scene, looking from Derek to Mitchell, then to Amber and Dex.

“I thought we were rescuing you from what I’m told is the worst flood this place has seen in decades. But you managed to up the ante to a whole new level. What the hell happened?”

“It’s a long story. I’ll explain it all, but first we need medical help for these two.”

As the firemen tended Mitchell and Derek, Dex led Amber through the water to the stairs with the man he’d just spoken to following behind.

“There are more people upstairs.” Dex helped Amber out of the water and onto the first dry step.

“Aren’t you going to introduce us?” Amber nodded to the man beside Dex.

“Oh, sorry. Amber Callahan, this is—or was, until he quit—the other half of Lassiter and Young Private Investigations. Meet Jake Young.”

* * *

A
MBER
PAUSED
IN
the doorway to Derek’s room in Naples Community Hospital, with two paper coffee cups in her hand. Derek was asleep, resting comfortably in spite of the IV he’d vehemently opposed when he’d first gotten there. Apparently he was afraid of needles, but Amy had shamed him into “taking it like a man,” and had added the extra insult that Garreth was being much less of a baby in his room down the hall, even though Garreth’s injuries had been more severe.

Chagrined, Derek had allowed the nurse to put the IV in his arm. They were giving him antibiotics through that IV to counteract any bacteria he may have swallowed when he’d nearly drowned in the swamp. And they were monitoring him because of the concussion he’d suffered. But he’d probably be released in a few days as long as he didn’t show signs of a fever.

Amy was asleep, too, sitting in a chair pulled up beside the bed, her upper body and arms draped across Derek’s chest. Their hands, even in sleep, were laced together. Amber had a feeling this wasn’t a mild infatuation that was going to blow over. The two of them seemed completely enamored with each other. The anger that Amber had thought she’d seen in Amy’s reflection in the library window? She realized now it was probably a mixture of anger and pain because she was worried—and mad—that someone might have hurt Derek.

Amber backed out of the room, allowing the door to quietly close behind her as she turned and balanced the coffee cups.

“Is one of those for me?”

She looked up sharply, expecting to see Dex. But instead, it was his friend, Jake.

“You don’t have to look so disappointed.” He shoved away from the wall.

“Oh, sorry. I wasn’t... I thought...” She held out one of the coffee cups. “If you like cream and sugar, it’s yours. I was bringing it to Amy, but she’s asleep.”

He grimaced but took the cup anyway. “I prefer black, but right now I’ll take anything warm after being submerged in that nasty swamp. Thanks.” He took a deep sip and grimaced again. “Or not.” He tossed the cup in a nearby trash can.

Amber eyed her own cup. “That bad, huh?”

“I wouldn’t try it if I were you.”

She tossed it in the trash. “Thanks for saving me. Again.”

He shook his head. “I didn’t save you. Dex gets all the credit for that. Speaking of which, he’s asking about you.”

She cleared her throat. “He is?”

“Uh-huh. He wanted me to come get you. He’s sitting with Mitchell. I couldn’t get him to leave the guy’s side.”

“Mitchell? Why would Dex sit with him after everything that happened?”

“You can ask him that yourself. Come on. I’ll take you to him.” He offered his arm like an old-fashioned gentleman. Amber smiled and took it and walked with him down the long hall to another wing of the hospital. He stopped at room 222.

“I’ll be in the waiting room, just around the corner when you come out,” he said. “Faye just got to the parking lot. She’s coming up. She’d love to see you.”

“And I’d love to see her.”

He nodded and headed to the waiting room.

Amber could see why Dex liked Jake. He was a nice guy. And he and Faye had cut their Bahamas honeymoon short to check on Dex, after hearing about the terrible storm and that the plane crash had been deliberate. They’d been keeping tabs on him through Freddie until Freddie told them they were heading to the old mansion to celebrate Amber’s charges being dropped.

After that, when the impending storm was on the news, Faye had had a premonition that it was going to get worse than the weathermen thought. She’d convinced Jake they should fly back from the Bahamas before the weather prevented them from doing so, and check on Dex and the others.

But the storm had come in even faster than Faye’s premonition had told her. And it had taken a long time to work their way to Mystic Glades. By that time, they knew anyone in the mansion might be in trouble, so Jake had rounded up some firemen and some canoes and they’d made their way through the flood.

“You coming in or planning on standing in the hallway all day?”

She whirled around at the sound of Dex’s voice. He was standing in front of her, outside Mitchell’s door. Amber raised a shaky hand to her chest. “You and Jake are both good at that.”

“Good at what?”

“Surprising people.” She waved her hand. “Never mind. Jake said you wanted to speak with me.”

He pushed open the door behind him. “Do you mind talking inside?”